the question then is escape: from Control, from the planet, and ultimately, from death. how would you attempt to survive physical death and achieve immortality? he (burroughs) calls the place of immortality "the western lands" and says that we are kept in bondage to our mortal selves by fear. to reach the western lands one must relinquish fear and confront death. would you like to live forever? please remember a close encounter you have had with death. having a bad trip in seattle, i just wanted to clear the acid from my head. i knew that if i could just go to sleep, when i woke up, i would be fine. lying on my bed, face up, closing my eyes, trying to stop them from moving with my eyes closed, incessent back and forth motion, i feel my soul jump out of my body, as though i was running fast and my body stopped but my soul didn't. it immediately snapped back into my body. i realized how close i had just come to death, or at least something like it. i was not scared. i accepted it, knew that it was a part of life and i knew that it was Nothing. i tried to do it again. would you like to reach the western lands? please list your ultimate fear about death. i would like to live forever, to reach the western lands, but not in the physical sense. our bodies grow old, less functional; and how can one live in a body that grows less functional as each year passes? you can't ---> there is only so much "less functional" hat a body can get before becoming completely non-functional, in any practical sense. but if my mind, my spirit, and my soul could live forever, i would want it to. i think that my ultimate fear about death is that there is nothing after. that you cease to exist when your body ceases to exist. i feel that i have based my whole life on the belief that there is something else, and if there isn't, will i have lived in vain? will i have been nothing more that a fading memory of someone elese's? is there something that i should have then done in my life if it's all over after this? would you leave behind other baggage besides the hulk of your body when you escape to this penal colony? please list something you deeply believe in that must be left behind in order to complete the process. the only thing that i think i completely believe in is love. but i think that what i need to leave behind is an individual love-->the idea that i could love one thing, or one person, more than any other: i should move towards an all-encompassing love, honestly loving all things, or people, equally, regardless of who or what they are. headtrip| no secrets| next| mail