For nine years I’ve been climbing with Aoio, who blogs on here. Hes not too active. Read his posts though, you’ll see his intelligence and soul.
When I was about 17, I noticed that I climbed better relaxed. Instead of warming up, I chilled out, and the boundaries of what my body was capable of was pushed.
Sometimes, since starting this phase, I felt like my head was smashing through a trapdoor in the sky, putting me on a plain of pure white that stretches for eternity. Time, is only relative to space, and when there is no space because its all white and empty, time does not exist. I felt as if who I am really was on the plain, but my body is left on the rock, with my conscious mind.
On this plain, its beautiful. You leave behind all the things you thought about you, and who you are on the inside comes out. You can see who you are as well, you can see inside the inner you.
I found it hard to explain this feeling in my head at the time. It took years to explain this to myself.
I thought I was mad at first. I didn’t explain it, not even to Aoio.
I blurted it out to him, and I expected a ‘yeah right’ reaction.
He told me he’d been having the same thoughts and feelings for as long as I have.
I’ve been to the white plain more than him. Neither of us know why, but I seem to get there easily compared to him.
Having discussed my theory with Buddhists, Spiritualists and new age people, they have told me it seems like a form of enlightenment, cause though a strange form of cathartic meditation.
Think about a climb, you breathe heavily, and exert heavily on your body, when you can you get into a ‘rest position’ (somewhere where you can stand comfortably with a minimum effort, then you force your body to relax and you relax your mind to rest and get in shape for the next part of the climb.
Then you exert again, and rest. Exert, rest. You lose all inhibitions because of the situation. You trust those around you with your life because you have no choice, and you know if it goes wrong they will risk their lives to save you without hesitation and vice versa.
I believe it to be a form of enlightenment, so if you are the right sort of climber, under the right circumstances, on a hard, dangerous climb with the right team, there is a chance you’ll reach enlightenment like that. And I don’t believe that Aoio and myself are the only two, I’ve read similar accounts from climbers, some talk about picturing animals, spirits, seeing their inner self disembodied….
OR I did too many narcotics, so did Aoio, and all those other climbers did the same. Make your own decision.
