This custom has a psychological meaning. Wine has an influence that takes away the worries and anxieties of life and makes one unconscious of one's environment, and this only may be called the proper condition for concentration. Those who cannot concentrate will realize by studying the condition of their mind that they are either worried or anxious about something, or they are conscious of the environments of their life; it is that which keeps them back from concentration.

All those who have become great in the worldly, artistic or spiritual aspects of life have arrived at their destination by the power of concentration. It is by concentration that a person, from being poor becomes wealthy, it is by concentration that one invents things that the world has never known, it is by concentration that one arrives at a desired position in life, and it is by the power of concentration that man enters the world unseen.

The custom of drinking somebody's health therefore proves to be based on a psychological idea, the idea that one holds a wish in one's mind at a time when one's mind is in a state of concentration, so that during the time that the mind is in that state the thought of the friend's health will be predominant.

There is a custom of touching glasses, which is supposed to be a promise of friendship. It can be defined symbolically in this way that the cup is the symbol of the heart, for in the heart there is the capacity of holding the divine love, which is the sacred wine. So the cup touching the cup means heart united with heart. According to the mystical view it is two becoming one.