The Christian Mysticism is one of the most misunderstood individuals on Earth, not to mention one of the most ridiculed. It doesn’t matter whether he is a Christian mystic, a Buddhist mystic, a Sufi, a Shaman, a psychic, a master teacher, etc., because all genuine mystics have gone beyond the fundamentalist mentality and entered the inner world of God’s Reality. The Mystic is more comfortable tuning into the spiritual world because he feels more awkward in the physical world, and never seems to fit in anywhere. He is often judged as being rather eccentric if not blatantly strange. Mystics tend to be shy and introverted rather than gregarious. They find it somewhat difficult to socialize, however, when they have become used to a certain group of people, especially a spiritual gathering, they feel right at home.
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee in his book, The Bond with the Beloved, clearly says, “Mystics are usually introverts, more at home in the inner world than in the outer world… they have often been misunderstood since childhood.” He also says they often feel like strangers in this world. As strangers in a strange world in the earth plane, they feel more at home in the spiritual realm. This is one of the reasons they tend to act shy or distant around others.
Now of course, this is not true with all Mystics, as there have been a number of outgoing and socially comfortable individuals who have walked the road of Mysticism. Obviously, they have gained inner balance and confidence, and a good degree of self-mastery, whereas many Mystics are still unfolding on the Spiritual Path and are still seeking this balance. Sometimes they feel as if they are walking a tightrope, seeking a balance between the physical and spiritual, and a spiritual Master is one who has found that balance. Nevertheless, there are successful businessmen, entrepreneurs, millionaires, and ordinary people, etc., with naturally outgoing personalities — but they are not necessarily mystics. There is something about walking the Mystical Path that causes the Mystic to feel awkward and out-of-place in the physical world — until he has found that balance and reached mastery over both worlds.
The Mystic lives in the way of the heart more than he does in the way of the mind. He tends not to be an intellectual, but he is more of an intuitive, although he seeks the balance of both mind and heart. The true Mystic has a purified heart, for he has renounced the negative ways of the world to a large degree, and he feels compassion for others, and love for the Beloved, the God within. He lives by the affirmation, “I strive to serve God by serving mankind.” He follows this scripture from the Bible: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind… Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matthew 22: 37 and 39, KJV)