COMMENTS ON

The Supreme Awakening

“Shows the supreme value of the Transcendent for all human beings”

D r. Craig Pearson has done it! In the clearest, most perfect way, he shows
the supreme value of the Transcendent for all human beings. No matter
what your religion is — no matter what nationality — no matter what walk of
life — if you are a human being, get this book — read it — get inspired by it —
and act upon it — right away!
— David Lynch, award-winning filmmaker, television director, artist, and
author of Catching the Big Fish

“Delineates practical means for progressing on this journey”

A gold mine of riveting accounts and penetrating analyses of key landmarks

in spiritual development. Craig Pearson not only elucidates the often-
fleeting glimpses of heightened consciousness experienced by many individuals
through the ages as precursors to enduring plateaus of growth, he also delin-
eates practical means for progressing on this journey. The world has waited over
a century for the sequel to William James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience;
with the appearance of The Supreme Awakening, the wait is now over.
— Ed Sarath, Professor of Music, Chair of the Department of Jazz and
Improvisation Studies, and Director of the Program in Creativity and
Consciousness Studies, University of Michigan

HE A LT H AND M EDICINE
“ Highlights the importance of higher states of consciousness for enhancing
mental and physical well-being”

I n The Supreme Awakening, Craig Pearson offers us an unequaled resource

that reviews transcendental experiences reported by great writers and thinkers
of both the West and the East for more than two thousand years. Scholars and
general readers alike will turn to The Supreme Awakening — as I have — for its
wealth of wisdom and insight. Pearson’s book, however, goes beyond a literary
review. By documenting the central importance of transcendence throughout

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the ages and in different cultures, together with the scientific research on this
experience, he highlights the importance of higher states of consciousness for
enhancing mental and physical well-being, not just for great writers and think-
ers but for all of us.
— Norman E. Rosenthal, MD, psychiatrist, researcher, and author of Transcen­
dence: Healing and Transformation through Transcendental Meditation

“Transcending is good for your health”

A s a medical doctor, I have witnessed first-hand a very real, objective, and

powerful transformation in the health of thousands of my patients who
have learned transcending through the Transcendental Meditation technique.
I’ve seen its benefits in a wide variety of chronic conditions, many of which
eluded cure from any number of other therapies.
Hundreds of peer-reviewed studies verify that transcending (as evidenced
in Transcendental Meditation) is good for our health. And, unlike most medi-
cine, it actually makes you feel good! Transcending creates a deliciously nour-
ishing, peaceful wholeness within — a unity of mind, body, and spirit that may
well be the source of health itself.
If you already meditate, read this book to appreciate what you have and to
deepen your experience. If you have yet to learn, read it now and open yourself
to your inner healing power — you are your own best medicine!
— Nancy Lonsdorf, MD, integrative physician and author of The Ageless
Woman and Natural Health and Beauty After Forty with Maharishi Ayurveda,
and coauthor of A Woman’s Best Medicine: Health, Happiness and Long Life
through Maharishi Ayurveda. www.drnancylonsdorf.com

“Enlightenment can no longer be considered mystical or impractical”

W e have been waiting for this book for a long time. It is filled with
authentic and universal wisdom of life from every great tradition of
humanity, overflowing with remarkable personal experiences from sages,
saints, poets, scientists, and people from many different walks of life.
Dr. Pearson beautifully presents the profound knowledge of Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi and reveals how all of these experiences are based upon the pro-
gressive refinement of our nervous system. Enlightenment can no longer be

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considered mystical or impractical. Rather it is a powerful and blissful state of

awareness that anyone from any background or culture can achieve. As a scien-
tist, I thank Dr. Pearson for this inspiring and profound research into the field
of higher states of consciousness.
—R
 obert Keith Wallace, PhD, author of The Physiology of Consciousness and
The Neurophysiology of Enlightenment

“Characterizing the experience of enlightenment in simple, scientific terms”

W e are so fortunate to live in an age in which science in general, and

neuroscience in particular, have advanced our knowledge of how the
function of the brain underlies our conscious experience. Finally, the experi-
ence of enlightenment, beautifully recorded throughout the ages, can be ana-
lyzed and verified as reflecting changes in the style of functioning of human
neurophysiology.
Dr. Pearson has done us all a great service, uplifting us by presenting the
words of the enlightened from different times and cultures, and characterizing
the experience of enlightenment in simple, scientific terms. To the reader’s
delight, he goes one step further, and describes both a practical means to expe-
rience the field of pure consciousness at the basis of our physiology, and an
easy way to culture the nervous system so that our experience of enlightenment
grows from fleeting moments of transcendence to a permanent reality of our
everyday existence.
— Gary P. Kaplan, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology, Hofstra
Univer­sity School of Medicine

“A source of practical wisdom and inspiration for the parents and teachers of
children and teenagers”

A s a pediatric neuropsychologist, I find this beautifully written book to be

profoundly encouraging. Dr. Pearson presents a remarkably broad range
of experiences of transcendence, unity, and timelessness that have been report-
ed by people around the world, showing that human potential goes far beyond
what is generally imagined.
This book also provides a very clear exposition of Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi’s description of higher states of consciousness and the meditation tech-

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nique that can promote the development of these higher states in people of
all ages. It presents a simple and practical means for young people across the
socioeconomic spectrum to experience a source of peace, happiness, and intelli-
gence within themselves, which provides an extremely powerful antidote to the
high stress, media-saturated environments in which they are growing up.
I believe that Dr. Pearson’s book will be a source of practical wisdom and
inspiration for the parents and teachers of children and teenagers, so many
of whom care deeply about the health of our society and our planet but feel
helpless about changing their world. Dr. Pearson shows how, by experiencing
these higher states of consciousness, young people can, in the words of Gandhi,
become the change in the world they wish to see.
— William Stixrud, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Behavioral
Sciences, and Pediatrics, George Washington University School of
Medicine and Health Sciences

“Helping create a new definition of mental health”

F or centuries physicians have been focused on disease and relieving the suf-
fering of illness. In recent decades there has increasingly been a shift of
focus toward understanding and promoting health and wellness. As a psychia-
trist, I appreciate how Pearson’s description of those who have realized “higher
states of consciousness” and his clear description of Maharishi’s model of the
seven states of consciousness is helping create a new definition of mental health.
And the really good news for psychiatrists is that Pearson has shown
with historical review as well as modern science that mental techniques such
as Transcendental Meditation can be “prescribed” to anyone we work with to
help them experience and develop their own “supreme awakening” of growing
mental health.
— James Krag, MD, Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric
Association | Former Assistant Professor, University of Virginia,
Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences | Past president
of the Psychiatric Society of Virginia

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E DUCA TION

“Especially useful for educators at all levels”

W e all know that the consciousness of an eight-year-old is different from

that of an eighteen-year-old — but Craig Pearson has written a mas-
terpiece describing how there are states of consciousness beyond the waking
adult world that so preoccupies us.
These higher states of consciousness are not new. This book explores each
state and shows how they have been described and experienced throughout his-
tory. More importantly, we are given tools to access these higher states today,
and they offer hope for all humanity.
This book is a rich resource for anyone interested in maximizing their
own potential and benefiting society at the same time. It is especially useful for
educators at all levels to understand that developing students’ consciousness is
as important as developing their intellects, and that cultivating higher states of
consciousness belongs at the foundation of education.
— Ralph A. Wolff, JD, President, Accrediting Commission for Senior
Colleges and Universities, Western Association of Schools and Colleges
| Past professor, University of Dayton Law School | Cofounder, Antioch
School of Law | Past Dean, Antioch Graduate School of Education

BUS I N E SS AND LEADERSHIP

“An indispensable resource”

T he day is rapidly coming when the goal of business and management

will be the enlightenment of their customers and employees. As that day
approaches, this remarkable book, combining the most profound theoretical
and scientific analysis with the inspirational stories of great figures from all
walks of life and all times and places, is an indispensable resource — a blue-
print to help each of us realize our birthright as human beings.
— Rashi Glazer, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Haas School of Business,
University of California at Berkeley

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“For anyone who desires to lead the way every day in their organization”

C raig Pearson has captured the foundation of effective leadership in his

wonderful new book, The Supreme Awakening. To lead, initiate direction,
and influence others to be motivated followers requires more “wakefulness,”
more expanded awareness and enlightened consciousness. Dr. Pearson’s defini-
tion of “awakening” clarifies this process.
In my over 30 years’ experience providing leadership consulting and train-
ing with organizations throughout the world, I continually notice that the
basis for breakthroughs to exploit opportunities always has its starting point in
amplified awareness. Similarly, the capacity to overcome obstacles always origi-
nates in an expansive cognizance of what must be done differently. This is true
in organizations large and small, public and private.
Dr. Pearson’s description of how to be more wakeful through the
Transcendental Meditation program, based on the knowledge and techniques
put forward by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, offers a practical approach that any-
one can use. I recommend The Supreme Awakening as a manual for anyone who
desires to lead the way every day in their organization.
— Warren Blank, PhD, President of The Leadership Group | Author of The
108 Skills of Natural Born Leaders, Leadership for Smart People, The Leadership
Event, and The Nine Natural Laws of Leadership

“The key to success in all fields of life”

T he search for the ultimate in human resource development in business has

come to an end.
In the US alone we spend $48 billion a year on leadership development.
According to surveys, only 12-15% of this is considered money well spent.
That means $40 billion is wasted. Corporate education simply has not known
how to develop the capacity of the human brain — how to promote growth
from the inside.
Dr. Craig Pearson presents the model of higher states of consciousness put
forward by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He chronicles exalted experiences of these
states by renowned men and women in every culture. He describes the effort-
less, scientifically-validated technique by which anyone can develop these high-
er states. And he summarizes the unprecedented practical benefits that result.

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Nothing can be more fundamental than developing consciousness, devel-

oping the brain’s total potential — this is the key to success in all fields of life.
The systematic program presented here is evidence-based, complements cur-
rent leadership training, is culture-independent, can save organizations money,
and above all produces unprecedented results.
Dr. Pearson’s brilliant description of this important re-discovery is an
absolute requirement for corporate leaders.
— Jim Bagnola, President of The Leadership Group International | Author
of Becoming a Professional Human Being: How to Enjoy Stress-Free Work and
Personal Happiness Using the Mind/Body/Work Connection

“The basis of a breakthrough in creating a better world”

W e collectively face many seemingly intractable problems; the wisest and

best-intentioned among us have not been able to solve most of these.
This book suggests that solutions may lie in a place we have neglected to
look: in cultivating enlightenment — the highest expression of our full potential
— on a widespread basis. The Supreme Awakening suggests that individual expe-
rience of higher states of consciousness — on a much larger scale than has been
possible in the past — is the basis of a breakthrough in creating a better world.
Drawing widely from world literature, Pearson offers examples of indi-
viduals who have experienced higher states of consciousness and, fortunately,
recorded these experiences. This collection is a magnificent accomplishment
in itself. We have read some of these passages before, and they have delighted
us — but also left us asking how, if at all, we might cultivate these experiences.
The book’s greater accomplishment is to provide an answer. Drawing
on the work of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Pearson explains convincingly that
higher states of consciousness are natural — indeed, should be the norm, not
the exception. We too can enjoy the experience of “the universal and sublime”
(Underhill), the “great nature in which we rest” (Emerson), through the sim-
ple, systematic, and reliable approach Maharishi has put forward.
And these experiences, in turn, can change the world from within. Let’s
give it a try.
— Robert Stowe, PhD, Executive Director, Harvard Environmental
Economics Program, Harvard Kennedy School

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LI T E R ATURE

“Of special interest to students of literature”

T he Supreme Awakening will be of special interest to students of literature

for the clarity and depth of its examination of sublime experiences in
world literature. It begins with a detailed presentation of principles grounded
in the latest scientific research on advanced cognitive states. It goes on to
provide close readings of some of the most profound expressions of human
thought and feeling, ranging from ancient Eastern and Western texts to
the writings of Renaissance Neo-Platonists, English Romantics, American
Transcendentalists, and others. It makes literary works such as Wordsworth’s
“Tintern Abbey” — generally thought of as “mystical” and obscure — transpar-
ent and immediate.
Dr. Pearson notably gives valuable insight into techniques now read-
ily available that will raise anyone to the same level of exalted experiences of
a Wordsworth or a Whitman and which engender the heights of creativ-
ity. Reading the book is an elevating experience in itself and is bound to be a
source of inspiration for writers of any genre. One feels one is getting to the
deep core of what it is possible to experience, to know, and to express.
— J ames J. Balakier, PhD, Professor Emeritus, English Department,
University of South Dakota | Author of Thomas Traherne and the Felicities
of the Mind

R E LI G I O N

“Our generation stands on the threshold of an electrifying possibility”

I n his book The Supreme Awakening, Dr. Pearson has collated recorded evi-
dence of the heights of human awareness, gathered from every corner of the
world, and across a very broad expanse of many different civilizations. Were
this its only accomplishment, The Supreme Awakening already would be a very
significant achievement. However, Dr. Pearson also describes how, thanks to
the work of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, our generation stands on the threshold
of an electrifying possibility: that higher states of consciousness will become the
legitimate property of millions of people around the world.

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I have no doubt that when the experience of enlightenment becomes a

mass phenomenon, the highest dreams of the Biblical prophets for peace on
earth and good will among human beings will become a reality. As the prophet
Isaiah foresaw so many centuries ago (11:9), “They shall not hurt, nor shall
they destroy in all of my holy mountain. For the earth shall be filled with the
knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea.”
— Rabbi Alan Green, Senior Rabbi, Congregation Shaarey Zedek, Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada

“Guiding us through the variegated history of human awakening”

W e should be deeply grateful to Craig Pearson for guiding us through

the variegated history of human awakening, spanning East and West,
from ancient times to today. He describes clearly how so many deep souls have
discovered profound states of higher consciousness. But more importantly, he
stimulates us to follow in their path and to experience bliss in our own lives.
— Daniel Matt, former Professor of Jewish Mysticism, Graduate Theological
Union, Berkeley | Author of The Essential Kabbalah, God and the Big Bang,
and the multi-volume annotated translation The Zohar: Pritzker Edition

“An invitation to ‘dive deep’ ”

T he Supreme Awakening illustrates the potential for unity in the experience

of transcendence. It shows how people from many cultures and time peri-
ods have described this powerful human experience — and how people of vari-
ous faiths and philosophies can discover and embrace it — the foundation that
leads to enlightenment.
As a person of faith, my teacher, Jesus Christ, teaches me to find the
Spirit at work within me, to cultivate that Spirit, and to listen to its voice — in
the stillness and in the quiet. I find that place through prayer and meditation.
Surrendering to “that of God within each of us” leads to authentic and transpar-
ent living — removing all extraneous distractions, aligning ourselves with the
Divine, and opening the vastness of possibilities inherent in human potential.
The practice of Transcendental Meditation leads us to the quiet place
where enlightenment might be encountered and where our full potential might
begin to reveal itself.

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Readers will find comfort and encouragement in what this book has
gathered from the various faith traditions, schools of thought, world philoso-
phies, and of course from Maharishi. It shows the path from transcendence to
enlightenment. I am grateful for this effort and insight.
The Supreme Awakening is an invitation to “dive deep” through meditation,
find the unity that can hold us all together, unlock our full potential, and bring
about the harmony of minds for which we all hope.
— Rev. Jonathan D. Hutchison, Senior Pastor, First United Methodist
Church, De Kalb, Illinois

“An inspirational resource for years to come”

F or over fifty years, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s magisterial teachings on the

seven states of consciousness have provided the indispensable map for mil-
lions of meditators throughout the world in their quest for higher conscious-
ness. In this richly developed presentation, Craig Pearson carefully elucidates
the cognitive structure, physiological correlates, and essential features of each
of these states, and details their enormous implications for human health and
spiritual growth.
To illustrate the perennial character of these states this book also provides
a fascinating compendium of reports of expanded awareness from philosophers
and saints, athletes and artists, scientists and poets — together testifying to
the transformative impact of these experiences throughout human history. For
seekers of every background this book will provide an inspirational resource for
years to come.
— Alan D. Hodder, PhD, Professor of Comparative Religion, Hampshire
College | Author of Thoreau’s Ecstatic Witness and Emerson’s Rhetoric of
Revelation

PHI LOSOPHY

“Fulfills the seeking that drives philosophy as well as poetry, religion, science,
and human search for the ultimate”

C raig Pearson’s book, The Supreme Awakening, gives strong support that
what is commonly called “mysticism” is fully compatible with science and

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is an essential part of human mental and physiological nature. Drawing on the

work of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, he clearly explains the meaning and signifi-
cance of enlightenment and higher states of consciousness.
One of the book’s highlights is the anthology of great writers describing
their personal experiences of enlightenment. We read their accounts in a man-
ner that goes well beyond their words to the meaning they were capturing in
these words — and then past the words and meaning to the gates that open to
a world of light, silence, and wisdom. Pearson brings us an abundance of pro-
found descriptions, helping us understand this material and even awaken our
consciousness to the point that we ourselves can become capable of experienc-
ing higher states of consciousness.
Complete knowledge requires both intellectual understanding and direct
experience. The wonderful thing about Pearson’s book is that he gives us
knowledge and then takes us to the techniques that show us how to gain the
corresponding experience and make this complete knowledge a living part of
who we are. Pearson gives an excellent presentation of the Transcendental
Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s technologies
for developing higher states of consciousness. He shows how these meditation
techniques have a solid foundation in strong scientific research and how higher
states of consciousness are measurable and attainable by anyone.
A book on these topics needs the most refined language to express them
adequately. Craig Pearson uses language at this level, language that comes
so close to silence that it is about to transcend words themselves and take us
beyond ordinary life and experience to the most inner and personal worlds.
Here is a book that fulfills the seeking that drives philosophy as well as
poetry, religion, science, and the human search for the ultimate. It offers much.
It leads far.
Having read The Supreme Awakening, you will be ready to gain the full
benefits of the Transcendental Meditation program and its advanced tech-
niques. Then simply continue moving forward and inward and enjoy living in
enlightenment.
— John H. Flodstrom, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy,
University of Louisville, Kentucky

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The Supreme Awakening

CONTENTS

CH APTER 1
Moments of Awakening............................................................................. 19

CH APTER 2
Reviving an Ancient Tradition of Human Development........................... 25

CH APTER 3
The Seven States of Consciousness............................................................ 38

CH APTER 4
The Fourth State — Transcendental Consciousness:
Pure Consciousness Awake to Its Own Unbounded Nature...................... 44
n Glimpses of Transcendental Consciousness................................... 56

CH AP T ER 5
The Fifth State — Cosmic Consciousness:
Unbounded Awareness as a Permanent Reality....................................... 170
n Glimpses of Cosmic Consciousness............................................. 188

CH AP T ER 6
The Sixth State — God Consciousness:
Perceiving Nature’s Celestial Glories................................................................ 254
n Glimpses of God Consciousness.................................................. 271

CH AP T ER 7
The Seventh State — Unity Consciousness:
All Experience in Terms of the Unbounded Self..................................... 315
n Glimpses of Unity Consciousness................................................ 328

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 CONTENTS

CH APTER 8
A Technique for Transcending —
Systematically Cultivating Higher States of Consciousness.......................... 391

CH APTER 9
Meditation in the Laboratory: Modern Science Measures
the Growth of Enlightenment....................................................................... 399

CH APTER 10
Is Pure Consciousness the Unified Field?...................................................... 431

CH APTER 11
The Future of the World Is Bright................................................................ 449

Notes........................................................................................................ 456

References...................................................................................................... 459

Acknowledgments.......................................................................................... 501

For further information...................................................................................511

Index................................................................................................................512

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18
 CHAPTER 1

Moments of Awakening
“To be awake is to be alive.”
—  Henry David Thoreau

“Compared with what we ought to be,

we are only half awake.”
—  William James

O
n a fresh morning in early July, a 28-year-old man sets out on
foot from his home on the southwest coast of England. A writer, he
loves walk­ing, traversing the countryside for days at a time. On this
ex­cur­sion, he and his sister are heading up the scenic Wye River Valley, just
across the border in Wales, with its many low, forest-blanketed hills.
When they enter the valley, they climb the banks of the river. A few miles
below, beside the river, they can see the ruins of Tintern Abbey, built five cen-
turies earlier, now a stone latticework open to wind and sky. As his sister walks
ahead, he sits down on the grass among the trees and closes his eyes.
Then the experience comes. He has had it before — and it’s the experi-
ence he lives for. Had his sister seen him, she might have thought he was just
resting. Deep within, however, he feels something chang­ing. He settles into a

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state of inner quietness, beyond thought, beyond feeling — simple, natural, yet
profound. In a few minutes, it’s over. He opens his eyes, stands up, and walks
back down the hill, resuming his tour.
As he crosses the river, words begin taking shape in his mind. The words
keep coming until he returns home several days later. There he finally has a
chance to set the words down on pa­per — a poem, nearly 160 lines. He does
not change a single one. “No poem of mine,” he com­ment­s lat­er, “was com­
posed under circumstances more pleasant for me to remember than this.”1 In
the poem he de­scribes:

T hat blessed mood,

In which the burthen of the mystery,
In which the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world,
Is lightened: — that serene and blessed mood,
In which the affections gently lead us on  —
Until, the breath of this corporeal frame
And even the motion of our human blood
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul;
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.2

The young man is William Wordsworth. The year is 1798. His poem,
“Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Ab­bey,” was published later
that same year in Lyrical Ballads, which also included several poems by his
friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge — and which launched the English Romantic
movement in literature, altering the course of English literature and poetry.
Wordsworth’s experience lasted only a few minutes, but his words have
been admired for two centuries. What was he experiencing?
His description is re­markable for its exactness. He settles into a state of
increasing tranquility. The “weary weight” of the “unintelligible world” grows

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lighter and eventually fades away. Describing the unique condition of his body,
he tells us he feels deeply rested. His breath and even his blood flow seem
“almost suspended,” and he feels as if “laid asleep in body.”
But is he asleep? On the contrary, he seems more awake than ever. He
feels he has “become a living soul” — as though in his prior state he had not
been fully alive. From this deep level he is able to “see into the life of things.”
Clearly this is more than a moment of relaxation — it is a unique mode of
knowl­edge. From deep within, he experiences “harmony, and the deep power
of joy.” In all, he feels “blessed.”
Wordsworth was known to be of good health and sound mind, not given
to far-out fancy. By every in­dication, he is trying to describe a concrete ex­pe­
ri­ence as precisely as he can. His body is deeply relaxed, his mind profoundly
settled and awake within itself.
This was not an isolated experience for Wordsworth. He had many such
moments. They affected him powerfully. He found them physically and men-
tally revitalizing and believed they helped make him the great poet he was.
And he celebrates them everywhere in his poetry, to the extent that the term
Wordsworthian experi­ence is sometimes used to refer to ex­pe­ri­ences of this type.
Yet Wordsworth speaks of we, us, and our, imply­ing this is a universal
experience, one for all hu­man­i­ty. Indeed, he offers us an excellent de­scrip­tion
of a whole category of experience that peo­ple have reported throughout his-
tory and around the world. Wordsworth seems to have experienced a state of
consciousness that is sim­ple and natural yet uniquely dif­fer­ent from the familiar
states of waking, dreaming, and sleep­ing.
And though he may not have been aware of it, this state forms the portal
to still higher states of consciousness — higher modes of knowledge, power,
and fulfillment. Wordsworth describes for us the gateway into those higher
worlds.
“Tintern Abbey” has appeared in countless anthologies. It has been
re­quired read­ing in college classes decade after decade. These lines in par­ticular
have been singled out in numberless essays. Yet few readers have suspected
what Wordsworth is really describing.

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What is this experience like?

We can locate first-hand de­scrip­tions of this experience in the writings of people
through history. Here are some of the qualities they ascribe to these moments:

Inner expansion, clarity, and wakefulness

These experiences involve expansion of awareness and extraordinary inner
lucidity. More than 2,500 years ago, Laozi wrote that in this state, one’s mind
“becomes as vast and immeasurable as the night sky.”3
Henry David Thoreau describes moments when “we become like a
still lake of purest crystal,” moments of “se­rene and un­ques­tion­able wis­
dom.”  Alfred, Lord Tennyson describes experiencing a “state of transcendent
wonder, as­so­ci­at­ed with absolute clearness of mind.” During the past century,
Thomas Merton, the American writer and Trappist monk, describes moments
during which “our soul sud­denly awakens us to a new level of awareness,” mak­
ing the ordi­nary waking state seem “like sleep” in com­par­i­son. French play-
wright Eugene Iones­co describes similar experiences, con­clud­ing, “It is as if
we lived in a profound lethargy. We wake up for a few moments from time to
time, then we sink into emp­ty sleep again.”

Happiness and bliss

This experience brings an infusion of happiness, joy, and bliss. Angela of
Foligno, the 13th-century Italian author, writes, “My soul was in unutterable
joy.” The Canadian novelist Lucy Maud Montgomery describes feeling “so
happy that her happiness seemed to irradiate the world with its own splendor.”
Clare Booth Luce, the American writer, Congresswoman, and ambassador,
describes how “joy abounded in all of me. Or rather, I abounded in joy.” Czech
Republic president Vaclav Havel’s experiences brought him “supreme bliss” and
“infinite joy.”

Experience of underlying reality

Along with this joy often comes a sense of profound knowl­edge, of direct
perception of underlying reality, ordinarily inaccessible. Writes Laozi, “One
finds the anchor of the universe within himself.” The novelist Arthur Koestler
writes, “Its primary mark is the sensation that this state is more real than any

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other one has experienced before — that for the first time the veil has fallen
and one is in touch with ‘real reality,’ the hidden order of things.”

The experience of the divine

A number of writers describe this underlying reality as divine. When one expe-
riences this reality, writes the Chinese sage Zhuangzi, “His life is the working
of Heaven” and he “mingles with the Heavenly Order.” Plato writes that in
this state “the soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and immortal,” adding,
“This state of the soul is called wisdom.” Ralph Waldo Emerson describes these
moments as “an influx of the Divine mind into our mind.” Walt Whitman
declares that we “reach the divine levels, and commune with the unutter­able.”

A feeling of naturalness and familiarity

Extraordinary though these experiences are, at the same time they are utterly
natural. One feels one has “come home.” Thomas Merton writes,

We enter a region which we had never even sus­pect­ed, and yet it is

this new world which seems familiar and obvious. . . . You seem to be
the same person and you are the same person that you have always been:
in fact you are more yourself than you have ever been before. You have
only just begun to exist. You feel as if you were at last fully born.4

Eugene Ionesco expresses it like this: “I suddenly entered the heart of a

reality so blindingly ob­vi­ous, so total, so en­light­en­ing, so luminous, that I won­
dered how I had nev­er before realized how easy this reality was to find and how
easily I found myself in it.” The English writer Rita Carter says, “All my expe-
rience up until now had been in some sense unreal,” adding, “It all felt entirely
natural.”

The moment of a lifetime

Those fortunate enough to have such an experience rever­ence it as the supreme
moment of their lives, the touch­stone by which all other experience is evalu-
ated. The English writer Edward Car­pen­ter observes, “The fact of its having
come even once to a man has completely revolutionized his subsequent life and
outlook on the world.”

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 T H E S U P R E M E AWA K E N I N G

More than this, many people declare that only such ex­pe­ri­ence de­serves
to be called life. “For the first time, we ex­ist,” writes Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Tennyson regarded this experience as “the only true life.” American writer
Franklin Merrell-Wolff says, “It gives a feeling of being alive, beside which the
or­di­nary feeling of life is no more than a mere shadow.”

We find descriptions of these experiences in the writings of scientists and

artists, writ­ers and composers, monks and explorers, phil­osophers and ath-
letes — in autobiographies and journals, poems and let­ters, lec­tures and novels.
These moments are described in strikingly similar terms by people from differ-
ent times, dif­fer­ent cultures, different religions. As Edward Carpenter puts it:

Of the existence of this [type of experience] there is evidence all down

History; and witnesses, far removed from each other in time and space
and race and language, and perfectly unaware of each other’s utterances,
agree so remarkably in their testimony, that there is left no doubt that the
experience is as much a mat­ter of fact as any other human experience.5

Where is the button?

On one hand, we have a class of experiences that ap­pears uni­ver­sal. It has been
described by people through­out his­tory, through­out the world. The people
who have had these ex­periences, more­over, hold them in the highest regard.
Ionesco, sensing the enormous potential of these moments, writes:

The interior mechanism that can set off this state of super­normal
wakefulness that could set the world ablaze, that could transfigure it,
illuminate it, is able to function in the simplest, most natural way. All
one need do is press a button. Only it is not easy to find this button; we
fumble about for it in the shad­ows.6

On the other hand, these experiences appear by most re­ports to be rare,

fleeting, and unpredictable. Evidently few who de­scribe such expe­riences could
de­lib­er­ate­ly induce them. If the experience is so simple, natural, and valu­able,
why can’t we have it at will? Is there some way to elicit it — where is the but-
ton? And what is its larger significance?

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