Whoa, What A Trip!

 

Growing up in the Boomer generation, and yet not really being a very good hippy, my life was, well, sort of non-experimental. It was more important for me to keep my two feet on the ground, so to speak, so the drug scene wasn't up my alley. Both my brother and sister were the experimental types, and they tried their best to get me to join the crowd, but it was more my style to be on the outside rim observing.

Having heard all the stories, from my older siblings and their friends, about tripping on acid, my journey seemed boring in comparison. Everyone called me straight-laced, and it hurt my feelings, but now that I look back, my siblings always seemed to have a rougher go of it when they had to face the real world. Somewhere along the line I picked up religion and they didn't. It kept me out of trouble

In those days, I was somewhere between a hippy and nerd, because the library wasn't a hang out for me either. Even today it's sort of a once year adventure to go to the library, and as it turns out...... this was the week for that. I'm glad I went, because I just had the most incredible experience of my lifetime. Not something you'd think you could experience from going to the library, and grabbing a book. Not something I would have ever done before losing that religion that kept me out of trouble as a youth. But as I've gotten older, I've opened up a bit more and stepped outside the box to experience more of life.  

So, I got this book that came highly recommended by some friends of mine, and after reading it, I realized there was a CD in the back cover. The book was basically the instruction manual for taking a "trip." So, I made up my mind up to experience this thing journey with no drugs involved, and tossed the my cares to the wind as I popped the CD in this dinosaur of a computer. Yeah, me, old straight-laced, Ms. Boring.

The instruction manual had said to make a wish before your "trip" so that there would be an intention involved. So, I did make a wish to find out who my spirit guide really is. All through my childhood, I had been told there were angels watching over me, so now, I wanted to meet them, and the book said I could do that.

Windows media popped up on the screen with some, well... "acid trip" graphics accompanied by drumming. I watched as a smoky tunnel appeared before my very eyes. Now, the graphics had a heartbeat all their own, and danced in a circle around the screen with clouds of smoke pulsing to this drumbeat, twisting and turning and ever-changing with various colors of the rainbow fading in and out. The book did not lie, the drumbeat did actually clear the brain chatter away, and I relaxed into the whole "trip." What I saw amazed me.

There were two white doves against a pinkish purple background, their bodies curved to form a circle, with one dove moving in one direction above the other dove moving in the other direction, so that they were kissing. It sort of looked like the symbol for Tao swirling on the screen. Then, as they spiraled in a circle, their wings began to flutter outward, and the two become one bird, but it was no longer a dove. Now, it was the most beautiful Eagle with its wings stretched out amidst a pulsing background of golden clouds.

The drumming came to the 12 minute point, where it began to slow a bit, letting me know it was time to travel back along the path I'd journeyed down, and the tunnel reappeared. I wondered if this was what my siblings saw, or something similar, when they were tripping on acid. But I was grateful that I could go there without the drugs. Not that I'm so straight-laced in my thinking these days, I've opened to up to some new experiences (not drugs), and this one ranks real high in the top ten right now.

Later, I decided to watch the graphics without the sound of the drumming in the background. I never saw the birds the second time around, though the graphics were still quite beautifully pulsing with stunning designs. And I realized the drumming made the whole experience so different, so amazing. I finally understood this ancient artform handed down from our ancestors. Now, I feel the need to go buy the book rather than borrow it because I definitely want to go on a few more exploratory journeys.

Whoa, what a trip! Better late than never!

Shamanic Journeying: A Beginners Guide

by Sandra Ingerman