The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

The Varieties of Religious Experience“Life seemed difficult to me at one time. I was always breakingdown, and had several attacks of what is called nervous prostration,with terrible insomnia, being on the verge of insanity; besides havingmany other troubles, especially of the digestive organs. I hadbeen sent away from home in charge of doctors, had taken all thenarcotics, stopped all work, been fed up, and in fact knew all thedoctors within reach. But I never recovered permanently till thisNew Thought took possession of me.“I think that the one thing which impressed me most was learningthe fact that we must be in absolutely constant relation or mentaltouch (this word is to me very expressive) with that essence oflife which permeates all and which we call God. This is almost unrecognizableunless we live it into ourselves actually, that is, by aconstant turning to the very innermost, deepest consciousness ofour real selves or of God in us, for illumination from within, just aswe turn to the sun for light, warmth, and invigoration without.When you do this consciously, realizing that to turn inward to thelight within you is to live in the presence of God or your divine self,you soon discover the unreality of the objects to which you havehitherto been turning and which have engrossed you without.“I have come to disregard the meaning of this attitude for bodilyhealth as such, because that comes of itself, as an incidental result,and cannot be found by any special mental act or desire to have it,beyond that general attitude of mind I have referred to above. Thatwhich we usually make the object of life, those outer things we areall so wildly seeking, which we so often live and die for, but whichthen do not give us peace and happiness, they should all come ofthemselves as accessory, and as the mere outcome or natural resultof a far higher life sunk deep in the bosom of the spirit. This life isthe real seeking of the kingdom of God, the desire for his supremacyin our hearts, so that all else comes as that which shall be ‘added untoyou’—as quite incidental and as a surprise to us, perhaps; and yet it isthe proof of the reality of the perfect poise in the very centre of ourbeing.“When I say that we commonly make the object of our life thatwhich we should not work for primarily, I mean many things whichthe world considers praiseworthy and excellent, such as success in98