The first time I had a spiritual experience, it was beyond words.

Trying to explain it to others fell short because I didn’t know how to articulate myself very well (still have issues with that) and there weren’t words that could encapsulate what it felt like. This struggle is what originally attracted me to mysticism and the continued spiritual experiences are what kept me there.

I maintain a high level of skepticism about my own experiences, trying to falsify them and find better explanations than “something beyond words.” It’s also for this reason I fell in love with The Liturgists podcast.

However, a spiritual experience cannot be contained within specific parameters. You must be open to it and be ready for when it comes, allowing it to wash over you for the few moments that it happens. You spend your entire life trying to chase it, looking for systems and answers that will bring you to the point, but they fall short. Full surrender is what is needed and even then, it’s intermittent.

How does this relate to the topic at hand?

Writing is my way of eliciting that spiritual experience.

You face the page, turn off your conscious thought and let your subconscious come out to play. The words begin to pour out onto the page, being channeled through a medium to which you have little control. It gets filtered through your experiences as your thoughts attempt to work themselves out.

What is going on in your head is translated into one of humanity’s greatest invention and the further you surrender to it, the greater clarity you receive.

Then, just as you find the rhythm of the words, something strikes. It’s this demon called the muse and after it feels you’re ready, it strikes you hard, waking up all your senses. Something beyond inspiration hits and the words won’t be able to stop while the reverberations of this strike play themselves out.

The years of work and discipline you poured into getting better at your craft, writing garbage and reading until your eyes cry for relief, all synthesize as something you cannot explain that streams out of you. It’s like you’ve touched the universe and it wants you to tell its story.

Depending on how attuned you are and your stamina to ride its wave, this could last for minutes or hours.

Then you’re finished for the day.

The high is over and you’re done.

Athletes have the zone. Runners have their high. Writers have the muse. The mystics have their experiences.

None of them can explain it properly, but they continue because of what they experience every time they do.