Transcendent Moments

Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.

John Milton

Psychology Today has a short article about “The Anatomy of an Epiphany ” written by an author who wrote a couple of books about epiphanies. The four characteristics she defines are: listening, belief, action, and serendipity. “Can we induce a life-changing epiphany?… From everything I have read and heard, we cannot really induce these personal, life-changing moments. They are, in essence, mysterious.”

About the author

John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem Paradise Lost, written in blank verse and including twelve books, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political upheaval. It addressed the fall of man, including the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and God’s expulsion of them from the Garden of Eden. Paradise Lost elevated Milton’s reputation as one of history’s greatest poets. He also served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell.