What are the Attributes of a Mystical Experience?

[Sunstone]

What are the attributes of a mystical experience?

 

[Quagmire]

It's a lot like being on LSD.

So I hear *cough*.

 

[Sunstone]

It's a lot like being on LSD.

I think there are distinctions, but in general, the two experiences are similar.

 

[Reverend Rick]

It could be as simple as receiving a very acurate tarot card reading or just getting a feeling walking through the woods.

It can also be in your face when the super natural forces show themselves.

 

[Valjean]

This is the experience, as described universally. This is my experience:

1 )Undifferentiated Unity is the sine qua non of the mystical experience.
It can be a going within, when normal sensory impressions and the ego/sense of individuality fade away and one experiences an ascent through increasingly unified 'dimensions of being' till a vast inner world of "pure consciousness" is experienced, where one looses any awareness of ego and becomes indistinguishable from the Consciousness itself.
One can also 'go without' by concentrating on a sound, object, or such. Awareness of it expands till it merges with, and becomes indistinguishable from self or ego, ie; a subject-object transcendence. Seer, seeing and seen become indistinguishable.

2) Objectivity and Reality. An intuitive, non-rational but authoritative sense of a unified, Ultimate Reality, What Wllm James called a "noetic quality;" a sense of knowledge rather than experience: "It's all so obvious, so childishly simple!"

3) Transcendence of space and time. One exists outside of time and beyond space or distance, in an eternal, infinite Here-Now. You feel "we've all been here before, we've always been here." Past and future, here and elsewhere, merge and the distinctions become incomprehensible.

4) Ananda/Bliss. an intense, overwhelming feeling of carefree joy, love and blessedness. It's all play, all a dance. You laugh and laugh.

5) Paradoxicality. As childishly simple, obvious and self evident the awareness is -- "of course! It's so obvious!"--, it's completely at odds with the experience of empirical, 'subjective' reality.

6) Ineffability. The utter and complete impossibility of even beginning to communicate the experience. It's so massive; so overwhelming. You can only stand dumbfounded, in psychic shock.

some categories taken from from W. Pahnke & W. Richards,

 

[Sunstone]

This is the experience, as described universally. This is my experience:

1 )Undifferentiated Unity is the sine qua non of the mystical experience.
It can be a going within, when normal sensory impressions and the ego/sense of individuality fade away and one experiences an ascent through increasingly unified 'dimensions of being' till a vast inner world of "pure consciousness" is experienced, where one looses any awareness of ego and becomes indistinguishable from the Consciousness itself.
One can also 'go without' by concentrating on a sound, object, or such. Awareness of it expands till it merges with, and becomes indistinguishable from self or ego, ie; a subject-object transcendence. Seer, seeing and seen become indistinguishable.

2) Objectivity and Reality. An intuitive, non-rational but authoritative sense of a unified, Ultimate Reality, What Wllm James called a "noetic quality;" a sense of knowledge rather than experience: "It's all so obvious, so childishly simple!"

3) Transcendence of space and time. One exists outside of time and beyond space or distance, in an eternal, infinite Here-Now. You feel "we've all been here before, we've always been here." Past and future, here and elsewhere, merge and the distinctions become incomprehensible.

4) Ananda/Bliss. an intense, overwhelming feeling of carefree joy, love and blessedness. It's all play, all a dance. You laugh and laugh.

5) Paradoxicality. As childishly simple, obvious and self evident the awareness is -- "of course! It's so obvious!"--, it's completely at odds with the experience of empirical, 'subjective' reality.

6) Ineffability. The utter and complete impossibility of even beginning to communicate the experience. It's so massive; so overwhelming. You can only stand dumbfounded, in psychic shock.

some categories taken from from W. Pahnke & W. Richards,

Excellent

 

[Sunstone]

It could be as simple as receiving a very acurate tarot card reading or just getting a feeling walking through the woods.

It can also be in your face when the super natural forces show themselves.

I think that's true enough. There does not seem to be any limit to the variety of situations one might find himself in when a mystical experience takes place.

 

[SageTree]

When you open your eyes from a meditation and the light on the word has a blissful hue and you stand still body and mind absorbed in it's glow, simply aware without judgment. To me that is a moment when I know for sure that I am not separate.

 

[Biblestudent_007]

This is something that I can relate to Christian 'Mysticism' ~

 

[sandandfoam]

What are the attributes of a mystical experience?

I imagine it is that there are none.
I imagine that if you have a square and remove it's sides - when you re-erect the sides the sqare can only imagine what it is like when the sides are down - after they've been put back up.
My apologies

 

[katiafish]

"A symbol is like a mirror that, while remaining itself,
will alway reflect a different image, depending on who is looking at
it"

 

[Willamena]

What are the attributes of a mystical experience?

Jumping up and down.

Well, that's what I attribute. Also exclamations, like "Eureka!"

It's a lot like being on LSD.

I agree!