As my vision cleared, I was being blinded by a landscape of nearly pure white. I reacted to this with glee, in fact, thinking I had made some cosmic breakthrough. It was all too short a time before I realized that what I was seeing was well lit arctic snow. Sigh!

I did get the satisfying crunching of the crusty snow beneath my feet, the pull of the snow on my legs as I moved. It was pleasant. There was no effort required to make and enjoy these sensations as I moved along one step at a time. In short order, this climb over drifts and hillsides culminated in my facing a large opening in the hillside before me. The opening was the size of a small warehouse and I could see that it led down into a tunnel large enough to accomodate heavy machinery.

I walked steadily down this road with a distinct feeling of company about me. There was no one in sight but I still felt the comfort of companionship. The road wound steadily downward and it grew slightly more narrow as I traveled its length. I came at last to a break in the tunnel wall. The hole was only a little larger than myself and I stood in it to see the terrain. I saw a huge opening in the earth perhaps a two kilometers deep and I could not even guess how wide, certainly well beyond my vision in the dim light. I could see the ground, though, far below me. I saw the light of campfires or distant bonfires. It was hard to be sure of the relative size from here. There were figures moving about in the light of these fires and my curiosity was piqued. I remembered I was having a trance vision when the distance between myself and this scene far below was traversed in only seconds.

I was slightly disoriented when I found myself on a rampway coming to the ground level. There I was immediately joined by large and intensely silent beings.The feeling of welcome was palpable and I was not long becoming comfortable in their presence. These beings were a light blue in color and glowing from the inside brightly. They were the shape of a robed person nearly eight feet tall and no faces or hands were visible to me. It was as if they were the shadows of humans being cast on the wall and yet radiating their own light. I heard no sound anywhere in this cavern and was glad that I had had such experiences before. Otherwise, it would have been a bit spooky. There were many of these beings here and no sound at all.

As if on cue, we all began to move to a spot maybe 100 meters from the entrance. There, I saw a circle of stones, obelisks it seemed, about a meter in height and half that across. There seemed nothing special about them that I could see but I certainly felt the buzzing of their vibration. It was just below the level of sound as we moved near them. Perhaps this was the murmur of excitement and expectation that I had felt inside myself on entering this space. I stepped rather boldly toward them for a newbie, inside the circle of these stones. The beings around me did so as well until we had filled in the circle, leaving a good 10 meters of space in the center. I reached out my hands at some unspoken command and contact was made. Actually, contact was anticipated but if it was indeed made, I was transformed before I could feel it. My perspective had changed so dramatically that I almost willed myself to awaken. I felt my body draw a deep breath and relax on the exhale and was once more immersed in the vision.

I was very different though. No longer seeing through a visual sense or searching for auditory cues, I was sensing in feelings entirely. I discovered to my surprise that I was now one of these blue beings myself. At that revelation I was aware that this space was chock full of us. Hundreds perhaps, or thousands, I just had no way to know. I did know that as each new addition to the circle came into rapport I could feel them in some odd way. It was as though my own body was augmented by their presence. I experienced no sense of physicality whatsoever yet I knew that I was being joined in tight embrace hundreds strong.

With an electric current of excitement, my physical body shuddered and once more I could feel sensation. It was then that I noticed the formation of some thing taking place in the center of the circle. It quickly became obvious that this was the most ineffable creature I have ever encountered. I experienced no boundaries to it at all. Looking at it was like looking into an Escher painting. My sight seemed to be drawn to oblivion. It seemed to be immeasurably huge and yet almost human in size. There was no distinct shape yet it flowed into and out of many shapes with the rapidity of thought. It glowed with its own light from within yet light seemed to pour into it from us and the rest of the cavern. Ineffable!!! I felt its distinctness from me and yet knew I was part of its being. I was swept up in the energy of this encounter the way I am transported by beautiful music or falling in love. No thought of self control, no hesitation, no thought of trust or safety could stay this thrust into union.

I realized that the entire assembly was leaping into this melding as well. I was experiencing connection in a way that was throroughly unique to me. I have since had to completely redefine my concept of brotherhood as a result. The flow into this being ebbed and we pulled back to the circle once more. I felt little of the regret and loss I might have expected. I began to understand little snippets of the nature of the force or being before me. It seemed to me (with a commensurate tolling of the bells of recognition) that this was the spirit or entity of the planet itself. Its purpose stated by some unknown method, was to share its awareness and ours. Simple as that!. It offered us one request/command, "LOVE ME". This, I felt throughout my being in all its implications. The experience of it must have lasted for hours, though I knew it had not even been minutes. I remembered flashes of meaning from my infancy. I recognized as well, the existential urges for oneness, and all things in between, resonating to this call. I began to feel my physical body shaking and calling me back and I strained to hold my focus.

The communication, if such it was intended to be, was fluid beyond my ability to grasp. Thoughts were whole and yet like holding water in my hand. I hoped that I would recover them someday and didn't try to hold them for later reflection. I strained to remain open, if that is possible, and found myself elongating to fill the cavern. I became aware of the ceiling of this huge space nearly touching me. I looked carefully at the surroundings and noticed the opening in the cavern wall that I had peered through earlier.

Then with a jolt that reminded me that I was not alone as it shook everyone around me too, we were back to the circle and the being was gone. Before I could give thought to any of this, I was again shocked, this time by an audible humming. After such deep silence, this was a remarkable sound, rich and resonant. I added my own voice to it and was filled with such great joy that I cannot even describe its waves passing through me. At some point in this vibrating wall of sound, a form began to take shape once more in the center of the circle. This time though, it was definitely an object and not a being.

"Oooh! I have been here before," I thought as it watched a crytalline shape materialize before me. It was light blue in color much like our own, and perhaps 2 meters long. It seemed to be a double terminated crystal and about half a meter in width. It shone with internal light and became painful to look at directly in short order. The energy coming off this structure was clear and warm and loving. I sensed that it was love for the Earth that was creating this form. Each of us in the circle seemed to be connected to this shape in some unseen way.

Again at some signal without distinct origin, we joined in to raise this glowing stone about 3 meters off the ground and with a triumphant shout, fling it forcibly into the ground. As it disappeared (it was a thoughtform after all) the feeling of pure joy was overwhelming. "Of course," I thought. "Loving the Earth has no purpose greater than the very joy of doing so." We had created the crystal out of love and offered it to the Earth for the fun of it.

We began to disperse then. The feeling of comraderie and inclusion remained and a piece of that I hold dear even now. As I made my way back to the snowy entrance, I speculated about this experience and recognized that this was the first step in retunring to waking consciousness. Such thoughts were dragging me back to my body like a steady tug on a leash. The more I felt my body in its chair, the less I could hold the vision of the landscape. With a sigh, I returned to the "real world."