Mystical Experiencer: Female in late fifties
Submission date: July 25, 2021
Current location: U.S.A.
Age at time of experience: 29
At the time, I was 29 years old and had been raised by parents who went to an Assembly of God church in Texas, a lot. I played along with what my parents and the church sort of expected, but was not close to God until my late twenties when I read the Bible a few times and enjoyed praying and kind of worshiping alone at home. I resonated more strongly with the Bible if I had a little bit of weed to smoke at the time.
I had to go to the Dentist for two root canals, and I knew I would be stuck in the “chair” for a good long time. I decided I would spend that time in silent prayer and worship. Let me point out that I have had nitrous oxide/laughing gas before this event and after, and it was just the normal experience, nothing close to what happened that day. (Since the experience, I have been thrilled and excited to have dental problems bad enough to require nitrous oxide, hoping that I could have the experience again – has not happened.)
So, as soon as the nitrous oxide started, I said to the Dentist and his assistant “I’ll bet heaven feels like laughing gas.” They kind of laughed, and I relaxed to start praying/worshiping, and . . . wham . . . it was like my mind got slammed to the back of my skull. I had awareness of the Dentist but all my attention was on this state of being I was experiencing. It’s so hard to put into words, but it was this all-encompassing bliss, bliss, bliss. I think bliss is the closest word I can use to describe it, but it’s not nearly good enough. My eyes were closed, I did not see anything in this experience….
I was just in such amazement, just experiencing this one constant state of bliss, it did not have degrees of the bliss, it was a constant state of being, not waves of it. I wondered if I might die in the Dentist’s chair? It was not an experience I had ever, ever heard of before in my entire life. I clearly recall thinking/experiencing – that this state of being was all anyone could ever ask for. It was not possible to ask for anything more than that state of bliss/being. A better experience is not possible.
I remember thinking that I did not need the experience of heaven that I had been taught about in Christian church. All I wanted was to be connected to, to be joined with that consciousness, the state of being, the bliss. I never needed a body, eyes, other people, nothing. All anyone could ask for was that state of being. It was everything, nothing lacking. I couldn’t get enough of it.
And then, nature called. I desperately had to go to the restroom (I remember regretting having 2 cups of coffee that morning), and when I had to stop the Dentist and ask him to let me use the restroom, the experience ended.