“Hmm, I’m not so sure that you really are fine. Your brain has undergone drastic changes in these last few weeks, and that may come with a price.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that as soon as we return, I will run a long set of tests on you, to make sure that you are in fact all right. I have already discussed it with Mary, and she agrees. After all, she’s your new boss and you are her most important asset right now. She needs you to stay well.”
“Touching.”
“And you are my most precious asset, and I need you to stay well. That’s where all my years of study in brain science pay off.”
I didn’t have the time to think of a repartee because right then Tom showed up. He was wearing shorts and an open colorful shirt that showed his sinewy, suntanned body. Not for the first time, I gazed at it with admiration. I knew very well what that body was capable of.
“Tessa, Mary called,” he said, and the way he said it was not a herald of good things.
“What does she want? Tell her I’m on vacation, and I’m not taking calls.”
“She wants us back. She said that now is not soon enough.”
I closed my eyes and searched for Mary’s mind. She had given me limited leave to do that, “for professional needs only,” and perhaps I was interpreting that permission a bit liberally, but hey, that was my call! I probed her thoughts and saw what worried her. A new day and a new challenge. It sucked, but she was right to want us back. I sat up and took a last, longing look at the beach with the golden sand, and at the Mai Tai beside my deck chair.
“Time to go, guys,” I said.
I got up and walked toward the hotel without looking back. I knew they were following.
NOTES ON REMOTE VIEWING AND MIND READING
The Remote Viewing program and Project Stargate really existed. The program was created in 1972, went through different phases and name changes, and was finally declassified in 1995. A detailed account of the development of this project is found in David Morehouse’s book, Remote Viewing (Sounds True, 2008).
Tessa’s description of the remote viewing process in Chapter 1 is quite accurate:
“Remote viewing is good, but it’s kind of solitary, and, frankly, boring. You sit in a room, and you try to see what is happening at a certain location—say, a Russian atomic reactor—and images pop up in your head. You sketch them, and you write down anything else that occurs to you, without really knowing what it all means.”
The outcome of a typical remote viewing session would look pretty much like this:
The Remote Viewing program may have found inspiration in a 1916 book titled Clairvoyance and Occult Powers, by Swami Panchadasi:
The relevant chapter is “Lesson X”:
The lesson goes on to say that, of course, Capt. Yount and his men rushed to the rescue, and when they reached the place of his dream, “they found the company exactly in the condition of the dream, and brought in the remnant alive.”
The book provides more tales of “remote viewing,” which to us modern people come across a bit naïve and make us wonder whether we should take the book seriously at all. Those who initiated the Remote Viewing Program, however, obviously thought the subject worth exploring and given the money, years, and efforts spent on this program, it cannot be easily discounted as total nonsense, regardless of its apparently negligible practical value.
Mind reading is a different story. The fascination with mind reading / telepathy has a history going back for centuries. Unfortunately, most reports of telepathic events are anecdotal at best and their credibility is low, even though some of those reports were generated by serious scientists. One of the earlier books on the subject (that was immediately ridiculed by the medical profession) was Mind Reading and Beyond, by William A. Hovey, published in 1885.
However, the skepticism with which Hovey’s book was received didn’t deter others from pursuing the subject. In 1909 James Coates published SEEING THE INVISIBLE, (Fowler):
The book has an interesting chapter on “Thought-Transference and Telepathy” (Chapter VIII). Coates states that “it is the intense emotional thoughts which are transferred and received,” which is the motif of many accounts of telepathic events (as Doctor Alexander points out to Tessa in Chapter 2).
There is little doubt that both remote viewing and telepathy are fascinating subjects that are great fodder for fantasy. I have added these notes here, so you know that, maybe, not everything in Tessa’s story is necessarily the fruit of fantasy.
Meet the Author
Kfir Luzzatto is the author of nine novels, several short stories and seven non-fiction books. Kfir was born and raised in Italy, and moved to Israel as a teenager. He acquired the love for the English language from his father, a former U.S. soldier, a voracious reader, and a prolific writer. He holds a PhD in chemical engineering and works as a patent attorney. In pursuit of his interest in the mind-body connection, Kfir was certified as a Clinical Hypnotherapist by the Anglo European College of Therapeutic Hypnosis.
Kfir is an HWA (Horror Writers Association) and ITW (International Thriller Writers) member. You can visit Kfir’s web site and read his blog at https://www.kfirluzzatto.com. Follow him on Twitter (@KfirLuzzatto) and friend him on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/KfirLuzzattoAuthor).
Books by Kfir Luzzatto
CROSSING THE MEADOW
THE ODYSSEY GENE
THE EVELYN PROJECT
HAVE BOOK, WILL TRAVEL
(With Yonatan Luzzatto)
AN ITALIAN OBSESSION
EXODUS ‘95
CHIPLESS
ONCE AWAKENED
The DEAD & BUSY series:
#1: ACCIDENTAL LAZARUS
#2: PHANTOM LOVER
#3: MICE
#4: THE ACCOUNTANT
Short Story Collections:
HIS DARKER SIDE
HIS LIGHTER SIDE
Copyright Notice
Pine Ten, LLC
205 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60601
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Fist publication, May 2020
Copyright © 2020 by Kfir Luzzatto.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form without permission, except as provided by U.S. Copyright Law. For information, please address Pine Ten, LLC.
ISBN: 978-1-938212-89-5
Tessa (Tessa Extra-Sensory Agent Book 1) Page 13