what do you class as a spiritual experience.....?

G

All experiences are both spiritual, and physical.

It all depends on how a person views the moment.

Hi up there, frou, fractal and free spirit -

I'd have to say it would have to do with how it feels, except that I've now seen the extent to how I can and have fooled myself, so I don't know if there's any such thing as a real spiritual experience.

If it's about how I feel, that really has to do with perception, brain chemistry, emotion... that kind of thing, and I'd rather call it what it is.

If it's about something odd happening objectively, that is objectively experienced and verified somehow, then we might call that a paranormal experience, or just something odd that we can't explain yet.

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I just remembered that I feel something very unusual when I'm in Sedona, Arizona. I still let what I said above stand, but how I'd describe my experience of being in Sedona: when I'm there, I "feel a very unusual energy" and it's one of the most wonderful feelings I've ever had. When leaving the area, I reach a point where it's just suddenly gone, like passing over a border. Just thought I'd add that to my statement, though I'm not necessarily saying this is a spiritual experience.

Some people say love is spiritual. But what about any emotion? What makes an emotion something other than just an emotion?

Some people have transcendental experiences which they call spiritual. People like Tolle, Chopra, Wilber, all have a kind similar view of awareness. Asking in Buddhist or Socratic tradition "What is behind the I"? They may also even call a "dropping of ego" a spiritual enlightenment.

Than I personally think there might be laws, which guide the spirit into different incarnations, being what I call spiritual dynamics/mechanics. These hardly differ from emotion, being thought of in terms of positive and negative karma.

So I guess, in this reflection I ponder the existence of spiritual experience in terms of:

1. Emotion -- Ex: Love Ex: Kudanli rising Ex: Chakra attunement.

2. Selfhood -- Ex: The "I am."

3. Mechanics -- Ex: Treat others positively, reciprocation is positive.

I have no evidence that says such things are not just physical. Its a matter of interpretation for me.

I was about to answer the question about an experience I had and I see (((dear fractal))) has referred to it because I answered a similar Q before. Not much to add and I still don't have an explaination of why, what or how it happened. It just did. I could describe the episode as a sensation which created a mind body response giving a deep sense of nurturing and power. There was nothing and noone in the room with me. I didn't see or hear anyone or anything. I connected with something other than myself and empowered all in an instant. There is no logical explaination - a connection to a power greater than myself or a hooking in to something maybe. It came out of the blue and I wasn't seeking it. I don't like to talk about it because eyebrows get raised and people can be judgemental. Always had questions about G*d from about the age of 5 I knew I believed and had a purpose. I've never been a worshipper and still now I avoid churches because I don't like the hypocracy I see. The spiritual event I experienced remains with me in memories and was a confirmation of the unanswered questions. I like to refer to it as being connected to a power greater than myself.

((fractal)) you already are "a sunbeam" you know that lol.

I've told this story before, but I'll tell it again.

I'm one who speaks to God, not to ask for anything, just because He is the Beloved. I used to sing prayers to Him all the way to town, traveling in my old pickup across dry desert land in West Texas, where nothing grew except mesquite and cactus.

One day I was singing like this and suddenly, out of nowhere, the cab of the truck filled with the vivid scent of flowers, as if a whole florist's shop or a beautiful garden were right there with me. I could smell different varieties, too, not all one kind.

This lasted all the way down the road, maybe ten miles, and then just suddenly stopped at the edge of town.

There was no source. It was the wrong season for any kind of flower, and this was dry, dusty, barren land I was going through.

It's never happened again, and had never happened before this.

I think of it as God sending me flowers, after I had sent Him so many songs.

This is a spiritual experience.

When I told this a year or so ago on Y!A, the only explanation the atheists could come up with was maybe I was dying of a brain tumor and my olfactory sense was affected.

Still here, sorry, and it's the only time in my life I've ever smelled any scent that wasn't really there.

Hi Frou,

I suppose people would think that a spiritual experience is something that 'happens' maybe 'suddenly'.

But a spiritual experience for me takes place over a number of years. I can see the past laid out in front of me, I have a good memory for such things, and I feel there is a connection between 'me' and the former 'me' and in fact all the former 'me's even though in another way there is NO connection because we really are different creatures. And maybe more tenuously, I see and feel the connection to the future 'me's.

Time passes, it can make you sad; it can make you aware how fragile our little toehold on existence is. I like to think chronosynclastically; that's a spiritual experience for me.

I guess spiritual as in I feel apart of something or that I've learned something that I feel is vitally important. I kind of get like a feeling that washes over me. It's not overwhelming but I know it is there. It's like a realization concerning oneself. It's difficult to explain. I just feel right though and everything feels in place.

I cant neccesarily give a specific time and place but it is alone or just with a single person conversing about ideas and enlightened things.

For me, it sneaks up at unexpected times and it isn't emotional, it is an utter feeling of peace (if you must label it with feeling). I have had a sudden tingling between my eyebrows while meditating with an accompanying warmth that flowed through my body from brow to head to torso and finally limbs and it feels almost 'cosmic'. Sounds weird I know.

My first 'spiritual experience' was when I was fairly young and was skinny dipping in warm water. Night fell and a thunderstorm began forming. I was floating on my back in the water, looking up at the 'sheet lightening' go from cloud to cloud, like it sometimes does in mid-summer. I was very relaxed and not really thinking, just being. Suddenly I was up IN the clouds but my body still floated in the water and I was one with the lightening and clouds and with All.

That startled me when I found myself back in my body. I got out of the water and ran for cover as rain began to fall violently. Later I found out that was an 'out of body' experience or I guess 'astral projection'. I really don't know.

But these experiences leave me totally peaceful and optimist.

for me it is a strange body sensation followed by clarity....

edit:

Nature is a spiritual experience.

One needs to be aware to even experience it.

It's feeling connected to the universe with a sense of calming.

example:

After physical exertion in a serene place I get an overwhelming feeling of "AHHHHHH"

It could be as simple as the wind blowing during a certain moment.

Three days before my Dad died I was coming home from work and there was this voice that spoke my name. It was in a distance but very plain. I even turned and looked. The same thing happened when my youngest brother died. Three days before, and it sounded like the same voice.

I have some more things that have happened but I'd write a whole page LOL

((froufrou))

I would classify your sense internal knowingness as the source of what people call spirituality. The word spirituality does carry a lot of dogmatic baggage. I prefer the word consciousness. Most people go through their daily lives unconsciously, barely aware of their own thoughts.