Image: Public Domain, Pixabay

Saturday evening, shortly before dinner, I sat down to do some meditating. I went over to YouTube and picked something from my meditation playlist to listen to. I plugged in my headphones, closed my eyes, and tried to clear my mind. As usual, there were various thoughts trying to get my attention, but I imagined brushing them aside to maintain a clear mind. The mental noise quieted and I thought only of connecting to the source. What happened next stunned me.

I’ve seen images in my mind many times when meditating. I usually see things that I recognize, maybe things that I’ve looked at during the day, or sometimes it’s just a dance of colors, or maybe something more interesting. I try not to focus on whatever’s going on behind my eyelids, since I don’t want to end up really thinking about it. Well, this time I was just quietly observing what was going on, and it turned out to be something like I’d never experienced before.

At first it was cartoony, like an old Disney animation. A line of bipedal creatures were smiling and turning to each other down a line to shake hands. Then those creatures started to become people. The people were smiling and greeting each other. Suddenly I realized that I was there in this place with them. I was going up to each one of them to greet them. There were some bows and nods, and many handshakes. More often than not though, the greeting was a warm smile and a hug. I was embracing total strangers like they were old friends. Everyone smiled or laughed or looked honestly pleased as we met.

No words were exchanged at all. Not one word. I greeted each person, then they greeted others. And oh the variety of people! There were men and women, old, young and even babies. I saw a goth, a monk, a rabbi, an Indian woman in traditional garments, an Arabic woman, an elderly Jewish woman, an Aborigine, some African tribesman, Japanese, black, white, brown, every color and type of person you can think of. They slowly filled the room, and I greeted each one. Some people even brought pets, and they were warmly greeted as well.

There was such a sense of unity and friendship there. I was so happy to see them all. I felt such joy at the variety. Every face was something new and distinct. There were some families as well as all the individuals, but every one was unique. I felt such warmth and love and joy as I went to each person. Each of them seemed to light up more as they shared greetings with other people, many of whom they’d probably never have associated with under other circumstances.

I became aware at some point that I was smiling and crying in real life, here in my chair in front of the computer. I could feel the tears running down my face. I was so grateful to feel something like that and to see such a beautiful vision. I’ve never had a meditation like that before. It was so powerful and so real. I could almost feel their hands and their warmth as we embraced. It was a truly amazing thing.

I would love to experience something like that in real life. Wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t it be amazing to see people from all over the world, all different kinds of people, come together in one room to set aside their differences and just be people together? Just one human gathering. And to make physical contact, that intimate connection of touching a hand or kissing a cheek or wrapping your arms around someone, it would be outstanding. That kind of coming together would be so beautiful. I would really and truly love to experience something like that one day.

Briana Blair

Briana Blair is an author and artisan. She has published more then 30 books and thousands of articles across multiple sites. After practicing Paganism and witchcraft for 25 years, she's now on a journey as an atheist and skeptic. She's eclectic, unpredictable, and always evolving. Facebook - Twitter