Beneath the absorbing influence of the universe that envelops us, beneath the personalizing activity of successful human achievement and the centrifugal effect of sorrow—something that is unique in essence can be distinguished, and we feel an urge to transport ourselves into it.
There develops in souls that have an unusual capacity for this special intuition a specifically characteristic psychic state—‘cosmic consciousness’.
For a mind that is in this state of cosmic consciousness, the basis of things tends to predominate over the detail and to obliterate the plurality of beings. It appears to such a mind that concrete Being itself becomes individualized and takes on consistence, beneath the experiential Multiple. The shimmer of a sort of precious fabric can be distinguished beneath the accidental determinations of existence.
Cosmic consciousness is often born, and periodically comes to life again, in crises when the mind is gripped by an extremely vivid feeling of presence.