The Divine Experience
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Next his body began to float upward, through the ceiling, through the attic, and up through the roof into the cold night air. Positioned on his back in his normal sleeping pose, he could tilt his head from side to side or straight back. He could even lean to the left or to the right if desired, and so he did. "The tree tops seem funny looking from this level", he thought. They reminded him of giant broccoli stalks, softly illuminated by street lamps. Though every rooftop looked the same in his neighborhood, the boy tried to locate the homes of his friends, Scott, Ellen and Tommy. With out a doubt, he successfully picked out each one correctly. "Wow! If my friends could only see me now . . . they would be so jealous! . . . I can fly! . . . I can really fly!"

The cool evening breeze caressed the boy's face and tickled his toes and rustled the leaves in the trees below. Noises of cars could be heard rushing by on the highway several blocks away. The familiar sound of a kitchen door opening and hard sole shoes on a garden walk were heard next. These sounds were followed by the clink of a latch, the creak of a gate and the clunk of two metal cans being placed out into the back alley. "I just remembered ", the boy said, "Tomorrow's trash day." In that moment, a neighborhood dog, disturbed from it's sleep began to bark. "Shut your yap . . . it's only me", a voice yelled out into the night. "I know that voice", the boy said, "That's Mr. Thistle and his dog, Barney . . . I wonder if they can see me up here!"

His body continued to float upward, away from his familiar surroundings, first at a slow rate, then faster and faster, like a hot air balloon out of control. The child was puzzled as to what was happening, but strangely he was not afraid. "This doesn't seem to make any sense", he thought. "Where am I going, and why am I not cold?" His pajamas, both top and botom became tightly compressed against his soft skin, and though the air velocity was stronger than any gust of wind he had felt before, the child felt comfortably warm and protected as his body lifted higher into the darkness. 

Moments later, his rate of acceleration began to slow down to that of half speed. Still moving upward towards the dark, empty unknown, the traveler finally had a moment without visual or physical distractions . . .a chance to contemplate this mystery. Before the child had time to complete his thoughts, his attention was diverted to the theater of illuminated gems set within the blue black sky all around him. Every star seemed to dance and sparkle like individual performer's entertaining for his sheer joy alone. The traveler's eyes  became fixated on these celestial beacons as his pajamas now waved and whipped loosely against his skin. All the while, the boy was never cold and never afraid, only curious as to where he was going and why he was going there.