The date was sometime around 1998.  I was taking an experimental college class on the “Toltec Path to Personal Freedom” at the University of California, Davis.  My instructor had worked as an “apprentice” with don Migual Ruiz and was sharing the wisdom he gained from that apprenticeship. I had been taking “beginning” classes from Ramin for a year or so. I eventually ended up taking seven or eight years of beginning classes with him – none of the classes being remotely the same, so they were always a new beginning for me. 

On this evening, Ramin was sitting in front of the class consisting of myself and three or four other students.  We were all sitting on the floor meditating.  There was a candle and some incense burning.  The room was as dimly lit as we could get the classroom without turning all of the lights out.  There may have been some nice music playing, I don’t recall that but it was often the case so I suspect that was the case this evening.  I was sitting crossed legged on the floor, about ten feet away, facing him.  He was seated similarly. 

After meditating for awhile, I decided to open my eyes to gently observe the room and class.  I didn’t break my meditation, I merely opened my eyes.  What I saw surprised me.  The room and students were as I expected, but not the teacher.  He had become a shining ball of fibers suspended a foot or so from floor.  The ball was slightly elongated, more like an egg shape or an oval.  Not pointed on one end like an egg, but longer top to bottom than side to side.  The color was mostly white, but tinged with golden tones.  The glow was not shining in a way that illuminated things in the room, it was an internal glow.  The surface of the ball was complete and solid, but appeared to be made up of millions of closely spaced fibers going from the top to the bottom, rather than a solid continuous surface.  I knew that the ball was the teacher, but could not see him within the ball, even though the ball was translucent and I could see through it.  He appeared to have changed from being a person to being a shiny ball of fibers. 

At this point I became very curious, so I opened my eyes fully and broke my meditation to better observe him as he floated in front of me.  This had no effect upon the vision, it was solid and steady – even though I was fully awake sitting there watching him.  After a few minutes of this, I closed my eyes again and returned to meditation.  When he finally rang the gong to signal us to stop and come back to the room, he was sitting normally as if nothing had happened.  For some reason I didn’t bring it up for discussion, and doubt if he was aware of the transformation. 

I mentioned this event to him a few years later and he didn’t acknowledge it, or deny it.  So I still don’t know if this was a shared experience, or a private one.  I suspect it was a private one which could be attributed to falling asleep and dreaming.  I don’t believe I was asleep.  It felt like I had shifted to a place where seeing in this way is possible, and that he was just right for me to view the reality of the event.  But who knows, all that I can do it tell about what I experienced.  What it really was, or what it really meant, is not within my power to understand at this time.  It was just an interesting event.