Astral
Projection
Stop. Relax. Breathe. Take the time
to gather yourself in this moment. Take in everything around you. Slowly lift
yourself. See the tops of the trees getting smaller. Notice the skyline. Float
up through the clouds and witness the curvature of Earth. It is growing darker
as you pass through the atmosphere. See an illuminated blue marble circled by a
pale gray moon in a field of velvet black. Look at the three planets orbiting
the brilliant Sun. Feel the tug of Mars passing from behind your shoulder.
Billions of distant stars fill the distance. You’re speeding backwards through
a massive belt of whirling jagged rocks. Here comes Saturn approaching from
the left. Take a spin around by her majestic frozen rings. Fling yourself
toward Jupiter, the Jovian giant. See her eye to eye. Watch the revolutions
of our solar system. Go back farther into interstellar space. Huge clusters of
stars and gaseous clouds taking the shape of a slightly bent finger. The finger
is attached to a magnificent spiral galaxy. Watch it turn. Go back. Much
farther back. Look behind you. You’re one hundred twenty-five million
light-years in between the one you’ve left and another distant galaxy. Milky
Way and Andromeda are struggling for your attention. They will collide someday.
Pull yourself loose and slide back as far as you can fathom. Observe what
appears to be an infinite array of distant galaxies. Go back in time about
thirteen billion years. Everything is quickly closing in on you. The entire
mass of the Universe is rushing toward you at blinding speed and deafening
sound. It focuses itself into a single infinitesimal point.