Beyond Thoughts

Dr. Indra called today, asking me to come to his office at 6 PM sharp.

It’s 5:45 already and I don’t think Kolkata’s traffic will allow me to be that sharp. Why did I sleep? Why?

I quickly grabbed my overcoat and stepped out of my hostel. I hurled my hand to a nearby taxi.

“Calcutta University, quickly, in 15 mins,” I said.

The taxi driver gave his best for me to reach on time. I rushed to the Psychology Department to meet Dr.Indra.

Dr. Indra Somvanshi, under whom I’m pursuing my Ph.D. He’s one of the best minds in the country in the field of Psychology. His works have won many awards. I liked his work on — “Limits of Perception” and that’s why I’m doing my thesis under him on — “Working of Frontal Cortex of Brain and How imagination works.”. Currently, Dr. Indra is working on something similar and I think he wants me to take a look at it, that’s why he called.

I reached his office and opened the door, “Sir, may I come in?” I asked.

“Come in, Anand, I wanted your help regarding something,” He said.

“Sure Sir, I’ll be happy to help,” I answered.

“Great!” he exclaimed while moving his office chair to his nearby desk, “I’m working on a special type of Psychadelic. You can think of it as a combination of benzodiazepines and tri-methoxy-phenethylamine with some other chemical agents.”

He told me about some research work he was working on, a few days back. It was something related to the thought production in the brain, and it was quite a bit related to my research paper so I was the best candidate he had, to discuss it with.

“But what’s the purpose behind it, sir? Sounds to me like a general hallucinogen drug.” I asked.

“Tell me, if I ask you to think something new, something original, something out of this world, would you be able to produce a completely original thought?” He diverted from my question.

“Original? I didn’t get it.”

“Ok, let us understand with an example. Imagine a horse standing on two legs drinking coke from a can with one of his forelegs. Can you?”

“I suppose.”, I replied with a humorous smile on my face.

“Although it’s not possible, you’re able to imagine it because you can imagine a horse and a can of coke. You can imagine a horse because you’ve seen a horse, you know the shape of a horse. You’ve seen a human open a can of coke, so you replace an upright standing horse with it. Getting it?”

“Yes sir.”

“So we can say that this thought consists of three parts — The Horse, the can of coke, and the action of opening the can. But I won’t call it an original thought because you’ve already seen a horse and a Coke can. Here I’m asking you to think something you’ve never seen or heard, a thought whose components are derived not from your memory bank but from the creative part of your brain only.”

“I got your point.”

I closed my eyes and thought for a minute. Every thought I tried to produce included some shapes or real-life objects I’d already seen. Then it clicked me.

“Time, the flow of time,” I suggested diffidently.

“Clever answer,” He said as if he already knew I’ll say it. “But can you imagine the flow of time? Or you may have imagined it as your life flashing in front of you or maybe as a life-cycle of some object like an apple or a table, or you may have imagined a watch. Or Have you derived your imagination from some sci-fi movie you watched?”

I thought of it again, and he was right I was not imagining the flow of time. I was imagining the effect of the flow of time. But my failure astonished me instead of disappointing me.

“Now, coming to your question,” He carried on with a victorious face, “What’s my purpose in this experiment? Well, I’m as curious as you. I want to find out if the human brain is capable of forming thoughts independent of our memory,” He stood up from his chair and continued, “Hence this drug, which we can call ‘BTMP’ in short. Benzodiazepines will numb most of the hippocampus where memories are stored and tri-methoxy-phenethylamine will increase the activity of your conscious and creative mind.”

“And who is your lab rat, sir?” I asked sarcastically while thinking, “Lord please, It’s not me, It’s not me”.

“Although this drug has no long-term effects, I don’t want to risk it with anyone else. I will test it myself,” Dr. Indra took a syringe and cautiously filled it with BTMP.

“How may I assist in this process, sir?”

“Just inject me with this,” He handed me the syringe, “And observe me carefully until I’m back to normal.”

He laid down on his couch and rolled up his sleeve. As soon as I injected him with the drug, he closed his eyes and seemed to be in a coma-like sleep. I did as I was instructed, observe.

After 15 minutes he opened his eyes, “So, how was it?” I asked excitedly like we were college students trying drugs for the first time.

“There were no imaginary components for me to create thoughts. There was complete silence. Just a blank space, no thoughts. I was completely conscious of everything, I knew who I am, but I couldn’t imagine my body, I couldn’t imagine my physical form. I was just pure consciousness. Nothing mattered to me,” He took a long breath, “It was like I saw beyond death itself. I saw beyond time and space.”

I didn’t know what to reply so I just nodded in his accord.

“I will document the rest of the things, you can take your leave,” He said with an emotionless face.

I left his office, without any clue of what happened inside but I surely became interested in his research. Anyways, I managed to grab a sample of BTMP for research purposes.

I hope you liked this short story. If “Yes”, then please comment “I’m your biggest fan Amarsh, You’re THE BEST, We want a sequel”. And subscribe to my email newsletter to get the latest stories and articles delivered right to your email. (This one’s a serious request)