My OperaFire and Shadow
Tuesday, December 29, 2009 9:50:54 AM
Dear friends and family,
By the time you read this, I will be alive.
My whole life so far, I've been dead. We've all been dead. This world is dead. This universe is a shadow which only hints at the true nature of things.
Last night, a group of us sat huddled by the fireplace warming ourselves. The fire was hypnotic, and I stared into the dancing flames for what seemed like hours. I was warm and comfortable, yet uneasy. I could sense the shadows behind me, staring at the back of my head.
Consider the common shadow. We see them and think of them like objects, but there's nothing there, it's only a relative void where light is blocked. The shape we see in the shadow has nothing to do with the physical composition of the shadow (the photon shortage). The meaning of the shadow can only become clear when we step away from the wall and see the light source and the interceding object.
Unable to resist, I turned to look at the wall. It was awash with dancing shadows, surreally distorted. I picked out the shadows of my companions, of objects in the room, and finally came upon my own. Together, the fire and I created a shadow neither of us could make alone. Shaped like me but dancing with unpredictable energy, our shadow was the combined essence of man and fire.
Watching the shadows, I felt as if I were slipping into the wall. I began to imagine the world as it would be for a two dimensional creature on the wall. In my mind I saw a vast plane where light suddenly came and went. The lightening and darkening made no sense, and could never make sense without the ability to see off the wall. The people of the wall would invent a religion to explain it, and their scientists would declare the light changes a natural random phenomenon.
I felt an urge to reach into the wall and somehow pull the people of the wall out into the three dimensional room to show them the fire and the objects which determine their experiences.
I stood and turned all around, taking in the room as if for the first time. The shallowness of it struck me. I could feel that this world was as limited as the wall, and that the things all around me were like mysterious shadows I'd learned not to question.
We are all shadows, three dimensional creatures in a four dimensional universe. Something much deeper and truer is happening behind the world we see, just out of reach.
Since last night, I've thought of nothing but escape. I asked myself what a two dimensional creature on the wall could do to gain access to our world. I realized that fire is the key. Fire is the origin point, the creator of light and shadow, the source of everything observable on the wall. By carefully recording the shadow patterns, the two dimensional creatures can calculate the location of the fire in the third dimension.
Tonight I'm going to sneak out into the common area, leap into the fireplace and fall through the fire to a higher dimension. I don't know if I'll be able to come back, so I'm leaving this note on my bed to let you know what happened to me.
Love,
Jonah Sheridan
Elkville Sanitarium
By the time you read this, I will be alive.
My whole life so far, I've been dead. We've all been dead. This world is dead. This universe is a shadow which only hints at the true nature of things.
Last night, a group of us sat huddled by the fireplace warming ourselves. The fire was hypnotic, and I stared into the dancing flames for what seemed like hours. I was warm and comfortable, yet uneasy. I could sense the shadows behind me, staring at the back of my head.
Consider the common shadow. We see them and think of them like objects, but there's nothing there, it's only a relative void where light is blocked. The shape we see in the shadow has nothing to do with the physical composition of the shadow (the photon shortage). The meaning of the shadow can only become clear when we step away from the wall and see the light source and the interceding object.
Unable to resist, I turned to look at the wall. It was awash with dancing shadows, surreally distorted. I picked out the shadows of my companions, of objects in the room, and finally came upon my own. Together, the fire and I created a shadow neither of us could make alone. Shaped like me but dancing with unpredictable energy, our shadow was the combined essence of man and fire.
Watching the shadows, I felt as if I were slipping into the wall. I began to imagine the world as it would be for a two dimensional creature on the wall. In my mind I saw a vast plane where light suddenly came and went. The lightening and darkening made no sense, and could never make sense without the ability to see off the wall. The people of the wall would invent a religion to explain it, and their scientists would declare the light changes a natural random phenomenon.
I felt an urge to reach into the wall and somehow pull the people of the wall out into the three dimensional room to show them the fire and the objects which determine their experiences.
I stood and turned all around, taking in the room as if for the first time. The shallowness of it struck me. I could feel that this world was as limited as the wall, and that the things all around me were like mysterious shadows I'd learned not to question.
We are all shadows, three dimensional creatures in a four dimensional universe. Something much deeper and truer is happening behind the world we see, just out of reach.
Since last night, I've thought of nothing but escape. I asked myself what a two dimensional creature on the wall could do to gain access to our world. I realized that fire is the key. Fire is the origin point, the creator of light and shadow, the source of everything observable on the wall. By carefully recording the shadow patterns, the two dimensional creatures can calculate the location of the fire in the third dimension.
Tonight I'm going to sneak out into the common area, leap into the fireplace and fall through the fire to a higher dimension. I don't know if I'll be able to come back, so I'm leaving this note on my bed to let you know what happened to me.
Love,
Jonah Sheridan
Elkville Sanitarium
