Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a Bengali author, poet, essayist, playwright, novelist, composer, and painter. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, the first non-European to do so. He recounted the following experience that he had while in Calcutta, India.
Morgan Freeman recently recounted a personal experience he once had many years ago that recalls Joseph Smith's First Vision. This was part of an episode of National Geographic's television documentary series The Story of God.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a Catholic writer, theologian, Trappist monk, and mystic. The following is from his book New Seeds of Contemplation, describing his experiences in contemplation...
I shared this account in my introductory paper about mysticism, but I think it should be shared as a stand-alone post as well. This is because it is so stunningly similar in many respects to Joseph Smith's accounts of the First Vision.
I've now posted eighteen "First Vision" accounts here on ThyMindOMan.com. There are many more coming. I thought I'd take a moment to share some comments about them as a whole.
Bill Wilson, the cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), had a spiritual awakening that involved bright light, sometimes referred to as his “hot flash” or “white light transformation.”
There is an experience which grows in the soul out of the soul itself, without contact and without restraint, in naked oneness. It comes into being and completes itself beyond the commotion, free of the other, inaccessible to the other. It needs no nourishment, and no poison can touch it. The soul which stands in it stands in itself, has itself, experiences itself - boundlessly.
Crystal clear, sharp and bright, my mind has no opening for evil to roost. The morning sun shines in, My mind, too, is clear and bright;
A divine light is directed on me, penetrating this glow in which I am contained...
Though he has no form my eyes saw him, his glory is fire in my mind that knows