In Lane's book Landscapes of the Sacred, he talks about the four axioms of sacred place. He states that the third axiom is where, "sacred place can be tred upon without being entered" (Lane,2002, pg. 19). When expanding upon his statement he says, "one can be there and yet not be there at the same time" (Lane, 2002, pg. 29). I feel that what Lane is saying is that when visiting a sacred place, people can be there for various reasons. One who is going for a pilgrimage will have much closer ties to the place and actually see it as a sacred place. However, one who is going mainly for the scenery or for sport will not see the place as sacred and therefore not be there mentally as the pilgrim is. The pilgrim will see the place as a much more magnificent place than the traveler, because the pilgrim has some form of relationship with the place that the traveler does not. I think of it this way; if I were to go visit a ordinary place daily, it wouldn't have much meaning because I would only be engaged physically and not mentally. If one day I had an experience at that place where I felt empowered or something numinous, then from there out visiting that place would be a totally different experience.
-Nicolas Maxim
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