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Best, George - Blessed, the Autobiography – Going out of body to score a goal
Identifier
023363
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
George Best – Blessed the Autobiography
'George, over here, George!' I remember Bobby screaming, wanting me to pass to him, but I was in no mood to give the ball away.
As each defender came at me, he must have looked favourite to get the ball and I felt as though I was struggling to get any pace in my legs, the way you feel in a dream when you're trying to run away from someone. But each time, I just got there first, knocked it a yard or two past him and collected the ball and then went through the same process again and again and again.
Eventually, a defender did manage to force the ball away from me but still I knew the run was amazing. It was like an out-of-body experience, a dream sequence, as if I were hovering over the pitch, watching someone else do it and when I replay it in my mind, it is always in slow motion.
It was like when you lie awake at night before a game imagining yourself on the pitch doing brilliant things. Even professional players have those dreams and, like everyone else, the way you imagine playing in your dreams rarely becomes reality on the pitch. But this night, everything we did came off. We were actually doing those and on nights like that, everyone grows as a performer.