SPIRITUALITY, SCIENCE & TRANSCENDENSE
"How can science which is bound to a physical and materialist outlook investigate transcendental phenomena beyond its scope, reach or comprehension? This is a fallacy on the face of it. One belongs to the material and the other to a spiritual plane. Science must confine its inquiry only to things belonging to the human senses, while spiritualism transcends the senses. If you want to understand the nature of spiritual power you can do so only through the path of spirituality and not science. What science has been able to unravel is merely a fraction of the cosmic phenomena; it tends, however, to exaggerate its contribution..."
"Science can't prove spirituality because spirituality is a deeply personal and subjective experience that can't be measured or observed in the same way that scientific phenomena can. Science is a good way to learn about the natural world, but it has its limits and can't answer the deeper questions that people have about their lives. In the end, combining science and spirituality may give us a better understanding of the world around us and help us figure out what our lives are all about."
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Science, Drugs, Death, and Deities: What’s Behind Transcendent Experiences?
“Transcendent experiences” are events that bring us out of our ordinary minds, making us feel connected to the world around us. People report accessing them through use of certain drugs or through spirituality, magic, and the occult. They can also be triggered by nature, meditation, and even near-death experiences. Additionally, new scientific studies are discovering that transcendent experiences – however they’re reached – could be helpful for our mental health. Here, we take a journey through various types of transcendent experience, and even offer some advice on how to experience transcendence in everyday life.
What Is a Transcendent Experience?
Transcendent experiences are difficult to definitively explain or define. For our purposes here, such experiences are moments when a person loses their sense of self and connects with something greater.
“Under certain circumstances, the subjective sense of one’s self as an isolated entity can temporarily fade into an experience of unity with other people or one’s surroundings, involving the dissolution of boundaries between the sense of self and ‘other,’” write David Yaden and others in Review of Psychology. “Such transient mental states of decreased self-salience and increased feelings of connectedness are described here as self-transcendent experiences (STEs).”
Transcendent experiences have been referred to as “peak experiences,” “flow,” “clear light,” “objective consciousness,” and many other names. They are very different depending on who experiences them. Monotheistic religions sometimes connect transcendent experiences to a single God, while Spiritual but irreligious people tend to feel unity with the world around them. Other cultures and traditions access transcendence through various forms of meditation, and non-spiritual people tend simply to feel connected to something they can’t explain.
Your Brain on Transcendence
“Neuroscience research shows that during transcendent states, there is decreased activity in the posterior superior parietal lobe, the area of the brain that locates the self in space and distinguishes it from everything else,” writes Emily Esfahani Smith.
So what does transcendence look like in the brain? Here’s an example: One study found that mediums (or people who say they can contact spirits) who entered trance states showed “displayed marked reduction of activity in key brain regions – such as the frontal lobes and hippocampus.” Another study of Vietnam War veterans found that those with brain damage were far more likely to have experienced transcendent or mystical experiences.
Magic and Transcendent Experiences
Transcendent experiences are closely connected to paranormal practices, ranging from telekinesis to telepathy. The documentary 5th Dimension explores telepathy, telekinesis, ghosts, reincarnation, exorcism, and near-death experiences, all of which are ways that some people say they have connected to a world that most of us cannot see.
Many people say they have experienced transcendence through these methods, and so-called “transcendental magic” is one form of occult practice that aims to engage our ability to move beyond our ordinary consciousness.
Nature and Transcendent Experiences
If drugs aren’t your thing, you can still get onboard the Transcendence Train. For example, have you ever scaled a mountain peak, or breathed in the scent of pine in northern woods, or stood at the edge of an ocean? Did these experiences fill you with a sense of peace and bliss, almost like the rest of the world fell away? You’ve likely experienced transcendence without even realizing.
Many people’s first experiences with transcendence occur in natural environments. In the paper “Transcendent Experience and Forest Environments,” David Harvey and Kathryn Williams argue that this may be because nature reminds us that there are things in the world we will never comprehend, or that a gorgeous natural setting induces a feeling of presence that effectively dissolves our self-perception.
Forests, in particular, can remind us of our own insignificance while also making us feel like part of something much greater. In the early 19th century, the magic of nature helped inspire transcendentalism, a philosophical school largely based on the idea that nature is sacred – and that studying it deeply holds the key to understanding human life.
How to Have a Transcendent Experience
Personally, I believe that we could all benefit from having more transcendent experiences. No matter how you get there, feeling more connected to the world and less obsessed with everyday worries and ups and downs feels like a wise prescription for today.
So, how does one safely induce a transcendent experience? Meditation and time in nature are two of the safer passageways to transcendence. If you’re interested in spirituality, engaging with energy work or inducing mystical experiences might help.
Or you could be like the transcendentalists and many religious folks, and simplify your life, clearing away flashy distractions and focusing on nature, God, or whatever gets you there.
But my feeling is that transcendent experiences aren’t meant to be forced. If anything, transcendence is beautiful because it isn’t something we can buy, sell, or capture. Instead, transcendent experiences are fleeting and marvelous – and, I suspect, they’re at the core of what makes us human.
Of course, true transcendence is hard even to explain in words – you just have to feel it. And as I sit on my roof in Brooklyn, looking at the Sun setting over the city, watching a wedding take shape on a nearby roof as the subway rushes by, I can’t explain how, but I feel it.
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Transcendent Experiences Are Genuine, Scientists Claim
https://happiful.com/transcendent-experiences-are-genuine-scientists-claim
New study suggests ‘feelings of bliss’ are not just linked with positive mental health, but are a fundamental part of human life
Since the dawn of civilisation, people have sensed a feeling of being “at one with the universe”. This has been described by astronauts viewing the Earth from space, religious believers in a state of bliss, and even gardeners who feel “lost in nature”.
Now, a team of psychologists and neuroscientists believe these transcendent moments are less to do with psychopathology or mental disorders, and more associated with positive wellbeing.
The research team, headed by David Yaden at the University of Pennsylvania, published an article, titled “The Varieties of Self-Transcendent Experience”, in the Review of General Psychology, identifying a series of mental states that involve self-transcendence, or “self-loss”. These states included mindfulness, love, awe, “peak flow”, and mystical experiences.
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