How can I tell the difference between a spiritual experience and my imagination?

—Sam, at age 13,
Maine

Dear Sam,

Imagination is real, though it is often taken lightly.

Have you ever looked through a pair of binoculars at someone, a building, an animal, a bird, or something else? When you first put the binoculars to your eyes, the thing you are trying to see is out of focus.

But the object is there; it is real.

Imagination during the Spiritual Exercises of ECK is a real spiritual experience, which becomes stronger with practice.

So in your spiritual exercises, look for the Blue Light of the Mahanta. Imagine seeing it as a blue star in the heavens at night, a cloud of blue twinkling lights, or look for the Mahanta himself.

Let love fill your heart, then wait quietly to see what comes.

(from July 2010 Letter of Light)