The Essence Of Life

seek him out and try tactfully to broach the subject. However, before I could do so it was in fact Arthur who came to see me, barely able to conceal his excitement; a big smile on his face.

  "You're looking very pleased with yourself." I told him."

  "I am indeed," he responded. "Progress has been excellent and it is entirely due to your advice. It has proved successful beyond all belief. I not only acquired the EEG apparatus but I managed to persuade one of the departmental technicians to come and help me assemble it. An excellent chap called Roger Williams. We set it up and I put the web of electrodes and sensors over my head. I made my usual attempt to delve into the collective unconscious while Roger monitored the signals on the instrument panel and the result was clear evidence of enhanced neural activity in the hypothalamus and cerebellum of a very unusual nature."

  "That sounds a most encouraging start," I told him. "But can you link these phenomena to any of sensory inputs you were experiencing?"

  Arthur laughed and waved a hand dismissively. "I have pushed on much further than that," he told me, "and Roger was instrumental in making a most astonishing breakthrough. It would seem that he is a bit of a whizz at electronics. As you know the EEG headset picks up the electrical impulses from the brain's activity and converts them into waveforms which are simply printed out as a continuous graph. Roger had the brilliant idea of feeding them into an amplifier instead, filtering out those associated with normal neural emanations and then feeding the result back through an additional set of electrodes into my brain to form a positive feedback loop. At first the effects were bewildering and I experienced an acute sensation of disorientation, but once I overcame this confusion and learned how to handle the flow of information I found myself in contact with and adsorbed into the realm of what I had believed to be my goal of the Collective Unconsciousness."

  I threw up my hands in amazement. "This sounds an incredible demonstration of your theory," I told him. "But you say it was what you 'had believed.' Does this mean you have changed your views?"

  "I am going to tell you just what it is I have discovered," he told me, "but you must promise me that for the time being you will reveal it to no one else whatsoever. It is something so shattering, so far beyond anything which has been contemplated in the field of human knowledge that it will have the most incredible implications for everything which hitherto we have believed to be true about our nature and existence."

  I must admit that by now I was beginning to have serious concerns regarding Arthur's mental state. I knew his preoccupation with the project had become an obsession and I feared that in some way he might be becoming delusional. I decided to humour him and gave him every assurance that his revelations would go no further.

  "Let me begin," Arthur started, "by considering just what it is that we mean by life. It is the consensus of modern thought that in some way life started some 3.5 billion years ago when somehow simple organic molecules in the primeval ocean, perhaps aided by the energy from some undersea volcanic vent, reacted together to form more complex molecules; amino acids, polypeptides, proteins and so on and then over millions of years these not only became even more stable complexes but somehow developed the ability to replicate themselves. These as you will of course know were initially the ribonucleic acids, RNA, which in turn directed the formation of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, which is the building block of all living things, of all life as we know it.

  I shrugged. "Theological arguments aside, this is the commonly accepted view," I agreed, "but how does this fit in with you own work?"

  "Think," he replied, "at just what point would you say that these organic complexes could be defined as being living organisms? At the point when replication of what were essentially highly complex molecules began? When they devised (for want of a better word) the means of secreting themselves inside semi permeable membranes? Or when the first cell division occurred? At what point were they imbued with, to coin a phrase, the breath of life?"

  I shook my head in bewilderment. "I really don't know," I said, "it's something I have wondered about but to which I must confess I haven't really given a great deal of thought."

  "Well look at it this way," Arthur continued, "it would seem to be at the point where the utilisation of energy became involved in a process by which growth of some form or another occurs which then results in the release of some of that energy into the environment. In the short term this is illustrated by the processes of ingestion, development and growth but in the longer term I would suggest that over the span of existence of an organism, however simple, however complex, there is an input both at its genesis and during its growth and then a corresponding output at the instance that it ceases to be.

  "This is all very interesting from a philosophical point of view," I told him, "but what on earth has it to do with your findings?"

  "It's the most incredible thing that you could possibly imagine," he replied. "My idea of an underlying Collective Unconsciousness is the merest pale shadow of the truth. Aided by Roger's enhanced EEG apparatus I can project myself into a realm which I can only described as the very essence of life itself, all-pervasive, co-existent with our own but hitherto only feebly glimpsed by a few particularly gifted individuals. How it came about I can only guess. Whether it was some mysterious energy, implicit in the inherent rules of chemistry and physics which operate in this universe, some manifestation of the underlying dark energy which permeates everything, pre-existing the dawn of life and the instrument of its genesis or whether it came into being simply as a byproduct of surplus energy from the interaction of those primeval organic complexes I simply don't know but in some way it is the fundamental energy balance which underpins all life. At the moment of inception an injection of this life force infuses the new organism. As it grows it draws more essence into its being and then at the point of death this quintessence passes back to its source.

  Arthur must have read from my expression that I found this too much to believe.

  "I assure you I have not lost possession of my senses," he assured me. "I know it is almost impossible to believe, but it is true. There is more," he continued. "As I explored this state of existence I could detect the transient presence of other minds. As I became more experienced in interpreting these sensations I realised that they were the residual consciousnesses of the newly deceased. It is in some way akin to the effect of dropping an ice cube into warm water. The spirit or soul, call it what you may, retains its shape for a little while but slowly disintegrates until it is indistinguishable from its surroundings. During this process I can establish just a brief contact and thereby discern a little of their history. The transitional period seems to be determined by what I can only described as their strength of self-awareness. Those with a strong belief in their own individuality seem to last longer. Don't you see! This is the explanation why those mediums who have some form of genuine ability seem able to attain a degree of contact with the dead. In addition I have had glimpses of a few who, because of mental derangement apparently exist for quite a prolonged period and may thus provide a basis for the existence of what are popularly described as ghosts and similar psychic manifestations."

  I struggled to collect my thoughts and make sense of what he was saying. I must admit that hitherto I had always taken a very mechanistic view of life. That all living things had derived and evolved from increasingly complex chemicals was something which I accepted without the need to invoke any higher order of being or to involve any consideration of the arcane or occult. What Arthur was now describing introduced an entirely new dimension to all current philosophical thinking.

  "Are you sure that what you are suggesting is an actual reality and not some artifact of your subconscious?" I asked him.

  "I know that this is difficult to accept," he replied, "but yes, there is no doubt in my mind that it is true and real. I am determined to press on and produce some incontrovertible proof of its existence. If possible I shall make co
ntact with the newly dead and learn from them something only they and their closest friends or relatives would know and then by revealing this information I will be able to establish the validity of my claims."

  His suggestion shocked me deeply and I prompted him to consider the moral and ethical implications of his proposal.

  He shrugged. "Such paltry considerations must be ignored. This is a discovery of such incredible proportions that such objections cannot be seriously considered. I shall prove my findings and publish them, come what may."

  "Have you really thought through what will happen if you do?" I asked him. "What on earth do you think the effect will be on all those whose faith sustains them with a belief in an afterlife?"

  I had always found Arthur to be a rather pleasant chap, unassuming and mild, now he had become arrogant and uncaring. His answer displayed a new and unpleasant change in his character and evidenced a cynical disregard for any possible social repercussions. “I have no concerns in that regard,” he replied. “I guess that those who believe themselves destined for an eternity of heavenly bliss will be disappointed, while those who think themselves likely to feel the