Patriarch's Pond

Is there really no other way, Merry, other than crashing the dimensions like that?

Of course there is.

Really?

There’s always another way, but you’ll notice that turning towards the void isn’t the gut wrenching thing it was first time round – in fact you’re beginning to enjoy it – are you not?

Er… you know, I hate to admit it but you’re right. It’s beginning to feel normal – in fact I can’t figure out how I lived without it before this.

What do you mean?

Well it makes things seem different – brighter   bigger   deeper  – and being able to hone in on something – to tune into the atom behind, within whatever it is I’m observing – that’s a complete game changer, isn’t it?

Then what’s the problem?

Oh, some of the chat room crowd – they feel it’s all a bit too dramatic – not sufficiently zen.

They want the zen approach, do they?

I guess they’d like to know more about the alternative.

Fair enough. Are you ready to give it your best shot?

When have I ever said “no”?

Oh – once or twice. Ok – here goes. We can do this sitting or walking. Actually, I prefer it walking so let’s start with that.

Alright. So we’re walking along.

By Patriarch’s Pond

By Patriarch’s Pond – where Woland chats with Berlioz and Bezdomniy in Bulgakov’s masterpiece “The Master and Margarita”.

I didn’t know you’d read that – amazing book, is it not?

Pure genius – but hopefully nothing supernatural’s going to affect us now.

Don’t be so sure. So what you do is breathe through your stream of thoughts, your stream of consciousness, the transmission constantly being emitted, coming out of your head. Just breathe through it. Allow yourself to feel how your breath is feeling it – is scanning it – reading it – de-ionising it… can you do that?

I can try.

So you carry on breathing as normal – but now you're conscious of the fact that your breath is no longer just happening – that you’re directing it and feeling any feedback, any effect it may have on the mind’s transmission, the stream of consciousness which you’re constantly emitting.

But why?

Why what?

Why am I constantly emitting or transmitting this thought stream?

That’s an excellent question. What do you think would happen if it stopped, which it will do the moment you become sufficiently aware, through your breath, of the process?

I have no idea. Perhaps I’ll start seeing things differently.

Correct. Because when the thought flow stops, you’re no longer held in place – your conscious-awareness is no longer locked in the 3D mind slot.

Oh.

You’re free to experience things, or perceive them in any of the myriad alternative slots, alternative positions.

Oh.

So what are you waiting for?

But…

Yes?

If it’s really so simple – how come no one seems to do this?

Bewildering, isn’t it.

There must be some reason…

Bias.

Bias? What do you mean?

Everything is outwardly biased, outwardly focussed. The world around you, your reality is dripping with jewels and candy for the mind, for desires – an emporium of things which usually keep you distracted.

But still – there must be some people who succeed in breaking the spell?

Of course – but to what end?

Huh?

Well, once the stream of consciousness comes to a standstill you can go anywhere, do or be anything – but only if you have a clear intent.

Oh.

Otherwise you simply enjoy a few moments of stillness, and then return to the hubbub renewed  refreshed.

Oh. So what’s my intent going to be?

What do you want? What do you need?

I want to see how this noisy reality is but one side of the whole – the totality. I want to bring it all together – to be able to move throughout – above if need be, and below.

Then go to it. As you breathe your column of thoughts – allow yourself to become distantly, dimly, vaguely aware of the other side of is. Allow yourself to sense the bridge, the all-seeing-eye which doesn’t look out any more than it looks in   behind   above or  below. But how will you bring anything back to this reality of what you see, what you experience in this state?

I… don’t know. Is it difficult?

You’ll be seeing so much more, so much faster – it will be very hard to contain it within the dribbling thought-stream that is available to you here in 3D – so you need to increase the bandwidth – you need to set our friends the gnomiki to work with fibre optic cables or some other technology.

You’re kidding, right?

Do I look like I’m kidding?

No, but – the gnomiki – these are imaginary creatures – for children.

Dear Zie, be not so dull-witted. You are the child. Your mind is presently only capable of dialup speed data streaming. If you’re at all interested in learning about the round world of consciousness, as opposed to the blinkered, tunnel vision realm you’re currently in, you’ll soon discover that every thing ever mentioned here in 3D exists in some shape or form – and far from being childish or foolish, is essential to broadening your psychic horizons beyond mere clanking  wheezing  being-less things.

Oh.

And children still retain a little of their peripheral vision which is why they’re more open to elves, fairies, unicorns, demons and gnomiki. They see more, until that is, they join the mind-shut-tight brigade of so-called adults.

Oh. In that case, I’ll swallow my pride

Good for you Zie. Well done.

I’ll call on gnomiki – whoever, whatever you be – to assist me in extricating myself from the hole or tunnel I seem to be stuck in – to help me open up faster, broader channels of perception, of data processing – to hit the critical speed of awareness that will enable me to be consciously aware of the bigger, greater truth.

Excellent. Do they respond.

I… I don’t know.

Well do you feel anything?

I… maybe.

Right – so you see – they’re going to have to put you through your paces. It’s all very well experiencing the greater all – but unless your mind can move at hyperspeed, you simply won’t be able to recall or process it here – so this is going to require a different kind of mind from the operating system you’re currently using. Parallel processing for a start – that kind of thing.

Oh my God – you make it sound like a new computer system.

Well there is some truth in that – the mind, though biological, has some very machine-like limitations, until you change how you see things and the world in general. When you lighten up, make it your intention to be open to all that is, no matter what, to suspend judgement – that kind of thing – then you can really move forwards.

It’s like training for a race – the way you put it.

Except, of course, your mind is already fully capable, fully enabled, the only thing stopping it is thing, or things.

Huh?

This obsession with thingification, and the snail pace processing of matter, and what matters, and why… loaded and larded with prejudice, with system bias, with values which are designed and intended to keep you weighed down and aware of nothing more than slowest, lowest frequency of things.

Oh.

But away – to the breath – for the breath knows no speed limits, no mind restrictions – it crosses any physical barrier in the body, the mind of the spirit.

Oh… Ok… here goes…

And while you’re at it – I’ll walk alongside and provide a little sound support – which will make it easier for you to hold your intent and continue – even when you’re away with the fairies. My song will be like an umbilical cord – connecting this world and wherever you now get to.

Oh… Ok… thanks.

Zie walks around Patriarch’s Pond following the circular path half a dozen times – focussed intently on his breathing, noticing things getting lighter and lighter – barely noticing Merrie’s quiet song – and now he’s abruptly aware that he’s dreaming – or in a state that normally is associated with dreaming. His thoughts are flowing all around – faster and faster – as if the wheel has been released and can turn at any speed. It whirrs merrily as he continues breathing the column of consciousness which extends out of the top of his head, still aware of Merrie’s song which somehow helps hold it all together.

Out of his mind’s eye he sees creatures – magical creatures or beings – all around. Some of them sweet. Some of them diabolical. Yet he looks on dispassionately, without thinking them or judging them – in fact he’s quite unable to do any more than observe and be aware. Anything else would slow him down and shove him back down into the tunnel, the tramlined thought stream he’s normally in.

As he continues walking he becomes increasingly aware of the other people. He can see their thoughts – how they’re locked, stocked and barrelled in a narrow thought channel. It’s abundantly evident why they can see nothing more than what they see – why they’re unable to see the gnomiki, the other creatures and beings who are an integral part of this and every landscape – because their thought stream is simply too slow, too narrow to register what’s going on in the hyperspace of the unfettered mind, the in-no-ways sinister all-seeing-eye of conscious-awareness.

A kind of melancholy touches Zie lightly – for there is something pitiful in observing the state of mind we’re generally trapped in, in which we only see things in a tendentious, front-loaded fashion. Now Zie is allowing his mind to go further, beyond the Patriarch’s Pond – over Moscow, over Russia, and still further beyond – for there seems to be no limit affecting how fast, how high his mind can spin, can extend. It’s wonderful to behold the wider, bigger picture – but how to find a solution – how to enable the 3D mind to change gears more readily, to rise up above the low-level smog and recall  remember  recollect the greater all that is?

Amazingly the answer comes to him from Merry, who continues to sing his lilting melody. Now it becomes clear – Merry’s song is a conduit – in fact Merry himself is a kind of hyperlink or channel. How does he do it? Zie finds himself asking    observing – and to his surprise – sees Merry in a new light – as an empty space – almost like a tube, or a drum, as opposed to the person, the thing he normally sees. “It’s not what he says,” Zie hears himself thinking – he imparts data through the silence, the space between words. His actual words are merely a kind of music   a drum frame   a beating drum. I too can start to hear this music, this beat – to disengage from the what of thing, the matter of words and what was said – and allow the silence to speak to me – for we are living in a field of fullness, of all that is – a field of conscious-awareness, and the limiting factor is  and always was  the apparatus of what, the endless tinkering thingness of thought, which keeps us heavy and slow in a muchness of matter.

And story – the tales Merry tells. They too are hyperlinks. They too carry traces of infinity, of all that is – when you breathe them, when you hear their inner silence, their magic, their peace, and not merely their what is what.

And Zie observes a story being told to one of the children on the far side of the pond – and the child’s mind, still too young to understand every word, whirrs, spins into the silence, the multi-dimensional  space within that story, fanning out, expanding, filling it with breath and light – the light of conscious awareness, so that the small child sees every aspect of that story in its entirety – the way it really happened hundreds of years ago – as well as how the story came to be passed down through the ages – how it was edited, how it evolved and why – until the child has learnt more in five, six, seven minutes than it will learn for the rest of its life, during eighteen years of formal education at school then university. Such is the magic of story, even when the teller is oblivious to the higher planes, the magics happening around about, and woven into the very fibre of the tale so innocently told.

Zie’s eyes fill up with tears as he observes the beauty of the child hearing the tale – watching its consciousness pulse, flash and flow like a collection of the most brilliant fish, octopi and creatures of the deep – for the field of consciousness is so very close to being the ocean itself

– that it is barely distinguishable, in fact, we are at a loss to determine where consciousness ends and the ocean begins – the two seem to yin and yang one another seamlessly. Salt water flows down his cheeks as he continues walking around the Patriarch’s Pond, with Merry by his side, invisible to most the people there, and Woland seated on a bench telling

Berlioz and Bezdomniy a tale of Yeshua, of Hegemon, known to us as Pilate, the glaring sun and a terrible headache he was experiencing. Annushka has already spilt her oil and a tram rumbles along from the direction of the Danilov monastery, though time has now grown hopelessly muddled in this picture of stories interwoven through ages past and ages yet to come.

I can’t believe how much that child, still a toddler was able to see, experience and learn as it heard the tale its mother was telling it. And as for Woland – to think I’ve come here so many times and never seen him sitting on the bench over there with Berlioz and Bezdomniy. It makes me want to weep what I’ve been denying myself.

Indeed, dear Zie, tis strange, tis strange – the way we humans choose to live.

We?

We. I too started out like you, but the further I proceeded, the more intent I was on living the greater tale, the master story, until I am as you see me now – almost completely empty inside, which explains how I have lasted this long.

Suddenly a kind of shiver passes over Zie as he realises, to his astonishment, how old Merry in fact is. It is as if time itself recoils into the distance, leaving Merry the space to shine a light of his own, and bring in a little, tiny breeze of I know not what – a breath of the gnomiki which is sometimes enough, sometimes all it takes to tip the balance between death and life, between blindness and sight, between nothing and knowing…

Robin's anatomic chair

We have a problem, Merry.

We do?

Yes. Robin was reading the latest post… the one about thargy tharg and the atomic chair. 

Right, is that the Robin I think it is?

Affirmative, the librarian.

And what?

Well he seems to have triggered some kind of quantum field anomaly.

Yes? How interesting. Tell me more.

Apparently he took the atomic chair thing a little too seriously.

Don’t tell me – he focused his attention on a surrogate atom thingfully, and succeeded in jamming the temporal stream?

Yes, and seems to have merged with a particularly comfortable leather chair in the library where he works.

Amazing. Did anyone see this happen?

No, but his wife Phoebe went in to look for him when he failed to come home after work, and sensed the anomaly almost immediately. 

Have you spoken to her?

Not exactly – it seems Eps has linked me in empathically. I kind of saw all this a moment ago.

Ok, that was nice of him. So what's Phoebe up to?

Trying to move the chair which is lying on its side, to no avail.

Oh dear! Hee hee hee…

Hey, this isn’t a laughing matter Merry. We’ve got to do something – and right away. Poor Phoebe’s beside herself with worry.

Sorry Zie – I didn’t mean to be insensitive – but I did warn you that 3D reality is growing increasingly unstable… Robin’s obviously better attuned to the higher dimensions than the rest of you. Fancy that – he didn’t require so much as a nudge from me to partially tharg a chair. 

Well, now he's stuck so what are we going to do about it? This is all very worrying. I for one am going to take down that last blog post – I had no idea it might trigger spontaneous quantum events. I could be sued for failing to provide adequate warning of the health risks involved in attempting this at home. 

You’ll do nothing of the sort Zie.

Excuse me? This is out of your hands, Merry. There, I already have.

I wouldn’t be so sure.

What do you mean. I've removed it. Deleted it entirely. I’m dreadfully upset about poor Robin. I wish I’d been more circumspect.

Yes, I understand, but it isn’t that simple Zie.

Huh?

I mean that the field has changed. Deleting it here ain’t going to alter the fact that you and I redefined things atomically. It's been incorporated anatomically into the body of things by thargy tharg where it's recorded in a kind of unfalsifiable blockchain, and clicking a mouse ain't gonna alter anything. 

You mean…

It can’t be deleted. Go back to the blog – have a look – what do you see?

Oh my God – you’re right. It’s still there. What am I going to do?

First things first – you could try panicking.

Merry – I hardly think this is the time for an insensitive  crass attempt at humour.

Alternatively, if you’re not in the mood to panic, you could try not-panicking for size.

I meant, what can we do practically to resolve the quantum anomaly with the chair? 

Oh that – why didn’t you say so?

Are you deliberately being obtuse, Merry?

I’m afraid I am – more’s the pity.

But why? Surely you’re not indifferent to the seriousness of this situation.

Er…

That’s it – I’ve had enough.

Finally – I thought you’d never get round to it.

I’m taking things into my own hands.

So you don’t need a gentle nudge?

Gentle – you call it gentle?

Well I certainly try to be gentle.

No – I don’t. I’ll damn well do it myself – and you can go and find someone else to prey on with your unsolicited dismal definitions. 

Ok – cheerio! 

Good – he’s actually gone. Now what am I going to do about this? I suppose I have no choice. It’s now or never. Three  two  one, about turn... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg

That wasn’t too bad. Now, where am I? No way! The library, England! Impossible.

I do wonder at your ability to doubt your own eyes Zie.

Ah, Eps, is that you?

Yes, who else could it be in the purple spectrum.

Good point. For a moment I thought it might be thargy tharg.

Ah yes – well I can’t say I’m altogether surprised. The relationship is a close one.

You mean to say…

I’d rather not be too specific at this precise moment in time – if you don’t mind. Shouldn’t we be focussing on the matter in hand, after all, you just gave Merry an earful for not being sufficiently concerned about poor Robin’s current state of affairs. You too seem to have lost interest in putting things right.

Indeed you’re right Eps. I’m terribly sorry. How thoughtless of me.

Well, what do you propose to do?

Do? I barely know. One minute I was at home in Moscow, the next minute I’m here in Shrewsbury, in England. It’s a bit much to take in really.

Yes. Well – have you taken it in yet?

Er… so that must be the very chair over there. My, it does look odd.

Evidently you’re able to see some of the strangeness of the quantum anomaly superimposed onto the chair. 

Let me start by picking it up. 

You're wasting your time. It won't budge. 

Oh, in that case I'd better dive in

and observe how the three atoms have become entangled temporally 

The alpha, omega and zie

Yes, that’s correct.

But why would this happen? It makes no sense. Why would Robin get stuck?

Make nothing of it Zie. It's a glitch in the temporal field. 

The... 

3D time stream. A crease, if you like. Once you've observed it it should self-correct. 

So I need to repeat that gut wrenching jump into the ghastly void once more?

You don’t need to do anything if you wish to let things stand as they are.

And leave Robin between a rock and a hard place? Never. He’s the not the kind of man who’d fail me in a situation like this. I’m just feeling a strange kind of apathy. What could it be?

Well, up until now you’ve been dealing with your own quantum field, with a little help from Merry. Now you’re going into another’s, and this is defended by shields – which either make you feel apathetic, or simply fail to notice what’s going on. The mistake you’re making is to focus too much on the chair itself. That won’t do. 

No? What should I be doing instead?

Think it through – I’m not your nanny the way Merry seems to be.

Merry? My nanny? Don’t make me laugh.

Well, he does tend to take you by the hand and molly coddle you.

What? You’ve gotta be kidding. He’s a demon. He derives the greatest pleasure from casting me into the void when I least expect it. He didn’t even seem to care about Robin being stuck in this anatomic nightmare when I informed him.

Ah! That might have been deliberate.

How do you mean?

He might have been teaching you not to be too serious – not to focus excessively on what seems to be the matter, or on what in general.

Oh! But I thought I had to focus on the matter in order to connect.

Well, there’s focussing and focussing, isn’t there? This is, after all, the quantum field – so observations evidently matter. The question is – do you want to observe the particle or the wave? Do you want to be part of the problem, or the solution?

Ah – good point. In my heavy-minded seriousness I’ve been weighing the particle down instead of riding the wave.

Correct.

Does that mean that Robin isn’t in fact trapped at all?

Let it go, Zie – stop trying to rationalise everything. There’s always a bit of both  either or neither where the quantum field is concerned. If you want to be of assistance – you’ll need to come in lightly at an angle – not the hypotenuse – something gentler – 33° would probably work well.

33° – that sounds kind of masonic.

Can you keep your mind on the ball Zie. We don’t have time for that kind of thing, you know.

Sorry Eps. 33° it is.

Now you should be able to sense or see the alpha and omega – top down and bottom up chair – two wildly different vantage points which essentially split your mind right open, but remember – this is happening inside you – not in Robin’s personal space.

Ok, Here goes... three  two  one – aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee

Excellent.

Wow! That’s a whole different way of falling. Much lighter! Ah Robin – my man – there you are!

Zie – what are you doing here? I thought you were in Moscow.

I er… dropped in.

Well, fantastic. Make yourself at home. Look, I’ve got some interesting books I was meaning to show you. Tea?

Er… yes, thanks.

Break the spell Zie. Let yourself be guided by thargy tharg - whatever form he's taken in this particular scene.

What form - I don't see, unless...

Sorry Zie – what did you say?

Oh nothing Robin – I was talking to Eps.

Eps? – you were looking at the sofa. I don’t see anyone sitting there.

I know – this is all a little confusing Robin – but as you’ve already realised – our 3D reality is shifting into something er…

Now Zie – we don’t have time – kindly exit Robin's temporal space.

Ok – bye Robin

But what about your tea?

Next time –  three   two   one   home again...  

Bizarre – where on earth did he go – I could have sworn he fell into that sofa… wait a minute…

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeee

Yes – it’s worked

Oh dear, oh dear – what’s happening to me? Where did that sofa go?

Robin!

Phoebe! What are you doing here?

I was looking for you. You’ve been gone since yesterday.

I have?

Look at the time – it 7.41 pm.

Good God! So it is. Well, come on then – let's go home. 

But where were you? I looked everywhere?

It’s a bit difficult to explain dear… I was reading James’ somewhat undigestible blog post about thargy tharg and anatomic chairs when the next thing I knew – wait a minute – I was just speaking to the miscreant – he was here – a moment ago – did you see him?

Who – James?

No, Zie.

Zie?

Oh – I don’t know – it was James or Zie. Anyway, we were about to have a cup of tea when he leapt over there – to where that old sofa was standing – which then er… I know this sounds bizarre Phoebe – it disappeared along with James.

Disappeared? Well, the main thing is you’re back safely, Robin. You can email James later and ask if he popped in for tea, or got home safely.

Better not – he’ll probably imagine I’m losing it.

Don’t be so sure. Something tells me he’s had a hand to play in all this. I'm not sure I trust him entirely.

Why do you say that?

Oh you know – female intuition.

Tsk! Come on Phoebe, I’m ravenous.

I’m not surprised. What about that chair. Are you just going to leave it lying on the floor?

Oh! I completely forgot… No, don't touch it – that wouldn't be right. Let me see if I can fix it anatomically.

Atomically? What do you mean?

Well, apparently, these things are like a convergence of three lines of sight – alpha, omega and the third one – zieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! 

My God, Robin! Was that you?

I er… I believe it was.

You mean to say you made it leap over there into the corner?

Not exactly – I…

Yes?

I merely joined the dots threely – I believe thargy tharg did the rest.

Thargy tharg? I think that’s quite enough of that. I’m going to be having words with James or Zie, or whoever it is that’s been filling your head with all this… 

merry atom - introducing thargy tharg

You mean to say that ridiculous blog post about atoms was your work Merry?

No I don’t.

Well that’s a relief – it nearly killed me. I was beginning to think you’d lost your touch.

Can I ask you Zie, why you bothered to read it if it nearly killed you?

Oh – you know – a sense of duty.

Sense of duty? Are you serious?

Well, I thought there might be something important in it.

Did you now?

Yes. Turns out I was wrong.

Oh right – nothing of any interest?

Not really – nothing I could use in my daily existence.

What about this?

Hey! Hey Merry – what are you doing?

Nothing much.

Nothing much – I don’t call that nothing much. In fact, I call that pretty substantial. I felt like I was falling into a void.

Be sure to avoid the void.

I hardly see this as a joking matter. I happen to have a rather sensitive stomach, and violent movements down into a yawning pit of darkness are the last thing I need.

Oh, but think about the science.

What science?

Well presumably you’d like to know how I did it.

Well – the thing is Merry – you can do these things – you’re exceptional. You’re not really human, are you?

You mean you think I’m alien?

Or faery – I don’t know – but you’re way too confident at stepping outside 3D reality and working with other dimensions to be a regular guy.

I'm not sure whether to be flattered or offended Zie, but nothing’s stopping you or the rest of humanity doing likewise.

But we’re human, Merry.

Well, what’s that got to do with it?

Humans don’t do that kind of thing.

Didn’t, until now, but I think you’ll find that this is about to change.

What?...  Why?

Or how? James has public-domained the new atomic definitions. It’s like a new contract – a new covenant if you like.

But no one’s going to read that thing – it almost killed me, and I’m a sucker for punishment.

No one needs to – it’s in the public domain, which means it’s as good as read.

It is?

Absolutely! 

Don’t you start saying that…

What?

“Absolutely”...  It felt like I was being brainwashed reading that article. He uses that word incessantly. 

You’re absolutely right – you were.

Damn – I hate being brain washed. 

Who wouldn’t – but this was a different kind of exercise.

In what way?

It was surreptitiously enabling you to quit the quagmire of general relativism – should you intend – and reconnect with your absolute.

Oh. And where’s my absolute?

Or what?

Well, whatever.

Because you’ll never find your absolute anywhere in 3D space or time.

No?

No – that’s general relativity – which is an artificial construct – where things are things, where you are you, and never the twain, apparently, shall meet. 

Oh. So where should I look? 

Within. You are absolute, as Septimus explained so eloquently yesterday…

Septimus – is that his name?

oh really Zie – I hardly know – but Septimus will do for the moment, unless you’d prefer it to be Darrimus or Jelly?

Ok, ok – I get the message. But what exactly did he explain. It all seemed so vague and abstract. Why on earth couldn’t he leave well enough alone? Why the infernal need to tinker with definitions? We all know what the atom is, don’t we? We hardly need a new set of definitions further complicating things.

Ah – but you see – here in 3D things are purported to be merely things – which is exactly what they are in general relativity, but the minute you need to re-wire the absolute – and reconnect with that which  simply  truly is – then you require a different approach.

You do? Why?

Because for a thing to be, for a thing to exist – it obviously requires validation, does it not, mathematically? We need to be sure that the numbers add up.

If you say so. But can't we just get a bunch of people to observe it, a chair for example, and decide whether or not it's really a chair?

Absolutely. That's the tried and tested empirical approach, but with time, things get more complicated as your reality advances towards completion, especially when you're approaching the limits of perception at the sub-atomic or quantum level. That's when you begin to realise that the mere act of observing seems to affect what you're seeing, which raises some important questions.

It does?

Yeah, like what the hell's going on? Things ought to exist independently of my observation, yet apparently not. So what if perception itself, or consciousness, is an integral part of the equation. What if, in fact, we're affecting everything in a minute yet statistically significant way, merely by streaming it through our quantum field...

of consciousness? Sounds insane.

Yep, but try as you might to ignore this conundrum, as 3D reality matures and becomes increasingly aware of the universe  both vast and nanoscopic, without any leaning towards mysticism, we are compelled to probe the final-frontier, to ascertain what actually is certain, what actually is real...

You’re referring to conscious-awareness?

Yes. We begin to realise that we can take nothing for granted. Everything in 3D reality is ever so slightly tainted by the quantum tar brush, and thus, suspect.

So what was taken for granted not long ago is now no longer a given.

Yes. Suddenly, as 3D reality enters its final stage preparing for inter-stellar  inter-dimensionality, it reaches a crisis of confidence, which can induce a bewildering sense of vertigo as the full extent of relativity lacking any absolutes suddenly makes itself known.

But most people seem to be doing fine, Merry.

The calm before the storm. Believe me Zie, your scientists have been head-sanding this growing awareness of impending doom for fifty years or more, hoping it'll go away... hail Mary praying for a miracle, but doing so, though natural and indeed predictable, they are front loading the conscious-awareness with quantum charge, so to speak, which in itself is going to trigger a massive event. The platform grows critically unstable, bizarre though this seems.

So what can we do?

Nothing.

Nothing?

Wait and see.

Wait and see? Why are you telling me this if i can't do anything? Why rob me of blissful ignorance?

Why? Because you're the outlier and i am the perfect storm.

Oh God... I don't wanna hear this doom 'n gloom.

Listen Zie, you can do nothing because this is a natural process, an awareness shift which always happens when human consciousness goes from the what-is-what 3D reality containment to the next level.

You're sounding so 2012 Merry. It's been and passed. The end of the world didn't in fact happen.

You see, so now we're in an age of complacency. We were expecting the stock market to crash, so to speak, it never materialised so we're smugly confident that the worst is past.

Damn, why do you have to Cassandrasise my reality?

Why do you assume I'm a factor in this equation? At best I'm a messenger, but more likely I'm an indication of the impossible load you collectively are now putting on the system.

What system?... D'you mean the financial system?

Ha! That's just a tiny part of the greater whole.

Well, can't you be more specific?

Try material reality for starters. Your definitions are now hopelessly outdated. This is a major issue. The system is teetering, a crash is inevitable.

Well I for one don't believe it.

And you're in good company. Keep dancing while the music lasts, but some of you are making preparations, have sold their overpriced treasuries n'stocks and started to get down to the fascinating nitty gritty, learning to ascertain what, in fact, is what.

But how?

Atomically. We have to get back to basics.

Isn't that what the people at CERN are doing,  using their particle accelerator to find the Higgs Boson, or whatever it is they're looking for?

No. They're fiddling with straws as Vesuvius smokes. When it's time to get back to basics, when you really need to get real, the last thing you want is high energy beams, high complexity speculations. Nothing could be more absurd.

Then what?

You need to feel the ground under your feet, the fundament, so to speak, you need to get back down to zero, if such a thing exists, but this has to be done individually, personally. Each person has to reconnect the dots.

Er... which dots do you mean. I thought you said the fundament is a zero...

It doesn't matter what i said or what i say. This is not rocket science.

You could have fooled me.

This is basic awareness, rediscovering the atom, rediscovering what actually is immutably, above and beyond 3D's general relativity.

But...

Yes, the fundament's below. Don't you see Zie? Above  below – it's all one.

One...? Not zero?

Zero... one... These are just labels, just terms. Connecting with the atomic centre, which for the sake of argument I'm calling the fundament, or the atomic overarching whole...

You mean the universe?

Which we can call the firmament, and consider the universe, and you're well on your way to validating things mathematically, and finding your elusive atom.

But how can i do this? The atom you're describing is either impossibly big or small.

"Atom"  – if the term bothers you, replace it with "chair". The only thing you can't do is take it for granted and assume it's there. You have to find it, validate it, prove it fundamentally. It needs to be confirmed from the top down, from the bottom up, and from inside out.

What about from outside in?

Yes – but that’s the initial observation itself, the act of seeing is believing – which then needs to be confirmed from inside out.

I’m a bit lost Merry – can you explain?

Of course. Any thing has to be held in place from three different angles at a minimum. From above looking down our atom

or chair

is close enough to zero, an infinitesimal part of the greater whole – to be considered a point; then conversely it needs to be one, whole in itself – a chair, and not merely a jumble of atoms, so you need to validate its chairness no less from the bottom up; and finally – because all this is only verifiably meaningful if I observe it myself – it also has to be, no less, an expression of the third – neither zero nor one...

Then what?

Can't you guess?

Er... not really.

What could the third possibly be?

I don't kn... No!

Yes.

Not the equals sign?

The very same!

Zero equals one! 0=1   So...  I be that which equals zero and one, above and below, making the two is – simply by being – me.

Yes, well done. 

You mean there has to be a direct, a fundamental relationship between the chair, myself and the entire universe?

Yes.

Insane! 

Well, things were never really going to be merely things – once you started to look at them mathematically – and ask a  few basic questions…

Such as?

Where they come from originally – or their energy comes from?

Well it just exists, doesn’t it, like everything else. We’re living in a vast ocean of energy – which has been here since big bang.

Yes, that’s the 3D definition – but it’s not going to take you very far.

Why not?

Because it’s only true if you ignore consciousness, if you exclude infinity, if you deny that which simply is is.

Deny “that which simply is”?? What on earth’s that meant to mean.

It means that living in a 3D universe of things you have to hold and hide a huge blind spot – a huge void – which conveniently no one notices until it gets too big – and then becomes unstable.

You're talking about that void I almost fell into just now, aren't you?

Absolutely.

Don’t! Please don’t use that word – it’s making me feel queasy after what Severus –

Septimus

- Septimus said yesterday.

Sorry Zie – I can’t avoid this. The absolute is the scorpion’s tale which sooner or later comes back to sting us in the butt. Until that time you can insist to the whole world that you have no butt whatsoever, and as they’re all playing the very same game – you’re all able to agree on this one point. Your butts are about to reveal the fallacy of the flat reality you’re living in.

Flat reality – you mean like flat earth?

I mean like I say. Sitting on it doesn't mean it ain't there. If you’ve ignored or avoided the void, you’ve more or less excluded torsion, spin, depth and a load of other factors, all of which come into play when you’re working with the totality.

So you mean we’re all in for a major dose of vertigo or sea sickness?

I mean, that which simply is can be excluded for only so long – until the chick is ready to hatch.

Oh – so now it's a chick, is it?

Yes, the image is satisfactory as far as metaphors go. What you call yourself, what you think you are and what you really are – I shall not even try to say – because words never quite hit the mark – or if they do, the totality – as opposed to what you call “reality” has already moved on – so you’d be forever playing catch up, forever chasing your tail, living in the past.

Oh.

So, instead of whatting, instead of trying to define or explain what something is – we go to the atomic approach – in which we recognise that whatever it is – it’s the totality which is never going to be what it seems, or only as long as you're good-boy viewing it from within the 3D space-time politically-correct, smoothed and homogenised viewing platform. Outside your arbitrary and artificial 3Dolatry, things are no longer seemable, nor even strictly speaking, things.

Holy cow. Are you serious?

Actually, I try to avoid needless incursions into seriousness, but that doesn't alter the science of what is what. Take, for example, your base unit of thing – the atom  – in the 3D scheme of things the atom is about as small as it gets, right down at the event horizon of things, at the edge of matter,  beyond which you're in a quantum realm of uncertainty, and why?

Because sub-atomic particles are inherently unstable?

No, remember what i said – 3D reality is essentially arbitrary and artificial. It's like you chose a big empty field and placed marker stakes around you to provide reference points. To the very same extent that your universe is "big" your atom is "small", no more, no less.

Oh.

Indeed. Beyond their respective bigness and smallness things get fuzzy, things get funny, and why?

Because things are essentially fuzzy-funny?

Yep. They only seem certain, stable and thingful within the reference frame that is 3D "reality", which you yourself wittingly or unwittingly set up.

But how can this be?

Long story, clever stuff, involving filters and mental blocks. Don't wanna go into it now. Just let's focus on the fact that this ain't a prison – far from it – it's a rather sophisticated reality platform, in which you get to experience things as-are.

As are?

As if they really are, which indeed they are, down here in 3Dom, in the platform-cum-operating system.

Oh.

Yep. Pretty nifty, until you run into system limits. At that point you need to rearrange things, or rather, redefine your relationship to things, starting with the ubiquitous atom, which is where we are at, now.

Oh.

Yep. So here goes...

Wait – you're not going to just redefine the atom as if there's nothing to it, nothing further to consider, here 'n now?

Er, spot on. I like the pun "nothing to it"...  intentional?

No, it wasn't.

Never mind, so here goes...

But, i quite like the old familiar atom. I'm not sure i want it redefined.

I'm not surprised, but there's nothing i can do. You guys have triggered certain events, which brings me into play.

What events?

Oh, various things such as um... let me see, splitting the atom, in violation of universal law.

But that happened ages ago.

Yes, a bit embarrassing. Bureaucratic snafu!

Bureaucratic...

snafu! Good word that. Anyways, here i am, so let's get on with it. Now, where were we?

Redefining the atom, I think you said.

Oh yes. Ok, let me take away the marker posts for a moment.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaarg

Try to relax, this won't take long... 1. the atom is neither big nor small. 2. it is  i am  is it not  3. whatever.  Done

Uh? What's with the chair? It's...

Behaving atomically, as a unit of tharg.

Of what?

Any thing, any singularity which happens to hold the materiality, the harmonic of your very own being, 0=1.

My being?

Yep.

You mean I'm at the centre.

Nope. It means you, mathematically, are the centre.

Between the atom and...

the universe, or what we might call atomic alpha and atomic omega, bearing in mind size is just a matter of perception or configuration within 3D.

Oh.

Actually, there's one more thing.

Ok. Fire ahead.

You.

Me?

Yes, you're the being that holds everything in place.

Me personally?

Yes, you personally Zie, and every other iteration of you personally. Approximately 7 billion at the moment.

Phew, i was beginning to feel a little too important.

But there's more to it... you're also atom.

I'm an atom?

Yes, but not exactly.

Er...

Strictly speaking you're not an atom... You're atom. It's a small but significant distinction which I don't wish to dwell on right now. We can come back to it later.

Um...

There are three of you, alpha, omega and zie, or zed, if you prefer British English.

But that's my name.

Pure coincidence, i assure you.

So what does it mean?

It means that you are both being and thing, both particle and wave, and because atomic alpha and omega are your encapsulators, your limit, the harmonic boundaries of what you thinging be, they too fluctuate between thinging and being, or the particle-wave dichotomy as we sometimes call it.

Oh.

Once we allow the atom to be wave as well as particle, or is no less than thing, once we accept and recognise you can’t have atoms at one scale horizon without having them at the other – 

You mean vastly small and vastly big?

Yes, but also you, the missing link, are neither bigger nor smaller than the other two, for we are now dealing with absolutes, and one is one, no matter what.

Oh God.

And your atom is an all embracing system of singularity, or singularisation, in spite of the bewildering manyness and much of things. Your atom becomes the unifying principle, the axis mundi. It comes as close as physically possible to God himself, without actually stepping on his toes and tweaking his nose.

Well, frankly I find this hard to believe.

Naturally.

If we succeeded in splitting the atom, as apparently we did, then the atom should be yesterday's story, yesterday's absolute. I personally think you're wrong to make it your absolute or th... 

Tharg. Why so?

Because you can hardly split God, can you?

Well, it’s a bit like the crucifixion story.

It’s what?

You can attack the body, nail it to a cross, kill it, but you would only do so in one time stream. Paradoxically, the minute you do so that particular time stream folds in on itself. It self-extinguishes, to be replaced by another in which God was not in fact killed.

So you mean to say the atom was never split?

Yes-no. Of course it was split but this was obviously a violation of code, so the reality in which this happened is now outside the pale, is nullified.

But we’re still alive. How can you say that?

Well, those atoms are now ready at a moment’s notice to shift into a different frequency or harmonic, so your atoms are no longer dependable, no longer fundamental. If you want any meaning in your life, if you want to touch base and reconnect the atomic trinity, without even trying you’ll do so automatically in a totality, as opposed to 3D reality, and in that totality the atom neither was nor ever could be split.

Why ever not?

Because to do so you’d have to rip through the fabric of all that is holy, all that is sacred, all that truly matters in order to start a new subset, a bastardised offshoot, a twisted, warped version of that which truly is, which takes some doing...

Well perhaps it does, but evidently we’ve already done this if we killed Christ and split the atom.

Not necessarily.

Er...

You may well find that we simply sunk into a state of derangement in which we imagine all this has happened. In any case, this is easy enough to test.

Well, I really don’t see what all this is leading to.

It’s more about seeing what it’s leading from, you see, it’s well nigh impossible to screw with God, the totality or infinity. How can you gain any traction against all that is? Your things, no matter what, merely push you sideways into something that seems to be full of matter and gravity, but which is, in fact, liable to implode like a bubble, or hatch, at any moment, as a chick. And thus i invite you to consider the simple truth, to allow yourself to feel and know what you cannot possibly understand, the 0=1, the be all and end all, the dot dot dot, that is i am.

Amen, Merry. Have no idea what you’re on about, but the mathematics seem to ring true. 0=1

The atomics anatomise!

Oh me, oh my.

Indeed... Om... eeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiy

Hey! What’s going on M...

You didn’t think it was all going to be sweet, gentle reminisces about the fall of man and his timely atomic reconvergence, did you?

I didn’t think anything. I was just beginning to see or feel how this tri-atomy makes sense

Which it does, but we have work to do.

What do you mean?

You’ve been disconnected from the Totality so long

Me personally? 

Everyone has. Don’t you see? You are as good as any other, all are one regardless of how you perceive things, so right now, to all intents and purposes you are everyone.

I am?

Absolutely.

Don’t, please, it hurts...

Which only goes to show the kind of shape you’re in. You’ll break up on re-entry if we don’t do some urgent repairs starting...

I have a terrible certainty i know what you’re going to say.

NOW!

No, no........ aaaaaaaaafg

About turn!

Please!

three  two   one

Jesus Christ... What is that?

Er... That kind of analysis ain’t gonna work, Zie. Allow me to introduce you to your very own, one and only no thing.

Merry, do something, it’s coming at me... it’s sniffing... it looks like it’s going to attack... for Christ’s sake Merry, do something

Like I said Zie, that is precisely no thing, so doing some thing or any thing will have precisely no effect whatsoever

It’s pressing in on me... It’s draining me... it’s...

Doing nothing whatsoever. You’re getting a little feedback

Feedback? What do you mean?

You’re experiencing at first hand how you affect other people unknowingly, the kind of algorithm you carry, which transmits through you

No, i don’t believe it

That’s irrelevant. Only by feeling it as the truth will you be able to control this force and stop it suffocating you.

But you can help me, surely.

But can i? What if i too am uncapitalised? What if i too am no thing, an anatomical tri-atomy?

You turned me round Merry, turn me back again, i want to see 3D reality again. I’m not ready. This thing

not thing

this not thing is killing me.

Yes, i feared as much. Well, you have my deepest sympathy, and my commiserations too.

Hey, come back, what the **** Come back...

Always look on the bright side of life, di dum, di dumty dumty dum... fading into distance...

Well that’s that. I’m...

Are you? What makes you so sure?

Oh God, now I’m hallucinating.

Don’t make me laugh.

What do you mean?

I mean you’ve never been closer to the truth... Never closer to facing your Totality

I thought that’s what you are.

Me, how can i be any thing if i am not thing?

Only if you are the sum total of all i denied, all i undid in order to somethingate/ somethingise myself or my reality.

Now you’re talking.

So how can i actually face my Totality if that involves cancelling out every thing I’ve ever thought, every thing i know or think i am...

Good question, but too abstract. I’m here to teach you how to fly, which is a far more practical way of re-engaging infinity

Fly? Of all the hairbrained things you could suggest...

How else are you going to loosen your thingimation.

My what?

Precisely, you’re what! Your thing fixation. It’s gotta go... three, two, one

Noooooooooooooooooooo

I’m all for a bit of wild acoustics Zie, but do you have to dribble all over the furniture!

Furniture? I’m plunging into a flaming abyss with spiky demons jabbing picks at me.

What a work of wonder is the sub-consciousness. What a waste that most your life it’s under lock and key. You’ll find there’s a...

Mein Gott! It looks like a Messerschmitt cockpit.

Does it really? How ingenious.

You mean you can’t see it?

Your mind is thingimating. The very same process that gives you the shockingly real-seeming 3D thark you refer to as reality.

Did you say tharg?

Steer right... up a little, you don’t want to be too close to them beetly things.

Why not? Will they hurt me?

Not exactly, but it may take several thousand years to extricate you from their loving playfulness, so we’ll wait till you’re better adapted.

To what? How can i be better adapted to thing less ness.

Oh, you’ll find a way before too long, especially once you’ve puzzled out the tharg.

I was meaning to ask – what exactly is this tharg you’re referring to?

Beep beep, astonishingly pointless, nay, unanswerable question alert.

Well it’s gotta be something if it has a name.

Absolutely.

God.

Yep, at the God, or perhaps i may call it quantum level, to avoid offending narky reader sensibilities, the answer is always in the name, just as soon as you’re willing to fly into it, to unavoid it...

"Tharg i choose to know you for what you are, so help me God."

Excellent. God help you, you’ll need it.

I’m sub-atomic. Is that possible.

I guess so. Why not?

Just some old prejudice, i guess. So this is where tharg thargs.

As you observe.

I can’t handle this Eps. I’m losing my atomic charge. I’m disintegrating.

More hysteria. When will we learn that the Good within does not die.

So this tharg thing...

Uffle – not thing. You’ll upset it horribly if you call it thing. I assure you Zie, an angry tharg is not the kind of ufgle

I thought you said Uffle

I did, quantum typo, fluctuation, ignore or edit.

Wait a minute, are you a computer program Eps?

Off thread.

This tharg, it must be part of me

Must?

If it’s able to generate 3D reality around me...

Oh mind, the mind, so little exercised, so hasty to assume it inkles. Look Zie, spend a year or two down here in sub-atomia with thargy tharg and you’ll begin to figure it out. In the meantime, get ye back up top for a breath of 3D real-beautifully polluted air tharg. That will restore you to your itness and ensure the flight path doesn’t completely discombobulate your rationality. Bye, I’ve gotta dash.

But how will i get back?

Oh i don't know. You’ll probably remember something vitally important, sufficiently so to rethingify yourself, like that doctor’s appointment.

Shit, i knew there was something... I have a doctor’s appointment...

And there he goes... one, two, three... Now where were we? Ah, thargy tharg, i have a job for you... I know, it’s going to be fun...