Obsessive thoughts about God can have a profound impact on a person's spiritual state, causing internal conflict, making it difficult to focus on direct contact with the divine, and even distorting the perception of religious experience. For example, as noted in one source, "during prayer, obsessive thoughts begin to press in the mind especially insistently, as if trying to block God from the spiritual eye of the supplicant. Only through great willpower can attention be held on the holy words of the prayer" (source: 779_3892.txt). This indicates that such thoughts can distract a person from a true spiritual connection, muffling the feeling of God's presence and significantly disrupting the process of prayer.