So there I was, living my outdoorsy, lumberjacky life, when out of the blue, and despite feeling like a teenager, and despite lack of causative factors (no stress, no drugs or booze or smoking, pretty good diet, etc), I have a crazy-ass heart attack.

Here are the main events: Heart failure, open-heart surgery, kidney failure, heart valve failure and replacement, dialysis, heart stops and restarts a few times, tracheotomy, intubation, etc…

My hospital stay breaks down into three phases: around 8 days of Descent, around 8 days of Ascent, and around 8 days of Reemergence. I come home and a few days later I’m ‘coptered back for another 5-day stint during which a small defibrillator is installed in my chest to correct wonky heart rhythms before they crash me.

For most of the first two-thirds, Descent and Ascent, I was in an entirely different space than my physical surroundings. I was deep in a fairly unpleasant and sometimes hellish shamanic space, very detailed and very complex, that ran in long, straightline narratives to which I still have mostly clear access.

What we’re going to do in subsequent posts is take a look at this weird dream-within-a-dream content from all sides to see if there’s any benefit to be had. I’m not saying there is, I’m just saying we’ve been provided a mountain of compelling material, so let’s take a look and see if any of it is of general value.

Stick around. You don’t get an offer like this every day.