Preaching in The Zone

Chris Erdman at Odyssey writes about preachers "inhabiting the text," a condition similar to what some call The Zone:

What I’m talking about I can only speak of in mystical terms. There is a zone, a spiritual state that can occur in preaching . . .

. . . that is similar to the experience testified to by warriors, who in the midst of battle, are caught up in the battle spirit and time stands still and they enter into a new state of being entirely. Alternatively, it is like the experience of a cellist who finds herself suddenly in a moment in which she has transcended all her technique and training, and is one with the music, in harmony with that divine song that holds the universe together. She is no longer speaking instructions to herself and playing a score, rather she is being played.

I don’t know that what I am describing is an ecstatic experience so much as it is mystical. It is not irrational; the mind is still alert—even uncommonly alert. In preaching moments like this I am uncharacteristic calm, fully present to the moment, reverent to something greater than myself, astonishingly open, free.

Can anyone relate? More importantly: Is what Chris describes merely a personal experience, or are those who hear more powerfully touched by the Word?