India has been an eye opening experience. Even though it has only been a week since I landed in India, I feel like I’ve been here for a month. There is a lot going on and it’s a bit overstimulating – in a positive way. In a way that encourages introspection and cultivates a deeper sense of love and gratitude for the people in my life, both past and present.
One of my most profound experiences so far has been an immersion in sound. The activity was called “Sound Bath”. Many people from many different countries gathered in a large auditorium and various musical instruments were played by a small handful of people to create a sonic performance. It was essentially a mini concert using different instruments (no vocals). This performance was an hour long and everyone was seated/laid down on the floor. I found a large, brown, rectangular cushion to sit cross-legged on, closed my eyes, and placed my hands on my knees with my palm facing upwards.
When the band first started playing music, I found it difficult to concentrate. My thoughts rambled, my breath was uneven, and my focus was all over the place. But not long after, I started to become more engrossed in the music. My thoughts quietened, my breath settled, and my focus unified on the melodies. I started to have flashbacks of vivid memories, inspired by the melodies of the instruments. My mind took me through a story that reminded me of the things I love – my family (both blood-related and non blood-related), camping, woodfires, nature, books, shows that have resonated with me. There were no thoughts associated with this, nor judgements of any kind. I simply witnessed these flashbacks as a neutral observer. I was simply aware. For the first time, I truly understand what it means to surrender to the here and now. To simply accept whatever is happening and to let go of my ego. The memories came without resistance and left without attachment.
Accepting whatever is happening helped me solidify a new perspective that was inspired from a conversation with my best mate: Life is like a flower. To grow a flower, you plant a seed. With time and patience, along with the right environment, surrounded by the right people, it grows. As the plant grows, offshoots grow from it. As the flower grows taller, more offshoots sprout. It might seem like a waste of time and energy for the flower to grow offshoots instead of growing the stem all the way to the top – where the flower blooms – but the many offshoots add to the beauty of the flower. Life is similar. There may be many detours in the journey, but the detours add complexity and fullness to life. There is no escalator path.
The vast majority of the visions that my mind created were memories, but a few weren’t. One of which was a vision of myself in a rainforest, surrounded by all kinds of flora and fauna. This made me certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I want to explore the Amazon Rainforest (it has become priority number one on my bucket list). After these coherent visions came vivid animations of the most random things that made absolutely no sense to me. Shapes and objects morphed into each other. It was like the wildest cartoon that I’ve ever seen!
The one vision that I can’t figure out is a sudden white flash of the number 9. It appeared for the briefest moment and then disappeared. I have no idea why the number 9 specifically and I have no idea why I saw it so much more clearly than any other memory/vision.
Towards the end of the performance, I met the young me. He was afraid. Afraid because he can’t quite see where he’s going in the journey of life. I told him that he will be fine – because it’s true, held his hand, and walked through the darkness with him. I told him that I’ll teach him courage, faith, and acceptance. He told me that he’s going to teach me uninhibited creativity, limitless love, and childlike enthusiasm.
During the entire Sound Bath, I truly felt like I was in the moment. Although I can’t remember much of the music that was played, I experienced wholeheartedly the emotions produced by the soothing instrumental melodies. For that period of time, there was no notion of the person that is “Oscar”. Only a consciousness.
I feel so much gratitude for my family. This isn’t just people that are related to me by blood. My family is everyone that has played a part in shaping who the character “Oscar” has become. It’s because of the interactions with these people that I’ve developed. Pieces of them that they’ve shared with me have been imprinted into my soul. These pieces will forever be part of me and I know that even if I’m by myself, I will never be alone.
And that’s my music-induced psychedelic experience.