Awe

Operation Luna, 29.

"Ginny said afterward that an experience of awe at an early age is healthy." (p. 264)

Professor Ninian Smart told his graduate students, including me at the time, of an early numinous experience of his own daughter. The girl's grandmother had told her, "Watch out! Your father's coming downstairs!" At her young age, the girl had only ever heard the word "Father," in one context: "Our Father..." Thus, she looked up, expecting to witness the descent down the stairs of a mysterium tremendum et fascinans.

Of course, people respond that she was not disappointed. It was said that theologians in the Department of Religious Studies at Lancaster University, having pondered the question of what was the difference between Ninian Smart and God, had concluded that, whereas God was everywhere, Ninian was everywhere but here.

Surprisingly, James Bond once feels awe (see Prayer) whereas Dominic Flandry, when he asks for an answer from beyond, does not receive it. See At The Moment Of Death.