Out of Body

There are wonders out there!!

Or is it:

There are wonders in here!!

I loosen the fetters and let the journey begin, without ever leaving this spot.

My feet feel the stone beneath.  I slide into the stone and enter the crystal palace.  I pass through the glittering halls until I enter the throne room.

And there is the Mountain King.  In his resplendent robes, silver beard and hair glimmering, he offers me a gift.  The glowing crystal floats towards me containing the vastness of space;  all of creation.  The crystal enters my chest and warmth explodes…

I am there… yet not there…

Soaring!  Soaring!

It is all out there… and in here…

Further and further out…

It is glorious!!

But suddenly a tug…

What is that?

An infinitely long connection to the me that never left.  It is not my time!!  I must return…

Faster than though…

I see me there below!

SLAM!!!

With a wrenching pain I return to the me that never left. Or maybe leave the inner me that I just visited. For a while I am we.

We are both here and there.  “Reality” is just a transparent shield.

And then…

One again.  Here again.

The greatest journey I ever took.  And I never even left.

So the ultimate questions:

What is I?  What is me?  Am I the body that chains me to this “reality”?

Or am I simply the result of complex chemical interactions?

Or am I something else entirely?

The answer may not be revealed until that moment I choose not to return…