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Mystic experience?

John Mekki said:
...
One priest who had a broken rosary with him, asked God for a sign.
One day he found his rosary fixed.
Again, maybe someone fixed him the rosary during the night, but this explanation does not make much sense, does it?

...
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.
That's it?
God fixes a broken toy... but can't stop suicide bombers from blowing 50 people a day into fragments?
Is it because the bomber is worshiping god, while his victims are just living daily lives?
Fix a *********** rosary... JESUS CHRIST!
 
I Ratant said:
.
That's it?
God fixes a broken toy... but can't stop suicide bombers from blowing 50 people a day into fragments?
Is it because the bomber is worshiping god, while his victims are just living daily lives?
Fix a *********** rosary... JESUS CHRIST!
Click to expand...
I was going to build up to that, but it is an excellent point. What is mystical about a jacket being pulled, especially when there are other explanations for it?
 
There is another explanation for the suicide bombs...
They occur in Allah's bailiwick, not Jahweh's... who said he is number 1 among the gods, but obviously not the only one.
Other than mending rosaries, he's been absent from human history since the days of Job.
 
carlitos said:
Do you see the difference between the two stories above? One puts you in an intense meditative (suggestive) state and one is you walking around every day.
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Mm..
You are saying that since you are in a "meditation" state you may more easily fall in "error"?
Well, this would make some sense.
 
Garrette said:
I was going to build up to that, but it is an excellent point. What is mystical about a jacket being pulled, especially when there are other explanations for it?
Click to expand...

And what is so mystical about a rosary being switched during the night/or a priest telling porkies?
 
Is there any logic to why some mystical entity would pull on a jacket from behind as opposed to something more obvious and unmistakeable?
 
John Mekki said:
Mm..
You are saying that since you are in a "meditation" state you may more easily fall in "error"?
Well, this would make some sense.
Click to expand...

That's actually why some people meditate. You can achieve trippy things, you can "suggest" things to people for some reason or another, you can feel strange without drugs, etc. Some call it Reiki energy, some feel "transcendent," some feel close to their personal God. I like the way it feels too, and have had a few weird experiences with it. But it's just your brain being operated differently. Walk around all day with your eyes closed some time. It's a way to change the way your brain works.
 
There are other kinds of reported sensations without obvious external cause, for example, variations on phantom ringing and phantom vibration syndrome. I've clearly felt a strong vibration in my pocket and reached in to get my phone, only to find that the pocket is empty and the phone is elsewhere. If this happened in a prayer meeting or in church, would it mean I had missed a call from God?
 
dlorde said:
There are other kinds of reported sensations without obvious external cause, for example, variations on phantom ringing and phantom vibration syndrome. I've clearly felt a strong vibration in my pocket and reached in to get my phone, only to find that the pocket is empty and the phone is elsewhere. If this happened in a prayer meeting or in church, would it mean I had missed a call from God?
Click to expand...
Phantom vibrations are the newest bane of my existence. Somehow I have never felt compelled to attribute them to an actual ghostly phone.
 
carlitos said:
That's actually why some people meditate. You can achieve trippy things, you can "suggest" things to people for some reason or another, you can feel strange without drugs, etc. Some call it Reiki energy, some feel "transcendent," some feel close to their personal God. I like the way it feels too, and have had a few weird experiences with it. But it's just your brain being operated differently. Walk around all day with your eyes closed some time. It's a way to change the way your brain works.
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Mm..
Yes, this is a possible explanation.
At the end, who knows what it really happened.
 
John Mekki said:
Mm..
Yes, this is a possible explanation.
At the end, who knows what it really happened.
Click to expand...
I will ask again with assurance that I am not trying to be snarky; this type of process is instructive.

Which possibility do you consider most likely? Which least likely? Where does "actual mystical experience" fit in the scale of likelihood?
 
Garrette said:
I will ask again with assurance that I am not trying to be snarky; this type of process is instructive.

Which possibility do you consider most likely? Which least likely? Where does "actual mystical experience" fit in the scale of likelihood?
Click to expand...

If you are speaking about likelihood, in scientific terms, you are talking about statistics.
In order to have any statistics or scientific likelihood you would need a model that describes the events we are talking about.
Based on such model, you can calculate the likelihood of one outcome or the other.
Lacking such model, we can only talk about opinion based on each other` s religious, philosophical and other beliefs.
Since my religious beliefs are quite shaky, I would not suggest to use them to determine the likelihood of anything
 
After careful consideration I offer the possibility that your God was trying to pick your pocket and is not much good at it. Similar to his/her ignoring the suffering while mending the rosary. I think it is refered to as Inept.
 
Why should the apparent tugging of your jacket be considered a "mystical event"?

I once had a truly mystical event, when dreaming a "holy" scene of angels. The emotion I experienced in this dream state was not one of puzzlement, it was a hugely overwhelming sense of "holiness".

When I awoke, I remembered the dream, and obviously still do to this day thirty years on, but my first explanation was not to attribute it to anything religious or supernatural. I easily rationalised it as a one off brain chemical phenomenon that has never repeated itself again. When explaining this to a religious work colleague soon after the experience, she was disappointed that I had written it off as a non-supernatural experience. Ho hum!
 
John Mekki said:
If you are speaking about likelihood, in scientific terms, you are talking about statistics.
In order to have any statistics or scientific likelihood you would need a model that describes the events we are talking about.
Based on such model, you can calculate the likelihood of one outcome or the other.
Lacking such model, we can only talk about opinion based on each other` s religious, philosophical and other beliefs.
Since my religious beliefs are quite shaky, I would not suggest to use them to determine the likelihood of anything
Click to expand...
And so all talk about it possibly being mystical has been unscientific? And therefore without value?

That said, your response seems more an evasion than an answer for two reasons:

1. I did not ask you for science; I asked for your opinion. You seem willing to provide it on everything but this.

2. One does not need hard statistical science to make an informed assessment which--while perhaps not definitive--is still helpful in clarifying thoughts on a topic. For instance, I may not know the precise likelihood of a ghost in my kitchen, but I can still say it is less likely than a lie when my child tells me that the ghost ate the cookies.

(Actually, I think I do know the exact likelihood of a ghost--within the confines of scientific "knowing" of course).
 
John Mekki said:
Since my religious beliefs are quite shaky, I would not suggest to use them to determine the likelihood of anything
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And yet you are asking people here to determine the likelihood that your jacket got pulled in a mystical experience?
 
John Mekki said:
After I did just that, while coming back to my place, I felt like someone pulling my jacket with some strenght.
I asked one girl there, "did you pull my jacket?"
She looked at me staringly, and half joking she said "it may have been one of your pretenders admirers".

I did not know what to think.
Click to expand...

John Mekki said:
About "pretender", sorry I was meaning "admirer".
Click to expand...

I think you were being flirted with.

Why did you ask that particular girl if she pulled your jacket? Is that something she was likely to do, or was she just the closest person to you? Was she smiling when she said this? Had she acted in any flirty way before?
 
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