Introduction

"I wish I could just expose this so greatly to you that your heart and mind would
set on fire. But if you know not this .. :' Elder W. Lawrence Richardson pauses,
momentarily grasping for words. How does one convey the ecstasy of rapture to
one whose soul is yet unsaved? How does one describe an experience whose depths
render all descriptions inadequate? The elder tries again, this time addressing
process rather than feeling. "It comes quick and it goes quick." Another pause.
Our conversation is stretching into its second hour, as Elder Richardson patiently
shares understandings granted him by God and confirmed by personal
experience.

The evening's talk, like many before it, presses into the night. He, a
Primitive Baptist elder and a singer of deep intensity, sits on one side of a small
kitchen table. I, a folklorist seeking understanding of a power often witnessed and
sometimes felt, sit on the other. Only the muted sound of the cassette's turning
wheels breaks the evening's silence. I sit expectantly, respecting the pause, waiting.
Suddenly, a cry of "Hallelujah!" explodes from Elder Richardson's lips, transforming
his countenance from earnestness to undeniable joy. "Something hit me
right then! Sure enough! I ain't kidding you!" The phrases tumble forth with infectious
exhilaration, pressing one after another through a widening smile. «Yeah!
Something hit me just that quick!"

There's no need to ask what that "something" was. If the preceding words hadn't
made it clear, the overall conversation certainly had. In those fewfleeting moments,
Elder Richardson had experienced the emotional transport of transcendence.
"It don't stay with you;' Elder Richardson continues, his words still buoyed by
excitement. "And you can't keep it long. It'll hit you here, and it just-something
feel funny, go all to the sole of your foot! It'll make you want to-Hallelujah!" Once
again his eyes turn toward heaven and his voice rises in praise. "Sure enough!"
Now the laugh that has been building in his throat cascades forth, a blissful
laugh born of beatitude rather than humor. «Amen!Now, this is what I'm talking
about. Otherwords, you got to be in it to feel it. And if you're not in it, you just sit
there and you look."