Chapter 6
The electrodes are connected to our temples, to our forehead, to our wrists, and to our chest. We’ve set the machine to operate in automatic mode, and the switch will trigger in one and a half minute from now. We look at the timer count down, and we sit immobile, thrilled and scared.
When there are only ten seconds left to go, Arthur turns my way and asks, “Are you sure?”
There’s no turning back now. I nod, my heart pounding.
Then the switch triggers, and I sense something huge elate inside me, like an explosion, an immense ball of darkness expanding into blinding light.
It might tear me to pieces, efface my identity, and yet exhilaration is what I feel. I keep my eyes wide open, fascinated by my own evolution.
I float in a white immensity for an undetermined time. I am everything and nothing in this domain of infinite possibilities.
Then I sense my body gain weight, materialize, and recompose itself into a defined form. I perceive my own fall. The noiseless whiteness channels itself in a narrowing tunnel, the light turns into darkness and the silence into noise. I condense into a black dot of unbearable loudness, and jerk awake astounded at my own material existence.
I have a body and five senses, the same way I used to.
I see a broad extent of water.
I smell salt, and I taste it in my mouth.
I touch the moisture of what must be sand, based on its grainy texture.
I hear the waves sloshing rhythmically and I hear a voice, Arthur voice, calling my name.
“Iris…Iris, where are we?” he asks
I get up slowly and, at a distance, I see a monastery.