The Land of Eternal Waiting
...We were in the center of a vast, endless desert. We were merely sitting in silence, each absorbed in his own thoughts. I found my own mind grappling with the nature of reality. I felt somehow I was on the verge of a discovery, a new realization which I couldn't quite put my finger on. It was an eerie feeling. Time stood still. Gradually the feeling came that we had been sitting there an extremely long time. In fact, it seemed we had always been sitting there. Then instinctively a name came to me from the recesses of my mind, as though I had always known it, the "Land of Eternal Waiting." Yes, it was clear to me that we were waiting there eternally. What we were waiting for, I don't know; but we were definitely waiting.
The memory of my past life began to dim. When was it I lived my life on earth? It seemed many years ago, if I had lived there at all. I began to worry. Would this never end? I certainly didn't wish to remain here forever. What were we waiting for? I was losing my identity. I felt it might be a hypnotic spell. I tried to arouse my memory by recalling the name of my father and close friends. At first the names were dim, out of some distant past. But with effort they returned quite clearly. Still I felt I had lost contact with life on earth. I was really worried. Perhaps I had died from mushroom poisoning without realizing it, long ago. How could I know for sure? Perhaps I really was in the Land of Eternal Waiting.
Silence
Silence had become a part of me. It seemed years since I had spoken. But I roused myself and forced myself to speak. To my surprise the Mazatecs answered in English. I swear it. This really was hard for me to believe. It shook me up a bit. There was some kind of telepathic communication between us. We could understand one another, each in his own language. I was later told it sounded to them that I spoke in Mazateca.
They answered, "Yes, we really are in the Land of Eternal Waiting. This is reality. This is your true abode. Your life on earth never really happened. It was only a dream. You have been sitting here with us all along. You have been dreaming a very long time. Now you are awakening from your dream. You are coming back to reality. We belong here together. This alone is real."...