Anne Sophie and Religious Experience

In his brilliant work Psychoanalysis and Religion, Erich Fromm describes humanistic religious experience (versus authoritarian one) as "the experience of oneness with the All, based on one’s relatedness to the world as it is grasped with thought and with love." This is an experience of "love for others as well as for oneself and of solidarity of all living beings."

Seeing my baby being born, holding it and caring for it has been a truly religious experience for me. It has evoked in me a deep sense of love, wonderment, tenderness, caring, giving, and not only towards my little girl, but towards the whole world around me. Suddenly, strangers are no longer strangers, and I smile at every person I come across.

This has probably been the most powerful experience of this kind in my life. Other examples include watching my wife as she is sleeping or embroidering or doing something else unaware of my watching her; or wondering at the majestic beauty of nature in the mountains, at the sea or in the countryside; or reading the writings or a book and being struck by the truth conveyed in them; or being with a group of people and suddenly feeling an intense sense of oneness with them.

A dear friend of ours, Suzanne Gerstner, related a similar experience when I shared this with her. She remembered watching her then newly born son Erick (now a bright, kind-hearted young man) and wondering if anything less than a perfect divine being, God, could produce such a perfect little human being.

At this very moment, I am lying in bed with my precious baby half asleep on my chest. I could watch her like this for hours, sensing her breath and all her small movements against my body. My heart is overwhelmed with bliss and almost universal love. I wish and hope I can take this sense of unconditional love into my daily life, showing a little more kindness and appreciation towards everyone I meet!