The Space Between Stars • Airborne Acrobatics

Airborne Acrobatics (From Chapter Four: Ballet in the Air)

WHAT COMPELLED HIM TO ENGAGE IN THESE AIRBORNE acrobatics?
Was he compelled to repeat the triumph over the paralysis of polio
in order to master the trauma of feeling trapped? Wasn’t his excitement
over Flash Gordon breaking free of death traps in episode
after episode a repeat of bridging the space between hopelessness
and hopefulness? But was there something beyond his bout with
polio? Was it something related to the fundamental experience of
being a soul inhabiting a body and experiencing the whole range of
human emotions? Was there a deeper drive shared by all human
beings being expressed in the Flash-Gordon cliff-hanging element
of his passion for the ballet in the air? Yes, it was this and more. It’s
something inherent in being an embodied soul captured and captivated
by the material realm.

What was the deepest source of his fascination and passion for
getting Into and out of these defensive traps? What compelled him
to see what he could accomplish in the air before gravity reasserted
her hold? Could it have something to do with a deeply buried desire
or urge to experience spiritual freedom? This is the freedom a soul
feels before being in a body buffeted about by the desires, appetites,
and hungers that are all part of being human.

Seeing it all through my spiritual eyes, I saw clearly what he was
only beginning to glimpse. He was reliving the spiritual freedom he
felt as an unencumbered soul floating freely in space without the
weight of the body holding him down. During airborne acrobatics,
he defied gravity. He was accessing a liberating consciousness. In
other words, he was fully in contact with me without realizing it.
In this state of consciousness called flow or the zone, he bridged
the space between the material and spiritual realms. The essence of
this consciousness was beautifully expressed in those magical
moments of hanging in the air or floating forwards during drives or
backwards during fade-away jump shots. At a deeper level of awareness,
he was mastering the . . .