How does one have a direct experience of God?

From my perspective, belief in God is the obstacle to knowing God. Belief is a function of the mind and we can only know God through direct experience. Belief is what we resort to when we do not know God through our own direct experience.

So how does one have a direct experience of God?

God is here now, but we are not! Mostly we are lost in the world of the human thinking mind. It is a world of the remembered past and the imagined future. It is a world of thought, memory, imagination, concept, opinion, idea and belief. When we are in the world of the thing mind, the one place we are not is in the world of the present moment.

God is present. God exists as the silent presence at the very heart of all things present. The present moment and all that is in the present moment is God revealed.

If we are to know God, we must bring ourselves to where God is. In other words if we are to know God, we must bring ourselves fully present. At first, the experience of being present may seem ordinary. But as you remain present, and deepen into presence, the hidden treasure is revealed. Slowly and gradually, you will encounter the living Presence of God in all things present.

The more you choose to be present, the more you will become grounded in that dimension of you which exists in this moment and no other. I am not saying that you cannot continue to function with the mind and the world of time. Of course you can. You do not have to be fully present all the time. What is most important is that you honor the present moment as the truth of life, and recognize everything else as an illusion. Sometimes it is a happy illusion. At other times, it is an unhappy and painful illusion. The unhappy times bring us the opportunity and incentive to awaken, for who will choose to awaken out of a happy dream? Very few!

The direct experience of God is essentially an experience in Silence and oneness with all things present. Everything that you can see, hear, taste and touch is the body of God and so why would you not choose to be fully present with it?

To awaken means to free your self from the limited world of the mind and become fully present.

How to accomplish this is beyond the scope of this answer. I suggest that you read my three books and if you have further questions, I would be happy to answer them. A telephone session is also very helpful in bringing it all together and entering into the fully awakened state.

Does God speaks to us individually? The answer is that if we are fully present we enter into direct relationship with God and so we can speak to God and God can speak to us.

God exists at the very heart of silence within us. If you are fully present and silent, you open the door to God. In conversing with God, speak from silence into silence. And make sure that any response arises from silence and not from some part of your thinking mind. God's responses can come in the form of words, or a visual image or a feeling of peace and love. God's response can also be one of total silence. You will have to surrender all expectations when speaking to God, for those expectations will hold you in the mind and keep you separate from God.

Finally, how God responds to you will depend largely on what you bring to God. My experience is that the more you bring love and gratitude and silent Presence to God, the more God will respond to you.

It is important to know that God is not separate from you and that the deepest level of Oneness is realized in perfect loving silence. Not one word need be spoken.

Leonard Jacobson