The donkey's master

Jesus was talking to his disciples when up rode a priest, mounted on a donkey. “Rabbi,” said the priest respectfully to Jesus, “tell me how to serve God and my church.”

The disciples were confused. “How can the priest ask such an absurd question,” they wondered. “Surely he is serving God as a priest? Surely working diligently for the good of his church is a great way of serving God.”

Jesus could see the priest was a good man who wanted to do what was right in the eyes of God. “The donkey you are riding on,” Jesus said, “whom is it serving carrying you about your business?”

“Me, of course,” said the priest.

“Correct,” Jesus replied. “Be as the donkey.”

“Be as the donkey?” the priest was astonished. “Why would you have me, a man and a priest be as a donkey? What choice does the donkey have? Either it serves me or I beat it. It is bound to do my bidding.”

“Just so,” replied Jesus. “Be as the donkey, if you wish to serve God. Serve the master who is truly your master – who has complete power and control over you – who can and will beat you, starve you if necessary, if you are stubborn, or reward you, if he be so inclined.”

“But where can I find such a master?” the priest asked, downhearted. “As a priest I am responsible for the lives of others, but sometimes my superiors and I are compelled to bow to the civil authorities.”

“Yes, you see your donkey is more fortunate than you. It has a true master. It is able to serve you with all its heart, and whatever it does for your good, it does for God. Can you say the same about your priestly service?”

“It’s not so simple rabbi. You have to be practical. You have to understand that in the real world we sometimes have to compromise the good of our people for the good of our church, or even the good of the civil authorities who see us as an extension of their officialdom.”

“So learn from the donkey.”

“Learn from the donkey? How can I learn from a donkey that is dumb, that has no brain?”

“Well, you have a brain, do you not, but it gives you no advantage whatsoever – it merely complicates things and prevents you from truly serving God. Though you are kind and humble, your brain, your intellect is not.”

“My brain, my intellect is my servant, is it not, master?”

“Were that so it would truly serve you, whereas it appears that you serve it.”

“How so?”

“Because instead of seeing what is obvious, your brain assumes superiority over the humble donkey and so you fail to learn the lesson the donkey is teaching you.”

“But what lesson – how can the donkey, my servant, teach me a lesson?”

“True, the donkey is your servant, but remember, in serving you faithfully and humbly it is serving God, is it not?”

“Indeed, it is.”

“Then the donkey is first and foremost God’s servant, and as such it is, far from being your servant, a teacher with a lesson waiting to be learnt by you.”

“You mean the donkey is my master?”

“Master, servant, what difference does it make? In the eyes of God all is one – except true service – that is the greatest.”

“Indeed!”

“And your donkey has no reason to question its service – it is doing what it can, what it must, what it needs in order to experience God’s beneficence.”

“You mean to say even a donkey can experience God’s beneficence?”

“How your brain ties knots in the clear, threads of simple knowledge! The problem is not the donkey or the donkey’s relationship with God, is it?”

“Er…”

“The problem is yours. You are the one with the question, because you feel,  you suspect, you know that you at times are obliged to compromise your integrity, to do things which are not necessarily pleasing in the eyes of God, in the name of service, in the name of obedience, and yet you, unlike the donkey, have been given the ability to think for yourself, have been given the precious gift of a conscience, have been given free will and the ability, no – the necessity to choose between right and wrong.”

“But I could lose my job, or worse still, jeopardise the delicate political balance which keeps the church safe from the wrath of our king.”

“You could indeed, or you could jeopardise the only thing you’re truly responsible for…”

“Er…?”

“You could jeopardise the perfect harmony existing between yourself and God.”

!!! “Dear master, I cannot possibly claim to have perfect harmony existing between myself and God.”

“More fool you, for in that case you have a great, great deal to learn from your humble donkey who may have a very small brain, I accept, but who has a clear conscience which, I think you’ll agree, is rather better than surplus intellect.”

“So my intellect, as you put it, is more a curse than a blessing?”

“That’s entirely up to you. My disciples here – simple men, aren’t they? Rather closer to your donkey than to your sophisticated, well-educated priesthood, would you not agree?”

“I wouldn’t presume to know.”

“You’re being disingenuous. In this small matter your mind is an open book. Don’t imagine I’m criticising you – merely stating the obvious, and why? Because you asked.”

“No, you’re right of course. I’m not proud of myself. Yes, it’s true I can hardly help looking down on less educated men.”

“Well, what would you do?”

“What can I do? With a family to feed I can hardly upset the apple cart by ignoring the requirements of my superiors.”

“In that case, God in his mercy can provide another way.”

“He can?”

“Of course. God, in his mercy, can always find another way to open doors for good people who wish to serve him more completely.”

“And what, if you don’t mind telling me, will that be?”

“I don’t mind telling you in the least, but God prefers these things to be revealed in their own good time, so practice the discipline of patient watchfulness and when the day comes, you shall recall this conversation and know what to do.”

And the priest went away on his donkey, back to his parish church where he continued to serve various masters, until a year or two later a great pestilence visited that land and smote many of the great and mighty. Suddenly the priest found himself in a completely different landscape – in which he had to make many great decisions relying on God and no one else, decisions which theoretically risked his life, the lives of his family and all who looked to him for guidance, but these decisions he made with a clear heart and joy, knowing that the teacher by name of Jesus had foretold this moment, and that this was, in fact, God’s gift to him, God’s great chance for him to become the humble donkey he’d always yearned to be, to finally step out of his learnedness and serve God his master with all his heart, all his soul, all his being. Amen


Did the story end well? Did the priest survive the great pestilence? Was he punished by the civil authorities for his decisions? Jesus doesn’t answer these questions – for they are merely the product of idle curiosity, and do not lead any of us closer to the simple truth which, after all, being “simple” and “truth” is God’s dominion and utterly, utterly incomprehensible to the intellect.

The end

Banquo's revenge

Reality bias

Er…

Reality bias

Yes, I heard  you. Do you really want me to ask you to explain what this means – or are we just going to pretend we understand what you’re on about?

We?

Ok – me and the 74 million subscribers who follow your blog.

That’s more like it.

So I guess the answer is “no”.

Oh that – I just need permission – your permission to proceed.

You do?

Well yes.

Why?

Not allowed to give you stuff unless you ask for it..

Who says?

Non-interference protocol.

Ok. If you say so.

So, I’ll take that as permission granted.

Granted, granted – for what it’s worth.

So, you naturally assume reality is the whole thing, don’t you?

The whole what?

Yes, that’s it more or less – the whole what – and you assume that reality is neutral and unbiased, do you not?

How can reality be biased? It’s just reality, isn’t it – whatever is. Basically everything.

Absolutely. Every thing. Reality is all about things, isn’t it – and you never really wonder about all those things which don’t quite pass muster and make it into the “real.ity” operating system, onto the “real.ity” platform, the real.ity net.

Why do you imagine there are things that are excluded from reality?

No, you’re mistaken.

I am? Are you sure?

If I imagine something I’ll prefix it with the words “I imagine”. If, on the other hand, I’m stating a fact – then the “I imagine” prefix will be absent.

Ok – you don’t imagine – you’re absolutely sure that there are things which exist, which are real but which don’t make it onto the “reality” platform.

Absolutely. Such is the nature of the platform, though technically the word “real” only refers to things that appear in the reality you mistakenly assume to be all-encompassing.

Huh?

It excludes any thing which exceeds or deceeds very specific, tight, prescriptive operating parameters, like fish above or below the size of our reality net so to speak.

In the micro-hertz and mega-hertz range?

Good guesswork. Allow me to suggest that the precise frequencies are not right now terribly important.

If you say so. Then what is?

Important?

Yes.

The fact that so-called reality is half complete – that there’s another half which evades detection until or unless you figure out some thing doesn’t add up – that there must be more – that our real.ity is an mp3 or 4 digitised version of reality – that adding in the other half would collapse the wave function of real.ity and we’d be back in a landscape in which dream and undream are largely indifferentiable. There’d be all kinds of unthinged versions of any thing vying for our attention – competing with the table, the chair, the bird, the knife, the fork, the tree or the mouse – not to mention formless background noise – you’d be hard put to make head or tails of whatever is, or is not, what.

Oh.

Exactly.

So things are not what they seem.

Absolutely.

And?

And what?

What am I supposed to do with this er…

Revelation

Information

Do? What do you want to do with it?

I have no idea. You pull the rug of reality from under my feet – so I may as well assume you must have some ulterior motive.

How cunning.

Me? Cunning?

No, not you – the mind complicit in presenting the half-sided, filtered version of reality.

?

It’s very good at defending itself by directing attention elsewhere – at the messenger, for example, who provides additional information.

Oh – you think that’s a specific mind rather than my own personal response?

Absolutely. You’d be hard pressed to distinguish your real conscious self from the real.ity mind.

Reality mind? Are you absolutely sure there’s a separate mind for this particularly real.ity?

Absolutely. How else could it be so utterly convincing, so well defended?

So me – where am I in all this?

Where do you want to be?

Er…

Do you want to be in a controlled, edited, manipulated version of things – a so-called reality – or…

I think I’d prefer the truth – the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.

Even if it’s going to be somewhat confusing at first.

I can’t say I’m over the moon about experiencing a mental breakdown – but I’d rather experience reality in the true sense, than a fake version.

It’s just your half-mind is going to put up a bit of a struggle – it’s got used to having things its own way – and won’t want to relinquish control of you.

You make it sound like some scary enemy.

Well, it’s a bit like a drug addict. We all grow addicted to things – and the matrix mind – call it what you will, has grown addicted to controlling your conscious-awareness – which is a huge multi-dimensional setup with almost limitless possibilities. Like a kid in a candy store, the real-ity mind is definitely not in any hurry to go back to sharing the crown jewels with the other side of is, the why-mind-at-all-when-all-is-one – otherwise known more accurately as “0=1” if you don’t mind.

And, er… could this get dangerous for me?

For you, for everyone – absolutely. This is where you get to play a game of brinkmanship with your own mind – which is hellbent on keeping you penned in its version of things, as opposed to the unversion of query-things – aka “the isness of be”.

Gulp. Like a game of chicken, you mean?

Absolutely. It’s like a dog – if it sees you blink, or senses you’re about to flinch it’ll exploit that perceived weakness to the utmost.

Well, I’m not sure I have what it takes. I’m not exactly cut out to be a hero, you know.

I know. You’re welcome to revert back to the status quo, but the trouble is…

Yes?

Now the mind knows you know that it ain’t more than a rendition of reality – it’s going to have to move fast to re-secure your conscious-awareness before you see too clearly the limitations of what it’s able to reproduce.

And what exactly might that involve?

Difficult to say really – bear in mind that your mind is connected to all the other minds.

It is?

Absolutely. They have direct channels of communication you’re not even aware of. That’s how they manage to ensure you all perceive the same things more or less in the same way. They’re in cahoots.

Oh.

Yes, well if your awareness is now endangering the controlled-real.ity node you have hitherto functioned as, that’s a problem because awareness is kind of infectious – you could certainly spread the disease which could lead to a cascade failure or a domino effect spread of real.ity-scepticism – first  you, then more and more people you connect with would stop accepting unconditionally the truth of the real.ity you hitherto took for granted.

And what?

Well, a whole part of the mind-net would go blank for them, wouldn’t it? They’d lose control of your resources.

They? Who exactly are you referring to?

I can’t or won’t say – because until/ unless you’re able to see through the filters blocking them from view, and to see to some extent the fuller nature of true un-ity as opposed to real.ity – “the isness of be” as I prefer to call it – until that happens any name I give you will just be another thing to distract you from your own awareness experience. It will benefit you not in the least. On the contrary – it will be a distraction. Suffice it to say that you are part of a continuum which extends more or less ad infinitum – in other words, you ain’t the top of a Darwinian food chain.

Huh?

Your thoughts, your conscious-awareness mind resources are of huge value and feed a vast network of dependents – in the same way your body is a vast ecosystem for bacteria and other creatures, likewise your soul.

OMG

But this doesn’t have to be necessarily a bad thing.

No? You could have fooled me.

Well yes, but that would hardly benefit the cause, would it?

What cause?

Wait a moment – let’s rewind – so nature, as you know, abhors a vacuum – and as long as you were unable or unwilling to use your natural resources – the energy, the processing power of your mind, then it was fair game for it to be exploited by other more advanced entities. They do that by substituting their mind for the original, keeping you so busy minding things of no-significance whatsoever that you utterly fail to notice the mind is not your own, that behind it stand some rather sophisticated neural hackers.

Well I don’t see what gives them the right…

Correct – you don’t see, so stop huffing and puffing and consider that possibly they were doing you a favour – for although they were exploiting your untapped potential, they stopped it from atrophying and kept it more or less in good working order.

Oh.

And besides – quit whining about nature; everyone and everything is connected – we’re all interdependent, like it or not.

We are?

So literally there’s no way, physically, you can completely cut yourself off from all foreign, all alien entities.

Oh, it’s like that is it?

Absolutely. Even a king has to cultivate relations with other players on all sides to get anywhere.

Oh.

Besides, you were happy to go along with the subterfuge.

I was?

Do you imagine you wanted to know about what lies under the bonnet of the car, what lies inside the computer, what makes the beast perform in such a way that you fail to realise that it’s controlling you in every conceivable way.

Such as?

Emotionally, gastronomically – through the bacteria in your gut, mentally through thoughts and ideas, and so on and so forth.

OMG.

Absolutely. It beggars belief, does it not, but in the end there’s so much to learn, so much fun to be had by gently, carefully stepping outside the playpen we’ve been locked in (for our own safety – I hasten to add) and beginning to become aware of our real.ity bias – a bias which even defines “real” as “true” and “indisputable”, ironically, as opposed to it’s true meaning where “real” merely refers to the version of things, the perception of things, renditioned by the substitute mind within apparent “reality”, to the exclusion of all else. Real.ity is like the visible light spectrum – a tiny part of the entire electro-magnetic spectrum and any wavelengths real.ity-mind cannot see are de-platformed, disallowed, ignored with apparent impunity – as long as we’re willing to go along with this convenient substitution, buying into the myth that things actually matter – that matter maketh man.

Oh – so now we’re the ones to blame for this shambolic mess?

Blaming is exactly what they like you doing. As long as you’re upset, angry or fearful, as long as you’re fixating on some kind of enemy, then you’re simply not able to broaden your frequency band to take in anything else – so you’re welcome to give them the sweet satisfaction – the highly prized delicacies of fear and anger.

I can’t win. Everything I do is wrong.

True – you can’t exactly win – but you can shift phase; you can become aware of your reality bias, and simple awareness, mere awareness is enough to tip the balance, to get you centre stage so that the competing energies, forces or entities radiating from you/ through you hold one another in check.

Oh my G**

For how else could you be part of a continuum? How else could you have access to one and all – were you not already connected to an astonishing degree, once you allow your real.ity mind to confound itself by finally seeing through matter and through the mind that does everything it can to remain undetected.

But…

Yes – we can talk about it because your awareness is already lapping over the edge of the pool it was contained in – like water, but seeing is essential, and seeing involves facing what you most fear to see.

?

Fear, after all, is the mechanism which helped preserve the status quo just long enough to get you thus far – so there’s nothing wrong with fear, per se – only should you decide to choose to make fear, or matter (for that matter) your master, to the exclusion of all that is.

Oh.

Precisely…  By the way – consider for a moment me – who or what I am – whether in fact I exist.

?! Of course you bloody exist.

So you’d imagine, would you not?

Oh come on Banquo – I’ve known you for ages. There’s no way…

You see – you’ve known me for ages because that’s what you remember – but something just told you that that memory is insecure – was backdated – implanted to fill an awkward gap.

This is ridiculous.

I agree – but I’m hardly going to want to eliminate myself – am I? I’d only chose to do so if it were necessary to assist your awareness shift – as you realise that nothing is quite what it seems – that the mind is incredibly powerful – but isn’t in your control until you expand conscious-awareness to the point that mind is compelled to work with 0=1 unmind – which is non-local,  non-specific, non-definable – a disaster to all appearances, but which, nevertheless, manages to extract meaning or sense from infinity, to unexpectedly save the day when all seems lost and forlorn – which constantly defies and defeats our expectations – wrong footing our OCD predilection for predictability and pathological pedantry.

3Ps

Indeed. And maybe, just maybe that was a coded message, a signal to trigger what logic or reason cannot quite manage to achieve. 3Ps will do – and I will close

You’re not going to vanish like a ghost now that you’ve delivered your message are you Banquo?

Et tu Brutus

Huh? Shakespeare. Non sequitur or what… or – what? Betrayal? A nagging feeling something doesn’t quite add up… yet can’t for the life of me pin it down. If only Merry were here to shed some light on this

shameful tale of betrayal

 if I’m not greatly mistaken…

if I am

not

[Cut]

Outside the studio three disgusting old hags dance around a cauldron on a wild, stormy moor little suspecting I’m now at liberty to see how they managed to weave, to spin, to twist me into their narrative – as if somehow mind takes its cues from far flung outposts – stories scattered around the collective-mind-space of things that somehow or other define, determine, decide what apparently matters, and what absolutely does not in so-called real.ity    

if only they knew…

shut up Mac B – of course they do

it remains to be seen – dunnit?

absolutely…

the fact is

So you’re telling me –

No, I’m not telling you anything.

But – you were saying…

“You were saying, you were saying”– what does it matter what “I” was saying?

?

Who am I to say anything?

Er…

Do you really imagine I can possibly know anything better than you?

…?

That I’m somehow privy to information that you’re not?

Er…

Really? Just let that sink in, if you’d be so good.

I…

Yes, you’re not getting a word in edgeways, are you – probably because I’m a blabbermouth with a intellectual I-knows-best complex – God help me, fool that I am.

Well, now that you mention it…

But for all my many sins, caveat emptor.

?

Buyer beware.

Er…

Beware of false prophets. Beware of snake oil salesmen. Beware of teachers or “experts” who believe they have the answer, or want you to believe it.

Well, in that case, I guess I’ll be off.

Not so fast.

Huh?

Process.

Process what?

Process this natural inclination to put one’s trust in external authorities.

Well, one can hardly be an expert in every field, can one?

No, one can not, but this isn’t about being an expert, is it?

Er…

It’s about knowing.

Well?

Knowing, spelt k-n-o-w-

i-n-g  yes, I think I know how to spell knowing.

Excellent. You know how to spell it – but do you know how to use it.

Use it? It’s not an appliance, is it?

Not exactly… Or do you know how to do it?

Do it? How to do “knowing”? What a bizarre turn of phrase.

Because knowing is a process.

It is?

Absolutely.

I rather assumed it was a repository of facts or information – a warehouse, if you like, which either contains the necessary item in stock, or does not.

Ah, well there you’d be grossly mistaken.

Huh – I’m going to hold you to your word – and not believe your ridiculous definition of the word “knowing”.

Hoisted by my own petard. Drats, and double drats. But setting aside your belated attempt at intellectual independence, or obstinacy if I’m not mistaken – let me suggest that knowing is a 0=1 function.

Huh?

A 0=1 function.

And?

As in, a squaring the circle function.

Oh God, will this never end?

Surely you know what I mean by squaring the circle?

Do you want me to pretend I do?

Not unless you enjoy pretending. Never do something just to please another.

Ok, I’m clueless, though, as you so rightly said – I dare to believe – I must know what it is and have no need to rely on you as an external authority for elucidation.

Bravo. None whatsoever.

So what do I do now?

Good question. What would you like to do?

I’d like to hear the answer.

Excellent. Well, it’s obviously lodged in a part of your anatomy which is not instantly available for retrieval as you never got round to setting up a good data retrieval system – did you?

No, I suppose not. I was always happy to rely on you for that function.

So I, you see, am guilty of standing between you and your own knowledge. My sincerest apologies.

Ok, so if the answer is within – how do I access it?

How would you like to?

No idea.

Bad. No idea is stubborn and obstinate. It’s a sulky, churlish creed. A puckered upper lip. A frown. A lazy, can’t even be bothered humph.

Oh.

Much better to consider positive ways of getting better connected to the levels and layers within, around, or via your self.

How?

How do you think?

By knowing?

Absolutely.

A vicious circle.

Ask what helps the thought process.

A walk perhaps...

Excellent.

Meditation.

Superlative.

Doodling.

Formidable [with a French accent]

Writing a dialogue – like this one.

Ah ha – you fly higher and higher my friend. Yes indeed. All of the above, in fact, it’s fair to say that the entire world and everything happening therein is, as Douglas Adams suggested, one super computer processing thoughts, arriving at answers or, God forbid, knowledge.

No way.

How could it not be so?

Er…

A vast interactive platform of getting to know – by thinking-doing-messing around – the life process is one part necessity, one part absurdity, one part misapprehension and seven parts prevarication.

Oh, is that a fact?

Not really – but it sounded good so why should I let the mind’s obsession with facts stand in my way?

But how’s that going to help us to know?

Because knowing is as much about creating facts as it is about discovering them.

Huh?

Because facts are little things that are here today, gone tomorrow, whereas the fishing rod can catch another fish on any occasion if you know how to use it.

Oh.

Indeed.

There’s literally nothing to it.

Nothing?

Absolutely.

Er…

You already know everything there is to know.

But… how?

Because you are an integral part of the Field.

I am?

Absolutely.

So the Field is all knowing?

Absolutely.

Kind of like God.

Kind of, yes.

But not exactly God – you’re saying.

What does it matter what I’m saying. You can’t help knowing the answer if you know your self.

My self?

Well, your self is more than just a body and a mind.

It is?

Well yes – a body and a mind are only external forms, projections in the physical world of the Field you contain within you.

Oh. Are you sure?

Should I be sure?

Well you seem to know what you’re talking about.

But maybe I’m delusional.

Precisely. You might be delusional.

How would you know?

Well I never heard anyone else ever talk about me containing a field within.

The Field.

That neither.

And what?

What? Well, how likely is it to be true if no one’s ever mentioned it before. I certainly never heard mention of it at school.

Oh well – you’d better go back to your school facts then – if you find them so appealing.

At least they have the stamp of authority. They’ve been well researched. They’re widely accepted to be true, or at least close to the truth.

Hum… You’re certainly keen on accepting other people’s authority – aren’t you.

Like I said – I can hardly be an expert in every field of enquiry.

Like I said, whatever.

Hey – you never said “whatever”.

I know. I just lied.

Well that just goes to show – how can I take you seriously? How can I trust your testimony if you’re willing to blatantly lie?

I don’t know. Why would you want to “take me seriously”? My words are just words. Food for thought – but if your mind is already made up – if you’re already wedded to the matrix – the reality we’re a part of – then nothing I say matters to you, regardless.

Regardless of what?

Regardless of whether it’s true or not.

Well, I like to believe that I’m open to new ideas, new opinions, that I’m able to discern the truth…

Do you? How likely is that? Have you tested your belief?

Not exactly.

Have you ever stopped and wondered where exactly the mind that you seem to be made of originates – what it wants – where it’s heading?

Not exactly.

Have you ever experienced moments of lucidity or deep inner peace and knowing – or an out of body experience – or the most dramatic one – a near death experience.

I… I’m not sure. I can’t recall.

Ever taken psychedelics?

Er… Not exactly.

Not exactly? Interesting reply. It looks like I’m not the only one capable of telling little white lies.

Well, you do ask awkward questions.

I do, don’t I. And you do like your “safe space” don’t you.

“Safe space”? I don’t know about that. I imagine myself to be a risk taker.

Correct – you imagine or believe this. Kite surfing and riding a scooter on holiday – these are indeed minor risks which you have taken…

Hey – who told you about those.

No one. I guess I just know stuff.

How?

I don’t know. Just by knowing I expect.

That’s creepy.

Is it? Creepy that the Field informs me of stuff that is relevant to my current activities or current conversation.

Well yes. After all, everyone’s allowed their own privacy.

Absolutely – but you never got round to activating your privacy function. You’re an open book and completely controllable, completely controlled by the so-called government, by the so-called authorities that you hold in such high-esteem.

I wouldn’t say that. I have the same degree of freedom as everyone else.

Locked in your house.

For my own safety – and the safety of people who are vulnerable to this virus.

This virus – you say – I wonder what the Field has to say about it.

How would the Field know anything about a virus?

How could a virus or anything, for that matter, exist independently of the Field in which all information, all conscious-ness or C3 for short, is stored, vibrates, lives, breathes, actually exists.

So you can see this virus in the Field? Is that what you’re saying?

See it, feel it, hear it, know it – something like that – if it exists.

And?

And what?

Does it?

Does it what?

Exist?

I have no idea. Why don’t you take a look?

Because, in case you haven’t realised – I don’t know how.

Is that a belief or a fact?

I – don’t know.

[Yawn]

If I knew how to access this so-called Field – don’t you think I would? It sounds fairly thrilling.

Indeed it is. If it’s a Field you hardly need to access it.

No?

No – it would have to be integral to your existence.

Well if it is – it’s amazingly well hidden.

Isn’t it – hidden in plain sight. Amazingly.

Oh come on – you’re being flippant.

Am I? Look – I’ll tell you what I can do.

Yes?

I can briefly turn yours off.

You can?

Yes. No problem.

And?

And then you’ll see what it’s like when it’s absent.

Oh. Is that going to be dangerous?

Could be – but probably not as dangerous as not even knowing that your Field exists.

Oh.

So, buckle your seatbelt. Here goes…

!! I refuse to accept that I’m just a computer.

Do you? I wonder why?

Because I’m human.

Absolutely.

Then why do I see this ugly, stupid computer?

Because without the Field that’s all you amount to.

It is?

Yep. Just a computer. A simple processor.

But I’m biological.

Yep.

So how can I be just a computer?

NO idea. It’s a miracle, isn’t it.

A miracle you say? It’s bloody appalling.

The Field in you, around you, wherever it is – cannot be just a processor of alien facts and information.

Alien?

From external sources.

No? Why not?

Because the Field is alive and strong. The only way you could contain or control it would be by re-engineering yourself into a kind of computer.

But how? Why would I do that?

No idea. Maybe that’s what you always wanted – to eliminate infinity from the equation – to conjure up a reality of facts and things – a sterile promontory, as Hamlet so eloquently puts it.

But why?

You have your reasons, I suspect – but why ask me? If you’re interested apply within. Ask her.

Her? Who’s that?

Her? The Field of course, silly.

But why her? Why not it?

I don’t know? Why all the questions? Why the obsession with not knowing the nature of mind, the nature of my-I and all-that.

Presumably because there’s nothing to know.

Nothing to see here – move on, move on.

Well, if there were, people would be talking about it – wouldn’t they?

And you’re willing to rely on them, are you, these indiscriminate people?

What choice do I have? I can hardly question everything, can I?

True, you can hardly question everything, after all, that would almost certainly lead you smack bang into the Field – which certainly seems to approximate, remarkably well, everything or infinity if you like.

There you go – steering the conversation back to your beloved pet subject – the so-called Field.

Look, the Field I assure you is nothing.

Wait a minute – you mean to say after all you’ve said that it’s…

Nothing. Absolutely.

You mean you’ve been lying again.

I don’t see how I can help but lie.

?

All language, after all, is but metaphor.

?!

A never really equals B, or C for that matter. One thing is never really another – and when you truly know what you’re seeing – you realise that everything is unique – that we are just a series of experiences – a kind of awareness strung between variable degrees of certainty.

Er…

So, technically, everyone is lying, even though they may not be aware of it.

Shallow. You’re splitting hairs, yet again, playing with words disingenuously.

And yet, if I’ve bothered to get to know how to know – then you may find that there’s something more than fakery or manipulation at the heart of what I’m presenting.

May I? I don’t see how. So far I’ve just encountered intellectual dishonesty.

Hum… try this for size…

No        way     !

Amazing, isn’t it.

Beyond words.

That’s the trouble, you see, with words.

Oh       my     God.

Indeed.

Why didn’t you say straight away?

Well, observe your Field – let’s use the rewind function – there – can you see how your Field was shaping up during the dialogue.

Absolutely. Wow! How fascinating.

Isn’t it just.

So it takes time – for it to warm to the occasion.

Yes, to bring it out of hibernation, so to speak.

And then, suddenly – you deliver your coup de grace.

Me? I actually take a back seat. You do the hard work – your Field unfolds itself and for the first time in living memory you experience the circle outside the square containment field.

Holy – I know not what.

Absolutely.

And the best thing is that…

Precisely – though I’m not sure they’ll make much sense of that – unless you can infect them with your…


-0=1

Too much, too far – but you never know – might work.

[transmission ended]