Narcosis or epilepsy are not in the least necessary conditions of mystical
states in ordinary people.
'Certain aspects of nature seem to have a peculiar power of awakening such
mystical moods,' says Professor James.*
It would be more correct to say that this power is concealed in
all aspects
of
surrounding nature. The change of the seasons — the first snow, the
beginning of spring, summer days, rainy
and warm, the smell of autumn
awake in us strange 'moods' which we do not understand ourselves. At times
these moods become intensified and reach the sensation of being completely
at one with nature. Every man has his own moments which affect him more
powerfully than others. One is mystically affected by
thunderstorm,
another
by
sunrise,
a third by the
sea,
or
the forest,
or
rocks.
The voice of sex also
contains a great deal of this mystical sensation of
nature.
The feeling of sex places man in the most personal relationship with nature.
The
feeling of woman by man or
vice versa
is often compared with the
feeling of nature. And indeed it is
the same feeling
which is produced by the
forest, the steppe, the sea, mountains, only in this case it is more vivid; it
awakens
more inner voices, touches more inner strings.
A mystical sensation of nature is often produced in men by animals.
Almost everyone has his own favourite animal, with which he has some inner
affinity. In those animals, or through those animals, people sense nature
intimately and personally.
In Indian occultism there exists a belief that every man has his own
corresponding animal, through which one
can act upon him marginally,
through which he can himself act upon others, and into which he can
transform himself or be transformed.
Each Indian god has his own particular animal. With Brahma it is the
goose; with Vishnu - the eagle; with Shiva - the bull; with Indra - the
elephant; with Kali (Durga)
- the tiger; with Rama - the buffalo; with
Ganesha - the rat; with Agni - the ram; with Kartikkeya (or Subrananyia)
the peacock, and with Kama (the god of love) - the parrot.
It was the same in Greece - all Olympian deities had their own animals.
Sacred animals played a very important part in the religion of Egypt, and
there the
cat -
the most magical of animals - was regarded as sacred.
The feeling of nature at times reveals something infinitely deep and
*
The Varieties of Religious Experience.
new in things which have seemed for a long time familiar and devoid of anything
mystical.
The consciousness of God's nearness came to me sometimes . . . [writes one of
Professor James's friends, quoted by him], A presence, I might say . . . something in
myself made me feel myself a part
of something bigger than I, that was controlling. I
felt myself one with the grass, the trees, birds, insects, everything in Nature. I exulted
in the mere fact of existence, of being a part of it all - the drizzling rain, the shadows
of the clouds, the tree-trunks, and so on.*
In
my
own notebook of 19081 found a description of a similar state I had
experienced.
It was in the sea of Marmora, on a rainy winter day. In the distance,
the high rocky
shores were of all shades of violet, down to the palest, fading into grey and merging
with the grey sky. The sea was the colour of lead, touched with silver. I remember all
these colours. The boat was steaming north. It was rather rough. I was standing by the
rail and looking at the waves. The white crests were running towards us from afar. A
wave would come up, rear itself as though wanting to hurl its crest on the deck, then
with a roar would throw itself under the ship. The ship would heel, shudder, then right
itself slowly; but already from afar another wave was running up. I was watching this
play of the waves with the ship and feeling the waves drawing me to themselves. It
was not the desire to jump down which
one feels in the mountains, but something
infinitely more subtle. The waves were drawing my soul to themselves. Suddenly I
felt it going to them. It was only a moment, maybe less than a moment. But I entered
the waves and, with them, with a roar, attacked the ship. And at that moment
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
