don't have a name. cacophony society, somebody said once, that stuck for a while. you know, like too many voices in our heads? i think it's too melodramatic. how about "fellow sufferers?" vivian comes in from the kitchen with two big gallon jugs of orange juice. there are aaaahs1 of appreciation.
no, herman, you're a freak. "mutants" is a better word for the rest of us. he pulls 'ip a chair and sits down opposite tom. on the other side of tie room, vivian and beverly tell an animated two-part story to he teenage girl and the homey, finishing each others' se. .tences . neil like any other part of our body, our brains have evolved a lot in a hundred thousand years. our first thoughts were formless. struggling consciousness. sensation. an instinctive tie to our environment. but then our brains began to focus. we sacrificed the intuitions we first had so our thoughts could be directed, so we could master specific functions. that's where we are at the moment. we're brilliant with technique, but we've given up instinct. so the next evolutionary step, the step yet to come, or perhaps it's already in the making, is actually backward. to maintain our higher functions, but reawaken the part of our brain that was pure intuition. that was receptive to anything, because it didn't know enough not to believe. you're a freak of nature, pal, an evolutionary step. you're double- jointed. up here.
hardly. i've heard of groups like ours in san francisco, new york, minneapolis -- those are just the cities i've been to. tom, you're what they used to call a medium. you're like a man in a dark tunnel with a flashlight, but the light only goes on once in a while. when it flickers on, you get a glimpse of something, but not enough of a glimpse to know what it is. just enough to know it's there.
the ncxt generation. much better flashlight.
it is. a lotta people know. unfortunately, the easiest people to convince, the believer types, they also tend to be the dumbest. and people who demand proof -- well, this isn't something we can control, it comes when it comes, so if you can't make it happen, how can you prove it? it's like that singing frog in the cartoon, but when the guy puts it on stage it just croaks and he looks like a jerk. herman laughs, horribly. he likes that cartoon. neil some of us try anyway. i say who needs that kind of aggravation?
first time i've heard that one. it comes all different ways. sometimes it goes the same way it came.
for some people. don't look for rules. we're off the map here.
they always do. something they need finished, something they can't do any more.
because she's confused. doesn't know why other people won't answer her. she only knows that you will. if she hasn't asked for something yet, she will. and once they ask, it's very difficult to stop yourself from doing it.
oh, no. you'll want to. badly. you won't think about anything else. you won't sleep. you won't eat. you'll lie. and god help anyone who tries to stop you.
just listen to her, tom let her tell you what she wants.