Peeling a Pomelo

“Peeling a Pomelo” is a simple exercise allowing you to experience what it’s like to be very small. All you have to do is imagine you’re peeling a mandarin rather than a pomelo.

The pomelo (Citrus maxima) is the largest member of the citrus fruit family and can have a diameter of up to 25 cm. To help create the illusion first rub a mandarin peel under your nose and on your hands so that the scent of the mandarin dominates the scent of the pomelo. It also helps to hide references that may disrupt your suspense of disbelief such as pieces of furniture or household objects that unwittingly remind you of your real size. Remember that we use our body to measure things in reality but that things in reality also give us a sense of our size. Perhaps find an empty space, sit on the floor, face a wall. Create a context that helps you to inspire the fantasy of being small. Place the pomelo in front of you while conjuring up an image of a mandarin. Perhaps squint your eyes to blur reality and fantasy. Touch, weigh, feel, use your hands to measure the fruit, and the fruit to measure your hands. Then, start peeling. Break through the skin into the soft layer just beneath. Experience its thickness, its resistance, as you encounter the bouncy juicy fruit body. Rip out a big fleshy part of mandarin. Use both hands to bring it to your mouth. Close your eyes. Bite into it, and feel your body dwindling, melting, becoming nothing.