North (mind), South (emotion), West (body), and East (spirit)

In many Native American spiritual traditions, the directions North, South, West, and East correspond to mind, emotion, body, and spirit. These four are seen as ways of experiencing the world, each with its own validity and each with its own powers.

Join me in a quadra-directional journey as I experience my mind from the various points of the compass.

Mind

I shrank, to the size of a thought, an atom, a vibration. I entered my mind on the left side and trod along the squishy canals. They spiraled inward like a primeval conch shell. They zigged and zagged like a great river. I crossed the corpus callosum and wandered the mirror-image of my left hemisphere. I encountered the same deep rivets, older than time itself. I hiked along, seemingly for days, going deeper and deeper into the various parts of my brain. I saw some tangled webs in my hippocampus and worried at the potential pathology. My journey into the limbic system was like entering a haunted house. Spooky, dark and practically extinct. I traveled down my spinal column, straight down. It was a bumpy ride, like a roller coaster made to mimic white water rafting. At the base of my spinal column, I found a tiny sac and entered. Inside were the keys to the kingdom of heaven. I jangled the keys in my left hand and place them back down on a squishy pillow of ligament and blood.

Emotion

It’s not every day that I get to go inside my mind. I was excited and nervous. When I shrank to the size of a thought, my body felt like cellophane under a hair dryer: tight and shriveled. A great rush filled me, and I felt like an atom ready to burst forth its enormous power. I could feel the wisdom of the ages in my frame. I swam effortlessly along the watery canals of my brain. Electrical lights popping on and off like in an arcade. I was in awe of the tremendous power and resourcefulness of my mind. It enveloped me, cradled me, comforted me, yet it also scared me. Could I live up to such potential? Had I lived up to such potential? Crossing over to my right brain, the answers to the aforementioned questions were evident at once: yes. I could. I did. I always will. There was nothing to fear in this womb of love. I was loved, I was total love, I always will.

Body

There’s no easy way to get into one’s brain except by becoming thought. So, with a little magic, I became pure thought and entered my left hemisphere. It was dark, but I managed to capture a synapse and harness its electrical buzz to use as a source of light. I fastened the light to my head like a miner, a miner for peace, as it were. The road was bumpy, wet and filled with the crackling noises of small “pops” going off almost all the time. The air was busy with many scents, some of them burnt orange, others clear blue and misty green. I had to dodge many trains of thought, linear lines of logic that rumbled through with seemingly no regard for any other synaptic presence. Rude, I thought. How rude! I crossed the corpus callosum, a shaky bridge from here to everywhere. In the right hemisphere, trains of thought took a back seat to universal bliss. I was welcomed all at once by everyone who had ever lived and who will ever live. Bliss engulfed me. It felt like a warm blanket and smelled like spring. I was home. I went deeper into the deep blue. Music played that sounded like cotton balls. Happy people invited me to sit on pillows made from good deeds. I sat and have yet to get up.

Spirit

He shrank to the size of a thought, a mere vibration amidst the trillions of vibrations that occur every second. He entered his mind as a thought, first on the left side. I purposely wanted him to enter from his left hemisphere because I didn’t want to shock or startle him. Too often in the past when I’ve been tasked with helping someone discover his inner infinite bliss, I was too eager for them to get from here to everywhere. So, with Hunferth, I took my time. I allowed him to swim along the logical canals of the left brain. I gently guided him to the right side. He entered and was immediately swallowed by an enormous wave of gratitude and bliss. He was hanging ten on the ocean of love. He was free-floating down an endless sky of infinite potential. He knew everything and nothing, which put him in a state of total bliss. I love this part of my job. We will always be friends now. He will always trust me and I will never waver. I can’t waver. I am what is.