(i.e., people with abusive or otherwise messed up childhoods being more likely to develop mystical abilities), but I won't go into all of them. What I'm thinking, and possibly seeing, is that trauma is, among other things, a facilitator of mysticism. I'm not sure that all mystics come from a traumatic background (I don't have any reason to think that's true, and if we look at the stories of the Buddha, he was raised a pampered prince!), but it seems that for some, trauma causes us to retreat into ourselves in ways that open us up to the mystical, and, for some of us, the Divine. I am positive that trauma does not always lead to mysticism or divine experience (more often, it seems to lead to personal dysfunction, addiction, criminal activities, and other such self-destructive habits), but based on my very small sample and observations I've made of the mystically-inclined, I think it can be said that trauma can and does lead us to mystical experience, or, at least, it opens us up to it.
At the moment I'm just mulling this over, and I'm not proclaiming any special knowledge or epiphanies or anything.
I'm just observing this, and I'm wondering if someone might have some input or thoughts on the matter. Could make an interesting discussion.
Originally Posted by ButterflyWoman
(i.e., people with abusive or otherwise messed up childhoods being more likely to develop mystical abilities), but I won't go into all of them. What I'm thinking, and possibly seeing, is that trauma is, among other things, a facilitator of mysticism. I'm not sure that all mystics come from a traumatic background (I don't have any reason to think that's true, and if we look at the stories of the Buddha, he was raised a pampered prince!), but it seems that for some, trauma causes us to retreat into ourselves in ways that open us up to the mystical, and, for some of us, the Divine. I am positive that trauma does not always lead to mysticism or divine experience (more often, it seems to lead to personal dysfunction, addiction, criminal activities, and other such self-destructive habits), but based on my very small sample and observations I've made of the mystically-inclined, I think it can be said that trauma can and does lead us to mystical experience, or, at least, it opens us up to it.
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