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Of course I feel them dude, I feel the glory and the power, both within and without, in plentiful awesomeness. Because I do this and yet have no connection at all to Christianity, nor other text-heavy religion, this tells me that this state, this direct experience, is non-denominational. It's probably reachable by many ways, faiths, techniques and such, but no one way is THE way, and people that think only their particular book can do it, are IMO delusional.
You misunderstood me. I was using "you" in the general sense, because to me it seemed like had my answer been no to your questions then you would have concluded there was something wrong with my spiritual practice. I was simply saying that it took some time for my practice to bare fruit and before that, I would have answered no, but that did not mean the Lord did not hear my prayers then, it just means they bare fruit in season.
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Maybe it worked for you due to the psychedelics in your diet, in which case I'm more likely to associate the felt presence and direct experience of the divine with the  's than to the immersion in Christian texts and rituals.
Psychedelics have played a big role in my spirituality but you should know that they did not bare fruit until I became a Christian. I took loads of psychedelics and had loads of weird, incredible and enlightening experiences with them, but I was never able to really put two and two together and benefit from the experiences, until I became a Christian. They are also what lead me to become a Christian, I used to drop acid and have my girlfriend read the Bible to me while I tripped.
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Really? Seems a bit sadistic and mean, at least when viewed from my end. What the psychs showed me is that the grace thing, the State, "getting it" is pretty much available to all, at all times. It's rather direct, immediate, can be hopped into once your body/brain/heart are cleansed, much like a state of healthy body can be cultivated by certain habits, as well as being a drunk can be cultivated by the habit of sufficient drinking.
Its not sadistic, its the natural play of mind. In Christianity we say that one must prove he loves God even when God is not directly making him feel good, in other words, he must love God for God's sake and not merely his own. Grace is available to all, at all times, but so is the urge to resist, reject it or turn away. You may not struggle so much with this, but many people do.
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So just curious, do you have some congregation, some group or crew where people successfully feel the good stuff, or are you doing this alone? If it's a group, may we hear what denomination and stuff? I'm sure many wanderers might want to check it out, to see for themselves the wonders present there.
Sure. It's interesting you ask that, because its something I've been thinking about a lot lately. First of all I want to say that if I had to recommend a "denomination" to people, I would recommend the Eastern Orthodox Church. In my opinion, it is the purest form of Christianity one can find in a mainstream church today, and it is extremely mystical, spiritual and personal experience based, although be warned, it is Christianity along the lines of the ascetic path, and thus not for the faint of heart. I have learned so much from studying Orthodox Christianity and for me, that church's teachings and the writings of its saints just drip with beauty, wisdom and eternal truth. If you are interested, I would point you in the direction of the Philokalia (a collection of writings from Orthodox Saints and Church Fathers including the famous desert fathers who live in caves in the desert eating nothing more than a single loaf of bread a week). You can download the PDF file for free on the net,
I myself am actually not Orthodox but Catholic however and the reason for that is largely logistical/convenience (I can walk to daily Mass at my parish after I get off work for instance, no way I could do that if I was Orthodox) but also because I was baptized Catholic as a baby and my grandmother was a devout Catholic, so I guess part of me wanted to be Catholic out of love and respect for her, the only example of faith in my early life. I am lucky to attend a parish with a charismatic and highly intelligent/spiritually aware young priest who was just ordained this past summer. In fact, he was featured on a CNN documentary that aired 2 weeks ago as part of the series This is Life. It was excellent btw, in case you are interested. My church has a thriving young adult group (which he runs now) which draws some of the brightest, most devout young Catholics in my area. It has more than doubled in size already since Fr. Todd (his name) took over its leadership. One of my friends who attends drives over an hour each way just for it. So I've met some awesome, faith filled people there, who are going places in life (much different energy from the down and out drug addicts/deadheads I am used to hanging with) though I even met one guy there who is a lot like me, former drug addict, psychedelic user who eventually made his way from hardcore atheism to the Roman Catholic Church.
Anyway, when I joined the Catholic Church I thought it essentially the same thing as Orthodoxy, but over the years the more I have learned about the Catholic Church, the Vatican, the Papacy, church history, doctrine and teachings, scandal, etc, the more I feel that the Eastern Orthodox Church is a superior organization with and a truer expression of what Jesus intended for his church to be when he founded it. Even though I am Catholic I find often myself reading Orthodox books and and adopting Orthodox prayer techniques. However, whenever I think abotu converting I remind myself that it would mean driving a lot further and then worshipping with a bunch of Russian immigrants. Not that I have anything against Russians, I don't, I actually love Russians but its just a very different experience and I don't speak Russian so I would not even able to understand the Divine Liturgy because they only have one or two English services per month.
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Of course I feel them dude, I feel the glory and the power, both within and without, in plentiful awesomeness. Because I do this and yet have no connection at all to Christianity, nor other text-heavy religion, this tells me that this state, this direct experience, is non-denominational. It's probably reachable by many ways, faiths, techniques and such, but no one way is THE way, and people that think only their particular book can do it, are IMO delusional.
Right and this is one of the things which interests me about Orthodox Christianity. The Orthodox Church is one of the few Christians churches which I have heard say that religion is not necessary. In other words, rather than looking itself as the truth, Orthodoxy remembers that God alone is the truth, beyond all human concepts and God is omnipresent, the all pervading, all connecting principle, that which everything ultimately boils down to and is already religion or not.
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Only that upon closer inspection, everybody was faking it. Their peak point, the most that they could bring forth (neurologically, arousal-wise) was something like 15-20% of what I've seen happen to me and others at say, the Santo Daime aya ceremonies, or while dropping good acid at a psy festival.
uh well, its a lot harder to have profound spiritual experiences without the aid of psychedelics, so give them some credit.
Edited by Deviate (11/27/14 04:50 PM)
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