Earlier this year I visited the Peche Merle caves, known for their prehistoric drawings, in the south west of France. Little is known about the purpose of the Peche Merle cave paintings. There is some speculation that they were used in sacred rituals.
So, as I made my way down into the caves and along the paths, I was prepared to enter a thin place. Continue reading “My 25,000 year-old friend”
You don’t have to travel thousands of miles to find a thin place.
In fact, it’s important to find them in your everyday life. But, you have to be looking for them. Here are three thin places that I try to visit on a regular basis.
Each time I approach Elmina Castle on the Cape Coast of Ghana, I am struck by the beauty of its setting. The Castle sits on a bluff looking out over the Atlantic Ocean. 
Swaying palms. Breaking waves. Shimmering white sand on an endless beach. Blazing saffron sunsets.
However, the beauty is counterfeit. Evil permeates Elmina.
The Old City in Jerusalem is chockablock with thin places.
Countless worship and pilgrimage sites for the three Abrahamic faiths are packed within one square kilometer.
I find it all overwhelming. For the most part I have not experienced the transcendent power of being in a thin place when I am in the Old City.
There is one exception to this.
Have you ever had the sensation that the barrier between the temporal and the eternal has become porous or indeed disappeared entirely? Then you’ve found a “thin place.” One of my goals in this blog is to share my experiences of those places with you so that you can be on the lookout as well.
