My stream of consciousness while praying the other day:

When I first had what I would call a "God-experience," I had an intense feeling of joy and happiness surging up in my mind. This mental feeling correlated (or was slightly preceded by) a shiver running up my spine and maybe down my thighs a bit.

Yet during this experience, there was another voice asking: "How do you know this experience of God corresponds to reality?" Somehow this idea that religion is projection, that the concepts only structure the experience beforehand and do not come from the experience - this idea affected the experience itself. It leaves a bittersweet taste to it. The emphasis shifts from God to my concept itself in a new horizon of self-awareness or self-doubt.

Of course, I had heard this God-as-projection idea before (particularly from Freud, but also in modern psychologies of religion) but it had never permeated my prayer life.

Is there any way to know experientially whether or not an experience of God points to something real? That is, is there anything in the experience itself, or must that be discovered by metaphysical arguments? So many questions.

Peace.
AMDG