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Experiential narrative
Autobiographical mystical experience, first printed as 'The Search' about two years before this lecture: meditating at sea on the perfect state ('of too pure eyes to behold iniquity'), Neville felt himself a being of fire in a body of air, heard a heavenly chorus sing 'He is risen' and knew it meant him, came upon a Pool-of-Bethesda multitude of impotent folk waiting for him, and saw them molded perfect without thought or effort as he passed; the chorus exulted 'It is finished'. Told to show that perfection comes only by transforming oneself.
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I felt myself a being of fire dwelling in a body of air
were singing, “He is risen -He is risen,” and intuitively I knew they meant me
a great multitude of impotent folk — blind, halt, withered -waiting not for the moving of the water as of tradition, but waiting for me
When all were made perfect the chorus exulted, “It is finished.”
printed by me two years ago under the title, THE SEARCH
my meditations invariably bring about union with the state contemplated