Are There Such Things as Lawful Mental Relationships?

Socializing, connecting, and finding companionship are not confined to sexual relations; they encompass a far broader range.

Even in lawful sexual relations between husband and wife, if no mental and spiritual connection takes place, their bond remains incomplete, unripe, and deficient in quality and fruitfulness.

Non-sexual forms of companionship, relationship, and connection—visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, intellectual, spiritual, poetic, contemplative, noble, emotional, loving, luminous, temporal, beyond time, and so on—each give rise to their own particular beginnings, manifestations, expressions, and fruits.

These forms of connection recognize no distinctions of kind, type, or class, and are confined by no borders or geography. They, too, may be divided into the ugly and the beautiful. The beautiful kind begins only when the human soul is freed from attachment to and enslavement by this world, and reaches its height through the clarity and integrity of servitude to God. This connection encompasses human beings’ relationships with one another and with every kind and class of creature, as well as with nature—from the earth to the galaxies, the heavens, the unseen realm, and beyond—until it reaches a connection and companionship beyond all connection and companionship.