Langland has vividly portrayed the life of sin in the world. From the realm of vice, social as well as individual, the soul steps into the realm of grace through what is known as the first conversion. By this act the dead is quite literally raised to life; it is quite literally an event of a standing with the raising of Lazarus—a miracle. As with all miracles, the act can be examined on the purely natural plane; the psychologist can describe what he discovers on the human side of the process. It is well to look at conversion in these test tubes first, even if it comes to be regarded in the partial light simply as a process of unification or of a vital synthesis.

Conversion has been described as the shifting of the centre of gravity of the inner self, a psychological phenomenon common to science, art, letters… as well as to religion. The individual's ideas are first of all grouped in bunches, more or less isolated and independent like the amoeba in a very low form of life.