Ask: What is one's relationship to a profound spiritual experience?

…In '84 I had an experience that has become central to my understanding of oneness. …I awoke… to discover that my body was visibly radiant with a golden energy, the heart being the locus. My initial concern was replaced with awe and a feeling of joyful exultation. I moved my attention from my body to discover that everything without exception (animate and inanimate) was radiant with this golden energy. I went outside...all was on fire with this golden light that, far from being a soft ephemeral glow, crackled with the intensity of a million volts. Emotionally I was overtaken with an awesome feeling of love and connectedness.After I came to normal consciousness, basking in the afterglow of this amazing experience, this instructive phrase was "given" to me (by the Holy Spirit?): Rest/abide as That I AM in, as, and through all arising. To this day, for me, this is the epitome of spiritual wisdom and a touchstone for truth.
…Now, for the question: What do you make of this? Is the Golden Fire/Light I witnessed God, The Eternal, Pure Consciousness, Oneness, All That Is, etc.? Or is the Fire/Light a primordial creation of Mind, (son of God?), forming the energetic matrix within which form appears to manifest?I guess, really my heart's question boils down to: What is the right relationship to an experience of this sort? Can, rightfully, anything at all be inferred or "known" by this? Is it merely another pointer, a metaphor, given by Spirit hinting at Truth?‑ES

It sounds like you had an experience that was similar to what Helen Schucman experienced in her holy relationship with Bill Thetford. In A Course in Miracles it refers to her seeing “Great Rays” instead of a body. You continued to see form as well as something that could be called “Great Rays”, but the lesson is the same. There is another way of seeing.
A revelation is a direct experience of God, Which is formless and imageless. What you experienced was a miracle. It was a shift in perception away from separation toward Oneness. The visual image of light touching everything was your mind’s metaphor for the Oneness that you were experiencing. Everything that you perceive is in your mind. God is everywhere because God is in your mind. You were also told this by, yes, the Holy Spirit.
One purpose of miracles is to demonstrate that the way that you perceive something is not fixed. It can be changed. You had a very dramatic experience of seeing the universe of form transformed, not from anything outside of you, but from within your own mind. But far, far more important than anything that you saw was what you experienced. Form and images will eventually fade from your mind, but your joyful experience of Oneness is eternal. So, as well as these other lessons, you learned that God is a real experience, not just a nice idea.

>>>>>
Learn about the books The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, The ACIM Mentor Articles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.

If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Blog/Newsletter send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

Comments

Paul Wiscombe said…
The understanding I have been given is that form and image will remain. At source, all of God's creations stem from an Idea of God's and those Idea's if manifested, manifest as Spirit. In our belief in separation, the creations we see appear to be material. This is an illusion and SE was blessed with seeing through the illusion to the Truth. When one awakes, only our perception and experience of that which is Spirit changes forever (and will be similar to that which ES experienced, just more so). We have been, are and forever will be standing in the middle of the Kingdom of Heaven, we just ain't seeing it properly.
4:34 AM
Paul Wiscombe said…
Sorry, one other comment! SE, what you experienced was your normal (true) state of being. What you returned to is your abnormal (false) state of being. But I think you know that anyway!!
4:39 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ask: What is meant by "extend Love"?

I wonder exactly what is meant by "extend love" or how one extends love. Is it a loving intention toward the person, or a wish for them, or what? Can you give an example? – JO “Extending love” means replacing unloving thoughts in your mind with the awareness of Love in your mind. For example, your peace of mind is disturbed while watching something on television. Your peace is gone because you believe that what you see is reality. You extend Love in this situation by turning inward to Truth (God), feeling Love’s Presence within you, and remembering that It, not the images appearing, is What is Real. It may take you a while to accept that only your own thoughts cause you pain. So at first you may feel that you need to extend Love “out there” to the images that seem to be causing you pain. Or you may extend Love to another who is sharing their painful story with you. You can do this by imagining the situation or the person in a Loving Light. Or you may use some other image to
Read more

If the World Isn't Real, Why Ask For Guidance?

Every now and then a student asks me why they should follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance if the world isn’t real and if it has nothing to do with God. What difference does it make how you live in the world, then? All that you made can serve salvation easily and well. The Son of God can make no choice the Holy Spirit cannot employ on his behalf, and not against himself. (T-25.VI.7) The world is your perception that you are separate from God. Calling on the Holy Spirit to guide you in it corrects this misperception. You are no longer separate from God when you are following the Holy Spirit. What you ask the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Sprit answers is not important. What is important is that you asked and that you accepted an answer . When you follow the Holy Spirit the purpose of every circumstance becomes a means to be with the Holy Spirit. The world that was made to make separation from God real to you becomes a means of remembering you are One with God. It doesn’t matter to God ho
Read more

More on Emotional Satisfaction or Freedom

Last week’s article ( http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2017/02/emotional-satisfaction-or-freedom.html ) about the two possible approaches to spirituality and how one way to characterize them is the pursuit of emotional satisfaction for the self or transcending the self led to a lot of comments and questions that I will try to clear up here. (The article was a follow-up to two other articles I had written on the same topic. Some of the questions readers had could be answered in those earlier articles and links were provided in last week’s article. If you still have questions I suggest reading those as well as last week’s article for a fuller look at the topic). The emotional satisfaction I wrote about in the last article was not referring to what one seeks in relation to others. It was referring to the desire for an emotional connection with Truth (God) that one would characterize as “warm”. I was highlighting how which goal we pursue in spirituality can often be revealed by the
Read more