The Magic Of Spiritual Experiences

Spiritual experiences come in many guises - what ties such occurences together is their potential to help you explore your inner self. A well known type of spiritual experience is a "vision", where you see, hear and feel a being or scene. Visions are all-encompassing and can make you lose awareness of your actual surroundings. A "visitation" is similar, but involves the appearance of a spitiual being such as an Angel within the context of the real world.

Visions and visitations are influenced by cultural background. For example, many Roman Catholics have had visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. A spiritual experience can also take the form of sensations or emotions induced by a person or a place. Priests and other people noted for their wisdom and compassion often have the power to spark spiritual sensations in others. Such people are sometimes acclaimed as gurus but anyone from a teacher to a grandparent can invoke these experiences. Throught history, people have sought for ways to get in touch with their spirituality and understand the lessons it has to offer.

Spiritual experiences can come upon you unbidden, at a time or place where you least expect them. However, there are certain ways you can induce or enhance them. A traditional method - as used by shamans, witch doctors and medicine men - is to subject the mind and/or body to an extreme state. These can include chanting, fasting, taking drugs, exposing the body to heat or cold, and so on. The aim is to induce an altered state of consciuosness, for example an ecstatic trance. The near - death experience is an extreme example of altered consciousness brought on my trauma or illness. It is NOT advisable to follow any of these methods, however, since they are extremely dangerous and may not work. There are other, far gentler, paths towards spirituality, including:

Meditation
Any type of meditation has the ability to bring on a spiritual experience. Techniques such as visualisation can help, as can meditating in a specific location or with a particular person.

Dreams
Visions and visitations are more likely to come to you in your dreams than at any other time. Get into the habit of keping a dream diary, which you write in and record your dreams the second you wake, and practise visualisation techniques to enhance your dream recall.

Trance
Many people argue that a hypnotic trance can induce spiritual experiences, particulary through the use of the controversial hypnotic regression technique, which claims to uncover memories of past lives. Trances can also be self induced - a technique often used by shamans to met spirit guides such as animal spirits or ancestors.

What does it all mean?
The true challenge of a spiritual experince is to discover its meaning and significance. Often such implications may be hidden, only to become apparent later, but you have to work them out for yourself. Almost everyone who has an expereince of spirit report that they feel profoundly changed, so if you are lucky enough to have one, you should view it as an opportunity and a blessing.