I
One day in the ’90s, standing in my kitchen, I suddenly prayed, “Lord, give me light!” The ‘reply’ came just as suddenly, “The light comes later.” This is an example of an inner or interior locution. Grokipedia:
Interior locution is a concept in Christian mysticism, particularly within Catholic theology, referring to a supernatural form of private revelation in which a divine message or communication is received directly in the intellect or soul, without audible words, external sounds, or sensory involvement. This inner “voice” or infusion of knowledge is distinct from exterior locutions, which may be heard aloud by others, and from visions, which involve imaginative or corporeal imagery; instead, it operates purely on a spiritual level, often providing guidance, reassurance, or enlightenment during prayer or spiritual trials.
The above definition is accurate. How do I know? I have read the great mystics (Juan de la Cruz, Teresa de Avila et al., and the best of the commentators Augustin Poulain and Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, to mention just two. An article of mine on Poulain here.)
I hasten to point out that while the experiencing of an inner locution cannot be doubted, at least while it is occurring, one reasonably can and perhaps ought to doubt the source of the experience. I petitioned the Lord for light (knowledge, enlightenment, understanding), and I ‘received’ an ‘answer.’ But from whom? From the Lord? Which lord? Lord Krishna? Lord Jesus Christ? That it was Jesus cannot be read off from the experience itself. Such a reading goes beyond the phenomenology of the experience. On another occasion, while in deep meditation, I ‘heard’ the locution, “I want to tear you apart.” Presumably that was not from Jesus Christ or any good denizen of the Unseen Order. But neither does it follow that it was from a demonic agent. The experience qua experience is neutral on the question whether there are any demonic agents. On a third occasion, during a solitary desert hike, pondering a certain course of action, the ‘message’ was: I am with you. As far as the phenomenology shows, that ‘message’ could have been from Christ or it could have been from a demon impersonating Christ or from the depths of my own psyche.
II
The above is preliminary to my title question. Spelled out, what I am asking myself is whether I should be praying for light (infused contemplation, verification of faith contents, objective certainty) or praying instead for a deepening of faith, and a strengthening of the will to go forward by faith, That I pray at all shows that I have some faith. (Can you imagine Richard Dawkins or Galen Strawson or Daniel Dennett or David Stove praying while they are or were healthy? When Stove got sick and near death, his stridently cocksure atheistic convictions began to totter.) Pondering the question of whether I should be praying for infused contemplation or for a deepening of faith while remaining (relatively speaking) ‘in the dark,’ I imagined a conversation between me and God. What follows is of course not a report of an inner locution, but a made-up story.
I pray, “Give me light, Lord!” The Lord replies:
Look man, I’ve given you enough light in the form of what you call glimpses, vouchsafings, peeks behind the veil, intimations of Elsewhere. I’ve given you enough light on which to go forward. The human predicament is probationary and penal. You want it to be full of light. But part of your probation is to see if you can hold out in the dark. The light comes later!
Plato saw the world for what it is: a speluncular chiaroscuro of light and dark, a shadowland in which substance is rarely descried but easily denied. So now your test is to live by faith. To quote one of your favorite philosophers, “There is light enough for those who wish to see and darkness enough for the contrary-minded.” (Pascal) Even men of far higher spiritual rank than you such as Augustine and Aquinas were permitted the visio mystica on rare occasions only. You yourself have written about the mysticism à deux of Augustine and his mother Monica when they shared the vision at Ostia.
And you know that monks in monasteries have spent long lives without experiencing infused contemplation. So settle down in the dark, listen, wait, and stop asking me for light.
Bill,
I have a question: Can the “divine message or communication [that] is received directly in the intellect or soul, without audible words, external sounds, or sensory involvement” take the form of an action? In other words, can the action be the message?
I ask because about a week ago, I had an experience of this kind as I was in bed trying to fall asleep. It involved the unprompted memory of an incident of animal cruelty that I witnessed as a young man. This memory has returned periodically for the last sixty years and has, each time, caused me so much mental distress that always my heart pounds and my body becomes rigid with terror—a sort of long-term PTSD. Last week, it so unsettled me that I said out loud with great intensity, “Christ lift this from me,” over and over. And instantly this longstanding memory and all the emotional turmoil tied to it were gone. From that moment, I can recall the event only vaguely, even when I make a concerted effort to do so, and, what is more, the terror that it evoked in me all these years is gone. I am not a person who easily believes in these sorts of things—as you know, I have a very skeptical side to my nature—but I can’t deny that something happened in an instant and what was present for sixty years is no more. I don’t say that my experiencing it proves its veridicality, but it did happen.
Would you term what I am describing an “interior locution,” since my “intellect or soul” has received, indirectly albeit, the “message” that prayer does not simply go out unheard, leaving me with a somewhat greater confidence in the words that I say each day?
Vito
I had a relevantly similar experience in the ’80s. A certain person had been spreading false stories about me. Much agitated, I was pacing around in my apartment fuming over the person and her lies. Suddenly, without forethought, I raised my hands to the ceiling and cried “Release me from this.” And I was released! Instantly. The mental turmoil vanished completely and I was as calm as a Stoic stage in his state of ataraxia. I emphasize that there was no forethought and no intention to pray. It was a spontaneous spiritual ejaculation. My sudden unintended prayer was suddenly answered. An unforgettable and undeniably real experience. Who or what answered the prayer is of course a further question.
I would say that your experience and mine are structurally the same and differ only in the details, even though yours was more dramatic than mine, and the burden lifted from you was far more onerous than the one lifted from me . But neither counts as an interior locution. How classify it? I’ll check the manuals. Off the top of my head, I’d simply say that here we have two cases in which a prayer was answered, and that here we have evidence that there is more in heaven and on earth that is dreamt of in the naturalist’s philosophy. Knock-down evidence? No. But enough evidence to render reasonable the belief in an Unseen Order. As Pascal said, “there’s light enough . . . .”
You asked in effect whether the transformation of your mental state consequent upon your prayer counts as an interior locution. I say it doesn’t. In your experience, what message did you receive? I grant, however, that some messages *ab extra* have calming and other good effects. Many have received the message “I am with you,” a message that can encourage, fortify, clam, etc.
Given that I often pray without much conviction, I would say that the surprising message I received by the instant erasure of the memory was “Your prayers are actually being heard.”
Vito
Vito, I think you are missing my point. It wasn’t a message you received but a cure for your mental turmoil. If there was a message, write a sentence that expresses it.
I see what you mean. There was no explicit message.
Vito