The Flex of the Thumb by James Bennett Read Free Book Online

terraced pyramid with urban flavor somehow, but so indistinct in its definition as if it sat behind a scrim. It was an image which repeated itself from time to time in his elliptical brain like a dream, only lacking even the de facto sequencing of a dream.
    On his way back to consciousness, Vano surfaced by way of an intense telepathic journey through time and space. He was zooming through the universe. It may have lasted only a few moments, but since time was suspended, it seemed like a lengthy event. He was passing at incredible speed through a zone of laser beams and particles of light.
    At first there seemed to be no pattern to the twinkling. There was nothing beneath his feet that he could see, yet he felt himself supported somehow. He found himself in a chamber of sorts where light patterns suggested walls, then quickly vanished. Coalitions of light points defined the presence of evanescent human-like shapes.
    Vano heard a voice: “Welcome.” The voice seemed to have as its source one of the shapes, but the shapes twinkled in and out, and not always in the same spot.
    The voice spoke again: “You will know us as particle people. That is not a name we use, but earth humanoids, dwelling in the ego mode, are usually comforted by a system of labeling.” The diction was so clean and firm. Vano thought the voice sounded like the radio announcer on the midnight to six A.M. shift. Each of the particle people had an occasional head region, but nothing resembling a mouth. He couldn’t tell which of the particle people was speaking at any given moment.
    The particle voice continued by saying, “Our way of life is the way of complete harmony with the ebb and flow of the universe. We are able to reduce ourselves to the billions of atomic particles of which we, like all matter, are constituted. In this diffuse state, we float through the universe as particle dust, each atomic particle a microcosm of the total organism. We live in concord with the entire span of the electromagnetic spectrum. When there may be cause, we are able to reconvene our atomic particles, so to speak, in a sort of committee of the whole. It is then that we assume these humanoid forms. Now you understand the fundamental principle of particle mode existence.”
    Vano Lucas wasn’t sure he understood anything. He could see countless stars in all directions. He could see nothing when he looked down, yet he still felt something firm underfoot. The walls, though transparent, were visible from time to time, just like the particle humanoids themselves. He wondered how he got here, and what he was doing here.
    â€œYou are here because the vibrations you have known from time to time have led you to the threshold of hooommm, if only on a superficial plane. You have the capacity, or so we believe, to go beyond.”
    Hooommm ? Vano wondered. Since they were able to know his thoughts, it occurred to him that the particle people might be God.
    The particle voice seemed to reside in his brain as well as without: “We are not God. We can know your thoughts because we are blended with the whole electromagnetic spectrum. Dwellers on Earth are fond of imagining a huge creature like themselves, who lives in the sky. They call this imaginary creature God. It is a predictable and, in some respects, necessary compensation because the way of life for humanoids on Earth is the ego mode. It includes only a very tiny fraction of the spectrum. There is no self but the ego, and very little freedom from the demands made by this self. The energy needed to maintain the ego mode is its own support system. Now you understand the fundamental principle of ego mode existence.”
    But Vano’s head was swimming. It was plain to him that he was hearing only parts of what the particle people were telling him, and his understanding of what he did hear was so limited.
    â€œDo not worry,” the particle voice instructed him. “Everything we are telling