The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

The Varieties of Religious Experiencehighest state of tension or aliveness, and I was aware, with an intensenessnot easily imagined by those who had never experiencedit, that another being or presence was not only in the room, butquite close to me. I put my book down, and although my excitementwas great, I felt quite collected, and not conscious of any senseof fear. Without changing my position, and looking straight at thefire, I knew somehow that my friend A. H. was standing at my leftelbow but so far behind me as to be hidden by the armchair inwhich I was leaning back. Moving my eyes round slightly withoutotherwise changing my position, the lower portion of one leg becamevisible, and I instantly recognized the gray-blue material oftrousers he often wore, but the stuff appeared semitransparent, remindingme of tobacco smoke in consistency,”24— and hereuponthe visual hallucination came.Another informant writes:—“Quite early in the night I was awakened… . I felt as if I had beenaroused intentionally, and at first thought some one was breakinginto the house… . I then turned on my side to go to sleep again,and immediately felt a consciousness of a presence in the room, andsingular to state, it was not the consciousness of a live person, but ofa spiritual presence. This may provoke a smile, but I can only tellyou the facts as they occurred to me. I do not know how to betterdescribe my sensations than by simply stating that I felt a consciousnessof a spiritual presence… . I felt also at the same time a strongfeeling of superstitious dread, as if something strange and fearfulwere about to happen.”25Professor Flournoy of Geneva gives me the following testimonyof a friend of his, a lady, who has the gift of automatic or involuntarywriting:—“Whenever I practice automatic writing, what makes me feel thatit is not due to a subconscious self is the feeling I always have of aforeign presence, external to my body. It is sometimes so definitelycharacterized that I could point to its exact position. This impressionof presence is impossible to describe. It varies in intensity and24 Journal of the S. P. R., February, 1895, p. 26.25 E. Gurney: Phantasms of the Living, i. 384.62