- Posts: 6
- Joined: 18 Mar 2013
There's a discussion elsewhere here that goes into this subject deeply, I forget the topic title.
Essentially, there is a lot of "investment" of belief, wanting to view it in a particular way rather than (ironically) as a detached observer.
When any believer goes on their pilgrimage, say, to a place with holy shrine or holy water, many of them, possibly the majority, will put effort into creating a state of mind full of all their associations, memories, hopes, expectations, to create their very personal sense of holiness and spirituality. They will experience that time and place accordingly, with that consciousness. A non-believer observing may feel nothing much, or may pick up on the atmosphere created, feel a resonance, but it will be a different experience because its not filled with the "backgrounding" the believer has.
"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 circa 1800's
It's a poetic/spiritual state of mind people can have when they know how to "look" or "see" in a certain way... Others need external triggers of certain phrases, symbols, stories to evoke that state.