So why is it so difficult to get out?
It isn’t.
You could have fooled me.
It’s easy as pie once you’re ready to leave, but actually, you never leave.
But I thought you said...
Where would you leave for? Everywhere is here, in your immediacy.
My what?
Your immediacy is your ultimate here and now. Your multidimensional vicinity than somehow or other manages to encompass everything, everywhere and everywhen, once a quantum twist of unshackled conscious-awareness is factored into the equation.
?
The equation that you think of in terms of space-time, but which we see as a configuration, or more accurately, a positioning of perception in one or other channels.
Whoa, whoa Merry. This is too much to digest. You mean to say I’m not trapped, that instead of trying to escape the matrix, to travel beyond 3d, it’s basically all here.
Yep. Good summary.
And that it’s my perception of things that counts.
Correct.
So it’s all just good old-fashioned consciousness?
You bet.
That sucks.
?
Consciousness is way too vague and amorphous. It’s virtually impossible to change.
Oh, that’s what you mean. Here, try this for size.
What the hell? That’s a gun! What are you doing – you can’t point it at me, it could be loaded.
Absolutely. Now here goes. 1 – 2 – 3
Nooooooooo
BANG!
You... I’m bleeding. You... shot me slumping to the ground
Oh that. I couldn’t think of any more effective way.
I... I can’t breathe
Well obviously. I just shot you
looking at his pocket watch
Another thirty seconds and you should be ready.
whistling somewhat impatiently
Do you have to whistle. I’d prefer to die in peace, with a little dignity, if die I must.
Um, that’s just the point Henry, I’m a busy man and you’re taking a mighty long time to shuffle off this mortal coil.
Oh God, this is so surreal. First he shoots me for no reason whatsoever, then...
Yes?
That gun you’re holding...
Yes?
It looks like a banana.
Does it?
Yes.
And?
Did you just pretend to shoot me with a banana?
I don’t know. That sounds somewhat implausible, don’t you think?
I know... but there’s no getting round the fact that your gun is a banana.
I see... We have a problem Houston. This is going to require some careful unsorting. Perhaps you should start by reporting on the current state of your open gunshot wound to the chest, which just missed the heart if I’m not mistaken.
By a hair's breadth. I’m lucky to be still alive.
Very lucky. But what kind of bullet does a banana from, i believe it’s Ecuador, fire?
I don’t think it greatly matters where it’s from, Merry. I suspect you hid the gun in your coat when I was bleeding heavily a moment ago and took out the banana instead. Either that or hypnosis.
That would be some kind of sick joke wouldn’t it.
You’re telling me.
But I don’t see how I could have hidden it away.
Oh, you’re not wearing a coat? I could have sworn...
Come to think of it, I’m decidedly underdressed for the occasion.
This is getting ridiculous. How am I supposed to die if you keep changing the narrative. There’s no way you were wearing a wetsuit five minutes ago.
Well we’re apparently all set to go diving, if you’ve managed to come to terms with your impending death.
Er, it’s a bit of an anticlimax you know. I never thought I’d be disappointed to learn that my immanent death had been postponed indefinitely.
I know. It’s weird, isn’t it. But the mind hates losing face, doesn’t it.
Losing face? Or losing the plot. I suppose it is kind of embarrassing. Like arriving at work only to discover you forgot to put on your pants. So, er...
Yes?
We’re not dying?
Um
Blood?
Seems to have all vanished.
Confused?
Strangely enough, no. I seem to have an inkling what’s going on.
You do?
You found some way to shift my field of perception.
Ah ha
But it wasn’t imaginary, was it?
No, it had to be real.
You needed some kind of powerful shock to jolt my complacent attachment to the field I was in.
That’s right.
So you had to put me in a near death experience.
Er, not really. I just happen to get a kick out of playing the homicidal maniac. It’s a bit embarrassing, but we all have our little foibles.
Little foibles? You put my life in grave danger, potentially irreversibly traumatising me for no apparent reason.
Oh, I wouldn’t say that. Real life drama is a much better way to teach the student how to shift between different frames of perception.
But I might have died.
Only if you failed to shift.
But...
Are you feeling traumatised?
To tell the truth I’ve never felt better.
So perhaps we can focus on what’s right rather than what you imagine is wrong.
But it’s humiliating to be treated that way. I feel manipulated. I feel like...
An idiot?
That too.
Good. That’s a fairly accurate representation of what you are, or were, so now we can move on?
I just don’t like the way you treat my life so cavalierly. It’s...
Upsetting, isn’t it. Did you ever consider the fact that this heightened sense of self-importance, the seriousness with which we view ourselves is the very mechanism which fixes us in 3d. Nothing else.
So you mean that I simply have to be indifferent to the fact that someone’s trying to kill me and that will do the trick?
No.
Well that’s what it sounds like.
Yes, I know. Like I said, you’re reacting entirely predictably, as intended.
?
Well, believe it or not you intended all this.
When? Before I was born?
You were never born. You inserted yourself into this equation and the rest happened like clockwork.
Oh great, like I’m some kind of mechanical doll! But I have news for you Merry, things actually happen. It’s more than just an equation.
Of course it is. It’s absolutely real up to a point.
?
Up to the so called zero point of your intentional insertion into this particular equation.
So what are you saying? What does all this mean?
What do you think?
I have no idea. A minute ago i thought I was dead when you shot me with a banana. If that’s the limit of my ability to discern reality then evidently I’m screwed.
Let’s try a different tack, let’s say that you’re evolving and it isn’t as random as it may appear. If you’ve now reached the point that you’re aware 3D reality isn’t the whole picture, that perception has multiple channels, that conscious awareness can reconfigure and take you into whatever frame or iteration you require just as soon as you stop clutching, in desperation, at the straw of external reality, refusing to breathe, feel, allow awareness of its other half to surface, the half that counterbalances everything that ever happens, everything you ever experience here in 3d, no matter what, then situations will arise that do put you in contact with the other half, which has to be experienced directly.
And this other half, it can take me into other...
Not other. You’re stuck on the cold, damp outer edge of reality only because fear of death and the belief, the certainty that this is the big deal, the most precious thing you have to hold onto at any cost, keeps you chained to this rocky outpost. The real you, the real ity is full to bursting of possibilities which your mind simply cannot comprehend or accept as long as you’re here, which is why your subconsciousness leads you gently into situations which make it possible for you to confront the absurdity, the limitations of this reality. If you were shot by a banana today then your 3d reality is evidently reaching breaking point, or birthing point, whichever way you choose to see it.
But it was all you. You interfered. It has nothing to do with me, or whether I’m ready or not.
Me? What are you talking about? I’m neither here nor there. Watch what happens to me if I knock your perception back into its former position, where you were way back in your earlier studenthood.
Ok... if you must. Hey, where did he go? Merry... er... I need a drink. There’s something definitely wrong with my head today. Weird... that wasn’t there a moment ago. Well, it looks like it was put there for me to drink, so thank you very much whoever you are... Ow! What’s going on? Bloody bottle’s just poured its contents all over me. Thanks a lot. Foul smelling stuff. What is it – engine oil? Gross. I think I’d better get out of here before anything else happens... Ow, what now? Ow, my foot, what’s going on? It’s stuck – can’t pull it free. This is some kind of nightmare. Help! God! Anyone! If there’s anyone up there I’m being attacked, by demons I suspect, though i hardly believe it. Help! I’ll do anything. I don’t want to die.
Hello.
Oh hi.
What’s all the noise about?
Oh, I’m stuck. Something seems to have a hold of my leg. It’s dragging me down into hell. At least it was... a minute ago.
Oh. Are you sure you weren’t just imagining it?
No, it was painful. It felt dark and cold. It was malevolent.
Hum...
You probably think I’m insane. That was definitely weird. It put the fear of God into me.
Well, I’m glad you seem to have escaped whatever it was.
Yes, well thanks anyway for bothering to help.
Don’t mention it. Hum, let me look at your leg, perhaps i can see something there.
Oh no, I don’t wish to be any trouble. You know, the more i think about it the more idiotic it seems. I can’t imagine what came over me.
Like you said, probably something demonic.
Yes well, speaking rationally i don’t really believe in demons and things like that.
No, do you believe in me?
In you? What do you mean?
Well didn’t i seem to appear from nowhere just when you were losing it big time?
Yes, i suppose you did. Don’t get me wrong – I’m hugely grateful to you for bothering to find out if I’m ok. That was very kind of you, but all this supernatural stuff, it doesn’t wash with me.
Naturally, anyway, I’ll be seeing you.
Oh, you’re off? I didn’t catch your name.
No, you’ll remember before too long.
I will?
About ten years from now.
? Bizarre.
Bzzz
Hey, where did he go? I could’ve sworn that beetle flew right out of his shadow. Oh God, i need a drink more than ever. This is...
Remember?
That was you?
Apparently so.
I didn’t remember that experience until now.
Not surprisingly. Like everything weird it got filed away in deep storage.
So what does it mean?
You tell me.
You’re not human.
Oh come on, give me a break, you can do better than that.
You set that demon thing on me?
Fail.
The other half rubs up against 3d and manifests things from time to time.
Better.
So it isn’t purely random.
Ah ha.
And i can only perceive or understand as much as I’m ready to.
Yep.
Which isn’t much, is it.
Not a lot, but you’re building a base.
Ha, ten years of building and I’ve barely got started.
This is not linear, Heinrich.
Heinrich? Oh, him too?
Yes, he’s one of you.
Oh.
So you see, there’s more going on, more at stake than you were aware of...
You’re telling me!
But that is apparently all about to change.
Yikes!
You better believe it...
It isn’t.
You could have fooled me.
It’s easy as pie once you’re ready to leave, but actually, you never leave.
But I thought you said...
Where would you leave for? Everywhere is here, in your immediacy.
My what?
Your immediacy is your ultimate here and now. Your multidimensional vicinity than somehow or other manages to encompass everything, everywhere and everywhen, once a quantum twist of unshackled conscious-awareness is factored into the equation.
?
The equation that you think of in terms of space-time, but which we see as a configuration, or more accurately, a positioning of perception in one or other channels.
Whoa, whoa Merry. This is too much to digest. You mean to say I’m not trapped, that instead of trying to escape the matrix, to travel beyond 3d, it’s basically all here.
Yep. Good summary.
And that it’s my perception of things that counts.
Correct.
So it’s all just good old-fashioned consciousness?
You bet.
That sucks.
?
Consciousness is way too vague and amorphous. It’s virtually impossible to change.
Oh, that’s what you mean. Here, try this for size.
What the hell? That’s a gun! What are you doing – you can’t point it at me, it could be loaded.
Absolutely. Now here goes. 1 – 2 – 3
Nooooooooo
BANG!
You... I’m bleeding. You... shot me slumping to the ground
Oh that. I couldn’t think of any more effective way.
I... I can’t breathe
Well obviously. I just shot you
looking at his pocket watch
Another thirty seconds and you should be ready.
whistling somewhat impatiently
Do you have to whistle. I’d prefer to die in peace, with a little dignity, if die I must.
Um, that’s just the point Henry, I’m a busy man and you’re taking a mighty long time to shuffle off this mortal coil.
Oh God, this is so surreal. First he shoots me for no reason whatsoever, then...
Yes?
That gun you’re holding...
Yes?
It looks like a banana.
Does it?
Yes.
And?
Did you just pretend to shoot me with a banana?
I don’t know. That sounds somewhat implausible, don’t you think?
I know... but there’s no getting round the fact that your gun is a banana.
I see... We have a problem Houston. This is going to require some careful unsorting. Perhaps you should start by reporting on the current state of your open gunshot wound to the chest, which just missed the heart if I’m not mistaken.
By a hair's breadth. I’m lucky to be still alive.
Very lucky. But what kind of bullet does a banana from, i believe it’s Ecuador, fire?
I don’t think it greatly matters where it’s from, Merry. I suspect you hid the gun in your coat when I was bleeding heavily a moment ago and took out the banana instead. Either that or hypnosis.
That would be some kind of sick joke wouldn’t it.
You’re telling me.
But I don’t see how I could have hidden it away.
Oh, you’re not wearing a coat? I could have sworn...
Come to think of it, I’m decidedly underdressed for the occasion.
This is getting ridiculous. How am I supposed to die if you keep changing the narrative. There’s no way you were wearing a wetsuit five minutes ago.
Well we’re apparently all set to go diving, if you’ve managed to come to terms with your impending death.
Er, it’s a bit of an anticlimax you know. I never thought I’d be disappointed to learn that my immanent death had been postponed indefinitely.
I know. It’s weird, isn’t it. But the mind hates losing face, doesn’t it.
Losing face? Or losing the plot. I suppose it is kind of embarrassing. Like arriving at work only to discover you forgot to put on your pants. So, er...
Yes?
We’re not dying?
Um
Blood?
Seems to have all vanished.
Confused?
Strangely enough, no. I seem to have an inkling what’s going on.
You do?
You found some way to shift my field of perception.
Ah ha
But it wasn’t imaginary, was it?
No, it had to be real.
You needed some kind of powerful shock to jolt my complacent attachment to the field I was in.
That’s right.
So you had to put me in a near death experience.
Er, not really. I just happen to get a kick out of playing the homicidal maniac. It’s a bit embarrassing, but we all have our little foibles.
Little foibles? You put my life in grave danger, potentially irreversibly traumatising me for no apparent reason.
Oh, I wouldn’t say that. Real life drama is a much better way to teach the student how to shift between different frames of perception.
But I might have died.
Only if you failed to shift.
But...
Are you feeling traumatised?
To tell the truth I’ve never felt better.
So perhaps we can focus on what’s right rather than what you imagine is wrong.
But it’s humiliating to be treated that way. I feel manipulated. I feel like...
An idiot?
That too.
Good. That’s a fairly accurate representation of what you are, or were, so now we can move on?
I just don’t like the way you treat my life so cavalierly. It’s...
Upsetting, isn’t it. Did you ever consider the fact that this heightened sense of self-importance, the seriousness with which we view ourselves is the very mechanism which fixes us in 3d. Nothing else.
So you mean that I simply have to be indifferent to the fact that someone’s trying to kill me and that will do the trick?
No.
Well that’s what it sounds like.
Yes, I know. Like I said, you’re reacting entirely predictably, as intended.
?
Well, believe it or not you intended all this.
When? Before I was born?
You were never born. You inserted yourself into this equation and the rest happened like clockwork.
Oh great, like I’m some kind of mechanical doll! But I have news for you Merry, things actually happen. It’s more than just an equation.
Of course it is. It’s absolutely real up to a point.
?
Up to the so called zero point of your intentional insertion into this particular equation.
So what are you saying? What does all this mean?
What do you think?
I have no idea. A minute ago i thought I was dead when you shot me with a banana. If that’s the limit of my ability to discern reality then evidently I’m screwed.
Let’s try a different tack, let’s say that you’re evolving and it isn’t as random as it may appear. If you’ve now reached the point that you’re aware 3D reality isn’t the whole picture, that perception has multiple channels, that conscious awareness can reconfigure and take you into whatever frame or iteration you require just as soon as you stop clutching, in desperation, at the straw of external reality, refusing to breathe, feel, allow awareness of its other half to surface, the half that counterbalances everything that ever happens, everything you ever experience here in 3d, no matter what, then situations will arise that do put you in contact with the other half, which has to be experienced directly.
And this other half, it can take me into other...
Not other. You’re stuck on the cold, damp outer edge of reality only because fear of death and the belief, the certainty that this is the big deal, the most precious thing you have to hold onto at any cost, keeps you chained to this rocky outpost. The real you, the real ity is full to bursting of possibilities which your mind simply cannot comprehend or accept as long as you’re here, which is why your subconsciousness leads you gently into situations which make it possible for you to confront the absurdity, the limitations of this reality. If you were shot by a banana today then your 3d reality is evidently reaching breaking point, or birthing point, whichever way you choose to see it.
But it was all you. You interfered. It has nothing to do with me, or whether I’m ready or not.
Me? What are you talking about? I’m neither here nor there. Watch what happens to me if I knock your perception back into its former position, where you were way back in your earlier studenthood.
Ok... if you must. Hey, where did he go? Merry... er... I need a drink. There’s something definitely wrong with my head today. Weird... that wasn’t there a moment ago. Well, it looks like it was put there for me to drink, so thank you very much whoever you are... Ow! What’s going on? Bloody bottle’s just poured its contents all over me. Thanks a lot. Foul smelling stuff. What is it – engine oil? Gross. I think I’d better get out of here before anything else happens... Ow, what now? Ow, my foot, what’s going on? It’s stuck – can’t pull it free. This is some kind of nightmare. Help! God! Anyone! If there’s anyone up there I’m being attacked, by demons I suspect, though i hardly believe it. Help! I’ll do anything. I don’t want to die.
Hello.
Oh hi.
What’s all the noise about?
Oh, I’m stuck. Something seems to have a hold of my leg. It’s dragging me down into hell. At least it was... a minute ago.
Oh. Are you sure you weren’t just imagining it?
No, it was painful. It felt dark and cold. It was malevolent.
Hum...
You probably think I’m insane. That was definitely weird. It put the fear of God into me.
Well, I’m glad you seem to have escaped whatever it was.
Yes, well thanks anyway for bothering to help.
Don’t mention it. Hum, let me look at your leg, perhaps i can see something there.
Oh no, I don’t wish to be any trouble. You know, the more i think about it the more idiotic it seems. I can’t imagine what came over me.
Like you said, probably something demonic.
Yes well, speaking rationally i don’t really believe in demons and things like that.
No, do you believe in me?
In you? What do you mean?
Well didn’t i seem to appear from nowhere just when you were losing it big time?
Yes, i suppose you did. Don’t get me wrong – I’m hugely grateful to you for bothering to find out if I’m ok. That was very kind of you, but all this supernatural stuff, it doesn’t wash with me.
Naturally, anyway, I’ll be seeing you.
Oh, you’re off? I didn’t catch your name.
No, you’ll remember before too long.
I will?
About ten years from now.
? Bizarre.
Bzzz
Hey, where did he go? I could’ve sworn that beetle flew right out of his shadow. Oh God, i need a drink more than ever. This is...
Remember?
That was you?
Apparently so.
I didn’t remember that experience until now.
Not surprisingly. Like everything weird it got filed away in deep storage.
So what does it mean?
You tell me.
You’re not human.
Oh come on, give me a break, you can do better than that.
You set that demon thing on me?
Fail.
The other half rubs up against 3d and manifests things from time to time.
Better.
So it isn’t purely random.
Ah ha.
And i can only perceive or understand as much as I’m ready to.
Yep.
Which isn’t much, is it.
Not a lot, but you’re building a base.
Ha, ten years of building and I’ve barely got started.
This is not linear, Heinrich.
Heinrich? Oh, him too?
Yes, he’s one of you.
Oh.
So you see, there’s more going on, more at stake than you were aware of...
You’re telling me!
But that is apparently all about to change.
Yikes!
You better believe it...
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