The connection between a spiritual experience and a certain religion

[JussiUt]

I'm very interested in hearing how this connection is born. If you experience a spiritual experience/mystical experience or whatever you want to call it how do you draw the link between that feeling and one particular religion? How do you know that that experience was exactly the product of Allah or a product of God?

I know the most logical explonation here is that you "choose" the religion which is around you. If you live in a Christian country or in a Christian community or you have Christian parents you are most certainly going to believe that the experience was related to that particular religion. That's logical. What I'm interested in is that how do believers explain to themselves that their religion is the correct one and the others are nonsense?

I know that at least PairTheBoard has played with the idea that all religions are attempts to understand God and that all religions are "related to" the same God and that people just interpret things differently. I would think this would be the most logical and rational position for a believer. If however you truly believe that your religion and its dogmas are absolutely true how do you explain it to yourself logically?

I guess the simplest question would be "what makes Christianity special"? How do you "know" that your spiritual experience indicates that there is a Christian God and not Brahma?

The Christians who believe Christianity is correct is naturally the group who can answer this the best but others are welcomed to chime in.

I just think it's fascinating that people truly say they "know" that Christianity is right and other religions are wrong. What do they think about the origins of the other religions? Are they just illogical and stupid or what is their justification for this belief?

[AWoodside]

Meh, I think it's psychological conditioning, plain and simple. Either they've been indoctrinated to some particular faith from the time they were born, or they switch gears mentally at some point in life due to a traumatizing experience. This statement is mostly from personal experience, but I've never met a mid-life convert that just started believing for no reason. Every single one (and I've met a fair amount) convert after some traumatizing or emotionally scaring event and they turn to whatever faith is most convenient at the time and then get hooked because of the psychological comfort it provides.

My first instinct was to write that these people are simply intellectually bankrupt, irrational, and lack any semblance of personal courage, but after a few minutes of thought I don't think that's fair. I was raised Catholic and indoctrinated pretty heavily when I was young so I know first hand how effective the mental conditioning churches excel at can be. It took me a long time to remove the last vestiges of said conditioning, so I sympathize with those currently suffering from it.

I agree that in some respects the question you ask is "fascinating" but I have a feeling the answer, if we can ever satisfactorily arrive at it, will be less earth-shattering than you might hope. When I was a Christian and I knew deep down in my heart that Christianity was correct it was nothing more than the result of highly effective psychological conditioning performed on an impressionable young child. Church and Sunday school every week, prayers before bed, prayers before sleep, discussion of faith in the classroom (catholic school), threat of eternal torture for not believing, etc. etc. During this time I even had what I thought were spiritual experiences, where I heard God talking to me, but I was an imaginative kid and my experiences with God, looking back, were not qualitatively different than any of the experiences I had with any of my other imaginary friends.

[goodgrief]

Christianity is not special. The answer to your question is that your vision aka mystical experience tells you what it's about. It is not just a warm fuzzy feeling. It is a complete experience that seems as real or more real than any other experience. As a child, I had a classical "enlightenment" experience down to the flash of light that broke open my skull. In that experience, I was "informed" that adults were just pretending to believe in God, just as they did with Santa Claus, because it was a game we have to play in our society to be accepted and not be accused of being a communist. I was informed that all intelligent people knew the secret, that God did not exist, but that we simply don't talk about such matters if we know what is good for us. How was my vision any different from the vision desccribed by Paul on the road to Damascus? (Flashing lights, voice, important message from our sponsors, etc.) It was exactly the same, it just carried a different message. People's susceptibility to such visions seems to be linked to activity in their temporal lobes. I was experiencing some very severe headaches of unknown origin over a period of a couple of years at that time. It is annoying that subjectivity reality can sometimes feel so much more "real" than objective reality, but no use letting it go to your head and kidding yourself that it has anything to do with some guy who may or may not have lived thousands of years earlier. The guy who gets the message from Jesus may be more socially acceptable than the guy who gets the message from Allah that "white people are the devil" or the guy who gets the message that he has been contacted by the Space Brothers for genetic testing, but his message isn't any more real and shouldn't be taken any more seriously. We have an agreement in our society to tiptoe around and pretend that Christianity is somehow special and entitled to special respect because we are, as a society, cowards afraid to point out that nonsense is nonsense. It isn't anything deeper than that. If you ever had a vision, you would quickly realize that they all seem real.

[Bigdaddydvo]

I'll do my best to answer from personal experience. Spiritual experiences are significantly different than other human emotions. To narrow it down a bit, I'll contrast spiritual joy with happiness derived from earthly events/accomplishments. I have a whole host of terrific "worldly" events to draw from for this example (meeting my wife, kids being born, running the Boston Marathon, my West Point graduation day, winning big poker tournaments, even seeing U2 in concert, etc) All those things felt awesome, were exciting, and are among my most treasured memories. Yet they all lacked something present in my most joyful spiritual experiences.

I'll use a recent example. When I was deployed the last time, there was a significant shortage of Catholic priests in the AO. Thus I was unable to attend Mass for a long period time. During that stretch, I developed an intense spirtual hunger, especially for reception of the Holy Eucharist. Later through some good fortune, I was able to attend Mass for the first time in the deployment. From the moment the priest began Mass "In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit" to Communion and the closing prayer, I felt a spiritual high that rivaled many in my life. Spiritual joy is the purest form of happiness there is. As you feel God's love radiate in your soul, you feel no desire to be anywhere else. No happiness derived from any drug, earthly relationship, or accomplishment could ever mirror it. The happiness I felt was not self induced from years of "conditioning" as some suggest but an absolutely real experience. As I've said, in my life I've had some absolutely kick ass non-spiritual experiences, yet none can compare with those of the spiritual realm.

If you're curious, I recommend reading the biographies and writings of several well known Catholic mystics of the last century and the recounting of their spiritual experiences. Among them are St. Faustina and St. Padre Pio.

[bunny]

I think there is no rational way to determine the correct religion, although there are rational grounds for excluding some (those which make claims contradicting known facts).

Personally, I think subjective experience is good grounds for thinking there is something there, but claiming you know much more about it (other than it induces a subjective feeling) is not justified. I never struggled with this as a believer. I considered myself a christian who was probably following the wrong religion.

[godBoy]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm very interested in hearing how this connection is born. If you experience a spiritual experience/mystical experience or whatever you want to call it how do you draw the link between that feeling and one particular religion? How do you know that that experience was exactly the product of Allah or a product of God?

[/ QUOTE ]
The bible gives very descriptive characteristics of God, and tells the stories of many people who throughout history have connected with him.
The Christian finds himself noticing the uncanny resemblance between the God described in the bible and the God that they know personally.
But then there's lots of things, often I will(even this morning) wake up with a Book and a Chapter in my mind, I can't explain how 'perfect' these scriptures always are.
Another reason I strongly believe that Christianity is correct is that other Christians are always able to see something in me when somethings not right, they 'know' things about me that no-one could possibly 'know' for sure.
The God of amazing coincidences..
I suppose my belief is the lump sum of all of these amazing coincidences.
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I know the most logical explonation here is that you "choose" the religion which is around you. If you live in a Christian country or in a Christian community or you have Christian parents you are most certainly going to believe that the experience was related to that particular religion. That's logical. What I'm interested in is that how do believers explain to themselves that their religion is the correct one and the others are nonsense?

[/ QUOTE ]
The fact that people are exposed to that which their parents enable them to be exposed to is no argument at all that Christianity is not correct.
[ QUOTE ]
I know that at least PairTheBoard has played with the idea that all religions are attempts to understand God and that all religions are "related to" the same God and that people just interpret things differently. I would think this would be the most logical and rational position for a believer. If however you truly believe that your religion and its dogmas are absolutely true how do you explain it to yourself logically?

[/ QUOTE ]
This just isn't right, it's no where close to logical or reasonable that mutually exclusive beliefs can co-exist.
This type of belief is just intellectual dishonesty and a perversion of the truth (if such a thing exists). The thing that separates religions is it's theology, it's defining 'facts' about the nature of God that it claims. ptb shouldn't try to make Christianity something it is not, it's nothing more than muddying the waters and perverting the truth.

[ QUOTE ]
I guess the simplest question would be "what makes Christianity special"? How do you "know" that your spiritual experience indicates that there is a Christian God and not Brahma?

The Christians who believe Christianity is correct is naturally the group who can answer this the best but others are welcomed to chime in.

I just think it's fascinating that people truly say they "know" that Christianity is right and other religions are wrong. What do they think about the origins of the other religions? Are they just illogical and stupid or what is their justification for this belief?

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't claim to 'know' all that much, just logically concluded beliefs from my experiences.

Firstly, There is too much in the atheistic world view that doesn't fit my experience.
Secondly, there is sufficient evidence(personally) to suggest that Jesus is in fact who he claimed to be.

[Phil153]

godBoy,

I'd like you to think carefully about this...

If you were born in Iran to Muslim parents, and had a Muslim education, do you think you would be a Christian? Or a follower of Muhammed?

How about if you were born in Tibet? Christian or Tibetan Buddhist?

The rest of your post is interesting, and I'm merely curious about where you'd stand on this. Not trying to make a point or have a debate.

[luckyme]

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The Christian finds himself noticing the uncanny resemblance between the God described in the bible and the God that they know personally.

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It's the 'canny' part that is the expected ho-hum. It'll become uncanny when christian experience is with a Sikh god , and a hindu experience is with a christian god, and a ...

luckyme

[godBoy]

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If you were born in Iran to Muslim parents, and had a Muslim education, do you think you would be a Christian? Or a follower of Muhammed?

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I wouldn't be myself then now would I. I could say that I would most probably be a Muslim, yes.

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How about if you were born in Tibet? Christian or Tibetan Buddhist?

[/ QUOTE ]
Same question, same answer.

[godBoy]

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The Christian finds himself noticing the uncanny resemblance between the God described in the bible and the God that they know personally.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's the 'canny' part that is the expected ho-hum. It'll become uncanny when christian experience is with a Sikh god , and a hindu experience is with a christian god, and a ...

luckyme

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This happens all the time. I know many believers who have a history with different religions.