Seven Point Eight (57 page)

“Time is what prevents everything from happening at once,” it answered. “It is a construction of human artifice, a concept that belongs to the world of matter only.”

“But why do we have time, and clocks, and seasons?” Sakie asked in disbelief, finding the whole concept too mind boggling.

“You invented it, to tell you when to plant your crops and harvest them, when the sun will rise and set so that it will make your crops grow. You invented time to tell you to awaken and sleep, so that you may consume these crops to make your body of physical matter live and breathe and grow. Time only has meaning to you as you have constructed it; you require it to function in your world, because you require a limited view of reality to survive. In the realm of energy alone, time has no meaning. There is no time, there are only cycles: a waveform of light and dark, of growth and decay, sunrise and sunset, winter and summer.”

“Wait…if everything happens at once…” Tahra began to protest. I think maybe she began to see the significance of the concept it tried to explain.

“This conversation happens at once, with no beginning or end…” I realised. “Everything we do happens at once…”

 
“Are you human beings ready to see past, present, and future as one?” the being asked us. “To understand the nature of time is to participate in it and direct it, to be at one with the Monad.”

““Yes,” I insisted. “I want to see the true nature of time.”

“Then see,” it said.

With that, it picked up what appeared to be a sword like the ones used in fencing, but it was more like a needle-thin laser. It moved towards us, holding it like a weapon, and aimed straight for our eyes. We all flinched, yet felt powerless to move but luckily at that point, the field powered down and the white noise realm faded from sight. I looked over at Tahra and Sakie, who seemed quite bewildered. We moved over to the cine camera and described the world.

“I feel like I’m going crazy,” Tahra said, head in hands.

“I’m crazy too,” Sakie agreed.

I commented, “We never got to see the true nature of time though, did we?”

“I’m not sure if I’m ready,” Tahra admitted. “I feel as if I don’t know what reality is anymore.”

I considered what she said.

“You’ll feel different in a few days time,” I reassured her. “You need a chance to digest what you’re seeing, that’s all.”

For once, I detected she didn’t quite believe me and that upset me. Was I right? I convinced myself that nothing ventured, nothing gained. Anything worth having did not come without difficulty. This project was so groundbreaking, so profound…we were dealing with realities so radically different from our own that it was going to shake our belief systems to the core. With that, we re-grouped with the rest of the team to relax and wind down. I’d take their statements after a well-earned tea break.

***

On the 21
^st
of October 1966, Angelina, Tyrone, Nicholas, Curtis, Sonya, and Dominique arrived at the farmhouse looking enthusiastic and cheerful. Paul offered to make a pot of tea and guided them into the kitchen, where Beth sat at the table, finishing her breakfast. However, she seemed to drift into a trance, and spontaneously burst into tears, announcing between sobs that she’d heard the voices of over a hundred dead children. Tahra tried to console her, while the new recruits didn’t know how to respond. Did this place normally make people cry?

Only later, they heard the news broadcast on the radio, which added clarity to the psychic distress she’d witnessed. It transpired that in a Welsh village called Aberfan, a slag heap had slithered onto a junior school, killing a hundred and fifty people who were mainly children. It had happened at 9:30 that morning, precisely the moment Beth had burst into tears. She wished she’d been clairvoyant enough to prevent it, but Paul and Tahra reminded her of all the people she’d helped.

Although it didn’t offer a perfect portent for the next stage of the OOBE project, everyone mingled in the living room after a thirst quenching pot of tea. Paul laid on a buffet with sandwiches, sausage rolls, and cakes, thrown together at the last minute as they didn’t have the culinary organisation of Max this time. Tahra posed as a temporary waitress and put the radio on in the background, to encourage a less formal atmosphere.

Once the mingling had begun, Paul stood back as an objective observer to analyse the psychodynamics of this new group. Angelina and Tyrone became dominant in the group, although it didn’t cause any resentment, they were naturally effervescent characters who had a particular rapport with Oscar, probably due to
Caribbean
ancestry. Nicholas became the erudite connoisseur of knowledge and at first, Paul felt worried he wouldn’t cohere with the group but then he seemed to latch onto Emilie and become deeply involved in a discussion about something. There appeared to be a spark of attraction between the two.

“I see a romance brewing,” Tahra sing-songed as she brushed by Paul.

Sonya flirted around the whole group like a clever little chameleon, becoming all things to all people. She enjoyed the attention as everyone was keen to hear about her fledgling musical career. Curtis seemed to prefer male company, and Tahra made him nervous, although she tried not to intimidate him. However, Dominique clearly preferred the company of women and spent most of her time talking to Beth and Sakie. Paul hoped the wild card would turn up trumps in the end.

Tahra sidled up to him.

“I think we have a problem,” she said.

“I thought things were too perfect,” Paul responded.

Tahra held up an empty milk bottle.

“And there’s no more in the refrigerator,” she revealed.

No great disaster, it was a minor irritation.

“Keep them occupied while I drive into the village,” he said, quietly. “I’ll be back before they know it.”

He sloped off, picking up a bunch of keys from a hook near the front door. The communal Ford Popular borrowed from The Establishment sat parked in the courtyard outside, so he took that and drove the few miles to the nearest village. He pulled up outside a small grocery store then dashed in, relieved it was still open.

“Good afternoon,” said Albert, the middle aged shop keeper.

“Afternoon,” Paul mirrored. “I desperately need two pints of milk.”

Albert obliged and put bottles on the counter, telling him the price. Paul dug into his pocket and pulled out a handful of shillings, thrupenny bits, and farthings. He counted out the correct amount and handed it over to Albert, giving the shop keeper a pleasant smile as he did so. Then he paused, still holding the collection of spare coins in his hand.

Without warning, a series of vibrations pulsed through Paul’s body, as if he were in the machine. He felt his body become semi-paralysed and, for a brief moment, his perception shifted to the other side of the counter, just behind the shop keeper. Surrounding Albert he saw a most peculiar rainbow effect, the bulk of which blazed around the crown of his head. Beyond that, he saw himself standing as if captured on photographic film, still and motionless. It disturbed him, viewing himself not in the mirror, but in the flesh. After a jolt, he looked at the shop keeper through his own eyes again.

“Are you all right?” Albert asked him, in a kindly and concerned way.

Paul nodded, quite shaken, and put the spare coins back in his pocket. He looked back and thankfully, the rainbow had disappeared and his consciousness remained anchored in his body. Grabbing the milk, he made a fast exit, calling out a quick farewell as he left. It disturbed him so much that he hurried back, dashed into the sitting room and headed straight to Tahra. She took the milk from him, finished a few cups of tea then noticed the strange expression on his face. He pulled her to one side.

“Has anything weird happened to you just recently…while trying to carry out normal day to day activities?” he asked her.

“Actually, yes,” she replied, “sorry I didn’t mention it.”

“What happened?” Paul continued.

“Well, I was undergoing a standard remote viewing test at The Institute, but it was more real, like I was actually there,” her voice got quieter. “All of a sudden I travelled somewhere else. I saw a therianthrope.”

Paul digested what she’d just said.

“So, it was like you were in the machine?” he queried.

“I guess so.”

“Well, I just had a vivid and disturbing out of body experience in the local shop,” Paul revealed. “I also observed a rainbow halo effect around the shop keeper. Don’t ask me how or why this happened.”

Tahra looked thoughtful now.

“Using the machine has side effects,” she said.

Paul wasn’t fazed though, in fact, his eyes lit up.

“This is exciting. It’s changing us, taking us way beyond what we are!”

“What if we can’t control it?” Tahra asked.

“Don’t be afraid,” he reassured her, “this is a gift!”

He re-integrated with the recruits, leaving Tahra to top up the milk jug. As she did this, a song drifted over from the radio, one she’d not heard before because it was a new release by the Beach Boys. She stopped to listen to it and once she heard the chorus, inspiration struck and she dragged Paul over. He listened and realised its significance.

“I think we’ve just found the signature tune for our journeys in the machine,” he declared.

“What is that spooky musical instrument they’re using?” she asked.

“I believe it’s called a Theremin,” Sonya interjected.

“I’m going to find a record shop tomorrow,” Paul decided. “We are indeed going to dig some ‘Good Vibrations’.”

He walked off towards the front of the room and tapped a spoon on the side of a cup to gain their attention. The group stopped chattering and gave him their undivided attention.

“Welcome back, my new friends. Now that you’ve all met each other, I’m going to explain the reason you’ve been recruited, I’m going to reveal to you what the project is all about, what will fill your life for the next sixteen weeks.”

Paul looked over at Tahra and winked, consumed by the fervour and forward momentum of his experiment. She bit her lip, unable to quash the impending feeling of trepidation in her stomach.

***

The next morning, after the six new recruits had settled into their quarters, Paul called them through two at a time to receive their first orientation in the machine. Angelina and Tyrone stepped up first. He showed them the machine, explained what would happen, and reassured them he’d support them throughout. They responded well to the out of body sensation and were keen to go ahead with the project. Nicholas and Curtis followed, they also had a positive experience inside the machine then lastly, Sonya and Dominique took up the rear with the final slot inside the machine for the day. They had the greatest problems adjusting to the out of body concept, but by no means were incapable of meeting the demands placed on them.

The basic orientations continued for another two weeks, with short duration sessions run at forty eight hour intervals but by the end of that time, some were itching to move onto the next stage. Angelina and Tyrone were the first candidates, and Tahra took them on their first excursion to the serpent world, a trusted initial destination. The machine proved just as reliable for non-psychics and the medical report didn’t identify any problems.

In the subsequent report for the journal, they described the same landscape, the feeling of the whole experience being ‘super real’ and expressed a desire to repeat the experience. They were a couple of people after Paul’s heart, keen to break boundaries, no remonstrations. He couldn’t believe Tahra began to get cold feet, of all the people contemplating problems, she seemed the most unlikely.