MTTL#3
In high school, someone discovered that by hyperventilating for 30 seconds, and then applying pressure to your jugulars, you would shortly faint and pass out for a few moments, and then slowly regain consciousness. We started underground, at sleepover parties in the basement. Gradually, we we built up our confidence in the technique, and convincing ourselves that the likelihood of permanent brain damage was “risk-tolerable”, we began conducting “services” knocking out kids on the playground behind a sports shed during off periods.
The experience is surreal. A time warping phenomena happens as your brain slowly comes back into consciousness, observing itself wake up, recounting the experiences that led to it being unconscious in the first place. Once you’ve remembered that you signed yourself up for this, and recall the very last moments of your friends wrists up against your neck, there is this adrenaline rush that happens when you realize what happened. Not only do you feel like hours have passed, but you feel oddly refreshed, in an off-putting but slightly ridiculous way.
I fade into the abyss. I fade away. The fading is so comfortable… and,, magic. Why do I remember this place? The teetering between worlds of known and unknown. Where do I fade into? Why is the dark so scary and yet nostalgic? It’s like the moment Ben Franklin drops the coin to wake himself up right as he falls asleep. The transition.
