The Sleepers

I had a vision. It was about three years ago. Some would say it was a dream. Still others might call it a “Lucid dream”, but I know what it was.

I found myself in a lecture theatre. Everyone was there for a purpose and everyone had a seat, except for me. I was an interloper. I have no idea what brought me there or how I was able to continue to be there as I had the strongest of feelings that I was where I shouldn’t be.
There was a speaker, addressing the group, but I couldn’t hear him. It was like I was deaf, but only to his voice. I knew these people were special. I didn’t know why they were special, but I knew I wanted what they had. I had a strong sense that they were better than me.

I began to try to get the attention of some of the people around me. They ignored me. It was like I didn’t exist to them. I started to cry. Not tears of sadness or frustration, but the deliberate, contrived tears of a child who can only articulate, “I need”.

My tears went unacknowledged for the longest time, until, finally a woman got up and held me. She told me that this place was not yet for me ( and yes she did talk with the “not yet’s and you shall’s” that we only hear in fairy stories). I pleaded with such despair and passion that I can’t be sent back/away. I begged.

She thawed a little, but I was still acutely aware of the chasm of unconsciousness that separated us. She quietly said that, “Tokes will....” I still remember her message word for word, but she told me that I must never tell anyone what I had learned.

I understood that these people had a rule. “You don’t mess with the sleepers.” I was a sleeper.

Today, I doze on and off. And when I’m awake, I know not to mess with the sleepers. Sometimes I do mess with them and I’m ashamed of it. Recalling times when I have I felt like a cruel child pulling the wings off an insect. Ignorance, arrogance and pride in the new born mind of a child.

The conscious ones ( of whose number I am not part), will be examples to the sleeping. They will simply, be. As the sleepers begin to stir, they will look up and see their destiny.