Shiny chrome and red vinyl chairs stretched the length of the shop like time machines in a windowless corridor. Tall mirrors created countless reflections that seemed to go on forever. The barber stood beneath a single light bulb on the ceiling, illuminating my chair like a stage set just for me. He adjusted the levers until my head rested in his hands. My monthly haircuts at age five were the setting for what happened next.

There, in front of me, between two mirrors, hung a large painting of a solitary figure falling through a gray sky, filled with glowing angelic clouds. The man wore medieval attire, and his coat flapped as he sped toward what I imagined was the Earth below. This window into another world left me anxious and uncertain. Where did he come from? Was he about to die? Maybe he already had. Perhaps there was no Earth, no ground, nothing to stop his fall. I stared at the painting, lightheaded, my hands holding tightly onto my world, fearing that at any moment I might lose my grip and enter his.

I leaned in closer to the painting and noticed something else. His face looked peaceful, as if he had no worries or concerns. He was a traveler passing through a moment in time, a boundless space between worlds, coming and going, heading nowhere and everywhere. He had let go of the need to control his world and touched the infinite within him.

The artist’s vision awakened the timeless intelligence of my deeper self, my essence. Fear turned to curiosity, freedom enveloped me, and boundaries dissolved. I found myself in a vast expanse, looking back at my physical self and toward other selves in other places, seeing in all directions at once. Comforting feelings washed over me when a soft voice entered my mind, saying, “You are not alone.”

Part of me was unsure what was taking place. To my deeper self, the voice made complete sense. I was learning about the bridge to the infinite, all-encompassing consciousness of the larger field.

The barber shop painting served as a stage, awakening ancient awareness. A light shone on the intersection of physical and nonphysical worlds, prompting me to see and feel with my essence as the lens. The voice I heard that day was the first of many discoveries that led to my higher self.