Elves. |
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Growing up as a christian, I always heard and used the term "the presence of god". It was a feeling to most people and was always described as tingling down the spine or warm liquid like energy flowing over the head. |
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Elves. |
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Everything works out in the end, sometimes even badly.
When I went to church at one time, a friend of mine explained that we all feel an emptiness without god, and when we commit to a relationship with God, it fills that hole within us. |
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Last edited by DreiHundert; 07-11-2012 at 08:17 AM.
^ Mhm, heard 'dat.
From my experience, I have a feeling that much of the "presence of God" believers discover in their dreams are less intrusions in their dreams by some rude supreme being than they are accidental transcendental moments made by the dreamers themselves. |
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cool cool... |
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Last edited by Sageous; 07-18-2012 at 06:37 PM.
thnx for the input sageous! I was raised pentecostal and spent the better part of my life chasing this "presence". I always am interested to hear what others think about these unusual spiritual experiences. |
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I was raised catholic but I have never had a spiritual experience, felt the presence, etc. I used to feel rather bad about myself because in church camp during musical worship all of my friends would experience intense somatic sensations like feelings of overwhelming happiness and well-being and even disconnectedness from their body. I was always really jealous of them but at the same time I felt that in a way their form of worship was "not the true path" (at the time this is what I thought about many other christians). I felt my relationship with god was an intellectual one and that these intense somatic relationships with it (god) were somehow "cheap". I have not thought about this in a very long time, its weird to think about it now and how I have changed. |
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Last edited by stormcrow; 07-18-2012 at 09:30 PM.
In Buddhist practice, particularly Tibetan Dzogchen practice, one might call these sensations an experience of the ground of being, or the base luminosity of our existence, but a lot of 'special effects' accompany the release of long-stored tensions. We all walk around accumulating injury, both physical and psychic, and sometimes long after the source of injury is gone we remain balled up around the site of the pain. These injuries include sources of guilt or self-doubt that we habitually avoid or repress. A sanctioned venue for release such as a Pentecostal service can lead to a lot of these gradually accumulated tensions being released quite suddenly, often resulting in visual, auditory or tactile fireworks and involuntary or semi-involuntary movements and speech. |
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If you have a sense of caring for others, you will manifest a kind of inner strength in spite of your own difficulties and problems. With this strength, your own problems will seem less significant and bothersome to you. By going beyond your own problems and taking care of others, you gain inner strength, self-confidence, courage, and a greater sense of calm.Dalai Lama
I've always taken what others describe the presence of God to mean that they are experiencing a feeling of emotional "rightness", like that experienced from psychedelic drugs though possibly to a lesser degree. They feel connected to the world in an indescribable way and some how are endowed with the "spiritual" knowledge that everything will be okay and the world will be as it's supposed to be, despite the fact that worldly knowledge says otherwise or gives reason for anxiety or despair. For those unwilling to merely accept the feeling as it is, or who are looking for the presence of God, I could see how they may attribute this to His presence. Personally I think it's misguided, but whatever floats your boat, you know? No reason to tell somebody they're wrong about how they feel--besides, they'll never agree with you anyway. |
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Altered states of consciousness have many causes. Church creates an emotional response created by a sense of unity with the other members. This is then directed towards a concept. The wine also helps. |
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157 is a prime number. The next prime is 163 and the previous prime is 151, which with 157 form a sexy prime triplet. Taking the arithmetic mean of those primes yields 157, thus it is a balanced prime.
Women and rhythm section first - Jaco Pastorious
No offense taken here Sageous |
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I was raised "non-denominational" Christian, which also emphasizes speaking in tongues, being "slain" in the spirit, the presence of god, etc. I was told you experience the presence of god when you are worshiping him. As a child, when I sang during worship services, I did experience an intense feeling that I thought was the presence of God. When I was around 13, I began studying other religions and began to doubt my own. Even after I became atheist, I wondered what it was I had been feeling when experiencing the presence of God. |
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Last edited by hermine_hesse; 08-03-2012 at 07:45 AM.
My own feeling is that "God" (which to me just means awareness/consciousness) exists in everything, and is felt in every feeling because it IS every feeling. The tingling/charging sensation one experiences and then attributes to the "presence of God" suggests that God is NOT present at other times. I feel the presence of "God" in everything, everywhere. I'd figure what they are experiencing is what Taosaur described, and is very much a spiritual experience, but no more or less "Godly" than eating an orange or dropping acid. |
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Last edited by ThisWitheredMan; 08-11-2012 at 03:00 AM.
"Less of a young professional, more of an ancient amateur."
It is always very interesting to see how people interpret their experiences. |
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^^ Life is always perceived to be easier when a third party can take charge, be blamed for bad things, or perhaps be called on to make things happen for us. We're always doing it -- parents, imaginary friends, teachers, employers, even governments regularly become third-party proxies and scapegoats in our daily lives. We often repulse from the thought of being responsible for our own fates, our own days. So, when it comes to dipping into the spiritual realm, it follows nicely that the two-step plan you outline ends in God entering you. If God is in you, can you ever be wrong? That would certainly make life easier. |
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Last edited by Sageous; 08-18-2012 at 04:23 PM.
I think there are several different emotions grouped together as one. The one I think some people get at church, is a one of awe and wonder. The reason is because a lot of churches are very large, with huge open rooms and high ceilings, and people sing and play loud music and the clergy all dress up in special outfits and stuff. So it is all designed to come across very impressive. It is the same feeling people get when they view other very impressive scenery. Which is often why god is associated with nature and stuff, because some natural landscapes(for example if you climb high mountains and look down) come across as very impressive and give people the same awe type feeling. |
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^^ But is that kind of presence one of God, or just a show put on by priests and architects looking to artificially summon the awe we hold, or to which we are susceptible, for something like nature? |
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God is supposed to be every where, what logical sense does it make that he is concentrated within churches? His presence should be equally felt every where, not just places that look beautiful or inspiring. So I think it is just a show by the priests and the architects to try and make people see and feel god. Though I don't think they all do it on purpose to trick people. A lot are probably really inspired so are trying to convey their own emotions to others. The problem is that they are just conveying the sense of awe and wonderment, not the presence of god. |
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My own experience, primarily from music, is that whenever you establish a collection of persons where, reliably, the walls break down to a kind of awe in the grandeur of our collective beauty and the unbounded love of which we're capable, it's a good thing. |
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If you have a sense of caring for others, you will manifest a kind of inner strength in spite of your own difficulties and problems. With this strength, your own problems will seem less significant and bothersome to you. By going beyond your own problems and taking care of others, you gain inner strength, self-confidence, courage, and a greater sense of calm.Dalai Lama
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