His ritual of relaxing at the end of the day with a hot cup of tea gave Ian Sarin much pleasure. He would lean back in his favorite chair, an antique recliner with cracked red leather cushions, placing the teacup on the wide, wooden arm rest. The rising steam from the cup celebrated a shift from the labor of his day into the more genuine side of his life, of himself. One winter evening, while in this unmindful passage, Ian slipped into a path that he could not have previously imagined. At first the visual aberration he was experiencing impressed him to be no more than one of these occasional migraines. Ian allowed the sensations to draw him where they would. Soon, a ghost image of an outdoor scene began to display itself before him. With a distinct sense of motion, Ian felt himself transported from this New England home, winter outside, to the edge of a forest in Spring --who knew where? As those two contrasting scenes continued to transpose, Ian's familiar room became the more ethereal of the two. A smell of evergreen needles and pungent wild plants overwhelmed that of his ginger pu-erh tea. It was all so real that he could even feel the moisture of the lush forest environment. Odd however, was the utter silence of the place. He noticed there was another person in the woodland scene. The woman seemed to be more imaginary than her surroundings. And she had the radiance and the movement usually reserved for dreams and fantasies. She flowed as a part of the scene, from point to point. Fully focused on the wildflowers that she was collecting, the woman walked to Ian's right, completely unaware of him. Then, she suddenly noticed Ian, stopping in surprise, but only for a second. Her eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped open, just before she gave him a full, welcoming smile. It was as if she knew who he was but had not expected to see him just then or there. She spread her arms and moved quickly toward him, laughing and talking as she came. To his dismay, Ian could hear nothing of what she said to him. He felt drawn to the woman and sensed there was some kind of intimacy that existed between them. She apparently felt the same way, for she leaned over to kiss him without hesitation. But Ian's anticipation was denied. He never felt that touches of her lips. Perhaps she too could not understand what had happened to the sensation of the kiss. As she stood upright, returning slowly into focus, she wore a quizzical expression, head tilted, brow knitted. Ian was overcome by the rapidly expanding a emotion that he felt for this woman, from deep within. Abruptly the woman and her surroundings dematerialized! Ian's body and mind convulsed when the last traces of the forest illusion retreated back into the precise forms of this study. A rush of confusing emotions was forcibly fused into his conscious perception of himself and his reality. Gripping the arms of the recliner, Ian sat rigidly up right, distraught. For a brief moment during the woman's visit Ian had possessed an incontestable sense of purpose and wholeness. Now he felt devoid. The sharp contrast wounded him deeply. What had transpired? For all the world it had felt that in a matter of seconds the tangible world before Ian have completely redefined itself as he remained the only constant. He knew he had not dreamed, or blacked out. The loss of that enchanting woman called Ian back. Despite the evidence the contrary he knew she was somehow real. And the emotions she had provoked in him were certainly so! From the moment he had first experienced the woman's appearance, Ian felt something rapidly evolving within him. it seemed that much about him was transforming. The change was physical. The change was spiritual. The change was psychological! This redefinition included expanding his identity as a segmented awareness, and bonding with something much larger than himself. The total intimacy Ian continued to feel with the woman in the forest was more than he had ever known with any person! And he could not believe that such an impassioned connection could be instantaneous. Yet he had to believe, or accept that the bond existed even before he had the vision. That unguarded assessment troubled Ian. ?