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Who Here Has Never Had A Mystical Experience?

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I can't define "mystical", but seeing how it's commonly
used here on RF, I've never had such an experience.
(A fundie I knew once said I'm "spiritually dead" cuz I didn't know God.)
Are there others here so mired in the material world?
 
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Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
With the wording of the OP, I can't help but wonder if the preconception that mystical experiences somehow don't involve the "material world" results in the belief that one hasn't had such experiences. As far as I'm aware, some of the most common forms mystical experiences come from spending time in nature - marveling at sunrises and stuff like that. What do you mean by mystical experiences?
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
With the wording of the OP, I can't help but wonder if the preconception that mystical experiences somehow don't involve the "material world" results in the belief that one hasn't had such experiences. As far as I'm aware, some of the most common forms mystical experiences come from spending time in nature - marveling at sunrises and stuff like that. What do you mean by mystical experiences?
I don't consider marveling at nature to be "mystical" as the
term is used here, particularly in the counterpart thread.
"Mystical" strikes me as supernatural...not of the natural world.
The word, "spiritual", would better fit what you described.
 

sayak83

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
With the wording of the OP, I can't help but wonder if the preconception that mystical experiences somehow don't involve the "material world" results in the belief that one hasn't had such experiences. As far as I'm aware, some of the most common forms mystical experiences come from spending time in nature - marveling at sunrises and stuff like that. What do you mean by mystical experiences?
I won't call that mystical...more an aesthetic experience. They don't have many similarities.
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
I don't consider marveling at nature to be "mystical" as the
term is used here, particularly in the counterpart thread.
"Mystical" strikes me as supernatural...not of the natural world.
The word, "spiritual", would better fit what you described.

Pardon, I should have written a bit more there. Mystical experiences stemming from nature are more than just marveling at it. It's accompanied by a sense of profound connection with whatever it is you are experiencing. Some describe that as "oneness" but that's not the term I tend to use. I think of it as a deep connection, like you've got a direct conduit to that sunrise and feel the depth of your relatedness to it in the now. It's definitely not supernatural (something I don't even believe in). "Spiritual experience" and "religious experience" and "mystical experience" are all basically synonymous.

I don't doubt there are people incapable of such things, though. There are, apparently, people incapable of visualizing... something that utterly boggles my mind.
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
I can't define "mystical", but seeing how it's commonly
used here on RF, I've never had such an experience.
(A fundie I knew once said I'm "spiritually dead" cuz I didn't know God.)
Are there others here so mired in the material world?

Have I ever had a feeling of 'oneness' with the universe? No.

Have I been deeply moved by nature and a dark sky? Yes.

Have I had the feeling of being very, very small compared to the cosmos? Yes.

Do I understand that the atoms in my body were made from an exploding star? Yes....and that's cool.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Have I ever had a feeling of 'oneness' with the universe? No.

Have I been deeply moved by nature and a dark sky? Yes.

Have I had the feeling of being very, very small compared to the cosmos? Yes.

Do I understand that the atoms in my body were made from an exploding star? Yes....and that's cool.
You're rather mired in the material world, eh.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
I can't define "mystical", but seeing how it's commonly
used here on RF, I've never had such an experience.
(A fundie I knew once said I'm "spiritually dead" cuz I didn't know God.)
Are there others here so mired in the material world?

I imagine people would define mystical according to whatever experience they had which seemed mystical to them.

I would describe it as an experience in which one had a complete paradigm shift in their understanding of reality. For example when one is searching for the "Truth" it's like climbing a tree. You can only see the view from the branch you are sitting on. Your view is your reality. You usually can't even see the branch above you. Don't even know a higher branch exists. Then suddenly, something happens to raise you to a higher branch. Some experience, some vision, dream, some communication with the "divine" and now you are looking from a completely different view. You can now see/understand a part of the puzzle of reality/existence you couldn't see before and some aspect of reality that was a mystery to you previously makes perfect sense.

Without the "mystical" experience, there was no way for you to have climbed up to that higher branch on your own.

Of course you are now stuck seeing reality at this new level. Maybe not realizing there are many more branches above you to climb. Until the next "mystical" experience lifts you higher.

These experiences come when they come, at their own pace. Since you can't see the branch above you, you have no idea how to reach it. You have no idea what the view will be like.

Lots of ways to try to have a mystical experience, meditation, mantras, fasting, drugs. However nothing is a gurantee. I've heard of monks who have basically walled themselves off from the rest of the world. Someone provides a small amount of food through an opening in the wall. Sitting there for years try to have a mystical experience.

Buddha sat under the bodhi tree for 49 days. Jesus went out to the wilderness for 40 days. It's an experience that really provides a dramatic change in consciousness.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
There's that connection with universe through interrelationships. Technically we're attached to everything everywhere garnering the sense of interconnectedness and wholeness that can never be severed.

I don't know if that's mystical , but I find it profound.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I imagine people would define mystical according to whatever experience they had which seemed mystical to them.

I would describe it as an experience in which one had a complete paradigm shift in their understanding of reality. For example when one is searching for the "Truth" it's like climbing a tree. You can only see the view from the branch you are sitting on. Your view is your reality. You usually can't even see the branch above you. Don't even know a higher branch exists. Then suddenly, something happens to raise you to a higher branch. Some experience, some vision, dream, some communication with the "divine" and now you are looking from a completely different view. You can now see/understand a part of the puzzle of reality/existence you couldn't see before and some aspect of reality that was a mystery to you previously makes perfect sense.

Without the "mystical" experience, there was no way for you to have climbed up to that higher branch on your own.

Of course you are now stuck seeing reality at this new level. Maybe not realizing there are many more branches above you to climb. Until the next "mystical" experience lifts you higher.

These experiences come when they come, at their own pace. Since you can't see the branch above you, you have no idea how to reach it. You have no idea what the view will be like.

Lots of ways to try to have a mystical experience, meditation, mantras, fasting, drugs. However nothing is a gurantee. I've heard of monks who have basically walled themselves off from the rest of the world. Someone provides a small amount of food through an opening in the wall. Sitting there for years try to have a mystical experience.

Buddha sat under the bodhi tree for 49 days. Jesus went out to the wilderness for 40 days. It's an experience that really provides a dramatic change in consciousness.
I'm slow & plodding....no mystical experiences which radically changed my life or perception.
Just many small experiences.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
This might shed light upon what constitutes a mystical experience....
Mysticism Overview
Quoting from the linked post......

Mysticism is the pursuit of achieving communion with or conscious awareness of God (the divine ultimate reality) through direct, personal experience, intuition or insight; the belief in the existence of realities beyond ordinary perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible through personal experience; or the belief that such experiences are an important source of knowledge. In the Hellenistic world, "mystical" referred to secret religious rituals, particularly those of mystery religions.

Another definition sees mysticism as an attempt to derive some wider meaning from personal experience, surpassing everyday human understanding and tapping insights normally hidden from our consciousness. While usually understood in a religious context, a mystical experience may happen to anyone, does not require religious training, can occur unbidden and without preparation, and might not be understood as religious at all. (James, 1902) In alternate circumstances, such experiences may be interpreted as scientific or artistic inspiration, or even dismissed as a psychological disorder.

Mystics sometimes claim to experience intuitive knowledge of transcendent dimensions beyond the phenomenal or material objects of ordinary perception. The mystic see things in a way not part of ordinary experience. William James used the words "ineffable" (which means that something cannot or should not be spoken) and "noetic" (from the Greek νοῦς nous: "relating to consciousness or intuition"), to describe the mystical experience.

Mysticism may also refer to epistemological mysticism, where non-rational methods are used to arrive at beliefs and the acceptance of such beliefs as knowledge.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
I can't define "mystical", but seeing how it's commonly
used here on RF, I've never had such an experience.
(A fundie I knew once said I'm "spiritually dead" cuz I didn't know God.)
Are there others here so mired in the material world?

Im actually coming to terms that I am not religious (I dont have a defined set of what I believe and how to practice) and Im not spiritual (I dont separate spiritual or mystic experiences from everyday life), so in that way, Ive not experienced anything outside of what I believe some of us experience in daily life. Personal, yes. Sacred, depends on the person. Spiritual, I guess it depends on how people are predespositionsed to believe something for their wellbeing regardless the facts.

edit


Everytime I think of myself being spiritual or acting that way, I feel uncomfortable because Im placing myself below other things or chosing to think of one thing more important than another rather than it just being a choice rather than because its special.
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
I'm slow & plodding....no mystical experiences which radically changed my life or perception.
Just many small experiences.

Maybe next lifetime. :D

I don't know, that's what the few "Mystics" I've ran into tell me. Maybe you get one, maybe a dozen, maybe none. Apparently, there's no need to rush it.
 

Mindmaster

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
I can't define "mystical", but seeing how it's commonly
used here on RF, I've never had such an experience.
(A fundie I knew once said I'm "spiritually dead" cuz I didn't know God.)
Are there others here so mired in the material world?

First, I don't separate the mystical from the material like this. There is just, "this world"... :D

Secondly, one needs a highly developed intuition coupled with a rational facility to even tell what is happening in this regard. Mystical events aren't magical so much as things seem to line up perfectly and go off without a hitch. Outwardly, they appear like any other event.

No one is spiritually dead, that's just impossible. As you breathe, you are connected to the Matrix. However, more likely than not your sensors haven't been used or you are using them unwittingly and attributing the happenings to other things. Someone in tune with these things just feels the mystical influence in the equation, whereas others are just going to attribute the events to coincidence or good fortune.

Just to give you an example anyone can relate to. I go out and gamble on days I will win, because I know it will happen. Someone else is going for chance, to kill time, get lucky, or master the game. The mystical knowledge I have in that situation is nothing that makes sense -- it comes from elsewhere. I can literally feel when the world around me favors me winning, what machine to play, and even what game. I make none of those decisions other than what I am drinking. Unfortunately, the universe values $50 as much as $5,000 so YMMV. :D There are even the proverbial born losers who, once walking to your table, will literally suck all the possibility of ever winning there away. This stuff you probably would notice if you thought about it a lot and studied them, but things I just feel and know for no logical reason. :D They feel like they are literally drinking all the good fortune out of the area to me, for lack of a better description.

Mystical experiences can be exceedingly mundane, so relax, it's nothing to worry about. :D
 
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beenherebeforeagain

Rogue Animist
Premium Member
providing the quotes from the prior thread is helpful, at least for me, gives me something to respond to...

is the pursuit of achieving communion with or conscious awareness of God (the divine ultimate reality) through direct, personal experience, intuition or insight; the belief in the existence of realities beyond ordinary perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible through personal experience; or the belief that such experiences are an important source of knowledge.
For me, not this. While intellectually I can play with the idea of an ultimate deity or reality, I strongly doubt my ability, or anyone's ability, to truly perceive or comprehend such a deity or reality. Does a bacterium really perceive or apprehend through it's own experience the underlying reality that it is inhabiting a human body that is many quadrillion times larger than it...or the much larger cosmos beyond? I doubt it...any such experience would be "ineffable"...

an attempt to derive some wider meaning from personal experience, surpassing everyday human understanding and tapping insights normally hidden from our consciousness. While usually understood in a religious context, a mystical experience may happen to anyone, does not require religious training, can occur unbidden and without preparation, and might not be understood as religious at all.
Yes pretty much this. Thousands upon thousands of experiences like this, some sought out, most happening on their own; a handful of them being very profound, but most of them just barely surpassing everyday experience--but as I have learned to choose not to ignore them...nor to overdwell on them...they provide much meaning for my life...

Yeah, ineffable is a good word. Doesn't mean I can't and don't try to understand them and to put them in words or express the experience other ways.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
providing the quotes from the prior thread is helpful, at least for me, gives me something to respond to...


For me, not this. While intellectually I can play with the idea of an ultimate deity or reality, I strongly doubt my ability, or anyone's ability, to truly perceive or comprehend such a deity or reality. Does a bacterium really perceive or apprehend through it's own experience the underlying reality that it is inhabiting a human body that is many quadrillion times larger than it...or the much larger cosmos beyond? I doubt it...any such experience would be "ineffable"...


Yes pretty much this. Thousands upon thousands of experiences like this, some sought out, most happening on their own; a handful of them being very profound, but most of them just barely surpassing everyday experience--but as I have learned to choose not to ignore them...nor to overdwell on them...they provide much meaning for my life...

Yeah, ineffable is a good word. Doesn't mean I can't and don't try to understand them and to put them in words or express the experience other ways.
A note to other posters....
The quoted text is actually my quoting Green Gaia.
 

BSM1

What? Me worry?

Pardon, I should have written a bit more there. Mystical experiences stemming from nature are more than just marveling at it. It's accompanied by a sense of profound connection with whatever it is you are experiencing. Some describe that as "oneness" but that's not the term I tend to use. I think of it as a deep connection, like you've got a direct conduit to that sunrise and feel the depth of your relatedness to it in the now. It's definitely not supernatural (something I don't even believe in). "Spiritual experience" and "religious experience" and "mystical experience" are all basically synonymous.

I don't doubt there are people incapable of such things, though. There are, apparently, people incapable of visualizing... something that utterly boggles my mind.

The terms are not even in the same ballpark with each other.
 
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