Quote:

---

This strongly suggests that dissociative religious experiences are interesting historically and psychologically but irrelevant philosophically and theologically. No falsehood is made true because it flows from an dissociative religious experience and no truth is made false because it doesn’t. As Paul of Tarsus made clear in one of the earliest Christian letters, we are to test all assertions, even those made by prophets, and we are to retain only that which passes our examinations. We are to accept no assertion on the basis of sheer authority, even if the one who makes it acts in strange and awesome ways.

---

Quote:

---

When we think about it calmly and candidly, many of us can admit that the life and writings of Ellen White have helped us in some ways and hurt us in others, partly because of the way others have used her comments but also partly because of what she actually said and did. Our mission, if we choose to accept it, is to recognize this as a fact of our lives, make the most of what we find helpful in her writings and leave the rest on the shelf, seeking only to be willing to learn from a complex and accomplished woman who lived in a time and place that was very different from our own. In my view, Ann Taves’ Fits, Trances and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James can inform and inspire us as we travel together on the interesting and very important journey we call life.

---