Chapter 18

  SIZZLE

  Deke found himself outside the wailing wall in Jerusalem. He could tell that it was still early morning; there were many embodied who were setting up their kiosks and booths, getting ready for the new day. The courtyard was brightened by thousands of the disembodied who were gathered here. He wanted a higher viewpoint. He shifted to the top of the wall and looked out over the crowds. They were gathered in groups of various sizes. Each group congregated around one or two of the disembodied who seemed to be preaching to the groups. Some of the disembodied wandered from group to group. Kelton had just decided to join the largest group to get a better understanding when a voice came from his left.

  “We may want to find another place to go. There are those behind you who won’t take kindly to our standing on this wall.’

  Kelton recognized him. “Zenek?”

  “Yes, and you are Dr. Kelton.” Deke was a little flattered that Zenek remembered his name. “You are surprised! Bey Xan! Be not surprised I remember you. You have created a small stir. Oh, we get sometimes the holy man or yogi wandering around with the silver thread, but, as far as I know, you are our first man of science. I have been trying to keep up with you as you jump, jump, jump from here to there and there to here. In and out of your body. I would like to talk to you. But not here. There is no point in angering the children of Ishmael behind you.”

  Deke turned his attention to the gardens surrounding the shrine. Tens of thousands more of the disembodied were gathered there in groups similar to the groups in the courtyard below. He put his hand on Zenek’s shoulder, and Deke found himself back in the courtyard, surrounded by the tens of thousands gathered here. The clamor was overwhelming. Thousands were speaking and arguing. Some groups were listening in rapt attention to a speaker at the center of each group.

  Kelton turned his attention to Zenek. “I need some help. I need to get back to my body,” he shouted, trying to be heard over the tumult.

  “No need to shout, my friend! You focus on me, and I will focus on you. We can talk normally.”

  Deke shifted his focus to Zenek. The background noise fell to a low buzz. “ That’s cool. I wish I could do that in a noisy restaurant.”

  “Why can’t you?” asked Zenek.

  “You’ve been here a while, haven’t you, Zenek?” Kelton guessed that Zenek had forgotten some of what it meant to have a body.

  “I don’t think I have ever been in a restaurant! Time is a little different where we are, but Ja’aj – yes, I have been here for quite a while.”

  Kelton’s mind wandered. The entire universe was at his fingertips. New thoughts and experiences were coming at him from every angle. The background noise began to increase. It was too easy to get distracted. He had come here looking for help getting back to his body, but even out of his body, ADD threatened to derail him. Kelton’s native curiosity threatened to sidetrack his objectives. He wrestled his attention back to Zenek. The background noise subsided.

  “ I need to get a message to someone. How do I communicate to the embodied?”

  “ The embodied?” asked Zenek.

  “ You know, the living.”

  “Living? Look around you, do you see any dead here? They are all looking lively to me!”

  “That’s why I call them the embodied. They have a physical body.”

  “ Ma’aloub- Good! I think of them as souls. So! You see already that those souls have two parts. What are those parts? What does your recent experience tell you?”

  Kelton struggled to answer “Body and …” Kelton was still not ready to use the word spirit. “Mind?”

  Zenek waggled his head. “Not bad… I would use another word, but that works.”

  “So, how do I communicate? I need to get a message to someone to turn off the box my body is in.”

  Zenek patted the air with both hands. “Patience. We get there when you are ready. I think you know what a body is. For that matter. I think you know what the mind is.”

  “I do?”

  “OK. I’ll show you. Tell me about an experience you had while in your body when you wanted to remember something important but couldn’t.”

  “ In my work, I often refer to the formula for thermal electric analogy for RC circuits. I often use it, but I have to look it up every time.”

  “ And what is that formula?”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “T of t equals T sub infinity, plus the quantity of T sub zero minus T sub infinity, times e raised to the power of negative t divided by the product of R sub th and C sub th.”

  “It seems you haven’t forgotten it. What else haven’t you forgotten?”

  Kelton’s mind flashed every moment of his life. Every thought, feeling, experience, conversation, every word he had ever read, every smell, every taste. He staggered at the rush.

  “Pretty impressive use of a rhetorical question, no? “Zenek asked with a proud smile. “So then, does your brain contain all of that information?”

  “My brain doesn’t work like that. I think the information is there, but not that easy to access.”

  “Mm-hmm. So then, where is that information stored?”

  “My mind. As you demonstrated.” Kelton felt a rise of impatience. “What, is the brain chemistry limited? Is the mind-brain interface limited somehow?”

  “Ha Ha!” Zenek gave an encouraging laugh. “That is an excellent question that you may find you have already answered. Now, ask yourself. What is your mind?”

  “What I have seen so far would suggest that it is a collection of all of my experiences and thoughts. My self-image”

  “That covers some of your past. What about the future?”

  “My ability to make choices and observe my surroundings?”

  “That will do for a start,” said Zenek.

  Zenek’s condescending tone irritated Kelton.

  “Don’t get impatient. You are drinking from the waterfall. A good place to get water, but if you get in too deep, too close, it will take your head off. You’ve got a good head. Let’s keep it where it belongs!”

  “The next question. Where are you storing all of this information? What do you know that can be applied?”

  Kelton thought about the question. “Philosophy 101. Descartes had a lot to say about the connection between the body and the mind. How does the immaterial interact with the material? There has to be some interface. An infinite number of divisions or steps between them. That doesn’t feel right.”

  “I met Rene’. Delighted, he was to learn what he had guessed right. Even more delighted to learn where he had guessed wrong. You, though, you are on the right track. Continue!”

  Kelton made a mental note to come back around to ask to meet the great scientists and philosophers, but he was on a roll now with the mind/body connection.

  “I can’t touch anything, and I can’t taste or smell, but I do feel intangibles. I can’t hear noises, but I am able to ‘hear’ people- when they are projecting or intend to be heard. I am experiencing emotions, and feel the emotions that are projected by others. I am not seeing with my eyes. My memory is perfect. I can relive every detail of my life. But where is the new information processed, where is the memory stored? There must be something tangible. Nothing comes from nothing. Is my mind an organization of subatomic particles? Each particle storing bits of information in its individual spin? Or is it an energy force? But we are projecting our thoughts and images to each other. So, if they are particles, they are behaving simultaneously as particles and waves. At a level of reduction where energy turns into matter and vice versa?”

  “Such a vocabulary! I must say, it has gotten easier in recent years to discuss this with scientists. We used to have to start out with discussions of a fine type of matter that couldn’t be seen or touched. It always took a while to get to where you are now.” Kelton felt just a glimmer of new understanding of the Universe dawning. He felt like a flat earther who had been content with the image of the earth riding on a turtle and then questioned, ‘What was it that the turtle was standing on.’ Kelton was peering into the infinity that was ‘turtles all the way down’. He was a grain of sand in a universe of things to be learned and understood.

  “Here’s an extra credit question. How much space does your mind occupy?”

  Kelton mulled it over. “Does it occupy space? I can store all the maps of the globe and satellite imagery of everything on a single thumb drive. But the thumb drive itself doesn’t get any bigger no matter how much information I put into it.”

  “You are generally correct and precisely wrong. You have much to learn, but you have a good foundation to build on … but close enough for our purposes of answering your other questions,” Zenek went on.

  “Other questions?”

  “Did I distract you? You wanted to know how to communicate, yes, with the souls, with the ‘embodied’ as you call them”.

  “I guess my mind was elsewhere. Yes. How do I communicate with Jillian or Alex or anybody?”

  “Again, can you apply what you already know and observe?”

  “None of them have heard me. I have tried to communicate. She did seem to be affected by her father’s presence. She felt him. He was making her cry. She also seemed to feel me nearby. I think I was able to offer her some comfort, but I added some distress as well. So why can’t I get a simple message to her?”

  Zenek nodded. “Go on. You are doing well.”

  “I didn’t remember anything that happened out of my body. At least not for many hours, then it hit me all at once.”

  “You are a special case, Dr. Kelton,” smiled Zenek. “That is why I have been giving you so much attention. Your circumstances and recall of events that happened while you were outside your body is unique. But…you did remember at least one other thing before that event in the doorway, right?”

  Deke reviewed the events of the last few days. A point of light emerged. “I knew the nurse’s name and remembered her smile. Jillian asked me how I knew her. I had only seen her smile and heard her name while my body was in the box. I knew her name when I first saw her. That was before the big memory download.” Kelton mused. “I do not see how that bit of information helps me communicate.”

  “Have you been learning new things while you have been with me, or have you been remembering what you already know?”

  “I guess I have been remembering things I already knew or experienced, but your questions have been incredibly helpful in organizing the memories.”

  “I like to do what I can. So, you can’t get a message directly to your wife. How can you use what you have learned?”

  “Can I share feelings with her that will stir memories to make her want to go to the cabin?” asked Kelton

  “I think the most important things we learn feel like we are remembering something we already knew.”

  “ Are you answering my question?”

  “What do you think?” asked Zenek.

  “I think I want to give it a try. ”

  “Be patient. You have hours before she is awake.”

  “Can I talk to her in her dreams?”

  “Pak’ ach. Slow down a little. Are you getting ahead of yourself? Isn’t there another factor that you need to consider?”

  Kelton didn’t know how to respond. He was irritated that Zenek wouldn’t just answer questions and simultaneously thrilled with the answers he was discovering within himself. “ Can you give me a hint?”

  Zenek smiled. “Let’s take a little field trip.” He put his hand on Kelton's shoulder.