• Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views




    Results 1 to 13 of 13
    1. #1
      Member Needcatscan's Avatar
      Join Date
      Sep 2005
      Gender
      Posts
      602
      Likes
      0

      Spiritual Experience, have you had one?

      So I want to get off the topic of bashing for a while and go to something we can all (theists and atheists alike) talk about.

      Sam Harris is an advocate of spiritual experiences which may or may not be connected to religion.

      I was hoping everyone who frequents the R/S forum could share a spiritual experience they've had.

      I've had two, both when I was 22 and starting to hone my LDing skill. They were both lucid dreams with such clarity and power that I felt so much at peace that I would describe it as pure nirvana. Neither lasted long, these blasts of bliss seemed to make my brain wake up faster, but both left a permanent imprint on me.

      My brother had recently went to Museum of Natural History in Washington DC and followed the whole trace of our evolutionary past and described it as a spiritual experience.

      So what spiritual experiences have you guys had? And theists are more than welcome to share their religious spiritual experiences as well without fear of being insulted or debated with; this is meant for all of us to share, not to debate.

    2. #2
      Member dragonoverlord's Avatar
      Join Date
      Mar 2005
      Gender
      Location
      not in spain
      Posts
      1,553
      Likes
      1
      The closest thing to a spiritual experence is when i hear french spoken and i get this weird feeling its like a high i dont know how to describe it. But its an amazing feeling and i only get it when i hear french and everything clicks and it all makes sense. Its amazing.... I dont expect you to understand. but the significace of it is French is my
      first language and i dont speak it no more so whenever that happens its deeply moving for me.
      Some are born to sweet deleight
      Some are born to endless night

    3. #3
      Haha. Hehe. Achievements:
      Made Friends on DV 1 year registered 10000 Hall Points Veteran First Class
      Mes Tarrant's Avatar
      Join Date
      May 2007
      Gender
      Location
      New Zea-la-land
      Posts
      6,775
      Likes
      36
      I don't know if I like the term "spiritual," but I guess the English language is a bit limited.

      I'd say whenever I have the chance to lay on the ground and look at the stars and just try to take in the universe. That's pretty incredible-feeling.

    4. #4
      Drivel's Advocate Xaqaria's Avatar
      Join Date
      May 2007
      LD Count
      WhoIsJohnGalt?
      Gender
      Location
      Denver, CO Catchphrase: BullCockie!
      Posts
      5,589
      Likes
      930
      DJ Entries
      9
      Well I had a blatantly spiritual experience; an LD in which I was trying to find and speak with a personification of my subconscious when I lost control of the dream, floated spiraling into the sky and was greeted by a man who claimed to be god. Honestly though, I don't really give that experience much significance compared to my every day examination of the world around me. I perceive any rigorous investigation into the inner workings of what I perceive as real as intensely spiritual. I would compare this to your brother's spiritual experience with the evolution of human kind.

      The ability to happily respond to any adversity is the divine.
      Art
      Dream Journal Shaman Apprentice Chronicles

    5. #5
      Member dragonoverlord's Avatar
      Join Date
      Mar 2005
      Gender
      Location
      not in spain
      Posts
      1,553
      Likes
      1
      I don't know if I like the term "spiritual," but I guess the English language is a bit limited.
      If you think the english language is a bit limited...then the other languages are extremely limited. English has the biggest vocabulary of any language in the world because its so flexible about absorbing new words.Almost every word has an synonym because of the German and French influences.

      I think English around 465 hundred thousand words or so...
      Some are born to sweet deleight
      Some are born to endless night

    6. #6
      Haha. Hehe. Achievements:
      Made Friends on DV 1 year registered 10000 Hall Points Veteran First Class
      Mes Tarrant's Avatar
      Join Date
      May 2007
      Gender
      Location
      New Zea-la-land
      Posts
      6,775
      Likes
      36
      Quote Originally Posted by dragonoverlord View Post
      If you think the english language is a bit limited...then the other languages are extremely limited. English has the biggest vocabulary of any language in the world because its so flexible about absorbing new words.Almost every word has an synonym because of the German and French influences.

      I think English around 465 hundred thousand words or so...
      Good point.

      I should have said "language", not "English language."

    7. #7
      widdershins modality Achievements:
      1 year registered Created Dream Journal Made lots of Friends on DV Veteran First Class Tagger First Class Referrer Bronze 10000 Hall Points
      Taosaur's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jul 2004
      Gender
      Location
      Ohiopolis
      Posts
      4,843
      Likes
      1004
      DJ Entries
      19
      lol, I would estimate about 15% of my waking life to date and a smaller portion of my dreaming has consisted of "spiritual experience," with maybe a dozen discrete "events," and only two I can think of involving any intoxicants (one was my "tapping the timewave" this NYE).

      One of the most influential and spontaneous, which I never do justice in describing, came when I was fourteen. It was summer, and my stepbrother and I had camped out in sleeping bags on the lawn, out in the woods (two of our neighbors were hunting cabins). In one corner of the big lawn was a pine tree about 5 stories high, where flocks of starlings would gather numbering into the thousands, so the sky would go black if they took off.

      That morning, probably around ten based on the sun, I woke up but didn't wake up. Awareness dawned in me without any thoughts or volition, without me present. My eyes remained closed, but the sensory information permeated my awareness: the cacophony of the starlings, the warmth and light of the sun, the smell of the grass and the pressure of the earth. Except it wasn't broken up into different inputs: just one awareness, without subject or object, and no boundaries.

      No telling how long it lasted, but my stepbrother, who had been up a while, came over and lightly slapped both my cheeks, really waking me up. "Hey, you'll get sunburnt," he said, and I just sat propped up on my elbows, staring at him, putting the experience together and realizing how far it was from anything he could understand. It had been so direct. I, my sense of myself, was an illusion. Separateness, the very idea of things, was an illusion.

      I somewhat have access to that view now, as a result of meditation and mindfulness training, but I don't know that it's ever been as clear and direct as that moment. At the time, it was easily the most beautiful thing I'd experienced in my life.
      Last edited by Taosaur; 01-27-2008 at 10:51 PM.
      If you have a sense of caring for others, you will manifest a kind of inner strength in spite of your own difficulties and problems. With this strength, your own problems will seem less significant and bothersome to you. By going beyond your own problems and taking care of others, you gain inner strength, self-confidence, courage, and a greater sense of calm.Dalai Lama



    8. #8
      Banned
      Join Date
      Jun 2006
      Posts
      547
      Likes
      0
      Yes I have - I was very young when it happened. I got up out of bed, opened the blinds and - gasp - I saw the face of Allah outside my window!

      "Do not fear young man," spoke Allah, "you have been chosen."

      Since then I have been a devout follower of the Islamic faith, and I've never regretted it.

    9. #9
      The Wondering Gnome Achievements:
      1 year registered Referrer Silver Veteran First Class 5000 Hall Points
      thegnome54's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jul 2007
      Gender
      Location
      Sector ZZ 9 Plural Z Alpha
      Posts
      1,534
      Likes
      21
      Freshman year, it was the night before my Biology midterm and I was studying, trying to memorize all of those damned names. At around 11:00, after several hours of mounting stress, I snapped.

      I threw my books down, bolted outside, ran up my driveway and plunked myself down on some grass, on my back. The cool breeze, the calm of the night, the whispering trees and above all the expanse of faraway suns gleaming down at me really put everything in perspective. I could almost feel the earth's massive-yet-tiny bulk spinning interminably under me, as it always did and always will for millions of my lifetimes into the past and future.

      I haven't really let much of anything bother me since, that one evening made me realize that nearly nothing is worth stressing/getting angry over in the grand scheme of things.
      Last edited by thegnome54; 01-27-2008 at 11:11 PM.

    10. #10
      Banned
      Join Date
      Jul 2007
      Gender
      Location
      The Weak and the Wounded
      Posts
      4,925
      Likes
      485
      I never had a spiritual experience.


      I gave them through red hot lovin.


      I am entirely serious.

    11. #11
      widdershins modality Achievements:
      1 year registered Created Dream Journal Made lots of Friends on DV Veteran First Class Tagger First Class Referrer Bronze 10000 Hall Points
      Taosaur's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jul 2004
      Gender
      Location
      Ohiopolis
      Posts
      4,843
      Likes
      1004
      DJ Entries
      19
      I'm working on a book right now, a kind of poetic memoir told as a "catalogue of visions" (the working title), like a life story with the circumstances and 'ordinary' experiences of my life only implied or in the background. This is the table of contents so far:

      Preview: Restless

      The Starling Tree

      Geometries of Time in Lot D

      Godmode Stumbling

      Wayback Dream

      All Too One

      Keroracle

      Mon Sembable

      Grandma?

      Floor Teeth

      Giant in Hiding

      Tonglen Trees

      World on Fire

      The Golden Cowboy

      Chaos Snow Tube

      Buddha Realm

      Thunderbird Overpass

      Contact
      If you have a sense of caring for others, you will manifest a kind of inner strength in spite of your own difficulties and problems. With this strength, your own problems will seem less significant and bothersome to you. By going beyond your own problems and taking care of others, you gain inner strength, self-confidence, courage, and a greater sense of calm.Dalai Lama



    12. #12
      Member Needcatscan's Avatar
      Join Date
      Sep 2005
      Gender
      Posts
      602
      Likes
      0
      Quote Originally Posted by thegnome54 View Post
      Freshman year, it was the night before my Biology midterm and I was studying, trying to memorize all of those damned names. At around 11:00, after several hours of mounting stress, I snapped.

      I threw my books down, bolted outside, ran up my driveway and plunked myself down on some grass, on my back. The cool breeze, the calm of the night, the whispering trees and above all the expanse of faraway suns gleaming down at me really put everything in perspective. I could almost feel the earth's massive-yet-tiny bulk spinning interminably under me, as it always did and always will for millions of my lifetimes into the past and future.

      I haven't really let much of anything bother me since, that one evening made me realize that nearly nothing is worth stressing/getting angry over in the grand scheme of things.
      That's an awesome spiritual experience gnome, thanks for sharing.

      Taosaur, let me know when you finish it I'd be interested in buying a copy.
      If you haven't guessed my avatar is my book self published on lulu. I'm working on my second which is a thriller based on Lucid Dreaming.

    13. #13
      Member Rakjavik's Avatar
      Join Date
      Nov 2007
      Gender
      Location
      USA
      Posts
      462
      Likes
      7
      Needcatscan already mentioned this in his opening post, but the museum of natural history (in the US) was the closest thing I can describe as being a spiritual experience. It's one thing to know what evolution is and know the origins of you and your kind, but to actually see physical representations, fossils and just watching the timeline of how our world began and how we got here was just fricken amazing. It was an odd kind of high, and contentment in life, don't really know how to describe it

    Bookmarks

    Posting Permissions

    • You may not post new threads
    • You may not post replies
    • You may not post attachments
    • You may not edit your posts
    •