A parallel story from Taoist tradition is the famous butterfly dream of the
sage Chuang-tzu. In this classic tale, the philosopher relates that he dreamed
he was a butterfly, having a wonderful time fluttering about from flower to
flower on the zephyrs of spring.
On awakening from this pleasant reverie, however, he found that he was
no longer sure whether he was a man who had dreamed he was a butterfly,
or whether he was a butterfly now dreaming he was a man.
The issue of this story is not its superficial question of which psychic
contents to identify as the self but is in the act of recalling attention to the
"turning point" revealed in between states, the formless "opening" or
"aperture" through which the real self of the formless host can be seen and
experienced in its own purity and freedom.
By this means it is possible to detach from conditioned states and
identities without thereby becoming dissociated from the realm of ordinary
experience. Thus the individual can always resort to renewal from the very
source of creativity.
This is what Taoists call returning to the "root of heaven and earth " from
which extradimensional vantage point it is possible to experience higher
enlightenment right in the midst of the mundane world.
If this can be accomplished in reality, there is no reason why psychic
events such as extreme mood swings or personality changes should assume
