Experiences

[Bubbles]

This is an interesting article

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/19/science-behind-spiritual-experiences_n_4078519.html

 

[Étienne d'Angleterre]

Had a similar experience on a National Express coach. The windscreen shattered as we were overtaking a Lorry. I could see the pieces of glass come up the aisle in very slow motion indeed.

I agree. When I was in primary school (age~9) My friend was knocked down by a car (he was in hospital for a week or two) but no permanent damage was done.

I can still recall the actual instant. Which I witnessed.

It was as if it occured in slow motion. It's as though our senses are so alert that they record every detail..

[Enki]

I have had several 'experiences' throughout my life, but I am going to try here to simply describe what I consider to be the first of such experiences. This happened when I was about 9/10 years old, and I am fully aware that the recollection of that experience may well have altered over time. However the fact that that 'experience' has remained with me to this day, at least, I suggest, points to the emotional power and vividness of such an 'experience'. It was during a warm late evening in Spring that it happened. It started in the most mundane way possible when I decided to go to the toilet(we had an outside toilet). Instead of going to the toilet, I walked to the bottom of our back garden, which looked onto a large enclosed rough wasteland surrounded by houses, which had once been a large allotments(during the war) but had now fallen into complete disuse. The air was still, the night was dark. I'm fairly certain there was no moon, indeed I don't even remember any stars showing so it may well have been overcast.

For some reason, unkown to me, then or now, I walked into this patch of waste ground for some distance, and sat down. I knew that I was completely alone sitting there with no particular sounds to break the silence.(it was a time before cars became the norm in our area). I think I remember the distant barking of a dog, but I could well be mistaken. I know that I could see the lights from some of the houses which were some distance from me, but, as far as I felt, I was totally isolated from any human beings, a feeling which was emphasised by the darkness which surrounded me.

The only way that I can express my feelings, which gradually and increasingly enveloped me, is that I became at one with my surroundings. I wasn't scared or emotionally excited, but had what I would now call an almost natural ambiance with my surroundings. I felt extremely relaxed and at ease with myself. It is extremely hard, if not impossible , to convey what I actually experienced. Looking back on it, the best I can do is suggest that it was as if, at that particular time, I had no need of anyone else at all. Everything seemed focused on this particular point in time, as if I was seeing myself and my surroundings with some sort of clarity which, as a young boy, I had never recognised before. It was an intensively subjective experience which I don't think I shared with anyone until I met my wife. There wasn't any feeling of a god or a pervading consciousness throughout this experience. I do remember however going back in, and my mother telling me that I had been rather a long time on the toilet.

Certain other experiences that I have had since have reinforced that first experience and each one has been a personal, never a shared, experience.
 

[Brownie]

Sounds marvellous Enki, you were living in the moment, completely experiencing it.  'Mindfulness' springs to - er - mind.  I almost envy you that experience.

[Étienne d'Angleterre]

Try 113. 

Amazing. Thank you.

[Rhiannon]

I've done meditative journeying; the biggest problem that I have is a tendency to fall asleep which makes it go very squiffy, so I don't do it much.

When I've had experiences of something outside of myself I've been conscious on some level that my mind was reaching for them. The exceptions have been in times of serious stress and illness and for these reasons I don't believe either to be authentic, however much I have wanted them to be. There's a limit to how much I can lie to myself.

The experiences that do work for me are the ones out in the elements, such as the one I described in the Today thread, or the consolation that I get from being small beneath clouds and stars. And it really takes no effort - they just seem to happen.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Rhiannon and Horsethorn,

But why label/name it journeying, are you going somewhere or is it that you are going away from something?

One thing that I have noted on this little wonderful thread, age, enki's is a good example, he was very young, and I would argue that God was exactly what he was experiencing, anyway, age, Jesus tells us that we need to become like children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, I think there is something in that, inner child, as we age we become less connected.

A experience from my childhood which has stuck with me, I am a dreamer, yes! shut up Mr Kipling,

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

Anyway, as I sat and day dreamed I would put my hands together like in prayer but they would not touch and if I moved my hands slightly I could feel a force, like when you try to join two magnets together using their opposing poles, ( is that right ) I can no longer feel that force, we lose something as we age.

Or, or! I was just a strange child

Gonnagle.

[Rhiannon]

Journeying is definitely going to and from, it's leaving the concrete world behind and going somewhere hidden or unseen.

The experiences I have in nature are those I've always had. I have a very vivid memory of lying in my back garden studying the structure of grass and it was as though that was all there was. As a child my animism was much stronger than now - I could sense the 'personalities' of grass and trees and flowers, and rocks and pebbles. Not so much now, although I sometimes feel it. You might say this is imaginary; most likely it is.

[Shaker]

You might say this is imaginary; most likely it is.

Yes; but the imaginary is also real*

* Subjectively, of course.

[horsethorn]

If you have any links could you send them though I would be very interested to hear more about it.

https://www.shamanism.org/
http://shamanicdrumming.com/shamanic_journeying.html

I like the books by Sandra Ingerman, Caitlin and John Matthews, and Kenneth Meadows

Same in mine. It feels a bit like talking but it isn't. Impossible to describe.

Yes - but I've never wanted to call it 'telepathy'.

ht

[horsethorn]

Who'd have thought it Horsethorn playing " my experience is better than your experience"............what next Horsethorn? "My experience is so great it has its own gravitational field"

Who'd have seen the critique coming?........well, I did.

Not even close, Vlad. It was more a case of disappointment. I've read many descriptions of mystic experiences, and after a while you get a good idea of what the commonalities are.

Why don't you tell us more about what you *felt*? And I don't mean when you were reading books.

ht

[Gonnagle]

Dear Rhiannon,

Animism, a new one for me, which brings a smile to my face, I am a bit of a animist, I often say good morning to tree's and bee's, although they are very rude, they never reply

Dear Horsethorn,

I like Vlads description, it sounds like a walk or a journey, he walked into Christianity, nice!

Gonnagle.

[Enki]

Dear Rhiannon and Horsethorn,

But why label/name it journeying, are you going somewhere or is it that you are going away from something?

One thing that I have noted on this little wonderful thread, age, enki's is a good example, he was very young, and I would argue that God was exactly what he was experiencing, anyway, age, Jesus tells us that we need to become like children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, I think there is something in that, inner child, as we age we become less connected.

A experience from my childhood which has stuck with me, I am a dreamer, yes! shut up Mr Kipling,

Anyway, as I sat and day dreamed I would put my hands together like in prayer but they would not touch and if I moved my hands slightly I could feel a force, like when you try to join two magnets together using their opposing poles, ( is that right ) I can no longer feel that force, we lose something as we age.

Or, or! I was just a strange child

Gonnagle.

My interpretation would be clearly different from yours, Gonners. You are clearly welcome to your views, but,  looking back, I think it was simply a case of a young mind maturing and becoming aware of itself.

[floo]

My youngest daughter had a very nasty experience when she was about 11. She was walking up to the local church for bell ringing practise when she saw the results of an accident, which had just occurred. A biker had been struck by a car and beheaded in the process! The poor child was in a terrible state when she got home, and had unpleasant nightmares for a good while.

[Sebastian Toe]

Anyway, as I sat and day dreamed I would put my hands together like in prayer but they would not touch and if I moved my hands slightly I could feel a force, like when you try to join two magnets together using their opposing poles,

..if only Sparky was here, he would have a name for that!   

[Gonnagle]

Dear enki,

No argument from me old son, one thing I notice on this forum, it runs through the forum like a naked fat jolly person who nobody notices, the atheist shouts, God is all in your mind!! course he is, where else would he be.

Horsethorn shouts it at Floo, Floo had a Christian upbringing, so her experience is coloured Christian, Horsethorns experience is coloured pagan, mine is sometimes, the picture of Jesus meek and mild other times it is the Cross.

Atheist is coloured, well there ain't no God, just an experience, get over it, but in all my chuntering and it is!! Only my opinion, your experience was God, God with no pictures, God with no image, hell! maybe in your experience you were closer to God than I have ever been, the very essence of God.

Gonnagle.

[horsethorn]

That is very interesting.

Recently I have discovered that if I want to go to my other place I can bring on the experience by first having a period of silence and then listening to (or playing, although I am far from perfect)  a specific piece of music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yvv6vLQfEw

Like you suggest it has a very rhythmic theme. Temolos is a technique on the paino of producing a trembling like sound (sorry if you already new this, didn't want to sound patronising). As you can hear it is a repetitive sound all through the piece, except  for the first and last 30 seconds or so.

As the piece gets to about 1 min 30 secs I can start to feel myself dissociate from my body. By the time it gets to 2 min 30 secs I can only describe my feelings as transcendent. This then enables me to go on my journey.

It would be great to have a link to any other music/chanting etc. that you think might have a similar effect.

Very happy to give it a try and see what happens.

Nice. I tend to use a recording of a simple drumming session, Buddhist or Gregorian chanting (or the crossover CD I have ) or a CD of Hildegard of Bingen's music, called Vision (well worth a listen!).

ht

[horsethorn]

Dear enki,

No argument from me old son, one thing I notice on this forum, it runs through the forum like a naked fat jolly person who nobody notices, the atheist shouts, God is all in your mind!! course he is, where else would he be.

Horsethorn shouts it at Floo, Floo had a Christian upbringing, so her experience is coloured Christian, Horsethorns experience is coloured pagan, mine is sometimes, the picture of Jesus meek and mild other times it is the Cross.

Atheist is coloured, well there ain't no God, just an experience, get over it, but in all my chuntering and it is!! Only my opinion, your experience was God, God with no pictures, God with no image, hell! maybe in your experience you were closer to God than I have ever been, the very essence of God.

Gonnagle.

I don't think I've ever *shouted* at Floo? :/

But yes, 'god' is a way of perceiving the world

ht

[Enki]

I don't think I've ever *shouted* at Floo? :/

But yes, 'god' is a way of perceiving the world

ht

Ditto. I tend not to shout, at least I hope so.

[Gonnagle]

Dear enki and Horsethorn,

We all shout, but it is like that naked fat man running rampant through the forum, we don't notice it and of course, for the most, it is a very polite form of shouting.

Take a look at the Searching for God thread, thousands of shouts or and I know it is painful a Sass post, Voluminus Maximumis

Gonnagle.

[horsethorn]

that naked fat man running rampant through the forum

I'm getting (more) worried about what goes on in your head, Gonners...

ht

[Gonnagle]

Dear Horsethorn,

See them tumbling down, rolling along with the tumbling tumble weed

And don't worry, society is very safe, no one seems to want to finance my invasion of Poland

Gonnagle.

[Sebastian Toe]

 but it is like that naked fat man running rampant through the forum,

Oi! Keep me out of your head if you don't mind. 

[Nearly Sane]

I have posted before about a description of a certain type of experience in the poem Aberdeen Train by Edwin Morgan, link below. The final line always resonates with me


http://tinyurl.com/gurehqr

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Not even close, Vlad. It was more a case of disappointment. I've read many descriptions of mystic experiences, and after a while you get a good idea of what the commonalities are.

Why don't you tell us more about what you *felt*? And I don't mean when you were reading books.

ht

I was reading a book or I was using a technique or even I was holding my breathe while I had my finger up my arse.

In case you missed it or if I didn't make it clear I experienced an understanding of the meaning of the old book, an awareness of the mind behind Lewis and other writings and Jesus knocking on the door not to mention experiencing eventually the holiness of God and my separation from him........but then I don't want to end up trading experiences in a mine is bigger and better than yours which you keep unavoidably straying into.

Christianity records many experiences while people are reading although I was not reading anything when I asked Jesus to ''take it all''.

The point is though at the start of my journey the bible is an incomprehensible meaningless quaint old book as loved by nutters and at my conversion moment a profound work inspired and illuminated by a very real mind and God.

I would also like to point out that the whole thing was technique free. I'm still not big on technique myself but don't deny they have results. I also want to make it clear that I do not knock yours.