A profound sense of being fully and completely present
A profound, grounded sense of being fully present — often accompanied by the absence of mental chatter and a quality of deep silence. Distinct from Unity in that it emphasizes the quality of now-ness rather than oneness with surroundings.
The higher number includes everyone who mentioned stillness or presence; the lower number counts those who described it as the defining feature of their experience, clearly and in their own words.
God is the silent presence at the very heart of all things present. God is real. God is here now, but we are not. If we want to experience the living presence of God in all things present, we have to come to where God is, which is in the present moment.
My silent companion was me — that was my real self. And then this incredible stillness set in — incredible beautiful stillness wherever I looked — surrounded by this incredible peace, the beauty of everything, and the privilege of being alive.
I felt as if a ray, it was almost as if a silver ray that had sound to it, moved down through my chakras, but all the way down through the bottoms of my feet. And I felt total stillness, silence, equanimity, peace, zero tension in the body.
What I thought was real, but still I could not ... there was somewhere a lack of something. It was still very peaceful ... but it is not ... you cannot compare. It's incomparable.
Among accounts that include presence / stillness, these were the most common pathways that preceded it:
Experience types most commonly reported in the same accounts:
Among the 533 accounts that include presence / stillness, these integration challenges appeared most often — shown as a percentage of those accounts:
Physical phenomena reported by people whose accounts include presence / stillness:
First-hand accounts from people who described this experience — drawn from the interviews in this collection:
Natalie Gray spent 25 years searching for meaning through various spiritual teachers, self-help seminars, and practices before a sudden shif…
Watch interview →Maggie Gillovich was a sociologist and self-described materialist who had a spontaneous first awakening — a direct seeing into the nature of…
Watch interview →Olivia, a woman with a background in transpersonal psychology, underwent a second iboga plant medicine ceremony after a disappointing first …
Watch interview →Feliz Biste Martina was a Montessori school educator and long-time spiritual seeker when, in 2015, she was struck by a large pickup truck wh…
Watch interview →Jurgen C is a commercial artist and author who began having spontaneous out-of-body experiences early in his adult life, initially without a…
Watch interview →Savvita Vera was an Australian woman with no spiritual background who was living an ordinary contracted life when the sudden death of a clos…
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