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REVELATIONS AND INSIGHTS
Susan Love Brown (SL_BROWN@ACC.FAU.EDU)
Thu, 13 Jan 1994 10:53:00 EDT
For anyone who has ever had a mystical experience, such as yoga can
induce, a "revelation" feels different from an "insight." However, my
one "revelation" was induced by a normal process of thought in an
effort to solve an intellectual problem. Informants later told me
that this process of thought paralleled the technique of jnana yoga,
which is meant to lead to revelation. After that, I realized that it
was probably part of a mental process taken to an endpoint. The
"revelation" was the payoff. The universe and its nature was
literally revealed to me. The feeling was profound.
"Insights," on the other hand happen with greater frequency and seem
to be the result of the brain's ability to put together information on
a subconscious level and then present it to the consciousness. Since
we are unaware of the process going on, it takes us by surprise.
"Revelations" are experientially grander.
I think the human brain is capable of so much that we don't
understand, but which different peoples discover in different ways.
When we mystify the phenomenon that we call "revelation," we merely
put off a genuine understanding of it.
Susan Love Brown
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