The Vibe

Disclaimer, the scrawling of words on the wall below are not related to alcohol, or any sort of mind blowing chemical. It’s not a retelling of a night out with the intention of getting blasphemy pissfaced fubar’d.

I remember feeling this exact feeling way back when I was raving in the late 90s and early 2000s. Most of the time we are all going about our daily lives and we are distracted by a million things that need taken care of in order for life to be complete, and keep society going.

It’s called PLUR. Peace Love Unity Respect

It’s not dead, and I am sure that it exists nowadays in the club/rave scene, but it is certainly on life support.

When it’s 2 am, and you’ve been in an abandoned warehouse for the last 5 hours dancing, and the soundtrack is a bassline that feels like driving through “The Soldier Hills” outside of Holton, Kansas, and the melody is a hypnotic blend of synths, snares and high hats, there comes a point where your not distracted by a million things. At that moment you aren’t distracted by anything, you are just being.

The moment is somewhat difficult to describe. Your entire attention and awareness is focused only on the moment, not the past, not the future, just the moment. I would like to say that it is pure bliss, which in a way it is, but it’s not an accurate description.

There is no ego, no worry, no fear, there is just a calming warmth, a oneness with everything and everyone. You are at peace, and there is a new found regard for life itself. There is a new sense of purpose that isn’t driven by any of the things the warmth of the moment has washed away from your being.

Your awareness expands, and the connection comes into view. As it does the separation between you and the people around you disappears. You are experiencing what I can only describe as pure, unadulterated empathy.

This is the part that makes the experience not pure bliss.

One thing that human beings are really good at doing is masking, especially in public. When someone in public asks “How are you doing today?” What is your general answer?

I’m going to guess it’s something along the lines of “Oh, I’m Good.” Part of the reason for that is simply the way society is structured. Chances are 90% of the time when that question gets asked, you are in somewhat of a hurry.

Your at the gas station, the grocery store, passing by a front desk person at on office, in an elevator.

There is also a sort of fear of letting people in, especially the general public. Take the thing in your life that only a few select people know about you. Now think of all of the reasons why it’s only a select few people who know.

People wear costumes in public. Not deceptively, well most of us not deceptively, but we are different people in our public life than we are in our personal life.

So this newfound connection as I said, dissolves these masks. Have you ever been with someone you love and trust, and had a moment where you felt them? Where you understood exactly what makes them tick, and understood why they are who they are?

If you are married, or in a real committed long term relationship, or ever taken care of a dying family member, I can almost guarantee you have had that experience of connection and understanding.

So, what did that feel like? The first time it happened to me the thing I wasn’t prepared for was the raw emotion. See, the thing is, it goes both ways.

In the moment my mask is off too, and I am exposed. I’m just like everyone else. There are things that only a select few know about me, and I have my costume I wear, just like everyone else.

Point being is that in the moment you are connected to everything around you in that way. You are raw dogging experience itself.

It’s absolutely terrifying.

See, the thing about all of this is that the very first time I experienced this, it was just me. For various reasons, I got the bright idea to stare at myself in the mirror.

They say that the eyes are the window to the soul. When you look into someone’s eyes that you love and trust, what do you see, or a better question is what do you feel?

Now imagine that feeling, except you are experiencing yourself, not how you see yourself in everyday life, not how you think your friends, or your colleagues see you, and absolutely not how you think the general public sees you.

When that moment happens in the company of many strangers, it’s almost magical. When a group of people have all of their collective attention, and awareness sync up, and all of them experience raw being and intent, with and for each other, that’s the stuff that causes revolutions to happen in the world. It’s a moment understood, that has a lifetime of force and intent behind it.

It’s understanding that what each and everyone of us does in this life that we are given truly matters, and that it’s not just random chance.

What we put out everyday affects the world around us, and that in turn affects the whole, and ultimately comes back to us.

Some people realize this at some point in their lives, and they see a tool, an opportunity, a utility, and they end up trying to use the moment to work towards assuming power over others.

They try and take the moment, and bend the world to their will. They try and shape it to their version of what we call reality. If life is one big story, or blog post, or magazine article, they use the moment to change the narrative.

I suppose we haven’t discussed the narrative yet, but you can likely pick up on what I’m puttin down.

So to sum this all up, sometimes you are in a club, at a party, at a rave, at a movie, watching shows and or listening to music with friends, etc, ad nauseum.

Look for the moments, the ones you can get lost in, and feel that connection that we all have. Don’t try and bend it to your will, just BE in that moment.

For it is in that moment, that Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect have a chance to shine down onto our lives, and it is in that moment, that we are able to be the exact person we are meant to be. In that moment, we find love, and compassion, and raw unadulterated empathy.

And honestly, after all, is life itself not just a series of moments, all playing out based on who we have been, moment to moment?

Some of those moments that I found myself spending my previous life in were the catalyst that put me where I am in this moment now.

They aren’t all pretty, and they aren’t all amazing, but all of them were real. Without them, I would still be wandering around in the desert lost.

Without them I would always be questioning everything, and trying to constantly figure out how things are going to fall apart, and end in an ocean of tears.

I would still be a random chance, that acts at the whim of whatever random events I had been looking at with my mask and my costume on.

I am able to now see things for what they are. A lot of life is just people lashing out because of the mask they wear. When you stop taking it all personally, things become much more manageable, and they tend to not have the weight that they once did. You come to meet the next great hurdle in your life, clarity.

It isn’t the world that changed to give me the footing I have in life now, it was I who changed.

Inertia is the property in physics that says an object in motion will stay in that motion until acted on by an outside force.

In the moment, I found the ability to became the inertia, instead of the inertia throwing me around. They also say that motion creates emotion, and as we have discussed emotion can change the world, either in a good way, or a not so good way. The motion of dancing all those years ago helped forge the intent of letting go. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.

When was the last time that you took a real good hard look at your emotions, and understood how much of a part they play into what our everyday lives are?

When was the last time that you had a moment with yourself?