properties of the sun,
invite comparison. Then the parallel light = consciousness. [Also that
higher or other consciousness that is mediated by the mystic religious
work; for which expressions like illuminate, etc., are sufficiently
significant. On this topic see my essay, Phant. u. Myth. (Jb., II, p.
597).] and also inner reasons, i.e., such as rest upon the actual light
and warmth sensations, which occur, as literature and observations show,
in persons who are devoted to spiritual training. Here the occasion may be
offered to the mystic to utilize for conscious life and action, functions
that hitherto had been unconscious. Of the appearance of light in the
state of introversion, the histories of saints and ecstatics, and the
autobiographies of this kind of men are full. An enormous number of
instances might be given. I shall rest content with recalling that
Mechthildis von Magdeburg has entitled her revelations: "A flowing Light
of my Godhead" ("Ein vliessend Lieht miner Gotheit"), and with adding Jane
Leade's words: "If any one asks what is the magic power [sought by the
reborn] I answer, 'It is to be compared to a wonderfully powerful
inspiration to the soul, to a blood, coloring and penetrating and
transmuting the inner life, a concentrating and essentially creative light
and fire flame.' "

The Omphalopsychites or Hesychiasts, those monks who dwelt in the Middle
Ages on Mount Athos, were given the following instructions by their Abbot
Simeon: "Sitting alone in private, note and do what I say. Close thy doors
and raise thy spirit from vain and temporal things. Then rest thy beard on
the breast and direct the gaze with all thy soul on the middle of the body
at the navel. [See Note G.] Contract the air passages so as not to breathe
too easily. Endeavor inwardly to find the location of the heart, where all
psychic powers reside. At first thou wilt find darkness and inflexible
density. When, however, thou perseverest day and night, thou wilt,
wonderful to relate, enjoy inexpressible rapture. For then the spirit sees
what it never has recognized; it sees the air between the heart and itself
radiantly beaming." This light, the hermits declare, is the light of God
that was visible to the young men on Tabor.

Yoga-Sutra (Patanyali, I, 36) says: "Or that sorrowless condition of mind,
full of light (would conduce to samadhi)." And the commentator Manilal
Nabubhai Dvivedi remarks upon this: "The light here referred to is the