In an attempt to discover how much of the mystical can be traced in the life and writings of the late Canon Sheehan, it is reasonable and proper to put aside altogether those forms of mysticism which he as a priest and Catholic author would have been obliged in conscience to condemn. Mere psychic phenomena, therefore, and the so-called mysticism of modern speculative metaphysics will not be considered in this paper. Much less necessary is it to notice the farther-removed and almost obsolete forms of mystical beliefs known now to have been but the natural outgrowth or accompaniment of gross oriental idolatry, even though those systems did actually demand of their votaries some sort of unitive contemplation.
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