Nirvana Effect (12 page)

“Is that so?”

“If your mind did not know how many leaves were in the tree, it could not process them at all.  How much harder do you think is it for your brain to capture the entire sensory message of that tree?  A number is simple.  And some people do it already - your medical texts call them idiot
savants
.”

Edward nodded grudgingly.  “You must have read an older text - that’s an old name - but yes, to a smaller degree than counting the leaves on that tree, I’ll admit that’s true.”

“My theory is that the substance, the
lleychta
, which bring about the - the trance -”

“The nirvana effect,” interrupted Edward.

Mahanta stewed that one over.  He nodded finally.  “Yes, that’s a good English name for it, yes.  The nirvana effect.  So when a mind is under the…nirvana effect…it isn’t doing anythin
g that it can’t already do.  There are just certain abilities of the mind which are apparently repressed in everyday life.
  The drug seems to take away those repressions.”

“What’s been repressing it?” asked Edward.  Mahanta
’s
lip curled slightly.  “I’m just playing devil’s advocate.”

“Devil’s what?”

“Devil’s advocate.  I’m just testing your theory,” explained Edward.

Mahanta nodded.  “Well, devil, this god hasn’t taken his theory that far.  And neither have your scientists, either.  We could label it, call it subconscious barriers, call it what you will, but that would only be a label.  I know of no structure to it, just an idea and my own experience.  It just seems that there is a cap on my mind’s abilities, and whenever I am under the - the nirvana effect, that cap is lifted.”

“Well, I’ve certainly experienced that, too.”

“It seems there are certainly
hidden
portions of the mind that are under one’s full control during the trance.”

“Like the body
control,” said Edward.  “I was able to make my body heal, shut off pain.  It even seemed I could experience my neurons to some degree.”

Mahanta nodded.  “I’ve had the same experience.  And are you able to control your other
sense channels during the trance?”

Edwar
d nodded.  “I can hear farther
.”

“And indi
vidual conversations in a crowd?
” said Mahanta.

“It seems impossible
, but yes
,” said Edward.

“Well, your mind has always been perceiving it - your mind perceives every voice in a crowd.  Why can’t it be aware of each voice?”

“It’s just impossible,” insisted Edward.

“Well, apparently it’s not.  And I’ve been able to trace much phenomena of the nirvana effect to previously observed phenomena.”

“Like what?”

“There are cases on record of extended hearing, of near super-natural sight, of uncanny calculation.  There are cases who have seen the exact future in their dreams - déjà vu - and who have accomplished physically impossible acts under moments of stress.  It would seem hardly an assumption to postulate that the drug does not add mental abilities, but rather reveals them.”

Edward mulled it over.  He could not help but notice how Mahanta had adapted to the style of communication found in Edward’s scientific texts.  It was as though the native had
absorbed
the books.  “It sounds like a correct assumption to me,” Edward finally said.  “You see the future in the trance?”

Mahanta shrugged.  “I can predict.  It is
akin to
seeing.  I am interested to see what you can do.  Since I have been the only human being to experience the trance, I do not know if all such experiences are uniform.  Your description of the trance matches mine to a large extent, but it may be that not all minds work the same.”

“That doesn’t sound
particularly
scientific,” said Edward.

“Just an observation.  Observation is absolute science.  We can
only
draw conclusions once we have more observation,” said Mahanta.  The Onge sat on the grass near the giant tree in the clearing.

“Time slowing down?” asked Edward, as though the question rushed out before he could even formulate it into a complete thought.

“I don’t know why,” said Mahanta simply.

“I thought that perhaps it’s just the effect of so much more sense data coming into the brain.  Things appear to be moving more slowly when in actual fact time is
clipping along at normal speed.”

Mahanta nodded.  “I thought something on the same order.” 

“So what is your plan?” asked Edward, taking his seat.

“Much of it is planned, but much of it isn’t.  I wish to go West.  I want to leave this place.  I want to eventually announce my discovery, in a place and time that will not result in destruction.  I will do so in a way that benefits me, my tribe, and all humanity.  I
will be no martyr to science.  In your history books, science has more martyrs than religion, it seems.”

Edward nodded
. 
Mahanta’s plans seemed reasonable. 
“And what is in store for me?” he asked.

“Having tasted it, you have a right to the
lleychta
as much as I do.  You’ll be able to set your own destiny, and we may or may not remain friends in the end.  For now we are friend
s, and we will help one another
.”

Edward observe
d
from an anthropological viewpoint how pragmatic the Onge really were about matters of alliance and survival.  The only assurance of honesty and loyalty from
an Onge
was strength.  It was a game Edward had never played, but saw that he would quickly need to learn.

“Why all this ‘god’ stuff?” asked Edward.

Mahanta nodded
as though he’d been awaiting the question
.  “Power.  Control.  Influence.  I need it all.  Religion is the only way I’ll be able to alter the culture of my people.  I will modernize my tribe by gaining enough influence to reinterpret the oral tradition that so far has kept us bound to the mud.”

Edward’s priest side
objected on moral grounds to Mahanta’s abuse of religion.  The scholarly side could not help but agree with
him
, though.
 

“I know what you are thinking,” said Mahanta.  He laughed.  “You are thinking, ‘This young man is not a god.’” 

Edward laughed, too.

Mahanta continued, “You are right - to you, I am not.  To the West, I am not.  To a Christian, or a Jew, or Muslim, or any monotheist, I am not.  But to my people, I am.  I have fulfilled their prophecies.  I am what they have always wanted.  And I will lead them to civilization and freedom.  You cannot slight me or my manipulations for that.  If you do, you are not who I think you are.”

“We are an odd couple,” said Edward.  “If anyone were to write a book about this, they could title it, ‘The Priest and the Heretic.’”

“Or ‘The God and the White Devil’,” said Mahanta.  “In any event, my status has given me
control of the tribe’s resources
.  Already they have begun to harvest the substance per my instructions.  The Onge are at our disposal to carry forward the research of this substance as far as we can before we need to leave.”

“What do you
plan to research about it
?” asked Edward.

“That is up for discussion,” said Mahanta.  This surprised Edward.  “I have some ideas, but I wanted to give you all the facts that I have on the nirvana effect, the plant sap it comes from, everything, and have you trance on it before we set on a course of investigation.  We can discuss it all as we walk back to the temple.  If you’re willing, I’ll inject you with the substance again.”

Edward nodded.  He was more than willing.

“
Concentrate this time upon unlocking your mind, and upon the mysteries of
this substance,
”
urged Mahanta.  He
pulled a syringe from a medical pack at his side. 
He drew a clear liquid from a penicillin vial
.  The medicine had obviously been replaced by the drug. 

Edward had no reservation.  The after-pain was inevitable.  He knew he would be facing that many times further in his research.  And obviously, Mahanta had survived many doses.  To Edward’s scientific mind, there was nothing to fear.

The native wasted no time in injecting Edward.  The drug took effect almost instantly
.  Edward noted there must have been outward signs of the
lleychta
going to work, because Mahanta was nodding with approval.

Edward closed his eyes.  It helped the trance. 
I can’t waste time; every microsecond counts
. 
He reviewed all the facts.  Indeed, he reviewed
all of them
. 

His whole education flew into view, sorted by relevance
,
probable veracity,
and
importance. 

It was as though his mental
filing system had transformed from
a
mere “date and place” tabbing to a sophisticated cross-index
ed
catalog in a blink of his mind‘s eye. 

Every fact could be reached, as he might reach every drop of water in a la
ke, and yet the important facts stood out brilliantly.  H
is whole education was at his fingertips, ready for access at a speed far faster and a relevance far more refined than any internet search.  He
briefly indulged in wondering at the capacities of his mind
. 
How much data is actually there?  Is some of it delusion?  All of it?
He had to
keep in mind that
he was still under the influence of a drug, no matter how wonderful that drug might seem.

Perhaps this was what Mahanta meant by “unlocking his mind”.  Its function was certainly enhanced, and all in what was perhaps ten minutes in real time.  He wondered if the effect would last after the trance.  Already, he had more control of his body than he’d ever had before his first trance.  He wondered if it would be the same with his education.

Edward
turned off his hearing, and most of his other perceptions as well
in order to aid his concentration
.  A dull sense of touch remained, and of course automatic control of body function. 
Focus. 
It was all too tempting to venture down the rambling paths of speculation.  He had a job to do.

The vital data surrounding the substance were few.  He examined them all.  Mahanta had done well relaying everything he’d encountered so far.

The substance came from the sap of a tree that for all Mahanta or Edward knew was found only on this island. 

Edward verified this by ransacking his memories.  Towards the end of his schooling, he had flipped page by page through a botany book which catalogued every known form of
exotic
tree in the Eastern world.  It had been a particularly boring day in
Botany and he’d
kept the appearance of business by looking at all the pictures.
 

In his mind’s eye, the memory hung suspended in front of him and played like a 3-D movie with full sound and fifty other perceptions. 
As he examined the recall, h
e felt like he was back in Botany.  He even felt the boredom.

He foun
d he could slow the memory down
or even stop it.  This surprised him, but seemed natural enough.  He had plenty of memories in his past that hung suspended like that i
n one crucial moment, though he’
d never thought to press the “rewind” or “fast forward” buttons. 

He could freeze the “playing” of the memory at each flip of t
he page and study its contents.  In such a wise he
re-
examined every page of the book. 

No picture matched.  No description matched.  The plant, indeed, was a totally unknown mutation apparently populating only this island.

Edward’s concentration flitted back to the rest of his conversation with Mahanta
on the way back to the temple
.  The plant’s sap had long been used by Onge medicine men as a hallucinogenic.  Mahanta became curious after he saw the medicine man smoke it and then catch a fly between his fingers as easily as he might catch a ball. 
Mahanta wondered how such a substance could make an old man so agile
.
 

Mahanta later learned the art of distillation from an earlier missionary and subsequently distilled the sap.  He found that it contained a hallucinogenic compound separate and apart from the substance which produced the nirvana effect.  When he drank the distilled substance, he received a watered down version of the effect - heightened senses, bodily control, a sort of numbed version of the full-blown
trance
.