Presence
More real to me than any thought or thing or person
Historical account — 1902
VBG Archives·Cambridge, US
presenceeverydayhomejoy
Modern language summary…
A forty-nine-year-old man described God not as a belief he held but as the most real presence in his life -- felt in weather, in work, in daily trouble. He talked to God like a companion and said answers came back, sometimes so distinctly it seemed his ears must have heard them, more often as strong impressions. Not a dramatic story: a portrait of what a lifelong, everyday sense of presence looks like from the inside. (Location not recorded; account collected by Edwin Starbuck and published by William James, Harvard, 1902.)
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"God is more real to me than any thought or thing or person. I feel his presence positively, and the more as I live in closer harmony with his laws as written in my body and mind. I feel him in the sunshine or rain; and awe mingled with a delicious restfulness most nearly describes my feelings. I talk to him as to a companion in prayer and praise, and our communion is delightful. He answers me again and again, often in words so clearly spoken that it seems my outer ear must have carried the tone, but generally in strong mental impressions... That he is mine and I am his never leaves me, it is an abiding joy. Without it life would be a blank, a desert, a shoreless, trackless waste."
Source: William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), Lecture III. Public domain. View source