I took off from Planet Earth this morning. It all happened when Deepak Chopra pushed a button inside of me, using the words “transcend” and “Higher Levels of Consciousness.”

I soared upwards like a rocket-propelled from a launching pad. It felt like an out-of-body experience. But unlike anything I had felt previously. And it lasted the entire time I meditated which was a good 30 minutes!

Deepak said something that triggered it. I think it was when he was describing how meditation can help fashion a foundation in which to build upon. As soon as he mentioned that magic word – one of which I cannot for the life of me remember – I felt myself being raised upwards.

The feeling seems to start around the base chakra, also called the Root Chakra. It gathered strength and then slowly powered its way up and up. I recognized it immediately having just read a comment by a woman who had experienced something similar at the 21-day guided meditation practice offered by Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey. I had just started Day 10 and it was a memorable one, let me tell you. Better yet, let me direct you to the site should you have the time and the inclination to visit it in August 2014.

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(See: Chopra 21-day meditation experience)

The woman’s post described how she felt that she had left the earth and was living among the cosmos far, far away. I knew exactly where she was coming from and I sent her a reply.

My flight made its way up and to what is called the Crown Chakra located right at the top of the head. It is the place where light from above strikes us directly on this plane below.

Let me try to explain how I felt. I was no longer breathing from my stomach or from my chest.

Hell, my breathing had even transcended my nose. I felt my breath being controlled by a place deep in the top of my throat. It was at the highest level, perhaps the upper highest point of I guess you would call the trachea if that is the right word for it.

I breathed like this before. It is a hearty, throaty breath that makes a noise. I call it my “Darth Vader” breath because it sounds like Luke’s father in the Star Wars movie. It has a rasping sound that follows you and the camera wherever that bad guy dressed in black would travel.

I had no thoughts. Yes, please read that again.

There were no thoughts. No thoughts rose up from wherever that pit of thoughts resides in some murky underground. I see thoughts kind of oozing from a swamp, the kind of swamp like Okefenokee.  That’s the swamp mentioned in the old comic strip, Pogo.

Thoughts bubble up from a ether like mess that permeates the entire area. You never know when another one is getting ready to surface nor from which section of the swamp. They all burst upon connecting with somewhere in our brains, which serve as giant monitor screens for our viewing pleasure or displeasure.

To be free from them for just a few moments is an experience bordering on the mystical. To have no thoughts for a full minute or two is what I would call miraculous. I, my dear friend, went thoughtless for a full thirty minutes.

I existed at the Crown Chakra. I was aware of everything around me and nothing disturbed me. I was contented as a cat stretched out on a rug.

Speaking of cats stretching out, just as Deepak was introducing the day’s new mantra to us, my cat Sundance jumped onto the couch and slowly placed one paw after another onto my lap. She eased her way like cats usually do, finding just the perfect resting spot across both thighs. My hands were facing palm down on the couch I had been seated on. My laptop computer rested on the coffee table in front of me as we both took in the marvelous music and the soothing charm of Deepak’s voice.

This was far and away the most contented I have ever been. In fact, I’d say it was the greatest contentment that man has ever experienced. No, that men and women ever experienced.

Hell, it was greater than contentment. It was pure bliss.

I was here, but I wasn’t here. I know that makes no sense, but it is what I felt. I felt above everything, yet still part of everything. As I said, nothing could shake me. No sound from outside my living room. I heard birds chirping, cars whizzing by, and every now and then the whistle from a moving train.

They were all me. They were all you. They were all part of the divine and the divine was in all of them.

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(The Sanskrit mantra for the day was “Sampriya Hum.” I am complete contentment.)

“Sampriya” is spiritual love in action, according to Deepak’s most recent offering translating each of the 21 days of new mantras. “It is affection, caring, and loving. This mantra brings the pure love of our non-local, immortal self into our physical, localized self, making divine love, human love.“