A Strange Light Experience

 From time to time I’ve  had experiences certifiably paranormal: telepathic, ghostly, precognitive,  psychokinetic.  But on the day after Christmas in 2020, actually after midnight on the next  day, I experienced something unlike anything I ever experienced before.

 

The context.  I was in high spirits,  working on a large painting and, at that moment, writing a blog-post for the following day. It was about one-thirty in the morning, my body felt tired, but my mind was clear.  I’m concentrating on the point I’m about to formulate and type out on my computer, when I notice a slight tremor on my left eyebrow, exactly at the point where the bone of the skull makes a right angle. I also notice there’s a change in the light around me and a sensation of sudden warmth.

 

Suddenly,  light began to emanate from my left eyebrow—that single point on my skull where I felt a tremor.  I could see and feel the pulsations of light.  During this steady flow, I became conscious of the reality of the light because I couldn’t read my computer screen.  The light from my brow was too bright and it was distracting me.    I decided something odd but real was happening.  It might be wise, I thought, to make friends with it,  so I surrendered to the stream of light that was pulsating from my left eyebrow. There was a quality to the light that was exquisitely peaceful; so I laved myself in it, and stopped thinking.

 

Then I stand up abruptly, and still the streaming continues. I observe how this stream, pouring from the left side of my head, was moving to the right in physical space. What I’m seeing makes no sense. I was wide awake and working; something that seemed to emanate from my own head stopped me from doing my work.   I look around at my studio and all I can see are evenly paced waves of light. I get anxious because I’m suddenly not sure where I am or what’s happening or if this will ever stop.  But the pulsations did diminish, so I get into bed and concentrate on the benign side of the  light.   I retreat under the covers; I can  still see light waves around me; but they weaken and I fall asleep.

 

Morning: refreshed, my left eyebrow back to normal.  For several days some  worry about a repeat performance.  A bit unnerving, but a fantastic experience.  I think a camera would have caught the light.  Thoughts?  How to classify? Understand?

 

There is a literature on the subject of strange and remarkable light experiences.   Light is both a physical phenomenon and also it would seem a mental phenomenon, and both have similar functions.  Without light the world would be shrouded in darkness, and invisible to us.  But the same applies to the  inner light of our mental world.  When we awaken from dreamless sleep, our consciousness lights up the world around and in us. 

 

It turns out that my eyebrow illumination experience is just a kid brother in a huge family of folks who’ve had strange and deeply significant light encounters.  The first example that comes to mind is the often-reported near-death experience.  It’s a paradox that when people in some striking way merely come close to death they often have extraordinary light experiences, in which they feel illuminated and bathed with the purest love imaginable. 

 

Also people on the threshold of their actual death report seeing an all-embracing light of love.  Then there are the mystics and shamans and others disposed to ek-static states of consciousness; here too we find plenty of accounts of strange light experiences.   It would be of value if you have something to share with readers, if you have had a light experience.

 

As is well known, the fact that we are conscious at all is a mystery to science.  Some scientists believe that eventually there will be a physical explanation of consciousness. Others, including myself,  assume that consciousness is irreducibly itself, a fundamental factor in nature.

 

The extraordinary nature of consciousness is normally obscured by all the distractions that occupy our normal consciousness.  The ordinary concerns and problems of everyday life dominate our attention and narrow our consciousness.

 

But there is one important fact that we should remember.  Whenever our normal consciousness is disrupted; it could be by almost anything—fatigue, illness, a shocking event—it often happens that our minds are torn open and we are exposed to new powers, new dimensions of experience.  Transformation and enlightenment are always much closer than we might normally assume. It’s a simple fact easily forgotten: far from remote, our greatest ally is within us.  The question we have to ask: what must I do to mobilize what I already possess within myself?  For more on this inner potential we all possess, see my book: Smile of the Universe: Miracles in an Age of Disbelief.