Only the mysticism of the human center, which makes man accessible to grace and nourishes his core, corrects the personality and allows it to grow from measure to measure. All other mysticisms necessarily disrupt the already shaky equilibrium of life and ultimately pervert the nature of sinful man.
The danger of false mysticism lies precisely in the fact that the more conscientiously a person who has fallen into this mysticism tries to work on himself, the worse it will be for him. Only the foulest fall can force him to come to his senses and to begin to destroy what he has so painstakingly built. Just as a wayfayer who has taken the wrong path will diverse further from his goal the more he hurries, so an ascetic who has deviated from the path of ecclesiality will perish from his asceticism. It is not for nothing that spiritual elders warn novices: ‘Do not fear any sin, do not even fear fornication; fear nothing. But fear prayer and ascetic feats.’
–Pavel Florensky, The Pillar and Ground of the Truth. trans. Boris Jakim (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 195.
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