Enlighting experience: I think I met God

Before I begin I wanted to say that I have been an atheist for most of my life until recently (before this actual event I started believing in God). I dont do drugs, drink or even smoke. I am very healthy physically and mentally (i think!).


Not long ago I was relaxing and in preparation for an attempt at astral projection when something weird happened. I reached the light paralysis, passed the vibrations and heating steps and felt ready to exit.
I felt violently sucked out far away, deep into space I believe although I couldnt really recognize where I was. But an overwhelming feeling filled me entirely.

I felt a strong presence, something I instantly understood was above everything in the Universe. I also understood that this entity is not a separate entity from us and everything in the universe... The entity- God- is everywhere. It is the force, an intelligent or conscious force behind every atom and particle. It is everywhere basically, the whole universe is part of God and at the same time its Creation.
To put it more clearly I had a feeling that everything is part of a single organism, which can set its own "rules" and his aware of everything happening within it.

This feeling and experience cannot be described with worlds to be honest, but those who have done astral projections and channeling can understand.
I now believe in God.

I now understand the Trinity. Father is God and the force making everything what is. Son is the Creation, us and everythign around us. Holy spirit is the spirit living things have been gifted.
I understand how God said that he is the Alpha and the Omega. He is Everything! And we are part of God.
I believe Angels exists too and sent to purge bad elements, like antibodies sent to destroy infections and destructive threats to our organism.

I think the mainstream religion has it wrong when praying to our father in heavens, when is he right here within and around us!

reply to post by TheOracle


Interesting stuff. you might want to read the book of Enoch who had the "grand tour" from GOD. It's a interesting read. Also you mentioned the trinity in which alot of people belive in. I really am unsure about it but in the oldest bible, the Codex Sinicatus, there is absoultly no mention of the trinity and some stories in that codex contradict our current version of the bible. Either way I feel the same as what you mentioned about GOD being in everything, I've always felt like we are in constant connection with the higher power. Good luck to you and thanks for sharing your experience!

Originally posted by TheOracle
But an overwhelming feeling filled me entirely. I felt a strong presence, something I instantly understood was above everything in the Universe.

I've never had any kind of an astral projection experience, but I know exactly what you're talking about. That is one part of Christianity I don't ever mention here on ATS. That's not a constant experience, but at times, yes. Exactly that although it may not be as intense as what you experienced.

Originally posted by TheOracle
I now understand the Trinity. Father is God and the force making everything what is. Son is the Creation, us and everythign around us. Holy spirit is the spirit living things have been gifted.

That's quite a gift to have been given this experience. To know something that can't be taught or learned in a school or from a book.

The most mind-blowing thing to me that is still hard to reckon with at times is that this all power force that has unmentionable knowledge and power singles you out specifically to interact with you. Not just people in general, but you alone. It's almost unsettling, but good at the same time.

I'd encourage you to (as silly as it sounds) interact with God often. Why else would you have been sought out?

I now understand the Trinity.

Oh? Then maybe you can explain it to the rest of us. How do you get from this:

God- is everywhere. It is the force, an intelligent or conscious force behind every atom and particle. It is everywhere basically, the whole universe is part of God and at the same time its Creation.

...to this:

Father is God and the force making everything what is. Son is the Creation, us and everythign around us. Holy spirit is the spirit living things have been gifted.

Why would you seek to "divide up" God into a "trinity?" If God is everything, what value is there is assigning earthly concepts like "father and son" to "All That Is" ? If God is everything, why describe God in exclusively male terms? Why "Father?" Why "Son?" Are these ideas any more useful ways of describing God than, for example, Aunt and Uncle? If you're trying to indicate "Creator" and "Creation," aren't gender and familial titles thoroughly misleading?

I think the mainstream religion has it wrong when praying to our father in heavens

I think you might be right.

I believe Angels exists too and sent to purge bad elements, like antibodies sent to destroy infections and destructive threats to our organism.

But if God is everything, then aren't the "bad" elements also God? Aren't disease and famine and pain and misery and agony and death all God too? Aren't demons and devils God too?

like antibodies sent to destroy infections and destructive threats to our organism.

Why are we so special? God is everything, not just us, right? So...the plants and animals that we eat are God, and parasites and diseases and sharks and things that eat us are also God, and we are God eating God and being eaten by God.

purge bad elements,

Bad for whom?

God?

My mom experienced something similar. She had surgery for kidney stones, and the night of her return back home she woke up to a bluish white light shining down on her. She described it as the most peaceful, incredible feeling she'd ever felt. She just couldnt describe it. But she knew in that instance everything she ever wanted to know about life, about her past, about everything.

I do not believe in religion in the sense of jesus being the son of god, or the existense of a hell or devil... but I do believe in a "god". I do believe that we all make up god. God is the simple definition of something we will never understand, but it exists. It is in all of us. In every animal, in every plant, in every star and every emotion we have. God in essence, is existence in itself. It is not a person, not a man nor a woman, but the sum of everything that exists. We will never understand it, but thats one of the great things about life. Thats why the world keeps turning, and people keep going on with their lives. We are always looking for an answer, and if we had it, there would be no point to living.

reply to post by LordBucket


Hello LordBucket,

In fact the trinity is quite accurate to describe the whole universe.

Creator- father- force of nature- laws of physics (however you want to see it)
God is the Creator and it is Everywhere. And I believe it is a conscious entity.
Creation- son- us and everything around us- effects of the laws of physics (stars and the rest)
Spirit or Soul- We all have a Soul, I believe animals too have, maybe even plants. Spirits are bodiless souls. Spirits arent bound by laws of physics, but they are everywhere around us. They are also part of the Mix.


God- it is hard to put it into word but imagine a bowl of hot water. This hot water is god. This water being conscious, it decides to modify its structure to create the meat and vegetables (stars, planets and us). It changes from hot water to Soup, from God to the Universe. But in essence we are still part of the Creator.
As living beings we have earned our soul and own consciousness, which in turn makes us some sorts of god (your body can sustain itself, creates and destroy cells, heals and protects them from harm).

I use the male term because that is the -probably incorrect- biblical translation. I dont think God has a gender anyways.

You asked about the evil elements . I "believe" I could be wrong- that God can't control our actions or he deliberately allows and observes before the purges. It is something like a complex program, you wrote the code and eventually bugs start to show. I i was a "bug" Id wonder why we are allowed to carry on doing bad things and when the programmer will fix this. Bugs are part of the program, just like the evil is. It is counterproductive and put the health of the whole in danger.
If you could decide when to put an end to a benign cancerigen cell in your body, would you act swiftly? Probably, but if you knew that what caused this cancer is capable of thought, feelings and can change in time, wouldnt you give them a chance? I think I would.

I realise i use strange analogies but try putting a feeling into words. The actual feeling of being part of this mechanism is gone, but the belief and faith remains =)


[edit on 2-11-2008 by TheOracle]

reply to post by LordBucket


Why do you feel the need to come here and try to destroy or take away a wonderful experience that someone has had?

Something has happened here that is very hard to put into words.

Many, many people have also experienced this, but to a lesser extent normally.

I am sure there are other threads that you can release your venom on.

Good day.

TheOracle:
I use the male term because that is the -probably incorrect-
biblical translation. I dont think God has a gender anyways.

And I agree. But if you don't think God has a gender, and if you think the Biblical translation is probably incorrect...why would you use it? If you look at the descriptions you gave:

Creator- father- force of nature- laws of physics (however you want to see it)
God is the Creator and it is Everywhere. And I believe it is a conscious entity.
Creation- son- us and everything around us- effects of the laws of physics (stars and the rest)

...I think we can agree that the the names "father" and "son" really don't have a very strong relation to the descriptions you've provided for them. It would be like me throwing a ball, and thinking of myself as the "father" of the ball being thrown. It's an awkward way of thinking about it, and if you're talking to anyone who doesn't already know what you're talking about, the "father and son" metaphor is likely to make them think about all sorts of others things that you probably don't intend at all.

Think of it this way...you've been hearing the "father, son and holy ghost" reference for most of your life. Without the benefit of the experience you had, if you were to continue to hear "father, son and holy ghost" for another thousand years, from the way that people try to explain it using these terms would you ever have come to the understanding you have now? I'm guessing probably not.

So maybe these aren't very useful labels?

-------------

If you could decide when to put an end to a benign cancerigen
cell in your body, would you act swiftly?

Maybe. But if were a cancerous cell and I could decide to put an end to my host...would I? Quite possibly. The point here is that, exactly like you've said, God is both. If God is genuinely everything then you can't say that something is "good" or "evil" simply because it happens to be convenient or not for us personally.

We all have a Soul, I believe animals too have, maybe even plants.

I see. And...if you were a farm chicken confined to a cage all your life...or if you were a slaghterhouse cow would it be reasonable to conclude that the humans imprisoning, killing and eating...or if the case of the chicken, stealing your children and eating them...would it be reasonable to conclude that the humans were an "evil" that needed purging?

You asked about the evil elements

If God is everything...what is this "evil" thing you're talking about? Isn't it entirely subjective?

I i was a "bug" Id wonder why we are allowed to carry on doing bad
things and when the programmer will fix this.

Would you? Or would you perceive yourself as good, and perceive the things negatively affected by you as "food?"

I realise i use strange analogies but try putting a feeling into words. The actual feeling of being part of this mechanism is gone, but the belief and faith remains

Yes, words are inadequete. But now that you've had the experience, you have all the time in the world to examine the meaning of it.

I now believe in God.

I think overall my point is to not assume that others who believed in God before you did know more about it than you do. They might not. You've had an enlightening experience, and you have a new perspective that you didn't have before. And that's a good thing. Other people believe in God, andnow you do too. Ok. But...just because they believe in God doesn't mean that all the other things they believe are true too.

Very neat little story.

Did 'God' say anything? I'm not too familiar with astral projection so I don't really know how this stuff works, I mean if you have restrictions as far as what you can do or anything...

reply to post by wisefoolishness


I have had an experence like this myself after a meditation session. I did not feel that it was from any God. It was a very vivid spiritual experence one that I will never forget. I did not feel that God talked to me in anyway,shape or form, but the experence was blissful to say the least. This experence helped me understand the power the mind has when it is used at its' full potential. If what I experenced was its full potential. But I do believe that meditation is the way to reach the higher potential of the mind. OBEs are also another way to experence some of this potential but it is nothing like experencing this event fully concious.

This is how I perceive God as well. As Everything, Creation and yet still a distinct Being, both male and female. The aspects that interest me are would be, do we have to think of God as One being, or could this Spirit reflect itself as a Family, a Man, a Woman, a Child, as the gnostics believe? The Trinity was never as hard for me to grasp, even though I only scratched the surface, when I was younger and attended Church. I could easily see God, and within that the active or Spoken Creational Force or Word, being the Son (Daughter) and the Love or Spirit or Wisdom being the Holy Spirit. But I'm not really convinced God needs all that knowledge, since most people don't understand this, why is it necessary to understand? Whatever is the truth, many traditional religions believe God cares if you get this wrong. But when I was much younger, and knowing I had to leave the Church and was troubled, I had a vision of myself as a 3 year old on the beach, picking up grains of sand, and turning them around to study them from every angle, then putting them in my bucket. The answer was that yes, it was good examine these issues, but not even the theologians of the Churches agreed, never mind amongst different faiths. I was 3!!! I had to make my choice according to my heart and seek Guidance. Consequently the most important thing we can do is be true to our inner truth. And in the gnostic way allow the Creator to enlighten us.

reply to post by TheOracle


You're right and your wrong. You did "meet God", but, God is not someone you can "meet". I have had the same sort of experience while doing meditation. You get the sense that everything is connected, that you are connected to the universe and that God is the universe. I have often experienced this felling/sensation, and you sort of lose your own individual sense of being separate from the rest of the universe, you and the universe/God become one. You don't actually "meet" God, you become God, or rather God becomes you. You can not meet your own self. As far as the universe being one entity, I would venture to say that it is a single organism, in fact the only organism there is. And you mentioned that God was above the universe. Can there ever be an "above" the universe? For this to be true, the universe would have to have quantifiable definable limits, IE, "here is the universe, and here just above the universe....". No, it doesn't work like that, from my experience the universe goes on for ever, no top, no bottom, no back and no behind. There is only one, not two. Everywhere is a part of the universe, even taht area above the universe.

reply to post by TheOracle


I don't know if I've got the quote right but here goes: " I am the LORD and there is none else. I form the Light, I shape the Dark. I create all Evil, and I maketh the Peace. I the Lord do all these things." As far as God is concerned, there is no good and bad, there just IS

reply to post by TheOracle


I don't know if I've got the quote right but here goes: " I am the LORD and there is none else. I form the Light, I shape the Dark. I create all Evil, and I maketh the Peace. I the Lord do all these things." As far as God is concerned, there is no good and bad, there just IS

reply to post by TheOracle


I don't know if I've got the quote right but here goes: " I am the LORD and there is none else. I form the Light, I shape the Dark. I create all Evil, and I maketh the Peace. I the Lord do all these things." As far as God is concerned, there is no good and bad, there just IS

reply to post by TheOracle


Hi Oracle, thank you for sharing your experience with us.
I had a similar experience a couple years ago, strangely many very cosmic things happen when I am watching TV. Weird I know. It was an instantaneous what I call like a download from what I will call Source, it was not like any mystical experience I had ever had but a full knowing and feeling of the All Oneness.

As far as the trinity, besides the Christian terms, I believe the math of the 3 is a creative thing. Positive (+) Negative (-) and Neutal (+-).

Typo

[edit on 3-11-2008 by cindymars]

Originally posted by wisefoolishness
Very neat little story.

Did 'God' say anything? I'm not too familiar with astral projection so I don't really know how this stuff works, I mean if you have restrictions as far as what you can do or anything...

Nothing was said unfortunately. It is not like sitting in the vicinity of God but rather..feeling it, in an instant understanding the fabric of the universe and how everything is connected to something bigger.
There is something out there =)

Originally posted by Chin Ju
reply to post by TheOracle

 

I don't know if I've got the quote right but here goes: " I am the LORD and there is none else. I form the Light, I shape the Dark. I create all Evil, and I maketh the Peace. I the Lord do all these things." As far as God is concerned, there is no good and bad, there just IS

Yes I didnt look too deep into this the rare times I opened a bible. But after this experience, everything made sense.
Above because he can control it. I dont know how big he/it actually is, perhaps it is just the nature of every universe out there? At this point I prefer not to speculate too much =)

[edit on 3-11-2008 by TheOracle]

reply to post by LordBucket


Sorry bucket I dont know how to do the quote by quote thingy.
Actually for most of my life I never believed in God, Good and Evil and religion.
But I kept an open mind and read part of the bible, ancient scriptures and the quran. What really puzzled me is how strikingly similar they are.
Anyways some other events in my life, before this astral projection, have already convinced me that our actions during our lifetime does matter.
Yet I still refused to accept God because I wanted "to see" for myself you know?
And I always said to myself that if a God really existed I would hate him for allowing so much suffering!
But now I do believe. But I still distrust religion, because it has turned into a profit machine and propaganda tool. Too much was lost in translation and too much has been manipulated. I do believe the original Bible is a holy scripture, written by people inspired by God. It is still a very good reference, despite its flaws, if one can bother to take the time to study it.

I always tell everyone not to believe anybody when it comes to Faith. I dont want people to blindly follow. I dont even want people to believe me, I actually prefer people to search the answers themselves and experience it, then everything will make sense.


One can see Good and Evil in the larger scale. Many people may think: hey if I lie or steal something, it is not really going to hurt God.
My vision of Evil is that doing one bad thing leads to other bad things. It is a snowball effect. Lie to someone, when he finds out there are good chances he wont appreciate it and dislike or hate you.
If we allow evil to exist, eventually it will spread like a disease and out of hate comes death and destruction, because as humans we are quite weak in our judgements.
Our stupidity can lead to the destruction of what God created, our planet is at risk. We would spread this disease to other planets , we can even develop technology that can disrupt mechanisms in place in the Universe. If God lets us carry on indefinitely we would end up killing God, killing ourselves because that's our nature. But we can change!
I shouldnt but, I second guess that God preferred to cut the evil at its roots. Have you ever imagined how life would be if everyone followed the 10 commandments?

reply to post by TheOracle


I am new to this ATS thing so I don't know what is really going on, but I believe that you relied to my comment that I posted.
If so then I am very happy. It is nice to have someone to converse with about such things because most people don't know and are incapable of knowing about God. That being said, here is my reply.
I myself am not a Christian, although I have read parts of the Bible, and have studied the religion. The problem I find with Christianity is that it is a man made, sort of corrupted by a few select men(Bishops, Cardinals, Popes ETC), to the point where it is no longer a pure religion. The Bible is a good read, but to get the real truth out of it you really need to dig deep. After having an experience of connecting to everything then everything makes sense and there is no more duality, IE good and bad. After all is said and done, good and bad can only be if the number two can be quantified. When you connect then you intuitively understand that there is only one thing out there/here, and that there can never be two things (good being one thing and bad being another, second thing) or many things. It may appear to be fragmented, but that is only because of our limited way of seeing the universe.
As far as God being above the universe because he can control it, I can sort of see your point. But I prefer to see it this way, the universe is a car and God is the driver. God is the essence of the universe, he controls everything (he forms the Light and shapes the Dark) from the inside out, like the driver sits within the car and drives it around.
Yes, I suppose it is best not to speculate about these things too much. God is after all ineffable. If there really is a God out there, and there may be many Gods out there, he/she is not one to take an insult and hurl it back at you.