View from the Other Side
I have wanted to share this video for a long time. I met the visionary artist Drew Brophy in November at an event in Nosara, Costa Rica, where he told a powerful story about his near-death experience earlier that year. This is the recording of his 9-minute speech. Find a quiet moement to watch it. It carries information beyond mere words.
A few months later I sat down with Drew in his studio to chat with him more about his experience and what has come from it. You can listen to that recording too (audio, video).
I need stories like this in order to stay sane. I am working on an essay about peace right now, groping for what is mine to say, and what is someone else’s to say. The powers of the war machine are collossal. I would lose my sanity and succumb to despair, were it not for the incursion of data points such as the ones Drew brings. We have to stop running around blind—blind to the fullness of what is. What is, includes the power of the military-industrial complex and the horror it continues to visit upon earth. And it also includes the information that Drew brought, with heroic determination, from the other side.
When I watch this video, I remember something important that I keep forgetting. I can’t say exactly what it is. I can’t offer a logical therefore, a moral to the story, a conclusion. I won’t try to contain a greater within a lesser, love within a concept of love. All I know is that in these times, we need medicine like this, first to give us the courage to become lost, and then the wisdom to find our way.
"First to give us the courage to become lost, and then the wisdom to find our way."
The other day, after spending the morning grasping, grappling, trying to hold it all together and figure it out... and not even seeing that this is what I was doing... it hit me: just fall apart. Let it all go, and do nothing but trust the unraveling.
I'm constantly remembering this part of the journey. Words like yours help me do so.
I’m 61 and I had a similar experience. But it started with a spontaneous state of non dual, spiritual awareness that lasted for 10 days on Vancouver Island in Spring 2015. In 2020 I was given approximately 4 to 6 months to live ( when Covid started) a case of non chemo responsive Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. Long story but I did make it to remission then a stem cell transplant from my sister that was a perfect match. Although I did did “ sink” during my period of isolation and recovery, when I bounced back I’ve experienced a permanent state of non dual present moment awareness. My chemo experience was on par with my pant medicine revelations. So much to say…I’ll just say I know he is us/ we are real.