Sai's Transcendence

by Vu, Frank

  He thought back to the first time he had seen someone use those liquid mushrooms thirty years ago. Shelly had died in front of him and didn’t even seem to mind. In fact, it seemed like the most blissful experience possible, and she had died with a smile on her face. A few years later, when his father was on the edge of death in a nursing home, Sanaka had the opportunity to study the substance one more time. He gave his father the liquid mushrooms with some orange juice, helping him get it down despite the tremors and difficulty swallowing. His father, in a moment of clarity, had asked Sanaka to end his life. Sanaka had agreed, but he wanted his father to experience the bliss he saw in Shelly’s face before her death. So, when Sanaka squeezed the sides of his father’s neck, gently shutting off blood flow to his brain without leaving a mark, his father had smiled at him and closed his eyes. After that, Sanaka began to study dying people that agreed to his experiments, and after he ran out of those, he started finding people that he thought should or at least could die without much fuss.

  He then gradually realized that he enjoyed the killing, and he just searched for interesting subjects, like the one he had today.

  Sanaka caught himself staring blankly through the display instead of at it, and he quietly scolded himself for his inattention. He needed to insert the thick intravenous needle into the man’s wispy arms in order to deliver the etherbots. His guest of honor was all skin, gristle, and bone, though. So this was probably going to be like playing a game of whack-a-mole, where the moles were veins and the hammer was a needle.

  Maybe one day Sanaka would be able to afford the hardware needed to create an aerosolized delivery routine, but that day was not today. After a few stabbing attempts, he was able to find the thin gray vein that he needed while Vu serenely observed the proceedings with an overabundance of attention that was now starting to seriously annoy Sanaka.

  He turned towards the display again and said, “Aurelia, commence delivery and start 3D mapping of the subject’s synapses and firing patterns. Vu, since you seem so ready to observe the experience, can you describe what you feel as it happens?” Sanaka asked hopefully. Usually, his subjects were already screaming and crying, so this seemed a good opportunity to collect data from the subject about how the process felt.

  “As much as I . . . oh. I feel something like tiny grains of sand flowing through both of my arms. This is a very unique sensation. Thank you for helping me grow closer to the Source!”

  Sanaka frowned and looked condescendingly at Vu. “Please restrict your comments to the experiment and avoid any religious mumbo jumbo.”

  “Oh, I assure you the Source is quite real and very much related to your experiment. How did you decide to combine the ingredients of your so-called ‘treatment regimen’?”

  “It’s an experiment, so I try different things. Just a hunch, really.”

  “Interesting. Would you maybe say that the thought came to you from something that wasn’t you? What if I told you that the substance you use in your experiments has been curated for tens of thousands of years by people who know we need it on Earth to balance the forward arrow of technology? And that the very same substance has been manufactured in other plants for thousands of years and more recently in labs to continue to provide that balance?”

  Sanaka shook his head and looked up at the ceiling. “Ugh! Where do you come up with this garbage?”

  “I’ve seen it.” Vu smiled.

  Sanaka waived his hands up at the ceiling. “Oh, you’ve seen it, of course. How could you possibly have seen the past? Your brain must be fully addled from exposure to the Tibetan elements. Maybe I’ve made a mistake by picking you as a subject.”

  “You’ll see how soon enough. Unfortunately, when a civilization adopts technology as their primary goal, they tend to believe everything is known and that there are no mysteries. So your outlook is not unique. Technology is an emergent property of a society that focuses on satisfying desires and providing comfort.”

  Sanaka’s eyes widened. “As opposed to focusing on what, sitting in the mud?”

  “Yes, actually. There may be hope for you yet!”

  Sanaka tightened the straps on Vu once more. “Oh, believe me, you are the one in need of hope, not I. But please do enlighten me on how sitting in the mud is preferable to sitting in a climate-controlled building!”

  “As a society develops, if the people are not taught early on to deal with discomfort, they tend to gravitate towards more and more comfort and convenience, and increasingly complex technology is required to meet the unlimited demands of the people. But civilizations that advance on the mental front early on tend not to require as much to be comfortable, so they don’t ‘need’ as much technology.”

  “Oh, and are there any perfect civilizations you can refer to?”

  Vu thought for a moment. “Perfection is not part of life. That would be boring if it went on for too long, and it would not produce the necessary changes.”

  “What changes?”

  “The changes that transform a person from being chiefly concerned with their comfort, to being chiefly concerned with all that is. But there have been civilizations that made significantly more progress on the mental front than any in existence today.”

  Sanaka smirked, saying, “Oh, sure, and I bet they stampeded the nearest city once they got sick.”

  “Sickness and death are parts of life no matter what, and all civilizations have some form of medicine or a different lifestyle that makes medical treatment less necessary. Did you know that when Europeans were captured by Native Americans in the 1800s, many of them returned back to their captors once they were set free? They missed the community and didn’t seem to mind the conditions. The isolated splendor of their European civilization paled in comparison. The Native Americans also used psychedelics in their ‘treatment regimens’ and could see many, many things.”

  Sanaka grunted and ignored him briefly, looking over at the display again. Vu couldn’t help but see the crystal-clear image of his body on the display and the red dots’ progression up his arms and into his head. Soon after, his whole head appeared as a red orb on the display.

  Sanaka looked back at Vu and said, “Everyone’s thoughts are a completely physical and well-known process of the brain. Psychedelics affect the brain in many ways that I do not completely understand but will soon. That is in fact what I study. To suggest that thoughts or visions come from somewhere else is absurd. Of course, there is some randomness or chaos involved in thought, but ultimately we are a product of our genes and experience—and nothing else.” Sanaka paused for a moment. “Why did you decide to follow me willingly instead of fighting and screaming?”

  Vu smiled and said, “I’m starting to wonder if that was such a good idea! I’m not even sure how long it has been since then, maybe a day or two? Anyway, I gave up trying to direct my life a long time ago. I go wherever I am needed.” The effects suddenly washed over Vu like a tsunami wave, making him nauseous, and then he slowly blinked and continued, “I am needed here now, apparently.”

  RISING AWARENESS

  “The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.”—Jalaluddin Rumi

  11,000 BC, South America, The Adepts

  It was evening now, and Dhruva had been sitting for hours in the same water Aadya had sat in for just a few minutes. He relaxed his mind, observing thoughts and visions that spilled before him. Nearby, Aadya and the other children ran around giggling and playing games.

  Bringing his awareness inward, he let the Source focus his attention to wherever it was needed. He looked to the future and watched as a person consumed something called “alcohol,” which was making the person less aware of his inner voice. This person was completely cut off from nature, his society, and even his family, fully considering himself an “I” and not a “we.” He called himself “Frank.”

  Even with that cultural handicap, though, Frank was starting to realize there was more to the universe than was acknowledged by most members of his socie
ty. His culture employed a pragmatic materialism that allowed them to enjoy immense creature comforts but make little mental progress, similar to the Verdants who also focused much of their society on comfort. A saying from one of Dhruva’s friends, a real comedian, came to mind: “We are all one, but they are a little bit less one.” Really, it was a miracle that anyone in Frank’s society had any awareness of the Source at all.

  The humans in this time period were an interesting study of what could happen when a society’s focus was built around material comforts. He had thought the Verdants had taken this as far as a society could, but this future civilization had taken it to an entirely new level. They spent the majority of their time trying to be entertained with music, massages, food, sex, intoxicating drinks, and other sensory extravaganzas, but they rarely paid attention when they had any of these things. Many people of that time barely listened to their music, thinking instead of their plans for the future, what song would play next, or whatever else was going on in their mind. Some even attempted to eat, check messages, watch their entertainment box, and listen to music all at the same time!

  Interestingly, though, one of their music pieces was called “The Sun Is Shining and So Are You,” which Frank was humming in his head. It was almost the exact line Aadya had sensed when she was in the water earlier. It was clear that the child was becoming Adept quite quickly and would be fully merged with the society soon. Clearing his mind of this, Dhruva calmly listened to the ebb and flow of the universe as he usually did, experiencing the bliss that came with such relaxation. He had thoughts, but he did not follow them, only watching them rise and fall away in his mind. He felt the water around him cooling him, the sun on his skin warming him, and the wind on his face drying him. He felt the joy of all the children and the concerns of their parents. He felt the water moving around him and noises that meant something was moving, but still he only listened and felt. He then became aware of something much closer to him as water splashed on his face. Opening his eyes, he looked up to see a grinning Aadya standing knee-deep in the water, splashing him and giggling.

  “Be comfortable now, be comfortable now!” she shouted.

  He grinned and stood up in the water. “Yes, thank you for the interruption, Aadya. We need to start preparing for this evening. I’m happy to see you getting along here quite well—”

  At that moment, a very frantic and panicked thought entered his head. He became aware of a Verdant’s terrible secret—one the individual had just decided to share. Dhruva suddenly knew he needed to find a Verdant named “Janqui” and help him immediately.

  “Aadya, run along now and help the others prepare for the evening. I still have some work to do.”

  She stopped smiling and looked down at the water. “Are you mad at me?”

  “No, no, I just have a little more work to attend to. Remember, I said it is our job to provide some balance to other societies. We don’t always get to choose when we do that work, which is why we must maintain our connection with the Source at all times—so we know when the right time is. Go now. We will play more later.”

  “Okay, have fun balancing! Don’t fall!” she shouted as she ran off towards the other children.

  Gracefully exiting the water, Dhruva immediately started collecting native mushrooms that grew in the area and some of their spores, placing the mental flora into a small handbag. All of his people carried bags for collecting such things. He would need to impart the needed information to the mental flora so that the Source would not have to be rediscovered again; that process took so long that it may not ever happen again without his efforts. While his people did not need the mental flora because of their training, it would be an important first step in introducing the Source to other civilizations. First, he would need to find the Verdants and convince them to hide away enough supplies to survive the coming disaster and reintroduce technology and the Source to other civilizations on Earth.

  He would have to move quickly.

  VISION

  “If you pick up a bee due to kindness, you will learn the limitations of kindness.”—Sufi saying

  2065 AD, Sanaka’s Lab, Japan

  Shirley stood behind and to the left side of Sanaka’s door, checking and re-checking her gear. Her squadmates were beside her on the right side of the door, doing the same and waiting for her signal. This was her first time leading a UNEEA squad on a real mission, and she was understandably nervous. But she was seriously determined to make sure there were no mistakes on her inaugural leadership mission. In the past, these sorts of missions had mostly been conducted by local governments. But the world was slowly starting to accept the necessity of a global force that didn’t have any single country’s interests as its primary concern. The UNEEA strike team was mostly an all men’s club. Things were gradually changing, though, and now that she was actually leading a team, she was determined to play by the rules. She found it funny that being a female made her life more difficult, since she had originally been born a male and had done the nanosurgery after college to become a female. Luckily, that hadn’t been a problem during the pre-employment background screening. Still, she didn’t think that sharing that information would help her case, so she kept it to herself.

  They had received a lead on Sanaka from a machine-learning algorithm, which had identified his travel as matching a pattern they were looking for. How the UNEEA had come up with the pattern she didn’t know, but she was thankful she wasn’t on the receiving end of those mystical algorithms. They intuited a person’s behavior, sometimes before the person even acted. A well-placed agent at the spaceport had followed Sanaka and his guest to this point, directing backup agents along the way. She would not let any mistakes waste this opportunity. So, while Sanaka continued his research, blissfully unaware of a presence on the other side of the door, Shirley waited for her team to be ready.

  * * *

  “Aurelia, why am I not seeing 3D imaging from the etherbots yet?”

  A soft chime sounded, and then a voice came from the display monitor. “His synaptic patterns are anomalous. I am attempting to compensate with additional learning algorithms. Please wait.”

  It felt like microscopic bees were buzzing around inside Vu’s head, but he knew he was right where he was supposed to be. As ten and then twenty minutes passed, he found that he was able to go more quickly and deeply into his meditation than he could normally. With complete relaxation, he reached down deep. His vision was starting to blur and merge with something else. He felt a language of understanding that was not verbal. Instead of trying to categorize it, he just let it happen, observing and accepting the experience.

  “We are starting to form a picture now,” Aurelia chimed in again. “It still has some visual artifacts. Would you like to see it now or wait for further processing?”

  “Put it on the display for Christ’s sake,” Sanaka growled.

  Sanaka scrunched up his eyes and forehead, attempting to make sense of what he saw. A pixelated and blurry image had appeared on the display.

  “Aurelia, what the hell is this?”

  “Most patterns are unrecognized, but some data from the visual cortex can be distinguished. These patterns do not seem to match the subject’s viewpoint.”

  “Is the subject still alive?”

  “Yes, all vitals appear to be within normal parameters. Respiration and some other vitals are slower than normal, but they are consistent with deep relaxation or light sleep.”

  Sanaka had a feeling he was about to make a breakthrough. Every scientific advancement was at first a huge mystery, something unexpected from an experiment. When an experiment was complete and the expected result was achieved, that was just a confirmation of an existing belief—necessary but boring. But when a new and completely unexpected result was achieved, the existing model of how things worked needed to be changed. Sanaka was pretty sure he was onto something completely new here, as he had never seen the etherbots struggle to read the mind’s patterns, and they certainly h
ad not registered visual patterns beyond what the person was viewing—and Vu’s eyes were closed!

  “Aurelia, double-check all experiment inputs and procedures for previous subjects. I want to be sure this isn’t an aberration caused by our environment or setup.”

  “Checking. The experiment itself is well within the parameters of other experiments. The subject is significantly older than previous subjects.”

  “Yes, yes. And he is a freaking Buddhist monk that has practiced self-reflection for decades. Carry on.”

  Sanaka was not a huge fan of the monk’s calmness. In past experiments, he had told himself the subject’s terror was something he could deal with, could work around, in order to get the results he desired. Now, though, he found that he missed the terror somehow. His hand drifted to his proton knife, and he casually wondered if slitting the man’s throat might yield important experimental data. No, no. At least wait for this visual cortex data to be cleaned up.

  “Aurelia, confirm that we are recording all of the sensor streams, including this visual cortex data.”

  “Confirmed.”

  “Apply noise reduction filters and any other helpful algorithms to the image. Get me something I can work with!”

  “Working.”

  The image was starting to change. Large geometric blocks of pixels became sharper, but the image itself was moving. That was odd, as the monk’s eyes and head were not moving. Sanaka stepped closer and peered into Vu’s eyes, hoping to see some small glimpse of terror. Vu simply looked back, blinking every half minute or so.

  “I have identified some parts of this room in the visual cortex stream. Some visual data may now be recognizable. There appear to be multiple streams of data within the visual cortex, though, only some of which have been recognized and displayed.”