Mystical Experiencer: Female in her mid-fifties
Current location: U.S.A.
Age at time of experience: 34
I had finished a workday and picked up my two youngest children (ages three and seven months) from daycare. We were driving home. I was completely “vegged out,” driving a familiar route and thinking no particular detailed thoughts.
My current life situation was overwhelming—full-time job, five children, miserable marriage. I meditated when time allowed, which was not on a regular, disciplined basis. I was driving across the bridge that crosses the main channel of the Tennessee River in Lake Guntersville.
As I reached the highest point on the bridge, a voice from within me and around me and throughout me said, “Everything will be okay.” At that moment, everything fell into place and made sense. I felt at one with everything and I was aware that I knew all of the answers to everything. Everything mattered and nothing mattered. Complete peace. Complete understanding.
I thought, “Oh, shit, we’re about to go off the bridge and die.” I equated that feeling with how I imagined an end-of-life experience would manifest. I was changed by that event in a way that I did not consciously undertake. The inner workings of my body—chemical? cellular?—shifted.