Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
What is a spiritual experience?
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What is a spiritual experience?
- Thread starter Jeremiahcp
- Start date
Mister Silver
Faith's Nightmare
From my life long experience of studying those who are spiritual, it seems to me that mere goosebumps are a sign of something spiritual taking place. To me, it's just goosebumps.
Take for instance those who sing in church, revering god; they "feel" the spirit rising in them. I have felt the same thing just by listening to any song, though I am capable of realizing the feeling is mere psychological and naturally physiological in nature as opposed to something spiritual.
Take for instance those who sing in church, revering god; they "feel" the spirit rising in them. I have felt the same thing just by listening to any song, though I am capable of realizing the feeling is mere psychological and naturally physiological in nature as opposed to something spiritual.
A spiritual experience is a subjective experience that takes place beyond the human perception of secular "reality."
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Technically, a long lasting, uplifting feeling and experience that makes you balanced, healthy, intuned with self, others, and/or environment. Holistic experience not necessarily related to religion or spirituality. Think of your passion that you can't live without. When you're around that something, someone, or involved in your passion, you get a feeling of connection. Some call it spiritual. Fancy term.
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
So chocolate ice cream.
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
But what if you are just talking to yourself?
A feeling or experience of the numinous or transcendent.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Yep. I talked with someone who didn't even like chocolate. I was shocked.
If chocolate ice cream makes you see the world more clearly and gives you an umpth to help yourself in mind and body beyond working out and meditating, then yeah, I'd include that.
SabahTheLoner
Master of the Art of Couch Potato Cuddles
It can be any one of these;
- Intense purposefully summoned emotional ritual
- A mentally stimulated vision or dream
- A "ghost" feeling (not always a bad one; usually in my case it's just a very neutral spirit)
- Anything similar like a pridiction
Usually spiritual experiences can be interpreted through a medium, through thought or just strait up knowing/feeling.
- Intense purposefully summoned emotional ritual
- A mentally stimulated vision or dream
- A "ghost" feeling (not always a bad one; usually in my case it's just a very neutral spirit)
- Anything similar like a pridiction
Usually spiritual experiences can be interpreted through a medium, through thought or just strait up knowing/feeling.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
Do you have a living loved one that you know but doesn't live with you (far away) but then you think about him/her, give her your wishes, and think about her sometime? Maybe have a picture of her-say if she went off to war and you wanted to do something to remember she is still alive fighting?
It's similar (for me). Have you had a loved one passed away and you go to visit where they are at rest, put flowers, cards, or food on their grave, and say something on their behalf? It doesn't need to be religious in nature.
It's the same. Except instead of isolated respect such as going to your loved one on their birthday or thinking of your loved one once in awhile while overseas, you have a deep seeded need to constantly give respect to the point of making it part of your life. It's constant gratitude.
Another thing I would change is they aren't deceased, they are still living in spirit. I read that we can talk to our family in spirit just as we talk to them as they were here because they are. Some families believe the spirit of their loved ones are in their living loved ones and infants. So, it's family and family in spirit.
It can be a simple "Ah Ha ! moment " when everything you have been learning from Scripture clicks into place.
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
You mean like when someone realizes none of it is real and they become an atheist?
Once I had an experience where the world around me transformed from its usual conglomeration of solid objects, shapes and colors into layers and layers of a transparent mesh of fine symbols. Living symbols that glowed and hummed and through which waves and whorls flowed this way and that. (There was more to it but this suffices for now).
I was around 11 at that time. After that I suddenly became very good at Mathematics which seemed to become an intuitive language for me to grasp and describe reality.
Rinchen
Member
An impermanent one, like all others.
Spiderman
Veteran Member
I have visions where my hatred is turned into love , my sadness turns into joy and I'm hit with inspiration to write down what is being said in my heart.
It feels like another entity and I'm not able to produce the experience , the peace, or the joy, it just shows up.
When I felt strongly that Denise was with me in jail, I came across the only coin in jail dated 1974, the year she was murdered. The first four letters of the word coincidence are coin.
I asked my Dad what nationality Naslund is. He said it's Swedish. Did you know you have Swedish on your moms side? I didn't know that. So the only reason I know I have Swedish in me is from this dead girl.
The football team here is called the Vikings. Swedes were Vikings. Through Denise I have a favorite football team. There were many other coincidences.
The spirit world speaks in ways the material world finds silly.
I decided to answer it anyway with a poem of Rumi.
I was dead, then alive.
Weeping, then laughing.
The power of love came into me,
and I became fierce like a lion,
then tender like the evening star.
He said, ‘You’re not mad enough.
You don’t belong in this house.’
I went wild and had to be tied up.
He said, ‘Still not wild enough
to stay with us!’
I broke through another layer
into joyfulness.
He said, ‘Its not enough.’
I died.
He said, ‘You are a clever little man,
full of fantasy and doubting.’
I plucked out my feathers and became a fool.
He said, ‘Now you are the candle
for this assembly.’
But I’m no candle. Look!
I’m scattered smoke
He said, ‘You are the Sheikh, the guide.’
But I’m not a teacher. I have no power.
He said, ‘You already have wings.
I cannot give you wings.’
But I wanted his wings.
I felt like some flightless chicken.
Then new events said to me,
‘Don’t move. A sublime generosity is
coming towards you.’
And old love said, ‘Stay with me.’
I said, ‘I will.’
You are the fountain of the sun’s light.
I am a willow shadow on the ground.
You make my raggedness silky.
The soul at dawn is like darkened water
that slowly begins to say Thank you, thank you.
Then at sunset, again, Venus gradually
Changes into the moon and then the whole nightsky.
This comes of smiling back
at your smile.
The chess master says nothing,
other than moving the silent chess piece.
That I am part of the ploys
of this game makes me
amazingly happy.
I was dead, then alive.
Weeping, then laughing.
The power of love came into me,
and I became fierce like a lion,
then tender like the evening star.
He said, ‘You’re not mad enough.
You don’t belong in this house.’
I went wild and had to be tied up.
He said, ‘Still not wild enough
to stay with us!’
I broke through another layer
into joyfulness.
He said, ‘Its not enough.’
I died.
He said, ‘You are a clever little man,
full of fantasy and doubting.’
I plucked out my feathers and became a fool.
He said, ‘Now you are the candle
for this assembly.’
But I’m no candle. Look!
I’m scattered smoke
He said, ‘You are the Sheikh, the guide.’
But I’m not a teacher. I have no power.
He said, ‘You already have wings.
I cannot give you wings.’
But I wanted his wings.
I felt like some flightless chicken.
Then new events said to me,
‘Don’t move. A sublime generosity is
coming towards you.’
And old love said, ‘Stay with me.’
I said, ‘I will.’
You are the fountain of the sun’s light.
I am a willow shadow on the ground.
You make my raggedness silky.
The soul at dawn is like darkened water
that slowly begins to say Thank you, thank you.
Then at sunset, again, Venus gradually
Changes into the moon and then the whole nightsky.
This comes of smiling back
at your smile.
The chess master says nothing,
other than moving the silent chess piece.
That I am part of the ploys
of this game makes me
amazingly happy.
Jumi
Well-Known Member
What is getting inspired from art or great thoughts? It's a bit difficult to define, but it's almost the same as spiritual experience. Spiritual is just more specific, it's something that combines all of that with your world view. Think back to, if you've ever experienced music with lyrics profoundly meaningful to you. Something in those lyrics felt special to you, maybe you felt like you needed to do something to change your life, to help your community or even cry to heal from a trauma. Maybe you've experienced that with an equation like one in a textbook talking about Newton's laws or a philosophy, it doesn't matter where the inspiration came from.
Mystical experiences are even more difficult to put into words, what they are and much more interesting. Many have tried to explain them, but I don't think it comes across to anyone who hasn't gone through one by themselves. I'd put spiritual on a lower level than what I'd categorize a mystical experience. It's above the second power of what is the X of spiritual experience in terms of inspiration value where all of this both loses meaning or is amplified in meaning(edited to include meaning), sometimes even both... It depends where you're at.
It's hard to question an experience, it's more the conclusions that we come to because of them. That is most worth examining in case of spiritual experiences, since we can take that experience and believe what triggered it, as if it's the absolute or the final truth of something, when it was only us scratching the surface of what it is it about being human or alive. When you experience something on a deep level, after the fact you're either looking to stick with what you were before the experience or trying to find which part of the experience was significant.
Mystical experiences are even more difficult to put into words, what they are and much more interesting. Many have tried to explain them, but I don't think it comes across to anyone who hasn't gone through one by themselves. I'd put spiritual on a lower level than what I'd categorize a mystical experience. It's above the second power of what is the X of spiritual experience in terms of inspiration value where all of this both loses meaning or is amplified in meaning(edited to include meaning), sometimes even both... It depends where you're at.
It's hard to question an experience, it's more the conclusions that we come to because of them. That is most worth examining in case of spiritual experiences, since we can take that experience and believe what triggered it, as if it's the absolute or the final truth of something, when it was only us scratching the surface of what it is it about being human or alive. When you experience something on a deep level, after the fact you're either looking to stick with what you were before the experience or trying to find which part of the experience was significant.
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