Do you believe in the mystical experience?

Question

By mystical experience, I mean through meditation or prayer, you become one with God, or the Divine, or the World Soul, or however you see it after. I don't believe the experience itself makes these limitations, but when we discribe it later we have to put finite words on the experience.

I also am not talking about normal bedtime prayers. I mean an extreme feeling of Unity with everything.

Do you? Have you experienced this? If so, what was your experience in brief?


Please state your religion or spirituality below your answer.

Answer 1

My first serious knowledge of unity was on a trip to Sedona when I was 16. We went to a chapel on a rock that is supposed to be an energy vortex. I had been there many times before...

This time, I just went into the chapel, lit a candle, sat on a pew and bowed my head. I wasn't praying or anything, just sitting silently. The next thing I knew, the "feeling" came on so strong that I was told I collapsed and began sobbing. All I can describe is that I KNEW I was one with the Creator and the entire Universe and that I was SOOOOO loved. I didn't ever want that feeling of being loved by the entirety of time and space to go away.

I have experienced the "love" since, but never that intensely. I will never forget it, and it is what I look to when I feel the "illusion" is really sucky and I'm ready to quit this life (not suicide, just a feeling of "can we move on, please, Universe?")

I have no religion to speak of. I have studied comparative religion and world mythologies my entire life. I am more spiritual than religious. I am also an ordained minister.

Answer 2

I am a Catholic, and I am also a 'mystic' ... which means that I am someone who has 'mystical experiences' 'all the time' ... but these are not 'an extreme feeling of Unity with everything' ... they are simply me being made 'more aware of what God wants me to do' in some things, even if I don't 'agree with it' normally. I've 'felt God/Jesus' SPEAKING TO ME 1. when I was getting ready to be baptized, and He told me 'you're not mine totally yet, and you'll go away from Christianity for many years, but when you do come back you will be TOTALLY mine.' 2. When I needed to 'talk to a priest' (I was an Episcopalian) one evening, but couldn't get one on the phone, and I 'heard' 'try calling one Catholic church, and if a PRIEST picks up the phone, you need to become Catholic' and a priest actually did 'pick up the phone' although they usually 'don't' do that. I know that I can't 'become one with God' yet, because I'm 'still alive, and human' but these 'mystic experiences' "add up to a total that is greater than 'life on earth' can account for" and I "know" that after I die, I will 'go to Heaven' and also that my husband will be 'right beside me' but that we won't have any 'human' shape or thoughts ... and I can 'look forward to that' and be 'extremely glad' but I can also 'just live every day to the best of my ability' now and not 'want to be with God' any sooner than is 'absolutely necessary.'

Answer 3

If one does deep meditation or what is called centering prayer one can get to a point of contemplation. This is the place where your body and mind is still and you are just in the stillness and deep silence of God. Sometimes when you are there God opens the door so that you can be aware of His presence within your soul. He is there all the time, but most of the time we are busy with the world and not aware of Him. My first experience was at a Benedictine monastery in the spring of 1978. It was my first time to a monastery and my first time meditating. Suddenly it was as if I were not in my body and I was suspended in the air with God and the feeling of unity and deep peace was so wonderful that I did not want to leave. Then someone tapped me on the shoulder and I came out of it and back into the earthly moment. Later when I got back home I walked into my apartment and everything seems so empty. It meant nothing to me anymore. I could give it all up to be back in that moment in time. I think of that summer as my honeymoon with God. His presense came to me off and on throughout the summer. Once I was thinking about giving up everything for God but how could I give up all of the decorations of Christmas. Then I looked outside and I saw rainbows in raindrops for the first time. Then I knew that He can give me everything that I need and even Christmas lights more beautiful than any man-made. I am an Episcopalian and a Benedictine oblate.

Answer 4

I have, but only breifly, as I am a beginner in my new found "religion" It's what people call New Age, The Age of Aquarius, but I have a long way to go. It was very brief, and I felt very light and airy, and I couldn't hear anything, I felt warm, like I was outside being bathe in the sun, and then it was over. I'm not good at concentrating, and I was teaching myself discipline.
Why do you ask ?

Answer 5

Yes, although, I haven't had any such experience. Obviously people get great things from prayer, meditation, and even mint-altering drugs. I see nothing wrong with that kind of thing, in fact, I think it should be encouraged.

I'd like to see that kind of mystical experience decoupled from religious dogma. (As you know, I'm an atheist)

PS: The last chapter of "The End of Faith", discusses just that -- mystics. "Experiments in Consciousness" is the chapter title.

Answer 6

Yes, because I have experienced this more than once. Each experience was different, each unexpected. None were the result of the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Overall, the feeling of this experience is one of complete peace and calm. There is also an overwhelm vision and sense of light being present.

Answer 7

Mystical experiences are generated by the brain and the brain and the brain alone just like dreams.

Answer 8

I have experienced what I would describe as an expansion of my consciousness and an awareness of some wider reality but I became uncomfortable with it and as soon as that happened the sensation was gone. I'm an atheist.

Answer 9

We become like christ not as GOD. satan tried to become as GOd and was thrown out of heaven as does anyone.

Answer 10

Of coure, yes: Si., hai, oui.