The mysterious stranger was forcibly guided into the doctor's
office by two strong-armed attendents in white
uniforms. He was deposited (dumped might be a better word) into a huge
leather arm chair in front of the desk. He had
an odd steady gaze that seemed to look right through the doctor.
The doctor furtively looked at his notes about this particular
case. The stranger apparently gave no name and he
had no identification on him. He was found wandering in the streets by
the city police doing nothing. He was arrested for
loitering. Then, his extreme silence and occasional enigmatic comments
made them come to the conclusion that he was
mentally ill. Thus, he was transferred here.
Nevertheless, the doctor attempted: "You were found in
the streets with no identification. Would you mind telling
me your name?"
The stranger grinned weirdly at him and replied: "I have
no name. But if it would make you feel better, you may
refer to me as Agent X."
"Hmmm, Agent X, eh? And who are you an agent for?"
"I am here to transform the evolution of your species."
This one is definitely strange, thought the doctor. "And
why do you want to transform our species? And what
species do you represent, if I may inquire?"
"Well, let us put it this way. I am a mutant. I do not
perceive the world quite like you do and my thinking
processes are radically different. We are born into your world from time
to time. Many of us become artists, musicians, or
writers. Many of us are scientists or inventors. Not a few of us become
mystics or spiritual teachers. In more primitive
cultures, we may have been the shamans or witch doctors.
"The one thing that sets us apart is we have the ability
to think or invent in highly original ways. Such ways are not
often understood during the duration of our lifetimes. Then, ironically,
we become revered after our deaths."
"Ah, you seem to be a rather intelligent man. If you are
what you say you are, then why are you not doing one of
these things you say you might be doing?"
"I see I can at least confide in you, even though it is
obvious you are trained to perceive me and my kind as insane,"
said the man..
"You see, sir, there is a downside to our existence. Not
a few times, we will be so original that we are regarded as
heretics, then tortured or killed. Or we will be completely disregarded,
a rather painful ordeal. Finally, we will be
considered demon-possessed in more ancient times or insane in your own
time, locked up 'for our own good'."
"I wonder, Agent X, if you could give me a demonstration
of these marvelous thinking powers of yours."
"Very well, good doctor, even though I realize you will
be taking avid notes towards the aim of diagnosing me in
one of your mythic categories of madness. I know you have your sacred
book of categories on your shelf behind you
which you and your fellow doctors consider it heresy to contradict for
fear of losing your rather lucrative position. Here
goes:
(The unknown stranger got up and put his hand on the doctor's
desk, an action which made the doctor rather
uncomfortable and begin reaching for the phone to call in the attendents.)
"Do not worry, poor stressed man, I have no intentions
to hurt you or put you out of your misery. My kind has
transcended such primitive behavior, unlike your own...
"Do you see this object I have my hand on. What do you
call this?"
(The doctor, streams of sweat coming down his face): "Why
we refer to this as a desk, do we not?"
(The stranger, grinning enigmatically): "I suppose that
is what your kind speaking your particular language would
call it. That makes it so simple, does it not, to limit the totality of
this object to just a mere 'desk'.
"But consider this, dear doctor, this supposedly complete
object you call a 'desk' is so much more if you could
examine it with an electron microscope. You would then perceive a vast
array of writhing electrons and atomic nuclei. If
you could squint further, you would perceive quarks and stranger matter
than you could imagine in your wildest dreams.
You would see entire universes in the microcosm. You would be unable to
perceive where the desk ends and where the
surrounding air and various objects on it begin."
"Agent X," the doctor interrupted impatiently. "This
is fine in imagination. You simply quote the knowledge of
physicists of our time. I do not see anything original about your line
of thinking at all. I still say it's a desk."
"Doctor," the stranger grinned as though he'd won
a grand sweepstakes. "I do not imagine this that I have told you.
I see it!"
(The doctor's actual thought was, "Aww, give me a break!"
as he professionally replied:) "You have quite vivid
perception."
"Yes, I do. And furthermore, I see how everything is interconnected
with everything else. I can see into the
interior of things and perceive what we might call a Primal Substance,
which mystics of Western persuasions have called
'God' and mystics of Eastern persuasions have called 'Void'."
"I believe you. But, Agent X, I do not see how you can
possibly function this way. If you cannot perceive the
separability of things, how can you manipulate things in a reasonable way?"
"That is the difference between you and me. I have no
interest at all in what you call 'functioning', a mode which
you regard as sacred as primitives worshipping their demonic totems. Do
you want to know my own word for
'functioning': automatic conditioned behavior. You and your kind are
basically automatons. You relate to one another in a
highly automatic way and you manipulate your world in an automatic way.
You rarely, if ever, have any real consciousness
of what you do. You and your fellow men are sleepwalkers. To me, to 'function'
is to be deep asleep. Snore away,
doctor, and do your repetitious behavior.
"Tell me something, doctor, why are you in this line of
work anyway?"
(The doctor was beginning to really look forward to his vacation.
Maybe it's time for a sabattical to write that
book about behavior modification.)
"Well, let's see, at first I wanted to figure myself out,
then I chose to figure out why it is that others become what
they do."
"And have you ever figured out the answers to those questions?"
"No, not really, the human mind is still quite a mystery
to us. But we have faith that we can know someone with
enough analysis."
"Maybe you do what you do because it is more comfortable
to simply do what others around you do and imitate
their thoughts and actions. Have you ever noticed how when there is an
open voting in a meeting, everyone looks around
at what their fellows are doing before they all raise their hands or say
'aye' together. Or people automaticlly imitate the
same fashion. I have constantly been amused at observing this kind of
behavior.
"Let me tell you something doctor. What you see before
you is a forerunner to what the next human species will
be. Mutants such as us are to you as Neanderthal man was to Australopithecus
man. Initially, we were killed off, but just
enough of us survived, and with greater brain power, we became the new
race.
"Now, I am becoming rather bored with talking with idiots
such as you. I know you will try to control me by your
silly psychotherapeutic methods, but you see, you won't succeed. You will
merely alter my outward appearance.
However, you cannot touch my spirit, another level you are too obtuse to
perceive. That will be reborn in another form.
You see, we are at a stage where we can consciously affect our own evolution
rather than wait for random mutations as
was the procedure in the past."
"We will do all we can for you, Agent X," said the
doctor as he buzzed the attendants in to take him away to his
solitary room.
When he was gone, the doctor quickly grabbed his well-thumbed
DSM-IV off his shelf and studied it for a few
moments. On a piece of paper he wrote:
"Strong manic schizoid tendencies. Clear delusions of
grandeur. Give forced doses of phenothiazines, possibly
antidepressents. Behavior modification definitely indicated. Consider
for shock treatments and neurosurgery if none of
above work."