THE UNIVERSE OF THOUGHT
I shall revert now to Will's experience during that attack upon the
meeting house as he later described it to me. He had been crouching
near Ala. When the hostile shapes burst in, he clung to her. Will was
more alert than I to the conditions of this strange existence. He gave
no thought to a physical violence; he knew it was the mental struggle
which was to be feared; and he kept his mind alert, aggressive to
attack.
Ala too, was of help. He heard her murmuring, "Be very careful. Let no
evil thought-waves engulf us."
A shape whirled up--a leering man. But Will's thoughts were stronger.
The waves clashed with a visible front of conflict; a faint glow of
luminous black, in a very palpable heat. The shape cowered, retreated,
slunk away.
Everywhere the struggle was proceeding. Upon the center ball Ala's
father stood, and with roaring voice and a will more defiant than any
within the globe, he strove to quell the invaders. Beat them back.
Some retreated; some fell, lying crumpled and inert. Dead? We may call
them so. Bodies unharmed. Minds driven into darkness; driven away, to
leave an empty shell behind them. Soon the confusion was over. The
amphitheatre was strewn with mindless bodies; the dead--never to move
again, and others, injured; minds unhinged--irrationally wandering, to
return, some of them, to reach again their accustomed abode.
Ala's father--they called him Thone--found his daughter with Will;
took Will to his home, where for a nameless time they were together,
exchanging friendly thoughts that each might know what manner of world
was his friend's. To Will it was the first rationality of this new
realm. They reclined within a globe of luxurious fittings which gave a
sense of peace, luxury, well-being of the mind, derived by what means
Will could not say. He only was aware that Ala was beside him, her
father facing them.
He had thought of Bee and of me with fear--had wondered where we were,
had wished we were with him. But Thone had told him not to be afraid.
It was so easy to wander. We had not come to harm within the meeting
house. We would presently come back, or if we did not, he would send
out and find us.
The interior of the globe was vaguely luminous. Thone said, "We would
perhaps be more comfortable if we could see outside." He murmured
words--commands spoken aloud; and a shell of the globe in a patch above
them slowly seemed to dissolve--or at least become transparent, so
that they saw through it a vista of the city of globes--a city lying
then in the vertical plane with the black void of darkness to one side.
* * * * *
Thone was a grave man of dominant aspect; eyes from which shone a
power of mind unmistakable. He listened silently while Will tried to
describe our Earthly existence. Occasionally he would question, smiling
his doubts. At last he said, "It seems very queer to have the mind so
enchained by its body."
Then Thone spoke of his own realm. "We Egos--" The word struck upon
Will's consciousness with an aptness startling. Egos! Why, of course.
These were not people. He--himself--was no longer a man; an Ego, little
more.
"We Egos live so different a life. It is nearly all mental. This
body--" He struck himself. "It is negligible."
Soon they were plunged into scientific discussion, for only by an
attempt at comparison in terms of science could Will hope to grasp the
elements of this new material universe. He said so, frankly; and Thone
at once acquiesced.
"I will try," he smiled, "to tell you the essence of all we know
of--shall we call it the construction of this universe of ours? All we
know. My friend, it is only the wise man who knows how little is his
knowledge.
"Our world then is a void of Space and Time. The Space of itself is
Nothingness, illimitable. Yet to our consciousness it has a shape, a
curvature, like this that is around us now." He indicated the hollow
interior of the globe. "To traverse it in a single direction, one
always tends to return."
Will said: "A globular void of Space. I can understand that. But how
big is it?"
"There is no answer to such a question," Thone replied gravely. "To our
material existence, our consciousness, it is a finite area, yet within
it some of us may go further than others. A mind unhinged takes its
body very far--or so we believe--and yet sometimes returns safely. A
mind departed from its physical shell which it then leaves behind--is
gone forever. Yet that too, is illogical, for traversing a curved path
such as ours--however slight may be the curve--one must eventually
return. And out of this we have built a theory that such a mind--or as
we call it, an Ego--untrammeled--will return sometime to take a new
body. But I must not confuse you with mere theories when there is so
much of fact which is confusing enough no doubt."
"That's not confusing," said Will. "We likewise have such a theory--we
call it reincarnation."
Thone went on: "We have then, a void of curved Space. Within it
exist Thoughts; material entities persisting in Space for a length
of Time. Thus Time is brought into our Universe; but not Time as you
have described it to me. Ours, like yours, is the measure of distance
between two or more events. But the distance is very dimly perceived by
our senses."
"Wait," said Will, "Before you discuss Time, let me understand
the other. All your material entities are Thoughts? That is
incomprehensible to me."
Thone deliberated. "I suppose that is natural," he declared at last.
"Your substance--as it appears to you--has a greater solidity than the
substance of your mentality."
* * * * *
It was Will's turn to smile. "The latter, with us, has no substance at
all. The human mind--as distinct from our physical brain--is wholly
intangible. And it is one of the things we know least about."
"Perhaps that is why it seems so unsubstantial," Thone retorted. "At
all events, with us mind-qualities are the basic substance out of which
all matter is built. A variety of qualities, which vary the resultant
product, be it an Ego, or a thing inert, all are from the same
source--a thought."
A Universe built from a Thought! Yet to Will then came the realization
that our realm is of an essence equally unsubstantial--our own
matter--rock, metal, living organisms, what are they of their essence
save a mere vortex, a whirlpool of Nothingness?
A question came to Will; and even as he asked it, he knew its answer.
"Your Universe built from a Thought? Whose thought? You start with
Nothing, yet you presuppose the existence of a Mind to think that
thought."
"A Mind All-Knowing," Thone answered very slowly. "A mind Omniscient.
Have you not spoken of your own belief in such a mind? We call it our
Creator-Mind--as quite literally it is."
Will said, "Of itself; that is not concrete to me who am in a measure
of scientific reasoning."
Thone said warmly, "That is where you of your Earth--as you call
it--are wholly mistaken. And indeed, I begin to see where there is not
so much difference between your world and mine as we suppose. Let us
assume we have the same Creator, his thought to bring us and all that
we call our Universe into being."
"Granted," said Will. "But there the similarity ends. You start with a
Thought? We start--"
"With what?" Thone demanded.
"Scientifically speaking," Will answered lamely, "we have no beginning.
At least, we have not yet been able to explain it."
"We then are more logical than you," Ala put in with a gentle smile.
"Perhaps," agreed Will. "But you cannot connect your Thought with your
Science--or at least you have not, to me as yet."
"But I will," declared Thone. "We take this Thought and find it to be a
vibration of Nothingness. Of what is your basic substance composed?"
"The same," said Will.
"Quite naturally. We are then of a similar origin--constructed only
to a different result. Our substance, in its final state, remains to
our consciousness a vibration of Thought. It is quite tangible. Let me
show you. Touch me--your hand feels me? That is the physical--cohesive
Thought--matter, persisting in Space and Time throughout my existence.
Distinct from that, there is my material--mentality. It also persists
in Space and Time, but to a lesser degree. More transitory. More varied
in its outward qualities, since I can fling out thought--vibrations of
good or ill--of many kinds and types.
"Understand me, my friend. This is Matter of temporary duration which
I can create myself at will. Or--in terms of your own realm, if you
prefer--I can set into vibration, into motion, intangible matter
already existing, and by its very motion bring it to tangibility. Can
you understand that?"
* * * * *
"Yes," agreed Will readily. "And you surprise me with constant
similarities to my own world. We believe our own thoughts to be
vibrations of some substance intangible. And when you speak of
creating an appearance of substance by imparting motion to something
otherwise unsubstantial, that too we see in our world. Water is a
fluid. A stream of water slowly flowing from a pipe offers no solidity
to a blow from a rod of iron. But if that water comes from the pipe
with a swift enough motion, a blow struck against the jet with an iron
bar seems to be repulsed.
"That seems not actually the creation of new matter, but we have
another effect which is this. A tiny rod of steel--a needle the
length of my finger--may hang motionless balanced upon a pivot.
It is a material body which we would call three or four inches
long, by one-hundredth of an inch thick and broad. We set it
swinging--vibrating--whirling in a circle with the pivoted end as the
center. With a swift enough movement that circle is impenetrable. In
effect, out of that needle, we have created a steel disc, one-hundredth
of an inch thick, with a diameter of say eight inches. An area of
material substance hundreds of times greater than the needle--yet the
mass is not increased."
"Quite so," Thone agreed. "Our thought-waves have a mass infinitesimal.
But like your steel disc, they can momentarily become very tangible to
our Ego-senses. A tangibility very different, yet comparable to our
bodies themselves. Less mass, yet more power. Under some circumstances
they may alter an inert substance, as I have made transparent to our
vision that segment of the globe over there, beyond which we see
the city. Or they can enmesh a material organism--your body, for
instance--I had meant to demonstrate that."
He moved away from Will, stood quiet; and about Will he flung his wave
of thoughts, so that Will was drawn irresistibly to him--as Bee and I
were even then enmeshed by Brutar's thought-substance.
Thone laughed. The net of his thoughts dissolved. "You see? It is a
very tangible substance. Yet elusive as well. We understand partially
its uses. Yet only partially. Its nature is varied from a tenuosity
impalpable, to the physical substances which form the entities of
our universe. Like that thing you described as your Light-waves, our
Thought-substance can traverse Space with tremendous velocity. Not
a finite, measurable velocity, as with your Light, but with a speed
infinitely rapid.
"A thought may travel to infinity and back in an instant.
That--understand me--relates only to its most tenuous form, impalpable
to our physical senses--perceived only dimly and only occasionally by a
mind other than that from which it originates. In more solid forms its
velocity is slower. But it is all under control of our Ego-willpower.
Do I confuse you?"
"A little," Will admitted. "I am trying to hold a clear conception of
it all. I understand you have a void of Space. Must it not be filled
with something besides these Thought-entities? Some all-pervading,
impalpable fluid?"
* * * * *
"We do not know," said Thone frankly. "There are emanations from our
immobile organisms. Thus we breathe and eat--the substance of our
bodies is renewed--but of that I shall tell you more at another time.
You were saying--"
Will went on: "This realm then is filled with your material bodies.
This globe we are in--the globes that make your city--the Ego which
is you--and myself--other Egos like us--What holds us where we are?"
He smiled. "I'm groping, I'm trying to say, is there no gravitation?
No gigantic material body holding us where we are: Out there in the
open--" He gestured. "We walked upon something. A surface--a slope.
What is it?"
"You ask me many questions at once," Thone replied quietly.
"Gravitation, as you call it--yes, with us it is the inherent desire
of every particle of thought-matter to cling to its fellows. Thus
everything of substantiality tends to cluster at the center of the
void. Only motion enables it to depart, which is why it must always
move in a curved path--a balancing of the two conflicting forces.
"You question me about some gigantic material substance--like your
Earth. There is none. You asked me upon what you walked out there in
the open. You walked upon the curvature of Space. Upon a false, a mere
semblance of solidity which was the resultant balance of the forces
moving you. This globe--this city--it lies immobile upon a solidity
equally false--immobile because there is nothing to move it."
"I think I understand a little better," Will said slowly. "All force
then, as well as all matter, has its source in the Ego-mind."
"Of course. We create matter, and movement of matter, by our own
volition. We have been originally created by the Divine-thought;
after which we construct and maintain our Universe by Ego-thought of
our own. Inert substance--the mind laboriously creates it; flings
it out, solidifies it, moulds it to our diverse purposes. Living
organisms--the reproduction of the Ego-species--is similarly of our
Ego-mind origin. Yet there is a difference there. For me to reproduce
myself in Ala, the Divine-Thought--the assistance shall I say of the
Great-Creator--again is necessary. We have not been quite able to
fathom why it is so--but it is. There is a difference between an Ego
and a thing inert--a vital something which only the Great-Creator can
supply."
Ala suddenly interrupted; and upon her face I saw fear. "Your
friends--those whom you called Bee and Rob--they are in danger.
She--that girl as you called her--that girl Bee--is sending out
thoughts of danger. I can feel it."
Thone said: "Try, Ala--could you find her? Where has she gone?"
"I don't know. Her thought-matter is streaming back here. I can feel
it--very faintly--but it has reached here. She is with Rob--and there
is Brutar."
Thone was upright, with Will beside him. Will was surging with fear.
"Danger to them? To my sister--to Rob--"
Thone said: "He has entrapped them--Brutar has entrapped them--all
unwary since they do not know how to use these new minds which are
themselves. We must try and get them--Oh, my friend, there is so much
that I would tell you--but another time--not now. For if they are in
danger we must go to them. That Brutar is a Mind very powerful.--"
And out there in the void, Bee and I were being rushed onward. The
shape of Brutar with his leering, triumphant face swept ever before us.
A dark confusion of mental chaos plunged past. Dismembered, leprous
shapes of things, which I thought I saw.
Was this insanity? I felt that evil engulfing net around us--pressing
us--dragging us through the darkness.
Then abruptly the scene clarified. The darkness melted before a
luminosity so blessed I could have cried aloud with the relief of it.
The leprous shapes were gone. Motion stopped; we were at rest, with the
net of Brutar's thoughts dissolving from us. Rationality. Again I could
think things which were not diseased--
I murmured: "We're all right, Bee. You--you are well again?"
"Yes, Oh, yes, Rob. But I'm so frightened."
Brutar stood before us. "I need you--I am fortunate to have you here.
You whom they call Rob--with your knowledge of that Earth-place you can
be of great help to me."
He swung toward Bee. "You whom they call a girl--" His twisted look was
horrible. "I am glad to have you. We shall go to your Earth together--I
welcome you both to this place where we are preparing for our great
Earthly conquest."
He led us down a slope, into the strange activities of his encampment.