I have for decades had a strong interest in those moments of experienced "numinous significance"; those times and places where - either at the time, or in retrospect - we have a conviction that something-has-happened which is of relevance to our life, generally.
It seems that many people have these "peak experiences" - they vary with age, circumstances, place and company; some people have them a lot, and some (apparently) not at all.
The actual raw experiences - their emotional and sensory qualities - seem pretty similar and identifiable as such. Yet whether they are significant; and, if so, what is their significance seems to depend on the interpretative scheme that is applied - and a wide range of schemes are applied.
I think it is Not the intensity of emotion that matters, but the lingering sense of significance - the way an event recurs in memory, and that "something important, and potentially good" happened.
But understanding what happened, and what are its meaning and implications; is where there are such big differences between people.
I have read many books and essays by mystical/ spiritual/ esoteric/ occult type people; and it is evident that most of them have these "peak experiences" and regard them as central to - whatever it is they believe. Yet that which they believe varies extremely widely and often in opposite directions! From atheism of an hedonic flavour, right through New Age spirituality to devout adherents of formal and traditional religions - of many kinds and with perhaps opposite tendencies.
From this; it seems clear that such experiences are not "evidence" or "proof" of any particular "system" or metaphysical assumptions. This applies even when the experience is one of "theophany" - a vision of God for example.
Reading the reports from people who believe they have experienced the presence of God, it is clear that the believed experience alone does not really get them anywhere in the longer term; because they need to understand, explain, make sense of their experience - and that requires such larger, perhaps pre-existing, scheme of assumptions.
There is therefore probably an excessive emphasis on the occurrence of mystical/ spiritual (etc) experiences, and a relative (or complete) neglect of the matter of making sense of such experiences.
In other words: the significance of unitary, discrete experiences is not self-evident.
The scheme by which one makes sense of peak experiences, and indeed of all kinds of life-experiences, is a different matter - and apparently a deeper and more significant matter; than even the most significant of moments.
Lately dreamed I was running intensely through a restaurant focused on completing a great task composed of many steps. Awoke to the grandest day in a long while. Bliss, blazing self-confidence, deep oneness, I was radiant with the Great Spirit (though no telepathy this time).
ReplyDeleteIndeed, my day played essentially the same as in the dream; I ran all over PDX with utter devotion to acquiring a gift forsaken for some time. The birds sang with joy at my approach. Just so, Creation itself lauded my very being with every breath I drew.
And yet, there is something beyond all of that, something always on the horizon that my is wholly devoted to. The source of all of that, the Heavenly Father. Ideal spiritual states arise and pass away, at least while incarnate, and you must remember that you're just a dingus from Missouri to avoid succumbing to that grand delusion of spiritual megalomania.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Iantromantis,
Potato Salad
John has left a comment:
ReplyDelete"I still remember a dream of approaching a harbour and on a motorway heading to the bridge to cross but my car couldn't sail across on the main span, it got pulled to the left lane then into an exit lane which wound down to a park under the bridge from where I was only able to watch the rough water between me and the CBD on the other side. Being a poor swimmer water in my dreams often becomes a barrier and I woke knowing the significance of this dream which was forty years ago. This was the tail end of a longer dream with other significant related motifs. There was a follow-up dream some weeks later which I will recount in a follow-up post."
I will continue on in this post after all as to the follow up dream, which became a numinous experience, in that hypnogogic state when falling asleep. I was in a dream and found myself beside a large pond, at dusk. My still awake consciousness observed the dream and thought "oh not another one of these water blocking my way dreams again", but without exiting the dream. The dreamer entering its own dream as a character in the dream. A lucid dream is the term I believe. But then I became aware of another observer in the dream, a Presence on the far side of the pond. An intense feeling of unconditional love emanated from it and I sensed an invitation to come to it along with the words "Just relax". Then I was pulled up and over towards the Presence my whole body feeling more alive than before or since. Then my dreaming self came back in and thought about what was happening and halfway across I woke up out of the dream. Perhaps it was an instance of so-called astral travel, don't know. Thirty five years later I still feel I haven't relaxed. A kind of Russian dolls experience of consciousness.
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