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Should You Draw Few or No Conclusions About Your Mystical Experiences?

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Is it ever truly wise to draw firm or fixed conclusions about your mystical or religious experiences?

Should you try to arrive any firm beliefs about the reason or reasons you had them, their causes, or any other explanation for them?

Should you try to forget you even had them?

What's the wisest way to handle having had mystical experiences?
 

beenherebeforeagain

Rogue Animist
Premium Member
What's the wisest way to handle having had mystical experiences?
Yes?

Or maybe No?

honestly, I don't think one should dwell too much on them, but at the same time I haven't forgotten about them...at least not intentionally...I think about them, and what they might mean for me personally and the cosmos as a whole, but since I can't recreate, validate, or otherwise test them...

Others' mileage my vary...
 

Debater Slayer

Vipassana
Staff member
Premium Member
Is it ever truly wise to draw firm or fixed conclusions about your mystical or religious experiences?

I don't believe so. There is so much we don't know about the human brain that it seems to me drawing firm or fixed conclusions about such experiences would be overreaching and going beyond our limits of scientific knowledge. In fact, I wouldn't personally classify any given experience as "religious" or "spiritual" unless I knew that it indeed had no significant basis in brain activity that could accurately be defined as merely chemical in nature.

At a time when, for instance, the mechanisms of action of some crucially important psychiatric medications are still unknown due to lack of sufficient knowledge about our brain's anatomy and activity, I'm very tentative and uncertain about what kind of conclusions we should draw from or about mystical experiences.

Should you try to arrive any firm beliefs about the reason or reasons you had them, their causes, or any other explanation for them?

I don't think so. I find that one of the biggest mistakes some people make regarding currently unknown or unexplained phenomena is to try to have firm beliefs about them in the absence of evidence that supports one firm belief or another. Remaining uncertain and undecided is okay in my book unless it has to do with an issue that directly impacts others' safety or well-being--which I don't think mystical experiences do.

Should you try to forget you even had them?

I see no reason to do so. I think it's healthier to accept them without feeling a need to either be firm about them or forget them altogether.

What's the wisest way to handle having had mystical experiences?

Remaining uncertain or undecided when it is justified due to lack of sufficient knowledge to remain uncertain or undecided about their origin, implications, religious significance, or otherwise important aspects thereof. I believe attaching unnecessary certainty or dogma to mystical experiences is a mistake that is all too common--albeit understandable to an extent.

I hope this answers your questions!
 

beenherebeforeagain

Rogue Animist
Premium Member
DS' response got a thought going...I've been a pragmatist, philosophically speaking, for some time now. If something seems to work, you go with it until it doesn't, then you figure out why.

I try to draw provisional lessons/conclusions from my experiences, to be open to new interpretations and understandings.
 

David T

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Is it ever truly wise to draw firm or fixed conclusions about your mystical or religious experiences?

Should you try to arrive any firm beliefs about the reason or reasons you had them, their causes, or any other explanation for them?

Should you try to forget you even had them?

What's the wisest way to handle having had mystical experiences?
It must challenge your assumptions, it then must challenge the nature of assumptions all around you, and finally if your lucky it pushes you back into nature correctly. But to experience and then create assumptions around it is surely the path to madness at,worst or just confusion.
 

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
No, you shouldn't make any firm conclusions about them, because you a liable to go into makyo if you do.
 

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
It would be wise to be careful with experiences that can be confirmed, because sometimes it might make others go into makyo. :/

{I can give a personal story about this if anyone is interested.}
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Is it ever truly wise to draw firm or fixed conclusions about your mystical or religious experiences?
There are certain conclusions you can make, such as it really happened, and that is was beyond any normal-level waking experience. You can conclude you experienced something truly beyond anything else you've experienced, and you can conclude it forever changed your life.

Beyond this however, thoughts about the experience, belief structures we use to talk about it to ourselves and others should always remain open. To affix an idea or belief to it and never allow that belief to be modified or even replaced throttles the life out of it. When a metaphor becomes a descriptor, it becomes a dead metaphor, no longer pointed to something beyond itself, and instead takes the place of the mystical experience. Another word for that, is idolatry.

Should you try to arrive any firm beliefs about the reason or reasons you had them, their causes, or any other explanation for them?
It's good to have some framework that is functional and supportive of experience, but "firm"? No. That then becomes a distraction from truly letting the experience be itself and inform you. I do think that when people do that, they are avoiding God. The "true believer" for instance, has no faith which allows for them to not know something. It is a symptom of fear.

Should you try to forget you even had them?
Good God no! :) I talked with someone very shortly after my first mystical experience where I was basically on my knees sobbing from the degree of release of my soul that I was experiencing as a result of the experience. She said to me, "Never forget this. Never let it fade." It never has, and I never did. It has been the cornerstone of my entire life's history from the time forward through the decades.

What's the wisest way to handle having had mystical experiences?
Talk with those who understand them, preferably those who have had them themselves - not religious people who have nothing but ideas and beliefs. Mystical experience tends to be outside their wheelhouse of theological beliefs. Experience is everything when it comes to this. No one can tell you the answers, but they can point you to find them for yourself through this. There are ways to return Home, and it will be your path.
 
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Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Is it ever truly wise to draw firm or fixed conclusions about your mystical or religious experiences?

Should you try to arrive any firm beliefs about the reason or reasons you had them, their causes, or any other explanation for them?

Should you try to forget you even had them?

What's the wisest way to handle having had mystical experiences?

Experiences are experiences, and in Hindu mysticism, those that stick are called samskaras. These are the ones that are strong enough that they remain vibrating in the subconscious, a scar so to speak. So the idea that one should try to forget them becomes moot, as unforgettable would be part of the definition.

They're personal, and trying to draw too any conclusions, or overanalyzing them would lead to bringing them out. Just as a fish brought out of water dies, so too does the impact of the mystical experience when brought to the intellect inquiring mind. In my view, better to just accept it and move on. A person who climbs Kilimanjaro is missing new opportunities if all he does is talk about that experience the rest of his life.

If a teacher (ones Guru, for example) speaks of such experiences, or you discuss it with them, then sure, it's like a signpost that you're doing something right.
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
In my view, better to just accept it and move on. A person who climbs Kilimanjaro is missing new opportunities if all he does is talk about that experience the rest of his life.
This is a trap I fell into myself, having assumed my first experience was the ultimate reality, that that was THE experience I had to return to. I was told by someone I trusted much later on, that there was much more than that. It was hard for me to accept since I had built that up in my mind so much - an innocent mistake. That person was right. I've come to understand now that was what it was for what it needed to be at that time, but to now just remain constantly open for it to be whatever it will be for now. And why shouldn't it be infinite in expression? Just look at Creation itself.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
This is a trap I fell into myself, having assumed my first experience was the ultimate reality, that that was THE experience I had to return to. I was told by someone I trusted much later on, that there was much more than that. It was hard for me to accept since I had built that up in my mind so much - an innocent mistake. That person was right. I've come to understand now that was what it was for what it needed to be at that time, but to now just remain constantly open for it to be whatever it will be for now. And why shouldn't it be infinite in expression? Just look at Creation itself.
Common trap for many, I think. That 'peek into the room' isn't living in the room. But I think we need those glances. This concept always reminds me of the 'Guess Who' lyrics ... "You ain't seen nuthin' yet!"
 

Windwalker

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Common trap for many, I think. That 'peek into the room' isn't living in the room. But I think we need those glances. This concept always reminds me of the 'Guess Who' lyrics ... "You ain't seen nuthin' yet!"
Yes, thank you.
 

Jumi

Well-Known Member
Regardless of experiences that might partially break world views or disprove certain models, we still eventually have to go on like nothing happened. Reminds me of this:
Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
 
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