I am not here with you!

You have to try this!

My train slowly pulls out of Greenwich. It's been a peaceful commute so far. As I look outside, Elgar begins to play through my headphones. I really like this piece#! I turn up the volume.

'Nimrod' begins to take hold of me. I start to drift away! In most of the next 4 minutes 14 seconds - the length of the recording, I transcend much of what passes as my journey. I experience what I call an out of body experience.

Prelude
I'm cosy and content in my corner window seat. It's a cold morning but warm blood pulses around my fingers and toes. I'm nice and snug! Initially, I feel the motion of the train enhancing my drift into the music. I begin to see the regular landscape passing by me, which is like most commuter views into major cities. [A patchwork of open green and brown spaces, trees of autumn shades (today) lit by the sun then masked by early morning shade, interlaced with old style houses, fancy new apartment blocks, tired tower blocks, factories, a football stadium, church spires, over-bridges, under-passes; streets busy with cars, cyclists, pedestrians. Mid-stations flashing by to rushing echo and static outlines of faceless people.] There's a subtle breeze on the back of my neck. It conspires with the embracing sound to make my neck-hairs stand on end.

The Now
The unknowable moment comes and my Prelude no longer exists! The observable, sense-based world has gone from my life! I am oblivious to my surroundings on a crowded speeding train; I see nothing of the glass-framed scenery unfolding before me; I feel none of the physical sensations I enjoyed seconds earlier. I exist, I think, but not in any space I am aware of, or in a time I can knowingly measure. It's like the  instant you fall asleep: You don't know precisely when that is, you just eventually come around to the fact that you dropped off.

In this non-physical, musically inspired mental state (if there is scientifically such a thing), I am not  here with you, with everyone else. In the minutes of this music I am either totally imprisoned or else completely set free - I don't know which! I don't care! And as 'Nimrod' reaches its crescendo and then moves serenely towards a peaceful end, I am simultaneously overcome by euphoria and melancholy. (I know: How can I feel such things if I'm not here! Well, this isn't Philosophy 101; you'll just have to go with it!)

I know what I didn't sense or feel in these lost - or were they truly lived? minutes: Town-planner-organised rush-hour chaos, sad-looking pedestrians, ill-tempered road users, frustrated standing-room-only train passengers, noise irritation, train signal stop-starts.... I jumped over these minutes, like a time-traveller, to instantly arrive at a waking point coinciding with a moment shortly after the end of the music.

As you have just read, out of body experiences are tricky things to describe! So please don't feel obliged to read this again (though secretly I'd quite like you to)! Instead, I passionately urge you to download Elgar's 'Nimrod', get comfy on your commute, turn the volume up and try it for yourself!

See you on the other side!


# 'Variation on an Original Theme Op.36 "Enigma" - 9. Nimrod (Adagio)' - Sir Edward Elgar