This is Cosmic Consciousness. Bucke described this in some detail and listed people in history such as Moses, Jesus, St. Paul, and Isaiah, who have had such experiences. A common factor in all of these experiences could easily be called Absolute Love.
Since studying Bucke’s remarkable book, I’ve read numerous accounts of people whose lives have been changed by profound spiritual experiences. This was the subject of William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience, which Bill read while still a patient in Towns Hospital. In all of these cases cited by James, people were defeated in some controlling area in their lives, human efforts to solve their problems failed, but when they turned to Higher Power, relief came.
For my part, I’ve concluded that Cosmic Consciousness can also be called the Mind of God. We can also call it Amazing Grace, and some people call it the Indwelling Christ.
If we choose, we might also call it Absolute Love and we can find it wherever we are and regardless of our current conditions.
For what it’s worth, I have adapted the lovely old hymn, Amazing Grace, for the recovering alcoholic. Here it is, a hymn to Absolute Love:
