iousness--a subject that seemed to him at that time to be a new
one--in the following words:

"But of infinitely more importance than telepathy, and so-called
spiritualism--no matter what explanation we give of these, or what their
future is destined to be--is the final act here touched upon. This is, that
superimposed upon self-consciousness as is that faculty upon simple
consciousness, a third and higher form of consciousness is at present
making its appearance in our race. This higher form of consciousness, when
it appears, occurs as it must, at the full maturity of the individual, at
or about the age of thirty-five, but almost always between the ages of
thirty and forty. There have been occasional cases of it for the last two
thousand years, and it is becoming more and more common. In fact, in all
appearances, as far as observed, it obeys the laws to which every nascent
faculty is subject. Many more or less perfect examples of this new faculty
exist in the world to-day, and it has been my privilege to know personally
and to have had the opportunity of studying, several men and women who have
possessed it. In the course of a few more milleniums there should be born
from the present human race, a higher type of man, possessing this higher
type of consciousness. This new race, as it may well be called, would
occupy toward us, a position such as that occupied by us toward the simple
conscious 'alulus homo.' The advent of this higher, better and happier
race, would simply justify the long agony of its birth through countless
ages of our past. And it is the first article of my belief, some of the
grounds for which I have endeavored to lay before you, that a new race is
in course of evolution."

At a subsequent date, having given the subject further consideration and
having collected data corroborative of his former observations, Dr. Bucke
said:

"I have, in the last three years, collected twenty-three cases of this
so-called cosmic consciousness. In each case the onset or incoming of the
new faculty is always sudden, instantaneous. Among the unusual feelings the
mind experiences, is a sudden sense of being immersed in flame or in a
brilliant light. This occurs entirely without worrying or outward cause,
and may happen at noonday or in the middle of the night, and the person at
first feels that he is becoming insane.

"Along with these feelings comes a sense of immortality; not merely a
feeling of certainty that there i