There was a point in the service where, Don dimmed the lights, played ambient music and had us all eat a Hershey’s kiss.

Initially it reminded me of High School creative writing class, our teacher had us “experience” an orange with all our senses and write about it. It bordered on erotic as we read each observation out-loud. The common experience merged us as a group, for a moment. Ironically I don’t remember anything else about the class.

Last week, we went to see the movie.

At this point in the movie;

“And the crowd or Argentinians become one vibrating pulsating mass of humanity.”

The music, the movie, the audience, the seat, all the people in the movie, the lighting, for a moment became one. Very close to an ecstatic religious experience.

My dad called it “being fully present” the point in time where there is nothing but the moment and the object of your attention.

I love chocolate, really really good dark chocolate. In comparison Hershey’s would be the “Yugo,” Godiva would be the “Chevy Impala”, the chocolate I am talking about is the hand made “Morgan” or “Bentley”.

In my job we taste chocolates. we have an involved process for tasting. As a rule we will taste several chocolates in a sitting using the same process for each. When we use Hershey’s generally during this process it is grainy and pale.

Being handed a Hershey’s kiss as a sensory experience prop, I had to filter through these thoughts and experiences. As Don introduced his exercise.

But something else happened, not sure if everyone else sensed it though there was a collective “wow” when Don turned the lights back on.

To me it was similar to the U2 moment or like back in the day when worship “happened” during the prayer meetings where time stood still and all the individuals became a collective one.

i love that phrase: “the quivering nerve of mysticism”…that conveys it so well…

peace, love and and altered states of the “orientation asssociation area” to you…

From a avowed chocolate snob that is a high complement.