The Hallucinations of Hermits: An Exploration of the Compensatory Nature of the Imagination

What is required when I spend so much time in my mind?

For the engaged writer, concentration creates a private experience. The focus which enables us to convert scenes played upon the screen of imagination requires a removal of distraction. This challenge means we spend time alone, in the planes of imaginary space. Is there a downside to this immersion? Do we begin to novelize our private lives, applying the secrets from our mind to what is occurring in the present sense? Is there a hangover of distemper when we remove ourselves from this dialogue? Or conversely, is there a state of euphoria in living so much from imagination?

 Ecstatic Experience = feelings of a new life, another world, satisfaction, joy, salvation, glory; of new and/or mystical knowledge, of loss of words, images, sense; of unity, heaven; of up-feelings; of contact; of loss of worldliness, desire, sorrow, sin; of enlargement and improvement; of loss of place, of light and/or fire feelings; of peace and calm; of liquidity; of ineffability; of release; of pain.

              Excerpt from “Ecstasy” by Margharita Laski

I hope those who experience this anxiety or ecstasy will feel free to share, not only their frustrations but also the remedies that have been applied in an attempt to overcome feelings of dissociation. In collecting unique experiences, we may discover commonalities.

{Artwork by Enzo Cucchi}