Archives: Third Party Stories

Mechthild of Magdeburg (1207 – 1282 or 1297) was a German mystic, who, at the age of 12, first saw “all things in God, and God in all things.”  In 1235, Mechthild became a member of a local house of the Beguines, an independent group of laywomen who devoted their lives to God.  Mechthild went through a severe illness, recovered, and had 14 years of visions of God, which she described in her book The Flowing Light of the Godhead.  In 1270 Mechthild took formal vows and joined the crown of all German convents, the convent of Helfta.

In her poetry, Mechthild of Magdeburg wrote about the encounter between the self (soul) and the Self (God) as a relationship between lovers.  She created the following poem about her mystical union:

“Effortlessly,
Love flows from God into man,
Like a bird
Who rivers the air
Without moving her wings.
Thus we move in His world,
One in body and soul,
Though outwardly separate in form.
As the Source strikes the note,
Humanity sings –
The Holy Spirit is our harpist,
And all strings
Which are touched in love
Must sound.”

While Mechthild of Magdeburg endeavored to describe her spiritual experiences in her writing, she also conveyed the great difficulty in conveying her divine experiences, noting that:

“Of all that God has shown me
I can speak just the smallest word,
Not more than a honey bee
Takes on his foot
From an overspilling jar.”

Quoted by Jane Hirshfield in Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women.

Image Credit:  Photo of a painting of Mechthild of Magdeburg by Andreas Praefcke.

Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon (April 18,1648 – June 9, 1717), known as Madam Guyon, was a French mystic and a key advocate of Quietism. Quietism was considered to be heretical by the Roman Catholic Church, and Guyon was imprisoned from 1695 to 1703 after publishing her Quietist book, A Short and Easy Method of Prayer.  Quietism was scorned due to, among other things, its focus on emphasizing intellectual stillness over vocal prayer, and interior passivity over pious action, in order to achieve spiritual growth and union with The Godhead.

Madam Guyon described her mystical awakening as follows:

“When my spirit had been enlightened, my soul was placed in an infinite wideness….Past, present, and future are there in the manner of a present and eternal moment, not as prophecy, which regards the future as a thing that is to come, but as everything is seen in the present in the eternal moment, in God himself; without knowing how one sees or knows it.”

Quoted by Louann Stahl in A Most Surprising Song:  Exploring The Mystical Experience.

Sophy Burnham (1936 – ) is an intuitive, a healer, and a spiritual director, as well as playwright, novelist, and non-fiction writer.  She was married and has two daughters and four granddaughters.  Burnham’s books include, among many others, Angel Letters, The Path of Prayer, and The Ecstatic Journey: Walking the Mystical Path in Everyday Life.  Her works have been translated into twenty-four languages.

Sophy Burnham had the following mystical experience, which occurred at Machu Picchu when she we 42 years of age, after she gave herself to God:

“With that I was immersed in a sweetness words cannot express.  I could hear the singing of the planets, and wave after wave of light washed over me.  But this is wrong, because I was the light as well, without distinction of self or of being washed.  It is hard to speak of what happened at this stage.  At one level, I ceased to exist, was swallowed into the light.  How long that lasted, I do not know.  At another level, although I no longer existed as a separate ‘I,’ nonetheless I saw things, thus indicating the duality of ‘I’ and ‘other.’  In that state I knew things that today I haven’t even the wit to ask questions about.  Some I do not remember, but I know that I saw into the structure of the universe.  I had the impression of knowing beyond knowledge and being given glimpses into ALL.  I capitalize because of the feebleness of words.  It was knowledge untranslatable and it filled me with joy….

I saw the perfection of all things that had ever happened or ever will, and how…destruction didn’t matter, for energy goes on, transmuted, so that even destruction is an expression of pure God-ness, love, and creativity.

Most of it I have forgotten now.  But one image remains – of sparks of light, like angels, like atoms or electrons sweeping, dancing, pulled behind the image of the Light.  They were alive with praise….And yet they were themselves composed of the Divine, as all is divine, every atom, every particle of light, singing wildly in its joy.

I did not see God, for that would have blinded me, but I saw the bending of the grasses at the passing of the hem of His garments.  Everything alive with praise!

In the midst of these visions, as I was returning to my senses, I made one spotty, human, and inconsequential prayer, a speechless quiver of heartstrings (already coming out of the unitive state, you see).  And then, I felt the universe tilt with such joyful delicacy, such warmth of understanding, that it felt like a mother who laughingly hugs her little boy, crying Yes!, with unfathomable, unconditional, and insuperable love.”

Quoted from Sophy Burnham’s The Ecstatic Journey: Walking the Mystical Path in Everyday Life.

Photo Credit: Sophy Burnham from http://www.sophyburnham.com.

Katherine Trevelyan, who lived during the 20^th century, is considered to be one of the greatest Western mystics of modern times.  Born of a prominent British family, Trevelyan grew up in the years before World War I, married, and had two daughters.  Trevelyan shared her personal challenges and spiritual journey in her work Through Mine Own Eyes: The Autobiography Of A Natural Mystic.

In her autobiography, Katherine Trevelyan, who had had spiritual experiences throughout her life, described her mystical illumination as follows:

“When I knew myself as nothing but a prize fool in love, I took my pain and foolishness in both hands and quite simply offered them to God, whom I recognized through this last anguish to be the backcloth of my life and my eternal love.

What followed was beyond me to understand…

It felt as though an infinitely complex machine had in all its parts, between one moment and the next, clicked silently into gear and started to work with inexorable power.

I saw face to face at last.

Light streamed down from the sky such as I have never beheld.  The sun shone with a new light, as though translucent gold were at its heart.  I saw not only the physical sun, but the spiritual sun also, which poured down on me as I walked in the garden at Coombe.

The wonder was beyond anything I have ever read or imagined or heard men speak about.  I was Adam walking alone in the first Paradise.  That is was a garden near the outskirts of London in the twentieth century made no difference, for time was not, or had come round again in a full circle.  Though I was Adam, I had no need for Eve, for both combined within me.  Marriage and maternity fulfilled and surpassed, I had run beyond womanhood and become a human being.

Every flower spoke to me, every spider wove a miracle of intricacy for my eyes, every bird understood that here was heaven come to earth….

But there was something more wonderful than the Light within the light – more wonderful than the standstill of time.  It was that God walked with me in the garden as He did before the Fall.  Whether I sat, whether I walked, He was there – radiant, burningly pure, holy beyond holy.

When I breathed, I breathed Him; when I asked a question, He both asked and answered it.

My heart was unshuttered to Him, and He came and went at will; my head had no limit or boundary of skull, but the Spirit of God played on me as though my mind were a harp which reached the zenith.

Every prayer was fulfilled, every possible desire for the whole world consummated; for His Kingdom had come and I had beheld it with my very eyes.”

Quoted by Louann Stahl in A Most Surprising Song:  Exploring The Mystical Experience.

Moyra Caldecott (1927 – ) is an author who has written more than 20 fiction and non-fiction books.  To Caldecott, reality is multidimensional.  She is known for her vivid writing about “the adventures and experiences to be encountered in the inner realms of the human consciousness…”  Caldecott’s works include:  Guardians of the Tall Stones: The Sacred Stones Trilogy, The Breathless Pause, and Multi-Dimensional Life.

Moyra Caldecott described a mystical experience that occurred in a South African church during her confirmation ceremony when she was a young girl.  Caldecott was going over the memorized service in her mind, and her thoughts were “all over the place – certainly not on anything profoundly religious.”  And then, her mystical experience began:

“It was my turn.  [The Bishop of Natal] put his hand on my head…

I didn’t hear what he said but…

I suddenly seemed to cease to be me (that is, in the sense of ‘me’ I had thought I was – living in a particular house, in a particular street, going to a particular school).  I felt the most incredible flow of energy and power coursing through me and had, what I believe to be, and experience of Timeless Reality…of consciousness that took in everything without limit….but reached to nothing except in the sense of ‘knowing…and loving.

The Bishop must have had his hand on my head for no more than a few seconds – but one could live a whole lifetime and not gain as much insight as I gained in this one beautiful, devastating moment.

I stood up and went back to my place in the pew as I had been trained to do…trembling, shaken.”

Quoted by Louann Stahl in A Most Surprising Song:  Exploring The Mystical Experience.

Photo Credit: Moyra Caldecott from http://www.neueerde.de.

Mata Amritanandamayi (1953 – ) better known simply as Amma [“Mother”], is a Hindu spiritual leader and guru, who is revered as a saint by her followers.  Amritanandamayi seeks to love all people, once stating that, “I don’t see if it is a man or a woman. I don’t see anyone different from my own self. A continuous stream of love flows from me to all of creation. This is my inborn nature. The duty of a doctor is to treat patients. In the same way, my duty is to console those who are suffering.” Amritanandamayi has a global network of charity organizations, in 40 countries around the world, which provides food, housing, education, and medical services for the poor.  This network has built and/or supported schools, orphanages, housing, and hospitals throughout India

Mata Amritanandamayi described “The Path of Bliss” that she experienced, trying to make understandable the mystical union that is beyond the mind or intellect:

“Once upon a time, my soul was dancing
In delight through the Path of Bliss.
At that time, all the inner foes such as
Attraction and aversion ran away hiding
Themselves in the innermost recesses of my mind.

Forgetting myself, I merged in a golden dream
Which arose within me.  As noble manifestations
Clearly manifested themselves in my mind
The Divine Mother, with bright, gentle hands,
Caressed my head.  With bowed head, I told
Mother that my life is dedicated to her.

Smiling, She became a Divine Effulgence
And merged in me. My mind blossomed,
Bathed in the many-hued light of Divinity
And the events of millions of years gone by
Rose up within me. Thenceforth,
Seeing nothing as apart from my own Self,
A single Unity, and merging in the Divine Mother,
I renounced all sense of enjoyment….

Today I tremble with bliss
Recollecting Mother’s words,
‘Oh darling, come to Me
Leaving all other works.
You are always mine.’”

Quoted from Mata Amritanandamayi by Swami Amritatma Chaitanya.

Photo Credit: Mata Amritanandamayi from www.thefamouspeople.com.

ShantiMayi (1950 – ) is a spiritual teacher who is also a mother of three and grandmother of four.  According to her website, shantimayi.com “ShantiMayi eclectically draws upon the quintessence of many traditions: Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, and the Aboriginal Tribes of the Americas and Australia.”  ShantiMayi is the author of In Our Hearts We Know, an in-depth exploration of the wisdom of the Heart, which is based on transcripts of public talks she gave in Sacha Dham Ashram, India.

ShantiMayi described her satori (mystical illumination) as follows (note that paragraph breaks have been inserted below for ease of reading):

“While working in a canning factory, in the back of the factory, in a room alone, there in early October a satori [i.e., a mystical awakening] of indescribable subtlety, a sensation ever so slight, ever so delicate, consumed what I thought was me.  The entire satori was like a needle piercing a soap bubble in slow motion.  The universe, as I knew it, disappeared, with a very subtle pop of that delicate tiny bubble.  It was as though all experience washed away and what was left could not be considered at all.  I could only look into the emptiness.

There was no I, no looking, and no emptiness, no nothingness as well.  There was no moment in time and doubt could not enter.  Here nothing could enter and there was no language for doubt or validity.  I could see somehow all that my Guru had ever transmitted to me in silence.  In that moment, enlightenment removed that which could be enlightened.  There I stood (not knowing I was standing until later) breathless for an hour peering into emptiness as emptiness.  Ever so delicate and ever so subtle.

It seemed as though, if there was the slightest movement the entire universe might break like silence is broken by a glass falling on cement.  This is how I perceived that hour, after that hour, not during that hour.  What emerged out of that time was the beginning of a way of ‘seeing.’  From that moment when I started to leave the factory at the end of that work shift, until now, the ability to see things for what they are has never failed.  The totality was so overwhelming and the wordless message that was conveyed was so powerful in its subtlety that the appearance of multiplicity in existence has not ever taken prominence since that time.

The satori was like a infinitesimal particle of mist falling into a shoreless ocean.  Ocean, only ocean.  And, of course, it is much deeper than that.  Nothing could be said about it and nothing could be brought out of it.  There is no language for it at all.  Yet, that moment changed my life forever and continues to mature….”

Quoted by Robert Ullman et al. in Mystics, Masters, Saints, and Sages: Stories of Enlightenment.

Photo Credit: Shantimayi from www.betheloveweare.com.

Merle Antoinette Roberson (1942 – ), known as Gangaji, is a spiritual teacher and author.  Since 1993, Gangaji’s work has been supported by The Gangaji Foundation, “a 501(C)3 non-profit organization, serving the truth of universal consciousness and the potential for the individual and collective recognition of peace inherent in the core of all being.”  Gangaji’s books include You Are That, Hidden Treasure: Uncovering the Truth in Your Life Story, and Freedom and Resolve: Finding Your True Home in the Universe.

Gangaji described her mystical awakening, which occurred during a meeting with her guru, Papaji, once she realized herself as the silent witness of the mind:

“What followed cannot truly be put into the constraints of time.  Although time did pass, time passed through (continues to pass through) what was revealed to be eternal.

Past, present, and future, all phenomena of mind, exquisite, mysterious and deeply entertaining, but not real.

Reality indefinable, unprocessable, unholdable, yet undeniably here.  Eternity here.  Regardless of thought, regardless of event, regardless of experience, (even regardless of experience or appearance of ‘me’ or disappearance of ‘me’).

Unspeakable moment that neither began when I think it did, nor ends.  Now happening, while really not happening at all.

Impossible to understand because it is always closer than understanding.  Alive with the energy that gives rise to the entire cosmos as well as every speck of dust; every cathedral as well as every mundane thought.

All.

All is here.  Here is eternal God, eternal Truth.  Here I am.  All….”

Quoted by Robert Ullman et al. in Mystics, Masters, Saints, and Sages: Stories of Enlightenment.

Photo Credit: Gangaji from The Gangaji-Foundation.

Deepa Kodikal (1941 – 2013) was a university graduate in science, family woman with four children, and mystic.  Kodikal had varied tastes, enjoying playing the sitar, performing Indian dance and music, and flying gliders.  She was also a play writer and director as well as a painter.  Kodikal is the author of A Journey Within the Self, a diary of yogic revelations in which she described the adventure of inner awakening.  She also wrote Teachings of the Inner Light: A Blueprint for Right Living, a work that received wide critical acclaim.

Deepa Kodikal described her mystical consciousness, which occurred during a “deep meditation” one night, as follows:

“I began by seeing the universe as one sees the sky from earth.  Slowly, my individual identity was broken down, and, when my limiting individuality was totally demolished, I assumed the universal form.  I was everywhere at one time, seeing everything, the micro, the macro, from the closest quarters, from the furthest range.  I was everywhere, all-pervading, formless, omnipresent, all-knowing and all-enjoying.

I was omnipresent, all-knowing and all-enjoying.  But I was not the universe.  I was totally free of it, independent of it and uninvolved in it.  I spread everywhere, but formlessly and unencumbered by attachments, an eternal witness not bound by the universe.  I was pure and intelligent consciousness, seeing all and knowing all but not depending on the universe for sustenance.

I felt light, free and unmoving, yet I was at all points, all at the same time.  Witness to everything.

Uninvolved, free of emotions, free of thought, pure, and vast, I remained poised in eternity and in infinity, in quiet enjoyment; still, composed, calm, and in repose.”

Quoted from Deepa Kodikal’s spiritual diary, A Journey Within the Self.

Photo Credit: Deepa Kodikal from www.themotherdivine.com.

Mildred Lisette Norman (July 18, 1908 – July 7, 1981), known as Peace Pilgrim, was an American non-denominational spiritual teacher, mystic, and peace activist.  On January first, 1953, Peace Pilgrim vowed to walk for peace.  She stated, “I shall remain a wander until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until I am given shelter and fasting until I am given food.”  Peace Pilgrim walked across the United States for 28 years, carrying only a pen, a comb, a toothbrush, and a map.  It is estimated that she walked across the United States more than 20 times.

Peace Pilgrim described her “Attainment of Inner Peace” [mystical enlightenment] as follows:

“All of a sudden, I felt very uplifted, more uplifted than I had ever been.  I remember I knew timelessness and spacelessness and lightness.  I did not seem to be walking on the earth.  There were no people or even animals around, but every flower, every bush, every tree seemed to wear a halo.  There was a light emanation around everything and flecks of gold fell like slanted rain through the air.  This experience is sometimes called the illumination period.

The most important part of it was not the phenomena:  the important part of it was the realization of the oneness of all creation.  Not only all human beings – I knew before that all human beings are one.  But now I knew also the oneness with the rest of creation.  The creatures that walk the earth and the growing things of the earth.  The air, the water, the earth itself.  And, most wonderful of all, a oneness with that which permeates all and binds all together and gives life to all.  A oneness with that which many would call God.

After her mystical experience, Peace Pilgrim never felt separate from the Oneness.  She stated, “I could return again and again to this wonderful [mystical consciousness], and then I could stay there for longer and longer periods of time and just slip out occasionally.  The inspiration for the pilgrimage came at this time….I felt a strong inner motivation toward the pilgrimage – toward this special way of witnessing for peace.  I saw, in my minds’ eye, myself walking along and wearing the garb of my mission….I saw a map of the United States with the large cities marked – and it was as though someone had taken a colored crayon and marked a zigzag line across, coast to coast, and border to border, from Los Angeles to New York City.  I knew what to do.  And that was a vision of my first year’s pilgrimage route in 1953!”

Quoted from Peace Pilgrim’s autobiography, Peace Pilgrim:  Her Life and Message.

Photo Credit: Peace Pilgrim from www.peacepilgrim.org.