Unless you have become dispassionate you cannot know what dispassion is, and will not believe that a dispassionate person exists anywhere on earth. For unless someone has first denied himself, readily giving his blood for the sake of a life that is truly blessed, how can he imagine that anyone else has done this in order to attain the state of dispassion?
It is the same with someone who thinks that he possesses the Holy Spirit while in fact he possesses nothing of the kind. When he hears about the workings of the Spirit in those who do possess Him, he refuses to believe that there is anyone in our generation who is energized and motivated by the Holy Spirit, or who consciously and experientially enjoys the vision of Him, in the same way as Christ’s apostles and the saints from the beginning of the world. For each judges whether his neighbor’s condition is virtuous or vicious according to his own state.
~St Symeon the New Theologian
Prayerful Life 