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Do you have spiritual experiences that support your beliefs?

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
I've heard plenty of people argue that they have had certain experiences, and that they find these compelling.
Fair enough. I'm very skeptical, but there's simply little ability to argue about these things. They think they had a certain experience, then so be it. They probably can't convince me it was real, and I probably can't convince them it wasn't.

But, speaking purely for myself, I've seen nothing immaterial. I've seen people die, I've seen babies born, miracle of life and all that.

But that's just my experience. And the person that influences is me.
 

The Sum of Awe

Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
Mostly, my beliefs are out of logic, at least logical for me. Though, I had plenty of spiritual and mental experiences to influence this logic.
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Yes, I went to a dargah and requested the saint to intercede on my behalf with Allah that a particular girl may develop interest in me. It did not happen and I became an atheist.
 

ratikala

Istha gosthi
namaskaram Aupu ji

Yes, I went to a dargah and requested the saint to intercede on my behalf with Allah that a particular girl may develop interest in me. It did not happen and I became an atheist.

you should be greatfull the dear saint saved you from an un happy life , ...this was not the Girl for you , ....after all did you not find your dear wife ? ...the gods obviously had a different life in mind for you ...:)
 

ratikala

Istha gosthi
namaskaram

Originally Posted by faith_observer
Hi, I am very interested in learning about other peoples' spiritual experiences. Have any of you felt or experienced the presence or guidance of the divine, or had other spiritual experiences that lead you to or confirmed your personal beliefs? Would you be willing to share some of those experiences?

Thank you!


Dear faith observer ,

being perfectly serious now , ...yes , many times and on reflection there have been many things which I was aware of before I even found my faith which I realise later all confirm my beleifs , ..however like many here I am reluctant to discuss these things openly because these experiences are so dear to me .

as you will see there is allways a tendancy in non beleivers to belittle or attempt to explain away such things , and when one has answered sincrely from the heart , and ones beleifs and experiences are ridiculed this is more painfull than any personal attack .
 

beenherebeforeagain

Rogue Animist
Premium Member
Yes, I went to a dargah and requested the saint to intercede on my behalf with Allah that a particular girl may develop interest in me. It did not happen and I became an atheist.

Are you saying you became an atheist because on one occasion you did not receive the response you wanted?:sarcastic Surely there was more to suggest atheism to you than that!:shrug:

(Please don't take this as a criticism; I'm genuinely interested in whether your choice was driven by this one event, or was there more!f)
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
(Please don't take this as a criticism; I'm genuinely interested in whether your choice was driven by this one event, or was there more!f)
Of course not, it was a long journey which spanned half my life. :)

:) Ratiben, I don't know. Perhaps I would have been just as happy with the other girl.
 
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faith_observer

New Member
Thanks for the variety of responses! It does seem like a lot of people don't like to publicly discuss these sorts of experiences, and I can't say I blame you. As for my own experiences, I have had some that were powerful, and some that were contradictory. I have no doubt that many people have had very powerful spiritual experiences. I used to think that my experiences meant that I had the only real Truth. But, I think reality is not quite so black and white, now.

Thank you for all the responses!
 

beenherebeforeagain

Rogue Animist
Premium Member
Of course not, it was a long journey which spanned half my life. :)

:) Ratiben, I don't know. Perhaps I would have been just as happy with the other girl.

Lol! Guessed that was probably the case. :yes: Just wanted to make sure.

And you can always wonder about what another path taken would have been like...but you'll never know!
 

Richard E.

Religious Scholar
The true key to enlightenment is meditation. Back in late 1971 I heard Betty Bethards on KGO talk radio in the San Francisco Bay area. She was an astounding clairvoyant who said that the way to meditate was to silence the mind. When you achieve absolute stillness the spiritual world opens up to you.
It is difficult to do at first. The Bible say, I believe in Pslams "...Be still and know that I am God."
I became so advanced in this that I had spiritual time travel, being able to see the colors of peoples thoughts (the aura), visions, and partial telepathy. I pretty much know what people are going to say at times. I got so high at one time that I connected with the universe. When I began to meditate I vowed to
read the Bible cover to cover to see if God was real. This was because by piano teacher, a former concert pianist, told me when she and her mother invited me out to a concert that I could become a concert pianist because of my great ability of playing ragtime piano. I was an abused child and my mother told me I would never amount to anything. So that night I began reading the Bible to see if God was real for I knew I could never be a concert pianist unless I believed in God.
Halfway through the old testament I read a story about a prophet that had been imprisoned by a king. God miraculously freed him. At that point a began praying twice a day for God to reveal himself to me. I was listening to religious
radio at the time and had head stories about people having this experience. After two months I had a very terrifying vision that made me believe in God. I began to read the Bible a 100 pages a day at that point. I was working on very advanced piano music at the time by Franz Liszt. His concert etude number 3 and Liebestraume number 3. They each have two presto runs at 10 notes a second. I mastered each of them doing 6 hours of virtuoso piano excises a day.
I have a lot more to this story and how I discovered God's latest revelation to man in the nineteenth century. The return of Christ and the coming of the Father. The Lord' prayer has been answered.
"This is the day whereon the Rock (Peter) crieth out and shouteth, and celebratedth the praise of its Lord, the All-Possessing, the Most High, saying: 'Lo! The Father is come, and that which ye were promised in the Kingdom is fulfilled!..." Epistle to Pope Pius IX. The next year he declared infalibility.
I became an expert in Bible prophesy and appeared on cable TV 6 times presenting prophecies concerning the return of Christ. The date 1844 appears in the Bible 16 times in seven different ways. Daniel has is five times, Revelation seven times. And in Matthew 24 the exact date is given when Christ names an event that occurs on the date the new revelation began. Even Joseph Smith foretells his own death in 1844 as the year of the advent in Doctrines and Covenants. In that same book he foretells the start of the civil war in South Carolina and that he would see the face of the son of man if he lived to be 85 years old in 1890. I am a Baha'i, a follower of Baha'u'llah, the Glory of God, the Father as apostle Paul said.
 

Sonofason

Well-Known Member
Hi, I am very interested in learning about other peoples' spiritual experiences. Have any of you felt or experienced the presence or guidance of the divine, or had other spiritual experiences that lead you to or confirmed your personal beliefs? Would you be willing to share some of those experiences?

Thank you!

I'd like to say, I am amazed that so many believers that have had "spiritual" experiences won't share their experiences with others. It ought not surprise me however, as I too have had "spiritual" experiences that I just will not share with anyone. I gather that the telling of such experiences puts one at risk of throwing one's pearls to the swine.

My experience of God has actually brought me to a point where I no longer require faith to believe in God. I am absolutely certain of his existence and presence in my life.

So I guess that leaves me with a question for those who have had God experiences. What do you think it was that you did which enabled you to experience what you experienced? What did you do to invoke God's attention? Perhaps I'll ask this as an OP of another thread.
 

Scott C.

Just one guy
Hi, I am very interested in learning about other peoples' spiritual experiences. Have any of you felt or experienced the presence or guidance of the divine, or had other spiritual experiences that lead you to or confirmed your personal beliefs? Would you be willing to share some of those experiences?

Thank you!

I would say that 90% of my faith is based on my personal spiritual experiences which support and build that faith. Since religion can't really be proven, I have a hard time understanding how people can be truly converted and motivated in any faith without strong personal spiritual experiences.
 

Riverwolf

Amateur Rambler / Proud Ergi
Premium Member
Thanks for the variety of responses! It does seem like a lot of people don't like to publicly discuss these sorts of experiences, and I can't say I blame you. As for my own experiences, I have had some that were powerful, and some that were contradictory. I have no doubt that many people have had very powerful spiritual experiences. I used to think that my experiences meant that I had the only real Truth. But, I think reality is not quite so black and white, now.

Thank you for all the responses!

No problem.

One time, while I was practicing Hindu, I was sort of doing a pre-sleep meditation, and in my mind's eye, the entire world transformed slowly into a bunch of Goddess Kalis. Kali was always very important to me, being a Goddess who had been with me all my life in one manifestation or another.

That tells me that the specifics of our spiritual experiences are determined by whatever our current outlooks on life, nature, etc. are. Whether someone sees Kali, Jesus, the Buddha, Mohammad, whatever, it's no indication whatsoever of a "One-and-only-Truth" validation.
 

Orbit

I'm a planet
Hi, I am very interested in learning about other peoples' spiritual experiences. Have any of you felt or experienced the presence or guidance of the divine, or had other spiritual experiences that lead you to or confirmed your personal beliefs? Would you be willing to share some of those experiences?

Thank you!

I have had several mystic experiences. I am still figuring out what my beliefs are, but the experiences do directly relate to my trying to figure out what I believe. I'd share them in a DIR, and have, but won't here. I don't want to argue with anyone about whether subjective experience is invalid.
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
Aren't all experiences the root of religion?

In response, some people are truly deeply affected by their experience with aliens or bigfoot or chupacabra or whatever. There is a reason that subjective experiences are not valid - because they're crap.

As opposed to what? Objective experiences? :shrug:
 

Saint Frankenstein

Here for the ride
Premium Member
Yes, as an animist and a polytheist, I have spiritual experiences when I gaze at the stars in the sky on a clear night, when I contemplate the living energy of trees, when I meditate on the power and majesty of the ocean (especially the Pacific Ocean since I'm originally from the California coast), the vastness and beauty of the mountains and the seeming infinity of the Cosmos. I also experience the Divine in joy (especially drunken joy :D ), strength, art, sexuality, etc.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Hi, I am very interested in learning about other peoples' spiritual experiences. Have any of you felt or experienced the presence or guidance of the divine, or had other spiritual experiences that lead you to or confirmed your personal beliefs? Would you be willing to share some of those experiences?

Thank you!
I just think the fact of being born, the experiences here in life, and the eventuality of dying presents a varied and unique window. If anything, that sense of spirituality focuses with life and living of which is reflected and guided by my religious practices. It has a profound impact on how I view things.
 
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