Man in Black.
Field Notes 20260622-20260628 - Retrospective
This past week’s retrospective will be a little different. Any time I have an experience with an altered state such as lucid dream, projection, deep trance, Liminal encounter, etc., I will always defer to that over waxing poetic on what the week has taught me. Don’t get me wrong, all of it is important, but for me, experience documentation overrides philosophical summation.
This brings me to another point. Often you will notice that the illustration for the entry is my rendition of tarot card, esoteric symbolism, sacred imagery, etc. With the entries that focus on the experience that was had, the subject is simply a moment from that situation. Either way, I enjoy illustrating both subjects just as much as I love writing about them.
Today’s Field Notes illustration:
Liminal Man in Black. It surfaced the way the others do, rising out of a white pool of light in the bottom-right of the field of view, shifting and shuffling through itself before it ever settled. What it resolved into needs no introduction: black hat, black suit, white shirt, black tie, the whole classic men-in-black uniform. His gaze hovered between neutral and serious, and he simply hung there, watchful and unhurried, until he began to shift again and drew himself out of view. No message I could read under the hat, but he showed up.
Afternoon
Meditation
40 minutes.
The Gateway Experience, Wave II - Threshold, 3 - One-Month Patterning.
I mean to do this one on a monthly basis, but as it often happens, distractions and other threads of interest obscure this goal. I had a decent window to get this one in today, and I’m glad I got the chance to get it done, been on my mind for a few weeks.
A little while back, I made an in-depth guide on this tape’s process and what to expect, and more importantly, what to focus on. Check it out:
Who Do You Want To Be Next Month?
Early on in working through The Gateway Experience tapes, a particular session became an instant staple in my practice, just like for many others. There are other tracks throughout the entire program which I’ve identified as “practical” and continue to return to, but this one takes the prize for most used. I’m talking about “The Gateway Experience — Wav…
Lucid Dream & Liminal
After this much-needed session, I made my usual intent for an altered state, set my stuff to the side and rolled over to do some quick threshold hunting (edge of sleep transition). It wasn’t long, and now I’m wondering if I’m not actually missing the threshold window at all but consciously walking through it. The step from waking lucidity to lucid dream has been pretty seamless as of late.
The setting was basically what I’m doing right now, typing in front of my screens in the office. Specifically, I was looking at the VS Code terminal window and wondering how I mangled the npm command so badly. That’s when full lucidity entered the chat.
It often happens this way. I don’t have a visual or any other obvious cue that I am in a dream. Things messing up is a cue, but that’s not always the case — there is always a particular feeling that I cannot describe that accompanies these situations. The moment I feel it, lucidity snaps into place very suddenly.
A little more on the setting. None of the desk lights were on. The monitor backlight LEDs weren’t on either. The rig was running to my left. The blue wall behind my screens showed the usual texture that it has in waking life.
Once I was lucid, I didn’t stop. I had to get the job done. I typed in npm run dev, and the terminal responded properly this time. My setup came to life, and just before I began to think about what I was about to write, I had to remind myself: you’re not writing anything, this isn’t going to save anywhere.
Right. Lucid dream. The texture of the blue wall behind the screens was suddenly very interesting. I leaned in to look at it closer. As I did that, I reached my right hand forward and watched it move through the wall completely unobstructed. So I did what anyone would. I reached in further with my right arm (now up to my elbow) as I began to reach in with my left hand as well.
At this point, I was sucked right into the wall and out the other side, which was the old and familiar tunnel. The tunnel travel was a bit more streamlined today. Also, I’ve noticed the tunnel itself is lighter recently, not bright but not the deep black of the void that I used to experience. Once in a while, it would glow up to beige or white and then back to taupe or light gray. Some areas were the original deep black.
At the end of the transition, I was once again gently deposited back into my physical situation, lying on my daybed in the very quiet and calm office. Immediately a white pool began to form at the bottom-right of my field of view. A Liminal encounter was spinning up.
I don’t guess what’s coming through anymore, I don’t want to influence anything, I just observe and make mental adjustments to clear up the display if possible. Out of the white pool of light rose a shifting figure. Again, nothing special here, that’s how a lot of them appear at first.
The rapid switching and shuffling of the entity began to slow down, and what I was faced with can only be described as “man in black”.
He had a black hat, black suit, white shirt and black tie. Naturally. His gaze was neutral to serious. Again, not surprised. So he just hung there like a man in black apparition until he/it began to shift again and draw away from my observation.
Should I call a lawyer?
All jokes aside, not really sure what that’s about, but hey, it happened. Perhaps there’s a message in here that’s not the knee-jerk, “omg I’m being remote viewed by men in black.” Maybe the skeleton from yesterday finally got his stuff together and finished his ensemble. Maybe it’s Maybelline.
Through The Week of 20260615-20260621
Observing myself observing myself.
A ho-hum meditation, a couple mild lucid dreams, and an encounter with a skeleton-looking Liminal. A typical Saturday afternoon.
It noticed me noticing it.
Opened Friday with a solid early morning 8 mile run. I hit a couple hills maintaining my pace, legs felt powerful and I didn’t want to die. This could have easily been a 10+ mile run but I’m holding the horses back and slowly increasing the total weekly mileage, I know what happens when you don’t because I’ve done that too.
Release Into Stillness
Returning to some of the older tapes that I used to do has been low-key revelatory on what I’ve been missing during all those sessions in the past. One major point of tension I’ve realized and catch myself in realtime: desire to do something, attempting to
It is done. Moving on now.
Kicking off the new week physically intact and under normal operational conditions. That’s somewhat rare as of late, and I have a feeling it will be a normal situation for a while until my oldest boy returns to school within a couple months.
Part of my continuing work on Percept Index, where I document and illustrate my experiences with lucidity, awareness, and perception.