Religious Experiences

[GiantHouseKey]

Greetings

I personally consider the term "Religious Experience" to be fairly ambiguous. Generally, people seem to feel that the term refers to a personal encounter with some form of entity from their religious teaching, most commonly God.

I have had several of what I consider to be 'religious experiences', but I have always been interested to learn about the experiences of others. I'd be interested to hear about any religious experiences people on RF have had.

Furthermore, my experiences have had nothing to do with a personal deity, so when I hear of people being 'spoken to' by God, I feel I want to understand why they have interpreted their experience the way that they have.

So for people that have had a religious experience, can you tell me a little about the event(s), and what convinced you to reach a particular conclusion (Eg. God was speaking to you)?

GhK.

 

[DadBurnett]

I personally have trouble with the term "religious." It is the stuff of "church" of formalized ritual, practice and credo. I prefer the thought of spiritual experiences and would assert that such are of God (of Christ, of the Holy Spirit). I am mopst deeply moved by Spirit when I am able to recognize-sense the presence of Spirit working in and through others.

 

[GiantHouseKey]

I personally have trouble with the term "religious." It is the stuff of "church" of formalized ritual, practice and credo. I prefer the thought of spiritual experiences and would assert that such are of God (of Christ, of the Holy Spirit). I am mopst deeply moved by Spirit when I am able to recognize-sense the presence of Spirit working in and through others.

Thank you for your reply.

In which case, the term 'Spiritual Experiences' shall be used instead. It seems that our dinstinction between religion and spirituality are somewhat different, but whatever it may be, if you prefer to talk about 'Spiritual Experiences' rather than 'Religious Experiences', then that's fine

GhK.

 

[sandandfoam]

Hi GHK,

I am in the process of becoming a Muslim. It feels to me like an intensely religious experience. I understand the Islamic idea to be that we don't learn about God we remember Him. That is exactly how I am experiencing it.
There are things that daunt me - learning some Arabic, praying 5 times a day etc. but when I stop worrying about them and think about the concept of Islam, or submission to God I feel an extraordinary peace. I don't feel like I have made any choices. I feel like I am being guided. Of course it is possible to argue that all of this is a figment of my imagination and if any want to do so I wouldn't challenge them. But it is not how I experience it.

 

[GiantHouseKey]

Hi GHK,

I am in the process of becoming a Muslim. It feels to me like an intensely religious experience. I understand the Islamic idea to be that we don't learn about God we remember Him. That is exactly how I am experiencing it.

That sounds interesting. You've inadvertently reminded me to learn more about Islam haha. You were a Baha'i before right? Was there a particular moment that you realised it wasn't the right path for you and that Islam was how you wanted to persue Ourd or was it a very gradual thing?

Of course it is possible to argue that all of this is a figment of my imagination and if any want to do so I wouldn't challenge them.

Personally, that wouldn't be my arguement, but how you perceive your spiritual journey is a very personal thing that I would have no right to question

One question about it though: I am guessing that you were a monotheist before your transition to Islam, would I be right? As an atheist, my religious experiences will obviously feel somewhat different. Do you feel that your experience has been affected by your religious views BEFORE the event or do you feel that even if you were, for example, a devout catholic monk, you would have encountered the same set of changes?

GhK.

 

[Kathryn]

I had a very profound spiritual experience once - and before I go on, let me make it very clear that I had no mind altering substances in my body at the time!

This was about 15 years ago. I lived in Germany at the time, with my first husband who was a US Army officer, and our four small children. Though I was a Christian, I was young and my faith had been pretty battered by a very difficult marriage and the demands of a large family, military deployments, living overseas for many years, etc.

My marriage was in turmoil, which meant my emotions were also. There was no peace within my soul as I searched for answers to the questions of abusive marriage, forgiveness, motherhood and potential divorce within the context of my Christian faith.

I arranged a date with my husband - farmed out the kids, made dinner reservations, spent extra time on making myself desirable, etc. Even so, the evening was a disaster from start to finish. Dinner was a trial, my husband was being argumentative and bullying, and my heart was breaking. I wanted so desperately to be able to connect with him, for him to share something beautiful with me.

I had a special place up in the mountains that I had discovered when he was on a deployment somewhere. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen, and totally secluded. I had spent many hours there, enjoying God's creation and drinking in a spiritual peace that I so desperately needed in my life. I decided to take him there and share this with him.

We drove up into the mountains and parked the car at the end of this dirt road. I took his hand and led him to the fields overlooking the countryside. It was dusk. The jagged mountains behind us were black with a red sunset behind them. The fields spread out below us were lush with grass and wildflowers. Far below us in the valley, we could hear the jingle of cowbells and the call of a farmer. I took my husband's hand and led him to the middle of the meadow, and whispered, "Please dance with me."

He wouldn't budge. He kept saying, "Let's just go home. It's getting dark. Why did you bring me here?"

In desperation, I tried to seduce him. I stripped down to nothing. He still wouldn't budge. For some reason, instead of humiliating me, I suddenly thought, "Oh, to hell with him."

I ran out across the meadow and, closing my eyes, began to dance. Suddenly, I SWEAR I felt the presence of other beings - satyrs, elves, fairies, the spirits of trees and rocks and grasses. I whispered, "Who are you? Should I be afraid? Should I cry out for Jesus?" And I felt them say, "We roamed this earth before Jesus did. God made us and we are ancient. We are around you always. Dance with us. We're free."

So I did. And it was amazing and beautiful.

I knew from that moment on that I was basically totally different from my husband - that my spirit could never really connect with his. It never had - it never would. It never did.

This memory gave me a lot of inner strength over the next few years - and still does. There are ancient truths that supercede our petty lives. Also, God reaches down sometimes when we least expect it and He gives us something beautiful and pure, like a nectar to our souls.

He wants us to be joyful. He wants us to dance with His creation. We ARE His creation.

 

[sandandfoam]

That sounds interesting. You've inadvertently reminded me to learn more about Islam haha. You were a Baha'i before right? Was there a particular moment that you realised it wasn't the right path for you and that Islam was how you wanted to persue Ourd or was it a very gradual thing?


Personally, that wouldn't be my arguement, but how you perceive your spiritual journey is a very personal thing that I would have no right to question

One question about it though: I am guessing that you were a monotheist before your transition to Islam, would I be right? As an atheist, my religious experiences will obviously feel somewhat different. Do you feel that your experience has been affected by your religious views BEFORE the event or do you feel that even if you were, for example, a devout catholic monk, you would have encountered the same set of changes?

GhK.

This is was in Nov 07 when I came here

Hi there,
I was bumbling along quite happily as an atheist for years untill recently I was looking at a model brain and thought 1. We're more than this and 2. My atheism is a belief the same as any other. I don't want to beleive anything, I want to understand, I have always found debate the best route to understanding and hope to have the odd debate here. Look forward to shooting the breeze.
SW

 

[GiantHouseKey]

Kathryn: Thank you for sharing your story with me. Very interesting... A few questions if I may?

I have to tell you that if I had that experience I would have interpreted it very differently. Do you think that your religion had a big impact on your interpretation of the event?

Did it change your religious beliefs at all? You said it had a huge impact on your life but did it strengthen your faith or change it in any way? I can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that if I didn't believe in Aeya I would have probably become a Pagan of some sort, but you were already a christian right? Do you think the event made sense in relationship to your beliefs at the time?

Can you give me a little bit of help with your use of the word 'felt'? I know from my own experiences that it isn't a conventional 'feeling' that you experience, but after all, I could be psychologically unwell and just be hallucinating. It would be nice to know how and if our experiences were similar in any way.

Thank you for taking the time to share that with me

EDIT: Great name by the way. My current girlfriend is also called Kathryn, spelt just like that

GhK.

 

[Sundree]

Wow Kathryn, thank you for sharing such an intimate story of your life. It inspired me. I have had a lot of walks like that, the same underlying feelings, the storyline just different. I have had out of body experiences. I was once pronounced dead in the water from drowning, revived, and now have a fear of the ocean. I recently went to the ocean and with the help of what I call prayer, searching my inner self for the courage to ask for help from the spirit, the God, the whatever it is out there...I found some peace and I was able to enter the ocean and swim in it.

I have also had several experiences where messages have come to me, answers to questions that I have pondered. I started a ritual of holotropic breathing which helps to open my mind and my spirit to visions. I am not going to try and label the visions here as being messages from God, or whatnot, but I felt an inner peace as I came back to realization that helped me to get through whatever perils I was facing at the time. The answers on how to live, and what to do, in my time of need were there and I found peace.

On a random unexplainable side note....One specific story I can recall is one that started in 1979, the year I was born, and it was told by my mother throughout 16 years of my life until one day, in my presence, the story dramatically changed. As an infant, my mother and I experienced something she cannot explain. The story goes, we were in a motorhome traveling up the coast of California. We stopped in the evening to go to a restaurant. My mother stayed in the motorhome with me to breastfeed, while the 3 other adults we were traveling with went in to eat. During the meal I dozed off and my mom laid with me. According to my mom, suddenly the motorhome started to shake, and a helicopter noise sounded directly overhead. She says she tried to jump up thinking an earthquake, or a helicopter was landing, but she was frozen, she couldnt move to shield me. Then a white beam of light passed over my mother and I three times and it felt like a pins & needles sensation over her body wherever the white beam of light was touching. Then all at once everything stopped shaking, she was able to move, and I woke abruptly and started crying. A few moments later the 3 adults came back and thought my frantic mother was crazy, having probably just had a bad dream, assuming she had dozed off, or been in some kind of an in-between sleep state of mind. For the longest time that was the story...although my mom swore she was not asleep. Then after I was 16, having heard the same bedtime "ghost" story for 16 years, my mom, sister and I were watching the Maury Povich show one afternoon, and the show was about unexplained stories. As we were watching the show, a woman sitting on stage starts her story..."16 years ago in 1979, living on the coast of California...one evening her house started to shake...sounded like a helicopter was hovering, and she goes on to describe every detail!!!! She claimed the same white beam of light passed over her 3 times...she was frozen, she felt the pins & needles feeling...and then abruptly it just stopped.

I still to this day cannot explain that one.

 

[blackout]

My whole life paradigm shifted radically a few years back,
and I lived in a Super Heightened state of Awareness/Being for weeks and weeks on end.
After a few months, either my assemblage point moved back slightly and settled,
or I just got used to my New experience of Life.

It took a good 3+ years though before I was able to find terminology for my new state of BEing.
It was a while before I really got it that the UniVerse would speak and move with me,
in WHATEVER symbols/symbolisms I was inSpired to find connection with.
It made no difference if they were classic christian symbols,
Or (any) "ordinary" things that were relevent/revealing/meaning-full to me in my daily life.

It was mostly a warm and wonderful experience
as everything around me spoke (to me) in an epiphany of meaningful coincidence.
But there was really wiggy stuff too.
As I still had years of Roman Catholic,
and general Christian, superstition and taboo to contend with.
Fear alligned with meaningful coincidence,
in a extreme state of heightened awareness can be quite a trip.

I no longer live in fear of the unknown,
or potential supernatural evil.
I walked through that valley of (personal) death
and came out more alive than I have ever been.
And I love the dark now. The Deep Purple of Twilight is my domain.
It is in the domain of Voidian Black.. just beyond the edge of deepest Night...
that I "cast" and "stir" and "spell" and "create" .

I suppose I call mySelf "Occultic" now,
because I live what feels like, an invisibly superimposed reality.
A hidden reality in a world of Openly hidden symbolisms
ever active in the richness of my Self BEcoming,
but detached from what is "ordinary" "assumed" "allowable".
Very personally detached from grand societal schematics and institution.

I figure each one of us is doing as we are personally inclined.
And that is good enough for me.
I may be detached from institution at large,
but I still like to see individuals doing "their thing" with personal passion, focus & will.
I love to see individuals reaching deep into their own existence.
In whatever area that might be.

As individuals we make up the whole.
I have no desire any longer to see other individuals "be" anything in particular.
I took my own life back in all of this.
That is the most important thing.

 

[Buttons*]

Last Friday, I went to see some local Whirling Dervishes. They are not all Muslim, which is unique for a group that participates in this practice. It was a three hour ceremony.

In the beginning the dancers came in, bowed towards Mecca, and proceeded to sit along the outside of the circle that had been prepared. They wore large brown hats and black robes. The first thirty minutes were spent with everything very still. Turkish words were played over the loudspeakers, and we all listened. The Dervishes held their heads a little to the right - later I was told that this was to hear their hearts. I did so as well without knowing about this, and felt what I refer to as my "light" turn on.

The music became intense and then dull, intense, dull, repeatedly. The voice continuously sang out of tune - though I'm not sure if this held any significance. It was in the quiet sounds that my light glowed especially bright. It stopped, we all listened. A sound of a pipe played. The sound, after a while, was accompanied by the Turkish voice. I assume this was a prayer. It was sang again in the style that had been done before. The Twirlers were still quiet, still listening. I listened.

Then the music stopped, and the Dervishes stood up and walked around the circle, following the leader. There was a part where, two at a time, they would stop in front of the "alter" and bow while looking deeply into another's eyes. This happened three times. Then, everyone stopped, and one of the Dervishes took the black robes off of the Twirlers. I later found out that this part was meant to experience the source within other humans, knowing that we are all one.

The Dervishes then walked around and lined up in front of the alter on the right. As they passed in front of the leader one at a time, they began spinning. Their arms went down, then slowly were pulled up over their heads. Once this happened the left arm extended, to the side, and their hands pointed towards the ground. The right arm extended to the side and the right palm faced up. I was later told that this was meant to be the connection between an openness to the source, and a reminder that this presence was to be experienced on Earth.

I can't remember if music was played. They would spin and spin. There seemed to be no end to the spinning. My light glowed, but my thoughts were confused. I can't remember what I was thinking. They would spin on one leg, and also travel around the circle. Once one came in front of the leader, that person would stop spinning, pass in front of the alter, and then return to spinning. This happened three times each. (Each taking about 10 minutes... to my estimation). Then all would be quiet. They gathered in pairs, placed their left arms across their body, putting the left hand on the right shoulder, and the right arm over the left in the same fashion. They would sit on the ground and bow periodically. There must have been music, or a prayer said, because they knew when to do it at the same time.

The same thing happened three times. I was transfixed on the dancers. After the third time, they all gathered in two again, and this time, another leader put the black robes back onto the dancers. Each one presented and received with a kiss of the cloth.

I think it ended with a prayer in dialogue. Then They all exited solemnly. Bowing to the alter.

It was truly a moving experience.

 

[TheKnight]

So for people that have had a religious experience, can you tell me a little about the event(s), and what convinced you to reach a particular conclusion (Eg. God was speaking to you)?

In the past when I was a Christian I had delusions that God spoke to me. I realize now that they were induced by the power of suggestion. I wanted God to speak to me and therefore I thought I heard Him speaking to me.

Now that I have left Christianity and have also grown older, I must say that the greatest of all my religious experiences would be that of another's gratitude.

When one devotes oneself to the improvement of humanity and declares oneself to be forever against that which ails humanity, the greatest of all religious experiences is when a person who you have helped looks at you smiling and says with utmost sincerity "Thank you for what you have done." It is this kindness that mankind can and does show to his fellow man that keeps me believing in God.

I have realized, throughout my rough and interesting formative period known as adolescence, that God has no need to speak to me personally. There is enough in our world for me to know what He desires. What does God need to tell me when I become aware of children who are hurt and need help? What does God need to tell me when I hear of crimes against humanity committed by those who are ignorant of any other moral way? Does God need to speak to me in some form of flashy revelation?

People have said to me before, "if God would only speak to me, I would believe." To that I respond Why can you not see that He has already spoken? That He speaks continuously through the mouths of the hungry, the oppressed, the naked, and the dying? I don't need a transcendent moment of psychosis to have a religious experience, I merely need to have a proper perspective of the important things of this life.

 

[Inky]

My most vivid religious / spiritual experience was a vision of being drawn slowly toward the giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. I sensed that the black hole was conscious, a sort of concentrated source of emotion and awareness. It was the essence of nothingness, emptiness, and cancellation. It was also pretty angry. I hadn't been drinking at the time and have never done drugs, so it was pretty weird to get something that vivid out of the blue. I chalk it up to my longtime fascination with black holes and discomfort with the fact that my religious beliefs were in fast transition at that time of my life.

 

[Kathryn]

Kathryn: Thank you for sharing your story with me. Very interesting... A few questions if I may?

Yes, sorry I haven't responded earlier - I have been on vacation! FAR away from computers and even my cell phone!

I have to tell you that if I had that experience I would have interpreted it very differently. Do you think that your religion had a big impact on your interpretation of the event?

Good question. My heart was open to the moment but at the same time, I am sure I interpreted the experience via my own perspective - as we all do whether we are conscious of it or not.

Did it change your religious beliefs at all?

Yes, it did change my religious beliefs to some extent. It took away a lot of fear of what some people categorize as "pagan." It made me more aware of truths that HUMANS share in spite of their religious affiliations. It made me much more accepting of others' religious beliefs and experiences.

You said it had a huge impact on your life but did it strengthen your faith or change it in any way?

It deepened my faith and helped me tap into a very deep vein of spirituality. It helped me find my place in this universe, if that makes any sense.

I can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that if I didn't believe in Aeya I would have probably become a Pagan of some sort, but you were already a christian right? Do you think the event made sense in relationship to your beliefs at the time?

It put a lot of spiritual questions and doubts into perspective.

Can you give me a little bit of help with your use of the word 'felt'? I know from my own experiences that it isn't a conventional 'feeling' that you experience, but after all, I could be psychologically unwell and just be hallucinating. It would be nice to know how and if our experiences were similar in any way.

Hmmm, well this is sort of hard to answer but I'll try. Like I said, I was not under the influence of anything - not even a glass of wine. I was (and still am) stubbornly mentally stable. I would say that the feeling was a profound sense of truth, awe, and at the same time, filled with such poignant beauty that for days afterwards, I could close my eyes and remember it and the memory was so beautiful that I could have just cried. Still to this day, I can close my eyes and reach deep and tap into that sense of profound joy that I felt on that hillside.
Thank you for taking the time to share that with me

EDIT: Great name by the way. My current girlfriend is also called Kathryn, spelt just like that

GhK.

THANK YOU! It would be my real name if I could choose it - or if I wanted to make my mom really mad and change it!