K. Marvin Bruce

  “I thought you said she was safe from Wednesday here!” Terah was frantic. “I said probably,” Calum sighed.   “There’s something afoot.   That much is clear.” “How do we find her?” Calum turned to face the younger man.   “I’m not sure that we can.” Real panic hit Terah now.   Having been with Lindsey so long he couldn’t face this homeless life without her.   He simply couldn’t imagine it.   “Why not?   What about your library?” “You’ve got to understand.   The supernatural is beyond human control.   I’ve got books on all kinds of supernatural subjects, including missing persons and remote viewing.   Missing persons are seldom found—some of them may have been taken elsewhere.   Remote viewing only works when an adept has a target, a place.   If your psychic connection with her is strong enough, you might be able to reach her somehow.   Otherwise we’ve got an entire world—perhaps even universe—in which to look.   ...

  “It’s Wednesday!   It must be!” Lindsey was levitating. “No,” Calum calmed.   “There have been saints who levitate too.   This is for your benefit.” “But it’s against the laws of physics!” “Are scientific laws called laws because they can’t be broken or are they simply made up by human beings to describe what they see?” “Then why haven’t scientists described this?” “There have been many, many documented cases.   One guess how scientism responds.” “Ridicule reaction?” “Yes, you’re beginning to understand.   Lindsey is a focal agent in a way that we’ve never seen.” Terah watched her hover two feet above the table.   Her eyes were closed.   She seemed perfectly relaxed, but not asleep.   Hovering might not have been the right word.   She didn’t bob and undulate on the air.   It was more like a David Copperfield magic trick, as if she sat on a flat surface.   Embarrassed at doing so, he looked to see if her jean bottoms were flat...

  The eerie feeling of that night in Boston for the American Academy of Religion meeting settled over the library.   The mystery of possibility hung like an invisible fog in the room.   Parker Yaffle had been one of the most respected Harvard scholars ever, right up there with William James.   This uncredentialed, independently wealthy man had a private academic arrangement with Yaffle, earning the equivalent of a doctorate from him.   Terah had often spied Yaffle at a distance at the Academy conference.   He was always surrounded by the big names in the field and it was impossible to get close enough to introduce yourself.   Terah had been snubbed by lesser academics who thought highly of themselves, and once, when the meeting was held in a rainy Chicago, he was standing outside the McCormick center for a moment when Yaffle had come out without a gaggle of followers.   He’d held out a hand to introduce himself, but the academic lackeys quickly ap...

  “What’s matter made of?” “Atoms.   Protons, neutrons, electrons.” “And what are they made of?” “Well, the protons and neutrons are made of quarks.   Electrons are energy.” “And what are quarks made of?” “Depends on the theory.” Calum nodded.   “String theory, which looks pretty promising, says energy.   Strings of vibrating energy.   If that’s correct, everything is energy.” “I’m with you.” “There are many sources of energy, of course.   Fossil fuels, natural processes like winds and waves, solar and nuclear.   All of them derive from the sun, ultimately.   All living beings require energy.   We get it from eating.   We expend it by exercising.   I’m sure Lindsey won’t mind if I discuss sexual energy.” Terah flushed and put his hand to his face.   He was glad he’d decided not to shave his beard. “The orgone, or life force, was first explored by Wilhelm Reich in the 1930s.   The main work was carried on by his studen...

  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 compli...

  It was like Stonehenge.   Terah found himself in shock.   After everything he’d experienced, he’d not been prepared for this.   “Stone circles,” Calum said on their short walk through the woods to the clearing, “have an ancient pedigree.   Stonehenge and Avebury are the most famous, but you find them all over the world.   Up in the Orkney Islands the Ring of Brodgar is in impressive sight, standing out alone on Stenness.   People don’t hear about it because it takes considerable effort to get there, but once you’ve seen it—felt it—you’ll know that these stone circles were numinous places.   We don’t know why they built them, but the put considerable resources into doing so. “Or think of Göbekli Tepe.   At least ten millennia old, and fine work indeed.   And it was built in Turkey before agriculture even developed.   There are stone circles in Israel.   In northwest France.   They’re likely to be found in other locations ...