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Numinous Quotes

Browse 32 quotes about Numinous.

Numinous Quotes

“There seem, in fact, to be only two views we can hold about awe. Either it is a mere twist in the human mind, corresponding to nothing objective and serving no biological function, yet showing no tendency to disappear from that mind at its fullest development in poet, philosopher, or saint: or else it is a direct experience of the really supernatural, to which the name Revelation might properly be given.”

GodAweRevelationNuminous
Book:The Problem of Pain
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“You can't expect anyone to trust revelation if he hasn't experienced it himself. Those who haven't only know reason. And since revelation is a thing apart, and cannot be accounted for reasonably, they never will believe you. This is the great division of the world and always has been. When reason and revelation run together, why, then you have something great, a great age.”

WisdomSpiritualKnowledgeEnlightenmentSolaceNuminousSeek And You Shall Find
Book:Winter's Tale
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“The transcendent and the numinous can be accessible to the most materialistic of scientists, without positing the supernatural. At the same time, there is no reason to mistrust the same experiences in believers simply because they posit a supernatural source. The question is not, "Does God exist?" It's irrelevant. The question is whether believers and nonbelievers can rejoice in the same experiences and not denigrate the other's explanation as to the origins of very powerful human responses.”

HumansDoeReasonPowerfulSourceScientistUnityResponseBelieverExplanationNo ReasonRejoiceIrrelevantVery PowerfulMaterialisticTranscendentMistrustGod ExistsNuminous
Author:Norman Cota
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“We know how to think. We know how to laugh. We know we're going to die, which gives us a lot to think about, and we have a need for, what I would call, "the transcendent" or "the numinous" or even "the ecstatic" that comes out in love and music, poetry, and landscape. I wouldn't trust anyone who didn't respond to things of that sort.”

ThinkingKnowsNeedsGivingDiesLaughingKnow HowLandscapeTranscendentEcstaticMusic And LoveNuminous
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“As soon as the dialogue between two people touches on something fundamental, essential, numinous, and a certain rapport is felt, it gives rise to a phenomenon which Lévy-Bruhl fittingly called participation mystique. It is an unconscious identity in which two individual psychic spheres interpenetrate to such a degree that it is impossible to say what belongs to whom.”

PeopleGivingTwoCertainIndividualFeltImpossibleIdentityEssentialsDegreesFundamentalsDialogueUnconsciousPhenomenonSpheresParticipationPsychicsMystiqueRapportNuminous
Book:Civilization in transition
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“The main interest of my work is not concerned with the treatment of neuroses but rather with the approach to the numinous. But the fact that the approach to the numinous is the real therapy, and inasmuch as you attain to the numinous experience you are released from the curse of pathology. Even the very disease takes on a numinous character.”

RealCharacterFactsInterestDiseaseApproachConcernedTherapyCurseTreatmentNeurosisPathologyNuminous
Book:Letters
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“We are nothing but the product of billions of years of molecules coming together and ratcheting up through natural selection, we are composed only of highways of fluids and chemicals sliding along roadways within billions of dancing cells, trillions of synaptic conversations hum in parallel, this vast egglike fabric of micron-thin circuitry runs algorithms undreamt of in modern science, and these neural programs give rise to our decision making, loves, desires, fears, and aspirations. That understanding would be a numinous experience, better than anything ever proposed in anyone's holy text.”

GivingYearsWould BeRunningTogetherDesireUnderstandingNaturalDecisionModernProductsHolyConversationProgramDancingBillionsCellsAspirationDecision MakingChemicalsFabricMaking LoveSelectionHighwaysParallelsFluidMoleculesNatural SelectionModern ScienceComing TogetherAlgorithmsNuminous
Author:David Eagleman
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“Charisma is the numinous aura around a narcissistic personality. It flows outward from a simplicity or unity of being and a composure and controlled vitality. There is gracious accommodation, yet commanding impersonality. Charisma is the radiance produced by the interaction of male and female elements in a gifted personality. The charismatic woman has a masculine force and severity. The charismatic man has an entrancing female beauty. Both are hot and cold, glowing with presexual self love.”

MenSelfForceColdPersonalitySelf LoveElementsFemaleFlowHotUnityMalesSimplicityControlledInteractionGiftedMasculineVitalityGraciousNarcissisticGlowingCharismaRadianceAurasCharismaticSeverityAccommodationsComposureFemale BeautyNuminousHot And ColdImpersonality
Author:Camille Paglia
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“While archetypes may emanate through us for short periods of time, in what we call numinous experience, no woman can emanate an archetype continuously. Only the archetype itself can withstand such projections such as ever-able, all giving, eternally energetic. We may try to emulate these, but they are ideals, not achievable by humans, and not meant to be. Yet the trap requires that women exhaust themselves trying to achieve these unrealistic levels. To avoid the trap, one has to learn to say 'Halt' and 'Stop the music,' and of course mean it.”

GivingTryingHumansMayMeanAbleCoursesLevelsAchievePeriodsIdealsMeant To BeTrapsProjectionEnergeticHaltEmulateArchetypeEmanateNuminous
Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
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“The fragility of love is what is most at stake here—humanity's most crucial three-word avowal is often uttered only to find itself suddenly embarrassing or orphaned or isolated or ill-timed—but strangely enough it can work better as a literal or reassuring statement than a transcendent or numinous or ecstatic one.”

EnoughHumanityThreeLove IsIllStatementsCrucialStakesIsolatedEmbarrassingEmbarrassmentLiteralTranscendentEcstaticFragilityReassuringThree WordsNuminous
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“The years... when I pursued the inner images were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this. It began at that time, and the later details hardly matter anymore. My entire life consisted in elaborating what had burst forth from the unconscious and flooded me like an enigmatic stream and threatened to break me. That was the stuff and material for more than only one life. Everything later was merely the outer classification, the scientific elaboration, and the integration into life. But the numinous beginning, which contained everything was then.”

YearsImportantMatterStuffBreakMaterialsDetailsStreamsUnconsciousThreatenedIntegrationPursuedMemories Dreams ReflectionsClassificationTime Of My LifeEnigmaticNuminous
Author:Carl Jung
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“Every being has its own interior, its self, its mystery, its numinous aspect. To deprive any being of this sacred quality is to disrupt the total order of the universe. Reverence will be total or it will not be at all. The universe does not come to us in pieces any more than a human individual stands before us with some part of his/her being.”

HumansDoeSelfOrderUniverseIndividualQualityPiecesMysteryCreationIntegrityAspectSacredReverenceInteriorsNuminous
Author:Thomas Berry
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“Both education and religion need to ground themselves within the story of the universe as we now understand this story through empirical knowledge. Within this functional cosmology, we can overcome our alienation and begin the renewal of life on a sustainable basis. This story is a numinous revelatory story that could evoke the vision and the energy required to bring not only ourselves but the entire planet into a new order of magnificence.”

LifeNeedsStoriesReligionOrderUniverseEnergyVisionPlanetsOvercomingBasesRenewalAlienationEvokeCosmologyMagnificenceNuminousRenewal Of Life
Author:Thomas Berry
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“I was fascinated that one could have such perceptual changes, and also that they went with a certain feeling of significance, an almost numinous feeling. I'm strongly atheist by disposition, but nonetheless when this happened, I couldn't help thinking, 'That must be what the hand of God is like.'”

ThinkingHelpingFeelingsHandsCertainHappenedAtheistSignificanceWeedFascinatedMarijuanaDispositionHands Of GodMedical MarijuanaFunny MarijuanaFunny WeedNuminous
Author:Oliver Sacks
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“Human language has a vocabulary suited to our daily needs and functions: the shape of any human language maps approximately to the needs and activities of our mundane lives. But few would deny that there is another dimension of human existence which transcends the mundane: call it the soul, the spirit: it is that part of the human frame which sees the shimmer of the numinous.”

NeedsHumansSoulSpiritLanguageExistenceMediaCommunicationActivityShapesFunctionDenyDimensionsMapsVocabularyMundaneHuman ExistenceHuman LanguageShimmerMundane LifeNuminous
Author:Julian Burnside
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