In his description of the mystical life, St. John of the Cross describes the "Dark Night of the Soul" as a period where the ego or false self is violently assaulted and tormented. This rite of initiation on the sacred path also involves the destruction of all life's illusions. In the opening section of this spiritual memoir, Andrew Harvey has three religious seers from different traditions counsel him about the torments and nightmares of this shattering annihilation of the self. One is an Israeli mystic, another is a Rumi scholar and translator, and the third, Bede Griffiths, is a Benedictine monk and mystic. All three agree that this descent into hell is part of the journey toward transforming grace.

In Hidden Journey, Andrew Harvey wrote about his love, service to, and devotion to Mother Meera, an Indian woman he believed to be an avatar of the Divine Mother. In Sun at Midnight he recounts how on December 27, 1993, he was thrust into despair, chaos, and torment when Mother Meera told him she wanted him to write a book on how her divine love had healed him of his homosexuality. At that time, the 41-year-old Harvey had just fallen in love with Eryk, a 26-year-old who he felt was the bravest, truest, and most naturally spiritual human being he had ever met. The guru wanted him to leave Eryk and marry a woman.

The rest of the book includes details of the author's experience of the Dark Night of the Soul. Refusing to deny his sexuality, his love for Eryk, or his belief that true spirituality burns away all barriers between people, Harvey leaves Mother Meera and tells the world why. He then receives death threats, a fire bomb in his apartment, vicious attacks on his character and writing, severe back pain, and a torrent of abuse — all coming, he believes, from former brothers and sisters on the spiritual path. Gabriela, a Rumanian psychic and healer, sees Mother Meera as a black magician directing these events and calls in a Greek Orthodox priest to perform an exorcism.

Harvey's Dark Night of the Soul intensifies his tantric experiences with Eryk, and he writes about these in some very sexually explicit passages. He comes to see that the madness of the Mother Meera cult is illustrative of the dangers of the guru system. The author also covers his and Eryk's marriage ceremony and his friendship with Rose Solari, who interviewed him in a pivotal Common Boundary magazine article explaining his experiences with Mother Meera and his reevaluation of her power. Harvey ends with a tribute to the Divine Mother's love for all those who make it through the fire of annihilation and become mystical revolutionaries.