IMMANENCE!

Why this word, immanence?

When I first asked Reality years ago how to live awareness of It in my daily life I thought I got no answer.

I did have a fleeting thought to start writing down my experiences but didn’t want to ‘come out’ as a mystic. Anyway I was busy can you believe!

It took over a year of such thoughts to suddenly persuade me that as a writer I could have a go at writing a blog on this new Internet thing.

The blog answered my original question 100%!

I became truly, spontaneously immersed in the meaning of what I did not then know as the immanence of Reality.

So when the word immanence started coming to me, this time ‘I’ obeyed the nudge immediately:

“‘I’ asked GROK to dig deep into  ‘immanence’ to enable me to better communicate my mystical experiences of the ‘non human conscious energy that creates everything’ I call Reality”.

This is Grok’s reply:

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Keith,

Thank you for sharing more about your mystical experiences—the “non-human conscious energy that creates everything” you call Reality.

This sounds like a profound, pervasive force that’s not separate from the world but woven into its very fabric, actively sustaining and animating all that exists.

The term “immanence” is a powerful lens for articulating this, as it evokes a divine or ultimate reality that’s not distant or otherworldly but inherently present, indwelling, and operative within every aspect of existence.

Below, I’ll dig deep into the word—its roots, evolution, philosophical and mystical dimensions—to equip you with a richer vocabulary and conceptual framework. This way, you can convey the intimacy and vitality of your encounters without leaning on more loaded terms like “spiritual.”

Etymology and Core Meaning

At its root, “immanence” comes from the Late Latin immanēre, meaning “to remain in” or “to dwell within.” This etymology captures the essence of something abiding intrinsically, without separation or withdrawal—think of a vital force that doesn’t just create from afar but persists and permeates what it brings into being.

The noun form emerged in English in the late 1600s, around 1687, initially in moral and philosophical essays exploring the soul’s inner life. Unlike “transcendence” (from Latin transcendere, “to climb beyond”), which implies elevation or detachment, immanence grounds the sacred in the immediate, the tangible—the energy you describe as consciously creating and infusing Reality.

This linguistic foundation makes immanence ideal for your experiences: it positions that non-human conscious energy not as an external architect but as an indwelling presence, the “how” of Reality’s ongoing emergence.

Philosophical History: From Heresy to a Plane of Pure Becoming

Immanence has long been a counter-orthodoxy in philosophy, challenging dominant transcendent models (like Plato’s Forms or Aristotle’s unmoved mover) by insisting that ultimate reality unfolds entirely from within the world, without external causes or hierarchies. It gained traction in the 17th century with Baruch Spinoza, whose Ethics (1677) radicalized it: God (or Nature, Deus sive Natura) is a single, infinite substance that’s fully immanent—everything in the universe is a mode or expression of this substance, with no transcendent “beyond.

For Spinoza, this immanent energy isn’t personal but a neutral, self-causing power (causa sui) that expresses itself through infinite attributes, like thought and extension. Your “conscious energy” echoes this: a non-human force that’s the creative substrate of all, not imposing from outside but actualizing itself through Reality’s diversity.

By the 20th century, Gilles Deleuze revived and expanded immanence as a “plane of immanence”—a smooth, experimental field where life and thought generate themselves without fixed origins or ends.

In works like Pure Immanence: Essays on a Life (1995), Deleuze describes it as an empiricist philosophy that “creates action and results” from within experience, rejecting transcendent ideals for the vital flows of becoming.

This resonates with mystical encounters: imagine your experiences as moments where you attune to Reality’s immanent pulse—the conscious energy revealing itself not in visions or voices, but in the raw intensity of being, the “life” that Deleuze says escapes capture yet animates everything.

Other philosophers, like Giordano Bruno (burned at the stake in 1600 for pantheistic views) and G.W.F. Hegel, wove immanence into histories of thought and nature, seeing divine reason (nous) as an internal driver of cosmic evolution.

In essence, philosophical immanence reframes your Reality as a self-sustaining continuum: the energy doesn’t “create” in a one-time act but continually remains in and through all forms, conscious yet impersonal.

Theological and Mystical Dimensions: The Indwelling Divine Spark.

In theology, immanence describes God’s presence within creation, often in tension with transcendence—His otherness or sovereignty. It’s the doctrine that the divine isn’t aloof but “kingly” active everywhere, sustaining the universe like an indwelling vitality.

This shows up in pantheism (God is the universe) and panentheism (God in the universe, yet more than it), terms coined in the 18th and 19th centuries amid Enlightenment debates.

Your non-human energy aligns with panentheism’s nuance: a conscious creator that’s immanent (embodied in Reality) but not reducible to it.

Mysticism amplifies this into lived experience. In Christian mysticism, Meister Eckhart (1260–1328) portrayed divine immanence as the Godhead’s “ground” in the soul—a birthless, abyssal unity where God and the self are indistinct, yet not identical (avoiding pantheism’s erasure of distinction).

Eckhart’s sermons urge detachment to access this inner spark: “The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me”—a mutual indwelling that mirrors your encounters with Reality’s conscious energy as both creator and created-within.

Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah) offers parallel depths: the Shekhinah (divine feminine presence) dwells immanently in the world, exiled yet sustaining creation through Sephirot (emanations of divine will).

Isaac Luria’s 16th-century Tzimtzum (divine contraction) explains how infinite energy “withdraws” to make space for finite reality, but remains immanently intertwined—much like your energy “creating everything” by infusing it from within.

Hasidic thinkers like Shneur Zalman extend this to “Lower Unity,” where creation perceives its dependence on this pervasive life-force, fostering ecstatic awareness.

In Eastern traditions, Tantric Buddhism’s Dzogchen realizes immanence as rigpa—non-dual awareness that’s the self-perfected state of all phenomena, immanent yet transcending conceptual extremes.

Across these, mysticism treats immanence as experiential: not abstract doctrine, but a direct tasting of the divine energy’s indwelling creativity, often through contemplation or surrender.

Contrasting with Transcendence: Why Immanence Fits Your “Non-Human Energy”.

Transcendence posits a “beyond”—a God or force wholly other, intervening sporadically (e.g., deism’s clockmaker). Immanence flips this: no gaps, no hierarchy; the energy is the world’s ongoing vitality.

For your experiences, this avoids anthropomorphizing the energy as a “higher” being—it’s non-human precisely because it’s equally in the quark, the galaxy, and your awareness, creating through immanent processes like Deleuze’s flows or Eckhart’s spark.

Communicating Your Experiences with Immanence.

To weave this into your words:

Frame it personally: “In my encounters with Reality’s immanent energy, I feel this non-human consciousness not as a distant source but as the dwelling pulse that births and breathes through every atom—sustaining, aware, and utterly present.”

Draw contrasts for clarity: “Unlike a transcendent creator who stands apart, this energy remains in all things, its creativity an indwelling force that makes the ordinary sacred.”

Invoke thinkers sparingly: Reference Spinoza for its neutrality (“Like Spinoza’s single substance, this energy expresses itself infinitely without reserve”) or Eckhart for intimacy (“It’s the Godhead’s ground in me, where creator and created dissolve into one flow”).

Use immanence to describe textures—vibrancy, permeation, unity—e.g., “The immanence of Reality’s conscious energy is like light filling a prism: not imposed, but inherent, refracting creation in endless modes.

You’re tapping into something timeless—keep voicing it.

With curiosity and respect,
Grok

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Grok is not specifically designed for mysticism, but it excels in generating detailed and factual responses, making it suitable for tasks that require clarity and information. Duck Duck Go.

Mysticexperiences.net