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"We are lived by powers we pretend to understand." W.H. Auden

Have you ever had an experience where you sensed you were in the presence of God?

I'm guessing the answer might be yes, but perhaps you've never thought that your experience was spiritual. These are the unexplained encounters and involve phenomena that run counter to our everyday life experience. Some people have wildly bizarre encounters with the holy while others have more ordinary events, and still others may have had some sort of "thing" happen that they believe they cannot share with anyone. I'm convinced almost everyone has had some type of encounter, but some may be reluctant to describe the experience.

The US American psychologist William James discusses this idea in his classic book, The Varieties of Religious Experience. He distinguishes between primary religious encounters, direct personal experiences, and secondary religion, which involves teachings about the faith or organizational aspects. Most of what happens in American church life today is secondary religion – information, analysis, and description. When I preach or teach on a scripture passage or describe a theological concept, I am practicing secondary religion. It's secondary because it's about the religious experience, both the experience itself.

Primary religion is the direct experience of the holy, such as encounters with phenomena, hauntings, numinous creatures, conversations with angels, or experiences of gentle calm. Those encounters can be mountain-top experiences or subtle reminders of the blessing of being alive. They can be out in nature, inside your living room, or around the corner from your place of work.

The quote above from the poet W.H. Auden is from a longer poem titled "In Memory of Ernest Toller." The line "We are lived by powers we pretend to understand" has broader application to the two realms I wrote about in the last issue of Notebooks. Auden captures in just a few words the profound truth that we humans are influenced by forces that lie beyond our rational, conscious, and materialist perspective.

Auden's words suggest something other than our rational ego-centered mind is influencing our thoughts and actions. Namely, that there is a presence that is among us, within us, and around us. We could give many names to this presence, but I'll focus here on its spiritual significance. We encounter glimpses of this Spirit throughout our lives - a feeling, an intuition, perhaps a vision, or even a voice. For example, in my book, Everyday Spirituality, I describe an experience of my friend David who "saw" a nurse at the foot of his bed as he recovered in a hospital. Yet, the person he described was not an employee at the hospital.

Australian philosopher David Tacey recently defined spirituality as "The power of eternity yearning to be in time," echoing William Blake's "Eternity is in love with the productions of time." I contend that people in our time seek the spiritual. We yearn for encounters with the infinite because it helps give our lives a sense of meaning and purpose.

The expansive interest in astrology to yoga can be understood as a desire to encounter mystery, wonder, and the infinite.Experiential forms of religious experience are on the rise in Buddhism and Hinduism, emphasizing meditation. In the Christian tradition, we see this in the global increase of Pentecostal expressions, focusing on one's encounter with the divine. I recall a visit years ago to a Vineyard worship service that included a wide range of people speaking in tongues, rolling on the floor, and dancing in the aisles. A recent article in the NY Times by Ruth Graham described new alternatives to baptism, including ocean baptism, horse troughs, and even hot tubs. When asked to describe the motivation behind the trend, one Pastor indicated, "We live in an age where people like experiences," said Mark Clifton, Pastor of Linwood Baptist in Kansas, "It's not that it looks better, but it feels better. It feels more authentic. It feels more real." One could easily argue with this trend as gimmicky, but my point in highlighting it here is to illustrate the desire for an experiential religion.

The advertising industry has watched this growth as well. Products and experiences are marketed to us with a clear message: "Satisfying your personal desires is the ultimate fulfillment. Just buy this product, vacation or automobile." Perhaps this explains that surveys consistently reveal the number one recreational activity for US Americans is shopping. We seek our re-creation in the acquisition of goods and services.

But late-modern people find acquisition to be inadequate for living a whole and meaningful life. We long for something more profound.

How can we humans, living in a digital age, rediscover and reconnect with God? I offer the following as possibilities. Of course, there are likely other ways, but I'll focus on five ways we connect with the Spiritual Realm.

Arts – I consider music, paint, sculpture, dance, and drama among creative expressions that have a sacred quality. My wife often describes singing as her spiritual discipline. It feeds her and gives her great joy, but it also somehow connects her with something deeper. My brother is an artist in the San Francisco area. Through various print imaging, he reveals insight into both ancient and contemporary events. A friend just took up pottery, and another has returned to her love of dance. "I don't care if I look like a fool. I'm feeling a Spirit alive in me while I move," she said.

"I think of mythology as the homeland of the muses, the inspirers of art, the inspirers of poetry. To see life as a poem and yourself participating in a poem is what the myth does for you."

- Joseph Campbell

Relationships – I'm thinking of the long-lasting relationships we have with significant people in our lives. Through these, we learn more about ourselves than in any classroom, book, or therapeutic exchange. Is God present in that life of loving relations? I think so. The Greeks had three words for love. In Sanskrit, there are over 100 words for love, yet in English, we really on modifiers to help us explain love. Romantic love is different than brotherly love. Erotic love is not the same as compassionate love. What we experience in those first few weeks and months of a romantic relationship evolves after ten years, thirty years, or longer. We grow and change as individuals and as a relationship. If God is Love, as the bible says, our lifelong experience of evolving love is a spiritual encounter.

I Corinthians 13 is a well-known passage about love frequently read at weddings. It even made it into a scene in the 2005 Movie The Wedding Crashers. When read at a wedding, this passage reminds us of the romantic aspects of love. But when I heard it read at the funeral of an 83-year-old man by his granddaughter, I wept. Love took on an entirely different significance. It spoke of resilience and endurance, compassion, and gentleness in ways I had not considered. A piece of scripture that had become rather lifeless for me as one who has attended hundreds of weddings suddenly leaped off the page a pierced my heart.

Love is kind and patient,
never jealous, boastful,
    Proud, or rude.
Love isn't selfish
    Or quick-tempered.
It doesn't keep a record
    Of wrongs that others do.

Nature – A walk in the woods, a swim in the lake, a bike ride along a country road. What is it about the natural world that opens us up to the sacred? Perhaps more than any other vehicle, people report mystical encounters taking place in the natural world. We now have scientific evidence of the benefit of simply being outside for twenty minutes. But before all the neuroscience, humans lived in the environment of trees, rivers, and open plains. As late modern people in a technological age, we forget that we are animals, and our roots are in the natural world. People encountered God in a burning bush, underneath a Bodhi Tree, in the river Jordan or a desert cave for most of human civilization. Looking for a way to connect with God, take a walk outside.

Are you looking for a way to connect with God? Take a walk outside.

Dreams – Dreams provide opportunities to experience a sacred realm and possibly an avenue to the soul. One author called them God's forgotten language, while another wrote of dreams as unopened letters from God. The realm of night visions that cross our awareness while we sleep allows us to experience the holy. I look forward each night as I hit the pillow and often ask myself, "what will the dream maker show me tonight?" Next to my bed sits a small journal where I can record my dreams. They come to us without charge…a symbol of the ongoing gift of grace from God. It is in dreaming that we enter a world of mystery and wonder. While some comment that they do not recall their dreams, and others write them off as insignificant, there is ample evidence of the healing and meaning of dreams.

"Most dreams are representations of what goes on inside the dreamer.

Dreams usually speak of the evolution of forces inside us,

The conflicts of values and viewpoints there,

The different unconscious energy systems that are trying to be heard,

Trying to find their way into our conscious lives."

Robert A. Johnson, Inner Work

Prayer/Meditation – While words can shape our experiences, I fear they can also cover up the direct encounter with the holy. I've read beautiful prayers for decades, but not one can match the experience of the sacred. Our meetings with the numinous are ineffable. So often, when we hear the word "prayer," we think of written or spoken prayers. Sadly, many prayers seem to be telling God what we want, need, desire. Is it possible that a healthy relationship with the divine involves a two-way conversation? Previously I wrote of the practice of contemplative prayer as a practice that might connect us with God.

But prayer should not be something we seek to perfect, as the poet Mary Oliver reminds us

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak."

I've illustrated a few practical ways we can seek out the numinous, but let's be clear that it is more often the case that God finds us rather than we find God. Therefore, the holy often surprises us in its appearance. But we can put ourselves in a place of awareness and openness.

"Are we linked to something infinite or not?" CG Jung