The Sound of Transformation
I am grateful to share this story of transformation which happened to me in 1999.
--Alice Bartholomew
I waken at 3:00AM in a profoundly peaceful state from what I realize is a lucid dream. I am awestruck as I understand that I have just witnessed wisdom.
In my dream, in which I was completely awake and aware, I was in infinity. It was completely dark and black yet I was unafraid. I enjoyed the nothingness. Then I saw something glowing in the distance. I was able to immediately transport myself by thought to the source of the glowing. As I neared this indescribably beautiful and awesome sight, I discerned an exquisite, harmonic sound I had never heard before. I suddenly knew that I was experiencing what I had read in Sufi literature – that of hearing the sight and seeing the sound. I reveled in the sight/sound and sound/sight.
And then I heard a faint, yet annoying and discordant, buzz and noticed something at the base of the awesome glowing/ pulsating orb. It looked like many tiny ants surrounding that base of the sight/sound. I thought I needed to be closer and I was. I saw and heard spectacular sights/sounds of humanity from the beginning of time. There were cavemen with clubs dragging weeping cave women by their hair into their caves. There were cavemen screaming, as they were being attacked and killed by roaring monstrous creatures. I could see all the clashes and chaos of each Crusade. I saw castles with moats besieged by shrieking men who were fording the moats and climbing the walls with their ladders while the shouting defenders poured boiling vats of water over them. I looked at another area and saw knights on steeds in armor with spears and shields charging other mounted armored knights with spears and shields - the clanging of the contact was deafening at close range. I heard the war cries of the American Indians as they defended their territory against those with muskets and the gunshots blended into the war cries to form a melody of murder. I then saw an area that was World War I with the booming of cannons, cracking of rifles and moaning of the maimed and dying. Next was World War 11 with the sound and sights of dive-bombers; anti-aircraft; air raid sirens; torpedoes striking battleships; gunshots; rifle shots; bombs detonating; tanks rumbling through obstacles; and, the final deafening detonations and mushroom clouds of the hydrogen bombs. I was able to observe every human conflict since civilization began. All this activity encircled the base of the magnificent sight/sound, which dwarfed the frantic activity and cacophony of the humans.
There was another sound that blended with the mayhem and I listened closely to perceive exactly what I was hearing. Now I realized that I could understand all languages as I heard voices arguing and shouting from each of the 360 degrees of the circumference at the base of the sight/sound. They were all yelling the same things. “It looks like this!” “No, it sounds like this!” “It sounds like this!” “No, it looks like this!”
As I gazed and listened, I realized that the truth - they all were absolutely right according to which view they had of the sight/sound. None of them knew that they were all looking and listening to the exact same sight/sound because they each paid attention only to their own viewpoint.
I have not lost the wonderful wisdom this lucid dream gave me. I have used it in all aspects of my life, from interpersonal relationships to the global disharmony in which we live today. It has gifted me with the ability to stay in the profound peace of the eye (I) of the hurricane of life as I detach from egotism and practice compassion, service and non-violent activism.
