The Field (16 page)

So now Stephen and I are sitting in the lab office waiting for Dr. Auberge with Bacon on the desk between us.

“We've never used a stuffed llama before for the remote viewing,” he says.

“I'm just keepin' it fresh for you,” I reply. “It's my younger brother's, and he has a pretty strong connection to it. I thought that would help.”

“That's great. Younger kids are really receptive to this stuff.”

The door opens and Dr. Auberge comes in. I'm still kind of freaked out by him, being that he's Renee's dad and a famous physicist. And he's so intense. He takes the chair next to me in front of the desk and sets his briefcase on the floor. “Eric, tonight I'd like to stretch you a bit, if that's okay with you.” He looks at me as if expecting me to answer, so I say, “Sure, that's okay,” not really knowing what I'm agreeing to.

“You're showing some good abilities in your remote sessions with Renee and in your experiences when playing soccer—sensing how the play will go before it happens.” He puts his hands on his knees and leans forward—fixing on me intently. “What I have in mind is really two-fold. Did you bring the personal item from a family member?” I nod and point to Bacon.

“This is my little brother's.”

“Splendid. We'll use it to facilitate the remote viewing. We've found that using personal items really helps in connecting to the other person; kind of like a bridge. First, we'll do a more advanced type of remote viewing. Then I want to conduct some experiments with the Universal Energy Field.” He had picked up the stuffed animal and was holding it while he talked. Now he stands, puts Bacon back on the desk and begins pacing. I tilt my chair back and hold on to the edge of the desk for balance. “As you know, I'm researching The Field as part of my work here. I'm also doing these remote viewing sessions to study the Collective Consciousness. You could call it my side project. The idea of the Universal Energy Field, or Dark Energy, is becoming more widely accepted in scientific circles, but the concept of the collective consciousness, of one source for the combined thought energies of humankind, is more difficult to grasp, as you can imagine. Even though it's been talked about by people like Freud and Carl Jung. My theory goes even further. I believe that these two fields are actually
one
field.” He stops pacing and looks down at me. Stephen is looking at him in rapt attention.

“Wow,” I say. Lame, but what do you say when someone lays an idea like that on you?

“My experiments with The Field involve using instruments to access the energy, and I've been having some success, but I believe that it's possible to access both the information and the energy in The Field with
our thoughts
. I think you may have the ability to do that.”

“Me? How?” This is so unexpected that I lose my grip on the desk and almost tip over backwards before my chair comes crashing to the floor.

“We'll talk more about that when we start the experiment. I think we've had enough talk and theory for now. Let's get started with the remote viewing session.” He moves towards the door.

“Wait,” I say uncertainly. “I have no idea how any of this works or what I'm supposed to do. Maybe you're wrong, and I can't really do it.”

Dr. Auberge turns and sits back down in the chair beside me. “Eric, science is about exploring the unknown and experimenting with things until you make a discovery. The whole point is that we don't know how any of it works. That's what we're trying to find out.” His dark eyes focus on me intently. “Whatever happens will be the right thing. Are you ready?”

I take a deep breath and nod. “Yes.” Even though I'm not feeling ready at all.

I follow Stephen and Dr. Auberge down the corridor to one of the rooms, but what I really want to do is run like hell away from here. I mean, the sessions I've been doing with Renee have been fun and pretty cool, but this idea of accessing the energy field with my thoughts is something else altogether. What does that mean anyway? What if I can't do it?

What if I can?

They take me to one of the rooms I've been in before. This time, after I'm seated in the chair, Stephen affixes some electrodes to my scalp and flips on a microphone. I've got Bacon clutched on my lap.

“For this session, I want you to use your younger brother's toy to help you travel to where he is. To actually see him and be present in the space with him. You'll be using the energy from the toy to connect with him,” Dr. Auberge says.

“How do I do that, exactly?” It's not like they've given me an instruction manual or anything.

“You can't do it intellectually, you have to
feel
it. Just relax and think about your younger brother—what is his name?”

“Drew.”

“Reach out to Drew with your thoughts. Try to connect with him. Be focused, but not forced. Like when you're in the goal and when you have been connecting in the sessions with Renee. Open, receptive, ready.”

Stephen says, “The electrodes will be recording your brain waves during the session, and we want you to describe what is happening out loud so the microphone can pick it up. The session will last up to one hour, depending on what's happening, so get comfortable. Are you ready?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

They turn out the light as they leave, and I'm sitting in pitch blackness.
Alright then, let's get to it
. I'm still not sure how exactly to go about this except for what worked with Renee. I try to get into the mind frame I use for games, centered and focused. I push my fingers into Bacon's fur and think about Drew. My little buddy.
Where are you? In your room?
I imagine Drew's room. His bookshelves full of fantasy books and his treasures—an alligator jaw, geodes, arrowheads—all neatly arranged. His bunk bed with the solar system comforter.

I feel like I'm looking down at the scene from somewhere up at the ceiling. The posters on the walls look so real, like I could reach out and touch them. I'm reaching out my hand when I hear Drew say, “Goodnight! You don't have to tuck me in.” The door opens and Drew comes into the room. He's in his Spiderman pajamas ready for bed. Ralph trails behind him. After Ralph takes a few steps into the room, he pricks up his ears and looks up—right at me. Then he lets out a little woof. Like a greeting! Can
he see me? Does he know I'm here? Drew turns around and sees Ralph looking up at where I am. He kneels down and puts his arms around Ralph's neck. “What is it? Do you see something? Eric said he was going to spy on me. Maybe he's here.” He looks around the room. “Are you here Eric? I left you a message on my top bunk.” He gets up and moves towards the bed. Ralph jumps up and circles into a nest at the foot of the bed. I float across the room to the bunk bed. On the top bunk, there's something white on the blue comforter. I move closer. It's a piece of paper. On it is written, “Hi, Eric!” and a drawing of a space ship. Then the light goes off and I hear Drew say, “Goodnight, Eric.”

I feel Bacon's fur beneath my fingers. I open my eyes and it's pitch black, but I know I'm in the lab. “I'm back,” I say.

I sit in the dark, hearing Drew's words echo in my head and seeing the note he left for me.
Was it real? Did I somehow travel to Drew's room?
The thing is, I'm not really sure, but I think maybe I
did
. I mean, I heard Drew
talking to me
and it seemed like Ralph was aware of me. Is that even possible? Why am I even asking myself if it happened? I either imagined it or it was
real
.

The door opens and the light comes on, momentarily blinding me. Behind me, Dr. Auberge says, “Young man, it seems you have done an astral projection. How do you feel?” He puts his hand on my shoulder.

I think about that for a moment. “I feel okay. Pretty weirded out, I guess. And energized. Like adrenaline is zinging through my veins.” I twist around in my chair to look at him. “Did that really happen?” I ask, as if somehow he would know more than I could.

“There are many accounts of people being able to do exactly what you just did. People who've had near death experiences, psychics and spies doing remote viewing for governments, so
yes, I do believe what you saw was real. You'll be able to get confirmation when you talk to your brother.”

They give me a few minutes to take a break before we move on to the Universal Energy Field experiments. In the bathroom, I splash cold water on my face and look at myself in the mirror. It's a strange feeling to have done something I never even knew was possible. And I have no idea how I did it, or what it even is.
Astral projection?
Dr. Auberge didn't really give much of an explanation. It's not the kind of stuff that happens in real life, to real people. Right?

Then I think about Drew, and I know I saw him and heard him. It was real. I grip the sides of the sink and stare at my face in the mirror. I still look like my normal self. And if I'm honest with myself, the astral projection, or whatever it was, felt perfectly normal, too. But what was it? I'm pretty sure my body didn't leave the room, if I can be sure of anything, so did just my thoughts go to Drew's room? Or my spirit or soul? It's way too deep for me to figure out, so I decide not to try. I grab a paper towel from the dispenser, dry my face and hands and open the door to find out what the two mad scientists have in store for me next.

Back in the lab, I follow Stephen to a section of rooms I've never been to before. He takes me to a door with a sign that says A
UTHORIZATION
R
EQUIRED FOR
E
NTRY
in large black letters. Pulling a key from his lab coat pocket, he unlocks the door and pushes it open. The first thing I notice when we enter the room, before Stephen switches on the light, are all the glowing dials on the equipment and computer monitors set up on tables lining the walls. Then I hear the hum of machinery and intermittent beeping noises.

“This is where we're conducting experiments on measuring and harnessing the Universal Energy Field.” Stephen gestures to the machines, which I can now see are organized into more than a dozen different experiments with data rapidly displaying across the screens of the computer monitors. “We're trying different methods for accessing the energy and have been able to power small machines for short periods of time. It's not like we're ready to light up New York City, but it will happen. The energy is there.”

Dr. Auberge comes into the room behind us. “What we'd like you to do, Eric, is try to tap into the energy field with your thoughts.”
Oh, is that all?
He leads me to one of the experiments. It has a black panel with a series of about 30 tiny light bulbs in a line from the top to the bottom next to some sort of meter. Stephen pulls over chairs for us to sit in. “Everything in the Universe is essentially made up of particles of energy, even our thoughts. There is growing evidence that we can affect the world around us with our thought energy. I believe we do it by connecting with The Field.”

“What do you mean ‘affect the world around us?'” I'm imagining superheroes exploding buildings with mind-power, but I don't think that's what he's getting at. “I mean, I'd like to help, but I really don't have any idea how to do this. I've had the occasional street light go off when I walk past, but it's not like I'm doing it on purpose or anything.”

“Many studies by highly respected researchers show that we can control our environment with our thoughts. They measured examples of prayer having a positive impact on health outcomes, athletes improving athletic performance, monks being able to walk across hot coals without being burned, and so on. Einstein even called it ‘spooky action at a distance.' It's not really new,
we've just never connected it to The Field,” says Dr. Auberge. “Since you're already showing some natural ability, perhaps you can learn how to consciously and intentionally tap into The Field with your thoughts. So tonight, I just want you to try and light up the light bulbs on this panel.” He positions the panel in front of me. “The meter alongside the bulbs will measure the intensity of the energy corresponding to the bulb you've illuminated.” This sounds simple enough, but I still don't get it.

“What am I doing that gets the bulbs to light up?”

“That's what we are here to determine. Basically, use your thoughts and imagination. Don't touch the panel with your hands. Instead,
think
about the meter moving, about the energy flowing, about the bulb lighting up. When you're doing it right, you'll know because you'll see the meter move and the bulb light up. Immediate feedback. You can start whenever you're ready.”

This almost seems like a joke—
think about lighting up the bulbs?
Dr. Auberge and Stephen are taking it totally seriously, though, and I'm pretty sure that I did just travel to Drew's bedroom remotely. As Drew himself says: “anything's possible,” keeping in mind that he's only eight, but why couldn't something like this be possible? I think I finally get it, too. It's like visualizing myself making saves in the goal.

Stephen and Dr. Auberge are sitting on either side of me waiting expectantly for me to start, which is making me really self-conscious. “I think maybe it would work better if I try this by myself for a while, if that's okay.”

“Of course,” says Dr. Auberge. He stands and pushes back his chair. “Stephen and I will analyze the data from some of the other experiments at the workstation across the room. Let us know if anything happens.” It's the first time that I've seen Dr.
Auberge be anything except calm and professional. He seems almost excited.

I'm left just looking at the black panel with all the little lights. I decide to start at the bottom and work my way up. Seems as logical as any of this can be. I think
Light up!
And
Turn on!
And…nothing happens. I try imagining the meter moving up, registering some energy flow. I think about energy flowing from me to the light bulbs. I imagine the lights glowing and blinking and all sorts of other things, and … nothing. This goes on for about half an hour and I'm starting to get really tired and frustrated and I'm also thinking that this is really stupid. I'm about ready to give up and I'm just looking at the lowest light bulb, not really thinking about how it will light up, just seeing it glowing in my imagination … and I think I see it flicker. The meter moved just a tiny bit. It didn't last very long, and I'm not positive it really happened. I try to get the same feeling again, and this time I'm sure the bulb glowed for just an instant.