SS: Parallel Reasoning

It was a summer day just like any other. London, gripped in a late-summer heatwave, baked while its inhabitants went about their daily business. On leave from Oxford for the season, I sat in my usual spot on the stone bench, trying to see past reality.

I know that sounds funny, but let me try to explain. There's the plane of reality that we normally see, and that we exist on. All of our daily actions interact with this plane, and our five main senses observe it. Most people will only see this plane. Some will get glimpses of other planes – or dimensions, if you prefer – during waking existence, but most will never see the other realms that exist behind and around our own except in dreams.

Lucid dreaming – being able to recognize and control your own dreams – has long been practiced, but perfection has yet to be obtained. I believe that if I can induce a dream state in myself at midday, while I'm conscious, I will be able to project my consciousness into this parallel dream reality. That is, if the cops don't toss me in the looney bin before I make it.

Speaking of asylums, another aspect of reality that I've been thinking long and hard about is it's power to drive someone mad. Perhaps people aren't born mad, or predestined to go down that path, but they become so due to witnessing something they shouldn't. If you think about it, our entire existence is based on the assumption that our perception of the world accurately describes reality. But, if that assumption is false, everything you've built your life around will turn out to be a lie. Quite shocking, I'd imagine.

So, there's a chance I'll be driven mad, I'll accept that risk. I've spent the past three years of my life studying the philosophy and religion of the world, and I believe this is the secret to enlightenment. Maybe going the whole way isn't the best thing to do, but if I can just get a glimpse of the worlds behind the metaphorical curtain, that will be enough.

I was trying something new. Before, I'd been trying a variety of mental and chemical methods to put myself in a dream-like state, with no success. Today, the process I was trying involved looking through the world. In theory, it was similar to the 3-D picture tricks that are printed on postcards for children to play with. You know, the ones where you see only a psychadelic picture no matter how hard you look at it, but then you finally manage to look through it, and the picture snaps into your head. I hypothesized that the dream state was like that, where as you were sleeping you mentally snapped into the other world.

So, that was what I was doing that day. Sitting here on the hard stone bench, staring at the fountain in the middle of the square. I must have been a sight, sitting stone still, notebook in my lap to scribble my notes in, intently crossing and uncrossing my eyes all while staring at the center of the square. The hot sun beat down on me; I was beginning to regret wearing long pants and long sleeves today. It was shaping up to be another useless theory I'd had, I would have to go back to my room and formulate a new method.

As I bent my head to retrieve my bag from under the bench, I saw a flash of white out of the corner of my eye. I jerked my head up, and saw nothing. Cursing under my breath, I bent my head down again, concentrated, and slowly looked up again.

There was a caped figure walking across the opposite side of the square, hood pulled down so that their gender was indeterminate. They definitely hadn't been there before. I yanked my bag out from under the seat, slung it over my shoulder, and began to follow it.

They quickly left the square, and walked down the street. I wondered briefly if they could be dangerous, but thrust that notion aside quickly. Had any of the great men of the past stopped to wonder if the majestic event they were witnessing could be harmful? Of course not. I went down four streets – heading out of the nicer areas of town – then followed the person as they turned into a narrow alleyway. We emerged into a narrow street lined with old housing.

They walked up the stairs to a front door, and fumbled under their cloak for something, presumably their key. Realizing my only chance to make contact was draining away alarmingly quickly, I took a few hurried steps closer.
“Hey!” I said, perhaps too loudly, for they spun around abruptly with a cry.
The key narrowly missed me, landing a few feet away on the street. I bent down, picked it up, and offered it to the woman on the stairs – for it was definitely a woman, or more of a girl, now that I looked closer.
“Who are you?” she said. “What are you doing here?”
I blinked. I hadn't quite thought this part through. What do you say to the denizens of the alternate reality you've entered? 'Greetings, I come from Earth! Take me to your leader?' Only in bad science fiction stories. I guess I waited too long, because she snatched the key from my hand and ran back to the door.

As she fumbled with it in the lock, I tried again. “Wait,” I said. “I don't want to hurt you! I just want to understand-”
I was cut off by the door being opened from the inside. “Carol, what's going on? You look so flustered.”
With a squeak, the girl pushed past the woman standing in the doorway and dissapeared into the house. As she looked out to see what had caused the alarm, she inhaled sharply. “Who are you?” she demanded.
“Uh,” I said. “See, I'm just trying...I'm a student, at the university, I study philosophy and religion. It was an idea I had, to see what was...you know,” I babbled, off-put by the woman's demand.
She sighed, and walked out into the light. I could only stare. Her clothing was ordinary – a skirt and a blouse – but she had wings like an angel. She walked to an arm length away from me, then extended a single finger and touched me between the eyes. “You're dreaming,” she said smoothly. “It's a hot day, and you fell asleep, and dreamed. You should go home and drink some water.”

The day shimmered, and I must have blacked out. When I came to, I was laying on an unfamilar street, with the sun beating down on me. I should go home and get some water.