Mysticism and Spiritual Experience

What is a spiritual experience and what might cause such?

Manifestations of the Spirit:

• Psychomotor responses: uncontrolled movement (being slain in the spirit)
• Speaking in tongues (glossolalia)
• Visions and voices: seeing and hearing things beyond scope of the physical senses (visions of Mary)
• Miracles
• Feelings of ecstasy, “peak” experiences
• Feelings of peace and well-being

Kinds of Spiritual Experience: 

• Confirming: an undeniable “knowing” that what one believes is true
• Possession: being overtaken by a spiritual power (e.g. channeling, being “slain in the spirit”)
• Saving: deliverance from affliction or sense of wholeness
• Commissioning: being charged by the holy to accomplish a task, being given a mission
• Mystical: sense of being one with the holy

Mysticism is the direct, inner experience of the One, All-Pervading, and Supreme Reality

Mystical experience can be…

• Introvertive or Extravertive (nature mysticism)
• Theistic or non-theistic
• Spontaneous or induced (e.g. through spiritual practices or maybe even drugs)
• Tradition-bound or independent

Characteristics of Mystical Experience:

An altered state of consciousness: 

• Timeless: no sense of time and space (infinite and eternal)
• Oneness: sense of connectedness or unity with all that is
• Noetic: Revelation of knowledge
• Beyond ego: no sense of self (absorption into the one – fana, satori, sunyata, samadhi)
• Ineffable: beyond words to express
• Sense that everything is alive
• Emotions such as bliss, peace, tranquility, awe
• Sense of perfection that may be called “holy,” “sacred,” or “divine”

This is your brain on God:

But which is cause and which is effect: does a spiritual experience cause these changes in the brain? Or do changes in the brain result in our imagining we have encountered some god or spiritual being?

Have you ever had an experience that you might consider “spiritual” in nature?

How would you describe this experience?

Was this experience spontaneous (natural) or perhaps drug induced (artificial)?

I have long wondered about the difference between drug induced mystical experience vs. natural/spontaneous experiences. The question: is a drug induced experience REAL? IOW, is it just as real as a natural/spontaneous experience? The same effects might be seen in brain activity, however, the CAUSE of such might be very different.

What do you think? Comment below.

How mystical are YOU? Complete this "Mysticism Scale" survey to find out.

scoring: 

1. for negatively expressed ("I have never...") items: reverse the  algebraic sign (+ à -, - à +) 
2. add 3 to each item. A question mark (?) = 3. 
3. add up your score: 32 = least mystical, 160 = most mystical.

Learn more about the development of this survey