But one of the things that I often wondered was why people who went on Pilgrimage didn’t seem to be that changed by their experience. Not that it wasn’t a moving event, but that it didn’t seem to have the type of transformative effect that I would expect from visiting such holy ground… And, sometimes, it just seemed to be a type of bragging rights for people. Another thing on a checklist of what Baha’is ought to do.

My beautiful son, the one who now “consort[s] with [His] chosen ones, [His] saints and [His] Messengers in heavenly places that the pen cannot tell nor the tongue recount”, voted not to go as he wrote that he was not spiritually ready to do so; that he did not deserve to go yet. He said that he believed that people seeking to go on Pilgrimage needed to have a certain attitude, a certain longing, to go to that most holy spot on earth. [You wrote about him in January '08 - which was so much appreciated.]

Given the expense of the Pilgrimage and its seeming lack of effect, I wondered how much the Fund would benefit if people only went on Pilgrimage “when they were ready” and how much easier it might be for those who were ready to actually get there in a reasonable amount of time.

In any case, it would be great to have you discuss how you were transformed – or for others to post about their transformation as they went to and returned from such a holy experience.