A Datum

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Blaise Pascal, yes?

Sure, for my brother - what was that thread about sources discrediting the message? - for him, a message containing a canid spelled in reverse - and I dfo not mean flow - invalidates the source. But still, Pascal is Pascal, and a datum is a datum:

The year of grace 1654,
Monday, 23 November, day of St. Clement, Pope and Martyr.
From about half-past ten in the evening until about half-past twelve,
FIRE.
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers nor of the Wise.
Assurance, joy, assurance, feeling, joy, peace...
Just Father, the world has not known thee but I have known thee.
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy

I got nothin'.

With you there. Pascal is not maximally easy even when not scribbling a note of an ecstatic experience before it fades. My mind is not designed to take it in.

It is a datum - just that - and a single datum even in the simplex areas is as often a Huh? as a So What?.

Plotted with other similar reports [from different times and heads] it can be suggestive.

As it is though - I have only known one person who claimed to "get it" as it is, on its own. And he happens to be a fake.

Please...

May I have a clue?

Blaise Pascal - a very impressive person - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal - in 1654 was hit with a very deep awareness of the Infinite, the Eternal - in a word God.

When he could act again, he scribbled on a scrap of paper the lines I quoted at the beginning.

They are somewhat disorganized, disjointed - as you might expect after such an experience. But it is quite clear that something came to him - was shown him - that incredibly impressed, amazed, changed him.

L'an de grâce 1654,

Lundi, 23 novembre, jour de saint Clément, pape et martyr, et autres au martyrologe.
Veille de saint Chrysogone, martyr, et autres,
Depuis environ dix heures et demie du soir jusques environ minuit et demi,

FEU.

« DIEU d'Abraham, DIEU d'Isaac, DIEU de Jacob »
non des philosophes et des savants.
Certitude. Certitude. Sentiment. Joie. Paix.
DIEU de Jésus-Christ.
Deum meum et Deum vestrum.
« Ton DIEU sera mon Dieu. »
Oubli du monde et de tout, hormis DIEU.
Il ne se trouve que par les voies enseignées dans l'Évangile.
Grandeur de l'âme humaine.
« Père juste, le monde ne t'a point connu, mais je t'ai connu. »
Joie, joie, joie, pleurs de joie.
Je m'en suis séparé:
Dereliquerunt me fontem aquae vivae.
« Mon Dieu, me quitterez-vous ? »
Que je n'en sois pas séparé éternellement.
« Cette est la vie éternelle, qu'ils te connaissent seul vrai Dieu, et celui que tu as envoyé, Jésus-Christ. »
Jésus-Christ.
Jésus-Christ.
Je m'en suis séparé; je l'ai fui, renoncé, crucifié.
Que je n'en sois jamais séparé.
Il ne se conserve que par les voies enseignées dans l'Évangile:
Renonciation totale et douce.
Soumission totale à Jésus-Christ et à mon directeur.
Éternellement en joie pour un jour d'exercice sur la terre.
Non obliviscar sermones tuos. Amen.

But for the real thing..

I can understand the literatural meaning, but nothing else.

Can you put the smell of orange blossoms into words?

Can you draw a picture of the taste of honey?

I have not had Pascal's experience, and he never had mine.

Paul of Tarsus said [some claim speaking of himself ] "I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

If you climb those back stairs, you may see - hear - feel - things that words can't handle. We can't even speak the color red to a blind man.

I met several people along my way. They said nothing to me, and I would not have understood. But I knew - they had seen something I had not.

Pascal saw something. We cannot directly know what he saw or how.

But THAT he saw it is evidence that there was something to see.

Ay de mi, I does me little best.

This is why I am a Comparative Linguist and not a mathematician. The data are more forgiving.

...

Interesting point

Can we prove that experiences we got from when we climb the backstairs, or etc. are not delusional?