[Lenny Hensley]

Joplusiain -

Float Time, actually, is a misnomer, because one of its characteristics is

That it is timeless.

But, I'll begin at the beginning..........

And bear with me:

In 1970 I rented a largish old farmhouse at the outskirts of Medford, Oregon at

The base of a really big hill called colloquially enough, by

The name of "Roxy Anne."

Soon we were a household of 4 young men and 3 young women,

Various dogs, wood heat, and a really big truck garden.

Now, just outside of my room, on the ground floor, was

What we call insalubriously in America, a Mud Porch.

It was about 7' x 9', with 30" high solid lower walls and all glass windows up above.

It was intended originally to be the main entrance to the house, but we all used

The back door, which entered the kitchen directly.

That space powerfully attracted me - I can't tell you how to this day -

So one day I carpentered up a wall to wall platform in it, bought some 6" sheets of foam

And made it into my bed.

Of course my housemates immediately and raucously dubbed it the "Pleasure Palace",

Not without a superficial point, because I "was across three counties in the moonlight" those days,

As the saying goes.

Anyway, I wake up one spring morning to find the Tree of Life, infinitely large, at the foot of my bed.

My forbears called it Yggdrasil.

It is known in a thousand cultures, and has a thousand names.

And I talked with the Tree of Life and it talked with me.

Now, a couple salient perceptual points. Even though I was in the

Same old Pleasure Palace, it had become dimensionally infinite because I was no longer

Ratiocinating via Western dimensionality. Time, too

Had ceased to exist.

I felt an incredible sense of joy and fearlessness at simultaneously

"Being home" in something which absolutely was not any home I had

Ever remembered or imagined.

So that was the first time I went into fullblown Float Time.

Now, if you look at the Tao, Buddhism, Shinto, Shamanism worldwide, or more

Modern appreciations, such as the bicameral mind,

It is still all there.

Over the years, I have learned how to enter that portal awake or asleep, at

Work or at home or out in the woods.

You can do it in less than 5 minutes, then you just run.

There is always the temptation not to return. For whatever reason, something

Like a voiceless voice has always requested I return, whether I'm only

A little way out there or a very long way out there.

Consistently I have found that when I return the sense of alive

And intensity of the creative are running at max.

A pleasure, indeed.

For what its worth.

hoka hey

john