Observations placeholder
Simpson, Joe
Identifier
001386
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Joe Simpson climbing in the Andes had a catastrophic accident falling off an ice ledge and ending up in a deep crevasse with a broken leg
A description of the experience
Joe Simpson – Touching the Void
There was silence, and snow, and a clear sky empty of life, and me, sitting there, taking it all in, accepting what I must try to achieve.
There were no dark forces acting against me. A voice in my head told me that this was true, cutting through the jumble in my mind with its coldly rational sound.
It was as if there were two minds within me arguing the toss. The voice was clean and sharp and commanding. It was always right, and I listened to it when it spoke and acted on its decisions. The other mind rambled out a disconnected series of images, and memories and hopes, which I attended to in a daydream state as I set about obeying the orders of the voice.
I had to get to the glacier. . . . The voice told me exactly how to go about it, and I obeyed while my other mind jumped abstractly from one idea to another. . . . The voice, and the watch, urged me into motion whenever the heat from the glacier halted me in a drowsy exhausted daze.
It was three o'clock - only three and a half hours of daylight left. I kept moving but soon realized that I was making ponderously slow headway. It didn't seem to concern me that I was moving like a snail. So long as I obeyed the voice, then I would be all right.