Prayer and Religious Experience

[Raptorsin7]

There is a girl in my class who is a religious Christian, and she was explaining to me how she has religious experiences frequently. For example, she said when she goes to church or prays she has experiences that reaffirm her belief in her religion. Are these frequent religious experiences the same kind of experiences enlightened people have? What do you guys think about religious people who have enlightenment experiences outside of a meditative context? 

It was very interesting talking to her because she said people usually think she's crazy when she brings up those kinds of life changing religious experiences. But I think those are the exact kinds of experiences i am after through my meditation, but i never thought about how there are deeply religious people who got to late game spirituality without a formal meditation practice.

[Synchronicity]

You’d be surprised how global mystical experiences are. Even Western religious traditions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have their own mystical traditions known as Monasticism, Kabbalah, and Sufism respectively. 
Meditation is certainly not the only way ?

Even praying “pew-sitters” can have them Lol 

[Forestluv]

One way to think about it is through contextualization.

Imagine a Christian, atheist and Yogi visit the Grand Canyon together. When they see the magnificence of the Grand Canyon, they are awestruck. The sense of “me” and “time” dissolves. There is One magnificence happening Now. . . After 10 seconds, they all “return to themself”. Let’s assume their was one happening of awakening they shared in that moment. When each returns to their personal mind and body, it will be contextualized differently - influenced by the person’s prior conditioning, karma and baseline consciousness:

The Christian: Whoa, what happened there? I just had a religious experience. I felt the presence of god and saw how god created the majesty of the Grand Canyon in a moment. Jesus just showed me he is eternal truth. That was a profound experience.

The atheist: Whoa, what just happened there? I just had what neuroscientists refer to as a flow state of consciousness. The default mode network in my brain was disabled allowing a temporary absence of my concept of self and time. This allowed space for clarity. I saw all the evolutionary forces that gave rise to the Grand Canyon over millions of years. That was a profound experience.

The yogi: Whoa, what just happened there? I just experienced Samadhi. My kundalini energy in my chakras became united  and then expanded to merge with the energetics of the Grand Canyon to form a formless interconnected holistic Whole. I saw how the Grand Canyon is Me and You and the Universe. That was a profound experience.

A direct experience of awakening was contextualized differently - leading to three different “experiences”. Notice how none of the “experiences” actually happened. Rather the contextualization into an “experience that happened” is happening Now.

A similar phenomena occurs with psychedelics. People will contextualize psychedelic happenings into an “experience”. This contextualization is influenced by previous conditioning, karma and baseline consciousness. It’s one reason why psychedelics usually aren’t that effective for PD and awakening until someone has reached upper Orange - Green on the SD scale.