by Stacy Bremner, MA, RP
A Universal Curiosity
Forever and ever, humans have wondered about life and what is really going on here. Why are we here? Who or what is in charge of all this? Is there a God? These questions have shaped religions, philosophies, and centuries of seekers trying to understand the nature of existence.
This week, my blog makes a small attempt to speak to one part of that mystery — the part I’ve come to understand through my own lived experience. I’ve learned that my first‑hand knowing often helps me more than anything else, and I think that, especially when we’re open to possibilities and willing to trust ourselves, we discover truths that are quiet, personal, and invaluable.
Yet, not everyone interprets first‑hand experiences in the same way. Some people see them as psychology, intuition, or spirituality — and that’s perfectly fine. Others call them coincidence or, on the other end of the spectrum, synchronicity. Some chalk them up to imagination, random brain activity, or “just a weird moment.” The meaning is personal.
The Moments That Quietly Defy “Normal”
Every so often, life hands us an experience that quietly defies the boundaries of “normal.” It might arrive during prayer, in meditation, in music, in nature, or in the quiet moments when we’re not trying to make anything happen. These experiences don’t ask for permission. They don’t wait for us to be ready. They simply appear — and something in us recognizes them instantly.
Most people have had at least one moment like this. A vision. A presence. A memory that feels older than this lifetime. A sudden knowing that arrives out of nowhere. A feeling of being guided, accompanied, or held.
We don’t always talk about these moments. They’re too intimate, too easily dismissed, too hard to explain. Many of us tuck them away because they don’t fit the rules of everyday conversation. But they matter. In fact, they often matter more than anything we’ve been taught.
Because first‑hand experience has a different kind of authority. It bypasses belief, doctrine, and the thinking mind entirely.
It speaks directly to the soul.
Ecstatic States: Doorways Into Something Larger
In my Kabbalah group, we recently talked about ecstatic states — those moments when consciousness shifts and we feel connected, expanded, or lifted out of the everyday self. Singing in a choir, chanting, dancing, drumming, sexuality, deep prayer… each doorway opens a different part of us.
Across cultures and centuries, humans have sought these states because they remind us of something ancient and true — that consciousness is vast, layered, and not limited to what we can measure. They reconnect us to the body, soften the thinking mind, and open us to experiences that feel larger than our daily identity.
Most importantly, they make us more receptive. When the mind quiets, intuition becomes easier to hear.
The Four Clairs: How Intuition Speaks
These receptive states often activate the Four Clairs — the intuitive channels every human has, whether we talk about them or not:
- Claircognizance — sudden knowing
- Clairaudience — inner hearing
- Clairvoyance — inner seeing
- Clairsentience — intuitive feeling
Mystical moments tend to arrive through one or more of these channels. A past‑life memory might come as a clear image. A sense of guidance might come as a physical feeling. A sudden insight might drop in without warning.
These experiences don’t need validation or explanation. They simply arrive — and something in us recognizes them as true.
A Personal Moment of First‑Hand Knowing
When I was studying A Course in Miracles, I had an experience that I’ve never forgotten. It was about 20 years ago, after I had gone to Toronto to see Gary Renard, the author of The Disappearance of the Universe — a challenging book that provokes a lot of thought. One day, I was sitting on my bed reading page 351 near the end of the book. The suggestion was to “let things go into God’s hands”.
As I read the example meditation, I couldn’t grasp it. I didn’t understand how to do what the book was describing.
With no expectation, and my eyes closed, I simply said, “Jesus, please help me with this.”
Immediately — and I mean instantly — a male figure appeared in my mind’s eye, sitting cross‑legged in front of me. He wore a plain, seamless tunic. Without a word, he sent a beam of light from his heart to mine. And in that moment, I understood what I had been struggling with. It was the complete answer to my request.
Then he was gone.
It was a blend of clairvoyance, clairsentience, and claircognizance — a vision, a felt transmission, and an instant knowing.
I will never forget that moment. The figure didn’t have a detailed face, but that didn’t matter. What mattered is that I knew it was Jesus — not simply because of how he looked, but because I had asked him for help and the recognition arrived instantly, in that deep way the body understands before the mind does. It isn’t something I share often — it’s not exactly typical dinner conversation — but it was profoundly meaningful for me. And it taught me something I’ve trusted ever since: first‑hand experiences do not fail us.
Ask and It Is Given: Guidance Arrives in Many Forms
Not all first‑hand experiences arrive in dramatic ways. Some come through the gentle choreography of everyday life. One morning, I asked for an idea for my next blog. Just a simple request, and I let it go and went on with my day.
Within hours:
- My Kabbalah group opened the door to contemplating ecstatic states.
- A client began talking about her curiosity about UFO’s and she shared her own first‑hand experiences — visions and visitations she’s had throughout her life.
- My own memories and experiences filled in the deeper meaning.
A common thread arrived from two different places, both pointing to the same topic: first‑hand knowing.
This is the lived experience of Ask and It Is Given. Not as a slogan — but as a pattern.
Ask. Align. Receive.
Guidance doesn’t always come as a lightning bolt. Sometimes it comes through the people around us. Sometimes it comes through intuition, memory, or synchronicity.
But it comes. And I like to celebrate that and give thanks in my own way.
Trust What You’ve Lived
As more conversations emerge in the world — about momentary shifts in consciousness, about life after death, about UFOs and UAPs, past lives, and mystical encounters — I think we’re being invited into a new kind of honesty, that’s not about what we believe, but about what we’ve lived.
Because first‑hand experience is the quiet place where truth meets mystery.
What have you experienced — even once — that quietly changed you? And what might happen if you allowed yourself to trust that experience instead of explaining it away?
Life meets us when we’re willing to meet it. Explore. Try things. See what happens.
