This past Labor Day weekend, I spoke to a group of people who are typically skeptical of pastors: spiritual experiencers who have a deep distrust of religion. I participated in a panel discussion on “Spirituality and Religion: Bridging Mystical Experience and Christianity” at the annual conference of the International Near-Death Studies Society (IANDS). More than 600 people gathered to share deep spiritual experiences in workshops, seminars, and conversations.
I first learned about IANDS in 1987 as a chaplain intern participating in a two-day training program for doctors and nurses at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC. IANDS was co-founded by physician Bruce Grayson and Professor Chester Carlson in his 1978. Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. He was a member of that medical school’s Perceptual Research Division, which since 1967 has been empirically studying anomalous human experiences, including spiritual experiences.
What I remember most about the conference are the people who spoke to me afterwards. I spoke to several people and they all said the same thing. I love attending this conference. Because I can share my spiritual experiences here. But I can’t tell them that I attend a Christian church because many of them are hurt by Christians and churches. And they can’t talk about their spiritual experiences in church because people will say they were dreaming or crazy. ”
Since reading the book, I have listened with appreciation to the stories of people with spiritual experiences. life after life Written by Raymond Moody, a teenager, 1976. As a medical student at UVA, Moody conducted an empirical study of resuscitated patients who reported near-death experiences (NDEs).
As a pastoral intern, I was reminded of Moody’s book when Mrs. G., an Italian Roman Catholic, described her near-death experience from a heart attack. Although she was immersed in darkness, she was overwhelmed by her amazing sense of love, which she said could only be God. In its center was the most beautiful flower she had ever seen, exhibiting bright colors that did not exist on earth. Looking to her right, she saw her late husband smiling at her. As her husband left, the same flower appeared with each footstep. she said to me in a thick Italian accent. “Since you are listening, I will tell you this. I will tell the doctor. He will say that I am just dreaming. I will tell the priest. I said I was crazy, but that never happened. But listen, dear, don’t tell me I’m crazy.”
It is disturbing that our churches are not safe spaces for people to share deep spiritual experiences.
It is disturbing that our churches are not safe places for people to share deep spiritual experiences. After all, our faith is built on these mystical encounters. Let’s think for a moment about a Bible story. There are many encounters with God. Many NDE researchers even recognize Paul’s writing in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 as sharing a NDE.
However, in my experience, Christians avoid talking about mystical things in church. Additionally, we tend to describe spiritual encounters such as healings, visions, figures, and voices. I’ve also seen Presbyterians denigrate religious traditions like Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism, which tend to be more open to spiritual experiences. There seems to be a limit to the extent to which we can accept the mysterious. We can tell the story of a call, but we cannot tell the story of a healing or a vision. why is that?
It is understandable why people are hesitant to share their spiritual encounters with Christians. Despite decades of studying spiritual experiences, I have generally kept my interests away from anything other than the safety of the churches and organizations I have led. Embracing spiritual experiences is at the heart of the spiritually integrated counseling center that I lead, a safe space for clients to share their experiences, both good and bad, in therapy.
It was also the center of the life of the church that I led for 22 years, and the church grew greatly as we shared and nurtured spiritual experiences. We’ve grown by attracting people like the people who spoke to me after a presentation at a conference. We have created small groups centered around spiritual and faith books, such as a near-death experience group. We taught a class on spiritual growth. We formed an intercessory contemplative prayer group. We offered monthly prayer vigils and annual spiritual retreats. We created a public outdoor maze. I regularly spoke about spiritual experiences in my sermons and provided guidance on how to cultivate them and what to do with them. We collected stories from our members and shared them with others in sermons (with permission), classes, and self-published Lenten devotions.
A great example of such acts of dedication is shared by church member and friend Bill, who led his sons and friends to a secret retreat in the rapids of Slippery Rock Creek in western Pennsylvania. I write about the time I took him to my childhood swimming hole. Although he could not find the exact location, he found another promising location. Before Bill was ready, his sons unexpectedly jumped into the water. The current was so strong that the boys struggled to keep from sinking. Bill was getting desperate because it was obvious that they were going to drown soon. When he prayed in despair, he suddenly saw his sons moving against the current toward the shore, as if pushed out through the water by hidden hands. As I watched in amazement, I saw the outline of a large hand in the middle of one of my sons’ backs. Bill shared this secret story with the church. Because it was a safe place for us to share.
He saw the outline of a large hand in the middle of one of his sons’ backs.
The following types of spiritual experiences are classified by researchers and writers: These include coincidences with God, encounters with God, revolutionary transformation experiences, reincarnation experiences, calling experiences, miraculous experiences, communication after death, near-death consciousness, and near-death experiences. experiences, such as the shared experience of death. People inside and outside of our church encounter these things.
These experiences may or may not occur in conjunction with traditional prayer disciplines and practices such as focused prayer, journaling, mindfulness, lectio divina, and fasting. I wonder if our focus on traditional monastic-derived spiritual practices can subtly invalidate a wider range of experiences beyond what has become the norm. Add to this a tendency to value intellectual theological considerations, and it is easy to see why the church may not feel like a safe place for spiritual experiences.
While practice is important, I have seen that transformative spiritual experiences are more correlated with a radical awareness of God and an open heart. Perhaps cultivating the mindset, attitude, disposition, and “set of mind” that opens us to the experience of God is more important than mere practice.
We see such radical openness exemplified by mystics like Brother Lawrence, an anonymous Russian Orthodox monk. pilgrim’s path, Congregationalist missionary Frank Laubach, Quakers Thomas Kelly and Hannah Whittall Smith, charismatic Presbyterian Katherine Marshall, Episcopalian Agnes Sanford, St. Francis, St. Patrick, and many others who color the history of Christianity. There are many people.
The IANDS conference reminded me that people outside of our church have intense, life-changing spiritual experiences. It also reminded me that our church can grow if we become a safe place to nurture and share experiences of God. To do this, we must commit to embracing, studying, and nurturing our dynamic and diverse connections with God. The question is whether we are ready to make that change. Changes that others are already making.
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