MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES OF REALITY: VOLUNTARY OR NOT?

Long-time follower of this Blog, Ron Krumpos, starts the debate.

Ron has degrees in philosophy from Northwestern University, Lucknow University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

His book, The Greatest Achievement In Life, is a comprehensive account of mysticism as experienced today. Ron interviewed 10 mystics from around the world to write it. It is a free reprintable pdf book with more than 70,000 downloads so far.

Ron: Keith, you said about MER, “It’s caught, not taught.” In religious terms what is ‘caught’ is grace. Divine grace is spiritual assistance not specifically earned by its recipient. Most mystics believe that divine grace is offered at all times

Keith: Grace is “A state of sanctification by God” according to Word Web dictionary. But that’s just an historically religious statement that gives the words “sanctification” and “God” old cultural meanings that have nothing to do with my experiences of Reality every year from the age of about 14 years to my late thirties.

Is there any empirical or experiential evidence that the experience is offered at all times? It’s not an option.

If MER (Mystical Experience of Reality) is an evolutionary factor could this suggest we will all become this Ultimate Reality finally anyway, grace or no grace? (Is that what the biblical Jesus meant when he said, I and my Father (God) are one?).

Ron: … in all places and to all beings, the sentiments, thoughts and actions of the ego self, and individual isolation, block its entry.

Keith: “… sentiments, thoughts and actions of the ego self, and individual isolation, block its entry” is unlikely if my experience is to be trusted.

The phenomena is spontaneous and does not need or accept invitations or permissions. The idea that anything could “block its entry” seems self contrary.

I certainly didn’t want to block my special experiences, nor could I have resisted such an engulfment even if I’d known how … The ineffable joy, oneness with all things then, now and forever, the knowledge, understanding, and humility, all given without any taking is truly ineffable. I was my true self. I tried desperately, bitterly to resist being gently deposited back into my humanity when each episode ended. There was never any question of choice in any of it.

Ron: “God’s grace is the beginning, middle and the end. When you pray for God’s grace, you are like someone standing neck deep in water and yet crying for water.” Ramana Maharshi.

Keith: The implication of this quote seems to be that everyone can experience the phenomenon of their own volition if they just pay attention. This is not my personal experience. My experiences were spontaneous, as I’ve said.

Ron: “God continually showers the fullness of his grace on every being in the universe, but we consent to receive it to a greater or lesser extent.” Simone Weil.

Keith: By the same logic a tulip could consent to rain or refuse it. It seems unlikely MER has ever been or could be left in the care of humans any more than to plants.

The hard question here is, can we do anything personally about emerging into what the mystics tell us we truly are?

On the evidence of the biblical Jesus’s attempts to evangelise the mystical experience of Reality, and other such failed attempts of historical note, plus my own anecdotal witness, I’d have to say No.

Mysticalexperiences.net

WHY THIS BLOG?

Q: What does Mysticexperiences.net bring to this age’s understanding of mysticism?

A: The Blog started as an aid to help me understand my experiences of what I thereby discovered were Mystical Experiences of Reality.

My exploratory writing alone was hugely validating, So were all the helpful Comments Likes, Followers and emails the Blog prompted from around the world from Seekers, writers, professionals, academics – from over 70 countries.

Q: So it worked?

A: Yes. It still is working.

After hiding my experiences for nearly 60 years, by starting this web site, I discovered I am a mystic and that the subject is studied in universities around the world with vigour and enthusiasm by physicists, theologians, philosophers, psychologists and students.

I learned that Oxford University alone archived 6,000 case studies. This archive is now growing and being studied and added to under a Templeton Foundation grant at Wales University.

One of the Blog’s Followers, a Philosophy Master, questioned universities on a technical question about mysticism and got personal correspondence from published professors in 58 universities.

As a result, I learned I was not alone, nor mad … So I could have “come out” of hiding as a mystic years ago with no one raising an eyebrow; at least in learned circles. Among my friends, not so much …

Friends’ reactions have ranged from politely ignoring the subject to one sideways muttered suggestion my MERs were psychotic. Others have become Followers of the Blog.

Also, I was warned by a Sufi school I was eventually initiated into that my friends, colleagues, acquaintances, that even my reading matter and lifestyle would change dramatically. They did, almost without me noticing. I am now a friendly recluse.

I feel uncomfortable with most humans, particularly with the unrealised ones (see prophecy 15 below …). However, I do seem to have developed empathy, tolerance and patience with Seekers. I avoid the merely curious.

I also feel the web page joins the challenge of updating the limited understanding of previous generations. And it is meeting the questions by Seekers bewildered by their unbidden, unremitting passion to know the truth of existence.

Little do some Seekers know )they seek the Reality experienced by the mystics, or that Reality planted their passion in them and is drawing them to Itself. Seekers are different to the commonality of humans; emerging.

Their destiny is assured and more immediate than most, bearing in mind the focus they need to respond to their calling.

Bearing all this in mind, here is what I know so far:

Reality contains everything known and unknown. Nothing exists outside It, including humans;
It is not human;
The experience of Reality is caught, not taught.
It is knowable by direct individual experience within the parameters of the individual’s development. (Eg: as humanity developed it reached the ability to go from seeing in black and white to the qualia of seeing colour; so mystics seem to be chosen in like manner, without obvious qualifications;
It is Consciousness emerging;
It is benign, totally accepting (ie: inexpressibly loving);
It is constantly creating and developing;
It does not allow anything to interfere in Its purpose, (including humans);
It is everything in Reality; it provides, guards, guides, nourishes, replenishes, aids, observes, asserts its purpose;
It is all powerful; destroys, rebuilds, recreates;
Reality’s form is non material; non human, though everything shares Its ingredients as It shares ours. We are It;
It has given humans all they need and rarely if ever reacts to human wants;
It gives, never wants;
Reality is only interested in individuals;
Humans are at a very primitive, early stage of existence;
Prophecies can arise from the mystical experience, but such prophecies rarely get their timing right, (ie: “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” …).
However modern mystics can prophesy that religions, ideologies, lust, anger, greed, nations, isolated and isolating cultures, tribes, families, dependencies, attachments to anything but the development of the individual, are withering and dying in the timely fashion Reality has of asserting Itself. Human ego will also disappear as a disposable appendage. It will be tamed and anyway doomed to permanent death with the disposable brain and body.
If some eastern schools of mysticism are to be believed, Reality develops Itself, absorbing everything into It, including humans, to become pure spirit like Itself. I certainly was not human in my experiences. I resisted desperately every time I was returned from my experiences into being human again. Now, I hope with all my body, mind and strength that being with Reality is my destiny after death.
All who experience Reality will come to know ineffably that All Is Well. We’re under better stewardship than we can provide.

Mysticexperiences.net

MER A SCIENTIFIC “QUALIA” AFTER ALL?

Has Dr David Chalmers discovered that “Qualia”, Consciousness, and “Strong Emergence”, are radical, newly discovered, fundamental, absolutely non-human elements of the cosmos? Is he describing the Mystic Experience of Reality (MER)?

It sounds like it to this mystic.

Qualia – Wikipedia: “In philosophy and certain models of psychology, qualia (/ˈkwɑːliə/ or /ˈkweɪliə/; singular form: quale) are defined to be individual instances of subjective, conscious experience.”

Emergence: “the process of becoming visible after being concealed, the process of coming into existence or prominence.”

See David Chalmers’ interviews on Closer To Truth:

The first interview has attracted 445 comments, including some asinine remarks sadly expected in social media nowadays. Other comments contain seriously interesting perspectives.

Is Dr Chalmers introducing a new era of scientific thought, that the Mystical Experience of Reality (MER), is after all, “qualia”, “Strong non-human Emergence”, Consciousness?

Bearing in mind the scientific community uses the word ‘ineffable’ to describe MER, (“too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words”), is Dr. Chalmers’ now suggesting an historical, scientific leap forward in human evolution, a birthing?

If so, is the modern mystical experience the same experience the ancients called “God” that became smothered in religion, ideologised, politicised with human misunderstanding and spiritual disappointment, unfulfillment?

Has the paradigm of the human condition shifted?

Dr. David John Chalmers is a world renowned, rising young figure in the world of science. He is a philosopher at New York University and the Australian National University, Professor of Philosophy and co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness at NYU, and also a Professor of Philosophy at ANU.

Mysticexperiences.net

NINE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE – Lonerwolf.com

The following is an excerpt from Lonerwolf.com:

By: Mateo Sol

There is one particular state of consciousness that can change your life forever.

This moment can only be described as “ecstatic” in that you experience your connection to life expand significantly. In this moment you feel that life is full of beauty and sacredness, but this feeling and phenomenon is somehow objective and outside of your individual self.

Theologian Rudolf Otto called this experience “numinosum.” But in this article we’ll refer to it as the mystical experience.

All throughout history, the mystical experience has been referred to as a “religious” or spiritual experience, where the few mystics that recorded their experiences reported it as a rapturous and undifferentiated sense of joyful unity with all of existence.

The Candle in the Dark

The best way to describe a mystical experience might be with an allegory. The ancient Hindu tradition of Advaita Vedanta has an interesting one:

Imagine that you are in a completely dark room. You’ve been told that in this room lives a very large snake. As you sit in the room, you can see its silhouette and you feel great fear as you contemplate the potential for it to bite you at any moment. But one day there is a flash of light which illuminates the room and you see that what looked like a snake is in reality a rope.

Although the flash of light was momentary, it gave you a glimpse of the truth. All of a sudden your long-held fear vanished entirely, and your experience in the room was never the same ever again.

This is what a mystical experience feels like: it is like a flash of truth that releases you from your limited sense of self and gives you a taste of a reality that somehow feels more real.

9 Characteristics of the Mystical Experience

Every person’s mystical experience varies in length and intensity. Have you had a mystical experience? Here are a few defining characteristics:

1. Conscious Unity

The boundaries of where you perceive your individual consciousness and identity (ego) to begin and end vanish. Instead you’re left with a boundless and infinite union with all that is around you.

2. There Is No Time or Space

With a lack of a definable identity or spatial recognition, your sense of time feels infinite. You go from perceiving time from moment-to-moment as a static individual, to perceiving it as a stream of eternal present moments.

READ MORE

Mysticalexperiences.net 2018

THE TREND FROM RELIGIONS TO ‘INDIVIDUAL SPIRITUALITY’*

Is this seemingly spontaneous trend leaping out of the religious frying pan into the ‘human-spirit’ fire …?

Is it missing the phenomena of the mystic experience of Reality (MER) that drives human evolution?

Perhaps mysticism being hidden behind the secret password of ‘direct experience’ makes such oversight inevitable …

So perhaps the only solace in this current trend is its emphasis on the individual. Perhaps it’s the inevitable human flight from failed collectivism which is the antithesis of ultimately real human evolution.

Aren’t Ananias and Sapphira of the bible and today’s massively failed national attempts at collectivism a warning wreckage?

Individualism is the essence of my mystical experiences of Ultimate Reality.

So perhaps the current trend away from religions to individuality is significant enough, for now – a step along the way.

*See ‘Spiritual but not religious’ on Wikipedia for a comprehensive study of the trend.

Mysticexperiences.net

THE SECRET PASSWORD TO MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE

The most secret password in the known Universe is needed to reveal the mystical experience of Reality (MER).

This password is: “EXPERIENCE”.

That’s the good news. The bad news is:

The password is caught, not taught, not given nor bought. You can’t achieve this state of being, this state of Reality beyond the merely human, without it being caught). And no cryptologist in the world can crack the code!

Why is the experience of Reality hidden?

Presumably because most humans don’t have the attributes that qualify them to receive it yet. Or perhaps they’re unaware of this unrealised power they have? Maybe humans can’t be trusted with this Apple? Or their current state of development is too primitive for them to understand, or have any use to developed Reality yet?

The good news:

Mystics aver every human has a profound yearning for the infinite joy and acceptance that is the core of the mystic experience of reality (MER). It expresses itself strongly or weakly but irresistibly like a plant growing through concrete … It can be recognised when it surfaces in Seekers and Mystics. Otherwise it lies dormant or unrecognised, unacknowledged, never sleeping!

If you Google ‘Mysticism’ the historical and current references from all over the world seem to never end, that’s how pervasive this fundamental aspect of the human condition is, compared to human science, history, psychology, religion, medicine, literature or ideologies, isms and politics – all extinguishable as the Reality of the mystic experience never is, guarded as it is by the most secret password in the known Universe …

Mysticexperiences.net

SIGNS THAT YOU ARE A MYSTIC

By Desikachari “Desika” Nadadur PhD.

Dr. Nadadur is originally from India, and lives in the Greater Seattle Area in the State of Washington, U.S.A., with his wife and two children.

Academic Training:

Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) in Electronics and Communications Engineering, NBKRIST, Sri Venkateswara University, A.P., India
Master of Science (M.S.) in Electrical Engineering, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA, U.S.A.
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Electrical Engineering with Dissertation in Image Processing and Computer Vision from University of Washington, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.

Email: desika.nadadur@outlook.com

This is a profound work by Dr. Nadadur, giving much fuel for Seekers’ everywhere at any stage.

The following review by mysticexperiences.net is made up of point by point comments on each of Dr. Nadadur’s signs that you are a mystic:

You are a mystic, if

1. You ask the questions, “Who am I? Where do I come from? What is reality? What is my purpose? What is this universe?” and so on in trying to understand yourself and the world you perceive.

Not me. My experiences every year for about 20 years were unbidden, spontaneous. Thereafter I never asked questions, just got answers …

2. You think that there is more to life than meets the physical eye.

There is more than life itself.

3. You notice and feel a guiding hand in your life.

Somewhat.

4. You experience and recognize serendipitous events in your life.

Somewhat.

5. You are able to increasingly manifest your desires with minimal effort.

The Reality that directed my experiences directs my life with or without ‘me’.

6. Your desires are increasingly becoming aligned with higher good of all (rather) than being ego-centric.

No to becoming aligned with anything but Reality. That is not a choice. Neither is ego-centricity. Free will is available to all creatures of the material world within the bounds of their design and attributes. However, free will is not a spiritual option.

7. You highly value your intuition and inner guidance.

No, they are two fruits of Reality for which I am gratefully humble. As such, they are beyond value.

8. You start to realize that your inner world of thoughts and emotions gives rise to your physical reality, and that sets you on a path to self-exploration and eventual self-realization.

No. Reality set me on Its path. Mere self does not exist there.

9. You start to see divine in yourself, in everything and everyone.

Everything lives in and has its being in Reality. It is a developing experience.

10.You value your consciousness and inner peace as the greatest wealth you have and you work diligently to expand it.

No. It’s a gift that develops and expands of its own volition. Ordinarily, I don’t think humans would be entrusted with this consciousness.

11.You value personal experience over belief systems.

Yes.

12.You start to realize that your body and mind are the temple of the divine, and you care for them as you would care for a newborn child.

No. Reality cares for me. I try to listen but Reality does not need my help. (LOL).

13. Abundance of all kinds effortlessly flows into your life and sometimes you don’t even realize it.

True, though Wants got in the way for far too long in my case.

14.You get mystical dreams and dream visitations by sages, saints and angels.

No. Phenomena is a distraction.

15. You feel a strong connection to everything around you.

Everything is me and I am That. It fits quietly and naturally into my passing life without demands or threats; giving never demanding.

16. You are more present in the now than worrying about the future or feeling guilty about the past. You may plan for a future goal, but not attached to the results, but work diligently on the now-task.

Detachment is a gift of Reality.

17. You are comfortable with—maybe even excited about—the uncertainty of not knowing what the next moment will bring.

No. Never think about that.

18. You start to notice that the sense of control you felt you wielded over your life and situations is slowly eroding, and is being replaced by a sense that a higher power is actually in control and that you are in for an exciting ride.

Correct.

19. You are drawn to mystics and spiritually oriented people and their stories, books, and so on.

Cautiously.

20. You have psychic abilities or are interested in cultivating them.

Maybe, but why? Sounds like a human thing, a spiritual distraction … Human verities are culturally malleable – a distraction.

21. You have out of body and astral projection experiences either involuntarily or voluntarily.

One unexpected experience at the beginning; an aural message I didn’t understand at the time that said, ALL IS WELL. I also planned and induced an alarmingly successful Kundalini experience on myself. I won’t be doing that again …

Other than that just some phenomena in meditation that is easily dealt with as I was taught.

22. You prefer internal rituals to external showings.

No, no rituals.

23. Your heart jumps for joy and you shed tears of joy, when you see a beautiful scenery, a child and anyone or anything that touches your heart.

Any sudden, serendipitious awareness of the presence of Reality can overwhelm me physically and emotionally.

24. You see anyone sad or in trouble, you show deep compassion and try to alleviate their suffering.

Yes, with frustration. All human pain seems self induced one way or another. Humans are at a very primitive stage.

25. You are independent and defy convention, but you are not arrogant.

Independent and unconventional yes. But impatient with the nonconscious. I try to avoid them.

26. You see all as your equals, and not different from you.

Potentially spiritually equal yes, but not equal as humans. Clearly, we are not born as equals though everyone should be given equality of opportunity as individuals. Only individuals matter to Reality, in my observations.

27. You are mistreated by someone, you don’t blame or complain, but you introspect and see what thoughts, feelings and energy that you are projecting that made the other person behave in that manner.

No. Avoiding negative people and situations is spiritually important.

28. Conscious living is your life’s purpose and you love to help anybody who wants to live consciously.

Yes. But people who want to live consciously are already on their way. “That which they seek seeks them” as the mystic tradition attests … but interfere cautiously, even if asked. Beware the untamed egos of the unconscious. They’ll maul you … Be humble, leg it (LOL).

29. Self-Surrender and Self-Awareness are your goals, too.

They are fruits of the experience of Reality. They arrive axiomatically, unnoticed.

30. You practice being aware of and surrendering to the Higher (deeper) Self/Divine Self (or whatever name you choose to give it) within you, every moment.

No need to try. It happens of itself. All is well.

31. You truly believe in the kingdom of heaven being within and know the divine as the formless omnipresence and omniscience.

Mystics don’t have to believe. They know. They don’t need enticing with anthropological myths like “the kingdom of heaven” either. Also, Reality is greater than “omnipresence” or “omniscience”. Reality is not a human warlord.

32. You live life as if every moment is a miracle and know that you may not always understand it and you are okay with it.

It never occurs to me to think about it.

33. You know that all paths that originated from the same source will all lead back to it, so you don’t need to fight for or defend your path. You truly believe in “live and let live”.

This sounds anthropomorphic. Reality is not just about humans, if at all …

34. You know/feel that you are the microcosmic representation of the macrocosm—as within, so without.

No.

35. You look at yourself in the mirror, and see a deep mystery staring back at you inviting you to explore. Until now you saw yourself as only a physical organism. Now, you see every cell of your body as a mysterious creation of divine love.

No. If I think about it at all I wonder if humans are an accidental product of some ineffable process.

36. You experience moments of peace, bliss, and self-love that expand to include everything and everyone around you (and, BTW, they all benefit from it).

Peace and bliss yes. But not self love! I love Reality. It never fails, is constant, a non stop blessing.

37. You are naturally attracted to mystical practices such as contemplation and meditation.

This attraction comes without bidding. It seems to be a natural state for mystics.

38. You start to feel a tension within you between long held beliefs and your newly expanding consciousness and realize the falsity of those beliefs and start to let them go.

Yes, that did happen, but long ago.

39. You experience and express more and more self-confidence and courage that results from your inner anchoring in peace and harmony and start to shed the fear-based living.

Perhaps. But this sounds human, doesn’t sound spiritually important.

40. You realize that teachers, experiences and opportunities come to you, as if by magic, for you to learn and grow.

Reality doesn’t need help with my learning and growthl These things were useful along the way but get less and less so.

41. You start to see mystery in everything you study. Spiritual literature that didn’t make sense to you before, suddenly starts to make sense. You start to see the spirit at work in all areas your life and fields of your study and work.

True. But you learn to just focus on and trust Reality, to let go.

If you have one or more of these qualities, you are (or becoming) a mystic.

Mystics are created by the personal, individual mystical experience of Reality (MER) if my experiences are anything to go by.

Mysticexperiences.net 2018

THE INTERNET CHRISTIAN v. “ME”!

That dratted word, “my”.

A Christian on the Internet objects to the use of “my” – as in when I say, “in my experiences” – when I draw on the spontaneous annual mystical experiences of Reality (MER) I had from about 15 to 35 years of age, to make posts on this web site.

He says my use of the word shows ego. Ego, he says, is not found “on the mystical plane”. He asks who am I to offer myself as an authority.

But my use of the pronoun is to say, “this is only my experience”. I use “me” as a qualifier to caution readers as to the identity of the source of my anecdotal, personal experiences. My experiences are the only authority I offer.

Another reason I use the word “we” is because I have to use a human language historically developed to express experience of the material world. But MER cannot be explained or experienced in terms of the material world.

I am trying to share experiences of a spiritual phenomena that cannot be explained by materialism. MER does not exist materially. It has no body or brain, it just is everything and everything is it. It has no need of language or explanation. MER can only be experienced, caught not taught.

So I am just sharing my mystical experiences to help me get as full a comparative understanding of them from others’ experiences, comments, writings, likes and emails – as I now do from among 68 countries including scientific sources around the world I had no idea were taking mysticism so seriously.

For instance, if I had not started this web site I may not have come across the likelihood of being a pratyekabuddha. (Coincidence? I’m not sure).

Apparently a pratyekabuddha, or paccekabuddha, is the so-called “silent buddha” who does not try to share his or her realization with the world.

Pratyekabuddhas are said to achieve enlightenment on their own, without the use of teachers or guides, by “dependent origination”, (spontaneity?).

Traditionally, Paccekabuddhas give moral teachings but not enlightenment. (See unedited descriptions in Wikipedia).

I certainly do not give “moral teachings”, or ethical ones for that matter as they’re man made, not to be found in Reality – according to my experiences.

Nor can I or anyone else so far as I am aware “give” enlightenment. Enlightenment is, as I say above, caught not taught.

Nor do I feel called to be a master, teacher or “authority” on enlightenment or Reality!

Many mystics who felt otherwise and presumably engaged in human affairs because that’s what they thought they were called to do, failed. The material world brought them to very bad ends.

Modern mystics, of which there are said to be many more than there used to be, seem to know better. They keep to themselves.

So the Internet Christian’s misunderstanding I reported in the first sentence above is a reminder to me of the advice I got from a Master with millions of non monetarised followers around the world who few humans even know about.

He cautioned me about posting my experiences to spiritually unqualfied Internet social sites like Facebook etc. So that’s why mysticexperiences.net is not posted to those sites now. Yet the blog grows organically almost daily.

Obviously I shall have to be even more circumspect. Mysticism is clearly only for those who have ears to hear as the ancient saying goes …

Mysticexperiences.net

BECOMING A MYSTIC: Marooned

A Follower asks where he can find an account of my mystic experiences on this Blog. There are hints and affirmations throughout the Blog but no whole, progressive narrative account, so here it is:

I had spontaneous yearly experiences of mystical reunions with Reality from about 15 to 35 years of age. I kept them to myself for nearly 50 years.

They recreated me from a who to a what and gave me a sense of having existed from the beginning of all things to the end of all things; of belonging; and of “everything belonging to me” that others describe as “oneness”; an overwheming liquifying of my matter into pure joy; a profoundly thankful humility; a disappointment in not finding “God” there; a sense of knowing everything; of not existing anywhere but in the experiences; of knowing real reality of existence is the Reality I was experiencing; the frantic helplessness of desolation, of abandonment as each of the experiences ended.

As each of my experiences dissolved me back into my humanity I felt a keenness of loss, outcries of alarm, a profound, wrenching desperation of catastrophic bereavement. I scrabbled against it in futility. I felt marooned, a feeling that taints my human existence to this very second.

I was infused rather than taught or shown or guided. I remember there was nothing to see, hear, smell, physically feel, or think.

In one of my experiences a voice told me quite clearly and emphatically, ALL IS WELL. I was dumbfounded so the message was repeated three times …

The reason I was dumbfounded and deeply disappointed was I thought the message came for someone else. I looked around but there was no one else to see.

I was baffled for years over that message because I had not asked or thought of a question to which that might be the answer.

Another time, I was levitated out of my body. It happened without me noticing. When I did notice it seemed quite natural. I was overjoyed that God was ridding me of my body to take me up. Then I was bitterly betrayed on looking down to see my body still there about 15 feet below.

My conclusion now is there seems to be a Process into which I have been drawn, rather than “God”. This Process is nowhere near as limited as the human word “God” implies. It is benign, caring of all creation, guarding, guiding, aiding and comforting, a constant seemingly natural state of unending contentment, peace, tranquility, humility, gratitude, awe and joy. But it is not about making me a better human, though that, I think I can presume, is automatic, axiomatic. We are all more than merely human.

My sense of personality, character, body, mind, intelligence, intellect, did not exist in my MERs, nor did I miss them, expect them or need them.

I came away with the impression human bodies and brains die, but their spiritual knowingness become absorbed, added into this non-material Process of Reality beyond infinity that never dies. Reality seeks, but does not seek body, brain or mind it seems.

After MER, humans have no need of the anthropmorphic falsehoods of faith, hope or belief – after MER they KNOW. They are one with the Process, no longer needing gods or “God”. The experiences are fulfilling and keep being fulfilling after they’ve gone.

I was never given to believe humanity or individuals can invoke or influence this Process of Reality, either. In fact, being only human might be the reason so many humans have not yet had the experience of MER. Human attachment and egos are two strong deterrents among the many human attributes that come between us and this fulfillment.

The experiences were fulfilling beyond all ordinary human experience, imagining or knowledge. Reality seems to be the alpha and omega of everything, all knowing, a fundamental existential of being that just is, a given that can be taken for granted, does not need to be named. In Reality there are no names: everything just is and all is well. And I was and am that.

Between these experiences I toiled privately at the agony of being partly human despite the experiences’ development and continued effect on me – the continuingly joyous but alienating illumination of Reality and my true nature.

The stress of this growing alienation from “manmukh” – all things human – affected me severely.

The energy of the world, of the human spirit, is not compatible with the development of the spirituality of the ultimate reality of the Mystical Experience of Reality, (MER), in my experiences.

This struggle ruined my life, thankfully …

Now if I’m asked what I have especially taken away from my experiences I would say: Reality is a process. It is in charge. It never fails and is utterly benign …

Neverthless, at times the process got so desperate I developed and finalised the following secret plea to be rescued.

(At the time, I didn’t know how serious the act of writing can be, I just thought I was writing a poem. Later, the answer to this plea came by writing too and is also recorded here):

MAROONED

Divinity’s insouciant servants of the Light

Fly beneath my fears, over my plight,

Indifferent to my day as to my night.

Marooned in the humanity of my time,

Tired by glimpses of the divine,

Save me soon Lord, make me thine.

THE REPLY:

Marooned to solitude is your story;

Its contemplation leads you to my glory.

Love, understanding and compassion

Are the lessons of your life, your grace, your passion.

From the other side of Night,

I am your glory, your rescue Light …

1985.

(Nowadays I wouldn’t use the words “God”, “divine”, “faith”, “Divinity” or “Lord”. And I would call “the light” Reality, such a Light being a unique part of Reality.

(PS: The word “faith” has been bothering me. It signifies lack of real spiritual experience. So as I returned to this poem with my doubt about the rightness of the word the real word arrived. So I have deleted “faith” and as you will see, have inserted the more meaningful word “grace”).

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MYSTICISM: Defining Mysticism by Carl McColman

Despite reducing mysticism to the anthropormorphic mythomania of the existence of a God, this is a useful introduction to a subject much more profound than religions in general and Christianity in particular.

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The Value of Sparrows

From The Big Book of Christian Mysticism

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
(Isaiah 55:8)
What, then, is time? I know well enough what it is, provided that
nobody asks me; but if I am asked what it is and try to explain, I am baffled.
(Augustine)

Some people think mysticism means having powerful spiritual experiences, like seeing Heavenly visions, or hearing supernatural voices, or feeling a sense of communion with God, or undergoing profound shifts in consciousness. Others see it as a spiritual dimension to (and beyond) religion, in which the cultural, ethical, and theological differences between religions are somehow resolved in a trans-verbal state of unity. Still others dismiss it as the fuzzy, illogical, and irrational element that makes religion and spirituality so distasteful to those who prefer to conduct their lives according to science rather than faith…

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WRONG ASSUMPTIONS?

MER seems to have its own as yet unknown purpose and only reveals proof of itself to individuals.

In the many ancient and new books and papers on mysticism I’ve tried to comfort and validate myself with over the years there seem to be two underpinning assumptions that are aggravatingly wrong:

The mystical experience of reality (MER) exists solely for the benefit of mankind;
MER can be induced by humans.

If my direct experiences of MER several times a year from the age of about 15 to late 30’s are anything to go by, those two conclusions are wrong, because:

MER does not exist to make better human beings, (ignoring for the moment the ever changing historical notions about what being acceptably ‘better’ is anyway …)
Nor is there any evidence MER can or has ever been induced by human beings (though the experiment that produced Krishnamurti might be worth rigorous modern examination …).

Again, MER seems to have its own as yet unknown purpose and only reveals proof of itself to individuals. So all that can be suggested about MER’s contact with humans is that it appears to be addressing individuals exclusively, not even human groups, ideologies or nations, only individuals.

MER does not seem to be interested in, nor respond to any collective human interaction. It seems impervious to evangelism, nationalism, tribalism, culturism, religions, prozelizations, logics, reasons, politics, governances, moralities or ethics etc.

Some scientific books and papers make their spiritual errors of collectivism, communalism and socialism despite more vigorous applications of unbiased scientific endeavours elsewhere, particularly in the fields of physics.

These other, more neutral scientific fields seem to be inching their way by pragmatic experiment to a convergence of scientific method and mystical experience without unsupported worldly assumptions.

For instance, some scientists are already saying there is mathematical indication the human race is going to turn into something beyond our present understanding of the human race, when most of our social assumptions will be long gone. Non religious Sufism claims to have known that for thousands of years.

Raymond Kurzweil, described as “the restless genius” by The Wall Street Journal, said in a Closer To Truth video interview, “humans will transcend their biology”. He is an influential American best selling author, computer scientist, inventor, futurist and Google executive.

Dr. Owen Gingerich, is professor emeritus of astronomy and of the history of science at Harvard University and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. He said in a similar interview on Closer To Truth, there will be no more humans eventually.

He said species are changing because of rapidly developing consciousness and that we’re changing every year.

Professor Donald Hoffman, Cognitive Science, University of California, says the physical world isn’t final reality. He suggests natural selection drives our perceptions to extinction.

My very personal perspective is that we’re outrunning impoverished worldly assumptions such as religions, monetarised gurus, new agers, hippies and the latest establishment of social mythomanias. Is spiritual consciousness being asserted?

If so, that leaves us with scientific physicists. They are the ones left with the perennial need to scratch the human itch to know the Whats, Where’s and Why’s of human existence.

In the meantime what about mystics, you may ask.

What about them? If my situation is anything to go by, mystics only know Reality, not what Reality’s about.

The only good news mystics bring to humans is confirmation that another, non-ending Reality actually does exist.

This Reality is not merely a subjective experience. It is benign, loving beyond human experience, caring, imparts a joy otherwise unknown to us, gives a certainty that we are a part of it and that All Is Well – societies or no societies, books or no books. Maybe even humans as they are now wont be around in future and need to get over themselves?

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VASISTHA*, A SPIRITUALLY SEMINAL TEXT?

From the Introduction to the ancient Sanskrit text, YOGA VASISTHA:

“There is but one consciousness which is pure, invisible, the subtlest of the subtle, tranquil, which is neither the world nor its activities. It is aware of itself: hence this Individual Self-hood arises.

“This Individual Self perceives this unreal body as real. But when the Individual Self perceives it in the light of self-knowledge, this delusion vanishes, and the body also becomes utterly tranquil. Then the Individual Self does not perceive the body.

“The confusion of the body with the self is the greatest delusion, which the light of the sun cannot dispel.

“When the body is considered real, it becomes a real body. When it is perceived with the knowledge that it is unreal, it is merged in space. Whatever notion is firmly held concerning the body, that it becomes.”

* The full Vasistha text consists of six books:

The first book presents frustrations with the nature of life, human suffering and disdain for the world;
The second describes … desire for liberation and the nature of those who seek such liberation;
The third and fourth books assert that liberation comes through a spiritual life, one that requires self-effort, and present cosmology and metaphysical theories of existence embedded in stories. These two books are known for emphasizing free will and human creative power;
The fifth book discusses meditation and its powers in liberating the individual, while;
The last book describes the state of enlightenment and bliss. (Wikipedia).

Mystic Experiences’ Comments on Vasistha:

The complete text of the Vasistha doesn’t mention the transformative experience as being spontaneous. It claims human effort can gain the experience. That’s not my experience.

My experiences came to me unbidden, spontaneously, every year from the age of about 15 to late thirties. I have no knowledge of anything about me then or now that could possibly qualify me for such non human experiences.Accordingly, I am prejudiced to the acceptance of the Mystic Experience of Reality (MER) being caught, not taught.

Since the Vasistha’s probable arrival in the 6th century it has become generally accepted that these experiences of absolute Reality and its gifts are consistently spontaneous and beyond any human experience or ability to create or imagine and are not accessible even by learning, religious or intellectual effort, practices or physical invocations. The experiences are now generally accepted and studied scientifically and academically around the world.

However, where the experiences come from or their purpose is unknown, or at best only through scientific speculation.

The Vasistha also seems to assert that this state of ultimate knowing (“cosmic consciousness”), is all about human development. Nowadays we’d say, “all about evolution”.

Even if that is so, I have the strongest doubts such a fundamental, primal process of cosmic existence would be left to the stewardship of humans at this stage in human development.

However, in my view, the insights of Vasistha make it a seminal read for the spiritually called and is available as an eBook. Check Wikipedia’s comprehensive entry first for a fuller introduction.

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WHAT IS A QUIETIST?

I am often asked what Quietism is, presumably because it’s one of the descriptions I gave of myself in this blog’s ABOUT page.

I’m also asked why Quietism is frowned on by religionists (obviously by a questioner who has done some research on the subject).

Basically, Quietism is a description of how some who have had the mystical experience of Reality (MER) become “in the world but not of it” whether they like it or not, who thirst after righteousness to the exclusion of human interference.

I didn’t like it a bit from a human point of view when it happened to me because despite the joy and understanding and other fruits MER brought it was progressively, alarmingly alienating at the time. I kept it secret for over 50 years. Even now I haven’t told everything.

You could say MER ruined my life, and I thank MER for that …

I didn’t fit in. Quietism made me feel like one of philosopher, writer, lecturer Colin Wilson’s Outsiders. That was the name of his first book he wrote at the age of 24 that made him famous worldwide and is still in print since 1956 in over 30 languages.

The Outsider examines the human psyche through the lives and works of notables such as Nietsche, Gurdieff, Hesse, Kafka, Sartre, Blake etc. It studies the effects of their “dislocation” from the human condition, their need for transcendence, the effect these Outsiders had on society and society’s effects on them. Unfortunately I never read the book fully because it seemed at that period of my understanding to be too human oriented, too human polluting of my MER experiences.

There are, on the other hand, others who have had the experience of MER who are not affected by Outsiderism. They engage in human affairs.

For instance, some Buddhist schools recognise the phenomena of quietism in their description of The Silent Buddha: a pratyekabuddha, or paccekabuddha, the so-called “realised, silent buddhas” who do not share their Realization with the world. Traditionally, it’s said, Pratyekabuddhas give moral teachings but not enlightenment.

Like my spontaneous personal MERs, pratyekabuddhas are said to achieve enlightenment on their own, without the use of teachers or guides. (See fuller descriptions in Wikipedia).

Deepak Chopra says in his book, The Book of Secrets, “. . . there are a few people who enjoy stillness more than activity, and they dive as deep as they can to find where the water stops running, a point so still and deep that one isn’t touched by the surface waves at all. Having found this stable centre they experience themselves(?)* to the maximum and the outside world to the minimum.”

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, said “the better part” of the religious life is the one of direct experience (MER).

Carl Jung, the father of psychology, and a proponent of mysticism, is well known for his clear distinction between the superior values of the individual compared to the inferior not to say dangerous values of the collective.

My personal experience is that Quietism is a fruit of MER and like MER is caught not taught – you can’t decide for yourself that you’re going to be a Quietest.

So why have the religionists historically taken such violent, extra judicial, not to say genocidal, even murderous views of individual mystical experience in general and Quietism in particular?

The Catholic Oganisation dictionary has this to say:

“Spiritual knowledge. In a valid sense it is the knowledge of divine mysteries possessed already in this life, though darkly as a “hidden wisdom” (I Corinthians 2:6-16). In a heretical sense it is the recurring error of those who claim to have knowledge of divine things exclusively from their own religious experience and even in contradiction to the Church’s teaching authority.”

Generally, religions are those human organisations that have conceptualised their notion of their original founders’ spiritual experiences into merely human moralities, dogmas, taboos and ethics, creating a lack of distinction between the generality of the lesser human spirit and the superior, focused, individual spirituality of Ultimate Reality that embraces everything known and as yet unknown and is indescribable, unteachable and unpreachable …

So what is the Quietist’s view of humanity?

My conviction is that humanity is a profound spiritual distraction.

The individual is more important to human development than any collective, is at a higher stage of knowing than the popular delusion that the needs of the many come before the needs of the individual.

Human collectivism is cosmically counter productive, a negative, evolutionarily destructive, malignant weed in the cultivation of Reality’s perfection.

Fortunately, collective totalitarianism does seem to be disappearing under the weight of its own irreality as an inconsequential sideline in humanity’s history.

The biblical example of Christianity’s failed attempt to establish communism is in the story of Ananias and Sophira, or more currently, the USSR, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Vietnam, Cambodia are all striking examples of the violent, inhumane failure of collectivism.

Spiritually, there is nothing of lasting value to be learned from studying the human race. Only individually experienced MER presents knowledge of the cosmic permanence from which all existence, including human existence, flows. And this cosmic source is all powerful, totally benign, loving. There is literally infinitely more than just being human, thankfully.

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* No! In my experiences of MER, if that’s what Dr. Chopra means, Revelation is received from an “outside” completely independent of the self or anything human. Hence the inescapable, unbidden cosmic gift of the spiritual hunger that produces Quietists presumably …

A ONE-SENTENCE, 125-WORD EXPLANATION OF EXISTENCE AND THE SOUL?

Since Plato and Aristotle disagreed over the soul being spirit or physical, giving rise to the argument among humans ever since, it is my contention Ultimate Reality – which modern science, the way Professor Fred Alan describes it, suggests to me is an “‘intangible, irreducible field of probability; the quantum physical wave function from which all matter and energy arise” – that this Ultimate Reality “wave function” invented the phenomenon of the direct individual experience of MER (the Mystical Experience of Reality), thus explaining spiritual existence accurately and fully once and for all without any human intervention whatsoever, (even avoiding languages to do so, using individual human brains as receivers of MERs) – thus reducing scientific physics and philosophy to the level of mere materialistic technological enquiry …

PS: Perennialists 1, Constructionists 0.

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SEVEN “GIFTS” OF CATHOLICS

Is this where we went wrong?

These seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (MER?) are excerpted from an article by Frank X. Blisard in the December 1 1960 edition of Catholic Answers magazine:

1. “Wisdom is both the knowledge of and judgment about “divine things” and the ability to judge and direct human affairs according to divine truth (I/I.1.6; I/II.69.3; II/II.8.6; II/II.45.1–5).

COMMENT: So, is this the very heart and soul, of where religions get it wrong? Is this where the devil, so to speak, thwarts MER by diverting the truly divine into the merely human fabrications of “faith, hope and belief”? These three myths signify that those who practise them are ignorant of Reality. When you have experienced MER you don’t need “faith, hope and belief”, you know.

2. “Understanding is penetrating insight into the very heart of things, especially those higher truths that are necessary for our eternal salvation—in effect, the ability to “see” God (I/I.12.5; I/II.69.2; II/II.8.1–3).

3. “Counsel allows a man to be directed by God in matters necessary for his salvation (II/II.52.1). ***

COMMENT: No one needs salvation. Salvation is an irrelevant manipulative human concept, nothing to do with a sinless Ultimate Reality. It is an oxymoron, an ignorant unspiritual presumption.

As for “the ability to to see God”, I expected to see “God” in my MER experiences, though I was disappointed when I didn’t. I was however humbled by the joy of Ultimate Reality’s acceptance of me; and by the awe of its revelation of Existence.

But if by “God” this “gift” means Reality, then there is nowhere Ultimate Reality isn’t and we ARE Reality – whether Reality is seen, known, realised or not. In so far as we are chosen then we experience Reality AS us, and we are Reality.

4. “Fortitude denotes a firmness of mind in doing good and in avoiding evil, particularly when it is difficult or dangerous to do so, and the confidence to overcome all obstacles, even deadly ones, by virtue of the assurance of everlasting life (I/II.61.3; II/II.123.2; II/II.139.1).

COMMENT: Seekers not yet fulfilled will find fortitude a necessary discipline perhaps, but not those who have experienced MER, to whom fortitude is no longer relevant. There are no obstacles of manmade “spiritual” inventions, not even human darknesses like “evil”, in Reality.

5. “Knowledge is the ability to judge correctly about matters of faith and right action, so as to never wander from the straight path of justice (II/II.9.3).

COMMENT: “Judge”, “faith”, “right action” and “path of justice”, are clear intentions to direct the experience of MER into mere human concerns. This is purely ignorant human religious devilry, however innocent; an attempted coup against Ultimate Reality.

6. “Piety is, principally, revering God with filial affection, paying worship and duty to God, paying due duty to all men on account of their relationship to God, and honoring the saints and not contradicting Scripture. The Latin word pietas denotes the reverence that we give to our father and to our country; since God is the Father of all, the worship of God is also called piety (I/II.68.4; II/II.121.1).

COMMENT: The Reality experienced in MER cannot be reduced to any concept of “fillialness”, “piety”, “worship” or “duty”, “(national) patriotism”, or “saints”. These are man-made words; mindstuff. The god that requires such obeissance is insignificantly small, a human fiction. There are no names or descriptions in Reality.

7. “Fear of God is, in this context, “filial” or chaste fear whereby we revere God and avoid separating ourselves from him—as opposed to “servile” fear, whereby we fear punishment (I/II.67.4; II/II.19.9).”

COMMENT: Fear of Reality is another oxymoron, a spiritually ignorant human supposition. MER is humbleness (not humility), joy, bliss, acceptance, belonging, complete oneness in everything that exists. Fear is a product of human darkness. It does not exist in Reality.

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