Triple lightning building strikes are rarer than double rainbows, and Craig Shimala, the multimedia director over at Threadless, has captured this heaven-meets-earth phenomenon on camera on two separate occasions. The Chicago inhabitant captured lightning simultaneously striking three of Chicago's tallest buildings on video over four years ago, and in a still from a recent time-lapse he shot on June 30th. East coast cities were taken by storm in last week's thunderous summer showers, but none got quite as lit-up as Chicago, and there's pretty amazing video below to prove it.

Oh Metatron
Heel onze wonden
Oh houd me vast
Vul mijn hart met Licht

Oh Metatron
Heal our wounds
Oh hold me tight
Fill my heart with Light

Kairon, Oh Metatron, hymn 1.
           
It is the first time I am drinking “homebrew” ayahuasca in my living room in which I created a sacred space for the ritual. I enter hyperspace and meet a radiant being I recognize as the archangel Metatron. He radiates light, I relax my pre-flight tension. He stands in front of me and blesses me with his hands. I am filled with Light. It is intense, yet my whole body relaxes. I open up to the Light and allow it to flow through my body.

I am at home and enter hyperspace. Metatron is near and I start hearing a melody. I get my guitar and try to play it. After some practice I seem to match what I hear inside. Then the words start coming: Oh Metatron, light from the stars. I write them down, and sing the song along with the simple melody. Then a next line: Give me strength, take me far away. Oh Metatron, heal our wounds. Oh hold me tight, fill my heart with Light. Every time I write down a line, the next one pops up. As I sing the words, I experience them. Metatron is made from starlight. He gives me the strength to travel to other dimensions of reality. As he stands by, it feels like he holds me, embraces me and fills my heart with Light, helping to heal my wounds.

I enter hyperspace and Metatron takes me with him to a city of Light. Everything is Light, beauty, radiance. I recognize this place, but only from seeing it from a distance. This time I actually enter the city. Metatron gives me some sort of guided tour. All of the buildings are thought forms. Every house is a paradigm, an image of the world, a conceptual framework. I look around. Some buildings are very small, literally narrow-minded. Then I spot the building of Antroposophy. It is amazingly beautiful. It is hard to explain, because the stuff the place is made from are thoughts—it isn’t really comparable with any earthly structure. It has something that reminds me of high and small Gothic windows and wall drawings. But these earthly structures are only the material counterparts of these spiritual structures, relating to each other like a 2D drawing and an actual 3D object—a lower dimensional download of something I lack language for. Then I see another building. It is some sort of cathedral, a huge structure, kilometers long. I enter the structure. I feel humbled, amazed. Metatron explains to me: this is the building of Love. I feel astonished, touched, a feeling of breath-grasping beauty. While I walk around I look at the nice things that are possible with this type of architecture. I enjoy myself for some time in a corner in a way that isn’t easy to describe. Everywhere I look there are reflections, somehow like a play of light in mirrors and crystals. But what is reflected isn’t exactly light. It reflects my consciousness, the good and loving parts of my consciousness, to be more precise. Looking at the beauty of the architecture means seeing the beauty in oneself. The light of consciousness is caught, broken, reflected, mirrored into rainbow colors that contain images, feelings, love. It closely resembles looking into the eyes of someone that loves you deeply. While I slowly retreat from the building of love after some time, the beauty of the experience stays with me for several days.

After experimenting with some variations in my brewing technique, resulting in varying strengths, I seemed to have created an incredibly strong brew. The ayahuasca hits me with an amazing force. When I open my eyes I have visual hallucinations like the waving and flowing patterns on the carpet. I am propelled into hyperspace again, even though my trip has already been happening for the past two hours. The place I am in is crowded with entities. I am sucked into an ontological struggle. In the beginning it seems to be a normal conversation. They say: You talk about this love. And you hope this love is the ultimate ground of being. But is that true? Let us tell you, the universe is a battlefield. Those with the most power survive. Just look at the earth. Can’t you see we are destroying it? So where is this love of yours? Can it save you? Your love is a small corner in the universe, some small garden, while the bigger picture is dominated by use, with force and power. I feel awful and afraid. They can’t be right, can they? I think I am sure of that. Love is stronger. Is it not? I search for helpers. I sing for Mary, Santa Maria. I sing for Light. Sometimes I seem to find it, but there is some doubt in my system, some sort of ontological fear I am not able to tame. I feel like I am trapped in an ontological rollercoaster. Around this corner, my view is eternal love. The next corner, my view is the deepest, desolate hell.