Archives: Submitted Stories

Mystical Experiencer:  Female in late-sixties
Submission date:  June 30, 2021
Current location:  Canada
Age at time of experience:  63

I am a person who had lived inside a secular worldview. I had been in therapy with a Jungian therapist for about 8 months. Recently, I had been recording my dreams and thinking about them using Jungian concepts as a guide.

I was in my car, driving to help out a dear friend. It was a beautiful, clear day. I used the time in the car to talk to myself about my dreams and getting meaning from them. The car was on cruise control and there was no traffic so I felt quite comfortable. I felt happy.

The feeling got stronger and stronger. It came in waves, like childbirth. I thought it was momentary and would end. But it was so strong, almost orgasmic in intensity. I felt love, pouring down on me. Wave after wave of love. The feeling originated from inside me; I did not see any difference in the world outside my car.

An inner voice repeated ‘You are love. Everything is love. Nothing else matters.’ It was a feeling of self-love that is indescribable. Pure ecstasy and bliss. Tears were streaming down my face and I was afraid to move or change. This continued for 30 minutes until I arrived at my friend’s house. It lessened and then stopped.

I took a few moments to compose myself. I had no after-effects. I wasn’t sure if I had a stroke but I felt fine – that any sadness I felt in my heart was gone. I felt whole and complete. I am now much more open to spiritual ideas. I know they are true.

For some reason I was gazing up towards the ceiling of the room. I realized I was above myself looking down at myself sitting on the floor. I wondered how I could be up there and sitting on the floor. Which one was I? It seemed like I was both the observer and the one being observed. I also felt another presence that seemed to fill the room. This presence spoke to me. I felt a peacefulness that was safe and loving. The presence instructed me to put on my shoes and to go outside and sit down on the front porch. Without hesitation I stood up, found my shoes, slipped them on without tying them and walked towards the front door. I somehow knew to trust and to follow. As I opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch, I felt a breeze blowing across my skin as I looked up into the sky as if I were seeing it for the first time. The colors of the sky and trees were so bright, it seemed like everything was more alive, as I sat down on the porch even the wood of the porch seemed alive and beautiful to me. I waited for further instructions. I was very aware of my physical body – it felt like there was an electric current pulsating through me from head to toe, then toe to head. Pulsing, circulating, back and forth until the electric current seemed to exit the top of my head and the electric energy was now connected to everything around me. Everything was electric energy, alive and pulsating. I felt unconditional love for everyone and everything.  Oneness and Connection to all there is.

I was doing advanced meditation techniques through the Transcendental Meditation Program.  I experienced an explosion of energy that lifted my body up into the air.  I temporarily lost awareness, but when I regained awareness the world was full of light, everything was translucent and alive.  Everything was connection. I could see light energy from everyone who I was around. I felt empty and full at the same time.  My capacity for empathy was acute.  I felt a flow of love.

Mystical Experiencer:  Male in mid-seventies
Submission date:  June 26, 2021
Current location:  U.S.A.
Age at time of experience:  31

I was walking down the main street of Bethel, Maine, after just saying goodbye to some friends. It was a cloudy day with a light misty rain. There was no one around, as far as I could tell. I was in a very quiet and contemplative mood, when the following message came to me inside my head. “Words do not describe the world, they limit it”.

At that moment, I had this powerful sensation like being high on something. I looked around at the hills, trees, clouds, and the rest of where I was, like I had never seen any of that before. Not sure how long I did that, but then I said to myself, “I know the clouds and trees as if they are me”. I then looked down at the back of my hands, and there was this direct realization that I am the trees, the clouds, the hills — I was in the oneness with all of it. “I” disappeared for some period of time, no idea, but I was conscious of having no separation from the world. Bliss is the closest word I could use, but it was beyond words.

I then began to try to understand what was going on, and in that moment of trying, it all went away. I stood there stunned for a few minutes and had to gather myself and remember where I was going. I was in a daze for quite some time. Some little things happened like walking through a pine grove and a squirrel came up to my foot and sniffed it, and walked right over it, unfazed by me. When I rejoined my friends, they kept asking what had happened to me and at the time I could not explain.

Mystical Experiencer:  Male in mid-sixties
Submission date:  June 24, 2021
Current location:  Australia
Age at time of experience:  19

I was 19 and about to commit as an atheist when (on the prompting of Christian friends), I decided to challenge God to reveal Himself before I would choose atheism.  I went to my bedroom and prayed that if God existed, He should be powerful enough to reveal His presence to me.  Needless to say, this led only to silence.

I then pondered life and the universe and it seemed that the universe was cold and empty and conscious life was a cruel experience contemplating our own demise. But then I remembered I needed to ask forgiveness in Jesus’ name.  I went through the motions but again nothing.  I didn’t even feel I had any sin that needed forgiveness.  But suddenly I was overcome with guilt at my arrogance and literally started crying uncontrollably. I felt driven again to pray with genuine remorse and humility. Immediately I prayed this way, and my whole room erupted in warmth and was suffused in a Golden Light. My immediate surroundings remained visible but lost their “solidity” – my bed, the furnishings, and walls seemed like a poorly constructed stage set.  I literally felt like I was held and “baked” in enormous Love.  I briefly contemplated asking for objective proof such as a simple levitation but felt that this was ridiculous in the reality of what I was experiencing.

As the early 1970s was a time of Vietnam, the threat of nuclear conflict, and environmental degradation, I mentally told God of my fears and despair for the world and asked God about the problems of the World.  A calm and Powerful Thought emerged in my perception that those problems were under His control and I need not worry – just that I should be at peace that I was eternally Loved and that my sins were gone.  After a few more seconds the room returned to normal and I felt joy and gratitude.  I understood what “Grace” was.

After this, I went to one or two churches but found only emptiness there.  When I see people raising their hands and falling to their knees in praise it seems fake to me.  My experience is not that God “demands” worship, but that feeling love and awe are just a natural reaction when we really join with God.

Mystical Experiencer:  Male in early sixties
Submission date:  June 22, 2021
Current location:  U.S.A.
Age at time of experience:  18

I have meditated since I was a little boy. I just didn’t know what it was. All my life I have experienced phenomena and precognitive dreams that always came true. I prayed numerous items a day.

At 18 I had what most people would call a near-death experience. I stopped at a friend’s hours to pick him up after my college class to go out with friends that night. He had just gotten back from work and had to take a shower. So, I sat in the lotus position and meditated.

Then there was a voice that asked me if I wanted to go! I don’t know where the voice came from but for some reason, I knew what it meant. I wasn’t suicidal or anything like that. I was a very happy person, and even more so now. But I am a true empath and that is not something I ever told people until about 10 years ago. The weight of the world was so heavy on me. I could feel everyone’s pain and was so disgusted with the way people treated others. But since I was a kid, I made a decision to look for the good in everything because then I would always find happiness and I have.

As soon as I said yes, I popped out of my body. I had only had one out-of-body experience before that when I was younger. But this was so different. I saw my body slumped over but didn’t have any concern. Then I went through the ceiling, above the roof and I could see the whole neighborhood so clearly. Then I went above the earth and saw the beautiful blue color it was. Next, I just kept going into space. This was all before Near-Death experiences were talk about or written about.

Then it got interesting! I was in a tunnel that had clouds for the floor and ceiling. I felt compelled to keep walking down the tunnel until I found a hallway to my right which was much narrower. There was a beautiful pure white light at the end of a doorway with an unusual shape. Its shape is another amazing story that didn’t come to my awareness until a few years ago…I figured out what it was after all these years! I walked into the light and fell into the pure white light. It was amazing!!!! There was only Love!! There were no fears, no pain, every question was answered! I felt like I was part of something so much bigger almost like a photon in a light. I was at total peace!! But then it said it wasn’t my time. But I didn’t want to go back.

Then I slowly floated back into my body in such an amazing peace. My friend was over me asking if I was okay because I wasn’t breathing. I told him he wouldn’t believe what I had just experienced! I searched every religion after that to try and understand what I experienced. But no one religion could explain it. Instead, I became very spiritual because religions were made by man to worship God how they wanted you to, what they wanted you to believe and too many people have been abused by religions and died because of them.

I learned that everything is Love and that we are all part of God and its creation…we are all connected. It wasn’t until I was almost 50 years old before I connect the dots as to why I experienced it. It is an amazing story.

Once I was in the northern part of Thailand and met a man who told me about my near-death experience and showed me what the shape of the doorway was. He said it was like a shield. He was the only one who ever knew about the shape of the doorway. I had never told anyone before and I didn’t tell him. I was stunned!! But I finally figured out what the doorway was…another amazing story!

That NDE totally changed my life and started my search for answers and led me to where I am now spiritually…in an amazing place that I wish for everyone. So, I help people when I can to understand their lives and spirituality when I can.

Mystical Experiencer:  Female in early seventies
Submission date:  June 22, 2021
Current location:  U.S.A.
Age at time of experience:  22

“There is no statement that the world is more afraid to hear than this: I do not know the thing I am, and therefore I do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself. Yet in this learning is salvation born. And What you are will tell you of Itself.”

(A Course in Miracles)

My search for truth started very early in life as my thoughts of questions were always directed within myself and God for answers to the mysteries of life. As a young teen, I felt so alienated from the normality of everyday life. My perception at that time in the 1950s was one of seeing that my incessant inquiring about Life itself was not shared by others in my age group. Being an introverted type, a loner of sorts, there were not many I could relate to. Growing up in the so-called Bible Belt, it seemed that there weren’t any persons that even cared about the why and wherefore that we exist. My mother started reading to me from the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson and my thoughts started to probe even deeper within myself. My introduction to deeper and more mystical searching started with reading books by Edgar Cayce and studying the Tarot. When I was about 20 years of age, I joined the Rosicrucian Order (AMORC). The scientific and arcane knowledge presented in their studies helped me to have more control over my mind instead of letting all the set doctrines of the churches and beliefs of the masses influence me.

I was never really active in organized religions (especially the Western variety) yet I knew there had to be a God. Never had it been a doubt in my mind that there was a God. Later in life, I did read about and study the Eastern religions somewhat. The ancient writings of these religions resonated more with my soul. Having experienced out-of-body experiences and very intense dreams in my younger days, especially, I was prepared to pursue my spiritual path of searching for the Truth about our reality and existence here on this earth. Even at this age (20) a feeling that life was but a dream contributed to my deeper meditations.

While living and working in NYC in 1969 my first intense mystical experience occurred. This ecstatic experience was like a Light or Force that permeated every cell in my body and Being and I was completely filled with Love. Love for all humanity flowed from my Being. To me, this is what was felt that must be the Christ Spirit or the Holy Spirit. This experience lasted most of the day and I was able to fully function in this state of mind even though it felt as if I was “glowing”, radiating love. The oneness and connection with all the world was overwhelming! I guess this could be called “The Rapture”. There have been the same types of experiences of ecstasy throughout my life although not lasting as long at a time. My goal is to be in this complete union of the inner and outer reality as a constant state of mind. How glorious and peaceful such a life would be! What a world it would be if all humanity experienced this Christ-like spiritual state.

At 22 years of age, I was about to undergo a radical transformation. This transcendent experience would “rock” my world, turn it upside down, and change my mind and life forever. Leading up to this “veil” opening up within my being, I was in a deep state of contemplation when all of the sudden I remembered my Self as the Eternal Being, as One. It was like it was a billion years since I (the observer) remembered Myself (my True Self) which is ONE and which is IT or God. This reunion was accompanied by a vision of Light like a FIRE, all-consuming, filled with LOVE and familiarity. “IT” was the best word to describe this Eternal Being at the time. All at once for a moment I “understood” everything…how and why everything exists as One and I knew I was Home. In that moment I was shown more knowledge than anything this world could have taught me a million times over. This all lasted a moment in time. And so, my life began anew like I was reborn with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Even though this experience lasted but a moment it completely resurrected my consciousness causing me to see the world inside and outside myself from a different perspective ever afterwards.

I was in shock after this glimpse of Eternity. And after returning to normality, I began to undergo a breaking-down process that compares to “the dark night of the soul”. It WAS NOT PLEASANT! I’m not sure if because my ego was completely annihilated and shattered that I was engulfed in the darkness, that in hindsight seemed to be an archetype of the collective unconscious mind representing separation in lieu of unity or Oneness. All my life since I have tried to understand what had happened. My mind went through a psychosis in my opinion and it took all the strength I could muster to overcome the darkness I was experiencing. Thereafter, everyone I came in contact with or looked upon, I saw their Divine Spirit shining through which was joyful, but at the same time, I saw the sadness and suffering of humanity and the world. It could be almost unbearable. This still happens to me at times but my present understanding and knowledge that has accumulated over the years overcomes all the sadness and there is peace in my life now.

Pieces of the puzzle of life kept being revealed to me through visions periodically and intensely for a long time after my transcendent, eternal experience. These revelations flashed into my consciousness suddenly, without warning, and they were as if a beam of Knowledge flashed into my consciousness explaining parts of the puzzle of the meaning of existence. There are no words to describe these revelations because words are a poor substitute for things that can’t be explained in form. I was married within a year and had four children. Therefore, with the spiritual transformation and coming into a family, life became a huge challenge. Feeling as if I have tried to understand my transcendent experiences in relation to the world and my life has brought a higher awareness and guidance into my life. Love is definitely the answer. Forgiveness and trust are the Soul’s inheritance from the Divine One from whence our roots originate.

I couldn’t speak of this ultimate experience of “experiences” with anyone for a long time because in my view no one would know what I was talking about and I would be considered insane speaking of such things. However, I could relate a little of the experience to my sister, brother, and mother. And later on, my children. But, there are no words to express this state of enlightenment in the final analysis. I have met many people throughout my life that have had extraordinary experiences with consciousness, (especially of the psychic kind) but none so far have I met that compares to what my own experiences describe.

In conclusion, my life has been filled with much love, friends, and adventure. In my opinion, much has been understood as time goes on from my transcendent experiences which have definitely helped in living my day-to-day life. It was learned that we are all ONE within the root of our BEING which is eternal, unchanging, and full of Love, Light, and Wisdom. We never die for we are the Eternal, unchanging BEING. By purging our minds and consciousness of all selfishness (which is a result of believing that we are separate) and genuinely loving our brothers unconditionally, we can fulfill our true purpose for our lives, which is to find our way back Home. And we will see the perfection and symmetry within as a manifestation of God in the world.

Mystical Experiencer:  Male in early sixties
Submission date:  June 22, 2021
Current location:  U.S.A.
Age at time of experience:  40

 While meditating (I was using the Qigong “Holding the Balloon” standing position), my body started to feel as if it were vibrating – slowly at first, but this vibrating grew so intense that I felt as if I was going to explode.  My consciousness started to “lift” up, and I then felt as if I were launched into a bright light that suddenly appeared in my mind’s eye.  I could sense my self leave my body as my consciousness passed into the light and then continued on through a tunnel of lights that seemed to fly past me… at the end of this “tunnel” I was just suddenly cast out into a huge, black void where I had the sensation of floating in a gravity-free space… my total existence had been pulled into an expanse of just pure blackness, and as I gazed out I could slowly begin to see millions and millions of what seemed like dim, fuzzy stars slowly come into view – I had the sensation I was either moving towards them, or else they were moving towards me; I couldn’t really discern if I was moving, or if they were.

Nonetheless, I was able to perceive these dim, fuzzy lights/stars as living, sentient souls. It was as if I was looking at this infinitesimal scene very much like someone looking out through an open window up into the night sky.  While viewing all of these soul-lights, I began to feel love coming from each individual Light; at that point, I then returned my love to all of the Lights – I don’t know why, but it seemed like the proper thing to do.  At that moment, a message then came to me (the message seemed to come more as an emotion/feeling and I had to translate it in my mind) saying “Watch this, we’re going to show you something really cool!”  Immediately following the message there was a bright flash and all the points of Light began rotating in a clockwise direction, spiraling in together thereby forming a bright vortex of whirling lights. This spiral continued getting ever tighter and tighter and brighter and brighter until all of the lights were concentrated into a single, bright spinning light – the spinning, single light would quickly slow down to a stop, at which point it would take on the appearance of a golden medallion with a triple-spoke ying/yang pattern on it… the medallion would then start spinning in the opposite direction, become a bright light again, and then quickly slow down to display the triple-spoke ying/yang medallion again. It was like watching a wagon wheel in one of those old Western movies where the wheel seems to spin forward, then stops to where you can fully see the spokes of the wheel standing still, and then spins backwards… and so it was with the spiral of Lights… they just kept repeating that cycle going clockwise/counter-clockwise, back and forth, with the medallion appearing at each stop.

After a while and without warning, the spinning vortex of Lights exploded outwards in all directions, and all the Lights burst back out to their original positions – at that moment my existence was then literally drawn into the middle of all the Lights, and I felt love being sent to me again – but this time, instead of love coming from each individual Light, the love that was coming from the Lights came as a single, combined source of unified love accompanied with a feeling/emotion of Oneness – this emotion of Oneness was very overwhelming because I had never experienced anything like it in my life. So again, I returned my love to the Lights, which were at this time no longer individually separate in consciousness, but instead were unified spiritually by an underlying power of Oneness. I then began sensing my own love being returned to me along with the love from the power of the Oneness which was upon all the Lights – I could sense my “self” who was sending the love as being separate from the “self” who was receiving the love back via the One.  So, in essence, I experienced my own love returning to me as both a love from the One, and at the same time as a love coming from the Me, yet the “me” who sent the love also seemed separate from the “me” who was receiving the love. I was sensing my Self and the One as both separate, and yet at the same time, I was sensing my Self and the One as a single consciousness/entity.

At this time, another message then came to me (again, via feelings/emotions) and said “The One is the All, and the All is the One.”  Shortly after that, my “view/position” dropped back to that of the outsider looking out through a window, and then the whole scene disappeared and I came back into my physical body.  This whole experience lasted about 30+ minutes.

This experience really shook me to the core, and it took me about two weeks to get back to a semblance of “normalcy” (the reality of day-to-day living seemed so artificial, and time seemed like it had stopped flowing… everything just “was”). At the level of existence I reached, there was no “body,” there were no rambling thought processes, and there were no feelings outside of love, bliss, and Oneness. My “body” felt like it had transfigured into a light/star consciousness surrounded by an infinitesimal number of other analogous lights/stars – all separate entities, yet all of a solitary mind, and all bathed in the power of Oneness, love, and blissfulness.  Oneness is NOT merely a philosophical concept; it is a force and a state of existence like that of an emotion that can be felt throughout one’s “being.”

Mystical Experiencer:  Person in their mid-thirties
Current location: U.S.A.
Age at time of experience:  36

I had been walking in the woods, which I do as a form of walking meditation, as a way of communing with nature, and as an act of devotion to my gods. I don’t remember what exactly I had been thinking about, but my steps took me to a hill that I associate with the god Cernunnos because it is covered in oak trees. Deer are always grazing there, and there is a big crossroads of trails at the top (oak, stags, and crossroads are all associated with him).

I walked on the trail for a while, but I saw some birders who were very happily observing the pileated woodpecker who lives on the hill. I didn’t want to disturb the bird and spoil the birders’ pleasure, so I ducked off the trail and started to cut through the woods towards home. I then felt compelled to sit at the base of a huge oak tree for the purposes of just listening to the sound of the woodpeckers in the trees and paying respect to the tree and to Cernunnos.

As I leaned back against the tree, I felt as if I had almost merged with it and felt myself deeply connected to the entire woods and by extension the Universe. I had the sense of experiencing the woods from the perspective of the big tree, as if time paradoxically stood nearly still and also raced by. I felt that I was being shown seasons flickering past like stop-motion film footage, but the calls of the birds and the rustling of squirrels seemed entirely timeless. I felt that I understood the great cycles of birth and death and my own small place within these massive turning wheels. After a while, things went back to normal and I went home and lit a candle and made an offering to Cernunnos.

Mystical Experiencer:  Female in mid-thirties
Current location: U.S.A.
Age at time of experience:  34

For months, I’ve adopted the practice of rising before the sun and going outside to pray, read my bible, journal, and meditate. My prayers had become very intentional – where I prayed constantly for deeper understanding and wisdom. I really don’t know how to describe exactly how it happened, but I just suddenly had my mind opened to things – understanding of things – that I’ve never heard of or been exposed to personally. I suddenly just KNEW beyond any doubt that we are all connected – I could see a visual representation of this in my mind, but there was an overwhelming peace and AWE of just KNOWING.

This lasted maybe a couple of days. Despite going about my daily responsibilities, I was constantly in deep thought that I couldn’t seem to shake free of – but honestly, I didn’t want to either. I continued to see and realize things in a completely foreign way from what I’ve always known/thought.

The best way I can think to describe it is to say that God/Spirit revealed to me “Who” he is. I was allowed to SEE the whole picture. More than that, I could FEEL it. I felt universally united spiritually with everything – and everyone. I started to make sense of things I’d never understood in my life.

Ex. Why I’ve always had a memory that isn’t mine. I wasn’t even alive when it occurred. I’ve always felt a strong sense of “purpose” spiritually but have never been able to explain or understand it – this was a huge reason for my prayer and meditation ritual. I began a couple of years ago doing guided meditations that opened me up for the first time to the idea of the third eye, inner self, etc., but never really understood it – really – until this.

Suddenly EVERYTHING made sense. I was raised Pentecostal, but as a teenager began to explore other religions/ways of viewing spirituality. After years of study, travel, experience, questions unanswered, etc., I landed in the Catholic church about 7 years ago – but since then have fallen away from even that as I felt there was MORE – something bigger that I wasn’t able to see. I just could feel it.

Nothing made sense. Now everything makes sense. I’m now able to KNOW, FEEL, and SEE that the same “God” was sent to us by both Jesus and the Buddha. I knew next to nothing about the Buddha until after this experience – I researched his life, experience, and teaching.

My jaw physically dropped in shock as I learned that what he taught was exactly what I had suddenly and organically come to KNOW. The concept of reincarnation seemed science fiction to me before. But now, I have not just knowledge, but confidence and peace, in knowing this is the way of things – always has been and always will be. I have even been able to reconcile this with Bible scripture – and am able to read scripture with a sense of truth and knowing – and see the deepest level of meaning in so many things that I never thought twice about before.

I feel as if the DNA of who and what I am has changed and I will never be the same. I’m still meditating and gaining new insight and revelation every day – I’m not sure if this “mystical experience” is over yet. I don’t want it to ever be over. I want direct connection to God like this every minute of every day for the rest of this life.