Friday, December 31, 2010

Falling down - An astral visit to the underworld

On Friday, December 17, 2010, at around 10:15 PM, I was laying on my back in bed, trying to sleep. Perhaps I did fall asleep, or perhaps not, but I became aware that I seemed to be coming out of my body some. My head and shoulders were forward from my body a little, with my awareness in more of an expanded, diffuse state. There was a strange feeling too, and an odd sound, like from around the ceiling, kind of a continuous sound, maybe something like a choir note extending, kind of an aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh maybe.

I realized that I was trying to have an astral projection, an out of body experience, and tried to keep it going, tried not to dampen it, but becoming aware of it and concentrating on it can be counterproductive. I tried to keep a light touch on it, tried to encourage it, but I felt a slight sensation of it easing, that it was trying to fade, with me settling back a little, more toward solidity, but just a little. I thought, well, if I can't go up, let's try to go down, and I tried to move my head and upper body below my real one, intending to try to rock it up and down and maybe be able to get out of my body that way. I started falling through my body, though, going down. I wasn't sure that was a good thing to do, to fall into the Earth. I wasn't sure how to get back up again from inside the Earth, or how to move around in it. Straightening up so I was in something of a walking position, and turned some to face the west, I tried to to walk, bent forward a little, but didn't make much headway.

Then I was on my back again, oriented as my body on my bed was, my head to the north, and falling through the Earth, falling fairly rapidly. I saw above me a narrow square tunnel, like an elevator shaft, but much smaller, maybe only four feet wide, much too small for my stretched out body to actually be in. Even my head seemed to be outside it. I looked up at it above me, diffuse bands of light and dark and color on it, rapidly going away from me as I fell, the surface somewhat uneven and indistinct, almost like it was made of fog. It was transparent, too, to some extent. A deep, evil voice was saying, to the left and above me, that it finally had me, and was taking me down, and I would never get away, or words to that effect.

I watched with interest, the shaft as I fell, the many layers going away from me. I presumed that they corresponded to something, some kind of levels, though they seemed more narrow than levels that were actually floors. I wondered if they were levels of another kind, and what kinds they might be. The voice was a little disturbing, but annoying more then disturbing. I figured I could get out anyway, somehow.

I eventually ended up in a vast cavern, falling through the ceiling to the bottom. The top was perhaps eight to ten feet above me, though in places it was more, perhaps even over twenty at times, it varied a bit. The ceiling was vague and translucent, with the same unreal feel the shaft had had.

I walked along, slowly. The cavern was full of pale structures, sometimes with short walls and sometimes with taller walls. The walls never reached the top of the cavern, and were usually short enough to see over. Their tops frequently sloped sharply away from central joining points, almost like a very small house without a roof, a roof that sloped on all sides. They were also frequently missing outer walls, and only enclosed or partly enclosed very small areas. Sometimes they had some furniture, also pale and very small. There was also a pale wall to the left, much too high to see over, with maybe more high walls beyond it. It did seem that there were several walls to that side, some intersecting. High walls also enclosed the lower walls to some extent, like rooms within rooms. There was plenty of room to walk along, though, and I continued slowly walking, going around things sometimes, going more or less forward.

I could sense something over the walls, some kind of presence, up near the ceiling of the cavern and beyond it, mostly over to the left and behind me. Something or somethings seemed to be watching me, seemed to be aware of me, seemed to have an interest in me. As I walked along, sometimes going through the rooms and sometimes past them, I became more disturbed and worried, and more and more anxious. It seemed it might not be so easy to get out after all. I still had no idea how I might do it.

I started praying as I walked, to God and Jesus, to come and save me, to come and take me away. I remembered reading of people who had done this, who had been trapped in Hell or with evil entities, and had been saved by the prayer, taken away from where they were and saved, taken back to their bodies.

Nothing happened right away. I continued on, still hoping and praying. I became tireder, and a kind of dreariness fell over me.

After a while, the way seemed to be getting narrower. A tall wall was beside me, to my left, and not far away another tall wall crossed it, partly blocking my path, though there was enough room to go around. To the right was the cavern wall. Ahead of me, beyond the short section of wall, I could see the way continued, at least for a while, though it was becoming much narrower. The cavern began to get darker, the light dimming, fading at the edges, closing in on me to some extent, along with a feeling of closeness, a little stuffiness. My eyelids turned downward, half closed. Whatever was watching me seemed closer, closing in.

Then something happened, something came, a presence, coming down from above, in front of me. It was a diffuse darkness in the dim light, at least as big as a man, but much more spread out, probably covering four or five or six feet, with a greater solidness within it. Even in the less solid outer parts, there was still some solidity, but a diffuse solidity, like a solidity that had no fixed place. It reached out toward me, wrapping dark arms of cloud around me, hugging me, and I was taken up, through the roof of the cavern. I don't remember what happened after that.

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National Novel Writing Month 2010 - Winner!

I was a winner for National Novel Writing Month 2010, meaning that I managed to write a novel of at least 50,000 words during the month (November). I completed it, at least the rough draft, on November 26, 2010, but didn't get the word count verified by the website until the next day. MS Works, which I wrote it in, put the word count at 53,076, and the website put the word count at 53,077. This was a little higher than last year's novel, which had word counts of 52,110 and 52,111. The book for 2010 was a sequel of the 2009 one. I joined National Novel Writing Month [ nanowrimo.org ] on March 20, 2009, as user Stephen_M_99.

Quite a few winner web badge images were available this year. Last year I showed them and said I would choose one to display in the sidebar, but I never did. I think I will just do what I did last time, and show them here, in the blog post. If forced to make a choice, I would probably choose the long one at the bottom.

NANOWRIMO 2010 WINNER!
NANOWRIMO 2010 WINNER!
NANOWRIMO 2010 WINNER!
NANOWRIMO 2010 WINNER!
NANOWRIMO 2010 WINNER!
NANOWRIMO 2010 WINNER!
NANOWRIMO 2010 WINNER!
NANOWRIMO 2010 WINNER!


My novel is science fiction, and I described it as follows in the Novel Info section:

Synopsis:

A sequel to last year's novel, the man who was forced into being a time and dimension traveler for a mysterious agency goes through many ordeals and adventures in a learning process, and continues to create his own past.


Excerpt:

"Have you any idea where she might have gone?"

Jack looked at the creature, then looked away. "Not really. She left a note saying she was going to the store, but I don't think that's what happened. She's been gone two days, and someone's been bringing in the newspapers and mail."

"She's been gone that long, and you haven't done anything?"

Jack twisted in his seat. "I somehow time traveled, to two days after she left."

"I see. Why don't you just travel back and see who took her?"

"I can't," Jack said miserably, "I can't. Other people, or... things... are doing it for me. Or to me. I have no control over it, and I don't know what's going on."

"You really do have a problem, don't you?"

"Yes."

There was silence for a moment.

"I can travel a bit, you know," the creature said. "I can try to go back and see."

"You can? Can I come with you?"

"Yes, of course. Come, we'll stand over here." It walked over to the area by the sink. Jack shrugged. It seemed as good a place as any. He walked over, and the thing took hold of his arm. Jack flinched inwardly.

"Here, here, there's no need to be like that. I'm trying to help you, you know."

Jack stared at the hand on his arm. It was a hand. The nails looked a little funny, kind of like short dark claws, but there were fingers and a thumb. The hand connected to a wrist, which was perhaps a little too hairy, but not much, which connected to an arm, which disappeared up the long sleeved shirt. Jack stared at the shirt. It was wearing clothes. It had always been wearing clothes, he realized, he just didn't want to think about it, and somehow hadn't thought about it. Maybe it made it too much like a man.

He stared at its face. It looked serenely back at him. "Do you have a name?" Jack asked.

"Of course. Would you like to hear it?"

"Yes."

"I'm a bit embarrassed about it, actually. They seem to have had a bit of a sense of humor when they named me. It's Bowser."

"Bowser?" Jack chirped.

"Yes. Technically, Bowser Tiberius Smith. Don't ask."

"Okay."

"I suppose you could call me Mr. Smith, but that seems so formal. Anyway, technically it's Dr. Smith."

"You're a doctor?"

"It's a PhD. Don't worry about it."

"Okay..."

"Why don't you just call me Bozo. It's a nickname they gave me."

Jack stared at him. "I... don't think I can do that."

"Oh? How odd. Bonzo, then?"

"No."

It sighed. "Very well. Just call me Douglas and be done with it."

Douglas the dog? At least it would be easy to remember.



Last years novel:

National Novel Writing Month 2009 - Winner!

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