In a pagan world where men and women encountered the divine at every turn, there was no need for the mystical disciplines to help people to cultivate a sense of presence and unity: they already felt at one with the world. But as society developed, men began to take control of the world and felt their separation from it; instead of seeing themselves as deeply identified with their environment, people became aware, therefore, of the vast gulf that separated them from the Supreme Reality . . it was time for mystics to find a new way to cross the abyss and rediscover the old unity — not, this time, in the outside world but in the depths of the self.
— Karen Armstrong, Visions of God