Comments

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  Linda AK Thompson, PhD December 4, 2014 at 5:51pm

  Hi - I was off-line for awhile, happy to be back and looking forward to some more depth conversations......Peace + Love Linda
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  Linda AK Thompson, PhD December 4, 2014 at 5:45pm
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  Kelly Thompson November 5, 2012 at 10:39am

  I had an NDE at age 19 with the qualities (and more) that Alan describes.
  Dorene I am curious about your astrology chart. I, too, went into a major slump about 1998 or 99 that spiraled down through the fall of 2010, at which point I turned and life has been increasingly numinous again since. I think this can be correlated with astrology of my natal chart and transits though I am only a budding astrologer at this point.
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  Kelly Thompson November 5, 2012 at 10:23am

  Hi, as one who has been honored with many encounters with the Divine I am happy to have found this group.
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  Linda AK Thompson, PhD September 14, 2012 at 7:10pm

  Hi everyone - I do not know why this is here with no comment, so I will simply say hello and goodbye.  Regards Linda
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  Linda AK Thompson, PhD September 14, 2012 at 7:16am

  Hi Dorene et all in this group that sounds like a sacred place and space where I can be, and care about the megamomentaries that altered and transformed me.  It is amazing it took me to age 57 to heal from it all and an additional 7 years to find this group which is what I asked for and God (divine, whatever word works for you), it is so great that the universe does provide and I thank you Dorene for creating this space and allowing me to join.
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  Dorene Mahoney August 23, 2011 at 6:24am

  Thanks Matthew for getting us going again! Timing and readiness and purpose are crucial when it comes to sharing things that are so, well, intimate. I have a particular commitment to using my own private experiences to help others to identify and honor their own. This is part of my purpose in life and what I do for a living. However, I am very careful to wait to go public until I have fully taken aboard the fullness of the experience. Have I "breathed in" how miraculous and astonishing what happened is? Have I been sufficiently grateful and acknowledging of the fact that I have been an invited guest of the Divine? To think about and deliberately bask in what happened has the power to fundamentally change who we are and how we move in the world forever more. It allows us to deepen our character. That said, if one "spills" before he or she has assimilated and made meaning from the experience, the whole thing can become trivialized. Sharing numinous experiences also requires the right context and sharing with the right people (such as this particular discussion group on this particular website). It's important to listen to one's gut before sharing.

  BTW, I have NOT read Maslow's book, and I look forward to picking it up.

  Thanks again for weighing in on this very important aspect of a rich and rewarding life.
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  Matthew Thomas August 22, 2011 at 11:03pm

  Hi all,
  I am posting here though there have not been posts on this group for a while. I think the idea for the group is a great one and really thank Dorene and others for having the courage to share their experiences. Like Bonnie, I have experienced a life changing mountaintop expereience that I am not quite ready to share in print. I have shared it with a few people privately, but am still recovering or digesting, even perhaps coming down, from this experience (from March of 2010). Probably I need to write it all out, as it can't be encapsulated in a few paragraphs. Subsequent to my experience I have spoken to several other people who have experienced these sorts of life-changing, numinous, mountaintop experiences and have found two interesting things: i) that they recall them vividly however many years have passed since the experience, and ii) they are often hesitant to talk fully about what they experienced. I think that these experiences feel so private and so fully individual that people often fear that they will not be able to express themselves very well--that whatever words they use cannot sufficently capture, can barely indicate, the immensity of what they went through. Nonetheless, I think it is important that brave souls such as the members of this group are willing to share because your experiences give validity to all of us who live with what is often both the blessing and the burden of having been on the mountaintop.
  
  You are probably all aware of Maslow's book of Peak Experiences, but if not I recommend it highly. P.S. Dorene, I also read Jim Hollis at an important point in my own effort to come to terms with my experiences and consider his work to be among the very greatest Jungian writing available.
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  Dorene Mahoney March 30, 2011 at 6:57pm

  I like your notion, Ed, that subtle but significant shifts in one's way of being and seeing in the world are indeed "numinous." I think that's really what it's all about. A major concern that I hear often from individuals in the depth community is: How can I take the depth lens out into the world, into my job, into my marriage, etc.? The way I hear this question is, How can I retain this richness that I've discovered? And I think that the answer is really about the kind of observer we choose to be. Noticing subtle shifts that occur in our way of being, noticing synchronicities, taking note of our dream images . . . the very act of taking notice and granting legitimacy to what we observe is honoring to psyche and will bring about even more "numinous" experiences!
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  Ed Koffenberger March 29, 2011 at 10:41am

  For me, I'm curious as to #3. I'm also wondering if there is something to be said about using a measure of "shift," as you put it, in defining whether something is truly numinous or not. No shift - not numinous?

  (By the way, 3 times!!!! How safe is your job??)