The aliens in his room had to have been hypnagogic hallucinations. Terah would say nothing about them. He couldn’t even envision himself mouthing the words. Long years of doling out the ridicule response to the idea didn’t dissipate, even when he himself had experienced their presence. Already his observation of the wee people in the woods had evolved to a lucid dream state brought on by deprivation. The supernatural wasn’t real.
“So what do you know about this pandemic?” It seemed a safer topic.
“It’s a new strain of the Spanish Influenza. There’s no vaccine yet. Some are classifying it as a ‘superbug’ because it evolves so fast. The belief in isolationism kept many Americans from thinking it could spread here, but inevitably it did. Now, slowly, they’ve begun to take measures to isolate individuals. You’ve been avoiding populations at the right time, it seems.”
“Doesn’t the science involved here complicate your worldview?” The question was out before Terah could stop it. If Calum was offended he showed no sign of it.
“Science is a very effective way of knowing the physical part of the world. We ignore it to our peril. The earliest civilizations had science, you know. While some would quibble and say the pyramids of Egypt are engineering, they involve the understanding of science. Have you heard of the Bent Pyramid of Dahshur, south of Cairo? It begins at a 54-degree angle and then it suddenly shifts to 43 degrees. The Egyptians had been making stepped pyramids for ages, so why this sudden, massive mistake? Scientists have calculated that had they continued at the 54-degree angle the pyramid would’ve been so massive that the huge blocks of stone would have acted as liquid under the weight. No, they wouldn’t have melted, but they would’ve flowed, behaving like a fluid. Egyptians at 2500 BCE knew that they had to change the angle or face disaster. That’s science.
“Or consider even metal smelting. The recognition that zinc or tin added to copper would make a much harder metal called bronze. Perhaps it was an accidental discovery, or perhaps it was experimentation. From what we know of ancient life, it was probably discovered by women, by the way. They were the ones who kept the home fires burning.
“In any case, science is a method, not a proper belief structure. I don’t think pandemics are guided by supernatural forces. More by human ignorance. People don’t wash their hands enough. We touch things indiscriminately and spread germs all the time. When a deadly one gets in the mix we have to change our lax behavior. It’s difficult to do. This strain of flu has a 20 percent mortality rate.”
“Twenty percent? That’s astronomical!”
“That’s why you don’t see so many people out and about. Living off the grid, I suppose, you didn’t see any changes. Here it’s been the leading news story for a solid month. Much of the country’s on lockdown.”
“And you’re safe here?”
Lindsay spoke up. “There’s nowhere safer than with Calum. I’d stake my life on it. He took care of me after the lightnin’ strike.”
“You’d probably be safe if you kept wandering in the woods, but it’s the foraging for food that worries me. You’d likely encounter the virus, that is, if you found stores open. You’re welcome to stay here. Kjell’s here on an extended tutorial. He’s the only other person who’s been in the house since the pandemic began. Unless you’re already infected, there’s virtually no chance of getting the virus here.”
Terah glanced around the stone circle. This man was dedicated to his craft. “Lindsey’s probably told you a bit about me.”
“A bit. You’ve got a doctorate in religious studies, and from Edinburgh, no less. You’re a good provider and you’ve got some suspicion over the death of your partner. Don’t worry, you won’t be found here. The real problem will be adding to your already substantial training. I know that earning a doctorate changes the way you think. My methods may seem crude to you, but the sources in my library will explain much. I am skeptical. Your raised eyebrows are no surprise.”
“How can you be skeptical if you believe in the supernatural?”
“Belief in any one thing has nothing to do with skepticism. You see, belief in the supernatural is uncritical only if you believe it because it was in some way revealed to you, or if you accept it just because some church authority told you to. Me? I was an atheist. I was a commodities trader, after all. I didn’t have anything revealed to me and I didn’t get converted. I started examining what we know in a Socratic way—asking questions and then asking more questions. When you do that with scientism you’ll discover that the dismissal of the supernatural is because we haven’t devised material ways to measure the immaterial. You’ve heard of quantum entanglement? It’s just the tip of the iceberg. Scientism limits what it can discover. Science—the scientific method—can be applied to the supernatural. You’ve just got to keep an open mind.”
“Scientists have open minds.”
“Somewhat. Yes. I have no problem with science. It’s the dismissal of evidence that bothers me. I understand that sweeping anomalous results off the table is necessary for developing theories. The problem is when those results are kept off the table and never revisited. Some of them have proven themselves statistically significant but are simply treated with the ridicule response.”
Terah shook his head. “Why would scientists dismiss data?”
“Let me conduct a little test. What do you think of ESP? That smirk already tells me something.”
“What? Are you going to tell me Extrasensory Perception is real?”
“Why do you suppose you automatically dismiss it?”
“Psychics. Hoaxers. For entertainment purposes only.”
“Did you know that both Duke University and Princeton had departments that studied ESP and both determined that results, although limited, were statistically significant? Two major universities. Scientism wasn’t happy when its orthodoxy was challenged. These programs were shut down. The results are still available. They’re peer reviewed. They’ve been shoved off the table and haven’t been reconsidered. Most people think of Dr. Venkman and his faking data at a fictional Columbia to get laid. They laugh. It’s all a joke.”
“You’re serious?”
“Think more broadly. We should probably head to the library for the next part. I only ask that you keep an open mind.”
Terah looked to Lindsey. The expression on her face was utterly serious. Showered and in clean clothes, she was even more enticing than she had been all along. If she believed…
“At my own risk,” Calum said as he closed the library door, “let me introduce a subject you’re sure to laugh at.”
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