When did you last have a spiritual experience?
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@evan I am interested in seeing your definition of a spiritual experience after the poll is over. I was thinking of a sense of wonder and contentment - and unfortunately it's been too long.
@dneary honestly, understanding what a "spiritual experience" is, and how often they occur, is a pretty big part of why I asked this question.
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Asking many people, I've never had a description of what they mean by “spiritual experience” that puts it outside the bounds of a physiological + mental experience.
This might be because people sadly underestimate what range of experiences our minds and bodies are capable of generating, and insist there must be some “spirit” separate from the mind and body.
I have much greater respect for minds and bodies than that, to ever need to invent a distinct spiritual realm.
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Asking many people, I've never had a description of what they mean by “spiritual experience” that puts it outside the bounds of a physiological + mental experience.
This might be because people sadly underestimate what range of experiences our minds and bodies are capable of generating, and insist there must be some “spirit” separate from the mind and body.
I have much greater respect for minds and bodies than that, to ever need to invent a distinct spiritual realm.
@bignose So, question for you: could you have a *spiritual* experience that is not a *supernatural* experience?
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@evan Never
I'm not sure why "never" is unimportant to you.
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@evan Never
I'm not sure why "never" is unimportant to you.
@BobCollins I'm not sure either!
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What a great poll! Thanks to everyone who replied and responded.
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What a great poll! Thanks to everyone who replied and responded.
I would say about a day. I think I have a more lax definition of "spiritual experience" than some of the commenters, many of whom excluded any that weren't related to the supernatural.
For me, I think that moments of gratitude and appreciation, wonder, and especially awareness of scale in time and space are spiritual experiences. Sunsets, great music, good meals with loved ones, the total eclipse, thinking in terms of my full life, growing plants all feel like spiritual experiences to me.
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I would say about a day. I think I have a more lax definition of "spiritual experience" than some of the commenters, many of whom excluded any that weren't related to the supernatural.
For me, I think that moments of gratitude and appreciation, wonder, and especially awareness of scale in time and space are spiritual experiences. Sunsets, great music, good meals with loved ones, the total eclipse, thinking in terms of my full life, growing plants all feel like spiritual experiences to me.
I liked Virginia Woolf's idea of "Moments of Being" in her essay with the same title.
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/14/archives/moments-of-being-the-guest-word.html
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I liked Virginia Woolf's idea of "Moments of Being" in her essay with the same title.
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/14/archives/moments-of-being-the-guest-word.html
I think there's also a case for intentional spiritual practices. I have a daily meditation practice which is a big part, for me, of feeling that gratitude and perspective.
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I think there's also a case for intentional spiritual practices. I have a daily meditation practice which is a big part, for me, of feeling that gratitude and perspective.
For people who feel like these experiences that I am describing don't qualify as "spiritual", that's ok. I hope you are getting moments of gratitude and awareness, and that you cultivate those moments, even if you might give them a different name.
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For people who feel like these experiences that I am describing don't qualify as "spiritual", that's ok. I hope you are getting moments of gratitude and awareness, and that you cultivate those moments, even if you might give them a different name.
@evan good on you for trying to translate these feelings into language— it is an essential part of literature, and it’s a big part of why I thought Michael Foster’s vocation was so tremendously difficult. I wonder how we can ever bridge the gap between the hyper rational world of computing and humanity
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@evan good on you for trying to translate these feelings into language— it is an essential part of literature, and it’s a big part of why I thought Michael Foster’s vocation was so tremendously difficult. I wonder how we can ever bridge the gap between the hyper rational world of computing and humanity
@swart I think for a lot of people the idea of spiritual experiences or practices feels very weighted. Multiple people on the thread mentioned having their morning cup of coffee as a spiritual experience, which I thought was great. So, I think there's a lot of variance in expectations.
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@swart I think for a lot of people the idea of spiritual experiences or practices feels very weighted. Multiple people on the thread mentioned having their morning cup of coffee as a spiritual experience, which I thought was great. So, I think there's a lot of variance in expectations.
@evan I guess I was thinking more in line with psychedelics but ymmv 😆
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I liked Virginia Woolf's idea of "Moments of Being" in her essay with the same title.
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/11/14/archives/moments-of-being-the-guest-word.html
For those (like me) allergic to NYTimes links here's from Wikipedia:
As described by Woolf, 'moments of being' are moments in which an individual experiences a sense of reality, in contrast to the states of 'non-being' that dominate most of an individual's conscious life, in which they are separated from reality by a protective covering. Moments of being could be a result of instances of shock, discovery, or revelation.Is that the gist, @evan ?
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For those (like me) allergic to NYTimes links here's from Wikipedia:
As described by Woolf, 'moments of being' are moments in which an individual experiences a sense of reality, in contrast to the states of 'non-being' that dominate most of an individual's conscious life, in which they are separated from reality by a protective covering. Moments of being could be a result of instances of shock, discovery, or revelation.Is that the gist, @evan ?
@RMiddleton the book is available on archive.org too:
https://archive.org/details/momentsofbeing00wool/page/n237/mode/1up