First “peak” experience I ever had was drowning in the ocean. Almost died, left my body and had some visions, and when I came back it seemed as if a spirit had saved me from drowning… I was an atheist at the time and tried to ignore this experience for months. I didnt know anyone who could help me understand it anyways – going to a church would obviously not be the answer lol!

Eventually something kept bringing me back to that experience and I decided I needed to investigate it more to see if there was more to life then I thought… Maybe I didnt know everything as my then atheist mind thought. For a while I did chase peak experiences – I dont think I was addicted, but I didnt know any other way to understand what had happened to me or what it meant….

I think that is where community comes in. So many people have no place to turn to when they have these experiences. I know I thought maybe I was going crazy and wondered how long before I was in a psych ward. Without community and good sources for information to help me understand the experience, only option I knew was to chase similar experiences hoping that maybe things would start to make sense if I had more experience.

It worked in a way – I did start to understand things more as I got more experience, and I did eventually find good community to help me learn. But I think it was a harder and even more dangerous road trying to figure things out on my own…. Community can be so important for understanding and integrating these experiences in a society that claims they dont ever happen.