SEARCH
0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Prev | Current Page 111 | Next

James, William, 1842-1910

"Varieties of Religious Experience, a Study in Human Nature"

At all events, something was present with me, and I
knew its presence far more surely than I have ever known the
presence of any fleshly living creature. I was conscious of its
departure as of its coming: an almost instantaneously swift
going through the door, and the 'horrible sensation' disappeared.
"On the third night when I retired my mind was absorbed in some
lectures which I was preparing, and I was still absorbed in these
when I became aware of the actual presence (though not of the
COMING) of the thing that was there the night before, and of the
'horrible sensation.' I then mentally concentrated all my effort
to charge this 'thing,' if it was evil to depart, if it was NOT
evil, to tell me who or what it was, and if it could not explain
itself, to go, and that I would compel it <60> to go. It went
as on the previous night, and my body quickly recovered its
normal state.
"On two other occasions in my life I have had precisely the same
'horrible sensation.' Once it lasted a full quarter of an hour.
In all three instances the certainty that there in outward space
there stood SOMETHING was indescribably STRONGER than the
ordinary certainty of companionship when we are in the close
presence of ordinary living people.


Pages:
99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123