What kind of personalized spiritual experience is possible?

In his 2nd training post, Guardianofwinds muses: \"What kind of personalized spiritual experience is possible?\"

It was likely a rhetorical statement, but it got me to exploring the kinds of personalized spiritual experiences that are possible that I'm aware of and how I have found what works for me. Take this or leave it, as you will. It's just one person's experience. I'll be drawing from my own experience and from the recorded experiences of friends of mine who are also on an experiential spiritual path.


As usual for me, this is long.

=============

SHORT ANSWER:

Every kind is possible, but not all kinds will hold personal significance or even be recognized. A spiritual experience requires some means of communication between you and the Force. That means or pathway is individual and unique to you. Being able to recognize those experiences as such comes from self-knowledge.

=============

LONG ANSWER:


Part One

I have a friend of mine who has the best and richest poetic soul I've ever encountered. When I started discussing with her concepts such as astral projection and the like, she was rather distressed to learn she could do this sort of thing easily. She was not happy with me for introducing to her the concept, so we had to work on ways for her to control her ability from a cognitive sense so that she didn't feel so threatened or terrified to wake up and find her body still laying in bed. During this time, she also began to see various things that I was never able to. In short, despite being legally blind, her primary means of experiencing and relating to anything spiritual was through her sense of sight, her vision. When she would report to me her adventures, they were filled with colors and sights and visible texture nuances, etc. Her poetry is likewise repleat with vivid imagery.

Based on her experience, I was expecting that I might eventually \"see\" as well. I was constantly sorely disappointed and, try as I might, nothing ever happened to me. Then one day my mom, another spiritual path explorer, walked in and said \"let's play a game\". Ok. What is it? \"I'm going to think of something and you tell me what it is.\" Ok. I close my eyes and let my mind go blank, hoping to receive a visual image on the metaphorical blackboard behind my eyes. No such luck. Nothing. Nada. Zip. *sigh* Failure. Instead, into my mind was pressed a very tactile sense. Have you ever played the Halloween game where you close your eyes and have to identify by feel what is put into your hands? It was exactly like that, but the idea was put directly into my mental hand and I couldn't see jack squat. Intrigued, I explored this and found a rounded side and a straight side, but there were a couple of corners on the ends as well. I described this my mom, still having no clue what the heck this was. I open my eyes to see her staring at me all bug-eyed. \"I was picturing the letter D.\" This small episode was a groundbreaking revelation to me.

(1) By expecting my spiritual experiences to take a specific form, I was actually not paying attention to the information I had been getting. I was looking for something, and that expectation narrowed my field of vision to include only that. By addressing this problem, by panning back my attention and looking for any and all \"unusual\" input, I suddenly became aware of a huge host of information that previously I was dismissing.
(2) People's experiences, whether spiritual or everyday in nature, are tailored to their \"primary sense\". Hypnotists know the power of finding the primary sense when speaking to a client. They will ask something like \"describe a campfire for me\". The FIRST description you think is likely your primary sense. Do you see the flames dancing around in oranges and yellows? Do you hear the crackling and popping of the wood? Feel the heat of the fire and the cool of the night air? Perhaps you smell the smoke and roasting marshmallows? Or maybe you can taste the smoke? Rarely, you just \"know\" the fire is there -- no sensation at all. I had made the erroneous assumption that sight was my primary sense, when in fact it's \"knowing\" with tactile sensation as a close second. When I went to a hypnotist, she asked me to describe what I see. I started out by saying \"I am here\", but she wanted experiental. Being rather literal minded when under, I said I see nothing. It's black. She switched gears and began using my secondary sense and the scene opened up from there.

So: \"What kind of personalized spiritual experience is possible?\" I would suggest that step one in answering this question of yourself is finding out what are your primary and secondary senses. Being aware of how you natively think is hugely beneficial. Because most people are visual, those who aren't visual often make the assumption that they are as well and start tailoring things this way to more easily communicate with other people. But on an interior journey, you rely on your genuine and authentic way of perceiving.


Part Two

Have you seen the dizzying array of spiritual practices available? I am one of the folks who thinks that the belief structure can be compatible with most of the practices available. For example, the Kabbalah is an excellent model for understanding the universe and the self. While the system originated within Judaism, it has taken off in recent years and has proven itself to be a valuable tool for Wiccans, Christians, non-denoms, even Satanists. The tools themselves, in my view, are not necessarily dependant on the belief. I don't NEED to be a carpenter to use a hammer, though likely a carpenter can do things with that tool that I would have trouble with. A grossly simpflied analogy, but you get the point.

Once I discovered what my primary and secondary senses were, then I looked for practices which catered to them. For me, I've found Symbols to be immensely rewarding. Since my primary sense is gnoetic, or \"knowing\" (aka clairsentience heh), I have been working with various methods of developing this communication pathway between me and the Force. When I combine that with tactile sense, such as working with the Tarot, now I'm doubling up on the primary and secondary sense and even throwing in my tertiary sense of vision. It did not take long for the Tarot to \"come alive\" for me, speaking to me in dreams and then symbology bleeding over into other aspects of life. Some situation would occur and suddenly I'd know this was the Fool or Star talking to me, or something like that. Dream work, astrology and Kabbalism are the other practices that I find a strong connection with because they are all different means of perceiving the world through a set of abstract but personalized symbols which require reflection to understand.

During the course of my search, I've read about dozens of different types of practices. Some folks love to work with runes or stones. Another friend finds tremendous value in his pendulum. Yet another goes to excessive lengths to develop and work with magical alphabets and sigils. Another prefers the physical working of ritual work with tools and alters and whatnot. Some prefer group work, others individual. Daily yoga routines are very often used as a form of physical meditation. Meditation doesn't work for me, instead I use \"written reflections\" and get the ego mind out of the way and let whatever information comes out of the depths to arrive unhindered.

As a result of this rather lengthy process of self-discovery, I now have a language specific to me that I understand. When I \"get a message from the Force\", as it were, I receive it as a sense of knowing or, if the information is broader than just knowing can handle, as a symbol. By reflecting in writing on the meaning of the symbol, information pours forth.

Why am I here, looking to learn more about the Force? The more I've learned and experienced, the more I tend to think about the All-That-Is in terms of the StarWars Force. But this search is not one in which I'm looking for more tools, but rather a framework. What language works best for me? What manner of conceiving of this amorphous blob helps me continue to enrich my understanding of and refine the connections with it?

As with all paths genuinely spiritual, self-knowledge is absolutely vital. I cannot stress enough how important understanding the self is when your goal is moving beyond that same self. If you honestly have no clue who you are (and who you are not), how can you expect to genuinely understand something like the Force? It is through the interior understanding that doors open through which the Force can get in touch with you, in whatever way holds meaning and significance for you. (I should say \"clearly\" here, because the Force will get in touch with you if need be, but without a clear channel, the information gets muddy fast.) We may be all together on this journey, but it's still a path which the individual must take for himself. NObody can do it on another's behalf.



Oh, yeah. And a \"Spiritual Experience\" is nothing like the heavens parting and the angels bursting into song. It's rarely a full blown ecstatic state. Generally, it's much quieter and far more common than known. Often, it masquerades as imagination or daydreams. Self-knowledge will help you figure out the difference between an ego driven daydream and the Force trying to tell you something.

I have had the question of how someone might go about determining what their primary or dominant sense is. My answer got a bit too long for a PM, so I'm posting it here to thread which spawned the question.

===========


Here's an excercise I'm adapting from a page ( http://ezinearticles.com/?Three-Ways-Postcards-Can-Enhance-Your-Session&id=2104703 ) intended to help hynotists figure out their client's primary sense:

(1) In the exericise, they use physical postcards. I would recommend doing a Google-Image search for \"Postcards\".
(2) Choose an image from the first page of the results.
(3) Write down your immediate description of the image -- a few sentances is sufficient.
(4) Repeat with a few more images.
(5) When finished, go back through your brief descriptions and label all the sensory words employed. Some sensory words may fit into more than one category, write down what you intended to convey with the use of that word.
(6) Notice the placement of each sensory word in terms of order and frequency. This wil give you what your dominant sense/senses are.

=========

Let me work through this exercise so you can see the process I went through and can follow along in your own manner:

http://freefall.purrsia.com/abyother/litdragon/wpony-postcard.jpg
A unicorn with a flowing mane and shiney hide plays with a fox/woman on a clear, white sand beach. The sky features fluffy white clouds and the ocean is a clear rich blue.

http://www.light-headed.com/asite/laguna/laguna_graphics/tab_postcard_rocks.jpg
Small ensenda cove is flanked by jagged, volcanic rock. The water is marginally choppy but doesn't feature tidal surf. The sky is washed out and pale, while the water looks more turquoise than blue.

http://www.estadiezijn.nl/items/throw_this_postcard.jpg
\"ransom note\" postcard with white and pink lettering on a brown background. Festive but disjointed and hard to focus on.

=======

Those are my 3 paragraphs. Now let me highlight the words that stand out to you as indicating sensory information. I'll put after each word the following code: V-Visual; T-Tactile; O-Olfactory(smell); A-Auditory. I'm adding in K-Knowing. Why Knowing? In the Buddhist view, there are six senses, with Mind being the one Westerners often overlook.

A unicorn (K) with a flowing mane (T) and shiney hide (T) plays with a fox/woman on a clear, white (V) sand beach (K). The sky features fluffy (T) white (V) clouds and the ocean is a clear (V) rich blue (V).

Small ensenda cove (K) is flanked by jagged (T), volcanic rock (K). The water is marginally choppy (T) but doesn't feature tidal surf (K). The sky is washed out (V) and pale (V), while the water looks more turquoise (V) than blue (V).

\"Ransom note\" (K) postcard with white (V) and pink (V) lettering on a brown (V) background. Festive (K) but disjointed (K) and hard to focus on (V).


Notice that the very first sensory information I gave in all three cases classified as Knowing -- I focused on WHAT the object was: a unicorn, an enseda, a ransom note. From there, I moved into a combination of Visual and Tactile modes of perceiving the card.

How do you know which sense some description belongs to? Is the sand reference a visual one or a tactile on or something more abstract? To answer this question, simply close your eyes as summon up the memory of the image. Focus on the feature you are questioning and the take the first impression you get. \"Oh, I feel the grains of sand squishing around my toes\". Tactile! or \"Oh, the sands leaves divots where the unicorn has stepped and those divots are filling in slowly as the sand cascades down them.\" Visual! \"I don't see it, or hear or smell or feel it. I just know it's there, the foundation upon which they play.\" Knowing! There's no right or wrong answer here.

As to frequency, I'm going to count up each type referenced (I know I wasn't particularly thorough in my labeling):
V -- 10
T -- 5
O -- 0
A -- 0
K -- 8

Despite the fact that the Visual descriptors outnumbers the Knowing descriptors, the consistant initial usage of that descriptor would indicate that my first connection with the image is through knowing what the primary element is. Again, the Tactile descriptors factored way behind in the count, but it's my secondary sense because those usually came before the Visual ones started. I can confirm this by again closing my eyes and noticing the cascade of information as I recall the memory of the cards: knowledge, touch, then liberally sprinkled sights.

What's the difference between \"a unicorn\" and \"a white unicorn\"? In this case, the object of the postcard as I see it is still identified, but in the second sentance I'm putting the visual information of \"white\" in front of the identification of the object itself. It's a subtle difference, and folks could argue with me but I can only point to my own intuition and say \"it's more important to hold the concept of 'Unicorn' than it is to know it's white\". Again, let your own personal intuition rule.

If you still aren't sure, add more postcard images to your exercise. If you STILL aren't sure, try describing the post cards in just two words.

The point of this exercise is to simply correctly identify your native think/perception because it is the basis upon which other exercises such as visualizations and dream recall are based. This is also the sense which will be most strongly attempting to interpret the Will of the Force! Understanding yourself opens the door.