People sometimes speak of “mystical temperaments”, meaning temperaments that are affective, artistic, which more readily adopt an attitude of openness and passivity. Do such temperaments predispose one to the supernatural life? Perhaps they make it easier to surrender to God. On the other hand, however, the “sensitivity” presupposed by the divine love, which gives rise to the intimate knowledge of contemplation, is a divine sensitivity, a divine “sense of touch”. It demands immobility, perseverance, and firmness (qualities not readily found in esthetic (artistic) temperaments), and even a love of darkness (whereas esthetic (artistic) temperaments love light and images).

On the other hand, mathematical temperaments tend to be firm, solid, and realistic. They too have a certain firmness. When God takes hold of them, they are already stripped of sensitivity and illusions.

…difficult in prayer and suffering from the absence of God are proximate signs of a call to contemplation. These are people who find it very easy to pray; but this may stem (although not necessarily) from the fact that they live in their imagination, in a sort of reverie. But if a person has a sense of what prayer is and of who God is and yet experiences difficult in prayer, if he suffers from an intense need for it and from the certitude that God has called him to it, such a person is already engaged in contemplative prayer. –Thomas Philippe ‘The Contemplative Life’