“Is There an Experience of Spirit?” Comments, Page 1
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14 Responses (One Discussion Thread) to “Is There an Experience of Spirit?”
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This is a very thought provoking post. I think this need to fill gaps extends even past god or spirituality. When we lack information we all fill the gaps in our own way. Some choose to do so with god. Many people who are devout in their chosen religion do refuse to question or investigate any other possibilities that could explain gaps and absolutely condemn to hell anyone who does not believe the same way they do. It is also true that the vast majority of people who find god as adults do so after some sort of crisis. It seems to me they are filling their own gaps with god by doing so. Rather than looking at themselves or their decisions they latch on to an organized religion and focus solely on the rules imposed by their chosen church.
For myself, I have encountered a few experiences that I believe to be spiritual in nature. The ocean itself is a spiritual place to me. I can’t explain why. I believe I’ve witnessed reincarnation in my own son. The circumstances surrounding his birth combined with his physical traits and personality lead me to believe he is my father and that the reason he was delivered to me in this way is to show him unconditional love. He never received it in his lifetime and he and I had an extremely difficult and abusive relationship.
I don’t subscribe to any organized religion, mostly because the human interpretations of the “rules” vs. what actually occurs are so hypocritical. But I remain open to learning about them, while still questioning anything that doesn’t ring true for me.
Great post!
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Hi Cindy, I’m glad you liked the post. I’m sure you’re right and that we use things other than god to fill the gaps in our lives (hobbies, relationships, workshops and much else besides).
Many thanks for your comment.
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Victoria
3Maybe God still does make the weather, it’s just that now we can see more of what he’s doing.
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Hi Victoria, yes; this leads to a big theological and metaphysical debate. In theology it is about god using intermediate causes, in theorising it takes in reductionism and much else too.
Thanks for your comment. I’ll be interested to see if others have thoughts about it.
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For me, spiritual experience is about seeing beyond the boundaries we normally place around things — for example, I tend to assume that I’m a body isolated from the rest of the world. But the boundary between “me” and “everything else” is arbitrary in a sense — it’s really just a convention of language. What’s more, it’s actually ill-defined — when I say “my arm,” for instance, what is the “me” that owns or controls the arm?
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That’s a very good question Chris. Over the past few months there have been posts on this blog about the nature of the self. Especially by Sarah Luczaj – from different perspectives such as Buddhism and neuroscience. Well worth reading.
I like your idea of seeing beyond the boundaries we normally place on things. Thanks for your comment.
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Brenda
7I believe myself to be a very “spiritual” person. I am not religious, by any means, and it is not necessarily a “God” I believe in, rather a higher consciousness or “source” of life energy. I believe that people need something to believe in. Having faith in something is esential to human growth, even if it is just faith in yourself. Spirituality, to me, is a belief that things will work out as they should. Life isn’t meant to be easy, just worth it.
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Hi Brenda, I really like “life isn’t meant to be easy, just worth it.” You’re definition of spirituality has got me thinking about the way spirituality addresses suffering. Thanks for your comment.
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Hi Evan, nice post! Something I’ve never been able to ‘get’ myself is why knowing more about how the world works makes ‘less room’ for god, an argument which you mention here. No amount of knoweldge about air currents will explain why the wind exists in the first place….
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Well put, thanks Sarah.
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I’ve had more than a few experiences of spirit. In the beginning, when I first encountered them, I was very uncomfortable with it. I dared not share the experience with anyone, lest I be called a fool. Nonetheless, in some developing friendships, conversations inevitably made room for my spiritual schtick which crops up of its own accord depending upon the nature of the conversation. And, sure enough, there were times when I’ve been ridiculed for these ‘supposed’ experiences.
Since no one can directly experience what I experience, the best I can do is to describe it. And over the years, there have been times, on and off, that I delve more deeply, and other times I run away from this pursuit. With the introduction of the coaching discipline into my life, getting the proper training, and foraging along that path, I found myself naturally lead toward spiritual-based coaching. This couldn’t be helped, it was core to my foundation and echoed throughout all of my life in these experiences. How can I hide from myself?
During the first couple years of coaching and diving deeper, I would often times meditate and experience the physical body, beyond the physical body, and have experienced a sense of the void and everything that is on two separate occasions. I wish I could say I was comfortable with the experience, but in reality, it scared me quite a bit. It is rather discomfiting to have an experience of not existing in a sea of existence – if you can imagine what that might feel like.
I’ve been encouraged to go back into this area, and some of the discomfort and judgement I’ve been subjected to has kept me rigidly stuck in a different pattern of trying to create an income along another vein. And wouldn’t you know it, spirit doesn’t leave me alone, it keeps calling, and what I do try to use to create income fizzles again and again.
I guess it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. Thanks for posting this conversation.
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