What Are Mystical Experiences Like?

[Debater Slayer]

If you were to give an approximate description of how a mystical experience felt like, how would you describe it? I'm saying "approximate" because I can't think of any description that would fully convey how my own experience felt. It was, quite literally, an ineffable feeling.

Waiting for your answers.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

What do you mean by mysterical experience? As a spiritual experience?

If you were to give an approximate description of how a mystical experience felt like, how would you describe it? I'm saying "approximate" because I can't think of any description that would fully convey how my own experience felt. It was, quite literally, an ineffable feeling.

Waiting for your answers.

 

[Debater Slayer]

What do you mean by mysterical experience? As a spiritual experience?

Yes, or any experience you consider to be beyond regular states of awareness.

 

[Nakosis]

It is difficult to express the experience of Sunyata.
I thought I could until I tried. I can't find the words to convey the experience.

No rising, no falling is used. But really existing with no reference. No up or down. No self because there is nothing to identify as not-self.

Other experiences, sometimes you can't convey the feeling of the reality of the experience. It comes across like something you imagined or had a dream about.

 

[Quintessence]

They honestly vary. I'll use one, recent example.

Just this past week, I did a more formal ritual to honor MidVernal (that's what I generically call the halfway point between Vernal Equinox and Summer Solstice, calculated astronomically). As part of that, I experienced a Mystery. It was an "ah hah!" moment. Where suddenly, things made sense. I had found my truth and reached a deeper understanding of something. That something was myself. There are some issues of personal identity I've been struggling with lately, and I essentially realized (or remembered, really) that I transcend my culture's conventional boxes. I always have, and likely always will. But this knowing of the self is something that is often forgotten in the day-to-day of life. We forget who we really are, and instead go about comparing ourselves to others, and identifying ourselves based on other people or what our culture tells us. We don't let who we really are simply... be. And in that moment, I was who I am, and simply... well... was. I was able to let myself be. There was truth, deep understanding, and a sort of elation. Plus, perhaps, a quiet sense of pride.

 

[George-ananda]

If you were to give an approximate description of how a mystical experience felt like, how would you describe it? I'm saying "approximate" because I can't think of any description that would fully convey how my own experience felt. It was, quite literally, an ineffable feeling.

What is the approximate description of your experience?

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

If you were to give an approximate description of how a mystical experience felt like, how would you describe it? I'm saying "approximate" because I can't think of any description that would fully convey how my own experience felt. It was, quite literally, an ineffable feeling.

Waiting for your answers.

For a moment, while standing outside school, facing the open area and woods to the west and north, I suddenly saw/felt everything as I was seeing it with my eyes, but also as if it were all brightly luminescent filaments...the trees, the clouds, the ground, the building behind and beside me, the people within, were all luminescent fibers, all separate, but also all connected together, including to me, and for that moment I felt I was connected to and aware of all those things that were around me. If felt timeless, but objectively it could not have been more than a minute, because the class beep (no, we didn't have bells anymore) was about to sound as break was almost over when it happened. I stood for what I thought was several minutes longer after the feeling faded away, then turned and went inside and to class. THEN the beep to start class; I thought I was going to be late. It was really hard to concentrate on memorizing the conjugations of Russian verbs at that point. I must have had a weird look, because several fellow students asked what was up. I just shook my head.

 

[Valjean]

I agree, DS. It cannot be described, or even approximated. It's more than just feeling, it's an expansion of consciousness; an expansion of awareness.
Easier to describe color to a blind man.
Perhaps some of the features can be discussed, but I don't see how they could be conveyed.

 

[Debater Slayer]

What is the approximate description of your experience?

I felt like I was ascending a plane of some sort, which was illuminated by a light that I have never seen anything like. I was gradually "absorbed" into my surroundings, and I no longer had a sense of being separate from them. All of my senses became one: I didn't have separate senses of sound, sight, smell, etc. Everything was literally one, including me and the plane I was in. I wasn't separate from it.

After that I "traveled" to a darker plane, where I encountered dark beings that filled me with fear. The trip to that plane lasted for a relatively short time, though, and I moved back to a much more pleasant place where everything seemed to be one once again. The experience ended there, and I felt a great sense of ecstasy that literally felt better than orgasms. I have never had a more enjoyable experience, and I'm not sure if I will. In any case, I have no doubt that there was something extraordinary behind that experience. I don't know for certain what it was, but I do know that there is something extraordinary out there that we don't really know about yet—something more awe-inspiring than most people can even imagine.

 

[Debater Slayer]

I agree, DS. It cannot be described, or even approximated. It's more than just feeling, it's an expansion of consciousness; an expansion of awareness.
Easier to describe color to a blind man.
Perhaps some of the features can be discussed, but I don't see how they could be conveyed.

Yeah. The description I just used is a mere approximation that doesn't even come close to how the actual experience felt. It's impossible to convey the feeling to someone who hasn't experienced it. It's like trying to describe an orgasm to a prepubescent child, or, as you said, trying to describe color to a blind man.

 

[George-ananda]

I felt like I was ascending a plane of some sort, which was illuminated by a light that I have never seen anything like. I was gradually "absorbed" into my surroundings, and I no longer had a sense of being separate from them. All of my senses became one: I didn't have separate senses of sound, sight, smell, etc. Everything was literally one, including me and the plane I was in. I wasn't separate from it.

After that I "traveled" to a darker plane, where I encountered dark beings that filled me with fear. The trip to that plane lasted for a relatively short time, though, and I moved back to a much more pleasant place where everything seemed to be one once again. The experience ended there, and I felt a great sense of ecstasy that literally felt better than orgasms. I have never had a more enjoyable experience, and I'm not sure if I will. In any case, I have no doubt that there was something extraordinary behind that experience. I don't know for certain what it was, but I do know that there is something extraordinary out there that we don't really know about yet—something more awe-inspiring than most people can even imagine.

I am green with envy. But in another thread you talked about what an atheist you are? How does this all fit together? Do you believe your experience was all fantasy? Or that we can move our consciousness beyond our normal boundaries?

 

[Debater Slayer]

I am green with envy. But in another thread you talked about what an atheist you are? How does this all fit together? Do you believe your experience was all fantasy? Or that we can move our consciousness beyond our normal boundaries?

I don't believe it was fantasy; I believe that we know so little about the human brain that such experiences may well have a scientific explanation that we haven't discovered yet. Maybe there are ways for us to voluntarily induce such experiences, too, but I don't know of any, and I don't think there are currently any scientifically supported methods to do so. That doesn't mean such methods can't be discovered in the future, but in my opinion, it means that we shouldn't jump to conclusions and try to fit supernatural beliefs into those experiences when we don't have anywhere near enough knowledge of the human brain or the origin of consciousness at this point in time.

 

[George-ananda]

I don't believe it was fantasy; I believe that we know so little about the human brain that such experiences may well have a scientific explanation that we haven't discovered yet. Maybe there are ways for us to voluntarily induce such experiences, too, but I don't know of any, and I don't think there are currently any scientifically supported methods to do so.

OK.

it means that we shouldn't jump to conclusions and try to fit supernatural beliefs into those experiences

We shouldn't exclude the 'supernatural' either as a possibility here. Doesn't that at least make you 'agnostic'?

But then I think the 'supernatural' is just the 'natural' beyond science's current reach. I think eventually science will show there is more than this physical plane in which entities like those you mentioned exist.

 

[Debater Slayer]

We shouldn't exclude the 'supernatural' either as a possibility here. Doesn't that at least make you 'agnostic'?

Let's put it this way: I consider the probability that the source of my experience was supernatural to be as likely as the probability that the experience was caused by flying cosmic fish. I'm as "agnostic" about the supernatural as I am about the existence of the hypothetical species of fish I just mentioned.

But then I think the 'supernatural' is just the 'natural' beyond science's current reach. I think eventually science will show there is more than this physical plane in which entities like those you mentioned exist.

I think that's just an issue of semantics, then. By definition, anything that occurs in nature is natural; it's just that there are phenomena that we don't fully understand yet.

 

[Quagmire]

It's like getting a glimpse of what the world would look like to you if you were sane.

 

[George-ananda]

Let's put it this way: I consider the probability that the source of my experience was supernatural to be as likely as the probability that the experience was caused by flying cosmic fish. I'm as "agnostic" about the supernatural as I am about the existence of the hypothetical species of fish I just mentioned.

I'm not sure how you determine probability, but there seems to be more credible claims that correspond with the eastern (Indian/Hindu) wisdom tradition's view of consciousness than I have seen supporting flying cosmic fish.

 

[Debater Slayer]

I'm not sure how you determine probability, but there seems to be more credible claims that correspond with the eastern (Indian/Hindu) wisdom tradition's view of consciousness than I have seen supporting flying cosmic fish.

I like a lot of things about Hinduism and Buddhism, especially meditation; however, I don't think there's anything supernatural about that, and I also don't think that there are currently any solid explanations for the origin of consciousness, whether they are scientific or "supernatural."

 

[Quagmire]

Let's put it this way: I consider the probability that the source of my experience was supernatural to be as likely as the probability that the experience was caused by flying cosmic fish. I'm as "agnostic" about the supernatural as I am about the existence of the hypothetical species of fish I just mentioned.



I think that's just an issue of semantics, then. By definition, anything that occurs in nature is natural; it's just that there are phenomena that we don't fully understand yet.

On your way of the Celestial ladder, did you happen to notice the sign on the third rung saying, "No labels beyond this point"?

 

[roger1440]

If you were to give an approximate descriptioas more to do withn of how a mystical experience felt like, how would you describe it? I'm saying "approximate" because I can't think of any description that would fully convey how my own experience felt. It was, quite literally, an ineffable feeling.

Waiting for your answers.

I would say it has more to do with insight or awareness then it does feeling

 

[Debater Slayer]

On your way of the Celestial ladder, did you happen to notice the sign on the third rung saying, "No labels beyond this point"?

I thought I had seen something like that, but then I still woke up an atheist.