One reason why the Enemy found this so easy was that without knowing it I was already desperately anxious to get rid of my religion and that for a reason worth recording. By a sheer mistake - and I still believe it to have been an honest mistake - in spiritual technique I had rendered my private practice of that religion a quiet intolerable burden. It came about in this way. Like everyone else I had been told as a child that one must not only say ones prayers but think about what one was saying. Accordingly when I came to a serious belief I tried to put this into practice. At first it seemed plain sailing. But soon the false conscience St. Pauls Law Herberts prattler came into play. One had no sooner reached Amen than it whispered Yes. But are you sure you were really thinking about what you said then more subtly Were you for example thinking about it as well as you did last night The answer for reasons I did not then understand was nearly always No. Very well said the voice hadnt you then better try it over again And one obeyed but of course with no assurance that the second attempt would be any better...I set myself a standard. No clause of my prayer was to be allowed to pass muster unless it was accompanied by what I called a realization by which I meant a certain vivedness of the imagination and the affections. My nightly task was to produce by sheer will power a phenomenon which will power could never produce which was so ill-defined that I could never say with absolute confidence whether it had occurred and which even when it did occur was of very mediocre spiritual value.