Oneness (ritual, mysticism, experience, atheist, spiritual)

[YmirGF]

Oneness is a subject we hear about from time to time on RF but I was hoping to get some "bird's eye" views of what Oneness means to the members of RF. I am not particularly interested in what the old books have to say on the matter and am far more interested in hearing about this "concept" from a first hand perspective. So, please, do NOT cut and paste your answers as I would consider that to be akin to "cheating" or riding the coattails of another.

Have you personally felt a state of being that can only be described as a state of Oneness?
How did that experience change your perspective of yourself, God and Reality?
Did you emerge from the experience unchanged or unaffected by it?
Have you managed to duplicate the experience?
Have you managed to "hold" the experience?
How long did it/they last?

If you wish and are not embarrassed you are welcome to describe your own appointment(s) with "Oneness".

I will let this thread go for a few days before giving my answers. If no one replies I will just let it die and say nothing.

*Release the hounds*

[Buttercup]

I suppose I look at "Oneness" more in a practical and not mystical manner. Hope that's alright.

Oneness for me means feeling at peace with my place in the world.
Feeling content with my life in every way...good or bad.
Living with as little guilt as possible...THAT is peace which equals oneness to me.
As I've gotten older I've enjoyed "wanting" less. From material objects to attention.
I feel oneness when I make someone feel good about themselves...I feel "one" with them.

[Sunstone]

To me, a sense or perception of oneness is very, very closely related to a sense or perception that all things a connected, and that sense or perception that all things are connected is basically the threshold of the spiritual.

[standing_alone]

Originally Posted by YmirGF

Have you personally felt a state of being that can only be described as a state of Oneness?
How did that experience change your perspective of yourself, God and Reality?
Did you emerge from the experience unchanged or unaffected by it?
Have you managed to duplicate the experience?
Have you managed to "hold" the experience?
How long did it/they last?

Any state I've ever experienced that I'd feel comfortable applying the term "oneness" to is any time I have felt a strong connection to my environment. It didn't really change my perspective on myself, God, or reality, per se, but my perspective on my relation to my environment may have been a little different between when I was a theist and now as an atheist.

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by standing_alone

Any state I've ever experienced that I'd feel comfortable applying the term "oneness" to is any time I have felt a strong connection to my environment. It didn't really change my perspective on myself, God, or reality, per se, but my perspective on my relation to my environment may have been a little different between when I was a theist and now as an atheist.

By "environment" do you mean the environment, or your surroundings?

[standing_alone]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

By "environment" do you mean the environment, or your surroundings?

Well, most often the environment where I feel such a strong connection is "nature," typically the woods ("the environment"), but I have felt a similar feeling when interacting with others under certain circumstances as well ("surroundings"). So maybe both? I suppose the nature of the experience differs with each environment. When I experience such a connection when in the woods, it's a connection with my place in the world, amongst all living and non-living things, the true state of nature in which humans were meant to live (not the urban mess we've created), whereas when I feel a connection when interacting with others, it's more of as a strong unity with my fellow human beings. I really don't know how to explain... But maybe you understand what I'm trying to say?

[Random]

Originally Posted by YmirGF

So, please, do NOT cut and paste your answers as I would consider that to be akin to "cheating" or riding the coattails of another.

For shame, Paul, I have never done this on RF and never will: if I were to cut/copy/paste anything on here, it would be from my own essays and treatsies on mysticism, not anyone else's unless I disagreed and wanted a third party opinion.

Originally Posted by YmirGF

Have you personally felt a state of being that can only be described as a state of Oneness?

I Am, right now.

Originally Posted by YmirGF

How did that experience change your perspective of yourself, God and Reality?

That's too big a question to be neatly summed up in a paragraph for me: some things are not so easily described in words. Language is dualistic: what language describes adequately the things of the Self and the Cosmos that I percieve subjectively? There is none.

Originally Posted by YmirGF

Did you emerge from the experience unchanged or unaffected by it?

It changed me profoundly in that I stopped trying to change myself "for the better" when I realized I was pretty much made the way I am and this is how I am supposed to be. That was very important to me personally. Note that I avoided using the word "perfect"...

Originally Posted by YmirGF

Have you managed to duplicate the experience?

Unnecessary: it only need be realized once. Having woken from that residual slumber of the womb, ones eyes are permanently open. No further effort to reproduce the effect is required, and actually is counter-productive and possibly for some very dangerous (in terms of mental health).

Originally Posted by YmirGF

Have you managed to "hold" the experience?

it doesn't pass @ all if you don't cling to it: that's the secret. It never truly leaves you but in attaching to aspects of the experience your mind can convince you it has.

Originally Posted by YmirGF

How long did it/they last?

Permanent: believe it, know it.

[YmirGF]

Some outstanding answers folks.

Originally Posted by Buttercup

THAT is peace which equals oneness to me.
As I've gotten older I've enjoyed "wanting" less. From material objects to attention.
I feel oneness when I make someone feel good about themselves...I feel "one" with them.

I think that is quite a beautiful explanation Lady Buddercup At first I do admit, that I sort of tossed it off but upon thinking about it this response is still very good. My feeling is that people experience this inherent aspect of our internal nature to lesser and greater degrees, but in this odd situation, even the "lesser" degrees can be pretty profound. Thanks for your thoughts.

Originally Posted by Sunstone

To me, a sense or perception of oneness is very, very closely related to a sense or perception that all things a connected, and that sense or perception that all things are connected is basically the threshold of the spiritual.

You are so right Phil. I remember the first time this happened to me I ended up writing a short essay called "The inter-relation of all events". I looked at it a few months back and was delighted to see how well my 18 year old self had described this "sensation" or "perception" or whatever one wants to call it.

Originally Posted by Standing-Not-So-Alone

Any state I've ever experienced that I'd feel comfortable applying the term "oneness" to is any time I have felt a strong connection to my environment. It didn't really change my perspective on myself, God,