“Without the traditional sense of my physical boundaries, I felt that I was at one with the vastness of the universe.”

“In the absence of the normal functioning of my left orientation association area, my perception of my physical boundaries was no longer limited to where my skin met air. I felt like a genie liberated from its bottle. The energy of my spirit seemed to flow like a great whale gliding through a sea of silent euphoria.”

“I have come to understand how it is that we are capable of having a “mystical” or “metaphysical” experience-relative to our brain anatomy.”

“I’m no authority, but I think the Buddhists would say I entered the mode of existence they call Nirvana.”

“The Mysterious Stranger” was written in 1898 by Mark Twain and never finished, later edited and published.

"It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream— a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought—a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!"

The long, fruitless search left me both mentally and physically exhausted. How much further must I trek before I finally reach the end? How many tears must I shed to cease the crying? Dragging my weary body forward, I questioned what I was searching for in this lonely quest. In a hypnosis session, I felt like a child abandoned in a vast sea of humanity—left forsaken, helpless, and engulfed by waves of sorrow, powerlessness, and loneliness. The tears flowed like an unrelenting fountain.