Based on a visionary experience I had in the Spring of 23′ when doing a Robert Monroe Hemi-Sync meditation. I achieved a state of out of body perception.
The following text was written on the night of the experience-
“I did the Astral Projection exercise! First I did about 20 minutes of deep stretching Yoga and during which, I was doing the boat pose and I fell into the body of a ship approaching a mountainous island way off on the horizon, which was Jupiter’s Cactus Scratcher.
Then I began the exercise. I turned off the lights, besides the candle I’d lit, and I sat in my chair. At first I enjoyed the spaciousness of the sound, but after the voice said to get comfortable I decided to lay down on my bed with my hands on my stomach. When I was starting to- what did they call it- the hemi-synch – I started to see my 1st images.
They were dark plum shades of purple, slightly different colors in relation to the binaural tones and when they met in the middle they made like lavender frills. Like 2 flower heads facing each other closely. It was moving sort of in a fluid manner. Then I realized I had been looking at a purple flower earlier, on my yoga mat. There’s an intricate pattern on the mat in which I saw sort of a purple flower jellyfish in the center, like a celestial creature. I realized what I was seeing in my current vision was part of that same creature. So I started to breathe and the flower petals opened up as I unclasped my hands and rested them at my side. This is my 1st sort of out of body moment.
What I saw was that jellyfish entity slowly swimming out of where my 3rd Eye would be, up towards the ceiling I was seeing my body and my room from out of my body. I was in a low position, like I was kneeling behind the bed, looking up.
In the next part, the guide instructed deep breathing with an accompanied humming. When those deep hum voices came and I started seeing the face of some metaphysical deity. It was presented only in neon lines, kind of resembled Vision from the Avengers in design, and it was staring like directly down at me- but also reverberating through me, it almost felt like I was being eaten over and over again. But I was also aware that it was just looking at me, a sort of spiritually linking with me.
Unfortunately I couldn’t figure out how to do the humming with the exhale so I just opted to continue exhaling without doing the humming. I felt like I had turned down the opportunity to reach my hand out and connect vocally with the thing that was visiting with me. But after that, I saw the imprints of the design of the deity’s face overlaid on my own- like it had given me some of its energy. There are 3 triangular points that met in the center of my 3rd eye.
And then it was really funny cause the instructor says- I want you to count to the number 3 and that’s when you will like feel the power thread. But this is when I got so scared, not because of the meditation, but because Jupiter jumped on me. I was so deep in it and Jupiter decides just to jump on the bed. I spring back to life and audibly yell. I was so into the meditation. I got really mad. Like, Jupiter! How could you, at this crucial moment!? I actually, before he jumped on me, I was seeing something new form, and I was kind of scared.
What I saw was divine but grotesque. It was of like 4 hands interlocking in a square shape with a very otherworldly eye in the center of the 20 fingers. And as I was looking at it, the fingers started unfurling and emanating, almost like tracers. Tracers are like a psychedelic visual where you see a colorful after image of something as you move your eyes. It was really intense, the tracers on all 20 of the fingers dancing like rattlesnake tails, unflinching in its glare. As opposed to all my previous visions that were like very dark and relaxing, This was so bright and in my face. That’s right when Jupiter jumped on me and pulled me out of that. Did he see that scary thing and bring me back on purpose? He placed one of his little paws on my arm for a moment and then I pet him softly and he walked off now that I was OK.
My heart was racing so fast from his jump scare that it took me a minute to relax and fall back into the trance. Eventually I could see the jellyfish above me again, so I started climbing its tendrils, that were like pulsing green vines, because it was like a flower jellyfish. It was really f****** cool and when I got to the top of the jellyfish like I was sitting on like a flower head. I don’t know if it was like a dark purple chrysanthemum or something like that. It was pretty incredible.
The flower I sat on rose through the ground and into a vivid field of lightbulb bright tulips. I realized in the context that I had projected my consciousness through the roof and into the starry night sky. I got a little nervous here and returned to my thoughts again but that was around the time that the meditation ended. That’s when I realized that my arms were like so heavy and like almost numb. That I had to return to and reinhabit my body. I was super lucid for a few moments when I opened my eyes, like I was in a new state of being where I had to reground myself before hopping into writing this journal!”
I approached the making of this piece with a necessity for grounded surrealism. Thus, I recreated the environment of the visionary experience with the talented Mordecai Lecky who photographed the set. I then used the photo as the basis for the drawing. What you see in the final piece is a digital, stylized painting onto of the photo, with a brighter, otherworldly drawing of the Jellyfish entity.
Peter Volpone 