Well, I didn’t actually physically go to a meeting. The Quakers in England run an online meeting you can go attend.
Theology has always been an interest and their values broadly correspond with mine. How you interpret those values is up to you. I sat in my bedroom, cup of camomile tea in hand and just sat quietly for twenty minutes just breathing and being still. Some people spoke or typed suggestions/thoughts.
I felt a little uncomfortable with the words “worship” at the beginning, but you don’t have to use or like those words. It’s a very broad Church.
How did I find it? Well, it was an really interesting experience. It felt similiar to when I tried mediating. I would go to another online meeting again. Perhaps one day a I will go to a physical meeting.
Is anyone else a Quaker? Been to their meetings etc
I love going to Quakers meetings. I'm close to two in particular, that I was going to for a good period of time. They're both at opposite ends of the country, but one is in the town I'm currently living in and one of my first missions, post burnout, is to go to a Quaker meeting as I've missed the meetings and the people. I have had a lot of many times with the Quakers.
I spent 4 and 2/3 years at a Quaker school.
Is was a nice experience. I might try and go to a physical meeting. The only trouble is they are mainly at weekends. When I work.
They're an interesting experience, and there's an interesting social dynamic that goes on. Particularly who decides to stand up and speak. But they can also be a good way of getting a reasonably quiet hour to do some random thinking!
Usually they do "tea" afterwards as well which is good for a bit of low-key small-talk social skills practice.
I went to another online meeting yesterday. I concentrated in my breathing. I had a tingling feeling half way in brain going backwards.
Also i felt more calm and abit weird. More settled. Anyone else had this happen.
The point is, to ‘not’ think! Lol! And the people who get up to speak do so because they’re moved by god to speak. When I first went, a guy kept getting up to speak and I kept arguing back with him because I didn’t agree with him!!! Lol! It took me a while to understand what was going on but me and the guy ended up being good friends.
Well the point is to use the time to worship as you see fit and not everybody buys your view of what a god is or isn't. The point being that's your *belief* not an incontrovertible fact thank you very much.
I happen to find thinking a worshipful activity.
Yes. We're so used to rushing around being occupied with "stuff" that many people find just taking an hour to be quiet an interesting experience in many different ways.
I didn’t know I had a view of god? And I definitely don’t have any beliefs ~ I gave them up a long time ago.
Being autistic, of course we find thinking a worshipful activity, because we are, afterall, god’s of our own world, due to the self obsessed nature of autism, and there’s probably nobody who loves thinking more than me, I was just saying that the point of that hour, is to connect with something bigger than us, a higher power, god, or whatever, but I wasn’t saying we have to do that. We can think about what we want, but can’t we do that anywhere?