Irreplaceable uniqueness (ICA)

This is being surprised by the reality of one's own existence and the recognition that one's existence could never happen again; when one wishes one could be someone else and finds one cannot escape. It may be compared to the experience described by Dag Hammarskjöld in the book "Markings", when he says that the "way chose you".

In the ICA New Religious Mode in the arena of standing present to the mystery of being in life (the life of contemplation) the fourth formal aspect is the experience of dreadful in-myself-ness or of depth. At the second phenomenological level this occurs when a person's being trapped reveals that he is forever bound to the mystery of life.