Moments of Spiritual Awareness

"I will try to describe the experience as best I may, knowing that anything I can say will be quite inadequate. Many years before we were married, while I was an engineering student, we went for a walk into the hills. It was during this time that my companion manifested the symptoms of asthma. She has since said that she suffered during times of physical exertion, and during this expedition the symptoms were painful and extremely worrying to me. I had a feeling of despair and wondered what I would do. Even in those early days I was much attached to her, and to have to stand by and see her afflicted in this way drove me to desperation. We struggled on up the hill, and the next thing I noted was that the whole locality was illumined by an extraordinary, bright light. It was a cloudy and dull day and this extremely intense illumination did not appear to originate in any fixed centre, but was diffused equally throughout the entire terrain. Accompanying the light was the sense of the presence of an irresistible power wholly and utterly benevolent, and as far as I was concerned a feeling of complete happiness and well-being quite impossible to describe. The certainty of all-pervading and immutable love was so tremendous that I simply went on up the hill completely absorbed in this extraordinary experience and quite oblivious of the material surroundings. After an appreciable interval--I think a few minutes--the light gradually faded and I said to my companion, 'Did you see that?'