A Midnight Mind

Chapter 10: The Worldmind

"You might want to sit down for this," said Neil.

Ethan lowered himself onto the grass and crossed his legs. The ground was cold on his butt. Kara and Neil both sat in front of him, while Pryce stayed standing, still looking as bored as ever.

"You're not sitting?" Ethan asked him.

"Ain't my first rodeo, pal. But first timers always end up falling on their ass if they try to jump into the 'Mind while standing."

The others nodded in agreement, so Ethan shrugged and remained sitting. 

"This next part's a little tricky," said Neil.

"Do I just, like, close my eyes and meditate?" asked Ethan.

"No, keep your eyes open. It's actually easier to slip into the Worldmind when you have a visual focus. Remember that the Worldmind should look like its counterpart the real world."

"Right. So what do I do?"

"I'm going to try talking to you through the Worldmind using telepathic projection. As a psychic, you'll naturally comprehend what I'm saying to you, and it will help your brain adjust to psychic functions."

Ethan chuckled. "Whatever you say, man."

Neil looked at Ethan and pressed his lips shut tight, illustrating that he was not speaking with his mouth. "Here we go," came his disembodied voice. "Can you hear me?"

Yes, Ethan thought. Neil raised his eyebrows expectantly. "Yes...?" Ethan said aloud. "I don't know how to respond, uh, psychically."

"You'll figure it out," said Kara. She smiled when Ethan looked at her. She wasn't speaking aloud, either. As before Ethan seemed to be remembering her words without actually hearing them.

"How do I know which one of you is speaking? I mean, I know which one of you is speaking, but how do I know?"

"Your mind fills in the blanks," came Neil's voiceless response. "You know what we sound like, and a part of your mind is recognizing that you're receiving psychic messages via the Worldmind by people you know. So what we're saying is entering your mind as a memory, but since your brain knows what I sound like, you naturally remember the message as being said in my voice. It's just a mental shortcut."

"What if I didn't know your voice?" said Ethan, feeling silly that he was the only person actually speaking out loud.

"Then you wouldn't connect a specific voice to the message. In fact, it would probably 'sound' like your internal voice—the one you use when you're just thinking on your own."

That was worrying. If someone "telepathically projected" a message but he didn't know who it was from, how would he know it wasn't his own thoughts?

"Don't worry about this stuff for now," said Neil without speaking. "Just focus."

"On what?"

"On what we're saying," projected Kara. It felt as though her voice came from beside Ethan, but she was still sitting in front of him, next to Neil.

"You think this'll work on him?" came Pryce's voice coming from Ethan's left, except Pryce was standing to his right, arms crossed and his lips unmoving. "He seems pretty slow."

"It always works," shouted Neil's voice from behind Ethan.

Ethan wasn't sure how the projected voice had volume, but the loudness of it made him flinch and twist around to face the source of it. But when Ethan turned, he saw that Neil was now standing directly behind him, grinning wryly.