you ever read "The Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James? It's a good book despite its late-19th-century understanding of the brain and nervous sy

you ever read "The Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James? It's a good book despite its late-19th-century understanding of the brain and nervous system. In talking about individuals who have had profound religious experiences, he distinguishes two types. One is the "healthy-minded" type, like the kind of relentless positivity you get in American evangelical religion, and perhaps could be extended to modern New Age thinking. He also describes another type of religious experience, the "sick soul". These are the types of people who constantly agonize and worry and wonder, and are very in tune with human suffering and cannot accept the evil in the world. This can involve a fear of damnation but not necessarily. He's able to come up with Christians of both types -- Tolstoy, for example, as a "sick soul".