There is no time or space. These are our illusions to help keep a sense of order.
That’s what science is telling us this week. (I say “this week” because who knows what will be touted as The Truth next week, month, year… Remember when the earth was flat and was the center of the Universe?) Anyway, I try to imagine the chaos I would perceive if left without those ordering concepts of space and time. It is a fun game…
…the tree is over there, and I am here. Noooo…the tree and I occupy the same space — oops! There is no space! So what am I left with? How do I wrap my head around that?
Here’s what saves me: experience. When I was a child — I can’t remember what age, but I recall being about eye level with the balcony railing, I had an odd and wonderful experience. The balcony was off my mother’s bedroom, on the second story of our house. I was standing there in the clear morning sunshine, looking into the branches and green leaves of trees. A slight breeze riffed through the leaves; a bird’s vibrant call rang out — and all at once, I was one with it all, in every way. There are no words, really, to describe what occurred. I have never forgotten the experience. Interestingly what ended it was my noticing what was happening.
Throughout my life, I have come across other experiences and terms to describe them: “out of body,” “trance,” and “journeying” (in the Shamanic tradition), but none — neither experience nor terminology — have adequately caught what I experienced that long-ago morning. Subsequently, still while quite young, I had two other similar experiences but not as complete and intense as that first one, as all too soon I would notice it was happening and that would slip “me” back into regular/normal perception.
