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BY SONIA D. DAQUILA
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The penultimate destination
IT WAS just an ordinary day. I was too tired and the gentle breeze in the farm lulled me to sleep.
I did not know how long I had been sleeping when a strange experience struck me. I saw two entities. One was like an empty shell, lying on the floor, so vivid: the t-shirt, the pants, from head to foot. I knew it was me! The other one was somewhat floating, formless and weightless, but it was thinking.
I found that situation pleasant. It was so light, no worries, no pains, no cares. Amazed by that unusual state, I wanted to explore the things outside the house. My formless entity levitated and was about to touch the ceiling but I suddenly panicked. I asked, “What if I cannot come back anymore?” My big toe jerked and I was again in that empty shell.
The second puzzling situation took place five years thereafter. I was sleeping with my baby beside me when I heard the tempest, banging windows and doors. I got up and saw big trees uprooted while the tempest was raging on. I saw my body like an empty shell again, so vivid, that I saw one leg dangling from the bed and the weightless and formless one directing me to stand by the window.
The maid was already shouting, doing everything to wake me up yet I seemed to be sleeping so soundly. I stayed that way for hours and several members of the family were already frantic, until I finally woke up.
I was wondering what, why and how the strange phenomenon happened. These two weird experiences inspired me to read books about parapsychology and yoga. I read some explanations and I tried to reconcile them with what I have been teaching in politics, philosophy and psychology.
What I know now is that it is only the earthly body that makes our existence heavy, causing worries, disappointments, sorrows and pains. When we depart from this earthly place, we also leave behind our pride, our ambitions, our fame, the things and the persons we love, and yes, our empty shells, useless, corrupted, merely a heap of unsightly bones, and a handful of dust or ash.
My two experiences are unique. Maybe I am lucky. Para-psychologists call these phenomena Out Of Body Experience (OOBE). At my end, those were glimpses of what awaits us when our time comes. Mine is penultimate because the final one will certainly come, as to when, I do not know. For all out there, the penultimate event is leaving that empty useless shell, and the ultimate one is facing the Creator.
There is no need to fear death. Death sets us free from worldly slavery. It is a release from our yoke. Happy Halloween! (delsocorrodaquila@gmail.com/PN)
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