The "magic" in magical moments comes from our own mind

After including a quote in a previous blog post about how we construct the environment in which we live, thanks to how the human brain functions, I got to thinking about the implications for magical moments.

We all have them, though it's difficult to say whether there's much agreement between people as to what constitutes a magical moment. Here's some examples from my life, using my own intuitive definition.

Birth of my daughter
Catching big waves on Maui with my boogie board
Marrying my wife
Seeing Janis Joplin perform in person 
Taking mescaline with a friend in the Sierra Nevada mountains
Spending two weeks in India with the guru who initiated me

Since I'm writing this post on my churchless blog, I'll use the last example as a focus of my discussion about what makes a moment seem magical.

For a long time -- I went to India in 1977 because I wanted to see Charan Singh, my guru, face-to-face, having been initiated by a proxy in 1971 -- I believed that what made those two weeks at Dera Baba Jaimal Singh in the Punjab so magical was the atmosphere emanating from the guru.

However, this doesn't make much sense. 

As I wrote about back in 2005 in "Did I see God in first class?", my wife didn't find seeing Gurinder Singh, Charan Singh's successor, to be at all magical, even though devotees of the guru undoubtedly did.

Psychedelic researchers speak of the importance of set and setting in determining the nature of a LSD (or similar drug) experience. “Set” includes the personality of the individual; “setting” includes cultural views about what is real. If someone with a devotional frame of mind joins a group like RSSB that affirms the divinity of a guru, then this person may very well see God sitting in first class. I, on the other hand, just saw an Indian man.

My wife, Laurel, joined me in Palm Springs a few days later. She was more interested in shopping and sunshine than attending the bhandara, but I did talk her into going to two RSSB meetings. At one of them she got to sit in the front row, just a few feet away from the stage where Gurinder Singh spoke and answered questions—a highly favored spot to devotionally-minded disciples.

Afterwards Laurel said to me, “He just seemed like a regular person.” I couldn’t argue with her. I believed then, and still do, that Master Gurinder Singh is uncommonly intelligent, insightful, well-spoken, charismatic, and inspiring. But I had no reason then, nor any now, to assert that he is God in human form. I’ve stopped being concerned with the level of divinity someone else possesses, and now am almost exclusively focused on getting in touch with my own hypothesized higher self.

So I now see magical moments as being akin to a happy moment, sad moment, exciting moment, boring moment, or any other kind of moment where someone's frame of mind generates the adjective before "moment."

Sure, there has to be a substantial outside reality in a moment. It's a mistake, though, to view external circumstances as producing the magical aspect of a moment, because different people will view those circumstances differently.

My wife saw an Indian man sitting on a stage. Many of his devotees saw a guru who is God in Human Form. Big difference. I highly enjoyed catching big waves that would scare someone who wasn't used to doing this. Big difference. I found Janis Joplin's singing and overall style really appealing. Others with a different musical taste wouldn't like her voice. Big difference.

Thus it's wonderful to experience a magical moment. But almost always the credit for the magic should go to the brain of the person having that experience, not to the external circumstance.

My daughter Celeste is a much better skier than I am, or my wife is. I remember us going with Celeste to ski on Mt. Hood here in Oregon many years ago. Celeste talked us into taking a lift up to the highest point on the mountain, where we'd never been before.

When we got off the lift, I instantly realized that the snow was much more akin to a sheet of ice. Celeste took off down the steep slope, turning with ease, giving every sign of having a magical moment up there on a sunny cold day with such a beautiful view.

Me, all I could think of was "I hope I don't break a leg" as I gingerly made my way down, snow-plowing in an inelegant fashion. My daughter and I shared the same external circumstance, but for her it was magical and for me it was terrifying. 

Comments

[Roger]

Any experience in life that we consider to be a problem arises from the very simple actuality that we don’t like the experience and want it to be other than it is.

When this is realized, it becomes clear that life is never a problem until we create the problem.

We create the problem because we do not see things (physical, emotional, psychological, or any combination thereof) or life experiences as they are, but how we believe them to be.

Thus, such isn’t helped by the fact that we then point the finger of blame on others or external events.

Avoiding the acceptance of our responsibility for the quality of our own mind state in now-ness is dependent on what we think, say and do.

[Kranvir]

Gurinder singh dhillon relies on creating a carefully constructed image over a person that is truly evil in nature. He works tirelessly to ensure his white beard is perfect, his white turban is layered , white clothes, and sits on a stage giving the perception that he is godly and above the others. But when you look at in detail, his answers to questions show no wisdom, no depth, no clarity but confusion and laughs and clowns off serious questions from desperate people looking sincerely for answers. Furthermore he shows no spirituality, and he has no history of how he became enlightened. So when you dont see that magic moment seeing him on stage, it literally is your intuition, your truth , screaming at you that he is a fake ass guru. Then you realise that this self proclaimed guru is opposite to what his image portrays.
The sicko guru by contract, is indeed a devious liar who sits on stage and spreads absolute bull without batting an eyelid. He is therefore opposite to God, and therefore must be working for the adversary, satan himself, and you discover a larger truth that the whole RSSB path, which is in reality kaals trap, is fraudulent. Then you may do a google background check on the fake baba, and realise how he siphoned billions, how he mistreated and bullied farmers, how he made death threatened to his nephews, and how he had probable cause to have murdered his wife for court acquittal. Added to this is that GSD is deep up Modis rear end which is obviously for more court favours. Gurinder singh dhillon your days are numbered and God will seek justice overall your cleverly constructed web of lies. You will pay, when sangat wake up to your true nature, a sexual demon.

[Appreciative Reader]

The magic in our mind comes from our own minds. Hm.

I'll repeat what I'd said in my last comment, in the other thread. On reflection, it continues to make sense to me.

Sure, it's fallacious to imagine that our feelings speak to, and of, external reality. But it is equally fallacious to imagine they speak only to our interiority, so to speak, and not to external reality at all. That opposite position is equally fallacious.

I'd say it's a two-variable equation. Our feelings are a function of both what external reality is, as well as our interirity. What precisely the equation is, that's case to case, obviously. But it's fallacious to reduce it to a single variable thing, no matter which variable you choose.

Divinity is an extravagant descriptor. But let's say someone strikes us as "magically" honest, or sincere, or wise. That could be a function fully of our perception and nought else. But it could equally well be that that someone is indeed magically whatever, and that magicality is our mind-computer telegraphing that conclusion to us, bypassing the nuts and bolts analysis in that moment. Usually it is a combination of both things.

Like I said, a multivariate thing. It's a mistake to imagine, in reaction to our earlier error of imagining it's all reality, to now imagine it's necessarily all us.