Singular adoration (ICA)

This is experienced as a burning desire for the mystery; and with the awareness that one's whole life is one occasion after another of being overwhelmed by the mystery, one surrenders – utterly. The popular song "I don't know why I love you like I do", and the poetic line "And are we yet alive", seem to capture the significance of this state. There is an awareness that the object of affection is not one's conditional terms, but only that which has rendered one's terms impotent. With heartsick pain one declares that it is God alone one loves.

A dimension of this experience is a sense of awe, that is fear and fascination. The fear is of not knowing know what this will lead to; there is an estrangement from the world that leaves an individual wondering what could have been. And yet there is fascination with the fantastic nature of the event; he finds himself saying, "So this is what wonder and awe are really all about". A decision is made to abandon his own will to the mystery, which is followed by deep longing to maintain this state of being. He is alive in a new way to the possibilities and options before him.

This state is number 16 in the ICA Other World in the midst of this World.