I awakened in an alien world. I sat up, blinked my eyes, and stretched, feeling inexplicably more rested than I ever had before. The first thing I noticed when I awoke was a strange and tantalizing scent. I couldn't place it. It was like a garden full of herbs I had never smelled or tasted. Enthralling music I sensed I had always heard but never noticed, pervaded my ears. I felt the ground beneath me, soft and nebulous. I stroked the silken grass, the texture light and cool, like it barely brushed against my skin.

At last, my vision focused and I took in my surroundings. I was in some sort of field, with mossy humps and covered in the grass I had touched. And everything was purple. I shut my eyes tightly, then reopened them. The picture remained unchanged. The ground was a deep violet and the grass undulated with alternating flashes of lavender, magenta, and indigo. Everywhere a soft breeze seemed to blow and cause the meadow to stir and breathe on its own. I felt the urge to take a few deep breaths myself. I closed my eyes again. Gently, the ground rose and fell beneath me, and my breath became synchronized with the movement of the meadow. Our oneness brought me a sense of peace.

The gravity here was different. I had never felt so tethered, so secure and incredibly safe. I didn't feel heavy, like gravity was pulling me towards the ground, but an equilibrium of pressure on every side, every muscle doing the same amount of work, as if I wasn't the one holding myself up anymore. Like my body was all one density, one temperature, and one pH. No longer composed of many conflicting parts, I felt elemental, basic, and as if it were no longer possible to excise any portion of my being from the others.

Feeling both relaxed and alert at the same time, I lay back on the ground and gazed at a watercolor sky, its clouds moving in the direction of my feet so that I had an ever-changing procession of soothing pastel colors to observe. I could have lain there forever just watching in inexorable delight, but I felt compelled to stand and explore the rest of this ethereal plane on which I had somehow arrived.

As I began to walk forward, I saw the memories of my former life flitting before me, hovering within view for a brief moment and then continuing on their way. I regarded each memory with appreciation and nothing more. I simultaneously held both realities for only a few seconds before letting the past world slip away and clearing space for the present one. Before long, those memories seemed ancient to me, and I knew the world from which I'd come was now invisible to my eyes, though for some, it still existed.