A FLASH IN THE DARK
A Voice in the Silence
"When the disciple sees and hears, and when he smells and tastes, eyes closed, ears shut, with mouth and nostrils stopped; when the four senses blend and ready are to pass into the fifth,
that of the inner touch - then into stage the fourth he hath passed on."
Book of the Golden Precepts
H.P. Blavatsky
(1889)
that of the inner touch - then into stage the fourth he hath passed on."
Book of the Golden Precepts
H.P. Blavatsky
(1889)
Once upon a time, a respected alienist examined a woman who turned out to have no brain inside her head and no heart within her chest.
“This is surely some charlatan’s psychological trick, Madame! An Indian rope trick where consciousness arises with naught upon which to hang!”
She explained to the stunned medical man that, whilst most people require a brain to think and a heart to feel, she required only Spirit and Soule.
“You see, Sir, the sky only appears void to those who cannot feel the air move, a bottle empty to those who cannot smell the perfume it once held, a fine wine like any other to an untrained palate, and the silence mute for those who cannot hear its voice.”
“Your Spiritualist ideas hold no weight with me, Madame. Both science and society move on.”
“Please, Sir, if you would but listen…” and to prove what she said she sang a most beautiful song.
However, the doctor simply replied, “Bah! Yours is a disease of the brain Madame, not of the heart,” and without further ado promptly consigned her to an asylum, dating his final decree the year of Our Lord 2021.
“This is surely some charlatan’s psychological trick, Madame! An Indian rope trick where consciousness arises with naught upon which to hang!”
She explained to the stunned medical man that, whilst most people require a brain to think and a heart to feel, she required only Spirit and Soule.
“You see, Sir, the sky only appears void to those who cannot feel the air move, a bottle empty to those who cannot smell the perfume it once held, a fine wine like any other to an untrained palate, and the silence mute for those who cannot hear its voice.”
“Your Spiritualist ideas hold no weight with me, Madame. Both science and society move on.”
“Please, Sir, if you would but listen…” and to prove what she said she sang a most beautiful song.
However, the doctor simply replied, “Bah! Yours is a disease of the brain Madame, not of the heart,” and without further ado promptly consigned her to an asylum, dating his final decree the year of Our Lord 2021.
A version of this tale was published in Asylum: The Radical Mental Health Magazine, Summer 2021, 28, 2, P11.
First Created: May 2021
Last Mutated: December 2021
196 Words
First Created: May 2021
Last Mutated: December 2021
196 Words