Gary Lachman
BEATING THE ALTERNATIVE
By Gary S. Lachman
Dedicated to the memory of Richard Raphael
Many people feared the end of the world as we know it would occur at the Millennium. Massive power outages, computer network crashes, natural disasters, geopolitical crises and other mortal blows to humankind were all predicted; yet none came to pass. Except for me.
I’m a different person than I was in February of 2000. Throughout this ordeal, many people asked me if I felt I had changed at all. At first, I wondered what they were talking about. Later, in the deepest darkness of my despair, I suspected that I had undergone some fundamental psychological and spiritual changes. Many of these turned out to be nothing more than the offspring of temporary depression. But now I truly know. Although I don’t fully understand the actual metamorphosis of spirit, I know I’ve somehow changed. I imagine it’s akin to a when a tadpole loses its tail and sprouts arms and legs. It certainly doesn’t know that it’s a frog, but somehow it must feel that it isn’t a tadpole anymore. There’s something different about me – my thinking, my feelings, and my values. Sometimes, with a clue just beyond the horizon, I almost think I understand the changes. But most of the time, like the frog, I just blindly exist as I now am.
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