I wouldn't know what to tell someone about what entering a (the?) void is like, but the closest i can imagine is a situation where you're 1000 nautical miles out to sea in a small sailboat on a pitch dark cloudy moonless night, far away from anyone. A storm is brewing and the seas are getting large, though you can't see them, it's too dark for your eyes, though you feel the force as it throws your small boat around. It's more than you bargained for, but there isn't anything you can do about it. You're in it now. You're losing control of the boat. You're afraid of what will happen if you lose control, the seas grow larger... The rains and the lightning and thunder are here and it's just too much too bear, so you go down below and lay ahull, surrendering to the sea and forces beyond your control. The sea will make of you what it will, you're fate rests with something larger than yourself. A part of you dies that night, and what emerges the next day is different from what was swallowed by the storm. Your old self at the helm, somewhat unrecognizable. And a part of you never made it out of the storm, remembering that you're always out to sea, and that you needed to come out here to remember that.

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dieselgate 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The boat will usually survive the storm but will you?

	▲	wartywhoa23 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Remember the passage of the Argonauts between Scylla and Charibdis? Scylla would devour the crew alive by its dog heads, leaving the ship intact but drifting on its own - that's a metaphor of madness: for the crew is the mind, and the ship is the body; Charybdis would suck both the crew and the ship into its whirlpool - that's a metaphor of death. The goal is to pass in between.

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afro88 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Is this a quote from a book? Beautifully written

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state_less a day ago | parent | next [-]

Thanks afro88. I was inspired by the storm in Terence's story, and my time on my sailboat when it felt like the sea was getting to be too much. Glad to share.

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moralestapia a day ago | parent [-]

It brought me down to tears, thanks.

Do you have ko-fi link?

	▲	state_less a day ago \| parent [-]
		Happy to hear. I added a ko-fi link to my about page, thanks!

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alwayshuman a day ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

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profsummergig a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Thank you. I was curious about what the experience is like.

Now, can you share what an OBE feels like?

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sibeliuss a day ago | parent [-]

I can. An OBE feels utterly real, minus the "oh shit... this is happening!" aspect of it all. It is not like a dream, even a lucid dream. And like a cliched cinematic experience you lift out of your body intact, as if there were two of you, one there and one here. It is legit and strange and the 'reality' of it is a lot to handle, after the fact.

	▲	profsummergig 20 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Can you see your other body? Or is it just that you feel yourself in 2 bodies?

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abstractspoon a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Sounds very much like my breakdown 20 years ago. When I finally emerged 10 years later I was both the same and utterly changed. I liken it to having had my personality deconstructed and then reconstructed from the ground up. I wouldn't wish it on anyone though I'm now in a much better place.