There is a huge error in theological reasoning. A similar one is still very prevalent in medicine. The reasoning is that if you do or think something and then you feel good, it be because what you thought about or did was a true treatment or true idea. This method can make sugar pills into a healing balm. It can also make heaven become a giant fuzzy field of baby kittens into "truth". This is delusion and placebo. It is what I call "pseudo-spirituality", it is VERY prevalent in nearly all religious cultures. It used to more prevalent in medical and psychological cultures, but it's being increasingly identified and slowly becoming less prevalent. I hope the same thibg happens in religion. I myself was a contributed to this line of thinking for many years, but have abandoned it when I recognized it. It is difficult to let go of because it makes us feel good, but like you said-- it's unreliable and it can occur with just about any idea, just like it can occur with any pseudo-medical treatment.
This "good feeling" is often mistakenly used as referenced from Paul describing the "fruits of the spirit". I wrote a post about this which I can put here later. But in short, feeling peaceful, loving and happy does not mean that you have experienced enlightenment anymore than seeing a rock that is wet means that there was rain. There are other ways to make a rock wet and there are other ways to feel peace and love. These emotions do not equate Enlightenment. If someone is unable to discern between these emotions and enlightenment, then I can only conclude that they had memory loss or else have never experienced enlightenment. The two are as different as sight and smell. Using emotions as a guide to truth is like saying that something is proved by science because you thought about it.
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