"Spiritual" experiences

[annamaureen]

I thought it might be interesting to have a thread to talk about our various "spiritual" experiences. You know... seeing ghosts, evil spirits, communicating with the other side, being protected from harm, things like that.

My parents converted to the church when I was three. For about a week after my parents were endowed and we were sealed in the temple as a family, I would go around the house repeating a certain important part of the endowment that, obviously, there's no way I could've known.

Also, I once visited a WWII Nazi bunker in Belgium. The feeling there was one of pure evil - it was so oppressive and dark and overwhelming, it's almost indescribable. Very creepy experience.

[bytor2112]

Before I was active in the church I had experiences with various "spirits" several times a week.....Johnny Walker, Jose Quervo and John Dewars often haunted me.

[Vort]

Such a thread would indeed be interesting and eye-opening. However, I expect that many Latter-day Saints that read this will not be willing to publish such sacred and intimate experiences on an open forum.

[candyprpl]

Tis true Vort.

There is one that I will share because it's a little bit of my testimony.

On the day of my baptism I was still confused about why I needed to be baptized again. I believed everything that I was being taught by the missionaries and I did hear the words of needing to be baptized by someone having authority so I entered the baptismal waters on faith. When I came up out of the water and was just leaving the font, I turned to look at the Elder and then I knew. He didn't actually appear as John the Baptist, but the feeling I got (it might as well have been John the Baptist) testified to me the truth.:)

[Gwen]

ok so since this experience isn't intimate or spiritual for me... may not have even been a ghost encounter but evidence of my mental stability... so i'll share. lol

i was toward the end of my 4th pregnancy (first girl, which doesn't really matter i guess, she's 4 now) and i was as most pregnant women getting up and down all night to pee. i never turn the lights on so it doesn't wake me completely up or mess up my night vision. i find it easier to get back to sleep that way. but anyway, i had been to pee and was coming back to my bedroom. as i walked down the hall there was a kid standing in the corner by my door. my 3 boys were all pretty young so to have a small kid in the hall at any time isn't a surprise to me. i figured i woke someone when i was going to the bathroom. it was dark and they were standing in the corner so i couldn't tell who it was. so i say in a friendly mommy voice, "whose out of bed?" and i reached out to touch the top of their head knowing i would be able to tell who it was by that. as soon as my hand got to where the top of the head should have been it disappeared. i was talking to and trying to touch nothing. i looked around. and then got very freaked out. lol i climbed back in bed and woke my husband up and told him what happened... he wasn't really awake and didn't remember the conversation come morning. that annoyed me a lot... he says "maybe it was the baby visiting us before she is born".... up until this point i wasn't thinking ghost i was just thinking i was going crazy and seeing things... so that really freaked me out and i couldn't sleep the rest of the night. i didn't get up at night to pee for like 2 weeks, i would just lay awake in bed trying to hold it. it became so painful i had to give in and started getting up again, though i was still freaked out. it's kinda sad really... lol

yes you can make fun of me now.

[pam]

Not laughing Gwen. Something like that would freak me out too.

[annamaureen]

I expect that many Latter-day Saints that read this will not be willing to publish such sacred and intimate experiences on an open forum.

Those who wish to share, can. Those who feel their experiences are too personal and private, don't have to. :)

[Vort]

Those who wish to share, can. Those who feel their experiences are too personal and private, don't have to. :)

True enough. My point is, a thread like this will not represent a cross-section of people's experiences, because many people will self-select out of it. In fact, an argument could be made (though I am not making it) that such things are sacred in their very nature, and thus ought not be discussed at all. I expect there are at least a few who feel this way.

Not trying to rain on your parade. Just offering some observations.

[Misshalfway]

Well, I feel like I have spiritual experiences all the time. But I suppose you are referring to the more miraculous kind rather than the buffetings of the spirit that are happening to all of us incidentally.

All I can say is that I feel like I have seen enough to know that there are ghosts ( if you want to call them that) and that Satan and his cohorts are real and mean as I have gone head to head with them on a few select occasions. I can also share that that gift God gave us to have power over Satan and his angels is real. He can effect us but we have the power to conquer.

I also believe that choices create energy and that energy bonds itself to places. If even the trees and the physical elements of this earth were first created spiritually, then it makes sense to me that they would react spiritual as well as physically to events that happen there.

[Moksha]

My most spiritual experiences of late have been the feeling of being connected with God and Humanity during the Sacrament service.

[Misshalfway]

You feel connected to humanity too? That's kinda cool Moksha. I feel the opposite. It's like nobody else is there but HIm and me. But.....maybe that's because I need lots of work right now. LOL

[Wingnut]

Tis true Vort.

There is one that I will share because it's a little bit of my testimony.

On the day of my baptism I was still confused about why I needed to be baptized again. I believed everything that I was being taught by the missionaries and I did hear the words of needing to be baptized by someone having authority so I entered the baptismal waters on faith. When I came up out of the water and was just leaving the font, I turned to look at the Elder and then I knew. He didn't actually appear as John the Baptist, but the feeling I got (it might as well have been John the Baptist) testified to me the truth.:)

What a neat story. Thanks for sharing. I think that's the great thing about the Church and the Priesthood. It's true that it might as well have been John the Baptist -- it's the same Priesthood, right? I love reading Priesthood lines of authority for that very reason.

[MaMeeshkaMow]

I don't know why my Mom has gone through some crazy "dark" spiritual experiences, but she has seen possession, exorcism, witnessed astral projection. Basically, some X-files stuff man.

Here's one that she went through: When my Mom and Dad were married for about 3 years, they were living in Arizona in this little green house. My older brother was 3 ( I wasn't born yet but in the womb). My Dad worked construction and other jobs and had crazy hours. One night my Mom was about to put my brother to bed. Before she got to him, she felt an intense evil all over the house. Frozen for a bit, she went to go pick my brother up. He started crying like crazy, like painful crying (not like he was hungry for food, tired or anything). So my Mom cradles him in her arms and then it happened. All throughout the house, she heard knocking. On the walls, on the roof, even underneath the house and it got louder and louder (and no, it wasn't rain or hail). Praying with total energy and faith, she asked to be delivered. Moments later, my Dad (who has the priesthood) came home. In fact, he came home earlier that night because of a situation at work. As soon as he entered the driveway, the knocking stopped. He found them both on the ground cradled and wondered what happened. Pretty spooky.

[Vort]

Before my mission, I worked at a pizza place. One of the managers was a returned missionary who had served among the Navajo. He told me many ghost stories that took place on the reservations. As I recall, he said that it got so bad that the sisters had to have the elders visit them every morning when they went out and every evening when they got back. The mission president then called in a General Authority (supposedly an apostle, though my manager couldn't name who it was), who is supposed to have instructed the missionaries to quit telling ghost stories to each other about their latest Satanic encounters. The result was that the demonic episodes stopped within a week.

I fully believe in the existence of Satan and his "angels", and I also believe in demonic possession. But I cast a jaded and disbelieving eye upon almost all ghost story featuring such events. I think they make Latter-day Saints look credulous and superstitious. Certainly, there are worse things to be than credulous and superstitious, but they are still things I would rather not have associated with either myself or my Church.

[MaMeeshkaMow]

What's important is to know what to do if you face evil/satanic situations...

[Wingnut]

I fully believe in the existence of Satan and his "angels", and I also believe in demonic possession. But I cast a jaded and disbelieving eye upon almost all ghost story featuring such events. I think they make Latter-day Saints look credulous and superstitious. Certainly, there are worse things to be than credulous and superstitious, but they are still things I would rather not have associated with either myself or my Church.

I agree with this 100%. I believe in dark spirits, and have even had occasion to have an experience with them myself, but I don't share it often, and when I do, it's carefully, and I do (and don't) so for exactly the reasons you listed.

[Guest xforeverxmetalx]

had an interesting experience as a child, somewhere between age 8-11... before it happened, I had a few experiences at night with "pricklies" or something on my back, thus for years I kept an arm over my back to "protect" myself because it creeped me out. and that was not only before but after.

anyway... this one night I was asleep and saw an image of some monster/ghost/scary thing coming straight at me... it hit me and as it did I jolted awake and experienced a huge attack of the pricklies, and I mean it was a very physical experience, like goosebumps except a lot stronger and extremely creepy, scared the crap out of me. very sure it wasn't just a dream or anything.

since those experiences I believed in ghosts, though now I'd consider them demons or something along those lines. fortunately at a certain point they didn't bother me anymore, though I'm still slightly afraid of the dark from that.