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experience by calling attention to their limitations as psychologists. They can only deal with
observed facts and the psychical laws which evidently control them, but have no right to probe
into the possible or probable spiritual background, in which these facts find their explanation.
They have pointed out that conversion is not a specifically Christian phenomenon, but is also
found in other religions; and that it is not necessarily a religious phenomenon, but also occurs
in non-religious spheres. In fact, it is but one of the many changes that occur in the period of
adolescence, “a sudden readjustment to a larger spiritual environment,” a surrender of the old
self to a truer one. “At its best,” says Starbuck, “it is the individual will coming into harmony
with what it feels to be the divine will.”[The Psychology of Religion, p. 162.] As Pratt
understands it, “the essential thing about conversion is just the unification of character, the
achievement of a new self.”[The Religious Consciousness, p. 123.] As to the question, whether
there is anything supernatural about conversion, there is a difference of opinion among the
psychologists. Coe puts the question: “Shall we therefore conclude that conversion is practically
an automatic performance?” And he answers: “Not unless we first define conversion so as to
ignore its profound relation to God and to the principle of a good life.... The substance of
religious experiences as far transcends their emotional forms as a man transcends the clothes
he wears.”[The Spiritual Life, p. 140.] James feels that an orthodox Christian might ask him,
whether his reference of the phenomena of conversion to the subliminal self does not exclude
the notion of the direct presence of the Deity in it altogether; and he replies in these words: “I
have to say frankly that as a psychologist I do not see why it necessarily should.”[The Varieties
of Religious Experience, p. 242.] He finds that, “if there are higher powers able to impress us,
they may gain access only through the subliminal door.”[p. 243.] The representatives of the
New Psychology, that is, of the Behaviourist School and of the School of Psychoanalysis, frankly
take the position that conversion may come about in a perfectly natural way, without any
supernatural influence. James and others hold that the real secret of the sudden change in
conversion lies in some activity of the subliminal self, which may or may not be subject to some
divine influence. Students of Psychology are rather generally agreed that there are three
distinct steps in conversion, which Ames describes as follows: “First, a sense of perplexity and
uneasiness; second, a climax and turning point; and third, a relaxation marked by rest and
joy.”[The Psychology of Religious Experience, p. 258.] It is quite generally agreed that there are
at least two outstanding types of conversion, which are designated in various ways. Speaking of
these two kinds of conversion, Starbuck says that the one is accompanied with a violent sense
of sin, and the other, with a feeling of incompleteness, a struggle after a larger life, and a desire
for spiritual illumination. A distinction is made between childhood and adult conversion,
between gradual and sudden (violent) conversions, and between intellectual and emotional
conversions. These are but different names for the two recognized types of conversion. While
conversion in general may be regarded as a rather normal experience, it is sometimes found to