Experiencer

Have you ever had a bath that changed your life?

I did. It was 2021, about a week or two after I saw the trio of lights at my favorite neighborhood volcano. I was dabbling in the UFO and UAP world, just beginning to dip my foot into the mystery.

In retrospect I must have already heard about USOs, unidentified submerged objects, underwater UFOs. I learned that they had even changed the name from UFO, Unidentified Flying Objects, to UAP, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, because so many sightings were not saucers, and not flying but appearing in and above the mysterious waters that cover most of our beautiful planet.

Learning this fact set my imagination on fire. My curiosity was sparked, remembering the aquatic ape theory that I championed in college, largely ignored by the academics, but deeply and personally resonate.

the bath

I drew myself a bath on a sunny afternoon. It must have been after my Sunday dance, my ritual self care soak after dancing my heart out.

As I lay in my majestic bathtub, I felt my body floating and the water holding me, defying gravity. I thought of the womb, that tight container that once held me, so much like this tub. How good it felt to push against the walls, stretching my body. Water trickled in as I laid my head back, submerging my ears to hear the cascading sounds. It was a symphony, nearly orchestrated, lulling me into a receptive frame of mind.

Time seemed to slow down as I floated, I could almost feel the dimensions become porous, the water activating my imagination.

I put my toes on the edge of the tub and gazed at my webbed toes. Time seemed to move forward and backwards at once, perhaps remembering my mermaid inclinations, in conjuction with this newer understanding of USOs.

Similar to the first time I met my angel, I felt a vast love envelop me, a siren’s call, perhaps. As I floated, aware of this great universal presence washing over me, I sensed it was coming from the water. In that instant, I imagined a being in the water, far away, alive and deeply aware of me. I remained on land, and yet I wondered if our worlds could ever truly meet.

Within seconds, an entire story blossomed in my imagination. It was a time-traveling, telepathic mermaid love story. I could see it all at once, a vast and intricate tale arriving fully formed, as if handed to me by the mystery itself. Ultraterrestrials co-evolving with us, yet hidden. Telepathy made possible through the conductivity of water.

I lingered in the daydream, or whatever it was, as long as I could, trying to capture the sensory information and the specific details streaming to me.

I was loved by a soul mate in the depths of the water who wanted me to find them. A quest.

When I emerged from that bath, I went straight to a journal and began to map out this multidimensional time travel romance. Was this my imagination or was it real? Was this fiction or was I actually the protagonist? It didn’t matter.

after the bath

I picked up the journal I had recently found from nearly twenty years ago in 2003, a giant blank book I had collaged on certain pages and then left to collect webs until I needed a big page again.

What I found on the pages of that old journal floored me.

The theme of the collaged images was mermaids. Every other page held a merperson or a love poem. I hadn’t opened this journal in nearly twenty years, and discovering it now felt like a deliberate gift from my past self, a message carefully prepared for the future me. The timing, the imagery, the energy of it all felt synchronistic and magical, as if the universe itself had nudged me to this moment.

In the weeks that followed, I became consumed with underwater research: USOs, Atlantis, ancient submerged civilizations, mermaid myths, the mythology of water beings and deities across religions, and a return to the Aquatic Ape theory.

Everywhere I looked, I found stories of underwater beings teaching humans how to live. There were countless water gods and goddesses across cultures, each carrying fragments of a memory that felt both ancient and familiar.

Just like my ontological shock with the goddess, I wondered if this too was part of our story that had been lost. Or erased consciously. Or both.

My obsession with the topic was unlike any other I had ever experienced. I had gone down the ancestor rabbit hole before, and yes, I feel a connection there too, but I had never compulsively wanted or needed to study something so tirelessly. I told myself the obsession was because I should turn this mermaid story into a book, that I was simply doing research. But I couldn’t look away.

I was caught by the merpeople’s magic, drawn deeper and deeper into the mystery.

There was life before the bath and life after the bath.

Before, I was a curious dabbler. After, I was utterly absorbed, carried under by something I couldn’t name.

It was a nexus, a flashpoint, a landmark in my consciousness.

I slipped into a hidden current, a secret grotto beneath the surface, where the unseen moved like liquid light. I let myself sink, and somewhere in the depths, a hint of fins brushed past me, a quiet presence guiding me into this new, luminous world.