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Given the ubiquity and durability of the varied forms of religious worship and the institutions of which they are an intrinsic part, one can conclude that humankind has never been able to outgrow the need for love and protection from the dangers, be they natural or man made, of everyday life. In the face of any threat to one's existence, an instinctive reaction automatically returns us to thoughts, memories, and experiences of our childhood, a period of life when
we were fully protected from nature's demands and calamities. When we are confronted with a serious illness in ourselves or in beloved others or an uncontrollable event of nature, a regressive reaction is an instantaneous response. Images of the omniscient and omnipotent caretakers of our infancy and childhood remain with us for the rest of our lives. Given human nature, such attachment is not at all free of the instinctual overload that sex and aggression must, of necessity, provide. With such intense emotional attachment comes an equally intense curiosity about the primal parent. Enter religion, in its myriad individual and group manifestations.
There are two facets to theocentric religion that of concern: the first is the obligation to serve the primal parent—equal Deity—by studying sacred scripture, by prayer, and by good deeds; the other is to know the Deity. Initially, the focus was on the former, for only then would we be protected from the dangerous vicissitudes of human experience. As human nature will have it, with love of an object comes an imperious need to know the object. To “know” an object, in the Biblical sense, is more than to possess an enhanced awareness of the Deity's attributes; it inescapably involves an intimacy in ultimate form, that of sexual union. Now enter religious mysticism!
An adequate discussion of this subject requires that a distinction be made between normative religion and mysticism. In actuality, the religious process is one of relative intensity of devotion and commitm