But precisely because an attitude of spiritual experimentation is reasonable, it’s also important to emphasize something taught by almost every horror movie but nonetheless skated over in a lot of American spirituality: the importance of being really careful in your openness, and not just taking the beneficence of the metaphysical realm for granted.

If the material universe as we find it is beautiful but also naturally perilous, and shot through with sin and evil wherever human agency is at work, there is no reason to expect that any spiritual dimension would be different — no reason to think that being a “psychonaut” is any less perilous than being an astronaut, even if the danger takes a different form. …

Some element of danger is unavoidable. The future of humanity depends on people opening doors to the transcendent, rather than sealing themselves into materialism and despair.

But when the door is open, be very, very careful about what you invite in.

[A while back, a friend of mine was discussing these kinds of experiments in spirituality, and then poo-poohed my concerns, calling them superstitious. Well maybe, I responded, but if you don’t believe in spiritual power, why experiment? And if you do believe in spiritual power, there is every chance that the people who dedicated their lives to understanding it in the Christian sense might be very, very right about the dangers involved. They weren’t dabblers, after all. — Ed]