Exploring Inner Space – Jane Dunlap

Dr Davidson was well aware that I was unconsciously trying to hold the floor so that he would have no chance to say anything I did not want to hear....

Again I saw him as a devil.  His glowing fish scales were a deep maroon this time, and a long forked tail of a brilliant red swished behind him as he left the room.  In a flash, soul shaking emotions took over, each seeming more intense than the previous one.  I broke into loud uncontrollable weeping.  First I loathed Dr Davidson.  Then the projected feeling came home where all hatred belongs; in the heart of the hater.

Although I was no longer the cobra, her venom filled me and I loathed myself for not being able to feel during 5 hours or more of the experience.  I knew that, as long as I was unwilling to feel the depths of terror, I would be unable to know the profundity of love; and that if even one negative emotion were held back, every positive emotion would likewise be kept prisoner.

My loud cries were suddenly frozen by terror.  The cobra was hissing angrily not ten inches from my face.  I was as terrified as if a cobra were actually attacking me; to me, she was a live cobra, and she was attacking me.  Furthermore she continued to attack me during the longest two hours I have ever lived.

'You're afraid of your feelings, you coward' she hissed venomously.

'You borrowed my skin, and you've been showing off how much you know, you despicable smart aleck.  I'm a decent self respecting snake, and I want nothing to do with you.  Ssss!  Ssssss!  Sssssss!'