The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

William JamesOne word, before I close this lecture, on the question of the transiencyor permanence of these abrupt conversions. Some of you, Ifeel sure, knowing that numerous backslidings and relapses take place,make of these their apperceiving mass for interpreting the wholesubject, and dismiss it with a pitying smile at so much “hysterics.”Psychologically, as well as religiously, however, this is shallow. It missesthe point of serious interest, which is not so much the duration asthe nature and quality of these shiftings of character to higher levels.Men lapse from every level—we need no statistics to tell us that.Love is, for instance, well known not to be irrevocable, yet, constantor inconstant, it reveals new flights and reaches of ideality while itlasts. These revelations form its significance to men and women,whatever be its duration. So with the conversion experience: that itshould for even a short time show a human being what the highwatermark of his spiritual capacity is, this is what constitutes itsimportance—an importance which backsliding cannot diminish,although persistence might increase it. As a matter of fact, all themore striking instances of conversion, all those, for instance, whichI have quoted, have been permanent. The case of which there mightbe most doubt, on account of its suggesting so strongly an epilep-“In an instant there rose up in me such a sense of God’s taking care ofthose who put their trust in him that for an hour all the world was crystalline,the heavens were lucid, and I sprang to my feet and began to cry andlaugh.” H. W. Beecher, quoted by Leuba.“My tears of sorrow changed to joy, and I lay there praising God in suchecstasy of joy as only the soul who experiences it can realize.” —”I cannotexpress how I felt. It was as if I had been in a dark dungeon and lifted intothe light of the sun. I shouted and I sang praise unto him who loved meand washed me from my sins. I was forced to retire into a secret place, forthe tears did flow, and I did not wish my shopmates to see me, and yet Icould not keep it a secret.”—”I experienced joy almost to weeping.”—”Ifelt my face must have shone like that of Moses.I had a general feeling of buoyancy. It was the greatest joy it was ever mylot to experience.”—”I wept and laughed alternately.I was as light as if walking on air. I felt as if I had gained greater peaceand happiness than I had ever expected to experience.” Starbuck’s correspondents.233