Have you ever experienced anything " supernatural ?"

[Gaber]

God cannot do otherwise; we can only choose to blind ourselves to the continuous overeffulb=gent blessing!

Thanks for your insights.

I guess you see the dark night through the light of God. Otherwise, you would never see it was dark, You would think that dark was light.

You are welcome. I get the picture that many who are suffering, that is, having thoughts about pain that don’t match reality, they most usually forget how it is that they see whatever they see, or hear, or whatever. That “how” is the least investigated area in the minds of creaturees that are known to have a reflexive awareness ability or dimension. In fact, that idea centers in the most usefuil interpretation of the “fall” that I’ve ever come across. But we are creatures of training and habit, and those who really delve into how they came to believe anything are very few and far between, theist or atheist. And the tendency is almost always to use the tools of one’s exist(name removed by moderator) paradigm to assess ideas and tools that are of another paradigm. Not much room there for impartial conclusions. That is why Christian converts, I beleive, usually just go to another form of Christianity, unless they have a deep transformative expereience. But again, as in NDE’s the interpretation of those is, because it ie mental, made within the paradigm of habit. Few even consider that it is possible, as many advocate, to go beyond the mind, where actual answers reside.

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

I’ve had extrordinary close calls, but nothing supernatural. I have seen a UFO, not up close, but clear enough to know it was not of this place or time. It could have been extra terrestrial or maybe from the future. No current day earth technology could have done such a thing (this was 20 years ago, and even todays technology can’t do that).

I haven’t had any supernatural experiences but some of my close friends have.

UFOs. I do not believe in UFOs.
But some extradordinary tales I have heard that make me wonder what it is.

 

[Bix]

How does a person experiencing some of things listed know they aren’t crazy? Aside from speaking to a priest, most people would think you were psychologically impaired… Knowing this, most people wouldn’t share this knowledge and would probably assume they were…

???

Also, that thing someone mentioned about hearing beautiful bells and singing /chanting music- is that only associated with death?

Last question- forgive me, but what do all these abbreviations stand for? NDE, OBE?

I’m guessing NDE is near death experience, but can’t … Wait - is it out of body exp?

Thank you for your patience.
God Bless~

 

[fhansen]

How does a person experiencing some of things listed know they aren’t crazy? Aside from speaking to a priest, most people would think you were psychologically impaired… Knowing this, most people wouldn’t share this knowledge and would probably assume they were…

???

Also, that thing someone mentioned about hearing beautiful bells and singing /chanting music- is that only associated with death?

Last question- forgive me, but what do all these abbreviations stand for? NDE, OBE?

I’m guessing NDE is near death experience, but can’t … Wait - is it out of body exp?

Thank you for your patience.
God Bless~

NDE: near death experience
OBE: out of body experience

Neither of these necessarily have anything directly to do with the mystical experiences reported by Catholic mystics, which are always had in fully conscious states (not to dismiss the others as irrelevant, just noting a distinction). All experiences can and should be questioned and, in fact, a sign of a healthy mind is that the person would do so. But the character of the mystical experiences-locutions, visions, theophanies, etc- is simply not of the kind that is random, disorderly, confusing, haphazard, and without purpose. They’re very well controlled and orchestrated-and the knowledge that one is being communicated to is absolute. The problem comes in trying to explain or describe these experiences to anyone else-they’re just so extra-ordinary.

If a person is otherwise quite normal (St Teresa of Avila was a very hard-working, humble, and practical woman), and not experiencing the psychotic episodes, severe depression, hallucinations, feelings of grandeur, etc that accompany mental disorders and generally render people incapable of normal lives, then the tendency for self-doubt or doubt coming from others is naturally moderated a great deal by these facts. What has traditionally happened within the Church is that leaders *will *doubt the experiences at first, usually having nothing to relate them to themselves, for one thing, along with having a healthy dose of skepticism in general, and later, if the events are genuine, little by little the visionaries or their writings gain respect and acceptance (not necessarily within their own lifetimes) by standing the test of time against Church teachings and by offering new understanding/clarification. The Church may or may not officially approve the testimonies and is very cautious in any case if she does.

As Catholics, once they* have* been accepted officially (St Teresa was actually awarded the highly esteemed title “Doctor of the Church” posthumously), then we can usually be assured that, when we look into the matter for ourselves, we also may well hear the ring of truth resounding in their stories.

 

[Bix]

So, say a person is talking to someone and suddenly “sees” a glimpse of them in a hospital or say in church, they see a person wearing shorts and then suddenly sees them for a moment with a metal prosthetic. What would these examples be?

Let’s say in the example with the person being seen in a hospital, that this person was someone they just met. This person ends up in the hospital for a week or so a month down the road. What would that be?

I don’t think they are mystics, because I thought mystics were those who revealed or saw large, world effecting events.

 

[fhansen]

So, say a person is talking to someone and suddenly “sees” a glimpse of them in a hospital or say in church, they see a person wearing shorts and then suddenly sees them for a moment with a metal prosthetic. What would these examples be?

Let’s say in the example with the person being seen in a hospital, that this person was someone they just met. This person ends up in the hospital for a week or so a month down the road. What would that be?

I don’t think they are mystics, because I thought mystics were those who revealed or saw large, world effecting events.

I don’t believe that those would qualify as mystical experiences-although they can be quite interesting. I’d pray about such things-maybe God’s leading the person to a deeper walk somehow.

 

[Bix]

My questions aren’t necessarily for me.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Can you expand on what is a mystical experience?
Also, what would be the point of these other incidents?

Where do dreams fit in? Is this the same category as smelling incense, gift of tears, discernment of spirits, that quick gut feeling you have about a person as soon as you meet them that’s usually correct - all these that most people have?

Oh, and could you answer about hearing the beautiful music never heard before mentioned earlier?

Thank you again for your kindness and patience!

 

[truthsave]

I cannot write here my "strange"experience with which I hve met my wife. It is a longhish story. For her family we have written a blog and if you would like you can have a look.
The chapter are on you right collomn, and are in english and french. So start from n°1 in your language.

The address is: maxetcharline.blogspot.com/
hope you enjoy it.

As far for younger experience: once I was 14 and watching a beautifull sunset at the sea. It was summer. All of a sudden I herd a voice of immensity coming from outside of me and from inside of me at the same time and this voice just said my name. The voice was so intense that shaked me completly and deeply inside and it really scared myself. I thought I didn’t want to hear anything like hat any more in my life. It was like everything outside me and inside me was saying my name with one voice coming from one clear point that was…impossible to define and this voice was so clearly and majestic and firm but warm and I have never ever heard in my life something so clearly.

 

[truthsave]

As far as beutiful music I had this experience,
First of all must be said that I have been working profesionally in audio reprodaction for many years and have and listen to many different kind of music.

One day I just was going I guess to work when while driving with my moto I start hearing from far away but not far away, it is difficult to explain it is like it is far away but close at the same time a chorus. I had a normal reaction: strange I thought. This music non only is strange but comes out strangely and comes from where?
The beuty of this chourus was extraordinary. You could easily understand it was composed by many voices that you could hear almost separately and they had a very special timbre like human voice but not human at the same time. And the melody was very beutiful, nothing that I knew and had the mostly strange effect of seeming the same refrain but different at the same time. This struck me with the most unusual. Then like it came it was gone. Lasted about 10 sec.

It was extremely pleasent and warming.

Being crazy…I don’t have this kind of experience so often and then my life doesn’t change and I don’t even feel more special as a man since I know I am not a special men. Really common with his efforts and sins. So it was a gift?
I think so.For what reason. I don’t really know.
I would like to here this magnificent chourus again. But apparently whishing is not enogh.

 

[Lorddreaman]

One time when I was very very depressed I felt Jesus hugging me and I felt so at peace after that. I’ve also seen what I think was a demon in my basement and my guardian angel sitting on my bed. Plus I’ve dreamt about St. Micheal Archangel where he told me that if I ever need his help he’s here for me. I’ve also seen God and Jesus in my dreams.

 

[fhansen]

My questions aren’t necessarily for me.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Can you expand on what is a mystical experience?
Also, what would be the point of these other incidents?

Where do dreams fit in? Is this the same category as smelling incense, gift of tears, discernment of spirits, that quick gut feeling you have about a person as soon as you meet them that’s usually correct - all these that most people have?

Oh, and could you answer about hearing the beautiful music never heard before mentioned earlier?

Thank you again for your kindness and patience!

I don’t know about the music but it sounds awesome. I’m sure the ways the Holy Spirit may work in people are unlimited. And I suppose they’re tailored to the person’s personality, nature, and needs. Some of the ways He works are subtle; urgings, consolations, signs-drawing us into closer communion with God or prompting us to perform some act or another.

But the mystical experiences I was speaking of are of a more direct order. They can be theophanies: being in the immediate presence of God, i.e. given a “glimpse” of His glory (an “intellectual vision”), locutions: word for word transmission of thoughts, in your language but without the necessity of auditory perception, and visions: images communicated to a person for the purpose of gaining understanding of a particular situation. Dreams are also utilized, I believe, but, again, for a purpose and in a way where the person can know a prayer was answered or a sign given.

This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means but the point is that God can sort of take over our faculties, gently but certainly, in order to communicate whatever knowledge He wishes us to have, for His purposes.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

anything that affected your faith?

On a number of occasions -

1. My father appearing in my room the night he died, as I’ve stated ad infinitum on this forum.
2. 3 x “double whammies” (Like a breath going through you in waves from head to foot) which were used to highlight words being spoken at that time - I still remember the words and the context over 20 years later.
3. A sense of anger which descended on me on one ocassion. I thought I was going to literally disintegrate.
4. Heavy gripping pressures at night, and on a couple of occasions, the bed shaking (demonic).
5. A number of brief “visions”, always with a message, most often featuring my old pastor.
6. A brief, but very distinct sense of bubbling joy when I was given a certain guideline by my old pastor about how to find a wife.
7. Co-incidences which weren’t co-incidences.
8. A sort of spiritual pressure to start going to church when I was still an atheist, and and the same sort of spiritual pressure started pushing me towards the Catholic Church some years later.
9. Such accurate prophecies by my old pastor that only a supernatural being could have told him what some specific incidences would be.

There’s been others.

As far as affecting my faith is concerned, they’ve confirmed there’s life after death; they’ve confirmed God exists, and so does the devil; they’ve confirmed the Catholic Church is “closest” to the truth"; confirmed God knows the future; confirmed God knows me; confirmed judgement and hell are real, going by my father’s terrifying scream just before he disappeared.

They haven’t confirmed “God is love”. No doubt He is, as stated, but circumstances make me wonder, or how “soft” God’s love is. I think our definition of “love” when it’s applied to God is incomplete.

Nor have I seen any “miracles of healing”, or miracles in general, but I have had “supernatural experiences”.

They’ve probably raised as many questions as answers, but there’s no way I can avoid the reality of God’s presence.

Atheists like Richard Dawkins are so far from the truth it’s not funny.

 

[InJesusItrust]

I wish I could have had as many experiences at you. I’ve felt the presence of a light and invisible stigmata. I can feel a liquid, water or blood I cannot tell which (it is invisible), dripping down my body. But I wish to feel God’s presence again or hear His voice. So many people claim to feel Him in Church but I feel nothing. Do you have to be baptized for it?

I look more forward to death than I do life because I want to experience the light again.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

Were you the poster who had a then-deceased Presbyterian pastor drop by saying that he was in purgatory…?

At any rate, feel free to PM me everything you’ve got.

That was probably me.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

I wish I could have had as many experiences at you. I’ve felt the presence of a light and invisible stigmata. I can feel a liquid, water or blood I cannot tell (it is invisible), dripping down my body. But I wish to feel God’s presence again or hear His voice. So many people claim to feel Him in Church but I feel nothing. Do you have to be baptized for it?

I think God’s the one who picks and chooses who gets what. Baptism is a pretty good head start, but there’s a photograph of a Hindu Yogi levitating going back to 1937, by a British journalist. I personally think he’s really levitating, and that’s supernatural, if not miraculous.

So supernatural phenomena by themselves don’t confirm a person’s holiness or Christian faith. I may have had an unusual number of supernatural experiences, but there are probably a lot of better Christians around than I am who have not, or who have experienced very few.

There were a lot of Galilean fisherman in Christ’s time, but only one was chosen to be the Rock. And that was God’s choice, not Peter’s.

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

As far as beutiful music I had this experience,
First of all must be said that I have been working profesionally in audio reprodaction for many years and have and listen to many different kind of music.

One day I just was going I guess to work when while driving with my moto I start hearing from far away but not far away, it is difficult to explain it is like it is far away but close at the same time a chorus. I had a normal reaction: strange I thought. This music non only is strange but comes out strangely and comes from where?
The beuty of this chourus was extraordinary. You could easily understand it was composed by many voices that you could hear almost separately and they had a very special timbre like human voice but not human at the same time. And the melody was very beutiful, nothing that I knew and had the mostly strange effect of seeming the same refrain but different at the same time. This struck me with the most unusual. Then like it came it was gone. Lasted about 10 sec.

It was extremely pleasent and warming.

Being crazy…I don’t have this kind of experience so often and then my life doesn’t change and I don’t even feel more special as a man since I know I am not a special men. Really common with his efforts and sins. So it was a gift?
I think so.For what reason. I don’t really know.
I would like to here this magnificent chourus again. But apparently whishing is not enogh.

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

On a number of occasions -

1. My father appearing in my room the night he died, as I’ve stated ad infinitum on this forum.
2. 3 x “double whammies” (Like a breath going through you in waves from head to foot) which were used to highlight words being spoken at that time - I still remember the words and the context over 20 years later.
3. A sense of anger which descended on me on one ocassion. I thought I was going to literally disintegrate.
4. Heavy gripping pressures at night, and on a couple of occasions, the bed shaking (demonic).
5. A number of brief “visions”, always with a message, most often featuring my old pastor.
6. A brief, but very distinct sense of bubbling joy when I was given a certain guideline by my old pastor about how to find a wife.
7. Co-incidences which weren’t co-incidences.
8. A sort of spiritual pressure to start going to church when I was still an atheist, and and the same sort of spiritual pressure started pushing me towards the Catholic Church some years later.
9. Such accurate prophecies by my old pastor that only a supernatural being could have told him what some specific incidences would be.

There’s been others.

As far as affecting my faith is concerned, they’ve confirmed there’s life after death; they’ve confirmed God exists, and so does the devil; they’ve confirmed the Catholic Church is “closest” to the truth"; confirmed God knows the future; confirmed God knows me; confirmed judgement and hell are real, going by my father’s terrifying scream just before he disappeared.

They haven’t confirmed “God is love”. No doubt He is, as stated, but circumstances make me wonder, or how “soft” God’s love is. I think our definition of “love” when it’s applied to God is incomplete.

Nor have I seen any “miracles of healing”, or miracles in general, but I have had “supernatural experiences”.

They’ve probably raised as many questions as answers, but there’s no way I can avoid the reality of God’s presence.

Atheists like Richard Dawkins are so far from the truth it’s not funny.

 

[romeosone]

Yes, many times, once I saw a vision of a butcher shop and then I saw the door to my neighbors house and an old man was standing there and told me to turn around. I became very scared and did not want to. Next a bright light appeared and I looked down but knew it was the virgin mary. she told me not to look but told me it was the father of the house but the children( of the man who lived there) were okay. I then called the police and the manger of my apartments to tell them both that my next door neighbor had been killed. No one believed me and did not check to verify my claim, till a few days later when a smell started to come out of the house. My neighbor had been killed by his wife and she had taken the children. The kids were found a few weeks later safe. I was questioned by police and I told them what happened. They did not believe me but left me alone. That is just one thing that has happened to me. It shakes me sometimes because I do not know why I see things if I can not help to change or stop them. I just must believe that god knows why these things happen.

 

[Gaber]

Yes, many times, once I saw a vision of a butcher shop and then I saw the door to my neighbors house and an old man was standing there and told me to turn around. I became very scared and did not want to. Next a bright light appeared and I looked down but knew it was the virgin mary. she told me not to look but told me it was the father of the house but the children( of the man who lived there) were okay. I then called the police and the manger of my apartments to tell them both that my next door neighbor had been killed. No one believed me and did not check to verify my claim, till a few days later when a smell started to come out of the house. My neighbor had been killed by his wife and she had taken the children. The kids were found a few weeks later safe. I was questioned by police and I told them what happened. They did not believe me but left me alone. That is just one thing that has happened to me. It shakes me sometimes because I do not know why I see things if I can not help to change or stop them. I just must believe that god knows why these things happen.

Welcome to the forums, Romeosone!

I have had a few friends who had a “gift” similar to what you experienced, save that they were more given to seeing things that were about to happen. It was extremely disconcerting to them, as they saw very disturbing things that happened to people. What they did was to pray that the visions be removed and occur only if there was something specific they could do relative to the vision. In both cases the horrific visions stopped, and what came was far more innocuous. You are, or were, experiencing a faculty that is a very natural part of our make-up. But like any gift, even this one needs schooling and training. That is rare in our day. At one time, way in the past, way, it may not have been so. And it may be in the future that we again more commonly use what is a natural gift. But right now the understanding, let alone the training, of that gift is very problematic. Best to just know that you are in the arms of Love, and ask for some mitigation specific to your ability to cope. Who knows? As in some cases, your gift might open and bless in an unexpected way!

 

[Bob_Crowley]

anything that affected your faith?

Note - I wrote the bit below, posted it, then had a second look at the topic, and found I’d already answered it about three posts above. Anyway here’s my second go, but it only repeats a lot of the previous one. There may be an item or two extra.

Heaps -

1. My father appearing in my room the night he died. He started with an apology, we argued and conversed, and at the end he gave this terrifying scream and disappeared.
2. Three “double whammies” like a breath going through you in waves from head to foot (very strong, and clearly imposed from outside), each and every time used to emphasise what someone else was saying.

The first of these happened when I was still a new Christian, and going through a period of doubt. It was used to encourage me and also affirm that my new faith was not just a psychological prop, but there was a very real spiritual reality behind it.

1. Heavy gripping pressures at night, and occasionally the bed shaking (demonic).
2. “Sense of peace” when some Christians die, most noticeable when my “old pastor” died (it went on for about half an hour).
3. Tingles, thrills etc. - probably demonic.
4. The same pastor I referred to above was so accurate when he made predictions about the future he could only have been told by God what was going to happen.
5. On about 3 occasions that I can remember, a voice specifically addressing a specific topic I’d been thinking (or agonising) about.
6. My old pastor turning up in brief visions after he died, always with a brief statement; again related to a specific topic (and I wasn’t given the option of arguing either - he’d say his bit and then just disappear eg. “The Catholic Church is closest to the truth”; “Watch out for (certain lady). Your father’s paying for it, believe me! You don’t want to join him!” (Then he repeated) “Watch out for (certain lady)!”)
7. A mixed bag of other things.

For this reason, while I get cranky with God at times, there’s no way I can go back to my former atheist days of 30 years ago or more. I’d only be kidding myself.

And boy, are atheists wrong!