Hi Robert. I’ll try to be brief. After 15 years of being a seeker, I had a transformative experience. While hard to describe, here are the thoughts that arose: OMG. I am INSIDE of God. Everything is inside of God and there is no outside. There is no separation. In Him we live and move and have our being. I have always existed and will always exist. In conjunction with these thoughts (felt like direct knowing) were the feelings of joy and fearlessness. It was the most exquisite state I’ve ever experienced. It faded about four hours later, which felt pretty devastating. I’ve spent the past 7 years diving into Advaita, trying to figure out what that was that happened.
This response from you Robert, for me, is so grounded in reality and I find this response to be progressive, in that one can be on the earth and see more clearly, than when longing for it to be different.
I've been in her shoes, and boy are those shoes tight and painful to walk around in! It's taken most of my life, but I finally took them off and threw them away. Now, it all boils down to point A and point B. Point A: Birth. Point B: Death. Everything in between is a crapshoot with no guarantees, do-overs, maps, or cheat sheets. As for what occurred before Point A or occurs after Point B, I have no clue, but that's just fine with me. As you've said many times Robert, no one else does either...
I have not yet read Roberts reply. I always love his replies, and agree fundamentally with everything he says, but Kathy's question prompted a particular reply which I'd like to share since I know it will be different from Robert's. Now, I get to go enjoy his 😊🙏🏻.
To Kathy:
Nothing isn't "it." For something not to be it, it would need to be outside of God. How could what you experienced be wrong, if it is what you experienced? It can't be wrong, but that doesn't mean that the conclusions you drew from it were "right." Right, in this sense, means always applicable, always true, always good.
I don't know where you got your "advaita" knowledge, but from the perspective of Vedanta, there is no such thing as a permanent "state." By definition states, experiences, and even creation itself comes and goes. Vedanta simply points out that you are what knows creation, or you could say you are the very existence in which creation (which is God) appears.
In your experience, you recognized that there was no possibility of being outside of God. That's a beautiful revelation of oneness, which in Vedanta is better termed non-duality since one(ness) implies two. However, in terms of Vedanta, you superimposed yourself ("I") onto your mind/I "sense"/individuality. (This is THE mistake btw, not just yours.)
While it's true (and a poignant observation) that THAT is "inside" God, from Vedanta's point of view, you are the knower of both. That individuality that is inside God is "temporary," in the sense that it has only seeming reality. It exists for sure, so it isn't "unreal" (per Neo Advaita nonsense), but Vedanta says it isn't "real" because what is real does not come and go.
This is why (from my understanding of Vedanta's point of view) you still "know" the truth of the realization (which as you said is "no separation"), but are not still "experiencing" it. The only "problem" there is an idea, specifically that "it" (meaning the goal of realization) feels a certain way. It doesn't, not at all.
Vedanta says the only "access" to Self (the bliss you desire, which it says you already are) is knowledge, not experience. Why? Because if there is nothing other than you, how can you experience yourself? You can't, because nothing isn't you :-). However, you can know that this is what "is" or ""is so," and knowing that you can "rest" in and as what you already are.
There's absolutely NOTHING mystical about this. It is just logic that leads you to know/understand that you are whole and complete, exactly as you are. it means that ordinary you is perfectly adequate, just fine, always OK, no matter what, and simultaneously that the world (the entire field of experience) is also perfectly fine just as it is.
This doesn't mean that you don't care what happens, or don't stop a bully from bullying, you still do. What it does mean is that INTERNALLY, before anything happens, just between you and yourself, you know that you are whole and complete - and being whole and complete  you automatically get the benefit of that knowledge which is bliss that is not caused by anything. In a way, Vedanta is a big trick, but once you learn the trick you can enjoy life as it is no matter what happens, and without fear. 
Thank you for your considered response to this person. Not desiring things to be other than they are, seems to be the way to be in this experience. The acceptance that it is all Maya, I observe that.
Hello dear Robert....I just returned from my brief break from writing, and have published a new article about what has been unfolding with me, and it includes a section called "Why call it God?" that replies to your question above. Here's the link: https://open.substack.com/pub/joantollifson/p/dropping-the-scaffolding ❤️
RS, Did you have a chance to meet or talk with Chrisopher Hitchens or Alexander Coburn? Dudes! I read what you wrote to Kathy. Do you think what our education system tells us about the stars and such is just as much of shit as all the rest of the shit they want us to absorb and use as narrative regurgitation? Go all the way with the here and now and what we experience this state is good and simple.
I never met either of them, Charlotte, except in print. No, I do not think physics, chemistry, and biology is shit that should not be taught. Quite the opposite.
> our education system tells us about the stars and such is just as much of shit
Unfortunately, our effective 'education system' is now social media. What I assume you mean by our education system - formal schooling - is for most people (ie. outside of the world of serious research) largely a manufacturer of employees and subduer of youth. It's pretty good at 'stars and such', but isn't in many institutions much interested in them because they don't make scads of cash.
But, yes, most of what social media tells us about everything, including 'stars and such', is indeed shit.
This response from you Robert, for me, is so grounded in reality and I find this response to be progressive, in that one can be on the earth and see more clearly, than when longing for it to be different.
I've been in her shoes, and boy are those shoes tight and painful to walk around in! It's taken most of my life, but I finally took them off and threw them away. Now, it all boils down to point A and point B. Point A: Birth. Point B: Death. Everything in between is a crapshoot with no guarantees, do-overs, maps, or cheat sheets. As for what occurred before Point A or occurs after Point B, I have no clue, but that's just fine with me. As you've said many times Robert, no one else does either...
I have not yet read Roberts reply. I always love his replies, and agree fundamentally with everything he says, but Kathy's question prompted a particular reply which I'd like to share since I know it will be different from Robert's. Now, I get to go enjoy his 😊🙏🏻.
To Kathy:
Nothing isn't "it." For something not to be it, it would need to be outside of God. How could what you experienced be wrong, if it is what you experienced? It can't be wrong, but that doesn't mean that the conclusions you drew from it were "right." Right, in this sense, means always applicable, always true, always good.
I don't know where you got your "advaita" knowledge, but from the perspective of Vedanta, there is no such thing as a permanent "state." By definition states, experiences, and even creation itself comes and goes. Vedanta simply points out that you are what knows creation, or you could say you are the very existence in which creation (which is God) appears.
In your experience, you recognized that there was no possibility of being outside of God. That's a beautiful revelation of oneness, which in Vedanta is better termed non-duality since one(ness) implies two. However, in terms of Vedanta, you superimposed yourself ("I") onto your mind/I "sense"/individuality. (This is THE mistake btw, not just yours.)
While it's true (and a poignant observation) that THAT is "inside" God, from Vedanta's point of view, you are the knower of both. That individuality that is inside God is "temporary," in the sense that it has only seeming reality. It exists for sure, so it isn't "unreal" (per Neo Advaita nonsense), but Vedanta says it isn't "real" because what is real does not come and go.
This is why (from my understanding of Vedanta's point of view) you still "know" the truth of the realization (which as you said is "no separation"), but are not still "experiencing" it. The only "problem" there is an idea, specifically that "it" (meaning the goal of realization) feels a certain way. It doesn't, not at all.
Vedanta says the only "access" to Self (the bliss you desire, which it says you already are) is knowledge, not experience. Why? Because if there is nothing other than you, how can you experience yourself? You can't, because nothing isn't you :-). However, you can know that this is what "is" or ""is so," and knowing that you can "rest" in and as what you already are.
There's absolutely NOTHING mystical about this. It is just logic that leads you to know/understand that you are whole and complete, exactly as you are. it means that ordinary you is perfectly adequate, just fine, always OK, no matter what, and simultaneously that the world (the entire field of experience) is also perfectly fine just as it is.
This doesn't mean that you don't care what happens, or don't stop a bully from bullying, you still do. What it does mean is that INTERNALLY, before anything happens, just between you and yourself, you know that you are whole and complete - and being whole and complete  you automatically get the benefit of that knowledge which is bliss that is not caused by anything. In a way, Vedanta is a big trick, but once you learn the trick you can enjoy life as it is no matter what happens, and without fear. 
Thank you for your considered response to this person. Not desiring things to be other than they are, seems to be the way to be in this experience. The acceptance that it is all Maya, I observe that.
Hello dear Robert....I just returned from my brief break from writing, and have published a new article about what has been unfolding with me, and it includes a section called "Why call it God?" that replies to your question above. Here's the link: https://open.substack.com/pub/joantollifson/p/dropping-the-scaffolding ❤️
Hi, Joan. A nice piece of writing. Heartfelt. I replied as a comment. <3
RS, Did you have a chance to meet or talk with Chrisopher Hitchens or Alexander Coburn? Dudes! I read what you wrote to Kathy. Do you think what our education system tells us about the stars and such is just as much of shit as all the rest of the shit they want us to absorb and use as narrative regurgitation? Go all the way with the here and now and what we experience this state is good and simple.
I never met either of them, Charlotte, except in print. No, I do not think physics, chemistry, and biology is shit that should not be taught. Quite the opposite.
> our education system tells us about the stars and such is just as much of shit
Unfortunately, our effective 'education system' is now social media. What I assume you mean by our education system - formal schooling - is for most people (ie. outside of the world of serious research) largely a manufacturer of employees and subduer of youth. It's pretty good at 'stars and such', but isn't in many institutions much interested in them because they don't make scads of cash.
But, yes, most of what social media tells us about everything, including 'stars and such', is indeed shit.