Thin places: The reasons we travel

Sometimes, it’s hard to explain why we travel. Us travelers like to view ourselves as different than tourists, and our journeys as different than vacations. We enjoy experiences, people and perhaps most importantly those unpredictable things that come from freely roaming. There’s a feeling that comes with these experiences that can simply be hard to describe.

I think this recent New York Times article, Thin Places, Where Heaven and Earth Come Closer, comes close. It speaks of those special places that evoke that feeling where the world seems to stand still and we feel we are exactly where we need to be.

As the writer says, “I’m drawn to places that beguile and inspire, sedate and stir, places where, for a few blissful moments I loosen my death grip on life, and can breathe again. It turns out these destinations have a name: thin places.”

It’s an odd term apparently derived from a Celtic saying referring to the thin space between heaven and earth that exists in these special places, according to the article, but that doesn’t mean these places need to be sacred or well-known.

“The question, of course, is which places? And how do we get there? You don’t plan a trip to a thin place; you stumble upon one. But there are steps you can take to increase the odds of an encounter with thinness. For starters, have no expectations. Nothing gets in the way of a genuine experience more than expectations, which explains why so many ‘spiritual journeys’ disappoint. And don’t count on guidebooks — or even friends — to pinpoint your thin places. To some extent, thinness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Or, to put it another way: One person’s thin place is another’s thick one.”

I have only been traveling for a month but I believe I’ve already experienced one “thin place” of my own. Thousands of tourists visit this place and possibly view it as “just another set of church ruins,” which is perfectly fine. But for me, it was otherworldly. It was peaceful. It was absolutely the reason that I travel.

I completely agree that these types of experiences can only happen when we are free of expectations and of the “tourist” mindset. We don’t travel just to see places that everyone else says are great. In fact, it’s not really about seeing places at all.

“Thin places relax us, yes, but they also transform us — or, more accurately, unmask us. In thin places, we become our more essential selves.”

Travelers, have you experienced a “thin place?” Please share!

Posted by | Comments (6)  | March 21, 2012
Category: General


6 Responses to “Thin places: The reasons we travel”

  1. Thin places: The reasons we travel | Vagablogging :: Rolf Potts … « Public-Travel Says:

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  2. cloudio Says:

    My last thin place is very close to one quoted in the Ny times article and it’s apparently a very improbable one.

    Shinjuku, Toky, not only in his focal point of the famous zebra crossing square, but also in the mall, train, subway, bus stations around, is overwhelming with this mass of people running frenectically to somewhere, away from somewhere else.

    I don’t know about the very thin bar tucked away, the author is talking about, but I know the most visible one, Starbucks right in front of the Hachi statue with the best view on the zebra crossing square you can have.

    This may be the best place in the world for people watching, where you can be suspended in time, while around you everything goes too fast.

  3. Ric Says:

    The Coliseum in Rome. I came around the corner and it came into full view and I stopped dead in my tracks.

    Of course I had seen it in photographs, television documentaries and movies but to actually see it right before me – it seemed so high and wide!

    There was the expected mob of visitors in the vicinity but I felt I was the only one there. I had the same feeling when standing inside, looking down into the central area and I envisioned myself with all of the Roman citizens watching the gladiators. And how did they build this thing?

    I have come to the conclusion that one should feel that you come from Mars when travelling on our Earth – you come not with expectations but with an openness to discover.

  4. DEK Says:

    This seems to be speaking of a subjective experience, and these you can have anywhere. The purpose of spiritual discipline is to enable you to have these wherever you are. God, being everywhere, may be met anywhere. The important thing is not where you are, but your openness to the experience.

    I had thought the article was going to be about something different: the objective notion that there are numinous places in the world, places of powerful spiritual quality, places which have again and again over time suggested to numberless persons that here they are in the presence of a divinity. While a subjective experience you might have anywhere, to experience a numinous place you must go there.

    Perhaps there are no numinous places, though over the ages people who have gone to these places have told us that they were and it has always been thought a good use of travel to go there to see for yourself.