Peak Moments

I’ve only had a few incidents in my life when my body and mind conspired to produce a result that far exceeded my expectation; when I functioned beyond the bounds of my recognized self, as though guided by some external force. Some athletes call it “being in the Zone”.

As a teen in Florida, my brothers and I came home from outside play to find my months old baby sister Robin floating face down in the pool. In a single motion and without thought, I scooped her from the water and started CPR at the side of the pool. She responded fairly quickly, rewarding me with a welcome spray of pool water and stomach contents. Everything I did in those moments was done without conscious thought or effort, as though guided by some external hand. Yes, I had been trained in Boy Scouts, but that was a few years earlier and certainly not practiced after that.

The next was at the Brickskeller pub off DuPont Circle in Washington, DC, noted for having over 1,000 beers on hand. My date and I settled into the huge dart room upstairs and began a casual game, quickly interrupted by someone challenging us for the board. For some inexplicable reason, I slipped into a cool Chuck Yeager drawl and began to throw nearly perfect darts for over an hour. It was all I could do to keep my own shock from showing. Then again, it was like I was playing with someone else’s talent. I went out and bought a dart board, thinking that I was on the verge of a new occupation, only to discover that the spell was lost.

The third event was in Mexico. In the hills near my island home in San Blas, there are three of the most beautiful and diverse waterfalls I’ve ever seen. They are all the more precious due to the difficulty in reaching them. From the tiny village of El Cora, a long hike ends in a steep descent down a dry river bed, making the falls inaccessible in the rainy season. The river bed is littered with large rocks and boulders of every size and shape. The group I had taken with me that day was going much too slowly for my taste. In frustration, I broke away and started accelerating down the bed; faster and faster until I was sprinting and leaping at speed that was terrifying, in retrospect. At the time, however, I could see the path ahead with extreme clarity, visualizing the arc of each step and its landing spot. When I reached the bottom, I was shocked and calm at the same time. It was certainly an athletic feat I’ve never experienced before or since.

Then, there was a mystical experience at Esalen. There was an open event at the Big Yurt (back when it had canvas walls) to heal the relationship between my friend, Tom Brenner and his girlfriend Barbara. Community members were chosen to represent them and others in their lives. The facilitator would move the surrogates to various locations and positions and then “feel” the resulting energy. The technique has a name which I can’t remember. What I do remember is being chosen to be Tom. At one point, the rep for one of his former mates was moved in front of me. I was suddenly overcome by intense feelings of dread, shame, sadness and started to cry for no reason consciously known to me. Turns out there was a very good reason for the emotions, which I won’t go into here. How could I feel Tom’s emotion from a person I never knew and wasn’t even there? Maybe the Shadow knows. I don’t.

And we’ve heard of mothers who found the strength to lift a car to rescue a child and of battlefield performances that defy imagination.

These and other experiences with my Ninja friends, have made it perfectly clear to me that we humans normally operate at only a small fraction of our magnificent potential. And I guess the question is : Why ? Why do we normally so limit ourselves, or play it safe and small and powerless ? Are we afraid to admit and own who we really are ?

I only wish I knew.