Oldal 164 [164]
K6vi—FoGARASsy—MIRNICS—MERSDORF—VASS
“an increasing interest in (re)connecting with nature,” backed by the intuitive
understanding of the need for this kind of relationship. The participants’
narratives provided fine examples of this intuitive understanding.
Also, some remarkable examples of spiritual experiences can be found in
the English literature of mysticism. In a review of examples from literature,
Caroline Spurgeon” stated that “transcendental feeling,” “imagination,”
“mystic reason,” “cosmic consciousness,” “divine sagacity,” “ecstasy,” and
“vision” referred to the same or related experiential phenomenon. She
suggested that all mystic writers depicted a feeling of unity as a result of
contact with nature (see the quote from Blake below).” Also, in some mystic
poems, Nature is portrayed as a source of divinity (like in the Wordsworth
poem below);”* and it is suggested by others (see the quote from Bronté)** that
Nature may be the key to an understanding of the universe.
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
William Blake: Fragments from “Auguries of Innocence”
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.
William Wordsworth: “Lines Written in Early Spring”
What have those lonely mountains worth revealing?
More glory and more grief than I can tell:
The earth that wakes one human heart to feeling
Can centre both the worlds of Heaven and Hell.
»
Emily Brontë: “Stanzas
Based on the earlier secondary literature, our study investigated whether
exposure to various nature experiences (hill climbing and cave tours) can
prompt spiritual experiences. We also wanted to gain more insight into
the main factors of these spiritual experiences (e.g. the effects of different
settings).
2?! Caroline F. E. Spurgeon, Mysticism in English literature, Cambridge University Press, 1913,
reissued 2011, 9.
” Edwin J. Ellis and William B. Yeats, The Works of William Blake, Poetic, Symbolic, and
Critical, Three vols., London, Bernard Quaritch, 1893.
® Lynne McMahon and Averill Curdy, The Longman Anthology of Poetry. New York, Pearson/
Longman, 2006.
4 Emily Bronté (1818-1848). Complete Poems, ed. Shorter, Hodder and Stoughton, 1910.
The Three Brontés, by May Sinclair, Hutchinson, 1912.
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