Anyone Had Mystical Experiences in Childhood?

[Lilia]

I don't mean magical thinking; I had a lot of that too (e.g. thinking I was moving the curtains by the power of thought).

I mean genuine glimpses into our true nature, followed by feelings of ecstasy, love, creativity and wonder. 

I'm curious because I had some of that going on, but didn't have a proper framework to put it in. Is it the same for all children?

Did you have some of that too?

[Nemra]

Age 5 or 6.

1) I was questioning time. Even though I had a limited understanding of time, I was still amazed at how relative it is.

2) I was going home from the shop, and on the way I got a solipsistic experience.

Age 10-14

3) I started to get a mystical experience of love when suffering was starting to get too much.

These are reminders for me now.

[Lilia]

@Understander Thanks for sharing that.

I like to use mine as shortcuts too.

 

[An young being]

39 minutes ago, Lilia said:

I don't mean magical thinking; I had a lot of that too (e.g. thinking I was moving the curtains by the power of thought).

I mean genuine glimpses into our true nature, followed by feelings of ecstasy, love, creativity and wonder. 

I'm curious because I had some of that going on, but didn't have a proper framework to put it in. Is it the same for all children?

Did you have some of that too?

I remember writing in a piece of paper heaven and hell and wondering who in my class will go where. It's not mystical but it's something funny.

[Lilia]

28 minutes ago, An young being said:

I remember writing in a piece of paper heaven and hell and wondering who in my class will go where. It's not mystical but it's something funny.

 

Great story! You reminded me of a coven I started with a classmate. One day we summoned a spirit and I believed it lived behind the curtain in my room until I turned 16.

[UnbornTao]

I had some deep experiences of not-knowing myself accompanied by a sense of wonder. 

I may had been walking down the street with a spontaneous sense of "What is I?" "I am me, what is that about?"

Not sure whether that's considered mystical or not, I saw it as a profound questioning.

Edited November 1, 2023 by UnbornTao

[Razard86]

I wish lol, never had that blessing. 

[Osaid]

Nope, might have seen a few spirits/ghosts here and there, but that's more supernatural, and I personally wouldn't consider it relevant.

There was lots of love, creativity, and wonder, but it wasn't to do with any "mystical experiences."

[Sabth]

I had. I feel like I am the ground when I was sick once having a high fever. Then there is a recurrent feeling of what I would described as "not big and not small". It was kinda making me insane the more I get into it. So I never think deeper into it. But the feelings or it occurs frequently. But as I grow older, I no longer felt it. It disappear. Having a recurrent dream of hovering over the ground or flying ... It's a recurring dream. The theme that I had in my dream throughout teenagehood. But it also disappears as I became an adult. It was quite a frustrating dream because I couldn't move forward as fast as Id want to. I would hover around in my dreams a lot. 

[Lilia]

1 hour ago, UnbornTao said:

I may had been walking down the street with a spontaneous sense of "What is I?" "I am me, what is that about?"

Oh yeah, what a moment! Like an echo of the nondual realisation reverberating back in time.

Looks like this wonder connected with the sense of being an "I" from an early age is something people interested in these matters share.

 

 

[Lilia]

3 minutes ago, Sabth said:

I had. I feel like I am the ground when I was sick once having a high fever. Then there is a recurrent feeling of what I would described as "not big and not small".

Wow. I knew someone who said he loved fevers because they made him feel like he was high.

[Nemra]

Does epilepsy count as a mystical experience?

[Lilia]

@Understander I don't think epilepsy counts, but I think you're raising an important question here: What counts as a mystical experience?

I'd say a mystical experience in the context of this discussion would be an extraordinary event when your perception changes from dual to nondual. Of course, these are 'adult' and very specific terms. But I notice, that when certain facets of truth are experienced now, such as oneness, no-self, eternity and spacelessness, dream-like nature or subjectivity, it's the same kind of experience that occurred when this body was little (sorry for the clumsy way of putting it). So that's what I mean by it.

[Nemra]

People here, when taking psychedelics, experience wild things that aren't immediately recognized as some of the facets you mentioned. Don't they count as mystical? Am I a wrong?

Edited October 31, 2023 by Understander

[Osaid]

It's just a criteria you're making up, don't get too hung up on it.

You could say it is a glimpse into what you are, but then I say that is all of reality. There are just certain experiences which make what you are more obvious, or that they change your beliefs about what you are to a radical degree, and then you say: "That experience was super mystical, because I realized a, b, and c about myself."

[Carl-Richard]

I can faintly remember looking up at the night sky in my early childhood and experiencing a vast expansive sensation of "being" the sky. That memory also brings up visions of outer space, as if I was floating between the stars and the star clouds. Many other memories from my childhood feel otherworldly and mystical like that.

Edited October 31, 2023 by Carl-Richard

[cetus]

1 hour ago, Carl-Richard said:

I can faintly remember looking up at the night sky in my early childhood and experiencing a vast expansive sensation of "being" the sky.

@Lilia @Carl-Richard I remember quite well the same experience during daylight and "being" the vast expanse of reality. It would happen suddenly from time to time while I was playing and would happen just out of the blue.

*Just to add it wasn't just the physical aspect of reality that became vast, but reality took on the deeper meaning of Infinite Love. Like I suddenly had two mothers who Loved me very much (my birth mother and reality). It was a fleeting glimpse, but I've never forgotten it. That was around ages 4-6.

Edited November 1, 2023 by cetus

[DefinitelyNotARobot]

It depends on how you define mystical experiences.

In first grade, I had to attend church every Friday morning. One morning I was walking to church and I was just contemplating the possibility that I'm god, having stripped himself of all his divine power and wisdom, so that he could know what it was like to be a human. It made all the sense in the world to me. It felt like an intuitive knowing, but I eventually outgrew that phase and moved on from it. Looking back at it, I wouldn't call it a mystical experience per se, but it was a glimpse of what was yet to come, and so in a sense you could say that the idea of a mystical experience expands beyond time and into our memories. Certain memories can hold information, which requires higher understanding to be processed. You can only really start to connect the dots in retrospect. So whether a memory is mystical in nature, really depends on how you relate to it right now.

[Razard86]

21 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotARobot said:

It depends on how you define mystical experiences.

In first grade, I had to attend church every Friday morning. One morning I was walking to church and I was just contemplating the possibility that I'm god, having stripped himself of all his divine power and wisdom, so that he could know what it was like to be a human. It made all the sense in the world to me. It felt like an intuitive knowing, but I eventually outgrew that phase and moved on from it. Looking back at it, I wouldn't call it a mystical experience per se, but it was a glimpse of what was yet to come, and so in a sense you could say that the idea of a mystical experience expands beyond time and into our memories. Certain memories can hold information, which requires higher understanding to be processed. You can only really start to connect the dots in retrospect. So whether a memory is mystical in nature, really depends on how you relate to it right now.

That's amazing....I never knew that possibility existed before Spirituality and you thought that up when you were small? WOW.

[DefinitelyNotARobot]

@Razard86 Trust me, I'm just as dumbfounded as you are. God is a master story teller. It's beautiful to see how everything has been falling into place from the very beginning. This is some 4D chess.