The Lighted Room

[Hendrix]

Everything is quiet. There is a big white room. Crisp white florescent light shines all around the room although the source is not so apparent. The walls of the room are padded with thick white leather cushions. A man is trapped in the room alone. He's wrapped up in a white striaght-jacket unable to free his arms barely able to move. He tries so escape from his bondage. He shakes his arms trying to pull them of his chest but his efforts are futile. He slams his body slams agianst the padded walls in fustration. He looks for a door but can find no way out. He shouts out with a big cry that echos throughout the giant white room breaking the silence. His yell is the only thing he seems to be able to control. He gives up after a while and crashes to the floor. His face is so dark, so much different from the stark white lighted room. His dark hair matted and messy, his face dark and mudded by tears. Everything around him is blank, empty, worthless. He could only just sit there and merely exist curled up like a baby in the womb. Maybe he was born there it didnt seem like he had ever been anywhere else. Didn't seem like he was going to ever be anywhere else either. The white room is his world forever. He will die there soon. If not from boredom, then from having no purpose, from having no one to love. Maybe he's already dead. His body just sits there in it's meaningless existance and rots away. His body begins to sink loosing its life. He can feel his body becoming part of the floor. The white light is so bright. Where does it come from? He closes his eyes and pretends to be dead but the intense light shines through his eyelids. His efforts are useless to escape the light. It's everywhere. Darkness would be better at least he could sleep. It goes on forever. The nothingness is forever. He is part of it. He lives there forever. He dies there forever. Is there a way out? Will he ever find it?

[ProfessorLepus]

What sort of chair is it? Free standing or a permanent fixture?

[Hendrix]

There is no chair it's just a straight jacket

[Derek the Wolf]

The only way out of the room is to look within himself; there he finds what he searches for. His release is within him; in his death he finds release: release from pain, release from loneliness, and release from bondage.
The white light in his mind. The chair is in his mind. The walls are the boundaries he has set for himself in the context of his own life. They are under his control; he needs only to realize that they are not finite boundaries and they shall become his to command.

So what was the point of this exactly?

[Hendrix]

I just want to see what people think or how they interpret it. This is kind of an image i had so i wrote it down. I thought I could make it into a poem but this is just it in paragraph form kinda like a story.

[ProfessorLepus]

Step one would be to find some way out of the straight jacket. He could probably manage to hit his arm hard enough against the wall so that he could dislocate his shoulder and then slip out of it. Then I would claw through the padding on the walls to see what sort of wall it is. If It's a penetrable material, then you could break out that way and see what is beyond.

Otherwise, i would check for any and all creases. If there are no creases, there is no entrance. If there's no entrance and no recollection of how exactly I got there, then none of it exists. Which means...

Either I'm having a wicked dream or I got some cool drugs. But it doesn't stop there...

Dreams and hallucinations are the brain's way of communicating to the soul. I'm feeling trapped. There seems to be no way out. Even in the confined space in which I am trapped, I am bound. This bondage may be caused by myself. I prevent myself from solving the problem. I lie in the fetal position restrained by the fibers of my low self-esteem. I am recursively trapped.

[xequar]

A dreamlike-fantasy, a state of struggle, then of bliss, relaxation, meditation, zen.

Having been diapered and straitjacketed, courtesy of some very good friends, I know that being in a straitjacket can be an incredibly relaxing and calming experience. At first, you struggle, test your bonds, fight with all your strength. But soon, you grow tired, sweaty (especially in a leather straitjacket), and in need of rest. As you rest, you start to grow comfortable, start to realize that even if you want to, you can't interact with so many things. As that begins to settle into your brain, you start to allow yourself to truly relax and let go of a lot of those other concerns. You want that beer over there? You can't open it. No need to worry about it, then. You want out of the room? Nope, you can't open the door.

As you can't interact with the outside world, you might as well let your brain run wild. How did you end up here? Does it matter? Oooh, that would be an interesting story idea! Yawn, feeling tired... No good reason not to lay down and relax. What do I do about that thing? Hey, that's the solution!



This scenario wouldn't be absolute death at all... It would be incredibly liberating. And there's a part of me that would like to be in that room in that straitjacket.

Is there a way out?

I imagined he could just knock on the door with his head. If there is a door that is. Or get stupidly toned thighs and do squats in his spare time.

As for him ever finding his way out? Not possible. He is dead, isn't it?
Or at least this is what I thought about when I read this.

[Fiorino]

I don't know what that was-but it was really captivating.
Sometimes I feel like that man.
You're good at writing.

[Hendrix]

I never really thought that being trapped like that could be a positive thing, but i can see what you're saying. Everything is quiet, there is nothing to worry about, stillness, peacefullness. I was going fr a more melancoly mood. It's basically describing depression. The room is like a cage. There isn't neccessarily a door. Where it describes him being dead but still alive just describes what it feels like when you are dealing with depression. You feel dead. Him slamming against the wall is anxiety and uneasyness about the entrapment. Him finally falling to the floor is him giving up trying to feel better, giving up on everything, giving up on life. The light is just an added torture. He can't even close his eyes to escape the pain because the light shines through it. He can't scream load enough to call for help or get out of that state of mind. The straight jacket and small room are reminiscent of solitary confinement at a psych ward. The man is crazy. He can't harm himself or kill himself to escape he can only sit there in mental anguish. There is no one there in the room, no one to comfort him, nothing to draw a purpose from, just loneliness. He doesnt remember anything else because this state of mind is so overwhelming that it never seemed like there was a time when he was happy and it doesnt seem like he'll ever be happy.The last part where it says "Is there a way out? Will he ever find it" i actually changed from "There is a way out, but he might never find it." Maybe I should change it back. It just implies that there is a way to get out of it even if it seems like there isnt, but the sad part is that a lot of people (this man) don't find it.

[Paralyzer]

Responding to the last part of xequar's response..

So it's like you're living without having the responsibility of a life, or having the temptation of a body. You let your imagination run wild in your relaxed state so you forget that you ever really had a body and your life becomes enwrapped around your memory so you're in a constant dream. Perhaps this would keep you from going mad, but perhaps having a perception that is as irregular as a lava lamp is what the madness truly is.

This is a weird story.
But it gets you to think about finding solace in solitary confinement. Perhaps we are all confined, and the struggles we go through are to find a peace within ourselves. I suppose I could pick lines from this work and interprit them.. and I sort of want to because it would put me on a journey through my mind.. xD (sounds hippy ish but they're fun)

But yeah, I like it.
Especially the light shining through the eyelids.. that really gets me.

[xequar]

Yep, that's me. Like I said before, I would welcome an opportunity to hang out in that white room in that white straitjacket for a few days!

[Hendrix]

What exactly is going on in this picture?

[xequar]

Originally Posted by Hendrix

What exactly is going on in this picture?

Remember how I mentioned that several good friends had diapered me and put me in a straitjacket? That's a group shot of us (I blacked out their faces for purposes of posting). Although it's not the lighted padded room of which you spoke, I am in a white leather straitjacket. It seemed relevant and adds some context to my thoughts on that scenario.

Like I said, I thorougly enjoyed my time jacketed!