An Inquiry Into The Texture Of Experience And The Plausibility Of Reincarnation Poem by Josh Mitteldorf

This poem grew out of my experience with self-reflection, and also a mild case of narcolepsy connected to sleep apnea. I have noticed in meditation (and other times) that I disappear from present awareness, coming back a few seconds or a few minutes later, as if time were continuous and I had always been there, but unable to recall where I had been in the interim. Consciousness has lacunae, even though our perception is of continuity. The premise of my poem is that perhaps this is a clue concerning reincarnation. It seems plausible that consciousness might die in one body, and reappear in another, with no sense of intervening time.