Can We Have A Direct Experience Of Deity? (divine)

[Random]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

Can we have a direct experience of deity? That is, can we have an experience of deity that is mediated by nothing, including consciousness?

No, for there is no such being extant apart and seperate from experiencer: and experience requires consciousness. "Deity" is an illusory projection of man's inner mystery, the god within. It has no existence devoid of beingness and sapience. God is never "out there" or "up there": he or she is always "here" and "now".

Originally Posted by Sunstone

If so, how can we know we have had such an experience since the experience was not mediated by consciousness, which is self awareness? That is, how can we know we have had a direct experience of deity if we were not self aware during the experience?

See first answer.

[autonomous1one1]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

Can we have a direct experience of deity? That is, can we have an experience of deity that is mediated by nothing, including consciousness?
If so, how can we know we have had such an experience since the experience was not mediated by consciousness, which is self awareness? That is, how can we know we have had a direct experience of deity if we were not self aware during the experience?

Greetings.
Another interesting thread, Sunstone. This is a difficult one, for we are trying to explain an experience outside of consciousness (a ‘direct experience’) by bringing it into consciousness and explaining it in language in this thread; and while not having an agreed-upon definition of ‘consciousness.’ However, if the reader will allow that ‘awareness’ is separate and ‘prior’ to consciousness, I would answer your question with a yes. We can have a direct experience of ‘deity’ that might be characterized as a breakthrough in awareness which results in subject and object merging into one, and which is subsequently brought into consciousness to figure out and explain what it was. Since I have already given my description for this experience in several other threads I would like to provide a description from another person here.

In recent months, the book “Essential Spirituality” by Roger Walsh has come to my attention. This book has as its central theme a particular ‘experience of the sacred’ and I would like to provide the description in a quote from this book. “When the mind is still and clear, we can have a direct experience of our Self. This is not a concept of, nor an intellectual theory about, the Self. Rather, it is an immediate knowing, a direct intuition in which one not only sees the divine spark but also identifies with and recognizes that one is the spark. Sages from Judaism and Sufism, from Plato to Buddha, from Eckhart to Lao Tsu have agreed on this.”

And in another quote, “Look within, and at the center of your mind, in the depths of your soul, you will find your true Self, that this Self is intimately linked to the sacred, and that you share in the unbounded bliss of the sacred. This recognition is the goal of the great religions and it is known by names such as salvation and satori, enlightenment and liberation, fana and nirvana, awakening and Ruah Ha-qodesh. But whatever the name, the great religions all exist to help us discover our true Self and our true relationship to the sacred. This discovery, they agree, is the supreme joy and greatest goal of human life.”

[writer]

1 Can we have a direct experience of deity?
yes

That is, can we have an experience of deity that is mediated by nothing, including consciousness?
i guess so, but then u wouldn't know about it directly or contemporaneously.
Anyway, by definition we're conscious

If so, how can we know we have had such an experience since the experience was not mediated by consciousness, which is self awareness?
mebbe sumbudy did somethin to u while u were asleep

That is, how can we know we have had a direct experience of deity if we were not self aware during the experience?
That's not God's purpose since He loves you and wants to get to know you. And vice versa...

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

Can we have a direct experience of deity?

::Looks at sun (carefully)::

::Looks at moon::

::Feels Earth beneath her feet::

Seems pretty direct to me

[arielmessenger]

Here is proof direct experience of God is possible. Please go to www.paxcalibur.org and the Biomystical Christianity book therein which details the ways this person has received direct communion with God unfiltered through any other's perceptions.

[writer]

to directly experience us