During the workout I just described, I don’t want to give the impression that during the workout I was crudely and mindlessly lifting lots of heavy weights around. My mind was entirely involved with every repetition, every set, but not in anyway a conscious intellectual fashion. I used hypnosis and visualization to prepare every level of my mind before I trained and whenever I got the chance. I also did this the occasions that I trained during each rep and set. I often would feel that I felt something akin to my ordinary body emanating my energy fields from the atomic interior of my body and extended beyond my body as I was training. It felt as if these energy fields were drawing on energy from sources all around and using it to go beyond my normal physical performance. With every rep and set throughout this workout the sensations of my energy fields were more intense.

The entire workout, my intellectual part of myself dropped away completely. I did not analyze what was occurring, it simply was.

      I don’t want to give the impression that the workout involved me crudely and mindlessly lifting a lot of heavy weights. My mind was entirely involved with every repetition, every set, but not in a conscious, intellectual fashion. I used hypnosis and visualization to prepare every level of my mind not only before I trained, but also anytime I had the chance. I felt I was emanating energy fields from the atomic interior of my body, allowing me to go beyond my normal physical performance.

      With every set, the feeling became more intense, the intellectual part of me dropped away completely.

      I did not analyze what was occurring; it simply was.

      The best way to describe the feeling was that my body started out feeling energized with endorphins but also much more, the feelings grew ever increasingly until I felt that I was both existing and operating halfway between my normal body and my non-ordinary body.

I seemed to fluctuate back and forth a bit and during the course of the workout.

      I felt that my ordinary bit very alert active body would transcend and become or could possibly become permanently superior and forever possess the powers of my non-ordinary body in my everyday life; at least enjoy the abilities halfway between both at a whim. As I benched the 410 pounds easily, my friend Brian A. by chance was knocking loudly on the door. I racked the weight and the ecstatic spell fell away with each loud and insistent knock on the door and with each bellow of my name from Brian. 

      . As I benched the 410 pounds easily, my friend Brian A., by chance, knocked loudly on the door.

I racked the weight and the ecstatic spell fell away with each loud and insistent knock.

      Brian came in and saw the 410 pounds on the rack. He had heard me lifting from outside and said, “Vinny, what are you doing with all of that weight? My God, did you bench that?”

      I told him I had. He was shocked.  When I told him I had done it after my normal training routine, his shock increased tenfold.

      Brian was well aware of my crazy high volume training but hadn’t known how I had been performing.

If he had not come over, I felt I could have kept going.

I did not tell Brian anything of my mind/body experiences. He knew I practiced hypnosis and was strict on my diet, but knew nothing of what I was experiencing. Let’s face it, how do you explain to people in our culture things they are taught to dismiss as fantasy?

      Can you imagine the conversation? “Hey Vinny, what are you up to?”

“Oh not much Brian, I’ve just been leaving my body a few times a week…you know flying here and moving my energy there, the usual stuff.” I’m not sure that would have gone over real well.

      The second time I repeated the workout, the effect was similar, though not nearly as intense. However, I did manage to repeat the performance. I have experienced this phenomenon again over the years. Again, I stopped at 410 pounds because, right as I was ready to lift 420 pounds, my friends Johnny Q. and Dave Burnsy walked into my trailer after a quick knock (John had a key to my place).

John was there in time to watch me do the 410 pounds easily. I tried for the 420 pounds while John spotted me, but I had lost the feeling of magic.

      Sometimes the universe can be very perverse. Johnny Q. reacted the same way Brian had the previous week. He was also stunned to see I had lifted that much weight after a high volume workout. He was ecstatic by my performance.

      He laughed and said, “Way to go, Vinny!”

      Both Johnny and Dave were quick to point out that most NFL football players were not able to bench that much weight. Of course I treated them like I had Brian, thinking it best not to share my non-ordinary experiences. The only friend I did share a few of my experiences with was Jon Lynch, because of his strong philosophical bent (he eventually got a degree in philosophy).

      It occurred to me, as I stood in the room with Johnny and David, that the way I felt, especially during the previous week’s workout, may have been what some people called “The Rapture.”