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"In any event, in a given, large metropolitan area there may be one or more of the aforementioned spiritually intoxicated people who serve this spiritual government in various capacities. Some of these individuals may be found among the homeless, street people of that locality.

"Therefore, when you walk down the street, David, and you see someone who seems to be exhibiting evidence of mental disturbance or a psychotic break with reality, at least as we understand it, then, if the Bearers are right in what they are maintaining, you can't be quite certain of what you are witnessing. On the one hand, the person actually may be crazy in the generally accepted sense of operating under diminished capacity due to organic or mental malfunctions of one sort or another. On the other hand, the individual might be acting on behalf of the spiritual government and the bizarre behavior may be a manifestation of spiritual intoxication that, despite appearances, is neither a matter of diminished capacity nor of malfunctioning.

"In previous times, some of the spiritually intoxicated people who were in the service of the spiritual government actually sought refuge in the wards of mental hospitals in order to hide themselves from the people of the world. Most, if not all, of the staff of those hospitals were inclined to interpret the words and actions of these people as merely symptomatic of an underlying mental pathology, and, therefore, the latter individuals become relatively free to be themselves and go about their spiritual business, often times in plain view of other people.

"Consequently, until recently, using a mental hospital as a cover for their activities was a very good form of camouflage for some of the spiritually intoxicated who were involved in matters of spiritual government. However, the use of lobotomies, electro-convulsive therapy and neuroleptics, all of which have potentially horrific side-effects, has complicated matters considerably for these people.

"On the other hand, given that, in the present atmosphere of cost-cutting, more and more patients are being turned loose from various care facilities, this issue of the dark side of modern forms of psychological treatment of mentally disturbed people has become, to a degree, somewhat academic. In many large metropolitan areas, the spiritually intoxicated are simply doing on the streets what they used to seek out mental hospitals to do. For the most part, people perceive these individuals as crazy, homeless, street people and, with the exception of the police, tend to leave them alone."

Although I had been paying close attention to what Rip had been saying, I also had been thinking, from time to time, of a field experiment in psychology that had been conducted around 1973. A psychology professor had sent some of his students to various clinicians who worked in and around the city near which the professor's university was located.

The students were instructed by the professor to do two things. First, at some point during the clinical interview, the students were all to report they had been hearing voices. Secondly, in all other phases of the interview session, the students had been told to answer questions truthfully.

After taking part in the clinical interview, a number of these students were diagnosed to be suffering from some form of schizophrenia. As a result, the students diagnosed in this manner were committed to various mental hospitals.

Once these students had been admitted to these institutions, some of them had a difficult time getting released from the facilities. Apparently, their explanations to hospital authorities about the reality of what was taking place were treated as part of a delusional system.

Eventually, the clinicians, who unwittingly had been participating in the psychology experiment, were made aware of what the professor had been doing. Many of them were extremely upset and accused the professor of, among other things, unethical conduct.

One might also add that most of these 'participating' clinicians were terribly embarrassed about having been duped in this fashion and, as a result, having been induced to commit such a diagnostic blunder. Undoubtedly, this underlying embarrassment helped fuel their sense of outrage about the professor's alleged unethical conduct.

One consideration that neither the professor, his students nor the clinicians seemed to have entertained was the possibility that maybe those students who were diagnosed as mentally disturbed actually were, in reality, mentally disturbed, despite the false stories about having heard voices. Having been a psychology student myself and having taught such students, I'm sure a very good case might be constructed for establishing the existence of a fairly sizable component of mental pathology, of one sort or another, in the lives of quite a few students of psychology, myself included.

My thoughts returned from this brief digression concerning the possible pathology of psychology students back to the field study I had been considering. The experiment had more than one part.

After the hurt feelings and embarrassment surrounding the experiment had dissipated somewhat, the professor decided to give the clinicians an opportunity to redeem themselves and restore some luster to their tarnished professional pride and reputations. He informed them that somewhere within a certain time-frame, of so many days duration, he would be sending more 'pseudo-patients' as his students came to be known, to the clinicians.

The mission of the clinicians, should they decide to accept it, was to identify which of the people coming to them in the indicated period of time were these pseudo-patients. Most, if not all, of the clinicians who were 'participants' in the first part of the experiment opted to be a part of the follow-up stage to the experiment.

In the designated time interval of this second aspect of the experiment, approximately twenty-five percent of the people who were admitted to mental hospitals by the participating clinicians were identified as being 'pseudo-patient'. This might have been fine except the professor, tricky fellow that he was, hadn't sent anyone, pseudo or otherwise, to the clinicians, and, consequently, the clinicians were, once again, exposed with diagnostic egg on their faces.

I suppose this experiment came to mind because of its potential implications for Rip's present discussion. The spiritually intoxicated individuals about which he was talking were, in some ways, like the 'pseudo-patient' in the field study, except more so, since the presenting symptoms of the allegedly spiritually intoxicated individuals were not just mentioned, as in the case of the psychology experiment, but were being acted out in all their bizarre splendor.

Clinicians would diagnose these people as mentally disturbed or psychotic because their presenting symptoms fit into, or reflected, some list of criteria in DSM-IV, the latest edition of a widely used manual that helped clinicians assess an individual's psychological condition. However, such a diagnosis would entail no understanding of the realities behind the symptoms. These clinicians merely would assume that the underlying etiology was pathological in character because this was all their diagnostic methodology would allow them to recognize.

One didn't have to accept the ideas of spiritual intoxication or spiritual government in order to recognize that psychological diagnosis, like its medical counterpart, is not an exact science. Mistakes are made.

Conceivably, an individual who is quite sane could be labeled as mentally disturbed simply because there was a clash between the way this individual went about engaging reality and the way a given diagnostic tool, that is rooted in many arbitrary assumptions and cultural biases, went about evaluating the rationality or sanity of such a mode of engagement. Not all departures from the norm necessarily are a matter of pathology or abnormality in some irrational or diseased sense.

As I came to the end of my thoughts concerning the 1973 experiment, I remembered a question I had intended to ask of Rip earlier during his explanation but which I had not voiced in order not to interrupt his account. "Rip," I started, "your methadon simile suggests that spiritual intoxication is an addiction of sorts, just as heroin is. Was this intentional on your part, or is this the point where the simile begins to break down?"

"Actually, David," he said, "under certain conditions and circumstances, spiritual intoxication can have an addictive dimension to it. People who give emphasis to this experience and, as a result, de-emphasize the Source or Reality underlying that experience may get caught in a trap and, consequently, become addicted to the experience and forget about what the real purpose and destination of the spiritual journey is.

"Individual spiritual realization may be delayed by getting stuck at a particular stage of the journey because an individual has become addicted to the quality of the experience that arises at the stage in question. These people are said to have stopped traveling on the path since they have interrupted their journey before reaching their destination of, on the one hand, having the identity of their true selves unveiled, as well as, on the other hand, realizing the fullness of their essential capacity to love, know, cherish and serve Divinity.

"This possibility of getting stuck is just one of many reasons why there is a need for a process of purification. As such, purification doesn't cause spiritual progress as much as it constitutes one of the factors which sets the stage of readiness for receiving whatever form or degree of grace Divinity wishes to bestow on an individual.

"In other words, purification helps one, God willing, to deal with the rigors and difficulties of different stages of the spiritual journey. As such, purification is preparatory for receiving spiritual grace rather than an antecedent condition that necessitates the bestowal of grace.

"By undertaking a process of constantly purifying the sincerity of one's intention, one is, God willing, less likely to become stuck at a particular stage of the journey. In the case at hand, purification leads away from preoccupation with the experience of spiritual intoxication and towards giving emphasis to the ultimate purposes and goal of the spiritual journey.

"Some people have, by the grace of God, been purified or prepared to such an extent that although inwardly they may be experiencing spiritual intoxication, none, or little, of it necessarily spills over into the visible realm of activity unless they permit it to do so and, even then, only in the desired way and to the extent needed. In the case of other individuals, the nature of their preparation is such that they cannot help letting the spiritual intoxication manifest itself in the realm of visible activity. As with anything, however, there always are exceptions which tend to prove the rule or principle.

"The bottom line, David, as far as your question about spiritual addiction is concerned is this. If one gives primary emphasis to the experience of intoxication and only secondary emphasis to realizing the fullness of one's relationship with Divinity, then one is potentially vulnerable to the possibility of becoming addicted to the experience in question.

"If, on the other hand, the individual gives primary emphasis to realizing one's spiritual potential and purpose completely, and does not become entangled in pursuing spiritual experiences qua experiences, then spiritual intoxication is not addictive and becomes an integral dimension of one's being. In this context, spiritual intoxication is placed in a proper perspective and, therefore, is understood, enjoyed and utilized by the individual in accordance with Divine wishes."

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