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“Not all who wander, are lost.”

J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

This quote is very true.

My late Sufi Master said, “There are no failures.”

As someone who through no fault of his own experienced the joyous rebirth of the experience of Reality many times a year for over 15 years, I can verify this truth.

We are not body or brain. We are more.

Humanity’s destiny is to eventually shed body and brain like a chrysalis to become individually truly fulfllled in the fullness of Reality.

Each individual aspect of existence goes through this, not just humans.

All Is Well – no matter what humans get up to.

Mysticexperiences.net

“MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE OF REALITY” BOOK NOW AVAILABLE TO 2.5 BILLION PEOPLE WORLDWIDE.

This Blog’s book, “Mystical Experience of Reality” is now live on the Google Play Bookstore.

Apparently it will now reach a wider audience of 2.5 billion people worldwide who own an Android device through their access to the Google Play store – more than even Amazon reaches:

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=bH13EAAAQBAJ

mysticalexperience.net

I AM NOT ‘I’ !

After his recent inner experiences a follower wrote to me, “Somehow something of the ‘I’ had to remain to be influenced, to grow myself and maybe those I encounter.”

My experiences are entirely different.

My reply was that in my experiences ‘I’ gets in the way of spiritual development. ‘I’ clutters spiritual progress.

‘I’, being human, and particularly the mind with its cultural accretions, have nothing whatsoever to do with human development. They are attachments.

All human lust, anger, greed, attachments and ego get in the way. Fortunately they wither under Reality’s influence.

But the followers’, “‘I’ had to remain to be influenced, to grow myself and maybe those I encounter”, particularly worries me.

As I have shared many times, Reality is caught, not taught. We can’t do Reality’s work for it!

As human history shows, we, including mystics, can’t evangelise, teach or prosyletise, the mystic experience of Reality, (MER). The experience is ineffable, not explainable. Only Reality can gift it.

Even scholars and scientists admit to MERs absolute ineffability.

So ‘I’ certainly doesn’t “have to remain”. But not to worry. If the follower is under Reality’s influence ‘I’s eventual disappearance will become joyfully apparent in Reality’s own good time …

All Is Well.

Please feel free to republish this post.

mysticexperiences.net

A NEW REVELATION?

Did I have what Christians would call a new Revelation?

I was reading this quotation by Ron Krumpos in his new paperback of, ‘The Greatest Achievement In Life’:

“The (mystical) experience itself is felt to be sufficient and complete. It does not come in fragmentary or truncated form demanding completion by something else. It does not look beyond itself for meaning or validity.”  Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, former President of India

It gave me a sudden, startling, serendipitous reminder of my mystical experiences, plunged me into that joyful state of knowing my true self in what I have come to know as Reality.

Reality engulfed me again; joyfully, humbly, irresistibly. I shook.

Later, I wondered if this was the answer to a persistent urge to know even more of the Reality of my experiences.   

The ‘answer’ seemed to be that difficult to explain but impossible to ignore feeling to, Just be. Be just what Reality is creating. 

I had been feeling for some time that, we are given what we are ready to absorb, as much as our capabilities can bear! No one is first, no one is last.

It also confirmed what a Sufi master once told his initiates, there really are no failures.

All Is Well.

mysticexperiences.net

Please feel free to pass posts on …

PERENNIALIST vs. MATERIALIST “INCONSEQUENTIAL”?

In all the confusion of human attention to the perennialist view of the world versus the view that the only explanation of existence is the physical, material world, the mystic experience of Reality MER tends to get lost.

The materialist view is that Reality is what we experience by touch, sight, hearing, and a brain/ mind limited to experiment, logic and reason, not personal experience.

Materialism rejects subjectivity, ‘feelings’ and emotions as pathological, twisting things from the truth.

On the other hand, the full perennial explanation is that Reality is everything and we are a part of That – everything directly experienced but also everything material, physical, personal, biological, botanic or anything else. We are part of a Reality that rules everything. Reality is beyond infinite.

Nevertheless, many perennialists lose the way by assuming perennialism is obviously all about the human condition. It’s not.

The rarely acknowleged actual direct personal experience of Reality that mystics encounter, (MER), encompasses both perennialism and materialism/matter, as well as all things beyond present ordinary human comprehension or experience.

Are mystics part of a cosmic evolution, a direct, personal growing consciousness of Reality beyond present ordinary human or perennialist and materialist ability to comprehend?

If the Pareto principle that only 10 per cent effort produces 90 outcome can be applied here, then if seekers and mystics are 10 per cent of the world’s population, are there possibly millions of living humans called to be, or who already are mystics?

Is consciousness growing through seekers and mystics, (with or without mainstream human cognition)?

Is real infinite cosmic consciousness only revealed to individuals selected for reasons yet unknown who are seekers and mystics?

If so, is the argument between perennialists and materialists utterly inconsequential to Reality’s purpose?

All Is Well.

mysticexperiences.net

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“CONTEMPORARY VIEWS” OF MYSTICISM

Taken with permission from Ron Krumpos’ book, The Greatest Achievement In Life. This free ebook has been downloaded over 70,000 times and is being republished as a printed book.

Ron has degrees in philosophy from Northwestern University, Lucknow University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a long time follower of this Blog:

Many contemporary mystics are laypeople who seldom speak about religion, although most are quite religious. Mysticism, for them, is considered a mode of being, not a question of their faith.

These people are not trying to convince you or asking you to agree with what they say. They are merely attempting to explain their own direct awareness. They have no desire to describe their mystical experiences. Application to living is far more important. It is all-embracing discernment.

Almost every person feels that their life is lacking in some way, although they are seldom able to define it. There always seems to be something missing. True mystics feel wholeness often. It is not a temporary absorption in divine union. Rather, it is identifying with the divine essence everywhere. Living, for them, usually expands beyond their own immediate sentiments, thoughts and sensing.

“Just let it be.” Many mystics today have said that, in various ways. We frequently do try to control our lives. To some extent that is possible. Much of what happens, however, is beyond our control. Acceptance is a positive spin on surrender. We must accept what is, or actively change it to something better. Mark Twain said “the worst things in my life never happened,” yet caused needless worry. Conversely, the best things in life often occur without any planning or expectations. Dealing with what is should be our priority. We must live in the present, rather than dwell on the past or the future.

Existence is not just a mental exercise, despite what some Eastern schools of mysticism may seem to imply. There are emotional and physical factors of equal importance, which might be stressed too much in the West. For mystics, mind and body, and their emotive interaction, are less significant than the spiritual essence underlying them. A mind without spirit would be lethargic; a body without spirit would be ailing; lacking spirit in both can actually cause physical death. Life is not only becoming, it is being here and now.

Rebirth is conceived as being born in another body, after death in this life. For “born again” Christians, it is reaffirmation of their faith while still alive. Contemporary mystics sometimes speak of being born again. After absorption in oneness, they view existence from a broader perspective. The universal essence, which had engulfed them, is later felt as background to everything they experience. Living has greater purpose*, even if they cannot explain it in words. Realizing eternal life is present currently, they do not fear death.

Religions today usually concentrate on earthly being, within the confines of space and time. They seldom mention either mysticism or eternity. Many books about Judaism, Christianity and Islam omit their mystical tradition. Much current literature by Buddhists only touch on the Dharmakaya or Nirvana. The mystical quest for unity is still a vital part of Hindu movements, but most people in modern India are now more concerned with secular interests.

Many mystics disassociate themselves from orthodox beliefs and practices, which is resented by many of their religion’s members. Some reinterpret the scriptures and prophesies of their faith, which upsets some of its leaders. The priorities of mystical traditions are frequently at odds with the mainstream of their institutional faith. They concentrate on the eternal here and now, partially manifested in space and time, yet also transcendent to each and both.

“What about eternal life?” Most people who even consider it may regard it as after passing on. It can, however, be realized both consciously and presently. What we call this life might be just like watching and performing in a play on stage. The concluded acts we call the past. The following acts, termed the future, have yet to be presented. For true mystics, here…now…this moment is Reality. It is not merely an intermission. It is truly boundless and endless.

Many of these essays use symbolic terms, as did most quotations of mystics. “How do they relate to everyday living?” If you looked at a movie film (not digital), frame by frame, you would not grasp the meaning of the complete picture. When you look at this life, hour by hour, day by day, you cannot see it in its whole context. Even if you could review one mortal life in its entirety, its greater spiritual significance would be missing. Life is all of existence.

“How can one person possibly relate to all of existence, let alone to the spiritual essence which underlies it?” That is what mystics are conscious of, sometimes momentarily and, rarely, throughout every day. “Can you believe in a personal God and be a mystic?” Most of them do. “Can you be an atheist and a mystic?” A few are. God is the supreme concept of that essence which is God beyond God.

“God is a concept and not a reality?” God is as real as you want God to be. The divine essence is Reality, even if you do not believe in God. It is another mystical paradox. “Why can’t it be simple?” It is simple…it simply is. It is our minds which add the complexity.

*Their feeling, thinking and actions become for the soul, the whole and all, not for “I, me” and “my.” Their sense of being reaches beyond limited personal concerns.

Mysticexperiences.net

THE GNOSTIC EXPERIENCE – ARE HUMANS RELEVANT?

Some mystics would tell us the only spiritual life worth talking about is the experiential kind, not the religious. 

Why we are here is based on inner experience, gnosis, not the expectations of our country of origin, tradition, culture, teachings or habits.

Gnosis is connection to Reality.  Those who have experienced it are marked by a reluctance to talk about it. 

What we know of it suggests it is spontaneous, though some religious teachers claim they can induce it in their pupils by special disciplines.  the Jesus of the Christian bible said his message was only for those already prepared by his God, perhaps a reference to the experience of gnosis. Bible and mystical references suggest it can’t be earned or deserved. 

Anecdotal evidence suggests the experience happens to those aged between 20 and 30. Each experience brings with it a sense of departure from the body. 

While it lasts, the feeling is of being infused as if anaesthetised with a profound sense of joy. Everything that exists or has ever existed belongs intensely to the one having the experience. There is no absence of time, just no such thing as time. 

It is as if the subject is being observed with benign indifference, as if their existence is unremarkable, as if they are an essential part of a reality in which they exist for ever.

The experiences come with an undetectable gentleness as if from an infinite, unassailable strength. There is a sense that the even greater Reality is waiting nearby. Afterwards, some subjects conclude they are given as much of the experience as they can bear. As the experience begins to leave the loss is fought against with agitation and sadness, and a panicky sense of loss.

The experiences do not lead the subject to want to be a better human being.  They can even make the subject impatient with being human at all. Being a “better”, a “good”, human being, become givens, “fruits of the spirit”. After such experiences these attributes seem axiomatic, automatic, needing no effort to achieve. 

This gnosis is not anthropomorphic, human centred, not even biological.

Gnosis makes a clear distinction between the human spirit and what humans call the Holy Spirit, that which is of man, (matter, morality and ethics), and that which is Real, pure, the soul.

The soul is a part of what those who have the gnostic experience then know as their true identity, an identity which is part of a whole to which they will eventually return permanently.

The sense is that the soul is merely placed in the human mind and body in order to experience matter and when that is satisfactorily accomplished, when the soul is pure spirit, then the body is discarded and the mind is shelved as no longer required. Only souls are eternal, not humans.

All Is Well. 
Mysticexperiences.net

Please feel free to reblog.

Note: This was originally posted in 2016 and is posted here again in slightly re-edited form. It is a restatement of my Mystical Experiences Of Reality, (MER) several times a year from my late 14 years to 35 years of age.

“INTERACTIONS WITH THE HIGHER SELF”.

“…one must surrender consciously to the power of the unconscious, in terms of thinking what one should do or of what is generally thought right, or of what usually happens. One must simply listen in order to learn what the inner totality – the Self – wants one to do here and now in a particular situation.”

Carl Jung Man and His Symbols

This post is by a retired medical doctor in his Blog, Spirit of the Beach. Dr Good is a Follower of mysticexperiences.net

It is an introduction to his interactions, direct personal experiences with what he calls his Higher Self:

“I want to outline how the conversation goes, many will not have had the experience, or at least recognised it when it was there. We can go around life thinking to ourselves and working things out in our minds; will the asking of a question and will an answer as something we construct in our conscious minds. My conversation with my Self is not like that, it is as though it comes from another person, but is heard from within. So it can be shocking, or at least not what was expected. Like someone appearing over your shoulder and saying something into one of your ears. I am often left thinking, well I wouldn’t have thought of that and yet it has come from something deep within me, something I do not have conscious control over. I do have control over how I respond.

“Looking back there was a specific occasion when a voice I now recognised as Self interjected my thoughts. I was in my late twenties living a relatively isolated hard-working life and unsure of my future. I asked myself “What is to become of me?” Wondering how I would end up in middle age. To my surprise, an answer came from inside; “You will become Jesus.” I was shocked and disturbed. Though not being Christian I respected the reverence with which he was held and felt the statement blasphemous, a conceit and inflation and distanced myself from it.

“The first time I intentionally looked for this inner guide was in a meditation in 1990 from a book How to Meditate by John (Jyotish) Novak. I had to make a lifestyle decision without sufficient information. I meditated into silence and stillness, and then asked the question – this or that? The answer came clearly – live here, work there. I followed the advice and it turned out well. There followed other occasions where I found I was in difficulty with a decision and I asked in the same way and got an answer, in the same way, followed it and did not regret the advice.

“From the time of the awakening in the late forties, the questions took an existential turn. Who am I, why am I here, what shall I do? “You are as you are.” “Live your life as an example.” “Grow yourself and grow those you encounter.” and often “Continue as you are.”

“When I was having difficulty keeping my career going from an internal motivation standpoint I remember while walking and wondering “What am I going to do about my career.” an answer came “Leave.” I asked the voice “When.” And it said “Now.” At the time it felt shocking going against the work I had dedicated my life to, and now with a family, and no other career options. I also knew that whether I wanted to or not, it was going to happen and I was going to have to face and do my best with it; I was worried. It took nearly three years before I felt compelled to go. When I was considering returning to work (I was on sick leave) I specifically asked whether I should, the voice said “No. It would be purgatory without purpose.” This I took to mean that the purpose of my life would not be served by returning.

“Later that changed again – “I am here, I am with you,” “I am always with you.” to “We are as one.” A gentle masculine voice.

“That is how the relationship with the quiet inner voice has evolved, some differences, some the same, but for the most part a reflection of where I had been at the time. From answering questions to determining how to be, to the proximity of our relationship.

“Sometimes I ask a question and there is no response. Maybe there is no optimal way for me to go, or I have to decide and take responsibility and make use of any associated learning opportunity. This voice has told me that whatever decision I make they will work with that, which is good to know because it is possible to get paralysed by indecision, especially if one is pursuing perfection.

“There are uncertainties; the Self has different manifestations – Jesus figure – Just a voice – Yahweh and other symbols. Where does Satan fit in? And God? There has always been a concern as to the reliability of the entity on the other side but with care, I have never been let down. Other voices can appear in a similar way, and be disruptive, so I have always been guarded. This has made me wary of seeking advice, and of taking it. The work of ego breakdown, and working with shadow figures and the feminine (discussed through this blog) has cleared the ground between us, making the connection easier and clearer. Still, the above quote by Jung comes for me, with a health warning, to be very wary of handing oneself over.

“Self is a reality to me- but what is the reality? The centre of consciousness of the whole? The locus of a divine spark? My experience of Self is of it as a knowing and intelligence that is far beyond my everyday capacity, even beyond that of the great geniuses of culture. It somehow seems to be tuned in to the world I inhabit, as though it constructs it for me for its own purposes. Is this just a set of neurological circuits in my right hemisphere or elsewhere in my body, or is it something beyond that? I want to live from the place of being the best that I can be with my particular array of human limitations. And in the Self is that place.

“The phases of growth have been described by Carl Jung – moral instruction – shadow absorption / transcending – anima or animus (contrasexual inner feminine and masculine respectively) absorption / transcending – integration with Self and then with God. My experience is that these phases are in general terms going on contemporaneously along the way.

“Not necessarily everyone’s way. I have had a particular practice and a particular starting point that has given me a window into the unconscious. I suspect much of the process goes on unconsciously, under the surface of our awareness, and I fully recognise that this is what could be happening in others in the world, unawares.

“What follows this year are short posts of conversations and experiences, mostly with Self, that I have had over the past several years. I want to bring across the nature of these.”

SCHOLASTIC PAPER CONCLUDES NEED FOR MYSTIC ACCEPTANCE

Following is the Abstract of a paper by George Drazenovich and Celia Kouric of the University of South Africa called Mysticism and Mental Health, published September 2010. 

Selected excerpts follow the Abstract. They warn of the dangers of ignoring the mystic experience:

“ABSTRACT

“Contemporary research suggests that a path is now open for critical dialogue between mysticism and mental health.  

“Data are accumulating regarding the frequency which mystic experience occurs in the general population. 

“Social science researchers are undertaking studies to determine whether people can differentiate between the pressure of a mystical experience and other types of experiences that occur in their lives.  

“Psychologists are developing clinical criteria by which the mystical experience can be differentiated.  

“Neuropsychotic researchers are experiencing the effects of the mystical experience by the way of enhanced brain energy. 

“Theologians are opening up the received wisdom of the mystical tradition and applying it to present historical content.

“This paper drew these diverse disciplines together to demonstrate an emerging consensus with respect to the efficacy of mysticism in the field of mental health.”

EXCERPTS

(Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s mystical experiences are mentioned.  Having taken his lengthy stringent emotional course, “The Spiritual Exercises”, with an experienced Jesuit Master, I was interested in the reference that reveals Saint Loyola’s battle-battered personal history.  After that apparently he had profound, life changing recurring spiritual revelations. It’s said they lead him to create the Jesuits. 

“Saint Ignatius warned about the ‘battlefield…on which our souls are engaged in the struggle that frustrates the integration of our destiny’ “.

 “…the neurological basis of the mystical mind allowing us to appreciate the fact that the mystical experience is a constitutive aspect of our natural human life.”

“Given the frequency of reported mystical experiences, the scientific exploration of this dimension of human experience is important.”

“Contemporary research in mysticism illustrates that the mystical experience is an integral aspect of the human person and the recovery of the mystical experience will fulfill a much needed void in society.”

“A society that denies the mystical…will fall into various forms of pathological pseudo mysticism…nationalism, militarism, fascism, technology, consumerism, fundamentalism, new ageism, asceticism, and psychologism.”

“Neuropsychology and the social sciences have joined with spirituality in the articulation of mysticism…leading to an emerging consensus with respect to the efficacy of the mystical experience in people’s lives.”

Mysticexperiences.net

REALITY’S PURPOSE IS ….

The materialists in academia think the brain is limited to utilitarian human purposes. But mystics know that is not the brain’s primary purpose..

Scholars and scientists propose the brain makes up the phenomenon of the historical mystic experience of Reality (MER). To prove it they feverishly examine all aspects of the live or dead human brain’s structural, chemical, hydraulic, and electrical workings but to no avail spiritually, yet spirituality is what humans are all about ….

The brain is not a human tool that can be used to crack open a full realisation of the immensity of Reality.

One day they’ll acknowledge the failure of this materialistic approach. They’ll accept the brain is primarily a receiver of Reality’s intent. Everything we do, know and are flows from that.

‘Knowing’ this as I do convinces me the human individual is the prime purpose of Reality, not communality, collectivities, ideologies, ‘modern tribalism’, religious mindstuff and all such mass coercions inflicted on us by the primitive human mind …

That’s why an enlightened mystic can never be a mystic christian, muslim, hindhu, jew, left winger or right winger, etc. Suchlike is impure human ‘manmukh’ and as such, irrelevant to Reality’s purpose.

The individual, all individuality in all things, is Reality’s prime creation and purpose.

All Is Well.

All mysticexperiences.net posts may be freely republished.

BELIEVE IN ‘GOD’?

QUESTION: Why shouldn’t I believe in God?

ANSWER: My more than 30 years of multiple annual spontaneous mystic experiences of Reality convince me your ‘God’ is too small.

Your religiously created ‘God’ is man made. Individual spirituality existed long before religions, if my experiences are to be believed.

(Religions only happened 10,000 years ago according to the Cambridge psychologist Nicolas Humphrey).

But if you get some sort of payoff in believing in your ‘God’ then don’t let anyone stop you, including me.

Q: Why are you so against what you call the ‘God’ of religions’?

A: Because the religions teach that their ‘God’s acceptance of you is contingent on your acceptance of religions’ rules. To me, this is an unforgivably monstrous, potentially spiritually crippling lie. 

Reality is real. It does not lay down expectations. It does not  condemn, demand worship or obedience, punish, or reward. It doesn’t care whether you believe in It or not because Reality believes in you.

Reality recreates everything known and unknown. It is satisfied with its evolving creation. It is in charge without your ‘help’ or understanding. That is the actual historical mystic experience.

You are satisfactory to Reality in all things because you are of Reality Itself. It accepts your existence unconditionally, joyously, axiomatically. You were in Reality at the beginning as you will be at any end, whether fully realised as yet or not.

Religions on the other hand are the personification of spiritual ignorance for saying otherwise because they have not recognised or accepted the historical mystic experience of the Reality which is the very ground of all existence, including us. 

Q:  Phew. 

(Long pause in silence).

Q:  Then what happens to morality and ethics without religion?

A: Morality and ethics came with human birth before religions, as you will understand if you see the startling BBC film series that followed babies from their birth to adulthood. (The Humanists agree I think but I don’t know anything about Humanism or how they arrive at this conclusion).

So far as the morality and ethics of religions are concerned you only have to read their bibles to see the endlessly disgusting preaching of the foulest perverted human behaviour in war or peace. Hardly moral or ethical teachings! 

Though people say the New Testament is different it displays the disciples as being more interested on which side of the throne in heaven they’ll be seated. It reports betrayal, denial, fantastic feats, impossible career promises to followers, even geographical error. 

Q: Then how do people find the truth?  

A: By actually experiencing what real mystics experience.

Q: But I thought you said you can’t do that?

A: True. In my experience and reading, the mystic experience of Reality, MER, is caught not taught, as I have been saying ad infinitum.  

Q: So are you saying, leave everything to this Reality of yours?

A:  Yes. But if you really are called incurably to ‘hunger and thirst’ for truth then the best solution I know is ‘to know yourself’ by listening intently in the silence.

Absorb, submit – beware of phenomena, ignore the distractions of human attachments; anything mental or physical. 

True spiritual tradition says ‘the rest will follow as the night the day’. Try it. Like most things spiritual, results come unobtrusively like an anaesthetic. But the process needs special patience and submission. 

(“That which you seek seeks you” is a traditional spiritual lesson of comfort).  

Just beware religions leading you astray. There’s no such thing as a Christian or any other kind of mystic Reality, just Reality.

All Is Well.

All posts may be republished freely.