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swimordie wrote:
Probably before the flood.
😳 😈 🙄 😆 Love it!
My thoughts were along the same line. I had very powerful “spiritual experiences” on my mission. Why? Because that’s what I was told it was.
Since then, I’ve had very powerful spiritual experiences during times when most religions say you shouldn’t be having them!
😳 My logical mind tells me they are “good,” but probably not caused by the things I was taught growing up. I still prepare myself for them, and even seek them when I need the “spiritual boost” in my life, but I don’t claim to know exactly what they are and where they come from.And I’m just fine with that.
I appreciate and understand the responses of those who have not had my experiences. I really do. However, I did not share those experiences here for them to be dismissed without any attempt to allow for the possibility that my conclusion concerning them is correct or legitimate. Let me be crystal clear about the VERY few experiences I referenced in my comment: There is NO rational explanation for them EXCEPT that I was tapped into something outside mortal understanding. These weren’t “spiritual confirmations” of some kind. These weren’t impressions. These weren’t things that I might have heard and forgotten, that might have been remembered in a time of need. These were MIRACLES in literal terms – experiences that simply defy “logical” explanation of ANY kind.
Again, I have NO idea why I have had a few of these experiences while others have not. Likewise, I have NO idea why my own experiences have been so limited numerically. I don’t understand it; I don’t pretend to understand it.
I do NOT insist that others understand my experiences.I can’t, without being hypocritical, since I don’t understand them fully myself. All I ask is that these experiences not be dismissed out-of-hand as other than what they were.All I ask is that others not assume they can understand what I can’t understand as the person who experienced them. All I ask is for the respect that will allow the possibility that I actually DO “know” that these experiences are unexplainable using normal psycho-analytical techniques or explanations – that I’m not deluded in my explanation of them. Part of the process of finding the peace I have found is being able to admit that I don’t understand a lot of things – and being open to giving credit to sources outside my understanding AND general experience. PLEASE, don’t misunderstand what I am saying here.
I am NOT angry or upset in any way.However, some of the comments regarding my comment literally have been dismissive in nature – and I firmly believe that part of spiritual and emotional maturity is developing the ability to remain open-minded about things that are unexplainable – that part of reconciliation and peace when it comes to spiritual things and “God” is the realization and acceptance that there really are mysteries beyond our comprehension. Old-Timer wrote:These weren’t things that I might have heard and forgotten, that might have been remembered in a time of need. These were MIRACLES in literal terms – experiences that simply defy “logical” explanation of ANY kind.
I absolutely don’t want to dismiss, or claim to know anything about what or why you had the experiences you had, Ray. I’ve had many myself, and I don’t appreciate that others claim to know what I have experienced.
The only point I was trying to make is that MIRACULOUS experiences happen in very different cultures, religious traditions, even traumatic events in such various venues, that I think it is arrogant (and PLEASE don’t think I’m referring to you here) for a person, any person in any culture, to think that theirs is the only “culture” that experiences them. I’ve read enough of your posts, Ray, that I’m sure YOU don’t feel this way, but I do know many Mormons (my former mission president for one) that staunchly believe that ALL spiritual experiences, and miracles from the Divine, are LDS only, and if occur without the “LDS Priesthood” are from the devil.
Having said that, we all know how some other cultures have very intense experiences that “testify” to them that they should strap bombs to themselves and blow up innocent people — all in the name of God. I personally am always skeptical when one person testifies, with conviction, that “he” knows what is best for others…or what “God” has told him to do to another. In my life experience, I have never seen God work that way. It seems that “Spirit” works very individually, and in ways that are unique and sacred to the one person…and always for the self-improvement and self-love of the individual.
But that’s just my experience so far in my 52 years on this planet. Maybe the next 52 will teach me something different.
Rix, fwiw, my comment was not in response to yours. It simply happened to fall after yours chronologically – and I agree with every word in your last comment. Old-Timer wrote:Rix, fwiw, my comment was not in response to yours. It simply happened to fall after yours chronologically – and I agree with every word in your last comment.
By the process of elimination…..
😳 Old-Timer wrote:All I ask is that these experiences not be dismissed out-of-hand as other than what they were.
I guess, wow! Dismissing your experiences was the absolute furthest thing from my intent. My point was actually to ascribe reason and intellectual discovery to “God”, in the way that you ascribe to “God” your experiences. Not to claim that they’re equal or the same or not as valuable or anything. Just to use the example of how one may ascribe an experience to “God”. Obviously, you said that you didn’t fully understand these experiences, but that you ascribe them to “God”. I don’t always understand the intellectual discoveries I may make, but I can ascribe that to “God”. That doesn’t mean I’m dismissing your experiences by not giving them the weight they duly deserve. I was simply speaking of the “naming” of the “source” of the experience.
swim, I owe you a HUGE apology. I’ve been fighting sickness for a couple of days, and I simply misread your comment horribly. When I read it again, it says NOTHING like what I got when I read it initially. Please forgive me for reading and writing when I should have been in bed.
Ray, on the balance of what we owe each other, I will never, ever be able to repay you for what you’ve shared with me on this forum. No harm done. 
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