Mystical Experiences
by Diane Linsley
In this article, I will attempt to define mysticism and give examples
of mystical experiences from my own life.
Pastor Brett Watson calls mysticism "the pursuit of encounter with
ultimate reality." He says that the mystic downplays the importance
of ritual and doctrine. Instead, his focus is on having a personal
encounter with God.
There are mystics in all major religions. Since I'm a Christian, I call myself a Christian mystic. That doesn't mean that all of my mystical experiences include Christian symbols. Most of them don't, although I have had some mystical dreams that contained uniquely Christian themes and symbols.
I've had mystical experiences throughout my life, but they were rare until I began meditating at age 39. Each experience is unique - you can never have the same experience twice. Some are mind-blowing, and others are less obvious. Woven together, they create the beautiful tapestry of my spiritual life.
What is a Mystical Experience?
Here's an example of a mystical experience. It's a kensho that occurred at age 40. I was walking on the treadmill while looking at my garden through the window. It was wintertime, but there was no snow on the ground. Everything just looked dead. As I gazed out the window, I suddenly saw a burst of energy as if the whole landscape was glowing. In my mind's eye, I saw a vision of the garden in all four seasons - winter, spring, summer and fall. I felt like I was outside of time, seeing the past, present and future simultaneously. I experienced a profound sense of peace, joy and oneness.
Over the following year, I continued to have similar brief experiences of oneness until I woke up one day in the third stage of enlightenment.
Now here's an example of a Christian mystical experience. I had been listening to a talk by C. S. Lewis in which he said that when we kneel down to pray we can imagine Jesus Christ standing next to us, telling us what to say to the Father. This sounded like a good idea, so I decided to try it with faith. Faith is the willingness to do an experiment.
I was a little nervous because this way of praying was new to me. But as I prayed, I felt like Jesus was standing next to me, telling me what to say. It was one of the most sincere and unique prayers of my life. Since then, my relationship with God has continued to evolve in a wonderful new way.
Faith and Mystical Experience
As the previous examples illustrate, mystical experiences often come to those who are engaged in spiritual practices like meditation or prayer.
If you've read my article Faith and Doubt, you'll understand that the mystic is in the stage of Experience because he has done the experiment of Faith. The mystic is not satisfied to stay on the level of Belief, which is when people simply believe what others say without putting it to the test.
I've always been very experimental in my approach to life. I want to know things from personal experience. That doesn't mean I'm reckless. I'm actually a cautious introvert in the physical world. But when it comes to my spiritual life, I want to know God from personal experience.
Mystical Dreams
What makes a dream mystical? I suppose that any dream that has a life-changing spiritual message could be considered a mystical experience. I've had many such dreams. Here's one that shows the resolution of something I struggled with for a long time. The dream imagery is clearly mystical.
I dreamed that I was standing at the top of a huge hill with a road that led down into a valley. The hill was covered with deep snow. The road was blocked off to traffic, and it had been turned into a sledding hill. I thought it looked fun, so I decided to try it.
I zoomed down the hill on my sled, but I lost control and crashed. I did a faceplant into the icy snow, and it hurt a lot. When I stood up, I saw that I had barely avoided going over the edge of a bridge into an icy river. I was relieved, but I was sore and exhausted, and I could barely move my legs.
I looked around at the other sledders. They had all crashed, too. There were several people who were much younger and stronger than me, but they seemed to be just as miserable and exhausted as I was. They were slowly trudging up the hill through the icy, slushy snow, dragging their heavy sleds. I thought, "How can I possibly do this when I'm a weak middle-aged woman?" But I began to trudge up the hill.
Then I heard a booming male voice in my head say, "Make a choice! You must choose life, love or joy. Which one do you choose?" A single thought flashed through my mind. I cried out, "I choose life!" Then I dove over the edge of the bridge into the icy river.
The pain was excruciating! I was completely submerged in the icy water. Then I saw a set of cement stairs at the edge of the river. I walked up the stairs, and I was soon back on the snowy road. I heard the male voice in my head say, "Have love. Have love. Have love." Then all went silent, and I woke up.
The key to understanding this dream is to know the thought that flashed through my mind at the critical moment. Here it is: I realized I had been stuck in a paradox for many years, and it was the cause of my spiritual suffering. I had mistakenly believed I could experience great love and joy while at the same time avoiding the most intense suffering. Maybe we all have this hope? It's just human nature.
In a flash of insight, I saw my whole life in a new way. Trudging through the snow was my daily life - trying to survive, do my job, and avoid pain whenever possible. At the same time, I had been praying each day to be more loving. I knew that great joy could only come from true love. The first and second commandments of Jesus Christ are to love God and love your neighbor. (Matthew 22:37-39)
When the voice told me to make a choice, I already knew I could only have joy by choosing love. But then I realized I could only have love by choosing life. That meant choosing suffering because, as my teacher Bill Harris taught me, "All life is suffering." You suffer when you don't get what you want. You suffer when you get what you don't want. You even suffer when you get what you think you want because it eventually comes to an end, since all things are in time and pass away.
As I dove into the icy river, I cried, "I choose life!" I was baptized in suffering. Then I walked up the cement stairs, which reminded me of a baptismal font. The voice affirmed my realization by saying, "Have love" three times. The number three is the number of the Holy Trinity in Christianity. Love is a gift from God. It's not something we can create ourselves. It is the grace of God flowing through us.
Over several days of contemplating this dream and talking with my family about it, I saw more clearly how the great loves and joys of my life have come with great suffering. There's just no way around it. Incidentally, this is also a major theme in Christianity, beginning with Jesus's own life.
Sharing Mystical Experiences
Some of my friends and clients have asked me to write a book. I probably won't do that. But I do plan to write more articles. Some of my current articles include mystical experiences that are applicable to the topic. However, I will probably never write about certain experiences like my dream of Jesus Christ, even though it's the most profound dream of my life, because I'm concerned about it being misunderstood by people who are not mystics.
Fundamentalists would miss the message by accusing the dream imagery of not being doctrinally correct from their point of view. I shared this dream with someone who couldn't really comprehend it, and he wanted to know what Jesus's robe looked like, as if this would prove whether or not the dream was true. I told him I didn't remember because it was irrelevant to the meaning.
Past experience with people at certain levels of cognitive development makes me wary of sharing any of my dreams, but I've gone out on a limb in my articles for the sake of those who might be able to benefit from these experiences.
It's easier to talk about my Zen-type and "nature enlightenment" experiences. Brett Watson says that true mystical experiences are not about trying to prove doctrinal beliefs. They are about oneness, universal love and God. When mystics share their experiences, it's because they want other people to have a glimpse of God's love. Richard Rohr is a good example of a modern religious mystic.
I make guided meditations that do not require belief in a particular religion, but they include religious values like universal love. I'm a fan of C. S. Lewis and George MacDonald. These Christian writers created wonderful stories with talking animals, fairies and other fantastic creatures. Without being didactic, they gave us beautiful religious metaphors. The mystical dream I described above came to me after my daughter and I finished reading Phantastes by George MacDonald.
The ideas for many of my guided meditations came from dreams. Some came from classical literature. The inspiration for my relationship anxiety meditation came from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. People who don't understand the spiritual meaning of it have attacked me on Insight Timer. This guided meditation can be understood as a message about how to love your neighbor as yourself.
Be well,
Diane Linsley
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