A question for those who are "spiritual" or "religious"

I have a question for those who would label themselves as religious or spiritual, and that question is have you ever experienced the dark night of the soul? If so can you describe what you went through and was it in phases? Did you know you were experiencing it?

EDIT: Can a mod please move this to the appropriate forum? I thought the religion forum was for conspiracies, and now I see this forum is for things that are non-religious. Please forgive me as this is only my fourth thread, and I'm still getting used to where things go around here, thanks.

[edit on 5-1-2010 by EMPIRE]

Explain what the dark night of the soul is please. I have never heard of such.

second line.

Could get interesting.

I think my soul is a dark knight.

reply to post by Conclusion

Explain what the dark night of the soul is please. I have never heard of such.

Dark night of the soul

Dark Night of the Soul

if you follow the links on the right side of the page, you can read a pretty good sequential summary.

from You Feel Totally Alone:

The dark night is a very private matter. The person in the dark night is generally able to function quite well despite inner suffering. Often your acquaintances never suspect that you are going through the dark night — they probably do not even know what it is. Only people close to you — especially friends along the path — can recognize your pain.

You feel like a hollow person doing the activities of life with no motivation except expediency. Your eyes seem deeper in your head. You are profoundly aware of the suffering of humanity and the cruelty of one person to another. You feel that cruelty and negativity far outweigh love and constructive action.

more, from Wikipedia

there's also a poem by that name
Saint John of the Cross: The Dark Night of the Soul (From Spanish)

Once in the dark of night
When love ignited me, I yearned and rose
(O stroke of sheer delight!)
And went though no one knows,
Leaving behind a house in cold repose.

In darkness all went right.
By secret ladders, in clandestine clothes,
(O stroke of sheer delight!)
In darkness I arose
Leaving behind a house in cold repose.

And in the luck of night
In secret places where no other spied
I went without my sight
Without a light to guide
Except the heart that lit me from inside.

It guided me and shone
Surer than sunlight in the noonday blue
And lead me to the one,
The one I truly knew
Who waited with nobody else in view.

O guiding dark of night!
O dark of night more darling than the dawn!
O night that can unite
A lover and loved one,
A lover and loved one moved in unison.

And on my flowering breast
Which I had kept for him and him alone
He slept as I caressed
And loved him for my own,
Breathing an air from redolent cedars blown.

And from the castle wall
The wind came down to winnow through his hair
Bidding his fingers fall,
Searing my throat with air
And all my senses were suspended there.

I stayed there to forget.
There on my lover, face to face, I lay.
All ended, and I let
My cares all fall away
Forgotten in the lilies on that day.

Wow, I had never heard of that before, but yes I can talk about it.

I have spoken about my vision and experience before, of when I found the father(I'm not a christian, and didn't read the bible etc). I was agnostic/atheist at the time.

In the manner I talk about spiritual and religious things today, it used to be that way with politics. I could see the spin and all the manipulation of the world. I looked out at the world and I was distraught about what I seen.

How can this be so? Why is their so much evil in this world? What will it take before people wake up to the evil they are doing? How did such a world of manipulation and lies take hold? I felt hopeless and helpless in many ways. Why oh why can't people just learn to live and let live. Racism, extremism, people wanting power and control over others. And here I am stuck in the middle of it all. They go on about their lives happy and don't even realize what they do in their ignorance. I could try to do that, pretend everything is ok, but in the end I can't ignore what I see.

I was thinking about it pretty hard that night, although this was something I had seen and known for years. I started to think about what the world would need to be like in order to be peaceful and good etc. And then I started to see the 10 commandments. Do not kill, do not steal, do not lie and so forth. But not with justifications for breaking them, such as war and so forth. And that only a society that follows this could ever be "good", peaceful and free. etc.

And then within the blink of an eye I had my vision. I was instantly in what I can only describe as like the Matrix loading room. A completely white "room", but "room" is a loose word because there were no edges to anything. And despite this, that which I see in front of me is even brighter. I see a figure of a being that looks like it's made out of the sun - but it does not hurt my "eyes", as I have no "eyes".

I was asked a single question. "Do you want it to end?". And it was like a deeper part of me answered, and I was watching it. I didn't "think" of the answer, it just came out. I said, "No, there is still good out there". Kind of corny, but what can I say. And then I could see myself driving down the road the next day for a brief moment, and then I was back in my body.

At that moment, I knew the father and that the father was in me and had an understanding of the basics of spirit and flesh etc. John 14:20. On that day, I knew John 14:20, but I had no idea John 14:20 existed until months later.

I did not "travel" however. These movements happened instantly.

At first, I thought I was going crazy. But I just couldn't get over the understanding and such that came with it. And that understanding didn't stop with the experience. My entire perspective on things started to change. A few months later I started to talk about these things etc, and then someone showed me John 14:20. I was like wow, I had no idea Jesus said that. And then the more I read Jesus the more I seen the understanding I had gained.

And then Christians took a big dump on it, started quoting Paul and telling me none of that stuff mattered, I needed to believe instead that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, worship the idol and so forth.

So I'm not a christian. But I know what Jesus is talking about and I know he did the will of the father. Gotta be the change yourself before society can even think of doing it. As your very presence in the society makes the society impossible until it is done.

Never heard of it before, but it seems to match my experience. Although I was distraught, I had never really thought of it as being a "dark night". I had been dealing with it for a long time, but the more I learned the "darker" it got, and that was certainly the darkest point.

Now I don't really worry about those things too much. I understand the reasons why and so forth.

In fact, I think it's really just a matter of how dark it will get, how bad society will get and so forth until people start to wake up and have a similar experience/epiphany. That is what it took for me. I use to be blind, I joined the military and did all kinds of bad things. It was not until I started to really see the evil of the world that I woke up. So, it's just a matter of what it takes for each and every individual before they also get to that point. And once that happens - game over.

That is what I think revelation is all about. Things just keep getting worse and worse and worse, until people wake up. It means to reveal. And all the events that happen in the world and when people start to see the manipulation is exactly what reveals it.

No clue how bad it will get before then, or when people will wake up. But it will happen one day. It is literally like waking up in hell when you start to see things for what they truly are. The only real comfort is by that time you are somewhat use to it.

Even despite understanding and all that, I don't know that I can really say the darkness is lifted completely. I still have to see what the world does and all that. I just have to keep in mind that things happen for a reason and such and that I can only do my part. So that kind of helps, but I'm surely not in "heaven".




[edit on 1/5/2010 by badmedia]

I believe "The Darkness of The Soul", could be compared to the time that Jesus was left alone in the Garden, praying by his self for this cup to pass from him. Oh my goodness, how much darker night of the soul could that experience be?

Then Job comes to mind. Surely this man experienced the dark night of the soul in his life.

I believe it is a time in our life where we feel all alone, even feel that God is so far away from us. King David wrote some beautiful Psalms when he felt the darkness of his soul.

To answer your question. yes, I have felt "The Darkness of The Soul".


Shalom.
Grandma