Five, six seconds and no more – then you suddenly feel the presence of eternal harmony. Man in his mortal frame cannot endure it; he must either physically transform himself or die. it is a lucid and ineffable feeling. You seem to be in contact with the whole of nature and you say: 'Yes, this is true!' God, when He created the world, said at the end of each day: 'Yes, it is true, it is good'. It is not emotion, it is joy. You forgive nothing because there's nothing to forgive. Nor do you really love anything – oh, this feeling  is higher than love! The most terrible thing is the horrific certainty with which it expresses itself and the joy with which it fills one. If it lasted longer the soul could not endure it, it would have to disappear. – In these five seconds I live the whole of human existence, I would give my life for it, the price would not be too high. I order to bear this any longer one would have to transform oneself physically.

Kirilov, in Dostoevsky's The Devils