[The feeling of eternity.].
Under this somewhat unusual title, the article deals with a theme developed in several religious traditions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Shamanism) and taken up again by a few "secular" authors (Artaud, Jung, Proust, Romain Rolland, Maslow), the theme of a modified perception of time giving rise to a form of time "exit", an extra-temporal style of existence, a "feeling of eternity". It is as if existence could be grasped other than in relation to its ephemeral aspect, as it escapes time, or, as it is said, in its eternal contenance. According to religious tradition and to the authors, this "other" grasp of existence requires that we move from ordinary consciousness to another mode of consciousness, which they all apply themselves to describe. The article does not seek to account for the different interpretations of the feeling of eternity originating in the most diverse of disciplines. It seeks rather to put viewpoints and testimonies into a parallel plane, in the hope that they will be mutually illuminating and enriching, and that they will succeed in making more accessible to us an experience that is worthy, at least, of serious consideration, and about which our dominant cultural currents do not speak to us very often.
Savard
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