After all, putting myself through the EDELIAL EXPERIENCE hasn’t been as bad as I expected.
I was curious and I wanted to understand what this project was about.
To be in the great link of consciences has been an unforgettable experience; a unique and pleasant sensation; a constant symbiosis with numerous other consciences; an incessant flow of blue auras that disassembled and reassembled in new forms, consciences, essences. A true rebirth. Now I feel myself strengthened, a new man. I don’t remember how I felt before, who I was before. It doesn’t matter anymore because my aura is now full of thousands of others and it has joined the link of consciences.
Maybe it’s not me speaking, maybe the conscience of someone else is speaking through me.
I realize I am a lot of people. In my mind new memories surface, the memories of someone else that now make me feel strong. I have the feeling that I’ve had a lot of different experiences but the truth is that I’ve always lived in the same small country village and never moved more than a few miles.
I am barely eighteen and yet I remember having my 40th birthday, or, more accurately, the memory of someone else is so clear in my mind, it feels like it was my own birthday.
Or maybe none of this is true.
After all, how can I know if I truly joined EDELIAL EXPERIENCE?
Is this my memory?
Is this my body?
Or is this the body of somebody else that completed the process?
I don’t remember my appearance before the process.
I remember I was a woman and I also remember I was a man.
Then, suddenly I hear it, an alarm sounds in my room louder and louder.
I can’t stop it.
I look around and I see the walls and ceiling bending; it seems like a perfect cycloid.
I can’t understand.
I’m feeling more and more tired and the alarm doesn’t stop.
I fall to the ground to try not to lose balance.
I hear some distant voices and I am slowly losing sight.
I feel like I’m carried away, my room is floating.
I am floating.
I am becoming one with the room.
It’s dark.
I feel better, I am relieved and it is pleasant.
And here is a flash.
I wake up on the ground of a living room and I slowly stand up.
The sofa, the carpet, the kitchen, the bed; everything is so familiar.
I have the impression I have been living here for many years.
I’m walking through the corridors of the house when I find myself in front of a man.
He is familiar to me, too. I must have seen him somewhere, I recognize the EBAC logo printed in his right arm.
He is an EB.
An EB is an empty body. A man who can’t complete EDELIAL EXPERIENCE is firstly emptied of conscience and memory and then sent to EBAC (EB Archive Center) in order to be correctly stored in hibernation and then sold with some work software installed in him. This EB probably takes care of the house cleaning on account of that holographic broom that he’s holding.
He greets me and says: “Good morning Mr. Reed, I just terminated my cleaning cycle nr. 168. With your permission, I shall retire to the artificial bio-livelihood room”.
I know that voice and yet I don’t remember whom it belongs to.
I am frightened.
As he heads towards his room, his arm makes a sudden and unnatural move that makes him lose the grip of the broom.
He picks it up unresponsively and moves forward towards his room.
I ask him what happened and he answers: “I often make moves or say things involuntarily. I am a new EB model and I’m permanently connected to a remote control system; I can be remote-controlled.
For the last few weeks I have been having stability problems; it seems someone is hacking my system."
I nod my head and I don’t answer him. I keep thinking about that name, Reed.
Who is Reed?
I am John Sandman.
I look for a mirror and I realize I have a completely different appearance.
Perhaps it is Mr. Reed’s appearance.
I’m not feeling well.
Here is that alarm again, 1KHz resounding louder and louder.
I fall to the ground and I find myself face down.
I open my eyes again and I realize I have gone back to my room.
Actually it seems to be my room, same colour and dimensions, but the window is placed on the opposite wall.
What happened to me?
Perhaps being in the link of consciences leads to these interconnected “jumps of consciences."
It seems that the people who have an improved conscience thanks to EDELIAL EXPERIENCE, like me, are in a kind of remote symbiosis.
For instance, somebody now completes the process and acquires a bit of my conscience from the link.
Someone opens the bedroom door.
It’s Mr. Reed!
He enters and says he just bought me. I am his now and he wants me to follow him.
I don’t believe in his words, there must be some mistake.
I, John Sandman, can’t be an EB.
EBs don’t think, they don’t understand. EBs are just programmed softwares.
From my mouth, almost unconsciously, come the words: “I am John Sandman.” But Mr. Reed promptly answers back: “That's incorrect; you only have the body of John Sandman. You are an EB now. From now on, you will work for me."
I am and have always been John Sandman.
Mr. Reed approaches, he put his hand on my back and brings me to the exit.
We head towards his car.
Right before he opens the car door Mr. Reed staggers and he says: “Make it stop! Please!" as he covers his ears. Then he falls to the ground and passes out.
Something’s activated in me.
Unintentionally I immediately start the first aid procedure, an operation that I have never been able to do. I’m scared to know that my body does actions regardless of my will. This had never happened before.
After several attempts, he wakes up.
He slowly stands up and he stares at me.
He seems confused and strange.
He says: “Can you help me stand up? I have to pick up my new EB today. Do you happen to know who should I speak to?"
I answer him: “I think you’re looking for me, you just picked me up from EBAC and while we were walking to your car, you suddenly fainted. I brought you back Mr. Reed! Even if I had never done the first aid procedure before, I think I unconsciously conducted it very well. It seems that the new EB models, like me, have a lot of additional abilities."
Mr. Reed replies confusedly: “Sorry, what did you call me? Mr. Reed? Who’s this Mr. Reed? I’m Mr. Sandman. John Sandman."