An Ecology of Ecstasy

• The Spiritual Nature of Man by Alister Hardy
  Oxford, 162 pp, £6.95, December 1979, ISBN 0 19 824618 8

Suddenly amid the sadness, spiritual darkness and depression, his brain seemed to catch fire, and with an extraordinary momentum his vital forces were strained to the utmost all at once. His sensation of being alive and his awareness increased tenfold … His mind and heart were flooded by a dazzling light. All his agitation, all his doubts and worries, seemed composed in a twinkling, culminating in a great calm, full of serene and harmonious joy and hope, full of understanding and the knowledge of the final cause.

Case 3001, Prince Myshkin, Male, Age 27. Classification of experience: 1(b)(d); 7(a)(b)(f)(g)(i); 8(e); 9(a); 11(n); 12(a).