A Commentary On Our Innate Spirituality and Mystical Experiences
This essay was originally published in 2014 and updated in 2024 to include descriptive text on mysticism in the context of this essay’s original spirituality discussion.
Spirituality and mysticism are such nebulous words. They have as many meanings as there are people using them. Mysticism, for example, can mean anything from operating/living on different planes of existence, moving between them, and having different entities (spirits) on each level, to having visceral experiences of the divine/God. My experiences have only been in this latter form. Others, such as Christian theologian Marcu Borg, have written about their own mystical experiences. These experiences are not “experienced” Christianity. They are difficult to describe and are short- lived. The primary feature is the noetic quality—the person knows the experience without analysis or forethought. The experience just happens totally without any prompting or effort on the person’s part.
As for spirituality, again, much has been written, and a wide variety of definitions have been offered over many years. What it usually means— especially to those who claim to be spiritual but not religious, is that they do not find organized religion to be relevant, but they feel there is something greater than human life. Of course, there are those who use the phrase as an excuse for not attending church and not applying much, if any, effort to delve into what spirituality really means personally. In the following commentary, I distinguish spirituality from religious and non-religious views and contrast it with mystical experiences. The discussion will include comments on my personal spiritual perspective.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Not long ago, I led a continuing education session for a group of Stephen Ministers. As part of the discussion, I mentioned that I had been teaching or facilitating study groups focused on spiritual development for over ten years. Of course, they asked me to describe what I meant by “spiritual development.”
The short answer, I said, was based on a paraphrase of Luke 17:21-22, where Jesus said the kingdom of God is here, within you, right now. Spiritual development is the process of fully accepting that assertion and learning to allow the Divine presence to show through you, in your way of being. It is about how you get your ego (your sense of independence from the Divine) out of the way and allow yourself to be an example or model of that here- and-now heaven/kingdom of God. Spirituality, then, is a bringing-forth process rather than the religious bringing-in process of the Divine presence. Bringing-in implies that you have some control over when God or the Holy Spirit can enter and give grace or gifts. We often ask for it in our prayers. Most superficial religious people are focused on the expectation of grace, gifts, and salvation from unpleasantness. Gifts then come from the universe by what can seem like a capricious god. In this, religions, in general, are inherently co-dependent: my life will be happy because of God’s gifts, which are based on my pleasing God, even though I do not know all the rules for doing so.
Our imperative is to decide: 1) is the present-in-us-now heaven the essence of God, which means we are intrinsically one with God, or 2) are God and we separate, never to be together. The follow-on question is: who are you in your conversation with the Divine? How do you feel about your relationship with God? Is it about guilt? Is all of life directed by God, i.e., are you a puppet, a victim? Are you lost and without hope that you will be saved from whatever? If you are “saved,” is that the same as “getting a ticket to ride”? What do you do with follow-on sins? Are you saved again, or do you get your ticket punched with repentance? Also, are we saved from something or for something? These and many others are not new questions; they have existed in some way for millennia. If we are separate from God, the issue becomes one of seeing ourselves as a victim (it’s God’s will!) or free of God because we have free will. Is God retributive or benign? If benign, what is the point of worship? If we have free will, God lets us do what we want. If God is retributive, then we are punished by a “loving” God. The “sins” we commit are not well defined in a God context, and therefore, the punishment becomes capricious. If we have free will but face negative consequences, then we do not have free will at all. The rabbit trails of these discussions go on and on.
Religions are based, on the asserted “truth” of God/man separation. This is a continuation from prehistoric tribalism up through biblical tribalism. Unfortunately, this is perpetuated today by our reliance on tribal stories (in the Bible and other ancient writings) as our primary spiritual reference points. Abraham, the source of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, lived about four thousand years ago in the middle of the Bronze Age. For those whose religion is confined to the Bible and the cosmology of two to four thousand years ago, theology and spirituality face a genuine problem of relevance. There is always a way out by saying the biblical stories are metaphorical. But this is not helpful when you try to discern what is really meant and who God is for you now. Any writer from the past had one meaning within a specific context, and every age since has had its interpreters trying to align the ancient stories with its own context; we continue the process even today. The reverse can also be true: the interpreters tried to align their context with the ancient way of being. Interpretation is not the truth; it is just a perspective to consider. Unfortunately, in secular and religious wars, many thousands, actually millions, have died at the hands of those believing their current version of God’s word was the absolute truth.
In a recent discussion, the topic was religious labels. I said I did not believe in heaven or hell as specific places. The other person came from a more biblical/religious perspective. I was asked what I believe, since I do not believe in heaven or hell as real. I said I believed in the Divine, God if you will. I prefer the word “Divine” as “God” has too much baggage for me. God, as an entity, has boundaries and is therefore constrained. I went on to say I believed in our oneness with the Divine. A oneness given by and defined by the Divine. There are no conditions associated with that oneness.
To further this perspective, I introduced a mind game using common religious phraseology. I often use the game in starting a lecture or workshop on spiritual development. The game’s point is to jar our perspective just enough to question who we really are and what our relationship with the Divine is. If we have no idea who we are in relationship with the Divine, then our practices are nothing more than just practices. Beneath all questions about our relationship with any supreme being lies the question of who we are. This is a philosophical question that has remained unanswerable ever since homo sapiens became sentient.
Here are the game’s assertions:
So now we have the conundrums …
If we exist in some way, then we are God’s inherent spirit. Or as has been said, A Holy Child of God. If God is everything, why would he/she/it want or need to create? This is a human trait overlaid on the concept of God and is the basis for our perception of separation from God. Saying God was lonely and created humans to have company seems nonsensical. It is also a human overlay to justify our existence.
So, since you do not exist, just who are you?
This game always opens the discussion with …but, but, the Bible says … but, but, but …. The discussion and game never resolve anything, but they do, occasionally, cause someone to seriously question who they are and just what kind of relationship they have with the Divine. If that happens, I will have been successful as a facilitator. Usually, people do not want to think that hard.
I think in models because of my engineering background—models that describe, right now, how everything works—for me. There is a God, and the God or Divine presence is all there is. I am an extension of, part of, not separate from, God. I believe my experience of physical existence and being separate from God is a perception generated by my ego, which is not real (not God). My purpose is to remember who I really am and to let go of my ego’s insistence that I am separate from God. Will I be able to accomplish that in my “lifetime”? Probably not since I am still enamored with some of my ego’s so-called pleasures.
In the context of the game, there are a few isms that need to be addressed: atheism, pantheism, and panentheism. These are human-centric; humans seeing themselves as the center or the reference point of reality and everything. For religious people, it is easy to label these “oneness” beliefs as pantheism or panentheism.
Pantheism … sees the universe as a manifestation of God. God in everything, rocks, sunshine, trees, rivers, etc., everything is part of an all-encompassing, immanent God; the Universe (in the sense of the totality of all existence) and God are identical. Pantheistic concepts date back thousands of years.
Panentheism … sees the divine in every part of the universe; the world in God, but God is not identical to the world. Panentheism maintains a distinction between the divine and the non-divine and maintains the significance of both. “Panentheism” was coined by the German philosopher Karl Krause in 1828.
Atheism … argues against not only religion but the existence of God, any god. For atheists, to base our lives on a supernatural being as supreme and the theology to justify that belief is irrational. Why would we believe in a supernatural entity intervening in our lives but otherwise reject the concept of magic or paranormal events? The result of supernatural action is magic for us. If you do not believe in God- created magic, why do you pray for physical results? So, what do we do with a person whose spirituality believes in God or the Divine but rejects the human-created theology as truth or God-given? This person is an a-theist. A better term would be non-theist.
These isms, including atheism, are based on the belief in a physical universe and see God in relation to that universe. If our physical universe is the reference point, God must enter to intervene or influence. This is dualistic thinking. There is always a here and a there.
Each person has a model of how things work. Sometimes, they are well articulated, and sometimes, they are so fuzzy as to seem nonexistent. And then, a mystical experience happens. This can be confusing, even anxiety producing, unless you have a spiritual focus that accepts that possibility. Mystical experiences are not the norm. Spirituality is the belief in oneness with the Divine and in the possibility of experiencing the Divine. It is important to recognize that we are always looking at life through a perceptual straw that limits our experience. At the end of the straw, we filter what we see through the lens of the experiences and biases we are using at that moment. To stay sane, we must have a working model of how things are, who we are, and how things work. Our models are just that; they are not the real thing. However, we do engage experience via our current model and call it life. We tend to adopt a model that reflects what works in our lives, i.e., one that others respond positively to. For many, their model is provided by a societal system or religious teachings. For some, it is an academic model in which the study process provides meaning to life. For others, it can mean the ambiguity of constant model refinement. Looking for the meaning of our lives through our model is backward. Our model should express the meaning of life. Of course, that means you have now thought about the meaning of life for you. This is not an easy task
I have addressed the concept of the Divine, but we need to ask who Jesus is in this construct. Was he a supernatural placement by God to intervene in human affairs? Was he someone who fully understood his oneness with God? Was he an itinerant activist with a philosophical bent? Who was he really? More importantly, why is he still important today? Why do we heap adoration on Jesus? Unless you believe in the supernatural and the mythology surrounding Jesus, he does not validate the reality of a separate God. I love challenging people who claim to love Jesus or God, since there is no way they can. What they love is their perception of Jesus or God, which usually aligns with their existing or desired lifestyle and beliefs about what is correct, what is wrong, and what is morally acceptable. For me, Jesus was a person who fully understood his oneness with God and his role in demonstrating that oneness, that God is present here and now. That makes him divine, but then, each of us is also divine.
Mystical experiences are the other side of the spirituality coin. Spirituality provides the understanding that you are intimately connected to God/Divine. Mystical experiences are the physical experiences, very visceral experiences of that. They take all forms of sensory receipt. You do not need the spiritual perspective I’ve described to have a mystical experience. Nor do you need mystical experiences to make the connection to spiritual oneness. Modern ministers have described having the experience of being called to the ministry. It wasn’t an idea to be debated; it was just an instantaneous knowing that that was what they were going to do. Many of the key people in the Bible narrative have had a mystical experience(s) that call them to take a particular action.
Modern theologians have written about having mystical experiences. Marcu Borg is but one example. He describes his multiple experiences as a shift in the color of the light he saw. It was fleeting but affirmed the Divine’s presence. Some would describe this as touching a thin place. Of note here is that Borg identifies as a Christian Atheist. This is someone who follows the ethical teachings, lifestyle, and philosophy of Jesus while rejecting the theological belief in a literal, supernatural God, the afterlife, or miracles. I also see myself in that category. I’ve had a mystical experience, probably many if counting my time as a chaplain. They took a totally different form. My first was when I was four years old, playing in my family’s backyard, doing whatever four-year-olds do. For some reason, I stopped what I was doing and was drawn directly to the concrete pad outside the back door. I lay down on my side, and then I wasn’t there. It was like being in a Carl Sagan Cosmos show. I was there, not standing on anything, and all the planets and stars were around me. I knew that I and all that was around me were one. Then I was back on the concrete pad with the words in my mind, “That was an adult response.” That experience has influenced my life ever since. It is easy for people to dismiss mystical experiences when they are unwilling to embrace the possibility that reality can be more than their worldview allows. I wonder if the maturation of humans will ultimately bring us all to be one with the Divine. An interesting thought.
Several years ago, I was blessed to serve as a nighttime on-call trauma chaplain. I responded to calls for a chaplain in one of Memorial Hospital’s seven intensive care units or the emergency room—usually for an end-of- life situation. The situations ranged from guiding a family through taking an elderly family member off life support to baptizing a non-viable newborn. It also included dealing with SIDS, heart attacks, catastrophic auto crashes, and dying from drug overdoses. When I was called in the middle of the night, my mantra while driving to the hospital was, “Holy Spirit, this one is yours. Holy Spirit ….” This was not a conscious choice. It just happened. Often, I would be with a family for hours and have no idea what I said or did. Whatever it was, it was the correct thing, as the families always thanked me for what I said and did. I was experiencing the reality of the Divine within and that Divine presence coming forth. As I said, it just happened. I had no control over it. Dealing with these traumatic situations was emotionally draining. However, I wanted more of that Divine experience and remained as a chaplain for almost six years.
After my time as an on-call chaplain, the role of Alzheimer’s caregiver for my wife was thrust on me. I learned again the value of being in the moment, fully present for a person, and of providing compassionate care for another human being. After all, that person is also a holy child of God. She is an expression of God. Each encounter is a holy encounter, whether she knows it or not, even when she did not know who I was. It was exceptionally difficult. I prayed for strength with frequent tears of grief. Being an Alzheimer’s caregiver gave me the opportunity to be present, without judgment, to another person. For me, it was a ministry. In all of this, my role was to remember who I am and, in doing so, to model, in my imperfect way, the Divine presence within. I cared for my wife at home for nine years before she passed.
At this moment, these notes are pages in my book of Truth. If you accept it as your book of truth, I would encourage you not to be lazy and find your own truth. Mine cannot be yours. I would encourage you to not to look for your truth “out there.” Your only truth is inside you—let it out. Author your own book and own it as yours. You do not need anyone’s approval; it is your book! My focus is to keep reminding myself that Books of Truth are always loose-leaf notebooks constantly being filled with new pages as older ones are removed.
My prayer is that my pen may never run dry, and may I never run out of notebook paper.
Larry Patzer Monument, Colorado
© Coffee Cup Publishing 2014 & 2024
Free distribution of this essay is encouraged so long as attribution is provided.
Comments are welcome: