Rapture Alive - J N H Perkins

Three stages of psychological development are explained and clearly demonstrated in this retelling of the medieval tale of Perceval and his search for the Holy Grail. First comes an innocent child's spontaneous and imaginative enthusiasm, a word that means to be filled with God. Second is the period when a young man or woman strives to become an educated and normal grown-up in order to achieve competent peer status in the surrounding culture. But this feat of success comes with strings attached. It requires the restraint of creative imagination and audacious curiosity. Such conformity to ideal standards gradually leads to a collective institutionalization of the human personality and thereby to the disenchantment of the world. Finally comes a third, fully mature stage, rarely achieved, though universally craved. This is a kind of grounded mystical experience-a recovering of the youthful awe and rapture experienced in stage one-yet within a stable adult awareness. Now a more conscious and enlightened innocence may be realized in consciousness; the excitement and the mystery of living are restored and the world once again becomes a land of enchantment-a Heaven on Earth. It has been said that only a few poets and saints ever realize this stage. Yet, as there are indeed such poets and saints dwelling within each of us, we have reason to be hopeful. In our adult lives, this involves the retrieval of a burgeoning imagination so reminiscent of childhood.