Jack7
First Post
The title may be a bit of a misnomer. But I hope, not by much.
I'm not even sure this is the correct forum, but suspect it is. So I'm gonna put it here, and if it needs to be moved, then maybe the mods will move it to a better location. If this is considered a violation of forum rules, then they can delete it. But I don't think it will be.
The point of this thread is not to discuss religion or even concepts of God, per se, you may not even use or like the term God. But I'm gonna use the term God for the sake of simplicity and efficiency. I put the thread here on this site because I suspect, judging from previous responses to similar issues, that some people here will have very interesting and useful ideas. I don't want this thread to devolve into an argument about God or religion, etc. and I'm hoping it won't. That's not the point. I'd leek the thread to be productive and useful.
So here is what the thread is really about: What spiritual, deep psychological (and as the Greeks used the term, to mean experiences of the soul) or religious techniques do you use to either provoke, invoke, evoke, enhance, or seek an experience of God?
I'll give some very brief personal background by way of explanation. I am currently undergoing a conversion process from being a Protestant (and I have nothing against Protestants, I'm not saying this) Christian to becoming Greek Orthodox. Eventually I intend to become a priest. That might be what is considered the more Orthodox (and I'm using this term to mean not the denominational idea, but the idea of "commonly accepted") side of my spiritual and religious nature.
There is another side of my spiritual and religious nature, however, which is more Mystical, experiential, and experimental. I've practiced Yoga (as in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali) since I was a kid, and have often engaged in experiments with meditation, mnemonics, contemplation, prayer (it's taken me literally decades to develop what I consider a good prayer life, but I'm pretty close to what I want it to be now), and various other techniques I associate with my experiences with God, my spirit, soul, or mind. In this way I think I'm kind of a throwback to a more ancient or even Oriental Christian. This is what I am driving at with this thread. Not so much belief, as experience.
So, I'm interested in what experiences you might have had in this regard and what effects they have had on you, and what techniques you use to provoke, invoke, create, maintain, or augment your religious, spiritual, psychological, or God related experiences.
I'd be happy to hear your experiences, how or why you think they work, what techniques you use, or what you have experimented with, and how fruitful or not you think such experiments have been. Detail anything you wish as far as I'm concerned as long as you're not attacking others. I'm really interested in a discussion on techniques, methods, and outcomes.
I'll start by briefly detailing my usual or common techniques, the ones I most often employ in relation to my psyche, spirit, and God:
Prayer
Meditation
Contemplation
Reflection
Iconography - as a meditative and prayer tool, a rather recent development for me but one I'm greatly enjoying and I've always been an iconophile anyways.
Studying Scripture - especially in the original languages, and especially mysterious or odd scriptures.
Sensory Deprivation, and/or fasting
Playing with my kids, and/or animals
Charity and Missions Work
Attending Church/Mass
These experiences I will sometimes employ, or employ on a less regular basis in order to have spiritual experiences, or these things will have occasional spiritual effects upon me
Music - listening to certain kinds, and on rare occasion, by composing my own music
Science - conducting experiments, and working on hard problems in science can provoke in me a sense of God or a deep spiritual experience. I personally have never seen a conflict between God and science. As a matter of fact I often see science as the method (or to be more accurate science as the study of the methods) by which God works with matter and energy in the visible universe. So to me figuring out the universe is a type of "reading God," or studying his methods.
Studying Nature, Tracking Animals, Walking in Woods alone
Various Thought or Mind Control Techniques (control of my own mind and thoughts, or mnemonics, etc.)
Coding - working with difficult codes, ciphers,and crypts. I think this is related to my scientific nature.
Invention - this is my most useful or productive "non-religious, or non-spiritual" technique for having spiritual experiences, though in truth I find it hard not to think of invention as a religious pursuit. To me invention is figuring out how God might do a thing, and then translating that approach on a very small scale to human use through the medium of technology.
Missions - like for disaster relief or Search and Rescue, depends on how it turns out as to what effect it has on me
Poetry - When writing or reading certain kinds of poetry it will sometimes invoke an experience of God
Pilgrimages, Visiting Shrines, Churches, Chapels, etc.
Holy Days, Feasts, Stations of the Cross, certain Rituals, things like that
Spiritual Exercises - Things like the Spiritual Exercises of the Desert Fathers, Yogic techniques, or the Spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola, etc.
Sex with the wife - though she might take a different view of the matter, or think my luck much better than hers
These experiences can sometimes have spiritual effects upon me depending on the exact situation.
Writing prose, or Work
Sabbaticals
Art - depends on what it is and how presented and the subject matter
Exploring or Vadding
Training and/or study - if it is training or study in certain categories: philosophy, psychology, mythology, religious, science, etc.
Visiting graveyards or historical sites
Games, relaxation, recreation
On still rarer occasions I will have dreams, trances or visions of a spiritual nature (when younger I used to have more trances and visions, nowadays I end to have more dreams), but it is very difficult to say exactly what triggers these experiences, and I have never found a good way to control them, though I can sometimes intentionally trigger them with certain techniques. But that too can be hit or miss.
I am very interested in the idea of using diet, exercise, nutrients, genetics, exposure to different energy types or frequencies, and even technology in relation to the concept of spiritual experiences, and experiences of God.
So that's me. Now, if you like, tell me of your spiral and psychological experiences and of your methods, techniques, and experiments regarding experiencing God. I'd be especially interested in any unorthodox, unusual, or mystical experiments, ideas, or pursuits.
I'd be interested in learning how it works for you and what other kinds of personal experiences and ideas there are out there.
Well, I gotta go eat lunch.
I'll return to read what you wrote later.
I'm not even sure this is the correct forum, but suspect it is. So I'm gonna put it here, and if it needs to be moved, then maybe the mods will move it to a better location. If this is considered a violation of forum rules, then they can delete it. But I don't think it will be.
The point of this thread is not to discuss religion or even concepts of God, per se, you may not even use or like the term God. But I'm gonna use the term God for the sake of simplicity and efficiency. I put the thread here on this site because I suspect, judging from previous responses to similar issues, that some people here will have very interesting and useful ideas. I don't want this thread to devolve into an argument about God or religion, etc. and I'm hoping it won't. That's not the point. I'd leek the thread to be productive and useful.
So here is what the thread is really about: What spiritual, deep psychological (and as the Greeks used the term, to mean experiences of the soul) or religious techniques do you use to either provoke, invoke, evoke, enhance, or seek an experience of God?
I'll give some very brief personal background by way of explanation. I am currently undergoing a conversion process from being a Protestant (and I have nothing against Protestants, I'm not saying this) Christian to becoming Greek Orthodox. Eventually I intend to become a priest. That might be what is considered the more Orthodox (and I'm using this term to mean not the denominational idea, but the idea of "commonly accepted") side of my spiritual and religious nature.
There is another side of my spiritual and religious nature, however, which is more Mystical, experiential, and experimental. I've practiced Yoga (as in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali) since I was a kid, and have often engaged in experiments with meditation, mnemonics, contemplation, prayer (it's taken me literally decades to develop what I consider a good prayer life, but I'm pretty close to what I want it to be now), and various other techniques I associate with my experiences with God, my spirit, soul, or mind. In this way I think I'm kind of a throwback to a more ancient or even Oriental Christian. This is what I am driving at with this thread. Not so much belief, as experience.
So, I'm interested in what experiences you might have had in this regard and what effects they have had on you, and what techniques you use to provoke, invoke, create, maintain, or augment your religious, spiritual, psychological, or God related experiences.
I'd be happy to hear your experiences, how or why you think they work, what techniques you use, or what you have experimented with, and how fruitful or not you think such experiments have been. Detail anything you wish as far as I'm concerned as long as you're not attacking others. I'm really interested in a discussion on techniques, methods, and outcomes.
I'll start by briefly detailing my usual or common techniques, the ones I most often employ in relation to my psyche, spirit, and God:
Prayer
Meditation
Contemplation
Reflection
Iconography - as a meditative and prayer tool, a rather recent development for me but one I'm greatly enjoying and I've always been an iconophile anyways.
Studying Scripture - especially in the original languages, and especially mysterious or odd scriptures.
Sensory Deprivation, and/or fasting
Playing with my kids, and/or animals
Charity and Missions Work
Attending Church/Mass
These experiences I will sometimes employ, or employ on a less regular basis in order to have spiritual experiences, or these things will have occasional spiritual effects upon me
Music - listening to certain kinds, and on rare occasion, by composing my own music
Science - conducting experiments, and working on hard problems in science can provoke in me a sense of God or a deep spiritual experience. I personally have never seen a conflict between God and science. As a matter of fact I often see science as the method (or to be more accurate science as the study of the methods) by which God works with matter and energy in the visible universe. So to me figuring out the universe is a type of "reading God," or studying his methods.
Studying Nature, Tracking Animals, Walking in Woods alone
Various Thought or Mind Control Techniques (control of my own mind and thoughts, or mnemonics, etc.)
Coding - working with difficult codes, ciphers,and crypts. I think this is related to my scientific nature.
Invention - this is my most useful or productive "non-religious, or non-spiritual" technique for having spiritual experiences, though in truth I find it hard not to think of invention as a religious pursuit. To me invention is figuring out how God might do a thing, and then translating that approach on a very small scale to human use through the medium of technology.
Missions - like for disaster relief or Search and Rescue, depends on how it turns out as to what effect it has on me
Poetry - When writing or reading certain kinds of poetry it will sometimes invoke an experience of God
Pilgrimages, Visiting Shrines, Churches, Chapels, etc.
Holy Days, Feasts, Stations of the Cross, certain Rituals, things like that
Spiritual Exercises - Things like the Spiritual Exercises of the Desert Fathers, Yogic techniques, or the Spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola, etc.
Sex with the wife - though she might take a different view of the matter, or think my luck much better than hers
These experiences can sometimes have spiritual effects upon me depending on the exact situation.
Writing prose, or Work
Sabbaticals
Art - depends on what it is and how presented and the subject matter
Exploring or Vadding
Training and/or study - if it is training or study in certain categories: philosophy, psychology, mythology, religious, science, etc.
Visiting graveyards or historical sites
Games, relaxation, recreation
On still rarer occasions I will have dreams, trances or visions of a spiritual nature (when younger I used to have more trances and visions, nowadays I end to have more dreams), but it is very difficult to say exactly what triggers these experiences, and I have never found a good way to control them, though I can sometimes intentionally trigger them with certain techniques. But that too can be hit or miss.
I am very interested in the idea of using diet, exercise, nutrients, genetics, exposure to different energy types or frequencies, and even technology in relation to the concept of spiritual experiences, and experiences of God.
So that's me. Now, if you like, tell me of your spiral and psychological experiences and of your methods, techniques, and experiments regarding experiencing God. I'd be especially interested in any unorthodox, unusual, or mystical experiments, ideas, or pursuits.
I'd be interested in learning how it works for you and what other kinds of personal experiences and ideas there are out there.
Well, I gotta go eat lunch.
I'll return to read what you wrote later.
