The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

The Varieties of Religious ExperienceTheir notion of man’s higher nature is hardly less divergent, beingdecidedly pantheistic. The spiritual in man appears in the mindcurephilosophy as partly conscious, but chiefly subconscious; andthrough the subconscious part of it we are already one with theDivine without any miracle of grace, or abrupt creation of a newinner man. As this view is variously expressed by different writers,we find in it traces of Christian mysticism, of transcendental idealism,of vedantism, and of the modern psychology of the subliminalself. A quotation or two will put us at the central point of view:—“The great central fact of the universe is that spirit of infinite lifeand power that is back of all, that manifests itself in and through all.This spirit of infinite life and power that is back of all is what I callGod. I care not what term you may use, be it Kindly Light, Providence,the Over-Soul, Omnipotence, or whatever term may be mostconvenient, so long as we are agreed in regard to the great centralfact itself. God then fills the universe alone, so that all is from Himand in Him, and there is nothing that is outside. He is the life ofour life our very life itself. We are partakers of the life of God; andthough we differ from Him in that we are individualized spirits,while He is the Infinite Spirit, including us, as well as all else beside,yet in essence the life of God and the life of man are identically thesame, and so are one. They differ not in essence or quality; theydiffer in degree.“The great central fact in human life is the coming into a consciousvital realization of our oneness with this Infinite Life and theopening of ourselves fully to this divine inflow. In just the degreethat we come into a conscious realization of our oneness with theInfinite Life, and open ourselves to this divine inflow, do we actualizein ourselves the qualities and powers of the Infinite Life, do wemake ourselves channels through which the Infinite Intelligence andPower can work. In just the degree in which you realize your onenesswith the Infinite Spirit, you will exchange dis-ease for ease,inharmony for harmony, suffering and pain for abounding healthand strength. To recognize our own divinity, and our intimate relationto the Universal, is to attach the belts of our machinery to thepowerhouse of the Universe. One need remain in hell no longerthan one chooses to; we can rise to any heaven we ourselves choose;96