God, How Does He Feel To You?

[_Droopy]

I've been a Latter Day Saint from the day I was born.

[_Trevor]

I've been a Latter Day Saint from the day I was born.

It's true. Loran's family goes back in ye old Church.

[_huckelberry]

God doesn't feel like anything to me because I consume chemicals that interfere with spiritual sensations. Caffeine, etc. ;)

Do you think Caffeine is stronger than God?

You probably were not thinking of the question in believer terms like that. In any case I cannot imagine caffeine interfering with God. At least in my experience God both communicates and is clearly different than the caffeine I am fond of. Perhaps believing inclined me to give up stronger drugs because I felt inclined to take more seriously their thought imparing qualities. I have not felt much danger of confusing those feelings of wonder with God. The Potential of confusiton is higher with herion, it mimicks the sense of burning satisfaction in being right rather well. that is in itself a good reason to avoid it. heroin is not the meaning of life even if it feels like it.

I cannot identify a particular feeling with God. I think we experience a variety of feelings that we connect with the word spiritual. My experience inclines me to believe most of those experiecees even if spritual are not God in any particular way. Well the wonder of nature is some reflection of God, I suspect, so I think sprititual experiences of wonder would have some reflective relationship with God.

The difficulty I see with spiritual experiences is that for the word spritual to have meaning the word includes the idea that we humans are beings with a spiritual dimension. If that is so all of our experience has a spiritual aspect. Wonder would as well as fear. logically even boredom. We could have all kinds of spritual experiences with little relationship to God. Or we could have all sorts of spritual feels which contain no communication from God.

Why would one look for communication in feelings? It would seem more likely that if there was communication one should look for communication not feelings. A communication could result in a feeling but the feeling could result from a wide variety of things.

In my experience awareness of God is not a feeling but an awareness of being address by a consciiousness which is concerned about me and possesses a natural unavoidable authority. God asks questions of me that I must struggle to answer.

Maybe I could say the feeling, to use that word, is one of my awareness being brought back to myself where I have a better perspective on what is important and what is not so important.

[_Moniker]

God doesn't feel like anything to me because I consume chemicals that interfere with spiritual sensations. Caffeine, etc. ;)

Oh? I didn't know caffeine interfered. I wasn't aware of that. Last night I was in a lala poetic mental state. I'm rather blah and just a mass of flesh and bones stuck to the ground by damn gravity today -- nothing soaring today. :)

[_Moniker]

The darkness gathers...

Hey, Coggins, do you sense a presence or think God actually hears you when you pray? Ever have spiritual experiences? Notice the OP, please.

[Anonymous]

God doesn't feel like anything to me because I consume chemicals that interfere with spiritual sensations. Caffeine, etc. ;)

Oh? I didn't know caffeine interfered. I wasn't aware of that. Last night I was in a lala poetic mental state. I'm rather blah and just a mass of flesh and bones stuck to the ground by damn gravity today -- nothing soaring today. :)

LOL. I should have sent you the sonnet I wrote last night. Now you'd probably just think "Crazy ole Bond"...

[_Moniker]

God feels like every other fantasy ever created: an interesting story, but not something to get too excited about... well, any more than, say, Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.

I just rewatched The Mothman Prophecies last night, and it's a very fun movie. It startles you in parts, and it's an interesting story. However, they'd have you believe it's based on a true story, and well, obviously, that's just not the case given its supernatural theme. I can enjoy the concept of the movie without buying into any of its truth claims. Although thinking it really happened might make it a more powerful experience to watch, that power doesn't give the story any added credibility. In a way, those claims actually diminish the movie's quality.

I understand your point, Schmo. I think we've discussed spiritual experiences before. I can't recall precisely what you may have stated at the time that differed from the same sentiments seen above. Ever have anything you'd call numinous -- something so outside the norm that it's almost indescribable?

[_Moniker]

God doesn't feel like anything to me because I consume chemicals that interfere with spiritual sensations. Caffeine, etc. ;)

Do you think Caffeine is stronger than God?

You probably were not thinking of the question in believer terms like that. In any case I cannot imagine caffeine interfering with God. At least in my experience God both communicates and is clearly different than the caffeine I am fond of. Perhaps believing inclined me to give up stronger drugs because I felt inclined to take more seriously their thought imparing qualities. I have not felt much danger of confusing those feelings of wonder with God. The Potential of confusiton is higher with herion, it mimicks the sense of burning satisfaction in being right rather well. that is in itself a good reason to avoid it. heroin is not the meaning of life even if it feels like it.

I cannot identify a particular feeling with God. I think we experience a variety of feelings that we connect with the word spiritual. My experience inclines me to believe most of those experiecees even if spritual are not God in any particular way. Well the wonder of nature is some reflection of God, I suspect, so I think sprititual experiences of wonder would have some reflective relationship with God.

The difficulty I see with spiritual experiences is that for the word spritual to have meaning the word includes the idea that we humans are beings with a spiritual dimension. If that is so all of our experience has a spiritual aspect. Wonder would as well as fear. logically even boredom. We could have all kinds of spritual experiences with little relationship to God. Or we could have all sorts of spritual feels which contain no communication from God.

Why would one look for communication in feelings? It would seem more likely that if there was communication one should look for communication not feelings. A communication could result in a feeling but the feeling could result from a wide variety of things.

In my experience awareness of God is not a feeling but an awareness of being address by a consciiousness which is concerned about me and possesses a natural unavoidable authority. God asks questions of me that I must struggle to answer.

Maybe I could say the feeling, to use that word, is one of my awareness being brought back to myself where I have a better perspective on what is important and what is not so important.

Thanks so much for your answer huckleberry! Certain experiences I've had in nature, listening to a stirring musical score, making love, dancing, a passage in a book, a bit of poetry -- something that just plucks at my brain in such a way that I can't describe it really. Yet, when I talked to God as a child I had NO doubts, at all, that there was someone listening to me. Which is probably why I don't do that now, because it's actually disconcerting to not believe in something and then talk to it. That's what crazy people do -- which is why I try to avoid it. :)

Of course for theists it makes sense to believe that there is someone listening. Of course that's not where I am. If I did attempt to talk to God I fear I'd have that same sensation I'm being listened to and well, that just doesn't work for me, for some reason or another. For my mind tells me it's in my mind...

About the term spiritual -- I think that this is just a word that we can use that those who believe could potentially relate to the sensations of those who don't believe. Numinous works just as well, I think.

[_Moniker]

God doesn't feel like anything to me because I consume chemicals that interfere with spiritual sensations. Caffeine, etc. ;)

Oh? I didn't know caffeine interfered. I wasn't aware of that. Last night I was in a lala poetic mental state. I'm rather blah and just a mass of flesh and bones stuck to the ground by damn gravity today -- nothing soaring today. :)

LOL. I should have sent you the sonnet I wrote last night. Now you'd probably just think "Crazy ole Bond"...

Yah, my awe and wonder is gone. Today -->Close my eyes, part my lips slightly, inhale slowly, exhale and think what the hell am I doing? :)

[_the road to hana]

I've been a Latter Day Saint from the day I was born.

And what were your ancestors prior to 1830?