A question for all religious people here : experiences of a divine presence

[D Mullholand]

I apologize for yet another religion-oriented thread, but this one aspect here is of a considerable interest to me.

I've heard tales from some of the christians I know personally, and from some religious people on other forums, including people who turned to a religion not in childhood, but in the more "aware" age periods. They were telling about certain experiences they had, of the "revelation" type, something like sensing a divine presence, which had supposedly strengthened their belief. Has any of you (I mean the believers) experienced similar "paranormal" sensations associated with religious archetypes/imagery ? Could you please describe your feelings in detail ?

I can certainly assure you that I'm not going to use this information against you in any way, including mocking, ad hominem attacks, generalizations and derogatory comments. I would also like to ask the board-sages (you know who you are ) not to interfere until at least a few people have submitted their stories. Let's leave the scientific argument about possible natural causes of such experiences for a later time - right now I really want to know more about your subjective feelings and images appearing to you. Include as much detail as you wish.

Thanks in advance,

D Mullholand

 

[Obyeybyeogone]

Top this please, I want to hear these stories

 

[Xtokalon]

Has any of you (I mean the believers) experienced similar "paranormal" sensations associated with religious archetypes/imagery ? Could you please describe your feelings in detail ?

Are you alluding to Carl Jung's work?

By the way, I would argue that no such experiences exist. They are but the feelings of self-aggrandizement accompanied by various supporting images and fancies mixed in with a touch of hype- to wit, an unconscious egocentricism.

my two cents

 

[Satori]

As surely one of the board-sages alluded to, I will respect D's request not to bring this discussion into a scientific/logical arena at this time, though X has already sumed it up quite nicely I think (nice job, very well said).

I too have such sensations of "divine presence" all the time. I am somewhat of a spiritually-oriented person (by design) and therefore I am subject to all those like nuances and shifts of mind that are interpreted as being of a paranormal nature.

I have also had "visions" of things, like many have. These visions always occur at night or in the morning as I am falling to sleep or waking up (hint). Typically I see images of people and faces during these experiences, sometime animals. I've also had the sensation of be held down by some unseen force upon waking, an experience a great many people have in common, something I will wait to explain the cause of till a later time.

I've also had a few thing appear to when I was in a waking state, for example, seeing stuff move in my peripherial vision which happens quite a lot with me. There have also been times in my life when I've heard something whisper my name into my left ear from behind me when no one was around. I've also had the sensation of someone putting their hand on my shoulder, which can be quite weird.

When I was a young boy of 12 I was playing that popular game of trying to "move stuff with my eyes", pychokenesis (or however you spell it). This particular time I concentrated for about 20 mins on a spool of thread, trying to move it (hey, I was young and bored, heheh). Anyway, to my shock, I watched in absolute fear/horror as the spool of thread slightly tilted on it's edge and rotated away from me about 1 inch and then stopped. I'm not saying for sure that's what happened, but that is what I honestly perceived to happen and it scared me so much that I ran out of the house in a panic and never went back inside till my mother arrived home about an hour later. Even then I was afriad to go into the living room and look at the spool of thread as it sat on the wide arm of the sofa where I had left it. I got my mother to pick up the thread and put it away and I was simply too afriad to play that game ever again. I don't know why I was so afriad, I'm not anymore, I suppose I was just irrational.

I am interested in hearing other's stories about things such as this as well, particularly ghosts, moving objects, ufo's, anything that is seeming inexplicable, and I'm particularly interested in hearing stories which involved 2 eye witnesses who were neither stoned or sleeply who both agreed on what they had seen. I don't have any experiences myself unfortuantely, but I wish I did. I would love to spend some time in a "haunted" house for example, to actually see stuff happen, it would be wild.

Satori

 

[NightFlier]

I think you ppl smoke too much of that ganja.

 

[MetalManCPA]

Originally posted by Satori

I have also had "visions" of things, like many have. These visions always occur at night or in the morning as I am falling to sleep or waking up (hint). Typically I see images of people and faces during these experiences, sometime animals. I've also had the sensation of be held down by some unseen force upon waking, an experience a great many people have in common, something I will wait to explain the cause of till a later time.

I've also had a few thing appear to when I was in a waking state, for example, seeing stuff move in my peripherial vision which happens quite a lot with me. There have also been times in my life when I've heard something whisper my name into my left ear from behind me when no one was around. I've also had the sensation of someone putting their hand on my shoulder, which can be quite weird.

I had many experiences with these "visions" in my younger days - always occuring at a point between awake and asleep. It happened frequently for awhile, and became concerning. For instance, one night in college, I was lying in bed, and was staring at the wall. Slowly, the wall caught on fire. As this was happening., my roommate in the bunk above me climbed out of bed, and proceeded to walk right through this wall of flames. All the time, I could feel my body, and was trying so hard to move a limb, but I couldn't. I could see everything in the room just as it was - every pencil, piece of clothing on the floor, etc. Anyways - I was given the explanantion of rapid-eye-movement by a doctor. I was in a state of consciousness where my entire body was asleep, but the brain had yet to fall into sleep state. All the while, my eyes would be taking "snapshots" of the real world, and layering it with these dreams/visions. It was real and scary to me.

But my scariest vision was the following:
I had a dream/vision when I was 15, and it was about some horrible subway crash. When I woke up the next morning, I heard about a terrible subway crash in London (excerpts of this incident are as follows):
On the morning of Friday 28th, train 272 from Drayton Park depot, led by driving motor car No.11175, had already completed several return trips to and from Moorgate when it departed from Drayton Park at 8.39 am. Nothing untoward had happened on its short journey until at about 08.46am - at the height of the morning rush-hour - train 272 approached platform nine...As it reached the crossover, instead of slowing down to come to a stop, the train seemed to accelerate, taking the crossover at about 35mph, then bearing down upon the terminus at about 40mph! Horrified passengers and staff on the platform realised at once it was going to crash, but there was nothing they could do...A 66ft long overrun tunnel, ending in a blank wall, was at the end of the platform, with a sand drag preceded by a red stop-lamp, and with a single, hydraulic buffer behind it.The train crashed, initially, into the sand drag, showering sand and tunnel dust into the air. This slowed the train to some extent, but it continued to smash into the buffer and then the blind wall. Unfortunately, as the overrun tunnel was originally built to house main-line sized units and was about 16ft high, the smaller diameter of the tube train meant that the second car in the set (trailer 012263) rode up above the trailing end of the driving motor car, as did the third car (DM10175) which split asunder lengthwise and rode over the end of the second car. The leading driving car (11175) , of course, suffered the most damage, buckling at two points into a 'V' shape, as it was crushed between the blind wall at the end of the tunnel and the weight of the rest of its train piling up behind it. It was no surprise that fatalities were high - 42 passengers and the driver killed, and more than seventy badly injured, of whom some subsequently died as a result of their injuries.

This happened at 8:45AM London time, which is 3:45AM my time on that day, while I was sleeping. That means my vision/dream could have happened right when the real accident occurred, and would not have heard about it before I went to sleep. Since then, I've been attempting to find a connection between the dead and my family, but have had little luck. Scary to me.

 

[D Mullholand]

Originally posted by Xtokalon
By the way, I would argue that no such experiences exist. They are but the feelings of self-aggrandizement accompanied by various supporting images and fancies mixed in with a touch of hype- to wit, an unconscious egocentricism.

my two cents

Quite possible, but I'm really intrigued by the *images*, their sequence and the feelings accompanying them. I'm not a professional psychologist.

(I realize this post was rather useless, but I hope to keep the thread up for a while, until some more people respond. And huge thanks to those who have already !)

D Mullholand
---------------------------
NP: Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

 

[Eirik]

hrrm.. instead of creating a new thread I'll just BUMP!

I'd like to see more replies... this is interesting..

-Eirik the gravedigger-

 

[Black Dragon]

Yes.

Will I share it? No. Its not really anyone elses business. I assure you though though that I am not one of these people that sees oil floating on a puddle in a parking lot and says its a fallen rainbow.

 

[Black Dragon]

Oh, I will mention though that I have an uncanny thing for dreaming of specific events before they happen in my life.

 

[Eirik]

aww.. I wanted some good stories..

this needs to be in Off Topic..

 

[akasha33]

Hello,

Rather often do I have "different" feelings
Among other things I believe I once felt the energy of a large oak tree, and also of a mountain
I practiced ouija, successfully once, with other witnesses of course (very scary and eery) in the house of a gone relative
I thought of people jumping off buildings, and felt great sorrow the eve of "that" day
My world is knit with wonders...

Cheers

Akasha

.

 

[PeeWee1473]

This isn't really anything divine or anything of that sort, but it is a neat story.

This is why I am now scared shitless to listen to Still-Life while trying to fall asleep. One night I had put Still-Life in the stereo and gotten to a point where I kept nodding off while listening. I figured I would turn it off and get some sleep then, which I did. Well, after I fell asleep I could hear Serenity Painted Death playing again. I was like, "WTF?" I turned that off." I then attempted to get up and turn it off, but found I could not move. Just then a dark, shadowy figure walked right into my room and stood right next to my bed. It turned toward me. I couldn't see it's face or make out if it was human or not. I still couldn't move. Then I did one of those "try to scream and end up sitting bolt upright in bed gasping for air" things. I had woken up, there was nothing next to my bed and no music was playing.

Shit, I'm in my room right now typing this late at night and it's giving me chills. I still won't listen to Still-life while sleeping.

 

[Eirik]

sweet

 

[FlatteningOfEmotions]

Weird shit happens all the time in my house. Posters have ripped themselves off the wall, my TV has turned itself off before, sometimes I'll hear the faucet running in the bathroom, and when I go to turn it off, it's not on anymore. Pure insanity.

 

[Neurotomania]

sometimes I get this itching between my toes

 

[Heliologue]

i had a dream once so vivid that when i woke up i was sure i had just defeated a killed a robot with an iron skillet underneath a rainbow swamp after jumping off a hover train.

now, is that any more valid than people who go to sleep and think god talks to them?

 

[DreamingofUr]

I haven't had any feelings of Divine Intervention but I did turn to Christ at a late age. When I was 16 I believe. I was brought up as a catholic and went through all the sacrements but it all meant nothing to a new Black metal fan. Later I found Christ through a person and now that they are gone my Faith is stronger. I'm aware of science and all the things stacked up against Christ. But nothing can break my faith or ever make me doubt it. I pray everyone will find their way to Him but I know how strong pride can be. Its funny how people think there are so many believers. There aren't. There are the ones who do it out of ritual and all the wrong reasons. There are very few who are TRUE believers in Him. So don't say everyone believes cause they are weak. Weakness is choosing the life of sin and not the way of God. I remember how easy my life was before Him. Now it is complicated but I pray and he gives me strength. Inless you deal with these beliefs and feel the pressures you wouldn't know if you really needed God I think. If you ignore Him I think its easy to live life without his strength because your mind doesn't acknowledge the constant sin. Sorry I went this way...but all I can do is hope you find Him somehow. Thanks for reading!