Seven Point Eight (51 page)

He showed respect for her question.

“It cannot be explained, it must be experienced to be comprehended. This understanding is the true quest of every sentient being. In time, we will share all our knowledge with humanity. For now, simply be and let us watch the light rise on the dawn of a new day.”

He crouched on the arid ground, staking his staff in the sand-like substance and used it to support himself. We sat next to him, cross-legged, and looked to the sky but quickly realised we were looking in the wrong place. An explosion of golden light projected from the ground. Separate rays reached towards the pallid sky, extending finger like beams that illuminated the heavens, turning everything a vibrant shade of yellow. It looked intensely beautiful, as if the land were communicating with the sky. I didn’t want to leave this place.

The therianthrope world faded as the field automatically powered down, and the interior of the machine came into focus again. It took a few moments for our brains to recalibrate, and eventually I moved over to the camera to record some comments for the visual diary.

“Well, I think that world deserves another visit. These journeys are addictive,” I said.

“I’m so glad that I can share them with you,” Tahra added.

I proceeded to give a description of the world we’d just visited and added a final comment.

“I’ve just realised something though,” I concluded. “He spoke of a shift in perception, in reality. We haven’t travelled through space, we’ve discovered other dimensions of reality. We’re not astronauts, we’re…shamans.”

***

Tahra returned to The Institute the next day, still feeling euphoric after the previous day’s journey. She wondered how she’d be able to concentrate during the mundane tests and contracts she had to fulfil there. Paul said he’d follow, as he wanted to discuss the next stage of the project with Max and the residents. The trip to the therianthrope world had left him surging with positive energy, it gave the world around him a subtle glow.

Luckily, he found Max in the office at The Institute and Paul caught him reading a newspaper, with a cup of coffee at his side. He looked up as Paul tapped on the door and entered, pleasantly surprised to see him.

“To what do I owe the honour of your visit?” Max queried.

“An update and a request,” Paul answered.

Tahra appeared from behind Paul, and he noted a wistful expression flicker across Max’s face. She stopped herself from putting an arm around Paul, holding Max’s gaze while attempting to keep her own expression neutral. It created an odd tension in the air, and Tahra popped the thick membrane stifling the atmosphere.

“We’ve made fantastic progress with the machine,” she declared. “Already, we’ve discovered two new worlds.”

Max folded his newspaper neatly and placed it on the desk.

“Have you documented these journeys for the record?” he asked.

“We’re in the process of doing so,” Paul interjected, “with a cine camera and a written journal.”

“Do you want to know what worlds we discovered?” Tahra enquired.

Max found her enthusiasm infective.

“Yes, please tell me.”

“In our first trip, we discovered the serpent realm, which is beautiful and vibrant, a world of forest and streams. Following this, we visited the therianthrope world, where the sun shines from the ground and illuminates the sky. It was full of hybrid creatures, and we met a bird headed man.”

On hearing this, Max looked thoughtful, as if her words had triggered a memory. However, he said nothing about it and finally asked a question.

“We?” he questioned. “You said, ‘we met…’. What do you mean by that?”

Tahra hadn’t realised she’d used the personal plural, was she giving too much away?

“I went there too,” Paul interjected. “She towed my consciousness and took me along for the ride.”

“Towed you?” Max repeated.

“Tahra is a guide, she can take you with her provided your consciousness can detach from your body.”

Max looked thoughtful but worried about something too, like he had a burning question to ask, but suppressed it.

“You do realise what this means, don’t you?” Paul continued, unable to read his reaction. Receiving no response, he filled in the blanks. “It means non-remote viewers can use the machine successfully with the aid of a guide. This is what you wanted, to show viability of the project.”

Max remained quiet and Paul began to feel a little irritated.

“And there’s something else,” Paul added. “Entities in both worlds have mentioned the acquisition of knowledge through making visits to these realms.”

Max raised his eyebrows now, snapping out of his silence.

“What kind of knowledge?”

“Medicine, technology…secrets of the universe, anything we need to know I guess.”

Max appeared to mentally chew what Paul had just said. Medicine, technology…all to the highest bidder….

“What do you want from me?” he asked, more and more intrigued by the OOBE project, which now proved to be a real dark horse.

Paul prepared to lay his cards on the table.

“I want to incorporate the residents of The Institute into the programme, and I want an additional six non-psychic recruits, making a total of twelve travellers, excluding Tahra who will be their guide. The non-psychics need to be psychologically stable, with an open mind and a strong constitution.”

Max smiled, admiring his directness and vision.

“I can find you ordinary members of the public. I’ll send you twenty people and you can select the six best candidates from them. I can also arrange suitable remuneration for the successful candidates.”

“And the residents of The Institute?”

Max sustained the suspense just a little longer.

“I’ll call them down and you can address them. It’s up to you to enthuse and recruit them.”

Paul made a little celebratory fist and nodded thanks to Max. He and Tahra temporarily took command of the sitting room, arranging the chairs in a semi circle. Ten minutes later, Emilie, Sakie, Oscar, George, Peter, and Beth appeared. They looked a little older, several years on, but not ravaged by time at all. Emilie, the telepath, looked more confident and her fair hair had been cut into a sleek bob in the style of Twiggy. She had abandoned below the knee dresses in favour of wide leg jeans and a tunic, which accentuated her slim figure.

Sakie, the electromagnetic extraordinaire, no longer looked like a teenager,
 
presenting a flattering bobbed hairstyle in the style of Mary Quant, and sporting a mini dress with a block pattern in primary colours. Oscar had gained a little weight, making him appear quite jolly and his afro hair had grown outwards.

George, the other remote viewer, still looked like the classic English gentleman and neither had his dress sense changed either. One of the mediums, Peter, looked more athletic, as if he were training for the Olympics, while Beth had slimmed down somewhat, looking quite svelte with a sleek beehive, full skirt, and jacket with a mandarin collar, Nehru style.

Everyone exchanged greetings and hugs, delighted to reunite then the six of them took a seat, looking at Paul and Tahra with expectant eyes. Max slipped in the doorway and stood by to watch over the proceedings. All Paul had to do now was pitch his idea.

He cleared his throat and began.

“It’s great to see you all again, feels like old times, eh?”

There were a few chuckles from his audience, which helped him relax more and feel less nervous.

“Well, the reason I’ve brought you all together is to reveal exactly what I’ve – sorry,
we’ve
been working on,” he looked over at Tahra, “to attempt to persuade you to join the programme.”

He appeared to have grabbed their attention, so proceeded.

“You’re probably aware that Tahra has been drafted onto an experiment I simply call Project OOBE, which stands for Out of Body Experiment. My first intention was to use remote viewing as a form of space travel, to transcend the need for a physical body, which is vulnerable to the extreme environment of space itself.”

Word had spread about the basic objectives of the project, but he needed to lead in effectively.

“We concentrated on homing Tahra’s remote viewing for detail skills, then we worked our way through all the planets of the solar system. I transcribed Tahra’s description of what she saw, and an artist used this to create some impressions of the planets. Photos from a recent NASA flyby of Mars correlate with our findings. Before long, we reached the edge of the solar system and at that point, I realised we needed to take it further, even though our previous research had not been extensively validated.”

Paul tried to gauge the level of interest in his audience, and observed a few murmurs in response to his disclosure.

“Our first experiments beyond the solar system weren’t successful and Tahra asked if I could develop technology to give her a psychic boost, so to speak. I took some measurements of Tahra’s brain wave activity during remote viewing, and discovered there’s a specific frequency at which consciousness detaches from the body. That frequency is 7.8 hertz, or cycles per second. One night, I had a vision of a machine, a giant oscillator coupled with a powerful electromagnetic field to boost the human electromagnetic field.”

His audience really began to take notice now.

“We overlaid harmonics onto the base frequency of 7.8 hertz and achieved victory. The machine successfully detaches consciousness from the body, and with the aid of a powerful and experienced remote viewer, Tahra, it’s possible to visit different worlds. By adjusting the frequencies, harmonics and amplitude, a variety of worlds can be accessed.”

“So far, we’ve visited two realms, one of which is populated by serpent-like creatures who reside in a technicolour forest, and the other which is quite arid, inhabited by hybrid creatures, fusions of species like on our own planet. The really exciting bit is that you don’t need to be a remote viewer to do this, although it is necessary for Tahra to act as a guide. What’s more, we believe these worlds are not planets elsewhere in our galaxy, they’re other dimensions, other realities which vibrate at different frequencies to our world. Think of it like a radio, there are many stations and when you move the dial, you can pick up another station.”

“The reason I’m telling you this is that I want you to join the programme. I yearn to prove this project is viable for a range of people, psychics and non-psychics. I need to compare experiences to establish validity and reliability. I want know if you’re in or not.”

Pitch over, Paul now waited for the response.

“Hell, I’m in,” Oscar piped up.

“Me too,” said George, the other remote viewer, “I need a vacation.”

Well, he’d secured two psychics for a start.

“I will do it,” Sakie spoke up, her English clearer and less accented.

“I’m intrigued,” said Beth, “count me in.”

“That means I’ll have to come too,” Peter added.

Emilie shrugged her shoulders and said, “Me too.”

They were all on board. Hallelujah! Next step: the non-psychic recruitment.

As the residents of The Institute dispersed, Max touched Paul on the arm and took him to one side. Tahra made herself scarce, disappearing up to her bedroom. She had testing for the next few days so had to stay at The Institute, not her favourite place to be as it lacked the cosiness of the farmhouse. When the room fell quiet again, Max initiated the conversation.