The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

William James“I had attended a series of revival services for about two weeks offand on. Had been invited to the altar several times, all the timebecoming more deeply impressed, when finally I decided I must dothis, or I should be lost. Realization of conversion was very vivid,like a ton’s weight being lifted from my heart; a strange light whichseemed to light up the whole room (for it was dark); a conscioussupreme bliss which caused me to repeat ‘Glory to God’ for a longtime. Decided to be God’s child for life, and to give up my petambition, wealth and social position. My former habits of life hinderedmy growth somewhat, but I set about overcoming these systematically,and in one year my whole nature was changed, i. e., myambitions were of a different order.”Here is another one of Starbuck’s cases, involving a luminous element:—“I had been clearly converted twenty-three years before, or ratherreclaimed. My experience in regeneration was then clear and spiritual,and I had not backslidden. But I experienced entire sanctificationon the 15th day of March, 1893, about eleven o’clock in themorning. The particular accompaniments of the experience wereentirely unexpected. I was quietly sitting at home singing selectionsout of Pentecostal Hymns. Suddenly there seemed to be a somethingsweeping into me and inflating my entire being—such a sensationas I had never experienced before.When this experience came, I seemed to be conducted around alarge, capacious, well-lighted room. As I walked with my invisibleconductor and looked around, a clear thought was coined in mymind, ‘They are not here, they are gone.’ As soon as the thoughtwas definitely formed in my mind, though no word was spoken, theHoly Spirit impressed me that I was surveying my own soul. Then,for the first time in all my life, did I know that I was cleansed fromall sin, and filled with the fullness of God.”Leuba quotes the case of a Mr. Peek, where the luminous affectionreminds one of the chromatic hallucinations produced by theintoxicant cactus buds called mescal by the Mexicans:—“When I went in the morning into the fields to work, the glory ofGod appeared in all his visible creation. I well remember we reapedoats, and how every straw and head of the oats seemed, as it were,229