There is a song that I play for my six-year-old daughter when she is falling asleep. We have been playing this one for a long time …probably since she was four. I hold her and she falls asleep in my arms. It is Svefn-g-englar by Sigur Ros. I was told that they make up the words - they are’t in any language. It sounds to me like they are saying “It’s You……” over and over again. I hold her and she hears, “It’s You…”
This is the sound of my love. It comes out of my heart, wraps around her body, and harmonizes with her vibration to create a very strong hum. This is what artists do. They give shape, sound, and form to ‘Things Invisible to See’ - the title of a book I read in high school that I never forgot.
Is gravity real? Is heat real? Is attraction real? Is love real? Is resonance real? Is synchronicity real? Is growth real? Is peace real? Is scent real? We put shape, sound, and form to these things as a way to better understand them - as a way to draw them closer.
Psychedelics are sensory amplifiers. I heard the air displaced by the wings of a bird. I saw a depth of color in snow….purple, crystalline blue, so complex, so deep. I felt how I was connected to all the life forms around me. The mountain lion must have eaten the mushroom and then gone hunting - ears perking up and eyes able to distinguish the subtle shadows that are usually invisible.
Psychedelics allow us to see the world more fully and allow us to understand it more completely. All becomes more clear. It is a whole and we are part of that whole. We give up our small sense of self for a much greater one that includes all that encompasses us.
My traveler lost his house - lost everything he owned in a fire. On the journey, he stared up at the charred Redwoods, imagining all the small creatures, birds, and trees that burned. Tears came pouring from his eyes. ’Dear forest, I’m so sorry for your loss.’