As we all do, I came into the Baha'i fold with a lot of baggage. Being a child of the 60's, I had been involved with intoxicants, legal and not so legal. The use of these is forbidden in the teachings of Baha'u'llah. While I was aware of this at the time I joined the Faith, I had no idea what this entailed. I choose not to go into detail about this, except to say that it has been "slow and gradual."
In the above quote I noticed the following: "...open his heart and mind to the reality of the Manifestation." For me, that implies that the process of becoming a Baha'i is not only an intellectual acceptance but an emotional one as well. I became a Baha'i because I studied the Teachings. It was a mental process.
As time passed, I began to experience a glimpse of what the emotional side of the Baha'i Faith was. One of my first introductions to this was when I attended an observance of the Martyrdom of the Bab at the Baha'i Center in Covington, Ga. The Center was originally a rural black church; but when the minister became a Baha'i, most of the congregation also became Baha'is and the church became the Baha'i Center. I had never heard the Baha'i Writings presented that way. I find it hard to explain, but it had a profound effect on me. It was at that meeting that I started to realize what was meant by the movement of the Holy Spirit.
Since then, there have been those rare times when I felt an emotional movement from a Baha'i meeting, talk or school, but they were few and far between.
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