Rebirth

Part Four of Four:

A new demonstration was about to take place, but it was no longer a team communication. My hands began to cramp and started to close up, folding in half, thumb to pinky, and then bending in toward my wrists. It felt and appeared like some sort of paralysis or palsy, totally uncontrollable, yet I was completely conscious of it happening. My breathing became rhythmic, while the cramping became increasingly uncomfortable, and all I wanted was for my teammates to let go of me. One of the Receivers whispered to me, “Keep breathing Mikel. Keep breathing.” I began to feel an electric current in my feet. Not the kind of feeling you get when your foot falls asleep, or a pinched nerve, but an energy that felt deep and strong. That energy began to run up my legs, through my body, and traveled up my spine, bouncing off light-up points like the extra-point targets on a pinball machine. The machine seemingly gets so charged with its own life force, to the point where the player either chokes and loses the ball, tilts the machine, or gets the high score and possibly a free game.

Just as the energy in my machine was reaching the top of my head, the Receivers decided now might be a good time to get a little more involved in my demonstration. They helped me to the floor by guiding my fall from the chair, which I was frozen to, as I fell sideways without ever unbending my body from its seated position. On the floor, in a fetal position, I was now in the comfort of someone’s arms for guidance. Cherie, a Receiver, got me comfortable on the floor, my body paralyzed from the neck down. I could still see, hear, and speak, but all I could feel was a current flowing so strong inside of me that it was as if I had been electrocuted, when in fact I had been hit by some sort of metaphysical lightning. With my eyes wide open, I told Cherie that there was a light so strong and bright shining in my eyes that I couldn’t see, on top of which, the light was even brighter when I closed them. Somewhere between bliss and scared shitless, blinded as I was, my eyes could still generate tears. It was well after two in the morning, and although I didn't know if the game was still being played by the other teams, I was certainly aware that my team’s responsibility was now focused entirely on me, with genuine love and support.

Lying there, I was now able to raise my arms and look at my hands, which were still clenched tight, claw-like, as they began to shake with a vibration that I can only assume was that energy current manifesting itself as tremors in my arms. I had no idea what I was doing, or how I was doing it, when Joel, as a Receiver, came over and told me, “You’re a great man Mikel, and you’re doing great.” Cherie assured me that this was actually normal, and that I shouldn't worry about it, but to just relax and enjoy the experience, which began to subside as my teammates helped me up and escorted me to the back of the room where they lay me back down on the floor. There was still a tremendous amount of current in me, especially in my arms, from my elbows to my hands, which were still shaking and freezing. There was a pain in my gut that felt like hunger, but was it higher up than that, closer to my chest than my stomach. It was my heart, and it felt big, warm and tender.

By now the game was long over, and I managed to get myself up into a chair where I sat for a while to “come down.” All the other teams had gone home, as did Cherie and my own teammates. It was four o’clock in the morning, Mother’s Day 1992, and the Receivers were back to being the "Money & You" logistics staff - cleaning up from tonight’s game and getting ready for later, the last day of the workshop. I sat there, alone, in some kind of conscious shock, watching my hands slowly open up, letting go, regaining the strength in my legs, supporting my self. As quietly and inconspicuously as I had entered, I left. Wired, electrified, mystified and exhausted, of the sixty people participating in the Blocks Game, I was the only one that had had this experience. As I lay in my hotel bed that night, I closed my eyes in perfect peace with the light still shining brightly inside me, but now instead of blinding, it was guiding. Like a caterpillar emerging from its cocoon as a newly formed butterfly, a metamorphosis of the human spirit had taken place - right before my very eyes.

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This concludes the special four-part series on 'The Blocks Game', but there was a mention of the experience you just read in my post from March 3rd, 2022. Here is the link to that story titled "Awakening".  

Stay tuned! Next week, the stories continue as my Blocks Game experience has a profound effect on my creative journey. There was simply no turning back.