The professor stood at the water’s edge and gave his lecture to the seals. They watched suspiciously, squirming to better assess the haggard old man who stepped closer to the water with each word. They chose to keep their distance.
“There are rooms in this water, and all water, connected by corridors of an alternate reality. Each bubble of air contains a world of living entities that our science has never captured. Such buoyant happy creatures, always interested in human awareness, touching the hair, the lips, desiring stories of mundane matters! As our primitive cultures speak of elementals or devas, so do these entities speak of us. We occupy only one slice of their reality, but we are intimately familiar with this slice, more than they will ever be. We have the advantage here, knowing the ins and outs of how to exist in the body. They wish to know what we know, and vice versa. One can strike bargains for mutual benefit.”
The professor’s knees were wet, but he hardly noticed the sloshing of his expensive Italian shoes. He next addressed the kelp tangling his legs.
“To establish a connection, one must submerse one’s feet in a natural body of water, adopt a state of zen-like concentration and open oneself to the fluid qualities of water. Surroundings fade and give way to the watery walls of their dwellings. They share the dimensional secrets if one allows them to view the physical realm through one’s eyes. It can be frightening, of course, but in my twenty years of exploration, I’ve never experienced difficulties with them overstepping boundaries. They are respectful.”
The professor grew too close to a school of fish, and they scattered around his waist. He glanced at their wake and called after them.
“Some say that a madness can occur. I concur that it’s possible; those with inferior genetic makeup may have less ability to cope with expanded awareness. My colleagues and I are currently experimenting with this, and we seek to discover the problematic genes to avoid any future mishaps.” He paused as the water lapped his chin, and turned his face to the sky, now addressing the circling pelicans. “Ahmed was assessing the data I’d brought back from the water rooms but I haven’t heard from him in weeks.” He coughed, expelling water from his nose. “But he’s busy, and aren’t we all? I am late for my appointment in the corridors. Today they promise to teach me the language of crystalline geometry. I had a taste last week … amazing stuff …so much potential for science…”
The pelicans turned away when they heard the high-pitched chattering and saw the bubble swarms appear. They had learned that such beings offered tasty fish, but ruined the belly.
***
Music Inspiration: Hallucinogen – Gamma Goblins [It’s Turtles All the Way Down mix]. This is very different from the bouncy, scratchy original version. The sample is from an Alan Watts lecture: “Now the dreaming period is subdivided into four stages. The first stage is the longest… and it’s the best… During that stage, the dream is beautiful. The second stage… is not quite so long… and it’s a little unsettling… and there’s an element of instability in it… a certain touch of insecurity… In the third stage which is not… again so long… the forces of light and the forces of darkness of good and of evil are equally balanced..and things are beginning to look rather dangerous. And in the fourth stage, which is the shortest of them all, the negative, dark, or evil side triumphs and the whole thing blows up. And, so, then, there is a waking period before the whole thing starts again.”
Photo: Snooks in Florida, resting in the shade. A bit eerie since they weren’t really moving.
