External relation (ICA)

This occurs on realizing that there is absolutely nothing to fall back on or to cling to. What were thought to be solid foundations just crumble away beneath one, leaving one standing on nothing; the only thing that can be relied on is no-thing and that is utterly precarious. It may be compared to discovering that one's life-long best friend has just double-crossed one, and could be what Martin Luther knew when he proclaimed "Here I stand". It is the experience of a person who has never flown before, having to land an aeroplane because the pilot has just had a heart attack.

A dimension of this experience is a sense of awe, that is fear and fascination. One knows there is no second chance, it is do or die. The price for failure is one's own death; it is a case of winning big or losing big, no middle path, a simple roll of the dice can make all the difference. There is a distinct feeling that this is the moment one has been waiting for all one's life. The curtain has gone up and one is on stage.

In this state one decides to keep standing, not to collapse under the pressure and not to take no for an answer. There is a sudden dawning that it was really always like this; one is left with a sense of amazement, of "Wasn't that really something?". One acknowledges that life has been taken out of one's hands and will never belong to one again.

This state is number 18 in the ICA Other World in the midst of this World.