An epiphany (from the ancient Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphanea, "manifestation, striking appearance") is an experience of a sudden and striking realization. Generally the term is used to describe a scientific breakthrough or a religious or philosophical discovery, but it can apply in any situation in which an enlightening realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective. Epiphanies are studied by psychologists Today, this concept is more often used without such connotations, but a popular implication remains that the epiphany is supernatural, as the discovery seems to come suddenly from the outside. The author used epiphany as a literary device within each entry of his short story collection Dubliners (1914); his protagonists came to sudden recognitions that changed their view of themselves and/or their social conditions. Joyce had first expounded on epiphany's meaning in the fragment Stephen Hero (published posthumously in 1944). For the philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas, epiphany or a manifestation of the divine is seen in another's face (see face-to-face).
thumb|right|[[Flammarion engraving. From "L'atmosphère", book of 1888.]]
In traditional and pre-modern cultures, initiation rites and mystery religions have served as vehicles of epiphany, as well as the arts. The Greek dramatists and poets would, in the ideal, induct the audience into states of catharsis or kenosis, respectively. In modern times an epiphany lies behind the title of William Burroughs' Naked Lunch, a drug-influenced state, as Burroughs explained, "a frozen moment when everyone sees what is at the end of the fork." Both the Dadaist Marcel Duchamp and the Pop Artist Andy Warhol would invert expectations by presenting commonplace objects or graphics as works of fine art (for example a urinal as a fountain), simply by presenting them in a way no one had thought to do before; the result was intended to induce an epiphany of "what art is" or is not.
Process
Epiphanies can come in many different forms, and are often generated by a complex combination of experience, memory, knowledge, predisposition and context. A contemporary example of an epiphany in education might involve the process by which a student arrives at some form of new insight or clarifying thought. Despite this popular image, epiphany is the result of significant work on the part of the discoverer, and is only the satisfying result of a long process.
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