2 If you report seeing visions, get ready to be fitted for a Straitjacket. Matthew 5:11 The Beatitudes …10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.… There are two major schools of critics of all things mystical. The Secular and the Insiders/ Clerical ( from Believers themselves) The Secular World is not such a problem. The worst they will do is make screwing motions with their fingers and suggest such people need help; which while irritating but something easily lived with. Western Psychologists and Scientists are good examples. I saw Western because in the East in places like Russia and India and further afield an places like Africa and the Middle East such folk often tend to be very open to mystical experience/ phenomena. The reason why, here in the West folks tend to huge scepticism is their Philosophical underpinnings which is of the school that if it's not material , it's not real. Nevertheless there are wide swathes of Western Society which are open to such experience. Take angels for instance. New Agers tend to revel in belief in angels. In popular culture such as music and art we find representations of angels everywhere. In the USA , for instance there appears still a strong belief in angels as compared to Europe: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/poll-nearly-8-in-10-americans-believe-in-angels/ ...and well if you believe in angels why should you not see, talk to and be visited by them? This belief while in one way can be helpful, in another it can be harmful for the theological underpinnings can be quite dreadful. The assumption often being that all people are heaven bound. That there is no such thing as evil. That everyone is basically good , just for a period taking wrong paths and so on. A kind of wonderful pink cloud.
