WHY DO RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS DESPISE MYSTICISM? Because a mystic doesn’t need them. Mystics don’t believe in God—they experience the divine directly. No priest, no doctrine, no holy book required. This is the dangerous secret hidden in some of the non-canonical gospels, the Hermetic texts, the esoteric traditions: You are not separate from God. You never were. The moment you realize this, control is lost. Institutions crumble. The game is exposed. This is why they burned the “heretics.” Not because they were wrong, but because they were free. And freedom is the one thing power can’t allow.