Did you have a Spiritual Awakening?

bm

I believe in a spiritual world; but I am wary of any spine tingling, goose-bump raising experiences. Really; how would one know the source?

My tongue in cheek experience may be found here.

I experienced something I couldn't explain.

I am ultra wary of "emotional" experiences, as neo says, that are connected to "emotionally-charged environments." But, what I experienced had nothing to do with that.

So, if the thread doesn't go south, and if someone else cites something similar, I'll repeat it. I think I may have mentioned it previously.

So, what you call a "spine-tingling, goose-bump raising experience" - have you ever had one that made you "wary"?

Thinking . . .

You know what a chore that is. . .

Just wanna mention a thread doesn't go south by itself; it gets dragged that way by folks functionally unable to differentiate exhange and criticism of idea from personal attack.

Now, as to a personal "spiritual awakening" ... well, while perhaps not exactly in keeping with the foundational premise of this thread, I'll say I woke up when I realized "unexplained" means neither more nor less than "unexplained".

I saw a cow give birth once when I was about 8. In a field.

That startled me a bit.

I told my Father but he didn't seem to think there was anything unusual about it.

It had to be books or movies after that. Laurel and Hardy and She/Ayesha stirred my tittering mechanisms.

Does that count?



Obviously "they" are more lenient with the intellectuals on the ID/Science thread.

I've had some realizations in my life that have made me aware of my own spirituality.

As a child I was very afraid. There was just this general fear that incapacitated me from as early as I can remember.
At some point I somehow realized that it was fear, not what I was afraid of, that was my true problem.
That was, I think, the dawn of my spiritual quest. It led me to understand the difference between what we see and how we see it, to tell them apart and determine what is my reaction and what is actually happening.

Judging from the thread that was locked I'd say that many have yet to understand this distinction, since a lot of the points that were made simply were taken as insults.

Demonstrate that be so.

C'mon, timber - couldya?

That's funny. Your "Life without spirituality" thread doesn't look locked to me. In fact, let me make a post there right now to prove it ain't so. Does that count as a spiritual awakening?

Strange. It was locked just an hour ago. I even tried to post...

Hi snood.

Do you find it more likely that this was an internal experience, caused by something physical on a chemical level, or that it was supernatural magic?
I know which of the two I find more plausible anyhow.
But then again, the most plausible explanation to any given situation isn't always the correct one is it?

As for myself..I've seen, heard, and felt things in my life that I am sure would have made many people into believers of the supernatural. If I got into details some might think I were (more of) a kook..so I wont. Let's just say that to this day I have a really hard time rationalizing them.
Instead of a belief in the supernatural I developed an opinion about human knowledge, that can be best summed up in this quote by Dr. Albert Einstein

"One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike and yet it is the most precious thing we have."

I strongly suspect there are technologies available to us that we do not yet comprehend. I also strongly suspect our perceived grasp of reality is somewhat more robust than our actual grasp on reality. I suppose this is as close as I come to superstition.

Very strange, indeed - the thread was locked, then unlocked, without any explanation.

What would any of you make of it if you heard of a person who had tried everything known to science to cure a disease, then tried praying in earnest, and became healed?

If you had fair certainty that the technology and the medical knowledge that was made available and utilized was state of the art, but had not worked?

If after this unexplained healing, subsequent examinations showed no traces of the disease, - but on the contrary the person's health was improved?

Could you acknowledge that you simply didn't know how this had happened? Could you stipulate that there might be something supernatural involved? Or would you insist that man just hadn't figured this one out yet?

Given the circumstances you relate, snood, the only logical answer among those you propose is your third offering - man just hadn't figured this one out yet - though that itself is not wholly logically consistent, as the word "yet" implies there would be an eventual resolution, a circumstance which might or might not pertain. A better answer would be "Insufficient data."
Emotionally satisfying or not, unexplained means neither more nor less than unexplained. It means unexplained, period.

Thanks for clearing that up - Unexplained means unexplained. 10-4. So I take it, that observing the man in my hypothetical, you'd be emotionally unmoved?

I will keep this uber short all though it might not be.

I was raised in a southern baptist church in Ocala Fl sense i was in the 2nd grade.

Later when I was given the choice of going or not going to church I of course chose not to go.

After that my life was some church here and there christmas and easter and other special days with family but I did not understand or know what the true message was all about at this time.

Around my teen years I started to read books on Psychic powers and other occult material.

Even went so far in the wrong direction during that time that I became a devout worshipper of Satan even to the point of stabbing myself with a needle and signing a blood pact with Satan, then burning the paper to supposedly send the pact to hell and make it a binding agreement.

Soon after that I failed the 10th grade mom kicked me out and I moved in with my Dad in Jacksonville Fl. One of the conditions of staying with him was I had to go to church every Sunday.

We went to a church called Trinity Baptist, they also have a college on the church campus and a private christian School.

There I truly learned the Fundamental View of the bible

Then we moved to Chipley Florida.

In Chipley I got invovled with the Jehovah's Witnessess and tried to believe what they did, but it just did not match up with the word of God.
Main Teachings:
No firey hell.
Jesus was created.


After that I was still seeking and got invovled in the ONENESS pentecostal movement.
Main Teachings :
Speaking in other tongues.
Teach that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one person.

Later I moved back to Jacksonville, then back to Ocala

During the time in Ocala I got invovled in the Mormon doctrine.
Main Teachings :
God was once a man like us.
You can become a God.
There is three heavens the Thelestial Tresstial and Celestial
That as a God you will give birth to Spirit Children and create your own world to be God over.

Later after that I got invovled once again in the Occult (witchcraft)(wicca) mainly reading mostly the books by Silver Ravenwolf.

Now I just believe in God's word. There is no church that I have seen that teaches exactly what I believe.

But the one's that come the closest to what I believe would be the INDEPENDENT FUNDAMENTAL BAPTIST CHURCHS

Hey Scott - that's a great story. Care to comment on the subject of this thread?