As you approach the gleaming Temple on the hill, your heart races in anticipation of the experience at hand. You have been planning this pilgrimage for a long time now, but you are still unsure as to exactly what is about to happen. You have only been to the Temple a few times before, and then only as a visitor - a guest - never admitted into the Temple’s inner sanctum. You have heard about what happens inside those hidden chambers, but the few who have been there and returned seem unable te recount the entire story . To some, the experience was mundane; to others, horrifying. To all, it is shrouded in mystery and dread.

In anticipation, you have devoted the past day to fasting and prayer.

Upon arrival, you are greeted by smartly dressed acolytes who prepare you with friendly, yet awesome, precision. After confirming that you qualify for this rite, they escort you to your private chamber where other, higher ranking, acolytes take over. These new attendants reassure you with kind words, perform the necessary ablutions to purify your body, and help you don your ritual vestments.

Upon their instructions, you drink from a goblet of sacramental potion, and begin to feel the first hints of the ecstasy to come.

The priest enters your chamber for a brief visit, his smile a futile attempt to set you at ease.

Finally, after hours of waiting, it is time. The acolytes whisk you into the inner sanctum. It is surprisingly bright. Cold, too. It strikes you as a place so pure that it actually sparkles.

The sanctuary hums with activity. Acolytes scurry about. Around you are ritual implements you've been told about, but never actually seen . The priest and his apprentices are garbed in white, their faces hidden by masks. All you can see are their eyes, and you strive in vain to make human contact with even one of them. They pay you no mind, however, for they seem preoccupied with matters that are more significant. Purity. Precision. Excellence.

Suddenly, everything stops. The priest lays a comforting hand on your forehead, adorns you with a mask vaguely similar to his own, and you are overwhelmed by the bliss and ecstasy of the moment. Enraptured, you feel yourself floating away, rising, somehow, to a higher plane of existence.

You will never know exactly what occurred then, only that the experience was enormously powerful, that it was fraught with danger, and that it transformed you.

Afterward, the acolytes escort you to your loved ones. Like everyone else you will encounter during the next several days, they want to know what it was like. You try to tell them, but words soon become inadequate. Only those who themselves have entered the Temple’s inner sanctuary can fully appreciate the enormity of the experience.