The human mind is capable of experiencing the most astounding and otherworldly phenomena. And personally I keep the more aetherial of these occurrences to myself. I find that if I refer to them, people start talking to me about astral projection and dream quests and all kinds of whatnot. Or even of aberrative psychological episodes or adverse neurological events.

And thus I find the profundity of the phenomenon lamentably diminished. As though describing such things in the clumsy language of the mundane world; Or subjecting them to rational thought, logical explanation or even metaphysical examination spoils the magic.

Or more accurately, misdescribes the experience such that it is irreparably damaged. Or perhaps functionally collapsed. As is the state of energy when observed to discern whether it might be defined as wave of particle.

And what’s more I find that many people do not encountered anything like what I have experienced. And indeed many are inclined to render their diagnosis of poor psychological hygiene. Or even suggest that some physiological agency, a tumor or some such might be the culprit.

As though those more mysterious functions of our being are to be considered adverse in nature. Cause for concern.

So I keep these things private. I keep them safe and sound within the sphere of pure experience. Where they might be preserved whole and untarnished by examination. The magic kept intact.

However, there is one experience which I will speak to. For it is possible to cross paths with others while in these events. And it is even possible to cross paths with that same person again, right here in the mundane world.

And it is even possible for those persons to recognize one another.

Although such occurrences I would take to be very rare. For while in these experiences, one is not bound by time and space in the same way we are in the waking world.

I will try to describe the phenomenon as best I can.

I am neither asleep nor awake. I am neither conscious nor unconscious. I am not dreaming, I possess too much awareness and agency for that. But neither am I thinking in an entirely lucid manner.

I am in a place where my body is not. I am elsewhere. And I am aware.

There is snow I have never seen. There is ice I have never known. Although whether that ice and snow is there now, or whether it only has been there in the past, or will be there in the future is not clear.

This elsewhere realm is eminently malleable. It is a place of potentiality rather than actuality.

There are woods and there are mountains which I have never been to before. Natural features radically different to those of my homeland. Although I have seen similar places while travelling by train from Toronto to Vancouver. But only similar, not the same. I could not pin point precisely how.

I cannot feel, yet I am aware of the cold. I cannot see but I perceive that place. I do not exist in this place in corporeal form, yet I am aware that I am in some way physically present. I can see the water vapor in my breath condense as I exhale. I can feel my feet planted firmly upon ground which is not there.

I am not here and now. And neither am I there and then. Time and place are illusory here, but not entirely absent either.

I become aware that there is another presence. I smile and laugh because I know this person, despite that we have never met.

I am in love with this person. I always have been.

The feeling is beautiful beyond effective expression let alone comprehension. For although I am falling in love with them for the very first time. I have always been in love with them too.

I have loved this person forever. And I am falling in love with them forever. Now in this moment and in every other moment.

We are unknown to one another, yet we know each other intimately.

We embrace. We kiss.

I know those eyes. I know those lips. I know those arms around me.

I know this love. It has been with me for a long time.

I have carried it with me. I have kept it. I have cherished it. Although I never ever knew who that love was for.

That is until we crossed paths in that elsewhere place. And then crossed paths in this world too. And recognized one another.

I will not say more than this. I fear if I approach this experience too closely, I will diminish it. And that is a risk I will not take. For it is an experience unutterably beautiful and magical.

And I would also expect that this person with who I have crossed paths, might very well characterize the experience in radically different terms. Profoundly personal and singularly intimate as such experience s tend to be.

And at the last, my only intention in this article. Is to acknowledge the existence of something very rare and very special. To honor this unique privilege and mark it’s miraculous existence.

To declare and dedicate myself to it. Nothing more.

 

Thank you for reading

Love

Whippoorwill XO