H-Warner-Allen

Mystical Experience of H. Warner Allen

H. Warner Allen (1881 – 1968) was a British journalist, editor, and writer covering topics ranging from wine to spirituality.  During WWI, he was a special correspondent for The Morning Post and Daily News.  Allen’s works included his mystical trilogy:  The Timeless Moment (1946), The Happy Issue (1948), and The Uncurtained Throne (1952).

Allen described his mystical experience, which occurred while he had closed his eyes at a concert, as follows:

“Rapt in Beethoven’s music, I closed my eyes and watched a silver glow which shaped itself into a circle with a central focus brighter than the rest.  The circle became a tunnel of light proceeding from some distant sun in the heart of the Self.  Swiftly and smoothly I was borne through the tunnel and as I went the light turned from silver to gold.  There was an impression of drawing strength from a limitless sea of power and a sense of deepening peace.  The light grew brighter, but was never dazzling or alarming.  I came to a point where time and motion ceased.  In my recollection it took the shape of a flat-topped rock, surrounded by a summer sea, with a sandy pool at its foot.  The dream scene vanished and I am absorbed in the Light of the Universe, in Reality glowing like fire with the knowledge of itself, without ceasing to be one and myself, merged like a drop of quicksilver in the Whole, yet still separate as a grain of sand in the desert.  The peace that passes all understanding and the pulsating energy of creation are one in the centre in the midst of conditions where all opposites are reconciled.

Allen also described his illumination, or immediate reaction to the experience – a “wordless stream of complex feelings” – as follows:

“Something has happened to me – I am utterly amazed – can this be that?  (That being the answer to the riddle of life) – but it is too simple – I always knew it – it is remembering an old forgotten secret – like coming home – I am not “I”, not the “I” thought – there is no death – peace passing understanding – yet how unworthy I –“

Quoted by Paul Marshall in The Shape of the Soul from Allen’s book, The Timeless Moment.

Photo Credit:  H. Warner Allen from https://www.mediastorehouse.com.


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