Have any of you had an overwhelming religious experience?

[I Keep Unicorns]

:run:

Bah, whatever. I wouldn't give up feeling like that. My partner certainly hasn't run a mile from me.

 

[DavyCrocket2003]

Hello Friend of Bill!
I am so happy that you have allowed the 12 steps to change your life! I have a strong testimony that that program is inspired. I have seen it change lives. My church has obtained permission to use it for all types of addictions including everything from pornography to shopping or eating disorders. I've been to some meetings, and they are awesome.

As for religious experiences.... Yes I have had them. They are very sacred to me. Someone I know calls them "GEMs:" Glimpses of Eternity for a Moment. The view we usually have in mortality is very limited. When that drops away, and eternity fills our consciousness, we realize that the little problems around us are insignificant. We realize that this is just one small part of the path we are on. When we return to normal life, it is easier to cope with the things around us. It gives us faith that there is a big picture, and that the final outcome is not in doubt.

I have felt the influence of invisible beings on multiple occasions. Usually positive encouraging beings, sometimes beings of darkness and fear. I have a very strong testimony that the inhabitants of the unseen world around us take a strong interest in us and our actions. Many of them are our friends from past existence who are trying to encourage us and help us.

 

[Scarlett Wampus]

I think I would be questioning my mental health if I had an overwhelming religious experience.

Most sane people would and should. An "overwhelming" experience is initially like a psychotic break with reality (even if examined in retrospect reveals it to be a huge break into reality).

You might find a short chapter from the Book Zen and the Brain interesting: Is Mysticism a Kind of Schizophrenia in Disguise.

So, I started working on the Big Book and the 12 Steps - not thinking that they would do anything - and guess what? They worked and I had a spiritual experience, but one of the 'educational variety'; one that just creeps up on you over time.
...
PS. This is probably my alcoholism (I'm a greedy git and always want more), but I do want a positive overwhelming religious experience, so to those who've had one, I think you're extremely lucky.

What would the sum total of positivity be between overwhelming or educational religious experience? In many cases I'm guessing the educational type would win out.

The significant difference between the educational variety that creeps up and the blow-your-mind face slap variety is that the latter is usually the result of great psychic tension that is suddenly released. Overwhelming experience is like an explosion of a psychic complex - exciting & dramatic but also quite messy. Slow transforming experience is like an erosion of a psychic complex - the process and result is much softer & graceful.

When the sensation subsides, I go back to understanding I'm experiencing a very strong attraction to someone with whom I would likely produce successful offspring with due to our combination of traits. And the feeling I get is not given by Angels or invisible enitites, but the presence of chemicals like serotonin, oxytocin, dopamine which invoke this drug-like state of addiction which betters our chances of us having sex and reproducing. It sounds colder, and perhaps less romantic but the explanation is tangible.

Oh, love can do that! I know it well. The explanation is tangible; its rational, cold and very useful, but it doesn't describe the experience. That's where you need angels or invisible entities.

The angel belief was convincing at the time because your emotional mind was choosing the best way it could to describe such a wonderful experience. It was like your lives were crafted by angelic forces so perfectly to cross like they did. The rational mind understands similes but the emotional mind doesn't make the distinction between simile and the thing-in-itself (else similes wouldn't make sense to the rational mind either).

 

[cynic2005]

Bah, whatever. I wouldn't give up feeling like that. My partner certainly hasn't run a mile from me.

I... abandon sanity out-right...

I prefer my sanity.

This is mostly because whenever I did feel the drug-addictive intoxication, it usually in ended some sort of short lived relationship with the object of my affection calling me names and breaking up with me every other week...

I think I had what was the most intense crush the human mind could ever experience a few years ago (hopefully it was the last one too). Your post reminds me of it. It was a perhaps the biggest struggle for control over my own mind. I will never forget it, because I almost lost my sanity... Thank God that didn't happen! Whew! :clap2::jiggy::jiggy:

 

[cynic2005]

My definition of what "I" see as "me" was obliterated. All phenomena became utterly dazzling and beautiful, vivid beyond everything I'd imagined...from the people around me to the ants crawling up a tree to the cracks in the pavement to the air in the ER and the ICU. I'd never felt, seen, heard, sensed everything - EVERYTHING - as freakin beautiful as then.

It was all so beautiful. And "I" was part of it all.

Dang it, I wish I could explain bliss better. There have been other experiences, but none as overwhelming as that.

Interesting, though I feel a bit sad that you had to go through that much pain.

 

[I Keep Unicorns]

I prefer my sanity.

This is mostly because whenever I did feel the drug-addictive intoxication, it usually in ended some sort of short lived relationship with the object of my affection calling me names and breaking up with me every other week...

I think I had what was the most intense crush the human mind could ever experience a few years ago. Your post reminds me of it. It was a perhaps the biggest struggle for control over my own mind. I will never forget it...

I do understand what you mean.. My first partner (whom I first experienced this drug-like state of affections for) was very disconcerted by my feelings. I was devestated; we thrive on reciprocation and because the feeling was so intense I would have wanted anyone to experience it too, of course my lover most of all. But I can understand why someone would be totally freaked out by them and back off - I literally wanted to romantically / sexually worship this guy. I didn't understand at the time how he wouldn't, as my lover, be warmed by that thought, or feel the same. I pretty much assumed the feeling of love was the same for everyone. It was what I could call a "religious experience", but I can't seem to fall any other way. Over the years, my feeling has become a little duller, and I've become more hardened and aware of how I could sound to my partner when I elaborate on my love for him.

Sometimes I honestly prefer insanity...
Or, at least, thriving on the activity of biological chemicals buzzing around in me.
I don't think I'll ever be able to give up on that kind of 'religious' love-intoxication no matter how many times it ends up burning me back. But reciprocation is out there for sure.

 

[cynic2005]

I do understand what you mean.. My first partner (whom I first experienced this drug-like state of affections for) was very disconcerted by my feelings. I was devestated; we thrive on reciprocation and because the feeling was so intense I would have wanted anyone to experience it too, of course my lover most of all. But I can understand why someone would be totally freaked out by them and back off - I literally wanted to romantically / sexually worship this guy. I didn't understand at the time how he wouldn't, as my lover, be warmed by that thought, or feel the same. I pretty much assumed the feeling of love was the same for everyone. It was what I could call a "religious experience", but I can't seem to fall any other way. Over the years, my feeling has become a little duller, and I've become more hardened and aware of how I could sound to my partner when I elaborate on my love for him.

Sometimes I honestly prefer insanity...
Or, at least, thriving on the activity of biological chemicals buzzing around in me.
I don't think I'll ever be able to give up on that kind of 'religious' love-intoxication no matter how many times it ends up burning me back. But reciprocation is out there for sure.

Well, I mean its fun. I wonder if certain people have more of a genetic tendency for that kind of intoxicating love than others.

Anyway, the way I see it, not everyone experiences and defines love the same. For some, there are only sexual elements and emotional distance. For others, it consists of friendship. Some prefer the game and romantic intoxication. Concerning the game, when they know they can play you like a fiddle, you're no longer interesting to them.

I've been played like a fiddle...

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Hey, so that was you? I was there at the threshold of the world the same day you were. I thought I recognized you. That abyss thing, pretty wicked cool, huh? A bit scary, but still wicked cool. I can't wait to go back and take the kids.

Say hi to Kierkegaard for me.

 

[Penumbra]

Some people point out that such experiences may be delusional or insane, but that doesn't always seem to be the case. It's delusional or insane if you are seeing things that are not there, but it's not delusional or insane to receive immensely blissful reinterpretations of reality provided that it does not lead to ridiculousness or addiction. Some people achieve such highs without religion at all, either by becoming free from religion or from never being religious in the first place and experiencing such things by other means.

I'd even say I'm envious that some people are wired to have the ability to experience that sort of thing, and it's probably a benefit for survival rather than something detrimental to it. People that are wired in such a way to be able to receive this sort of experience are probably more passionate, energetic people because of those experiences.

 

[forummaster]

I am a religious visionary. Wasn't always such, was an atheist really until age 35 when I went through my own three day long Road to Damascus religious conversion experience. Since then I've had many more such experiences, some lasting far longer but none quite as strongly mind-changing as the original conversion experience. Through the years since becoming a believer in God and spiritual world underlying our world of the senses, I have developed a personal Christian faith that is more Gnostic than traditional. I have tried to share my religious visions on religious talkboards such as this one only to find that forum owners and moderators are loathe to let people like me who have come back from their religious experiences with new knowledge share it. They will call it "proselytizing" and ban you from posting and membership even if you explain it to them that you follow the Gnostic Solitary Path which means you have no religion to peddle, no church to join, nothing but information to share freely. There is now and probably always has been a threat posed by religious visionaries to existing and cherished theologies and ideologies which is why even today prophesy is not welcomed by most people who one would think would be interested in how such things as Scriptures come to be written. Sorry for the little paranoia I'm expressing but this particular forum has been hostile to me before and I would like to overcome that this time around.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

Interesting, though I feel a bit sad that you had to go through that much pain.

No worries :flower:. So far this year, no major health issues.

Though my medical bills are making me feel ill in other ways at times.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I am a religious visionary. Wasn't always such, was an atheist really until age 35 when I went through my own three day long Road to Damascus religious conversion experience. Since then I've had many more such experiences, some lasting far longer but none quite as strongly mind-changing as the original conversion experience. Through the years since becoming a believer in God and spiritual world underlying our world of the senses, I have developed a personal Christian faith that is more Gnostic than traditional. I have tried to share my religious visions on religious talkboards such as this one only to find that forum owners and moderators are loathe to let people like me who have come back from their religious experiences with new knowledge share it. They will call it "proselytizing" and ban you from posting and membership even if you explain it to them that you follow the Gnostic Solitary Path which means you have no religion to peddle, no church to join, nothing but information to share freely. There is now and probably always has been a threat posed by religious visionaries to existing and cherished theologies and ideologies which is why even today prophesy is not welcomed by most people who one would think would be interested in how such things as Scriptures come to be written. Sorry for the little paranoia I'm expressing but this particular forum has been hostile to me before and I would like to overcome that this time around.

Refraining from proselytizing might be a good idea then.

 

[Eliot Wild]

I am a religious visionary.

I am a kareoke visionary. When I sing, I don't look at the words. Sometimes, I just make them up, freestyling like an urban rapper though I might be singing a Charlie Daniel's song or something by Frank Sinatra. So, uhhhhhh, I can see where you're coming from, man.

 

[forummaster]

Refraining from proselytizing might be a good idea then.

Refraining from misreading what I posted about my Solitary Path might be a better idea.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Refraining from misreading what I posted about my Solitary Path might be a better idea.

If you've had problems on the forum because of proselytizing in the past, I don't see how my interpretation of what you post makes any difference in you not having problems proselytizing now. I'm not a moderator, and I make no decisions. Just a friendly suggestion.

 

[blackout]

I am a religious visionary. Wasn't always such, was an atheist really until age 35 when I went through my own three day long Road to Damascus religious conversion experience. Since then I've had many more such experiences, some lasting far longer but none quite as strongly mind-changing as the original conversion experience. Through the years since becoming a believer in God and spiritual world underlying our world of the senses, I have developed a personal Christian faith that is more Gnostic than traditional. I have tried to share my religious visions on religious talkboards such as this one only to find that forum owners and moderators are loathe to let people like me who have come back from their religious experiences with new knowledge share it. They will call it "proselytizing" and ban you from posting and membership even if you explain it to them that you follow the Gnostic Solitary Path which means you have no religion to peddle, no church to join, nothing but information to share freely. There is now and probably always has been a threat posed by religious visionaries to existing and cherished theologies and ideologies which is why even today prophesy is not welcomed by most people who one would think would be interested in how such things as Scriptures come to be written. Sorry for the little paranoia I'm expressing but this particular forum has been hostile to me before and I would like to overcome that this time around.

Regarding issues of "proselytization"
It really depends more on HOW you share your experiences here,
than what you share.

I'm interested in your story.

I've had what might be very similar experiences.
I have since let go of christian terms though.

At the time no christians I tried to speak with
would even agree that I was christian.

Anyway, I no longer define my life, or my experiences
by "christian terms".

But still my experiences present and past
are no different.

Tell your stories without preaching,
and most likely,
all will go well here.

~V~

 

[forummaster]

Preaching...tell me, what is the difference when one of you posts his or her opinions or even religious experiences and "preaching"? You see I was serious about telling you I had a "Road to Damascus" three day religious experience that started my personal religious path. And like Paul, I was given new religious information to share with the world. Unlike Paul, I was specifically instructed to NOT start any new church or formal religious organization because part of what I received at the very beginning was the importance now of people finding their own personal spiritual pathways to God. Why? Because of the ungodly history of organized group think religions that still holds sway over our world, e.g. the religious warfare going on right now between Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Therefore, like I said I am not here to "proselytize", never was but it seems this idea that one can follow a Solitary Path and still share religious visions is incomprehensible to some people, especially forum owners and moderators I have found who in my forum posting experience do not want to make any such distinction between "proselytizing" and sharing one's personal religious visions. A proselyte is by definition one who is becoming a member of an organized religion and I have no organized religion for anyone to join. The relationship between the individual and God is one to One and no earthly intercessors, be they priests, rabbis, pastors, popes, or imams, are necessary. This is one of the bits of spiritual knowledge that I received through the experience of Gnosis of God and I am sharing it. I have many more such items, a whole book's worth in fact built up over the past 31 years of periodic visions, revelations and God-guided research but no one is compelled to read my material, no one will be going to hell if they don't read it. All will be going to heaven sooner or later which is the World to Come, our future existence. Again, this is another bit of spiritual information I've received and am sharing with you. Am I "proselytizing" for sharing this? I do hope people can see the difference.

 

[blackout]

Generally speaking,
when you go around telling OTHERS
how they are supposed to live,
believe, behave, and interpret life...
you are preaching.

Sharing... is sharing. you know?

 

[forummaster]

I know that but do forum owners and moderators? What if I couch the spiritual information I want to share in this loaded term, "prophesies"? I have prophetic visions and revelations but when I've shared them as such, here on this forum for example in the past, out come the heavy guns with accusations of "proselytizing". I cannot hide the fact that I am a prophesy bearer but it seems that anyone who makes such claims is tagged as trying to preach a new organized religion because past prophesy bearing has always been associated with such. The OP of this thread is about people who have had overwhelming religious experiences. Prophetic visions and revelations are part of my personal overwhelming religious experiences.

 

[Misty]

I know that but do forum owners and moderators? What if I couch the spiritual information I want to share in this loaded term, "prophesies"? I have prophetic visions and revelations but when I've shared them as such, here on this forum for example in the past, out come the heavy guns with accusations of "proselytizing". I cannot hide the fact that I am a prophesy bearer but it seems that anyone who makes such claims is tagged as trying to preach a new organized religion because past prophesy bearing has always been associated with such. The OP of this thread is about people who have had overwhelming religious experiences. Prophetic visions and revelations are part of my personal overwhelming religious experiences.

A prophesy bearer, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! If you say so!