abyss

A bottomless, formless, void space, or any unfathomable cavity is referred to as an Abyss.¹ The term is also interchangeable with an extremity of a condition (often negative) where recovery is impossible or unlikely.¹ Chaotic and dark, abyss comes up in many ancient cosmogonies as the source of hellish phenomena.¹ The abyss was the only landscape (or lack thereof) that existed before the heavens and earth were created.¹ It is a never ending gulf below the crust of the Earth, the abode of hell.¹ And according to the Old Testament, the abyss is an expansive subterranean body of water; the source of the great flood. ¹ History reveals that the ancient Greeks have used ἄβυσσος (ábys̚sos)since the age of Hellenism to describe the great deep or primal chaos.¹ During the time, ἄβυσσος was also used as a feminine noun meaning unfathomable, boundless, or bottomless. ¹ Whether metaphoric or literal, an abyss is the source of vast darkness, and therefore the haunting unknown.

Today an abyss can be compared to a black hole. Both extend to infinite lengths of darkness, both have no gravity, no base to stand on, and no way to escape. The boundless nature of an abyss means there is no platform, no reference point for location and time, and no light. Once consumed, you cannot tell if you're moving or not. An effect similar to floating in space, you cannot feel gravity. If you take away light, there is nothing illuminating form, without a sense of depth, the darkness becomes infinite. Light defines lines, boundaries and the limitation of space, without it, you are stuck. You attempt to screech but the darkness swallows sound. Even if someone (or something) is around, it wouldn't hear you. A black hole engulfs sound, just as it does light.

Your mind plays tricks on you, the darkness naturally lends itself to evil thoughts and paranoia. You are in constant fear of falling onto an abrupt bottom, one that will crush your limbs and put an end to your suffering. Perhaps, that is what you want, an end. But without one, you toil, degrade your mind and body from within, the unknown haunts you. All you wish for is an escape, but the expansive abyss doesn't give you the satisfaction. You can't die, move away or make even the slightest attempt at progress. You start getting used to the loneliness, you begin to forget anything but the abyss. You won't admit it but the abyss becomes the only life you know. Any attempt at recovering from the abyss is futile.

The abyss is trauma. You repeat it voluntarily and it engulfs your thoughts without restraint. Alcoholics and drug abusers are just some of the victims. That is why it's so terribly difficult, and in some cases, impossible to leave that life behind.  It is futile to attempt to escape the abysses suffocation, its' flood. The black hole is essentially the vehicle, your mind's darkness is the true tormentor, the real abyss.

¹ "abyss, n.". OED Online. September 2012. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/860?rskey=Ry2fHK&result=1&isAdvanced=false (accessed November 18, 2012).