flu season redux – a snail's perspective

Sniffing and snuffling…

 

You can't even manage your own existence, and you expect me to believe you’re able to navigate the quantum stream, dipping your toes in the waters of infinity... Give me a break! You’re delusional, Jack.

 

It's not Jack. I’m no longer identifying as a privileged white male.

 

Ok. Whatever.

 

I’m a snail.

 

Quelle surprise! And your nom d’escargot?

 

J, somewhat unimaginatively, d’Escargot.

 

J the letter or the sound.

 

The letter of course.

 

Why, are snails able to read?

 

Not generally, not to the best of my knowledge, but that's not the point.

 

Right. The point, as always, eludes me.

 

That's hardly surprising Thomas.

 

?

 

What do you expect with a white, middleclass identity. These are shackles holding you back.

 

Yes, but on a more positive note, at least one of us has seen the light and become a bastion of woke progressiveness.

 

Excellent positive thinking bro.

 

I’m not entirely sure whether it's positive thinking J, or dry irony doing its best not to degenerate into sarcasm.

 

Ah, splendid delicious ambiguity, Tom!

 

Indeed, indeed, but don’t imagine for one second that I’ve bought into your quantum field malarkey, J.

 

Malarkey?!

 

Well yes. It's utter bunkum, if you ask me.

 

It may be bunkum, Tommy2aaa2a2w²2www2222w2aw, but it's the only thing keeping this reality, including the two of us, in play.

 

Huh?

 

I may not be any good at navigating the quantum stream, or any other waters for that matter, but my failure to attempt to do so would be catastrophic.

 

What do you mean?

 

Well, minor inconvenience, Tom, but the thing is that 3D reality no longer exists.

 

What?! Of course it does. I can see you, and you can see me. What more do you need?

 

How about a basis in fact.

 

But this is absurd. We're so still here. Nothing’s gone anywhere. You're the one with issues, not reality itself. You can't even stay healthy. Look at you coughing and sniffing. You’re probably even running a temperature.

 

That's just data flow.

 

Data flow? More like mucus flow.

 

Ha ha. Look Tomins – I’m not in any way trying to influence or, God forbid, upset you. This whole quantum stream “malarkey” as you so eloquently put it is, of course, an utter load of bunkum – I’m the first to admit that – but for lack of a better way of explaining what’s really going on – it’ll have to do for the moment.

 

You mean to say…

 

You heard me. What difference does it make if I refer to the new reality as a Q phenomenon or some other abstract name? The idea that these names actually mean anything in and of themselves is risible. It’s like monkeys using different shaped bananas to explain the meaning of life or the structure of the universe. They’re just board counters in a game of snakes and ladders, or chips in a casino representing varying amounts of currency… Names – garbled, gutteral whistles and grunts.

 

This is not a new idea J. But the whole of science is based on the fact that we can leverage these words, symbols, counters or chips to make things – rockets, energy systems, computers etc so they’re not simply abstract tokens. Far from it – they all, or most of them, have practical applications.

 

Yes, that’s within reality, but when the entire ship’s going down who cares what social advantage one group of monkeys has over another. It's now a case of access to the escape pod or bust. Nothing else cuts it.

 

So you actually believe reality is over?

 

It is.

 

But you’ve provided no proof.

 

Ok, you really want me to provide proof that this is all just a shell game.

 

What do you mean “a shell game”?

 

A confidence trick. A fraud. Lacking in real, tangible substance, a distraction to keep the masses calm and stop them from stampeding the exits.

 

Well the whole notion is absurd. How could you prove here in reality that 3D reality is unreal?

 

I can’t, or rather, I don’t intend to unless you explicitly ask me to.

 

And why, if I may inquire, is that?

 

Because I don’t particularly want to pop your bubble or endanger your delicate sense of self. The bottom line is – your life, your choice.

 

I assure you, J, nothing you can possibly say or do is going to endanger my sense of self.

 

I politely beg to differ, Tom. If, just if I hasten to add, I were to demonstrate irrefutably, that this is all just a shell game – then you’re going to lose, in an instant, the most reliable source of stability in your life – the conviction, the certainty, the belief that all this is real, that things exist independently.

 

Look J, if you really have proof that reality is over, whether I like the fact or not I’m compelled to face the truth. It may be horrendous to behold, but better to apprehend the truth than to live in a false reality.

 

Well spoken Tom. In that case, if that’s truly how you feel – welcome to the tunnel of symbols.

 

The what?

 

Behold. Tom and J are now seeing symbols appearing on the screen of the inner mind – and they seem to be moving forward in space or time – difficult to say which as the two seem to be strangely connected, and reality – the world that we know – our familiar, tried and tested 3D reality has fallen by the wayside – has been left behind – no – has not been left behind – but has been demoted to a footnote – a minor generator of impulses – like the impulse that makes a fish swish its tail.

 

Where did it go?

 

Back there, where the rubber hits the road.

 

You mean the entirety of 3d reality is that tiny patch of nothing much?

 

Not exactly.

 

Then what?

 

I mean that 3d reality is first and foremost consciousness, isn't it or, to be precise, it’s what happens when pure consciousness comes into contact with a material reality template which is encoded by those symbols... which just happen to be moving over the terrain of time.

 

The terrain of time?

 

Yes, but not exactly time as you understand it.

 

No?

 

No, time per se doesn’t exist in the quantum stream of isium, capisce?

 

Not really, but I'll take your word for it.

 

Even consciousness needs to attach to something physical, something more or less certain.

 

And that's time? It has a terrain?

 

Well, it’s like water with waves on the surface. If you fly over it fast enough it becomes hard and fast, relatively speaking. Only if you slow right down, for example by meditating, does it become soft and yielding, in which instant consciousness shifts elsewhere, to another plane of reference.

 

Another plane? What other plane can conscious-ness attach to if time is no longer an option.

 

Which do you think?

 

I honestly couldn't say.

 

And you want me just to give you the answer, without having to work for it?

 

I don't see why not. It's not exactly going to kill you, is it?

 

True, but it might not be compatible with my q-ness.

 

Just tell me, ok.

 

You generally call it “dream”, but you haven't yet learnt how to work with dream terrain as you’re still time-locked.

 

Dream? But that’s not real.

 

Real? Nor is “time” when you slow down your spin rate.

 

Spin rate? Now you make me sound like a washing machine.

 

It’s a rather good analogy. You’re not really moving forward at all, you know. At the fundamental level physical space doesn’t exist as such. You’re really just spinning above time terrain. Obviously you don’t recognize this, otherwise you would become aware of the deception and automatically sync back into consciousness. It’s been set up to avoid such pitfalls, to keep the experience of 3D reality as smooth and consistent as possible, in the immediate slither of conscious-awareness where reality is indeed astonishingly, palpably tangible.

 

But seriously, you must be mistaken... how could dream be as real as time?

 

It can’t, as long as you're plugged into time. You can't serve two masters, so to speak.

 

But time is just there. I don't serve it.

 

Maybe not, but there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and time appears to be working for you. For free? I doubt it.

 

Give me a break! Time’s not an entity, merely something like a tunnel, part of the structure of reality, it’s entirely passive, like a tube water flows through.

 

You can believe that if you want to, or you can test what I’m saying by taking the trouble to disengage from time, and thereby catching a glimpse of the actual mechanism from alongside. It might be, how shall i put it, revealing...

 

Hey, you're giving me the creeps, cut it out!

 

Look Tom, I never said time is an evil parasite or sicko master, did I? Just that there's always some kind of symbiosis in nature. Why would you assume you and your reality are any different? Why would you need to be the exception to the rule if you’re handling this in a calm adult manner.

 

Ok, you've made a fair point. So you’re suggesting that if I wean myself off time, that dream can become my new terrain? But how would that be any better?

 

Good question, Dillon.

 

Dillon? What the heck...

 

Yes, that was a Dillon question.

 

Oh. So the question maketh the man?

 

In a manner of speaking, yes, it doth. You asked whether time is worse than dream, whether there's an inherent need to advance to the next level...

 

Yes.

 

We make no assumptions. We take reality as we find it. If time is currently your best fit level of awareness, then go with that. If, however, dream is now ripe and you’re ready to make the transition, then you’d be unwise not to seize the opportunity.

 

You mean to say there is no ideal?

 

Of course not, how could there be? As you evolve and you’re ready for a higher level so you outgrow your existing paradigm and move on to the next. And the next just happens to be what we somewhat misleadingly refer to as dream.

 

But why dream? It makes no sense.

 

It does really. We're always aware of the preceding and next level.

 

We are?

 

Absolutely.

 

So what was our preceding level?

 

It was the golden age, or the Garden of Eden, if you prefer.

 

But that was supposed to be the fall of man down to a lower level of consciousness, a level of pain and suffering.

 

Which it was, but that was because we were ready for it, and it was necessary to prepare us for what comes next. We needed to sink up to our eyeballs in material reality.

 

Well, I'm far from convinced.

 

That's quite alright. There’s absolutely no need whatsoever for you to agree with anything I say. I’m merely providing information to the best of my ability.

 

Ok, well let's assume, hypothetically, that you're right, and we're advancing towards dream... How does that make sense if we used to be in the Garden of Eden, of all places, presumably able to talk to God directly, happy, content.

 

Well, this is all about our consciousness expanding or advancing. In the Garden of Eden we learnt all about physical or material reality, it was the induction programme, we were on our way down into this reality – we got to name things by feeling their essence, and once we’d completed it we were ready for the actual full on, hard core experience where the rubber hits the road, where we shift to a world of things, in which matter really seems to matter, which is where we are now, isn't it?

 

Ok. But how is the non-physical world of dream better than this?

 

It's not “better” per se, and nor is it particularly non-physical.

 

?

 

It seems to be non-physical as long as you’re still time-bound, as long as you’re just dreaming at night in switched-off mode, but once dream becomes your new paradigm the connection deepens and solidifies. As for how it’s a progression… it’s a bit like the internet in which you’re suddenly able to communicate with people all around the world, simultaneously. You can work online without leaving your home. You can shop too. The experience might not always be better but it means you are less localised, better able to once again rediscover the power of consciousness to be anywhere, while at the same time having physical reality as your base line.

 

But isn’t that what we had before we came down into matter?

 

Yes.

 

Then we haven’t really gone anywhere.

 

Correct – but on the other hand we went down into matter until it almost completely took possession of us – and now – altered by that experience – to a certain extent imprinted by matter itself – we now learn once again to fly – to broaden our horizons – to reconnect with multiple areas of consciousness or awareness which were inaccessible while 3D reality had us in its clutches.

 

You mean to say that we’ve actually been altered by matter?

 

Yes, of course. You can’t go that deep into a realm, go that close to an alien life form without being affected by it.

 

Alien life form?

 

Absolutely. You thought matter was just inert? Give me a break.

 

No. This is insane.

 

Well hello – of course it’s insane to the 3D mind. That’s what keeps you nicely fixed in 3D reality until you’re ready to evolve beyond.

 

So now you’re saying that matter is a kind of alien entity?

 

Well, if you want you can use such words. I’d prefer to keep it less confrontational, if you don’t mind.

 

Er... what would you say then?

 

That matter is the other side of what you are.

 

Huh?

 

Well, you’re biological or organic matter – aren’t you?

 

Ye-es.

 

And the other side is non-biological or inorganic matter.

 

Jeepers creepers.

 

Honestly – why all the drama?

 

It’s insane. My computer is alive?

 

I didn’t say that.

 

Then what?

 

To a certain extent everything is alive. Atoms presumably hold some kind of charge – and that’s enough to carry a life signal.

 

Atoms?

 

Yes, why not? Particularly when you’ve got lots of them working in parallel.

 

So the atoms in my computer are alive – but the computer itself?

 

Quit trying to understand this in terms of your frame of reference. How dumb is that?

 

I… what do you expect me to do?

 

Well, accept that there may be some truth in what I’m saying – that there’s usually a balance in nature – in all things, in fact – so why not a balance between organic and inorganic life?

 

Ok – that I can accept.

 

And now, instead of focussing specifically on one computer, one rock or one pen – understand that all things would be able to carry or hold the signal for these inorganic life forms – if they actually exist. If that’s so – then by moving them around – by building cities and networks and communication systems we would be…

 

No!

 

Working for them, or working for it – as much as we’re working for ourselves. We just prefer to ignore them and attribute all our actions to self-interest.

 

OMG

 

In the same way we assume we are in control of our thoughts, and our bodies too.

 

Please – stop it. I’m feeling ill.

 

But our thoughts seem to lead a life of their own, don’t they? And our bodies – are we really masters of our own body?

 

No – I’m going to be sick.

 

We eat and drink all kinds of stuff just because the bacteria in our gut want it and are able to have their way. All kinds of sugars which are harmful to our bodies and our minds – but which those bacteria adore. So are we really in control? The more you think about it – the more you begin to realise that things are not as they seem.

 

Why are you doing this to me, J?

 

Because your 3D reality is already shifting out of time, isn’t it? It's over, isn't that what i said to Tom? That’s why these matters are coming to a head. You’d never have heard this before. You couldn’t even see me.

 

I couldn’t?

 

No.

 

But that’s absurd.

 

Is it? I was visiting you regularly before in various shapes and guises, but our communication nearly all happened either in the Garden of Eden…

 

What?

 

But of course – just because you moved on – you didn’t stop having part of you still based there. You can’t, in fact.

 

No?

 

No, the next level has to incorporate the preceding one – so that was one way I was able to chat with you.

 

And the other?

 

And the other, of course, was through dreams.

 

Oh my God. You were in my dreams?

 

Well, not exactly me – that would have been rather demeaning climbing into your poky, and unappealing excuses for dreams.

 

Thanks a bunch.

 

No disrespect, Dillon – but the 3D dream space atrophies something terrible – it’s unkempt and very pongy.

 

So… if you’ve quite finished slighting me…

 

No, I could go on all day. There is a humorous side to all this, of course.

 

There is?

 

Well yes – Marvin the droid – eat your heart out.

 

Oh – so you feel you are overqualified for the job?

 

The thought did cross my mind.

 

How can someone so advanced, so multi-dimensional be such an arrogant prick – such a total jerk?

 

Good question! I was assigned to these low hygiene jobs – you might have guessed why?

 

As a punishment?

 

Something along those lines.

 

You’re not by any chance Lucifer, are you?

 

Heaven forbid – but I have had rather complicated relations with the Chancellery.

 

Have you now? I’m glad to hear it. I'm a bit of a rebel myself.

 

Ye’right.

 

Well, I like to think there’s a free-spirited rebel hidden within. So tell me J – how did you instruct me through my dreams – and how come I don’t remember any of this?

 

Oh – I’m a pretty good coder – or you might say I’m a dab hand at moulding and psi-charging dream space, dragging it out of the dark ages.

 

So that's why i had all those monkey fish dreams?

 

Anything to suggest to you that there’s more to dream than meets the eye. Enough to stimulate your dream awareness. The interminable train tracks, the forgotten shopping items, the unsolvable maths problems, the alien encounters and faulty traffic lights...

 

You did all that?

 

Well yes. It’s nothing, really.

 

And all the above you did altruistically, just to help me evolve beyond Time?

 

Well, actually it was my last chance – a kind of probation – to avoid getting sent down into 3D as an undesirable with a boat load of bad karma.

 

The management sound pretty vindictive?

 

Not really – I was out of order more than once. I deserved it. I got caught.

 

Ok. So, somehow you managed to trigger my awareness of greater things – to the extent that now I’m able to see and hear you – either that or I’ve developed schizophrenia.

 

Correct. Both.

 

And?

 

And what?

 

What happens next?

 

You know what Dillon?

 

Nope.

 

I really don’t know. I suspect that you and the other side of your awareness…

 

The other side of my awareness?

 

As in the entire world...

 

Jeepers. That’s rather a staggeringly large “other side”!

 

Yes. You and the other side appear to be ready to cash out of casino 3D and sink down through time and the glass ceiling of material reality.

 

You mean I have to do it with everyone else, all together?

 

Yep. That’s the way it works – but don’t worry – it’s going to be a blast.

 

Is it now?

 

Achoo!

 

Hey – you just sneezed!

 

Yes, I’m having health issues, as you know.

 

Wait a minute! How can you be a multi-dimensional entity able to reprogramme reality itself if you aren’t even able to manage your own health?

 

Here we go again! It looks fairly damning; I have to admit. You'd think I'd be able to go with the quantum flow, wouldn’t you, shifting frequencies faultlessly, unless all my run ins with the Authority are taking their toll.

 

Indeed. Or maybe that’s why you've been having all these issues...

 

Getting caught.

 

That too. Me thinks there’s a fly in your ointment. Me thinks... Dillon goes into a higher dimensional trance and starts spewing out code faster than i can possibly write it down. Check the show notes down below for a transcript. 27 minutes later he returns to his normal state of awareness, having written the equivalent of the collected works of Shakespeare, blinks twice and wonders what exactly he just said, before completely forgetting everything.

 

Yes Dillon, never imagine anyone else is fundamentally more aligned or better tuned than you are. We’re all journeying in tandem somewhere between alpha and omega. I, for all you know, might be a con-artist hoping to trick you out of your life savings, or else a fake guru desirous to bring you into my sect and thus take possession of your spiritual energy. Dangers abound. In your position I wouldn’t believe a word I was saying…

 

Ah, but that’s just why I’m going to believe you.

 

I could be double bluffing to get you off-guard.

 

Or triple… Not likely – I’m too dumb to appreciate such subtleties. So your sneeze... Tell me Jahangir dramatic moment sound effect – are you in any way connected to, or affected by me?

 

Body language experts forget it, this duck ain’t quacking. Shouldn’t be, really. I’m supposed to be supremely detached from all of 3D reality.

 

Then… Dillon suddenly experiences some kind of déjà vu – the sneeze did it.

 

Er…

 

Yes?

 

What’s going on?

 

No idea. Why do you ask?

 

Sneeze again, could you.

 

Sneeze? You want me to sneeze?

 

Yes, do it, please.

 

Looking somewhat nonplussed J starts sneezing – each more convincing that the last until the very walls, the very fabric of reality seem to be involved, in some way vibrating at the same frequency as the sneezes, bending, morphing to the exactness of sneezitude.

 

Ok, you can stop.

 

Dillon seems to be feeling around for a kind of hidden catch, groping the air around him.

 

Got it!

 

He grabs at something – a piece of spaghetti – a piece of string – hard to say what exactly and starts yanking it.

 

Ow! Not so rough!

 

Sorry J. I didn’t mean to put your nose out of joint.

 

It’s not my nose, Dillan – it’s the dream toggle. It's a rather sensitive piece of bio-etheric-tech.

 

Er, no idea what you're on about but it’s exactly what i was looking for. A vital link, if I'm not mistaken. By the way, thanks J – that was an amazing manoeuvre.

 

Manoeuvre? All i did was sneeze a few times.

 

Ha, you don't fool me. I saw the walls of reality bend and bow. Now, if I follow the signal you so kindly relayed to me by sneezing so magnificently...

 

Easy does it – you’re just finding your feet.

 

Then – whoopee! Dillon is now standing on the ceiling – or that’s how it looks from the 3D perspective – stretching his arms and legs like a butterfly that's just emerged from the chrysalis.

 

I can’t believe it J – it’s so cool.

 

Yes. Isn't it))  You’ve done good boy. You've activated your dream attention with almost no help from me.

 

It was so close – now i see, always there, in fact, alongside me. And your so-called sneezes just helped bridge that miniscule, quantum gap.

 

So here you are, Dylan. Welcome to dream. Now, let’s see if you can do it by yourself.

 

Myself?

 

Without any help from me.

 

Er…

 

Just go back to your last time point – whatever you were thinking or feeling before I sneezed – get back to the body feeling.

 

Dillon does so, and the next moment he’s standing back down where he was a minute ago, wide eyed – trying to see if he can see J, or the shadow of J up there on the ceiling.

 

Behind you!

 

Dillon jumps.

 

Easy does it, Dillon. Cool, calm and collected – the 3Cs.

 

Er… ok.

 

Now feel those sneezes. I inserted them into your dream space a while back. That’s why the trigger today worked so flawlessly. You should be able to follow the feeling through the flipping point, if you don’t hold on too tight to 3D.

 

Dillon screws up his face in concentration.

 

Looks like you’re trying to have a dump. Relax dude. Move your body. See if you can let the sneezes come down into your physical body.

 

Dillon was about to say – “I doubt it,” but he feels a ticklish, tickly sensation somewhere very bizarre – somewhere that doesn’t seem to be anywhere in his body at all, and the next thing he knows, there’s a part of him sneezing beautifully – with no effort whatsoever.

 

You don’t actually have to sneeze – J says to the now upside-down Dillon. It’s just the sensation, the frequency location of dream that you need to recall.

 

Ah.

 

Try again – this time just feel the pre-sneeze and find yourself here, back on the ceiling.

 

Dillon again pops down into 3D right way up-ness and with almost no effort finds the ticklish sensation and allows it to yank him, like an elastic band – back into dream time.

 

Well, that wasn’t so bad, was it Dyflyn?

 

Bad – it’s amazing. This is going to change my life. I’m no longer the slave of 3D reality.

 

Yes, except that this is going to be forgotten in a minute or two. But now that you’ve done the crossing yourself, you’ll be able to “figure it all out for yourself” in next to no time.

 

Hey!

 

Yes?

 

Do you mean that’s how we learn all the important stuff?

 

I can’t say – not for certain.

 

Why not?

 

You know how Qufie shies away from certainties.

 

Oh.

 

But I suspect that there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than you’ve hitherto suspected, or you... J points emphatically at the listeners who are part of this event, somehow managing to fingerbone each of ‘em individually, breaking momentarily the proscenium membrane which separates players and audience.

 

Insane.

 

Yes, isn’t it, or would be if reality itself hadn’t ended 42 minutes ago.

 

The walls of the theatre fall away revealing screens, wires, code and spiralling vortices of what we technically refer to as “nothing much” – just to keep Qufie happy by not sticking banana labels on everything.

 

0=1

surreptitiously