Notes on Juan Mascaro's Introduction to Upanishads

Amongst the signs that someone who had "visions" was simply in a state of abobamiento (stupidity, foolishness), St John of the Cross gives these:

1. Too much desire to enjoy vision.
2. Too much self-assurance.
3. A desire to convince others that she has a great good.
4. That those "visions" have not given her a great sense of humbleness.
5. That the style of her language shows that it is not the language of truth.

We may even have gone backwards if the slightest pride or self-satisfaction has infected our mind.

Never fail, whatever may befall you, be it good or evel, to keep your heart quiet and calm in the tenderness of love. -- St John of the Cross

Meditation is a movement of thought limited within a circle;
In contemplation there is a silence of thought.
Meditation is the mental activity of the thinker;
Contemplation is the silence of the poet.

The scientist is busy finding facts in the outer world;
The spiritual man is trying by the experience of Being and of Love to find the Truth of his inner world, the same Truth in the inner world of us all.