ABSTRACT
We have been so conditioned by our western religious heritage to expect the divine to appear in prescribed ways, such as the Judaeo-Christian forms, that we may not recognize novel or highly personal appearances. Within the traditional heritage, the tendency has been to receive the sacred by means of a prescribed text, sacrament or ritual. But in fact the numinosum may take forms that are not necessarily orthodox or traditional. Therefore it is first necessary to discuss the quality of its appearance so that it may be recognized for what it is when it appears in an unexpected manner. Then, in situations where its meaning is not clear, we also need a method of amplification or interpretation that will allow us to appreciate the sacredness of the experience while at the same time linking it to the rest of the subject’s psychological life. Our approach must discern the connections between the particular form that the numinosum takes, the developmental history of the person and the future course of the personality. Finally, there must be no reduction of numinous experience by attributing it to some simple intrapsychic mechanism, such as a defence, that belies its transpersonal origin.
