Everyone has heard the expression "to be in someone else's shoes", but have you ever experienced it in reality? What does it mean to be someone? Feel like another creature, see with his eyes, hear the sounds of the planet in a way that is not given to you. Is this possible. I can definitely say yes - it is possible.
What triggered the strange and a little scary metamorphoses that happened to me that day, I don't know. Probably a trance state that I fell into consciously or accidentally.
Most of all in this world I value silence, solitude, loneliness, if you will. Even if not for long, only for a few hours, but this time belongs only to me. Solitude and freedom are especially acute in nature. Most of all I like deserts and plains. There is no more precise definition of infinite freedom than open space. Only in the open field do you see how great this world is, you feel how infinity becomes a part of you, and you dissolve in the great energy of the Earth.
My dog and I have a favorite place for walking. It is located not far from our dacha. If we're lucky, we don't spend a single hour there. The dog is free, runs after the birds, hunts voles to no avail, and I meditate.
The cherished place is a huge uncultivated field surrounded by forest on all sides. To get to it, you need to drive from a neighboring village for another half hour. But the journey is worth it.
My meditation is peculiar: I just go. Step by step, an amazing feeling of lightness is born in the soul, as if wings are growing behind your back. There is such silence all around that you seem to have lost your hearing. It is disturbed only by the rustle of burnt grass, the distant rumble of the forest and the sharp cries of feathered predators.
In one of these walks with me, an amazing transformation took place.
Everything was as usual: a measured step, the ringing of insects in the sultry air. Suddenly, all sounds died away at once. I saw myself from the side. Not even from the side, but from above. The earth was rapidly receding, swaying, the terrain became convex. From a bird's eye view, I saw myself standing in the center of the field with wide eyes. Not even in the center of the field, but in the center of the universe. Feelings can be compared to broadcasting a picture transmitted by a drone to a control panel. If not for one "but". My essence was not there, below, but high, at the level of the birds. Suddenly, an insight came - I am a bird! It is my wings that whistle through the hot air. It is my eyes that see the earth from an unreal height! I am the same peregrine falcon that soars in the sky. A hot wave swept over consciousness. Suddenly I, or the one into whose body the consciousness was transferred, saw a small dot far below.
Promotional video:
Mouse. I see the goal, I start the pursuit. Delicious nutritious mouse!
A hard shell of feathers and claws shot down. I'll break, I thought with horror, but the bird's body continued its fatal decline. Hit. Ringing. Silence.
What a strange forest! It is huge, just an impenetrable thicket. Yes, complete, is it a forest. Grass. High as the pines of a ship. A small mouse heart pounds in fright. The tiny brain instructs the legs to run as best they can. A characteristic squeak escapes from the throat. Yes, it's me! It is me, deftly squeezing between the blades of grass, wriggling, trying to hide away to hide from the claws of the predator. The world is still huge, and at the same time it has narrowed to the size of a mink.
Rather, rather, into the saving tunnel. I will have time, I will run, I will survive.
Pee-pee-pee, a small animal is running, in whose fragile body my spirit now dwells. I'd rather be a proud bird. At least more likely to survive this day. What is it?! An eerie stomp shakes the ground. The mouse, which barely escaped the claws of the feathered predator, convulsively shrinks into a ball. Oh no! Consciousness covers the scale of the disaster - this is my dog! The mouse knows how to dodge danger in time, but I don't. I'm finished. How silly to be devoured by your own harmless dog, being in the guise of a vole.
This does not happen - the mind cries. But this happens, the subconscious answers. The mouse is safely screwed into the first hole it finds and dies down. The dog stumbles in frustration. She doesn't understand where the animal has gone. I wonder when she will notice that the hostess has been standing in one place for a long time and does not show signs of life? Will she stay next to the body, sighing with devotion, or will she run for help.
The mouse carefully pokes its head out of the mink.
A strange feeling of a new body.
Wow, how great it is to live! How wonderful it is to run: ears rinse in the wind, new amazing smells hit your nose. The mouse ran away, well, nothing, we'll find a new one. We ran, how wonderful it is to rush off a leash, it's a pity that we rarely leave. I would have lived in this field!
Lord, I'm a dog now!
Dog?! Well, yes, when the name is not by name, they call it this word. But who else is here besides me? The familiar voice is the hostess! I'll run, I'll tell you how I caught a mouse.
Four paws briskly push off the ground. The wind tickles a wet nose. So that's how it is, being a dog. True, I really want to eat. Breakfast was long ago and my stomach let down. Everything, I promise myself, if I come back, I will increase the dog's ration. Honestly!
From a sharp jolt in my legs, I fell to the ground, as if not a single bone remained in my body. The dog happily jumped over me, trying to lick my face. I waved it off listlessly. Finally, I have returned to my usual appearance, you can breathe freely!
What happened that day. What actions or thoughts triggered the travel of my consciousness through several bodies? I think that a kind of meditation, deep thoughtfulness and detachment allowed my "I" to break free from the human body.
I will say right away, anticipating ridicule, I did not drink, I do not use drugs. Falling asleep or daydreaming? If so. But I felt every cell of my new body, I saw my human shell from the side, like an empty vessel thrown to the ground. There was no life in him; it beat and pulsed in those bodies into which consciousness was transferred. But now I can say with confidence that I have been in someone else's shoes. But who would have believed …