Immediate Power
Integral spirituality is being known ‘by God’, in order to know ‘with God’. Instead of knowing ‘about God’ through concepts and structures, knowing is ‘intimacy with’. Capacity for the Living God dies, when power is mediated through law, tradition, creed, doctrine, institution . . . and the world becomes ‘flat’, having lost the power of deep relating.
Immediate Power has the quality of an event, an occasion, within which ordinary consciousness is disturbed or disrupted, encouraging original formulation of thought as a revelatory process. There is a feeling of being outside of oneself, or of being suspended in wonder, awe, or Mystery.
The genius has these experiences frequently, refusing to know without an original appreciation within an immediate encounter. There is a ’sense-in-which’ that the very integrity of the person is brought into question, bringing the ordinary into question, wanting to let novelty occur.
Freedom and responsibility take on great significance, often ‘throwing’ one into moments of intense anxiety and dread before novelty occurs. Accountability is ’safe’, while creativity is ‘dangerous’. . . live dangerously by knowing ‘with God’.