K-Pax Omnibus

by Gene Brewer

  I listened to the more wretched sapiens for several hours each day. In many cases, it was the first time any being had seriously considered their plights and how they came to be incarcerated at the hospital. Instead, their “doctors” chose to try one drug and then another to “normalize” them and get them back into the self-centered and violent society which, in many cases, was the cause of their problems in the first place.

  Patient howie, for example, was classified as “obsessive-compulsive” because, in order to please his demanding father, he wanted to understand everything about existence. An admirable trait, perhaps, but a bit too much for a human being.

  This quest for knowledge is not a problem for most people, who prefer to spend their time watching televised “sports” programs and “situation comedies” on visualized microwave broadcasts. In fact, it was the latter that first suggested to me how infatuated the sapiens are with their sexual desires. These “shows” are about almost nothing else, and certainly not anything like political or environmental concerns—viewers would tune them out, I’ve been told.

  PATIENT ernie is here because he is pathologically afraid of dying. The fear of this inevitable process seems to be programmed into all the sapiens, though perhaps not to the consuming degree that it occurs in ernie. Most people manage to suppress the terror until faced with it directly, at which time it explodes and they “freak out,” to use a colorful sapiens expression. It was this anxiety, in fact, that brought about the next step in human evolution, the invoking of comforting beliefs to allay those fears.

  At first these beings presumed that powerful deities must be everywhere (though none were ever seen), a god for every dread and, eventually, for every need. When the sapiens began to barter flesh or grains, they assumed, in another moment of “inspiration,” that their gods might also be amenable to such trades, and they began to offer them food and clothing in exchange for favorable weather or to cure illnesses or heal wounds. Few seemed to notice that the gods never accepted any of these offerings or that the weather patterns remained random and unchanged, that the SUN “rose” and “set” every day regardless, that rain came and went, and that rivers flooded their banks at regular intervals. But beliefs are the same as truth to these beings, an equation passed down through the millennia. (It is worth noting that the humans of the present time still refer to the “rising” and “setting” of their STAR. This is a good example of how such misperceptions become deeply and permanently ingrained once they have become a part of the sapiens’ convictions.)

  * * *

  ANOTHER peculiar misconception is that the heart is the seat of all emotions. If a sapiens is cruel, he is called “heartless.” They often love someone with “all their heart.” They know things “by heart,” they “lose heart,” and buy whatever “their heart desires.” One wonders what happens to these feelings, no matter how heartfelt, when a transplant occurs.

  A woman in country france once told us that she had been taken aboard a [spacecraft] and sexually molested by the beings living there. I pointed out that no spacecraft has ever visited EARTH or any of the other nearby PLANETS. She took off some of her clothes and showed rob and me where she had been penetrated: under the armpits, at the backs of her knees, and on the top of her head. She was certain she was pregnant with multiple little aliens. Praying for another visitation, she left us her coverings and rode off on a make-believe bicycle.

  You’d be surprised how many sapiens there are like her on B-TIK.

  AS with the other animal beings, the strongest member of the sapiens tribes became their leader, the one to make decisions and barter with other groups. Females, who bore and raised the children, rarely rose to the level of chief. This tradition, as with the others, has carried over for thousands and thousands of years.

  But the strongest member was not necessarily the smartest. The more clever individuals began to take charge of the most mysterious and fearsome aspects of their harsh lives, and an uneasy partnership developed between the tribal leaders and those who claimed to be able to communicate with the gods. These “priests” became experts at appeasing the deities and in explaining what went wrong when the gods weren’t happy. In exchange for such crucial services, the spiritual leaders gained a measure of respect, comfort and security without the tiresome need to do work of any kind. This, too, has continued unchanged to the present time.

  ON this day howie found the “bluebird of happiness,” a goal I knew would take his mind off his determination to learn everything there was to know about his WORLD. He was so excited that I thought he might experience a urinary accident. What surprised me was that most of the other patients were as thrilled as he was. There was genuine joy in their faces when howie ran down the corridors with the news, and I am certain they were delighted to see another sapiens so happy. And the more joy there was to share, the happier they became! A very interesting phenomenon, don’t you think?

  THE all-consuming delight experienced by some of the patients is much like that of the nonhuman animals. They are totally involved in the moment, to the exclusion of every concern about the past or future. All the beings of the EARTH (except for the humans) live this way, in the present. The birds of the spring (the time between the cold and warm months on this WORLD, when its axis begins to tilt toward the SUN) clearly demonstrate this principle. All over the PLANET they sing loudly, and every molecule of their being joins in. They don’t worry about whether life has meaning, or if any gods approve of their music. Their joy is infectious, and every animal, even some of the sapiens, feels it.

  The same is true for the other beings. I have seen whales [breach] the waves for no reason other than the ecstacy of it, monkeys swing happily from tree to tree, and wolves roll contentedly in the beams of the SUN. Their joy is so intense that they find it difficult to describe.

  Human children also experience such uninhibited happiness until the time they are taught the “realities” of their WORLD.

  THE sapiens even bring sexual intercourse into their everyday speech patterns. Humans all over B-TIK, especially the males of the species, describe almost everything as “fucking.” Fucking this, fucking that. They do their fucking jobs and go home to their fucking wives and take out the fucking garbage. Their children pick this up very quickly. Is it any wonder they are so fucking bored?

  I wrote earlier about the creation of a deity for every perceived fear or need. Eventually, subspecialties arose. Those priests who developed expertise in the healing of wounds and illnesses (with the help of the gods) became physicians. The tribal units, especially if they were large, or possessed a particularly strong leader, learned that they could reap benefits from smaller tribes through force, and the more militant members of such groups became specialists in the “art” of war. Thus, smaller bands became incorporated into larger units until sizable territories were controlled by one or another tribe. From this came discrete lands bounded by rivers or mountains, and therefore easy to defend against other sapiens, and from these rose, finally, the large and powerful nations.

  Few questioned the authority of the leaders, or of their priests or medical specialists or military commanders. Children were instructed in the use of fighting techniques, usually in the form of “games.” Those who were adept at these contests became the next wave of generals. Those who were particularly clever at recognizing signs of disease or preparing useful remedies became physicians or scientists. Those who firmly believed, or pretended to believe, that the gods could be appeased by this or that recitation or sacrifice became clergymen. All others were expected to work for the benefit of the tribe or state. And so it went, from then until now, and promises to continue as long as human beings dominate the EARTH.

  ONE of the favorite myths on B-TIK is that the sapiens would quickly forget about their respective countries and unite to fight invading beings from another WORLD.

  That alone should tell you a lot about this species.

  SINCE K-PAXians don’t discuss nonsequiturs like relig
ion, family matters, sports, and all the other topics that concern the sapiens almost full-time, doctor gene asked me today what we find to talk about. None of the subjects I mentioned—other UNIVERSES, for example—interested him much. If that wouldn’t interest him, what would? I realized then that I wasn’t leaving a moment too soon. If I stayed any longer I might end up right where I was.

  This is one of the great mysteries about the human beings—their vast indifference to how the COSMOS came about, how the SUN and the EARTH were formed, how life came to be—in short, almost everything about their existence. They practically worship ignorance, and choose to live in a kind of Dark Age. Astonishing for a “thinking man,” is it not (especially one who supposedly worships the creations of the gods)? What do we make of a species that has little curiosity or sense of wonder?

  The rest of the GALAXY knows everything that’s going on here, yet the sapiens are strangely unembarrassed by this fact. Obviously they have no sense of shame. Or of humor, either. When I told my [shrink?] an EARTH joke I had heard on I-RUD (Q: Why did the chicken cross the road? A: She was being chased by a sapiens with a hatchet.), it elicited not the faintest hint of a smile.

  WE did find a few countries that are more like K-PAX than the others. One of these was Sweden, where the sapiens treat each other with somewhat more respect than the people of most other places on EARTH. They are less warlike and more inclined to view other humans as equals, and they treat their nonhuman beings less like inanimate objects than do most others.

  But visits to even the best of the B-TIKian countries always make me homesick for K-PAX, where life is good for everyone regardless of their color or number of legs. Where there is no fear, violence, or greed, no government or religious propaganda, and every being is happy almost every moment of his or her existence. If I were to characterize PLANET EARTH with a single word, it would probably be “sad.”

  Riddle: Does anyone care?

  Besides the deity called “jesus christ,” a denizen of many B-TIKian mental institutions for some reason, there were several peculiar mental types at the institute. One of the female patients seemed to be a different person almost every time I met her, a victim of something called “multiple personality disorder.” This was apparently brought about by sexual abuse. A curious phenomenon in a WORLD where every such encounter is an act of abuse, yet almost everyone devotes much of his/her time attempting to satisfy this apparent need.

  I was puzzled for a time about how the genetic defects in the homo sapiens manifested themselves in a kind of permanent lack of development lasting 100,000 years or more. But after talking with several of the humans around the PLANET, I began to see a consistent pattern of malaise, almost listlessness. Again, it seems to be related to fear.

  Young humans learn to fear not only the things that might negatively affect their ordered lives, but anything that might disrupt the order itself! In short, they learn to conform, and parents who don’t succeed in instilling this trait are considered failures by their peers. Children are praised when they recite the dogmas they have been indoctrinated with, and ostracized when they do not. They are programmed from the beginning to behave exactly like everyone else—flesh and blood robots. (It would be fascinating to study whether this easy programmability is yet another genetic aberration in this species. Anyone interested?)

  IN a desperate attempt to prove that I was merely human, gene tried to get me to tell him how to travel on a beam of light and produce cold nuclear fusion. When I refused, he proclaimed we couldn’t do those things! How did he think I got here?

  I told him about the ultimate fate of the UNIVERSE, but I don’t think he believed that either, perhaps because the idea of living his life over again was not a pleasant prospect for him. By now I was beginning to understand something of his own tragic history—where he was “coming from,” to use sapiens terminology. In short, he was raised by his parents. If I were human I probably wouldn’t want to live my life over again, either.

  ROBOTS teaching robots. They call them “schools” on B-TIK, places where children from five to eighteen years are forced to go and almost none of them wants to. These are some of the things they are “taught” in these boxes:

  that it’s perfectly acceptable to kill and eat other beings, or use them for any other purpose imaginable

  that their history is one of endless wars among themselves and the important thing is not to avoid these conflicts, but to win them

  that science is a matter of learning countless facts

  that money is not only necessary, but “capitalism” is the only economic system that works

  that work is an ethical necessity

  that their country is the best one on EARTH

  that motherhood is not only good, but is expected

  that the most important goal of any school is to defeat representatives of other such facilities in mindless games

  This is no joke!

  Here are some of the things not taught in the schools:

  how to prevent the deterioration and ultimate destruction of the only PLANET they inhabit

  that the lives of nonhuman beings are worthy for their own sakes

  that their wealthy, and therefore powerful, are using the other sapiens to their own ends

  what the actual requirements for human nutrition are

  how to accept differences and resolve conflicts between countries

  that ignorance is not an admirable goal

  that violence to any being, whether real or “make-believe,” leads to violence to others

  Surprisingly, religions are not discussed in most schools. The myths of the sapiens are deeply ingrained into their consciousness before they ever get to the boxes, and they violently dislike (fear) having their comforting dogmas challenged by proponents of any of the other 10,000 varieties.

  On K-PAX, this would be like eating only one grain and pretending there aren’t any others until death occurs.

  NURSE betty brought in a furry, forgal-like being who, like all non-human animals, was distrustful of the sapiens.

  The baby cat ran across the lounge and jumped into my lap. What a fascinating being she is! She actually trembles with happiness at the slightest touch. Very emotional, though she pretends otherwise, like many of the humans here.

  WE once met a sapiens who had become separated from his son in a shopping mall (a place to buy all the unnecessary products made on B-TIK, accompanied by loud “music”). He was frantic with worry. The boy wasn’t hard to find—he was the only child wandering around with dripping eyes. When I brought them together, the father hid his fear and pretended to be very angry with the boy.

  Why are these beings afraid to show their real emotions? Do they think other sapiens will take advantage of them? Or perhaps they all suffer from a form of multiple personality disorder.

  The mall, incidentally, pulsed with young humans. What kind of a WORLD can it be where apprentice adults have nothing that interests them more than buying body coverings and [cosmetic trinkets?]?

  DURING the past few years rob and I visited several facilities designed to hold or murder nonhuman beings-zoos, slaughterhouses, circuses, [pounds], laboratories. In all cases the feeling of the animals was remarkably uniform: why are we being held captive; I miss my family; what I wouldn’t give for a mouthful of fresh grass; and so on. A pitiful situation for everyone but their “keepers.”

  Yet none of the jailed or mistreated beings were angry with their captors. They just wanted to go home. Many of the dogs and cats told me that they would try to do better if given another chance. The elephants sometimes pointed their trunks toward the sky and wailed piteously. The great apes often injured themselves. The tears of the whales were washed away and unnoticed. The pigs and cows couldn’t believe they were about to be murdered, even when they heard the screams of those ahead of them. If the sapiens were to turn off their television sets and other noisemakers and stop talking for even a minute, they might be able to feel the suffering, hear
the collective pleading of all the [incarcerated] animals around the world, together crying, “Let’s let [bygones be bygones?]—please let us out!”

  Perhaps part of the problem is that the sapiens don’t consider themselves to be in the animal category. Do they think they are plants?

  ANOTHER amazing fruit—the pomegranate. Like a thousand tiny STARS exploding in your mouth all at once! Of all the good things about the EARTH, the wonderful variety of fruity tastes are among the very best.

  Gene attempted something he called “hypnosis” on me today. When the trick didn’t work, I asked him to explain what it was supposed to accomplish. He tried, but I got the clear impression that he didn’t understand the process himself. Nevertheless, he wanted to try it again the next time we met!

  ONE of maria’s alternate “personalities” offered to give me “a good time” this night. It occurred to me that the violent treatment of nonhumans on B-TIK may be related to her condition. Perhaps the sapiens get some sort of sexual satisfaction from harming other beings?

  THE means by which the rich and powerful sustain the [status quo] is quite clever (for the sapiens). The cornerstone is the economic system itself. People are encouraged to buy unnecessary products to increase their comfort levels, to impress their fellow sapiens, and to put money back into the system so that their own businesses will flourish. Great weight is put on quantities like “housing starts” and the “the gross national product,” which become ends in themselves. Both, of course, are natural results of increased human population, which fuels the economic engines. Is it any wonder that their leaders don’t discourage the production of more and more human babies, regardless of their effect on the PLANET?

  * * *

  ANOTHER batch of patients on the third level are called “autists.” These are beings who can’t stand to talk to other sapiens, can’t even bear to look at them. These may be the sanest humans of all.