Mystical Experiences

[ViaCrucis]

Lutherans tend to shy away from mystical experience as we see it as distracting, or even worse, destructive. That doesn't mean experiences are inherently bad, simply that we prefer to emphasize the external faith, rather than internal experience and feelings. Experiences could be good, but they can also be incredibly distracting and lead someone down the path to looking to their own feelings rather than the external promises of Christ. As someone who was heavily involved in my Pentecostal church in my teenage years, I know first hand the inherent dangers of what Luther referred to as Enthusiasm. My faith suffered as I sought experience and feeling, and looked to those things--which were my gateway drug to feelings of hopelessness, despair, and scrupulosity.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Red Gold]

May I ask why you're curious about mystical experiences, including other religions?

Why not?

 

[Robban]

What is a mystical experience?

Is it something that happens and cannot be explained?

In my faith nothing "just happens" there is no coincidence,

to believe so is rubbing shoulders with heresy.

Though we cannot explain everything that happens there is always a reason.

One should not say,
"If only this or that had not happened",

Or "If only I had, if only I had not......" etc.

Example,
And it happened upon Balaam.

 

[Robban]

What is a mystical experience?

Is it something that happens and cannot be explained?

In my faith nothing "just happens" there is no coincidence,

to believe so is rubbing shoulders with heresy.

Though we cannot explain everything that happens there is always a reason.

One should not say,
"If only this or that had not happened",

Or "If only I had, if only I had not......" etc.

Example,
And it happened upon Balaam.

And God happened upon Balaam,
Numbers 23:4
Numbers 23:5,
God put a word in Balaam's mouth.

 

[Red Gold]

What is a mystical experience?

Is it something that happens and cannot be explained?

Yes - so it is!

 

[Sunshinee777]

I want to follow this thread.

 

[Kyrani]

I have had several spiritual experiences and I have had one enlightenment experience. Are these all to be named "mystical experience"?

 

[Bob Crowley]

I wanted this thread to be a place where people of all faiths speak about their various kinds of mystical experiences. mostly, I am curious to see what others experience outside of the Christian faith but Christian experiences are welcome too. Please limit your responses to ONLY mystical experiences and discussions about said experiences. I'm not looking for this to be a debate but more of a discussion.

I've had a number of "mystical" or "spiritual" experiences -

• My father turned up in my room the night he died. We argued and conversed and at the end he gave this almighty scream and then disappeared.
• I've had three "double whammies" which are like a breath going through you in waves from head to foot. Each time it was to highlight something someone else was saying.
• Any number of "tingles" which I mistrust.
• A few visions of my old pastor after he died. He'll turn up and say something, and then just disappear. It's always about a relevant topic, and in one case a warning. He was also prophetic and several of his predictions have come to pass since he died, including the fact I'd become Catholic.
• Voices - not very often, and always addressing a certain topic. A rather spiritual psychiatrist has also had a "voice" say something to him which became relevant a couple of weeks later. He's also had the "double whammy" above - it was his term actually.
• Heavy gripping pressures at night, almost certainly demonic.
• Occasionally (rarely) I'll be "shown" what someone is thinking - just a line or a sentence, but when checked it's identical word for word.
• One time I thought I'd get pally with God in my mind when I was still a new Christian. This sense of anger descended on me and I thought I was literally going to disintegrate.
  
• Some others.

One thing they've all got in common - the source remains hidden.

Nobody else knows about them unless I choose to tell them. The three "double whammies" in particular all occurred when a number of other people were present (two of them in church, and the first at a Scripture Union "beach mission"), but the originator remained unseen.

The speaker's message was affirmed to me alone.

Incidentally we move about 30 kilometres per second through space. Since there was a period of months between first, second and third incident, the spiritual agency responsible was able to keep up with me in astro-physical terms despite not being bound by gravity itself, knew in advance what was about to be said, and was able to highlight it for me on three separate occasions without anybody else being aware of it, while I moved millions of kilometres through the universe, just one of billions of people on a spinning planet.

God knows us all right.

 

[Sunshinee777]

I have had several spiritual experiences and I have had one enlightenment experience. Are these all to be named "mystical experience"?

Im not sure, is all supernatural experiences mystical experiences?

 

[Kyrani]

Im not sure, is all supernatural experiences mystical experiences?

I don't understand the meaning of the quote you gave. Can you explain it for me please.

 

[Sunshinee777]

I don't understand the meaning of the quote you gave. Can you explain it for me please.

Sorry I don’t know how to explain it better.

 

[Rajni]

Well, I don't know if the following would technically be "mystical" in and of itself, though it has been used for mystical purposes, but here goes:

On what is now three different occasions within a two-month period of time, and all taking place during the course of a nap, I have succeeded in leaving my body for a brief time. I never got further than the inside of my condo (the third time may have been more of a lucid dream), but still, very trippy. Nothing since September 22nd, though (you can bet I'm keeping track of the hows and whens of this stuff, lol!).

Technical info: Technically, according to bigger brains than mine in this area, you don't actually "leave your body" when this sort of thing happens. You are just very much aware that you are in a non-material environment. That's apparently the only difference between a dream, a lucid dream, and full-on astral projection: Your own awareness-level going into it. I suppose that makes sense, but there are very distinct physical sensations suggestive of exiting the body that have accompanied my experiences, so it's easy to think that your spirit is flying out and at least getting a good stretch in before donning the meat-suit again.

-

 

[Kyrani]

You are just very much aware that you are in a non-material environment. That's apparently the only difference between a dream, a lucid dream, and full-on astral projection: Your own awareness-level going into it.

I would not call lucid dreams and full-on astral projection, which is really an OBE (out of body experience) a spiritual or mystical experience .
An OBE is and is not leaving the body! There is always a consciousness connection to the body, at least as I have experienced. It has been described as some sort of thread connection.
A spiritual experience is one that one experiences in spirit and in the spiritual realm. But that does not require leaving the body. It is not like an NDE, where the conscious being/ soul leaves but the leaving is not complete until a certain point. I have had an NDE also and as I moved towards a bright horizon and saw my spiritual allies, especially my guru in this life, at some point they said you have reached the point of no return. You can cross over and return to us. It will be okay. It was as if there was a line on the ground over which I could step and that would be totally leaving the body. I decided to return because I have work here that I came to do and it was/ is not yet all done.
An enlightenment experience is not leaving the body at all. It was a shift in identity, from identification with the body/ mind to identification as true self or conscious being, the wearer of the physical garment/ the body.

 

[Kyrani]

Sorry I don’t know how to explain it better.

I take it you mean God is the Spirit of Truth. God is ever present, closer to you than your very life giving blood.

 

[Rajni]

I would not call lucid dreams and full-on astral projection, which is really an OBE (out of body experience) a spiritual or mystical experience .

I certainly would. At least, in my case it was.

 

[Rajni]

I certainly would. At least, in my case it was.

I should probably clarify that, sorry!

As I said before, it might not be "mystical" by itself, though it has been used for mystical purposes.

In my case, it acquainted me with what the environment outside the body is like, at least upon initial entry. As a result, I'm even less fearful of the ultimate OBE—physical death.

I felt no fear during any of the events, even when I saw something that one could interpret as potentially threatening during the first one. In that particular instance, I reacted as calmly as one might if they saw rain and decided to use their umbrella. I saw something creepy and decided I'd say a prayer (one I hadn't said in ages because I no longer practice the religion that accompanies it). I immediately returned to my body.

Maybe the lack of fear when faced with something scary is because the spirit/soul doesn't have adrenaline rushes? I don't know. I just observed things and responded accordingly. I did feel amazement, especially the first time, because I was finally accomplishing what I had read so much about. During the 2nd OBE, I felt annoyed because everything was monochromatic and blurry.

In none of the events did I ever get further than the confines of my condo, which is probably good because I live on the 2nd floor and it would be just my luck that one of my neighbors is psychic enough to actually see me floating up through their floorboards, shouting "Wheeeeeeeeee!!".

 

[Kyrani]

the spirit/soul doesn't have adrenaline rushes

Certainly the soul has no adrenaline rushes, but more than that the soul/ spirit is forever beyond harm. The soul however can be degraded by destroying the conscience, which means darkening the consciousness. This though is a deliberate act.

 

[renniks]

Most experiences I have had that I would consider mystical have been
synchronistic in nature. While coincidences happen all the time, when they
involve things which have personal meaning to the observer, that’s the part
that gives me pause and places them firmly into the supernatural category.

-

Me too, which is why it's so hard to explain your experiences to someone else, because the things that mean something to me would not mean something to them.
I will say that as I was driving by the cemetery where my mother is buried, I was thinking about stopping to visit her grave, but drove on. I was flipping randomly through the radio channels, and just as I was almost past, her favorite hymn came on. I said " Ok, Mom." And I went back and visited her and we sang the song " together". To me this was an intensely personal and mystical and spiritual experience.
You can say it's coincidence but what are the odds?

 

[Robban]

Me too, which is why it's so hard to explain your experiences to someone else, because the things that mean something to me would not mean something to them.
I will say that as I was driving by the cemetery where my mother is buried, I was thinking about stopping to visit her grave, but drove on. I was flipping randomly through the radio channels, and just as I was almost past, her favorite hymn came on. I said " Ok, Mom." And I went back and visited her and we sang the song " together". To me this was an intensely personal and mystical and spiritual experience.
You can say it's coincidence but what are the odds?

Think i know how you feel, must have been a wonderful experience.

(Not scary)

 

[Robban]

Me too, which is why it's so hard to explain your experiences to someone else, because the things that mean something to me would not mean something to them.
I will say that as I was driving by the cemetery where my mother is buried, I was thinking about stopping to visit her grave, but drove on. I was flipping randomly through the radio channels, and just as I was almost past, her favorite hymn came on. I said " Ok, Mom." And I went back and visited her and we sang the song " together". To me this was an intensely personal and mystical and spiritual experience.
You can say it's coincidence but what are the odds?

I don't believe in coincidence, it was no coincidence that Rachel was not buried in the cave of Macpelah with the other Matriachs and Patriachs either.

She was laid in her tomb by Betlehem so she could comfort her children as they were being led off in captivity.

They would return, Jeremiah 31:15-71