Can oneness be experienced?

[wolfgang]

First you have entertain the idea that there is a oneness to everything that is conscious. I'm not starting this thread to go over that, so assume that for now, there is a "all is one" consciousness - also termed idealistic monism.

Is it possible to experience oneness? To be aware of that state? I'd like to think so since I've felt something I imagine is that but also would snap back to being regular and look back and say - wow, wasn't that a trip...

But to really completely experience this oneness that is everything, how can one become aware of this state while in it?

Imagine you are identifying with being everything and being everything in the universe, there would not be anything outside of your boundary since you would have no boundary. By definition to be oneness is to encompass everything such that you are not going to be able be aware or sense something else since you are being everything. There will be absolutley no place from which to reference anything else.

So, is it possible to experience oneness and what would that really be like?

[skydust]

i believe it is possible, isnt that what enlightenment is? i have no idea what it would feel like, and those who have experienced it usually say it cant be put into words, but that joy and peace come to 'mind'.

[tropicality]

I recently began studying the origins of our species and religion and have been meditating daily. I have begun to feel it again (I think). What I have begun to feel is that I don't necessarily feel my body anymore at times, and instead I feel like I am beginning to encompass everything around me - like I am 'one' with it. It's a weird feeling... but it feels great, I guess it's "weird" because it is uncommon. Another explanation is that I feel like my body is bigger than it really is, maybe what I am feeling is my 'aura' because I am doing some pretty advanced meditations.. I don't know yet.

I think that it happens when one is aware of where we came from and why we are here - and what our purpose is, and also by meditating daily, eating healthy and exercising- you must have a healthy body, mind, and spirit.

[DoAnyOfYouExist]

I've experienced oneness with all...on several occasions. So in my eyes yup it can be experienced.

[DoAnyOfYouExist]

Originally Posted by tropicality

I recently began studying the origins of our species and religion and have been meditating daily. I have begun to feel it again (I think). What I have begun to feel is that I don't necessarily feel my body anymore at times, and instead I feel like I am beginning to encompass everything around me - like I am 'one' with it. It's a weird feeling... but it feels great, I guess it's "weird" because it is uncommon. Another explanation is that I feel like my body is bigger than it really is, maybe what I am feeling is my 'aura' because I am doing some pretty advanced meditations.. I don't know yet.

I think that it happens when one is aware of where we came from and why we are here - and what our purpose is, and also by meditating daily, eating healthy and exercising- you must have a healthy body, mind, and spirit.

Keep it up bro, you are definately moving int he right direction. I understand what you mean by feeling like your body is bigger than it really is. When I experience the sense of oneness I am able to feel all of my immediate surroundings as a part of me...I can physically feel it. I also get the feeling that there is a larger me which I reside in and then that larger me also resides in a larger me on and on like an infinate russian babooshka doll, a human fractal. Mentally it is a very odd experience...the rational mind tries to make sense of it...tries to analyze the oneness...this must be avoided for the best experience. Once I feel a oneness with all that I can see I am able to beging to zoom out(leave my body) to experience the BIGGER picture but I have fear issues about death and this existince and my purpose here so I have never let myself zoom out much out of fear of not being able to return or learning something that would no longer allow me to inhabit this plain of existince. At the same time I feel like I am spitting in the face of the universe by NOT allowing the experience to fully unfold. Good luck on your journey my friend.

[MGJ]

I know this may sound weird.... but when I meditate, I experience a wave like feeling coming over me. This wave motion moves from my head to my feet and back. I can actually feel my body and my spirit separating... a very odd, and scary feeling at first but something that took a while to get use to. I'm not sure if it's a feeling of "oneness" but I definitely feel connected to something.

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by skydust

i believe it is possible, isnt that what enlightenment is? i have no idea what it would feel like, and those who have experienced it usually say it cant be put into words, but that joy and peace come to 'mind'.

The tao that can be named is not the tao.

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by tropicality

... Another explanation is that I feel like my body is bigger than it really is, maybe what I am feeling is my 'aura' because I am doing some pretty advanced meditations.. I don't know yet.

I think that it happens when one is aware of where we came from and why we are here - and what our purpose is, and also by meditating daily, eating healthy and exercising- you must have a healthy body, mind, and spirit.

That aura boundary must be also connected. Do any of your advanced meditations include open eyes or movement? It seems that oneness doesn't have to reside in quite meditation- or better to ask is oneness something that is always there?

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by DoAnyOfYouExist

I've experienced oneness with all...on several occasions. So in my eyes yup it can be experienced.

Does your experience of oneness last for periods of time? During those periods of time what is the ego doing?

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by DoAnyOfYouExist

...feel a oneness with all that I can see I am able to beging to zoom out(leave my body) to experience the BIGGER picture but I have fear issues about death and this existince and my purpose here so I have never let myself zoom out much out of fear of not being able to return or learning something that would no longer allow me to inhabit this plain of existince. ...

It sounds like a spectrum of some kind that has a zoom factor. Sometimes I've left my body and experienced my body electric and looked at my physical self asleep. It did feel disjointed but curious. I try to keep the body and soul as much together was my awareness can. But sometime feeling this makes me think making the transistion to not incarnated would be smoother smoother or somewhat known.

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by MGJ

I know this may sound weird.... but when I meditate, I experience a wave like feeling coming over me. This wave motion moves from my head to my feet and back. I can actually feel my body and my spirit separating... a very odd, and scary feeling at first but something that took a while to get use to. I'm not sure if it's a feeling of "oneness" but I definitely feel connected to something.

hmmm... not too strange. I've had the mind, body, spirit idea for a long time. That we are a combo. So to feel that oneness is more free and the spirit is wave like to you. Where is the mindor does the mindcomealongwith spirit mostly?

[tropicality]

Originally Posted by wolfgang

That aura boundary must be also connected. Do any of your advanced meditations include open eyes or movement? It seems that oneness doesn't have to reside in quite meditation- or better to ask is oneness something that is always there?

No I do all of my meditations with my eyes closed in a dark room. And the feeling that I explain in my post is not during meditation, it has happened when I lay down in bed or when I am sitting there. The feeling that MGJ explains is common during meditation and is the feeling of energy moving throughout the body which requires a quiet mind to 'feel'.

[DoAnyOfYouExist]

Originally Posted by wolfgang

Does your experience of oneness last for periods of time? During those periods of time what is the ego doing?

Time stops. Ego is trying to rationalize, it cannot and begins to die.

[moviestar]

Can oneness be experienced?

No. If something is to be experienced, there must be something that experiences. So that which experiences and the experience are two different things. Hence there is a duality, oneness cannot be experienced.

[Lallymac]

Deepak Chopra in 'How to Know God' identifies the 7 stages of God as beginning with a sense of small insignificant, stranded in the vastness of nature, survival, through to fulfillment of ones own needs, finding inner peace, manifesting ones own desires, then duality, an awareness and perception of being at the centre of an immense power and intelligence that emanates from God, (this is where healings, psychic ability, telepathy, ESP etc occur). The final stage of oneness requires no belief or faith. It is the total dispersion of physicality, ego, mind. There is no self, only the awareness of being expanded energy. I believe it is possible to experience it.
Lallymac

[Frans]

To experience something, you must have the ability to compare that experience with other experiences, there must be a reference.
In this model where "all is one", it is impossible to experience oneness, because there are no references to other things.

However, it is possible to experience oneness indirectly: if you bring yourself in illusion.

To do so, create an illusory world in your imagination.
Enter that world as one of the millions of living beings, not knowing what your real identity is.
Let all kinds of things happen that make you think about your existence, until you realize what your real identity is.
Then you can experience oneness.

[DoAnyOfYouExist]

During one of my experiences of "oneness" I was sitting in my backyard with two good friends to my right. I was staring straight ahead and everything just stopped...time stopped and only I had the ability to start it again..I did this by thinking of my friend next to me. I had figured out that I was God...atleast thats what was going through my head, once I started time again I looked to my right and gazed into my friends' eyes...instantly he said outloud "THIS GUYS GOD!" I said...that was tripping my friend because I had come to that conclusion myself...then my 2nd friend quietly and almost in a scared, shocked voice said "I...felt it too...I felt that you were God" I dunno what to make of this exactly but it has stuck with me...

[Paul C]

Originally Posted by DoAnyOfYouExist

During one of my experiences of "oneness" I was sitting in my backyard with two good friends to my right. I was staring straight ahead and everything just stopped...time stopped and only I had the ability to start it again..I did this by thinking of my friend next to me. I had figured out that I was God...atleast thats what was going through my head, once I started time again I looked to my right and gazed into my friends' eyes...instantly he said outloud "THIS GUYS GOD!" I said...that was tripping my friend because I had come to that conclusion myself...then my 2nd friend quietly and almost in a scared, shocked voice said "I...felt it too...I felt that you were God" I dunno what to make of this exactly but it has stuck with me...

Now that is very interesting. It appears that you were of the present completely (the only place) and had become suddenly lucid of reality itself, maybe. What really got my attention is how you said that both of your friends suddenly realized this had happened as well. It reminds be of an event that happened ever-so-often while I was still in primary school: As usual the classroom would be filled with loud conversation and laughing when all of a sudden, for no noticeable reason, everyone would just go dead quiet for little more than a second. Then afterwards, most students within the room would start laughing (maybe nervously) over the whole situation then commence talking again! It has never happen since, not even once when I was in high school (or any other situation where there is a large mass of people in conversation).

But going back to your post. It just goes to show what can happen when one is within the moment.

[Joshiepoo3000]

DoAnyOfYouExist,
Dude you have to be a "smoker." I used to be. You are insane, dude. I am not making fun of you, but I can't help not find the humor in the situation. I just imagine myself there and being a spectator. I would have been rolling on the ground laughing and probably got my butt kicked. Take it easy, man/woman. I don't know your gender. I am a guy. Joshiepoo3000 probably gave you a hint. Lol.

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by Joshiepoo3000

DoAnyOfYouExist,
Dude you have to be a "smoker." I used to be. You are insane, dude. I am not making fun of you, but I can't help not find the humor in the situation. I just imagine myself there and being a spectator. I would have been rolling on the ground laughing and probably got my butt kicked. Take it easy, man/woman. I don't know your gender. I am a guy. Joshiepoo3000 probably gave you a hint. Lol.

Joshiepoo3000:
Maybe if you were there with DoAnyOfYouExist you might have "seen the light" as it were.

But what about the topic? Do you have an experience with oneness yourself? Do you think it's possible?

[Joshiepoo3000]

I am sorry I was making fun. I meant no offense. No, I haven't experienced oneness if DoAnyOfYouExist's experience is what that is. I know for a fact I am not God. Unless my subjective half of reality can transcend and manipulate the objective half of reality to the point of creating things out of nothing, I don't think I will ever feel "oneness." Especially considering no one can ever actually experience "nothing" unless they are in a coma. If one can't experience nothing, it is impossible for one to manipulate it. So I think that one cannot experience "oneness" unless they are either dead or in a coma. In either case it wouldn't matter to the living.

[Glass Joe]

Originally Posted by wolfgang

The tao that can be named is not the tao.

Originally Posted by moviestar

No. If something is to be experienced, there must be something that experiences. So that which experiences and the experience are two different things. Hence there is a duality, oneness cannot be experienced.

Originally Posted by Frans

To experience something, you must have the ability to compare that experience with other experiences, there must be a reference.
In this model where "all is one", it is impossible to experience oneness, because there are no references to other things.

However, it is possible to experience oneness indirectly: if you bring yourself in illusion.

To do so, create an illusory world in your imagination.
Enter that world as one of the millions of living beings, not knowing what your real identity is.
Let all kinds of things happen that make you think about your existence, until you realize what
your real identity is.
Then you can experience oneness.

Great stuff. Thank you.

I think it's impossible too. But if oneness can be experienced at all, I'd say that oneness would have to be like an everyday ordinary experience. Like engaging in a long passionate kiss, or sitting in traffic, or taking a dump. Oneness would be no big deal. Nothing particularly unique or special.

I say this because it seems like a lot of people can already accept the idea that "oneness" would have to mean the total collapse of any concept or sensation of a physical existence. Concepts like "here" or "there", "outside" or "inside", "figure" and "background", "all" or "nothing", would be totally meaningless and cease to exist in a state of oneness.

What's a little harder, at least for me, is to realize that oneness would also have to include the total collapse of any concept or sensation of time. Concepts like "now" and "then", "past", "present", and "future" would be meaningless. Even the experience of "The Now" that's talked about in books like "The Power of Now" wouldn't exist for you and would be totally meaningless in a state of oneness. With oneness it's all the same. Time would have no meaning and is just a mental construct that no longer exists for you. Just as with how the three physical dimensions would have no meaning and would cease to exist for you.

So, with this collapse of these three spatial dimensions, along with the temporal dimension, not to mention any other dimensions that we can't even experience directly (aren't there theoretically 11+ dimensions or something?), the "experience of oneness" would have to be always and everywhere. And, for that matter, this "oneness experience" would also simultaneously have to be never and nowhere as well.

If you say you "experience oneness", that means you'd have to also experience oneness each and every nanosecond of your life. You'd also have to experience it before you were born and after your death. You'd even have to experience it before the Big Bang and after the Big Crunch.

So in summary, along the lines with what Frans already said, I guess it's simultaneously totally possible and totally impossible to "experience oneness". It just comes down to who/what is doing the experiencing. But answering that question - trying to pin down exactly "who" or "what" - is a whole other can of worms.

[DoAnyOfYouExist]

You call me mad and I can't help but chuckle, thank you for enabling one of life's many joys for me. I am ready for the changes that are coming. Are you Josh?

[Joshiepoo3000]

DoAnyOfYouExist
Yes I am ready. This is what my whole religion is based on. I see it impossible to experience oneness in life. It can only be in death or a coma as I said. Even if I could get a taste of it in life. What's the point? It would change me to know that was what I was inheriting when I died. But to taste it in life and be fully emersed in it in death are completely different things. I am not ready to die yet. It will be wonderful when I do, but I have unfinished business here. It is important that I talk to everyone and spread His message. I do not fault you for not accepting it. I do not look down on you. Who am I, but nobody to everyone? I am insignificant. I just want to tell everyone that Jesus is significant. Probably not to you or a lot of people in this forum. But that's ok. He doesn't expect to be to everyone.

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by Joshiepoo3000

DoAnyOfYouExist
Yes I am ready. This is what my whole religion is based on. I see it impossible to experience oneness in life. It can only be in death or a coma as I said. Even if I could get a taste of it in life. What's the point? It would change me to know that was what I was inheriting when I died. But to taste it in life and be fully emersed in it in death are completely different things. I am not ready to die yet. It will be wonderful when I do, but I have unfinished business here. It is important that I talk to everyone and spread His message. I do not fault you for not accepting it. I do not look down on you. Who am I, but nobody to everyone? I am insignificant. I just want to tell everyone that Jesus is significant. Probably not to you or a lot of people in this forum. But that's ok. He doesn't expect to be to everyone.

I'm not an expert on Jesus but... wasn't his message that He was one with God and that everyone can do this too? That we don't need to go through priests and sacrafices to be one with God? Was Jesus in a coma or dead to be one with God?


And also wasn't the fall from edan the real death? A speration from God? So we all are really dead spiritually in that way right now and to be alive would be to reconnect (experience oneness)?


A couple reasons for experiencing oneness, or at least trying to:
1) If someone has an experience of oneness, I'd think that person is going to be apt to be more kind towards all living things because being able to feel one with everything makes everything "else" as if also yourself and you wouldn't want to be hurting others as yourself. Of coarse some people become naturally kind to others without this oneness experience, just because they've been told to or something deep in them makes them that way, so experiencing oneness isn't nessecary for kindness to occur. There may be insights in the feeling of the oneness experience that help you lead a more peaceful incarnation now.

2) I'd think the point to getting a taste of "it" while alive is so the transition to the after life (whatever that is) is smoother or more conscious or more familiar.

[TheHulaQueen]

I've hit a state of oneness three times in my life. Once I was sitting at work (a bank in Canada) and had a sudden overwhelming urge to leave and go outside. I packed up my bag and went for a walk, and suddenly my field of vision opened up. I could see each and every blade of grass moving in the fields as the wind blew, every person was part of me, I felt overwhelming connectedness and love. And I felt I could sense past/future. The piece of garbage on the ground was precious as I would sense the joy and abandon with which it was placed there, and the person coming along later to pick it up.

It was the most magnificent feeling I have ever experienced, and really did feel like I was one with the universe. It lasted about 2 hours. I went home and wrote about it while I was in that state.

The second time was one morning I woke up very early, decided to go swim in the lake (it was still dark). As I stood in the water as the sun was coming up it started to rain and time slowed. I saw each drop fall, and bounce water up as it hit the lake. Again I was in the same state of being connected to everything around me.

The third time was during a 10 day Vipanassa medication retreat (shorter just just as amazing).

I'd LOVE to be able to bring it on at will!! One day maybe! I assume that some have mastered that state and live in it. What an experience that would be.

[moviestar]

The third time was during a 10 day Vipanassa medication retreat (shorter just just as amazing).

This state can be induced by drugs, therefore it removes any form of spirituality from it IMO. The state of oneness is some kind of brain malfunction, like being drunk with alcohol. This is why people took LSD in the 70's, it's the same thing I guess. This state of oneness feels good but is it good for you?
Eckhart Tolle spent 2 years on a park bench in this state. He was basically a bum. What I'm trying to say is that this state is not normal and doesn't help you survive in this world. That's why it's nice to have this sort of trip from time to time but having it all the time would be a mistake.

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by moviestar

This state can be induced by drugs, therefore it removes any form of spirituality from it IMO. The state of oneness is some kind of brain malfunction, like being drunk with alcohol. This is why people took LSD in the 70's, it's the same thing I guess. This state of oneness feels good but is it good for you?
Eckhart Tolle spent 2 years on a park bench in this state. He was basically a bum. What I'm trying to say is that this state is not normal and doesn't help you survive in this world. That's why it's nice to have this sort of trip from time to time but having it all the time would be a mistake.

Interesting take one oneness. I'd be disappointed if it's a malfunction. Is enlightenment or assenscion or awakening or conversion also malfunctions?

I thought perhaps humans used to tune in to oneness and live that way with nature. Now with our egos so well defined and with the "I, me, mine" culture we have gotten even farther from oneness. To me, it seems the more natural state is oneness - which is exactly a spiritual experience. When someone starts to feel this it is overwhelming and can produce problems like wanting to leave the ego world completly, be a bum on a park benach for a while. But that's (I think) just because we are so used to being separated from nature and there's an overcoorection in a way that makes the oneness feeling more extreme.

I like to think that one can carry the oneness feeling around at all times (not as a some wacky trip) and be functional too (and more peaceful in functioning). Reminds me of Alan Clements giving up his monk robe because at first he wanted to just bliss out and remain in the monestery but eventually decided to give up the monk world to hopefully operate in the ego world with more spiritual understanding (at least that's what I remember from reading some of his stuff).

It used to be, I imagine, that humans were able to survive the world exactly because of being more in the oneness world. Having the instinct and intuitions connected with nature and knowing, for example, ok we have to move now to the south before the snow comes, or not overharvesting or overhunting or overproducing because this oneness feeling was more prevelant.

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by Joshiepoo3000

DoAnyOfYouExist
Yes I am ready. This is what my whole religion is based on. I see it impossible to experience oneness in life. It can only be in death or a coma as I said. Even if I could get a taste of it in life. What's the point? It would change me to know that was what I was inheriting when I died. But to taste it in life and be fully emersed in it in death are completely different things. I am not ready to die yet. It will be wonderful when I do, but I have unfinished business here. It is important that I talk to everyone and spread His message. I do not fault you for not accepting it. I do not look down on you. Who am I, but nobody to everyone? I am insignificant. I just want to tell everyone that Jesus is significant. Probably not to you or a lot of people in this forum. But that's ok. He doesn't expect to be to everyone.

Guess I won't be getting a response from Joshiepoo3000. That id is showing "banned". Is there somewhere to know why and who is banned?

I'm guessing J was deemed trolling in a way - started getting me going too, ha?

There was some sort of message J felt was important and the same time showing low confideince in the message or not really understading the message himself and trying to deliver it. Must have been driving others crazy to try to follow as well.

But besides that I still wonder if what Jesus was feeling was oneness and started trying to explain it to everyone with what ever language he could.

[Anagogy]

But besides that I still wonder if what Jesus was feeling was oneness and started trying to explain it to everyone with what ever language he could.

I think that is a very good possibility. Unfortunately for him, his message was translated, retranslated, and then translated some more (just for kicks), and altered in the process to serve those who wanted control over the masses. The reflections of his enlightenment that survived the translation are still worth-while spiritual nuggets. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."