Spirituality: Have you ever experienced the "OCEANIC FEELING"?

Question

Non-religious mystical experience, according to french writer Romain ROLLAND.

"oceanic" in a symbolic meaning.

Can you please tell me details about what you felt then?
Do you keep feeling this "expansion"?

Wow Danielle... Your reply is simply outstanding...

Answer 1

For anyone interested, here is a definition I unearthed:


The oceanic feeling is an emotionally aesthetic event one may rightfully call sublime--so subjective and arcane that it is beyond which words can define. What distinguishes the oceanic feeling from belief is the felt nature of the lived experience: the oceanic feeling is "unbounded" while belief is bound--bound to set ideation belonging to doctrine. Here we may further highlight the ontology of religiosity as feeling phenomenologically realized as unbounded experience.

Because such a sensation is so epistemologically private, its realized meaning resists universal consensus or understanding. This unbounded experience may be tied to natural phenomena such as an awe inspiring sunset, music so moving that it makes you weep, or the beauty and mutual recognition of falling in love--all leading to an elevation of consciousness that transcends the parameters of self-interest. The oceanic feeling may be said to be spiritual based on the elevation of consciousness alone, a feeling that evokes the deepest sense of personal satisfaction. When understood for its total worth, the oceanic feeling becomes an aesthetic expression of the soul potentially associated with the nature of the moral--the ultimate goodness that underlies the structure of the universe. I simply prefer to call this the beauty of wonder.

The oceanic feeling was captured by James very nicely in The Varieties of Religious Experience, and thus can apply to practically anyone who is either "saintly," following the testimony of belief, or who pursues mystical, spiritual, or aesthetic experiences detached from doxa. Freud himself admits, "I cannot discover this 'oceanic' feeling in myself. It is not easy to deal scientifically with feelings." But it is precisely this feeling that constitutes the religious experience. Freud goes on to dismiss the feeling as a regression to the symbiotic stage of object relations development where the ego boundaries of the infant are not yet individuated and thus are merged with the undifferentiated unity of the mother-child matrix. On his psychogenic account, this feeling is rendered a deposit of desire, a need to remain tied to the maternal union experienced as the limitless "bond with the universe." Yet he says "there is nothing strange in such a phenomenon, whether in the mental field or elsewhere" for "in mental life nothing which has once been formed can perish--that everything is somehow preserved and that in suitable circumstances (when, for instance, regression goes back far enough) it can once more be brought to light." While an argument can be made that one should not hold onto such primordial desires, for the mark of a mature ego is one that relinquishes the need for the fulfillment of such a wish, the feeling is nevertheless important here. Even if we grant Freud the presumption that the oceanic feeling is merely an unconscious artifact, it nevertheless serves spiritual needs--the reality of the inner world.

While the oceanic feeling may be experienced by the non-theist, it may be argued that it is not as easily facilitated as it is in organized rituals or structured religious ceremonies. Furthermore, non-theist religiosity is divorced from a personal sense of connection to a personal being. While Freud is content to disregard this notion as childish and irrational, many theists see this as an indispensable aspect to their faith. The oceanic feeling is for many the true source of a personal connection with a personal being. Let me contrast this for a moment with an atheist. While there are different forms of atheism, for our purposes let us say that an atheist does not belief in God and believes that no such God exists or could exist. Therefore, any personal relation to an absolute personal being is exempt from experience. Although an atheist may have oceanic feelings tied to love, nature, mysticism, peek experiences, music, etc., s/he will not feel a bond with an entity nor develop a personal relationship. This added dimension enriches theistic religiosity: the quality of the lived feeling alone is given more value because it is personalized. Of course, our atheistic friend may point out that s/he doesn't need or want to have such a relationship, or will claim that all religious experience is ultimately personal so the distinction evaporates, or that individual subjectivity cannot be logically compared to another's subjectivity, for it is self-defined. Yet the value of personal relatedness underscores the significance of human attachment, a value we may rightly call love.>


If anyone hasn't had this experience, I would say that's sad. I presume almost everyone has.

Answer 2

Oceanic Feeling

Answer 3

I've never heard of it and I don't think I've experienced it. The only weird thing that I remember experiencing similar to this is staring at the palm of my hand for long periods of time and being awed that it can move so many ways and that I existed...does that count?

Answer 4

Oh like going on a trip to nowhere land. its called lalla lalla land. NAM fall victim to this that is why they have Ascension chambers. It akin to Bobby Bobbbby BOBBY! and its your third grade teacher snapping your back into Reality. I prefer reality when it comes to spirituality. Whats an experience if it isn't real right. I would much rather have a relationship with someone then just imagine that I am.

Answer 5

It s strange, in that if a person has no reference to a somewhat unique human spiritual experience "it must not exist." I have had that very experience at various intensities through my life. Though I have found it difficult to maintain it parentally in my everyday life.

Answer 6

i've never heard of the 'oceanic' feeling so I'm not sure what it is, and therefore if I've had it. If I knew what it was and whether or not I've experienced then I could answer your question a lot better.

Answer 7

Yes.

With proper meditation techniques you can experience it too.

www.bkwsu.org

Answer 8

http://www.myislamweb.com/forum/showthread.php?t=748

Answer 9

Oh man, now I'm stareing at the palm of my hand. Thanks