Underhill sets out her belief thatspiritual lifeis part ofhuman natureand as such is available to everyhuman being.Underhill's practicalmysticismissecularrather thanreligious, since "it is a natural human activity." In the following paragraph, Underhill defines the meaning of the phrase "Practical Mysticism" Therefore it is to a practical mysticism that the practical man is here invited: to a training of his latent faculties, a bracing and brightening of his languid consciousness, an emancipation from the fetters of appearance, a turning of his attention to new levels of the world. Thus he may become aware of the universe that the spiritual artist is always trying to disclose to the race. This amount of mystical perception---this 'ordinary contemplation', as the specialist call it, ---is possible to all men: without it, they are not wholly alive. It is a natural human activity Underhill's book was written at the outbreak ofWorld War I, at a time of "struggle and endurance, practical sacrifices, difficult and long continuous effort"when, she believed, practical mysticism was the activity needed most."