I adopted this goal knowing that I’d had a major out of body experience in 1995 about a week after my dad died. I never know if these things are due to being exhausted and depressed or if the out-of-bod bit is tied to the supernatural. Or if any of that matters—maybe death, exhaustion and depression are the supernatural.

It went something like this—Dad died after 10 months of being a quadrapalegic. I returned to Seattle after the funeral in Anchorage, AK and was lying in bed one afternoon taking a nap. Here’s where I could use a bunch of explosive descriptions to convey the surreal nature of the experience, but the facts say it best. I saw my dad floating above my bed, but he was no longer paralyzed. It wasn’t a vision. He was floating … about 3 feet above me. And he was happy. And I was happy. Then I was floating up there with him and it wasn’t clear to me whether he was me or we were one or we were just kicking it together one last time. It was beautiful.

Crazy confabulation of a greiving mind or a true out-of-body experience? I dunno. But I’ll always remember and cherish it.