Episode 4: Marathon Swimming: The Inner Experience with Jim Clifford

“My mind was racing with a thousand thoughts. I was not sure how I would deal with the long, dark hours to come but I soon noticed that each hand pull stirred up the bioluminescence in the water and broke up the darkness below. After I mentally adjusted to the dark space below me, I turned my focus to the night sky and the universe on display in the stars. I had rarely seen a night sky so bright and so full of stars…I got lost in the stars for several hours and the time passed as if I was time traveling…I realized that the whole ocean below me had lit up with its own show of bioluminescence…below me as deep as I could see, there were star-like dots of light, mimicking the night sky. I felt like I was floating in space, suspended between the sky and the sea. It was humbling and at the same time, felt primal on a level that is hard to articulate…it was the ultimate experience…time melted away in the largeness of it all.” (Jim Clifford, Catalina Channel night swim)Jim Clifford, attorney, farmer, and senior citizen shares how he trains his body and mind, the psychology of open water swimming including "the zone", how he manages his mind during the many continuous hours involved, his experience of two contemplative values silence and solitude when swimming alone for hours at a time, and transcendence in nature.https://openwaterswimming.com/2015/11/jim-clifford-thrice-as-nicehttps://www.clifforddebelius.comJane Goodall https://awaken.com/2020/05/mystical-experience-of-jane-goodall-ph-d/All Things Contemplative Blog