Mystics only: how do you experience the "connection"

[Orbit]

This post is in Mysticism DIR

Mystics: This was brought up in another thread, and to resist derailing it, I'm posting this here. How do you experience the "connection"? I'll be posting but I need some time to gather my thoughts.

EDIT: OK, I'm back. For me the connection is hard to describe in words; similes are required. It's like being in a running stream of light; it's like flowing in the water of spirit; it's like understanding the love of all love; it transcends logical thought; feelings bleed out and are absorbed into the cosmos.

 

[Timothy Bryce]

When I was 7 years old, and bored in class, sitting cross-legged on the classroom floor, for some reason, I would pin my elbows into my knees and press the base of my palms into my eye sockets as hard as possible (I know, it sounds grody lol) and I would experience a sequence of closed eye visuals that were more profound than whatever my 2nd grade teacher was talking about. I haven't thought about that in a long time. But I think I stopped doing it as soon as I stopped sitting cross-legged and disengaged from whatever was going on. I had always hated and rejected my catholic education on an intellectual basis.

Then, as soon as I hit 18, it was sex and psychedelics which seemed to confirm my connection with the transcendent which, up until this point, I thought was only a connection with the subversive. The world is so much more beautiful now that those seeds have flourished and the arrival at the understanding that everything I need is within me and that I'm intrinsically connected to the entire universe.

 

[Timothy Bryce]

My above post actually comes across as a brief history.

To answer the OP directly: it's difficult to describe any kind of "method" involved in my experiencing the connection these days. Essentially, it would probably hold some elements that are centric to various forms of meditation in addition to reminding myself of prior profound experiences of the connection that consolidate it's reality and allow me to indulge in it literally at any point that I'm awake. Kinda wordy answer, but a hard one to articulate.

 

[Baladas]

My experience is of an undercurrent that both unifies, and is all things.
Things still have their distinctions, but any differences that might have upset me at another time, are in that moment inconsequential.
Anywhere that I saw a division, an other before, I see someone who matters to me as deeply as I do.
"Mundane" things are beautiful, and I am overcome with reverence.
Everything is simultaneously my brother, my sister, and my self.

 

[Baladas]

When I was 7 years old, and bored in class, sitting cross-legged on the classroom floor, for some reason, I would pin my elbows into my knees and press the base of my palms into my eye sockets as hard as possible (I know, it sounds grody lol) and I would experience a sequence of closed eye visuals that were more profound than whatever my 2nd grade teacher was talking about..

I just wanted to say that I did the same thing with my eyes when I was little.
I was totally fascinated. lol

 

[Timothy Bryce]

I just wanted to say that I did the same thing with my eyes when I was little.
I was totally fascinated. lol

Holy ****! That's incredible! lol Maybe there's something to it; or that it has a role in personal development.

I've never done it since I was that age, but I vividly remember the experience to be like a sequential, visual journey; complete with radiantly coloured shapes, stars, spirals and other forms.

 

[allfoak]

This post is in Mysticism DIR

Mystics: This was brought up in another thread, and to resist derailing it, I'm posting this here. How do you experience the "connection"? I'll be posting but I need some time to gather my thoughts.

The first thing necessary is the purification of mind and body.
This is to obtain a solid foundation and wholeness of thought to support this "connection".

Gospel of Thomas
saying 9:
Jesus said, "Now the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered them. Some fell on the road; the birds came and gathered them up. Others fell on the rock, did not take root in the soil, and did not produce ears. And others fell on thorns; they choked the seed(s) and worms ate them. And others fell on the good soil and it produced good fruit: it bore sixty per measure and a hundred and twenty per measure."

This is done through the bringing together of the opposites within us.

Gospel of Thomas
saying 22:
Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to his disciples, "These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom."
They said to him, "Shall we then, as children, enter the kingdom?"
Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom."

 

[Rick O'Shez]

EDIT: OK, I'm back. For me the connection is hard to describe in words; similes are required. It's like being in a running stream of light; it's like flowing in the water of spirit; it's like understanding the love of all love; it transcends logical thought; feelings bleed out and are absorbed into the cosmos.

So do you regard this experience as an altered state of mind or as actually connecting with something? I'm not suggesting these are mutually exclusive but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

 

[Brickjectivity]

It may seem strange for me to post in here but from past experience: Go to an empty place with no one else around. Make a secret wish for something you want very badly to something instead of someone, such as a stand of trees or your plants or a mountain. Whatever you talk to, it should be very big, not tiny. It should be something huge. Make sure the wish is something you want badly and that you don't want anyone else to know about. Whispering may spoil it. Make sure you are in a place no human being will hear, so that you can speak your innermost desire. Do not speak only to yourself but to the very large thing. If the wish you speak is something you deeply desire and that is very secret, you will feel a union of yourself behind the wish; possibly just from speaking it out loud however it must be spoken to something large. You may sense that the large thing has heard you.

 

[Timothy Bryce]

So do you regard this experience as an altered state of mind or as actually connecting with something? I'm not suggesting these are mutually exclusive but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Not to speak for Orbit but I would describe it as a connection that has always existed and binds every atom in the universe together; our egos (evolved naturally and necessarily for our survival) distort and disengage us from perceiving this "connection" which is why it often lends itself to altered states of mind. However, it's an ever-present reality that this universal solidarity exists therefore, the burden is on the individual to discover it. This is where discussing something in the form of a "method" for experiencing this becomes difficult to describe.

 

[Timothy Bryce]

The first thing necessary is the purification of mind and body.
This is to obtain a solid foundation and wholeness of thought to support this "connection".
This is done through the bringing together of the opposites within us.

Interestingly enough, I have often considered a metaphorical interpretation of an "act of god" or "presence of god" to be instances in which an individual experiences a form of dramatic irony; often taking the form of a reconciliation of "the opposites within us" as you describe.

Ironically enough as well, I arrived at this possibility by way of Christopher Hitchens' well publicized advice to always keep a strong appreciation for irony.

As a species that thinks in binary opposites as a means to search for patterns in life, a melding and established peace with yourself and your surroundings seem imperative to experiencing this "connection".

 

[Orbit]

So do you regard this experience as an altered state of mind or as actually connecting with something? I'm not suggesting these are mutually exclusive but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Honestly, I have no way of knowing exactly what is happening; only that it happens. Of course it's happening in my brain and body because the senses are the only things we have to perceive with; it doesn't feel like a connection with something "outside" or an "entity" so much as it feels like connecting with the light and love that are inherent in the universe. Words fail me, hence my interest in mysticism and apophatic theology.

https://aeon.co/essays/how-and-why-exactly-did-consciousness-become-a-problem

 

[mystic64]

I have to post something to tag this topic to my email because this topic is interesting:

I experienced my first connection with my first prayer to God in the name of Jesus Christ when I was five years old. From there I spent the next sixty years with thousands of hours of meditation studying the hows and whys of the experience. "How do you experience the connection?" Humm? Well as Brickjectivity said, "...however it must be spoken to something large. You may sense that the large thing has heard you." That combined with "desire" is what creates the connection. And when you sense that this something large has heard you you are then connected. From there it is just a matter of practice. I have reached the point where I am in a constant state of connection and instead of "it" listening to me, I am listening to "it". Basically it is like a computer download. You establish the connection and the something large downloads over time itself into you. And over time you learn a lot of stuff.

 

[mystic64]

Honestly, I have no way of knowing exactly what is happening; only that it happens. Of course it's happening in my brain and body because the senses are the only things we have to perceive with; it doesn't feel like a connection with something "outside" or an "entity" so much as it feels like connecting with the light and love that are inherent in the universe. Words fail me, hence my interest in mysticism and apophatic theology.

Light and love is where it all starts.

 

[1137]

I express the connection in pagan terms, and work my way back down those terms to the connection.

 

[Reflex]

This post is in Mysticism DIR

Mystics: This was brought up in another thread, and to resist derailing it, I'm posting this here. How do you experience the "connection"? I'll be posting but I need some time to gather my thoughts.

EDIT: OK, I'm back. For me the connection is hard to describe in words; similes are required. It's like being in a running stream of light; it's like flowing in the water of spirit; it's like understanding the love of all love; it transcends logical thought; feelings bleed out and are absorbed into the cosmos.

I like this. It's been my experience that some moments are more intense than others. This leads me to believe that most people experience "mystical insight" on an unconscious level. And that, I think, goes a long way towards explaining a lot of things going on in the world and even what goes on in this forum.

Here's an interesting article on the matter: why some people find spiritual connections with events and others don't. Although interesting, it seems to me to be a biased attempt to explain the phenomenon away. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...eople-spiritual-connections-events-don-t.html

 

[Windwalker]

I like this. It's been my experience that some moments are more intense than others.

It really depends on a number of factors why it's more intense than others. I think it's largely a matter of receptivity. Someone having a profound peak experience may be at a place in their lives where they "at their end", and simply let go of trying to figure out of fix thing, or make things better. A crisis can put someone in the place of openness to their subconscious mind, or their emergent unconscious. Great awakenings often occur during great turmoil in someone's life, following a "dark night of the soul" period. Sudden and abrupt openings like this can be quite intense as it overwhelms our abilities to process and compartmentalize like we do everything else on a normal basis.

This leads me to believe that most people experience "mystical insight" on an unconscious level. And that, I think, goes a long way towards explaining a lot of things going on in the world and even what goes on in this forum.

I like to say that Enlightenment is not something someone "achieves". We all already are Enlightened. We're just not enlightened to that fact, that's all. We don't realize what we already are, fully, because we are busy with our heads buried in the illusory reality of mental objects we create and maintain like little cities inside our heads. All one needs to do is move out above the city and see it for what it is and then open their eyes to Reality beyond the constructs. We all already know the answer, but we just don't know how to listen to ourselves and allow it to be. Our will tries to manufacture answers instead. It want's to "fix" things, based up what we can figure out with our minds, rather than simply step off the cliff and trust what the Self already knows.

Here's an interesting article on the matter: why some people find spiritual connections with events and others don't. Although interesting, it seems to me to be a biased attempt to explain the phenomenon away.

Yes, "brain damage". What is wrong with these people? To me the "damage" is the fact that we can't see Reality and live constricted in ourselves inside the illusion. The sense of isolation and the world of the "other" is the damaged mind. Idiots.

 

[allfoak]

To experience the connection one must willingly enter into the fires of creation.

 

[allfoak]

The question of how we experience connection doesn't seem to be the right question.
We are always connected, but how do we recognize it?

This seems to be the role our emotions play in our lives.
Peace, joy and a general happiness in our lives would indicate that we are indeed connected.

Since thought can be controlled and focused, we can then control our emotional states as well.
If our emotions are indicators of our connection or lack there of, then we just need to follow our bliss and we will always be connected.

Mysticism is not always profound experience but more importantly it is the expansion and heightening of the mind.

 

[EtuMalku]

This post is in Mysticism DIR

Mystics: This was brought up in another thread, and to resist derailing it, I'm posting this here. How do you experience the "connection"? I'll be posting but I need some time to gather my thoughts.

EDIT: OK, I'm back. For me the connection is hard to describe in words; similes are required. It's like being in a running stream of light; it's like flowing in the water of spirit; it's like understanding the love of all love; it transcends logical thought; feelings bleed out and are absorbed into the cosmos.

Define 'connection' please