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Reading the thread on the Gift of the Holy Ghost, I’m wondering, what does the experience of the spirit or Holy Ghost feel like to you? Here are the many ways: 1. When I was about 16, and struggling with a kind of light depression, it felt like someone had lifted a burden from me — I felt almost “high”, as if I’d taken a sedative, and nothing bothered me.
2. It often feels like tingling feeling in my chest, and sometimes in the roof of my mouth.
3. Sometimes its a thick feeling that envelopes the room and makes my eyes fill up with warmth.
4. When I prayed for a testimony of the Church, it was as if there was an electric field all around my body so intense I couldn’t move — it ALMOST hurt, but it was a feeling of tremendous power thatn convinced me to join the Church in spite of lack of evidence.
5. On a few occasions, its as if someone has “swept” my spirit and I feel clean in spirit.
I have had a very few “burning in the bosom” experiences, but never totally on my own. For me, it tends to be a “settling upon my soul” feeling – or a convergence of mind and heart that brings me a feeling of great peace. Most of the time, however, I’m not much of a “feeler”. I’m more naturally a “study it out in your heart and mind” person. I’m a good example of why we shouldn’t tell people how they will feel the Spirit, since the “traditional” ways don’t work for me all that often.
Old-Timer wrote:For me, it tends to be a “settling upon my soul” feeling – or a convergence of mind and heart that brings me a feeling of great peace.
This is a nice way to put it. I have felt and do feel the spirit in different ways at different times, but one form is when I hear a quote or a thought and it brings me peace, or a sense of wonder, or excitement, or all three at once. This could also be described as finding things that resonate with my core.
I know this strays from your question, but some have reported that taking anti-depressants interferes with experiencing the Holy Ghost in the ways in which they are accustomed.
This is a good question, and I can’t decide whether we should have more or less detail in our discussions on the subject in church. My experience as a youth in the church is one of confusion. When I heard descriptions of “burning” I had no idea what that could be, I had and still have no personal reference for that. When I heard it paralleled to some type of emotional response (tingling, goosebumps, chills up your spine, etc.) I was even more confused because I felt those things outside of spiritual settings more often than within.
Today I equate the spirit with peace. Feeling a confidence or comfort in truth. That’s about all I can say on it.
This is an issue that I’ve been trying to answer of a number of years. It seems to be key for why I became inactive.
I joined the church as an adult. My 1st experience with the HG came during the investigation process. I didn’t serve a FT mission. I have served as a Stake Missionary several times plus a 70’s President & Ward Mission Leader, etc. We were as successful as the FT missionaries.
Through the investigation process, missionary work, teaching work, temple work, some fast meetings, I clearly remember feeling the influence of the HG. It started in my chest & I had feelings that radiated throughout my body. I never had that in the Methodist church.
If it were a testimony meeting or teaching an investigator, I had to get to my feet or bare my testimony in a very personal way or sit quietly & let it envelop me. It’s hard to describe to someone who hasn’t experienced it.
Next, I want to refer you to my introduction dated: 21 Sep 2011. Titled: “This feels like my last chance.”
I make reference to my daughter from my 1st marriage & the circumstances of that situation.
I won’t go into details. But, it is similar to what you read about at Penn State.
In trying to deal with that situation, it felt like everything spiritual slipped away. I felt like I was in darkness & the gospel was a huge practical joke. I basically felt numb. My hope was I could go to the Bishop or other members & they could help be through this experience.
The more I worked at it, the more I felt alone. That’s when the drinking started. Then it seemed to get worse. Drinking makes everything worse.
I’ve been in recovery for 21+ years. From time to time I do have the feelings of spiritual awakenings. It has been slow. But the spiritual feelings are sporatic. Never to the same degree as the 1st paragraph above. I do get comfort from D&C121, 1-10.
I want God to talk to me like he did to JS in verse 7.
I didn’t mean to bring this discussion down.
For what it’s worth.
Mike from Milton.
Mike wrote:I didn’t mean to bring this discussion down.
Mike, your experiences are as real and valid as anyone else’s. Your experience forms your reality and IMO part of why we are here (both at StayLDS and on Earth) is to learn from and provide support to each other. In the end, we all feel the spirit differently or for some of us (and at different times) not at all. It is completely subjective. We try to describe it in familiar scriptural terms because those are the tools we have been given. But this is the Holy Spirit we are talking about, mysticism incarnate, and she will not be confined to playing by our rules.
I don’t think I made myself clear. What I’m trying to say is: based on my personal life experiences since I was baptised, the role of the HG has been at the extremes.
High when things are going well & Low (or absent) when they’re not.
When it first happened, I wanted the same experience as JS did (D&C 121). “My son, peace be unto thy soul…”.
Iam beginning to believe that the extremes in my life, are not very realistic.
Iam beginning to see that God (or HG) can speak to me in a small voice at the most unexpected time.
Usually not at Church.
I’m doing my part to work through this.
But, it’s been a bitch. With a Big “B”.
Mike from Milton.
I’m not really attached to the HG as a being, like a person. I do think of it as a transformative energy that causes us to evolve (spiritually, intellectually, as an individual and as a species). I was also never really a “burning in the bosom” guy. I’ve felt that, of course, but it never really seemed all that different than a great emotional outpouring in response to something beautiful or inspiring (art, music and religion).
What I would identify as feelings associated with what I think of as The Spirit is this: a deep calm and clarity, like everything slows down and becomes clear. My mind and soul feel full of positive energy, and I can see things in ways I hadn’t considered before. Also, a wonderful and intense feeling of love and connection to everything, especially living beings, like we are all ONE.
Mormon Expressions is preparing to do on a podcast on this subject in 2 weeks. I don’t know everyone who will be on the panel. I know I’ve excepted an invitation to participate. I am very interested to hear what the discussion brings. I don’t want to in any way compare it to pornography… but I would say:
Quote:I know it when I feel it.
:wtf: mom3 wrote:Mormon Expressions is preparing to do on a podcast on this subject in 2 weeks. I don’t know everyone who will be on the panel. I know I’ve excepted an invitation to participate. I am very interested to hear what the discussion brings.
Don’t leave us hanging now. Who the hell are you?
🙂 I sent you a PM.I’ve said this multiple times — but I feel the spirit most often when I go out and sit by the burn barrel and drink a beer and smoke my pipe. What does it feel like. Hmmmm? Peaceful, everything is okay, things start to make sense and come into focus, clarity,Of course, I also generally continue to drink more and more beer, and then I just get drunk and start doing the whole Edgar Poe deal. But that first hour or two, sitting out looking at the stars in the cool desert air —- yeah, the gods really talk to me. It’s good.
^^ [Pushes FaceBook LIKE button] As a teenager when praying to know if the church was true, I was enveloped with a physical force that is difficult to put into words. I felt like electricity was entering my eyes (which were lifted upward). I flowed through my body and out my feet. Electricty is not a true analogy as it was not painful, although it was so powerful I wondered if I might lose my life. It was so beautiful it didn’t matter. Another analogy would be standing in a fast moving stream and having the water flow through rather than around your body. I have had this experience only once since and that was the night before I was called to be a Bishop. On another occasion I had what I can only describe as “pure knowledge” that a daughter of mine was going to be hit by a vehicle and killed. I stood amazed, thinking how can I have “pure knowledge.” I have never had anything like it. My children were walking along a road where we were camping and nothing appeared to be wrong. A minute or so later a Winnebago saundered past. The kids were a block away and I couldn’t see anything wrong as it approached them. I felt I needed to do something and so shouted “look out!.” A minute or so later my two children came walking back towards me. My daughter was covered with leaves and dirt. My son said “Dad when you called ___ was about to go under the wheels of the Winnebago. We hadn’t seen it, and it didn’t see us. I looked up and grabbed her throwing her into the ditch.” I have had several times where I have felt strongly prompted to take an action that saved a person in danger–statisticaly those situations were too improbable to be anything but the prompting of the spirit. I had an occasion once where I was asking the Lord to affirm a decision I had made and a dark depressing feeling immediately came over me. I followed the prompting, changed my decision and was later grateful for it. I have found that after saying my evening prayers, if I will take a few minutes to listen, that I will often have ideas come into my mind of something I should do to help someone. Despite several “miraculous–at least to me” experiences, I have come to believe that the most reliable messages come from feelings. I heard a quote this week made many years ago by a lady I knew and greatly admired, Stella Harris Oaks, the mother of Dallin Oaks. She was quoted as saying that the Lord often answers prayers through feelings. While I realize that we can deceive ourselves and in a sense “answer our own prayers,” I think with practice one can tell difference between true spirirual promptings and the workings of our own imaginations.
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