From St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. J. Jung, Part III, Chapter 7. Inner Growth Books, 1986.

Outbursts of Sense

   In his discussion of the faults of beginners in the first book of the Dark Night he (St. John of the Cross) speaks about spiritual lust:
"It happens frequently that in one's very spiritual exercises, without one's being able to avoid it, impure movements will be experienced in the sensory part of the soul, and even sometimes when the spirit is deep in prayer or when receiving the sacrament of Penance or of the Eucharist."(4)

St. John found three reasons for these feelings, and all of them are "outside one's power"(5). The first cause is due to the fact that the sensual and spiritual parts of man form one personality, and "each one usually shares according to its mode in what the other receives"(6). Thus, when the spirit experiences satisfaction in God, the senses experience gratification.

The second cause is the devil who "excites these feelings while souls are at prayer, instead of when they are engaged in other works, so that they might abandon prayer"(7). The third cause of these impure feelings is the fear the person has of them. "Something that they see or say or think brings them to their mind, and this makes them afraid, so that they suffer from them through no fault of their own"(8).

With this third reason St. John comes close to framing a psychological explanation. He is also aware of how difficult this state of impure thoughts can be to melancholics: "The devil, they think, definitely has access to them without their having the freedom to prevent it ... If these impure thoughts and feelings arise from melancholia, a person is not ordinarily freed from them until he is cured of that humor, unless the dark night close in upon the soul and deprives it successively of all things"(9). He also suggests that some people are more susceptible to these movements than others, for their natures are "delicate and tender, their humors and blood are stirred up by any change"(10).

St. John's explanations can be complemented by viewing these same phenomena according to Jung's hypothesis on psychic energy. The sensory movements happen frequently "in one's very spiritual exercises and in the reception of the Eucharist"(11). This timing is significant, and St. John emphasizes it in his descriptions: "...For they think these feelings come while they are engaged in prayer rather than at any other time. And this is true..."(12)

Consciousness forces its attention to spiritual things, and this process of selection necessarily tends to force the consideration of sensible things into the unconscious. If this process is continued for any length of time, as it is in someone who habitually cultivates a life of prayer, it is easy for these neglected contents to begin to build a counter-force to consciousness. Precisely when the consciousness is reaching towards the most pure spirituality, it is furthest removed from that which is sensual, and therefore, the tension between the two opposites is greatest, and from an energetic point of view, the energy that the neglected contents have is highest. Therefore, at the very moment of spiritual seeking the devil "succeeds in portraying to them very vividly things that are most foul and impure"(13).