Critics, how do you explain real-world spiritual warnings?

[_Gadianton]

I come from a school of thinking called Spiritual Elimitivism.

There are a lot little things that can go on in a report of spiritual interaction. I've previously discussed fish stories, for instance, and telling fish stories doesn't necessarily mean you're a liar. It's the tendency to edit the events here and there until it's a sign from God but not necessarily fabricating a set of Gold Plates.

I'll throw out another tidbit. Your brain will put things together you aren't conscious of and the way some experiences are selected make them seem more special than they are.

Examples:

- I used to wake up right before my alarm went off. How did I time it so well? Rather, my brain woke up from the alarm, but somehow I became aware of being and awake and of my basic surroundings before my consciousness became attentive to the alarm.

- I used to think I had such bad luck wanting to use the kitchen at work when one group of people would always seem be in there. They weren't always there, just a half hour and a couple times during the day. But I realized later, that while I was focused on other things, my brain picked up on external cues, the noise of the others in the kitchen, this secretly alerted my consciousness that I was hungry, so I'd get up and, go figure.

- At one time I thought I was dreaming more at night, and then I realized I wasn't sleeping as well, waking up erratically. So it was selected memory.

Let's say I'm driving my car and listening to the radio. I all of a sudden feel the spirit interrupt my thoughts and tell me to turn right. I turn right and suddenly there is semi in my path and I barely missed it. I'd felt a racing of thoughts I'd never had, and the inspiration came from nowhere.

In actuality the brain, being very adept at driving at this point, probably took note of a few things I hadn't become conscious of yet (like waking 'before' the alarm goes off). The incident happened, a series of events triggered that for my body are very normal, reactive, and it's possible, that on a somewhat lesser scale these things happen every time I drive. But because of the scare, my consciousness became more aware of automatic reactions as they were happening making it feel surreal and also misleading me to think that normally I don't experience those things (like thinking I don't dream). The adrenaline adds intensity. And then there's the fish stories in the aftermath to clean up the details.

[_The Nehor]

Why do we have to explain these things? Yes, they happen, but what reason is there to believe that it is a God, much less the LDS version of God, behind these feelings?

Because we're humans and we like to have nice, neat explanations for things.

Do you believe that there is some kind of greater power that is, for lack of a better term, our guardian angel?

I would like to believe so, but I don't know. I used to think I had all the answers. Not so much anymore.

I have had these feelings of not proceeding on a course of action, but never having a clear understanding of what the outcome would have been if I had not heeded the feeling.

by the way, hopefully Infymus will have more of those salvic rippers. Perhaps even in bed tonight.

Or perhaps while standing next to an open flame.

[_amantha]

Intuitive experiences do not require a source with a label attached to it. We can simply say that we don't know how we received the information. We don't need to slap the "Holy Ghost" on it to make it valid or useful.

[_GoodK]

Why do we have to explain these things? Yes, they happen, but what reason is there to believe that it is a God, much less the LDS version of God, behind these feelings?

Because we're humans and we like to have nice, neat explanations for things.

Do you believe that there is some kind of greater power that is, for lack of a better term, our guardian angel?

I don't. I think it is natural for us to look for confirmations for things like this, but fail to see the mountains of disconfirmations.

[_Bryan Inks]

Chances are, it's nothing more than a subconscious urging based on information that you aren't consciously aware of.

Pattern recognition studies are a great place to look at information on this, as the subconscious mind is aware of more information than our waking mind is.

[_beastie]

I agree with those who stated part of this phenomenon is the subconscious mind gathering information, processing, and then the information suddenly pops into our consciousness in a way that makes it feel it had an external source.

Another factor is that we tend to only notice when the "warnings" actually panned out. We forget about all the other times, which are likely far more numerous.

[_truth dancer]

Hi Scottie...

A couple of thoughts.

First, I agree with others. Our minds gather much more information that we are consciously aware.

Secondly, people the world over have these flashes of intuition. In the LDS framework they are called promptings. Others may say they have spirit guides, guardian angles, or totems... whatever the case it seems a common phenomenon.

Third, to suggest that God is somehow warning some people of danger and not others speaks of a very cruel God (at least based on human experience). I say this wondering why would God save my life by giving me a warning but totally forget about the ten thousand children under five who will starve to death this very night? I would rather no God than this God.

Finally, I do believe it is possible that there is some sort of interconnectedness between all of existence. I do not in any way think there are other worldly beings directing, influencing, or commanding anything but I hold the idea that there is much more to existence than we know, hence allow for and actually embrace the mystery.

:-)

~dancer~

[_Tarski]

Why do we have to explain these things?

Because everything has, ultimately, an explanation.

Well, is everything explained in terms of human concerns? How about in terms of particle collisions and gravitation.

I accidentally ripped a page of my book. (It happened by the decree of God because He wanted to teach me a lesson about being careful)

The wooden stairs rotted and someone took spill. Ultimate explanation?

A bird few into the window.

A rock rolled off a cliff and killed a rodent. The rodent did not thereafter carry a disease into the house of little Tommy. (God has a plan!)

Bob won the lottery. Probabilities and randomness (like it is legally supposed to be) or was it Zeus?

[_charity]

The reason we look for reasons is that it is human nature to either explain what happened or at least be able to describe it. If we didn't do this we wouldn't learn. We need, and do, make connections. Sometimes those connectins turn out to be wrong, e.g. superstititous behaviors. This is particularly common among athletes, with lucky shoes, and shirts, and little rituals at bat, etc.

[_Tidejwe]

Many others have already mentioned that that it probably has a lot to do with the subconscious. Supposedly the claim is that the brain processes 400 billion bits of information per second, but is only aware of 2,000 bits at any one time-usually information about our environment, body, and time. I don't know how they came to that conclusion. I would've assumed it was much higher.

Since it sort of relates to this thread, let me give a personal example from my mission. My 2 companions and I (we were in a triple companionship at the time) were doing these little mini-first discussions with people while we walked down the road next to them (just a few short minutes each). We'd usually go all the way down this long road talking with people. One day, we were teaching this old man as we walked, and in the middle of our discussion (we didn't even get to the point of explaining the Book of Mormon or HG confirmation stuff) we simultaneously stopped, ended it early, shook the man's hand, and went the other direction we just came from because we all felt that we should. It was completely outside of anything we'd ever done before and from what we'd planned to do (we were going to follow the road down to a member's house and do a lesson). Minutes later, a truck came zooming into the intersection just ahead of where we'd randomly turned around out of character. A bunch of thieves (we found out later it was a gang from out of town known to be trying to steal enough money to get to the USA) jumped out and started shooting guns at people, and stealing money, etc. We were atop a big hill at that point, and they didn't see us, but had we not all "FELT" like we needed to turn around for some odd reason, we'd all be dead like the others, especially since we were all white, and dressed up nicely, etc.

I can accept that somehow we were possibly subconsciously aware of what would happen. I don't entirely know how...but it's still possible. I can also accept that it may have been unrelated or simple coincidence somehow. Anyway, this is the type of thing the OP mentions. We/I felt like we needed to randomly change our plan and go back where we came from. We all simply obeyed the "feeling", and it undoubtedly saved our lives. It may have been coincidence, may have been some kind of "spiritual warning"...at this point I am not entirely sure because in general I don't believe in intervention from God as a general rule, though I don't completely rule it out either, especially after a few such cases as this that I've even personally had and could share. Such experiences are certainly interesting...though statistically speaking they are bound to happen and are probably insignificant when speaking scientifically, logically, etc as they are so inconsistent, unreliable, untestable, etc.