Absence of God

This, according to religious psychology, is a condition in which the soul is either really (because of sin), or only apparently, forsaken by God. It is that experience in which it seems to a spiritual person that God has forsaken him. This spiritual abandonment may be a trial in which the spiritually advanced soul, feeling the need of a stronger possession of God, has the impression that God has deserted it and no longer holds it in His favour. In its less intense form, this abandonment leads to a feeling that God is far away; in its more intense form, it leads to a feeling of being rejected by God and destined to be lost. In the latter case this may lead to religiously-induced pathologies, aggravated by the secrecy in which the condition is maintained.