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Mysticism is widely reputed to be one the hardest elements of religious experience to define. However, within each mystical experience and indeed, the subsequent events, one can define elements that are typical of all such experiences. One of the most influential guides to the mystical path was developed by St John Climacus. His description separates thirty ‘steps of a ladder’ that led the mystic to complete union and identification with Christ. However, a simpler approach was developed in western Christianity, which divided the mystical prayer into three sections. These were defined in terms of the main sort of prayer experienced by the person following the path. One of the greatest Christian Mystics was St John of the Cross (1542-1591). It is in the documentation of his experience that one can achieve a good idea of what mysticism precisely Juan de Yepes was born in Spain in the Castilian town of Fontiveros in 1542. Soon after his birth his father died, and his mother had to struggle to keep her three young sons alive. This poverty probably played a role in the death of one of John's brothers and the move of the family to Medina del Campo, where John was placed in an orphanage. Upon leaving the orphanage in his teens he s