I am a 38 year old male from Oshkosh Wisconsin. A happily married heterosexual, once divorced. No kids, a weinerdog and cat our only charges. Been to Burningman Festival 4 times '96-'99. Interests include Tarot,constructing mosaics,metaphysics,McKenna,Lilly,Crowley,general weirdness. Ordained SubGenius with a closet full, and I mean full, of obscure movies. Not dead yet for a reason.

23 year old male, graduate student in composition. Interested in Central & South American shamansim and all that entails; ambient music and medieval polyphony; Alex Grey, Huston Smith, Alexander Shulgin, and Jelal ud-din Rumi. I am also a wicked cook, and I teach mathematics.

I'm a 22 year old information addict living in Pennsylvania. I'm mainly interested in gleaning every possible bit of data about every possible subject immaginable.

middle aged (Now With Spread!™)male, single parent, semi-pro teacher
living near Lake Erie
interests include reading, Mystery on PBS, chaos and relativity theory, hockey, photography, shrubbery, scaffolding

32 year old male, married with 3 kids. Living in northeast Ohio. Independent computer consultant. interests include music, sports, reading, time with family, all things computer related, mathematics, science, ...

Keep writing this page, you give me something to do during necessary breaks at work. My favorite authors include RAW, Faulkner and IAIN M. Banks. I find about 75% of what you send me to worth reading -- pretty darn good job.
Thanks. -Altogether

I don't know anything about a pig and I was nowhere near the women's room at the time.

But seriously, I just found this site last week so I haven't had time to form a real opinion. But I like what I see so far.

The internet needs more sites like this. Guides to the vast virtual wasteland that a technological society has created. As for me, I was born a little under two decades ago, about three doors down from my future arch-nemesis, though he had been born a week earlier. I enjoy free money, gregorian chanting and unique and interesting doorways, though I never have the courage to enter them. On a more personal note, I have recently become aware of the fact that everything in my fridge, despite the differences in when the items were bought, will expire on February 18th, so I am a little perplexed.

40 something male from NJ. Please keep up the good work!

25 year-old female in 61 year-old body, who wants to learn about everything under the sun. The site presents challenging ideas and food for interesting discussions among my friends. Thank you. Keep it coming.

I'm a 34 yo weirdologist from Italy.

I'm way too much into fringe culture from all over the world, and sometimes I get paid to vent about the crazy stuff I see on the Net. Hence, please keep up the wonderful work, or you'll end up publishing a link to some queer local paper headlining the first death by starvation caused by not enough weirdness.

Post-doc psychologist, currently researching the psychopharmacology of caffeine. Skeptical enthusiast for all things weird. Fave literature: Lovecraft, Machen, MR James, Clark Ashton Smith. Fave music: 70s punk.

33 Yr old father of 3 (soon 4). Computer consultant. Rabid espouser of questioning reality at all times. PKD/VALIS, Waking Life, My Dinner with Andre, Mindwalk, McKenna, Sheldrake, Matrix, You get the idea.

50 years old. Love sites like this that gather together in one place interesting and odd bits of web detritus

25 year-old male science teacher. Hugely interested in Science and "hard" science fiction. I have become interested in the mystery of psychedelics (I have never taken any, but I am interested in the otherworldly nature of the experiences). I enjoy ambient and electronica music. I visit this section of the website every few days. Keep it up. I find it very interesting.

I clicked on the cheese holes for 3 days.

32 male musician Tennessee -- didn't click on the cheese because my status bar told me there was no link -- I think Death Race 2000 is the greatest movie ever -- this site provokes thought, and that's a good thing

My name's Trevor, and I'm a 20 year old in Ontario, Canada.
I don't work right now, but I'm learning to play the accordion. I first came here through... you know, I can't remember. You were probably linked to from another blog, somewhere.

I'm a 19 year-old bass player from Tennessee. If I remember correctly I believe I came to your site from a link on Fark.com, and added it to my favorites after I read a few stories. Not much else to say about me, but keep up the good work!

34 year old male, found site researching ethno-pharmacology.

30 year old artist from Vancouver. I like puppies and long walks on the beach... not really... well, I like them as must as the next person but I much prefer making music, laughing, and speculating with friends as to the true nature of reality and/or what is going on in Michael Jackson's head at any given time.

Like others, I came to Reality Carnival via another blog (Metafilter methinks), saw you had an affinity for the inexplicable, numinous, and weird and bookmarked it immediately. I check almost every day to see what new mind-itching news artifact you dig up. Keep up the good work!

20 y/old geek. Found the website from a link on fark or madville, cant remember which. Liked the site cos it was funky weird random stuff, so linked it on my own website.

high school student in san francisco, reveling in the aftermath of Our Culture.
ive recently been reading ishmael by daniel quinn, gods debris by scott adams and another roadside attraction by tom robbins. listening to pink floyd, bob dylan, phish, and the dead.
me and my friends are still amused that we started microwaving cds *before* we saw it on reality carnival. especially aol disks.

reporting from the dark side of the moon--avi garelick

48 yo geek, essex vermont. discovered reality carnival from a link on fark a few weeks ago, love the random articles and have been checking back every few days since then. keep 'em coming!

33 year old provincial government employee (Forest Service) from British Columbia. If i remenber correctly I came here via a link on Fark. You've got a great site, thanks for the time and effort you have obviously devoted to Reality Carnival.

55 year old software engineer, machine tool systems. Interests in history, aviation, space, science, backgammon, art, stained glass, guns, economics, mythology, pretty girls, sailing, peanut butter, Dilbert, astronomy, birds, gardening, medicine, and classical music.

33 year old web developer living in Seattle Washington, USA. you can find out a lot about me by visiting my website, www.kdpublish.com. have been aware of you for a few years now. post-modern neo-fortean theist. especially fond of schnauzers. really love the carnival. it introduced me to Paul Laffoley last week, for which I am extremely grateful.

Edited by author 02-09-2003 10:00 PM
46 year old, programmer, writer, pseudo-political fan of the eclectic. Oh, yeah, am equally amused by the rest of pickover.com.

18 Professional Cart Pusher at Wal-Mart. Going to school to get degree in Criminology so I can work for the FBI possibly. Found this site from Fark.com, have been here nearly everyday since. If there is no God, then who pulls up the next Kleenex?

Hey, I'm a student, 20. I live in St. Pete, Florida. I found Reality Carnival through Fark too, though I've stayed since all the links I've never run across are ones I'm glad I finally did. I'm into authors like Philip Dick, Robert Anton Wilson, etc. I read political websites like mediawhoresonline, cursor.org, and ABC's The Note. I read other websites like Fark, MeFi, robotwisdom, and memepool.

21 year old artist found this site from fark also. interesting and neverending links to cool surfing sites. keep up the good work.

Edited by author 02-10-2003 12:07 AM
hey cliff and y'all. i'm 22. parttime student at SCSU (southern Conn. state univ.), also student of astrology, cosmology, consciousness. i am an unemployed long-hair. and i haven't taken any psychedelic in over 5 months (long overdue) so im getting a little bored... lucky for me i have some musical instruments to keep me occupied... thanks for having me! oh yeah, and i wandered in from someones post at www.2013.com
peace

Good work.

32 year old (noncomputer) game designer. Found you via Fark. Find the carnival endlessly fascinating.

18, student. Also found initially from Fark.com. Very nice site.

26 musical deviant.Found your esp test and then you kindly
sent me the link and I been hooked since!

26 internet code monkey / musician. came in from fark, stayed for the food.

Ah, the world is a feast of wonders. Fortean Times brought me here, green elves and intrigue kept me coming.

31, artist/loner. Arrived via Metafilter, I believe. Hooked on the geek girls - my new favorite subject. That and the weird art/artists keep me coming back.

39, playwright/novelist/illustrator, former actor/director. Found you via Fortean Times. Interests: paranormal, ghosts, conspiracies, the usuals. Enjoy your site, even though I'm a "rebel mystic." (Meaning: I despise drug use, especially ritual/religious drug use, and I think Buddha is an overrated putz and a cosmic crybaby. But I believe in higher, invisible realms, just achieved through focus, sobriety and the construction of the ego, not the dissolution of the ego.)

Edited by author 02-10-2003 07:27 AM
 42 male british partially sighted unemployed/unemployable havent taken psychedelics in nearly 20 years, not that it matters but others mention it so i do. no kids, wife, horse, mustache, car, mortgage, hp payments nor carpet. 2 tvs both b&w several pcs in bits, no internet connection. i use state sponsored free public internet access, 'the peoples network'. i'd heard of 'clive pickover, maverick scientist' but came here via fortean times links page.
i check this site everyday i'm at the library (many pages are blocked by the firewall) i also visit bbc news pages for an hour or so per day & fortean times checking the home pages of the news orgs that appear in their 'breaking news' section. minor info junkie. other faves include robert anson wilson page & zippy at the san fran chron & straight dope. still trawling thru all the old links in reality carnival

keep up the good work, cliff. you're the greatest. reality carnival is fresh, intriguing, mystifying, chill-inducing, and brain splattering. i read the articles everyday and can't get enough. it's a cross between alan sondheim and buckminster fuller's work. your book 'visualizing biological information' is awesome, too.
below is an excerpt from jack spicer's poem 'magic':

        "Stranger, I had words for dinner
        Stranger, I had words for dinner
        Stranger strange do you believe me?

        Honestly, I had your heart for supper
        Honesty has had your heart for supper
        Honesty Honestly are your pain"

29y.o (30 on the 27th Feb, cards and pressies welcome)male from Glasgow in Scotland. 2 children stopped my experiments in psychadelic experimentation and now I discover, through your sites, the wonders of DMT which up to 4 years ago....I can't talk about it, it just is all too fascinating and the need for it is outweighted by my almost complete integration into the capitalist, conformist world of financial services. Maybe once I retire!
Love the site, didn't click on the cheese, and will keep your site bookmarked until my mind bending adventures can begin again (once my children have left for Uni and me and their mum can trip in front of tea time soap operas again!)
Keep up the good work,
May the higher powers shower you all with luck
G

forgot to say - I have to thank Fortean Times for uncovering your work

31, it professional / technoshaman, researching altered states in their relation to magick and healing.

didn't click on the cheese either. not a believer in the power of "cheses" }:^)
Keep up the good work. I enjoy the variety of topics.
What happens to the oldest stories? Do you have an archive?

53, married, two kids, retired state employee, crisis transition worker, vietnam veteran, graduate of Northwestern University. Love this off beat site, and recommend it to all my off beat friends.

Found link on Fortean Times... very interesting site and topics... BTW I am 35, married, live in Jackson, MS and am a Graphic Designer (at least I try real hard.)

I am a DMT Machine Elf. Found the site by googling myself to see what people are saying about me.

Unique human, 29, information addicted.

Good stuff, just the thing for those of us evolving by the minute.

Male, nearly 45, married, two kids, resident of southern California, computer professional, self-described nerd, fascinated by "interfaces" where computer and high technology interact with art, science, music, etc. Moderately fond of run-on sentences, not a cheese-clicker but an Astrid-clicker. Love the site, please keep it going.

I'm glad you added this QuickTopic.

Here's what I sent to my email group.

http://topica.com/lists/cogitaterz/read

It was canned but did the job:

 Want to check out a genius?

http://www.pickover.com

etc, canned from your site...

and...

his blog http://www.pickover.com/realitycarnival.html

RealityCarnival has been a nice addition to my daily browse. Most of the bookmarks I've added in the last few months are directly or indirectly from here...

Found your site via Bruce Sterling.....boomer, married, news junkie snowbound in NH...very grateful for such wild and thought provoking links!

coo' site. always on tha lookout for interestin' news sites. added ya to my favorites after a linking from fark or something awful, don't 'member which.

oh that's right you wanted info about us, well here goes: i enjoy the finer things in life, namely expensive cigars and 40's o' OldeEnglish. my turnons include stuff and my turnoffs include things. i could blather on longer, but i shan't.

found you through erowid somehow during a stretch of mind expanding. LOVE IT. pickover rocks.

I hail from the weird capital of the world, Austin TX. 24, waiter, aspiring country musician. Love to read about the strange and fascinating stories in the reality carnaval. Keep up the good work.

I roll by every now and again. Good stuff.

bored, 17yrold male. living in toronto, and i want to get out. im very simple, but i enjoy that which IS very complicated. great site, keeps my brain functioning. keep it up.

male, 18, Milwaukee, WI
i love the interesting reads that are provided at RealityCarnival. Welcome relief from the usual fart jokes or photoshop butchery that pervades some other sites.

ok...anyonelookingforsalviainspiredartoreventhatwhichleanstowardthe10centthyloopsimean..uh..yeah..givemearingat kc1@india.com...thanks...strictlyartsobackdafuckuppunkifyouhaveanyotherintentions...

I like the site - it's a good info bubble.
I'm a 24 y/o hired geek & 'lectronic musician from Philly who's always on the lookout for things to give to other people
http://www.m-laboratories.net

22/Male from Argentina.
CS Student and acoustic bass player.
Read your "Computers and the Imagination" and became headless, now i've found the carnival via MetaFilter.

20/m

good site but--hire someone for the html layout! the content is great but make it pretty... i mean a decent working color scheme, decent graphics, nice logo at the top... i can think of all sorts of eye candy to please all the 'chemically altered minds' tuning in :)

Continue the site. Don't make me spoof another 30 IP addresses.

30 year old carrer paramedic, i enjoy life on the net as balance with my job
im new to the site but i like it a lot

27 year old fem who likes the wierd and unusual. keep up the good work. reality carnival rocks. :-D

36 year old female in the Southeast U.S.

I enjoy the site very much and you have turned me on to some really cool things. The weirder the better. Please keep up the good work!

37m selling socks online.
Great site, just found it via longtime linked Pickover Report.
Go go go!

Hi! 28 yo female from Seattle. Love the site and learning more weird possibilities in the world... ;)

Hey, love the odd tingly sensation I get on the backs of my arms and in the rear of my head whenever I open the page!
Wait.. that's not a part of the htmL?
OH.. well, I love Reality Carnival anyway.
*tingle*

Intriguig site, worth repeated visits. Please keep it going!

Your reader is 40, over-educated and underemployed, and a semi-intellectual mophead who is till learning what wags the world.

21 year old female.

overspecialized, underused, and ready to take on the world.

Unemployed / freelance PHP Programmer based in Sheffield, UK.
First got to the carnival via FARK, love spending 5 mins on the carnival when bored and/or stoned.

43 year-old working at home Canadian single-mother in the boonies.
Degrees in English and Philosophy - it was fun while it lasted.
Wonderful site. It has generated some of the best surfing I've done in years.
Please - how many does it take to be 40?????

Generated a googlewhack on the first try (nonagenarian tadpoles) and then the hit turned out to be a zine about serendipity.

I love to peek over your cliffs.

21 yo English major. Your site is always a nice intellectual side-road - you're less speculative and more creative than alot of sites outside the mainstream, and you have a healthy sense of humor about things. Rock on.

I am here. I read. I enjoy.

22, male, jeweller. At my job, my mind is often left to wonder on its own volition. Naturally this requires a constant intake of new concepts. That is why I come here.

I am whatever I perceive me to be in the reality I create for my self and I am what others see me as in their reality. Because there is no one reality, everything is what people make it to be, everyone's is different. When you think about it, reality doesn't really exist does it? But besides that i am a 17yr senior in high school with "strange ideas" that my friends say in 200yrs i will be famous for but until then i am a idiot. :)

Will-I-Am
Well I am Bill
Once a Billy
Never Will

i like all the crazies!

i'd love to read about crazy music too.

A well traveled gentlemen who doesnt get around much anymore,,,however I'm not bored. Live in Utah, like to get in the SUV and head for the sunrise, run all the rivers, climb every mountain, see where the trails go, and do it again:)

a softly dewed white rose, nestled securely in the thicket,and basking warmly in the bluish moonglow..

moonrose

a giver of small things
a thinker of great sorts

25 yr old art student, had lots of strange experiences. just finished reading strangeness at skinwalker ranch in latest edition of fortean times, fascinating stuff

intent is the medium of consciousness
the web is the medium of the universe

My name speaks volumes. 46 ,ex hippie polythiestic pagan
square job , kids . ethenologist ,visionary , lucid dreamer

im going to go with what Ashlee said, because thats what I would want to say in less typing now. Thanks

 First time here, but I'm sending this link along to a few buddies who I think will enjoy your website. I think I found you through Fark...

I just happened upon this site and it looks like I'll be making some repeat visits.

That is all

First time here @ Reality Carnival, but love it. Was brought here by link from "Charles Bonnet Syndrome" which I've apparently occasionally 'suffered' from on mushrooms. I see different folk from those in the article, probably because I live in the So. Hemisphere, Australia, and they're different here; ones I've met in Asia differ from those here too. I've managed to keep in contact with 2 of the few "tribes" I've encountered over the decades. With one tribe who I refer to unelequantly as "The Chicken Shit People" I trade chicken shit for sapphires. The fresher the droppings, the better quality the sapphire I receive. Been doing trade with them for over 20 years now.

I'm a 50 year old male from NJ, married, kids, always traveling for work. Europe, Asia, South America, all radically contrasting, all someone's idea of reality, which gives me a reasonably different perspective and a lot of stories with which to bore my friends. I first linked from StraightDope, I think, and I've been hooked ever since. I check this site whenever I'm back home.

YIKES ! WHATA SITE!...me? I dunno, world traveler of days gone by, digiratti now, cyberbubba, South Austin tye dye hard...50+, kids gone, wife 1/2 mad....the usual ! What's left? Books, Cinema, livin and dying @ 7 frames a second.
Total Fark brought me to you...Arnold said it best....I'll be back. Thanks, J. Walker

Hello- I am Time Barn. I am a vague creature- I don't really come from any particular "place"- I'm just sort of "all over". I find Reality Carnival very interesting. There seems to be a lot of psychedelic influenced content. I have experimented with a great many psychedelics- more than just the usual suspects (LSD, shrooms, XTC, etc). I have taken everything worth taking in Alexander Shulgin's PIHKAL and TIHKAL, and explored combinations of these substances likely known to no other being.

Does this make 40 people yet or what?

I have mixed feelings about Reality Carnival. Parts of it are cool and well informed, interesting stuff from the edge of physics and cognitive science and computer science and so on. Other parts of it are full of BS and could easily have been culled from Art Bell's web page. I don't know. A suspect that a page like this will ultimately attract more New Age wackos than smart creative types, and I suspect the creators of the page actually seek to attract the latter rather than the former. It's great be weird and cutting edge- I am all for that- but all the New Age nonsense will scare the smarter people away.

(Boy am I pompous, huh?)

Just discovered Reality Carnival. "Reality: What a concept!" All the news fit for filler without the Talking Heads,... I LIKE IT! If philosophy is trivial this is a great place for trivial pursuit. (Just kidding. I'm an instant fan.) I'll enjoy visiting this site and am recommending it to friends, strangers, even strangers, stranger still and strangest.

Hello from the .....

thow Art here.

ive been looking for a site like this for a long time, thanks alot to everyone who looks beyond.

hello from http://www.creative101.com

i'm getting lost....

I drop in regularly to the Pickover universe and this time I was glad to find the RC. It's a nice tarot.
Clifford, I've had a link to your main site for some time at my home page, and now have linked you in two blogs:
http://wilsonsalmanac.blogspot.com and
http://pipspicks.blogspot.com

Fnord,

Pip

i think i like it. i found this doing a google search on philtrums.

I was was looking ESP, did the experiment, found myself here. Fun site. Love the virtual cat.

Edited by author 05-13-2003 11:32 PM
Your "ESP test" was posted on a mailing list to which I subscribe (Psycho-Spiritual Approaches to Suicide) Stopped to scoff, stayed to read. I'm hooked on your views of the universe. Keep doing what you express so well!

speckledpaint has renamed itself & moved to

[url]www.solipsistic.org[/url]

its a site/blog with lots of new (& often intreguing) arty-ish links every day
plus its creators crafted musings on his day
plus more

Seems like a nice site. Dz

Exciting.I am an artist who lives the mystery.

I am a scholar of the esoteric, and I greatly enjoy this site. It was a great pleasure when I made the connection between reality carnival and several great books I have read. Strange Brains and genius was fantasic, as was time: a travellers guide. great stuff.
DMT is great too. Ah the human brain...

C^u vi parolas esperanton?

Living, loving, spreading: The mystery

BSP '03

I am a scientist, in love with the kinds of parallel reality topics that you enjoy. Love your books. Keep up the good work.

Psychologist by training, not by profession (need a new tool; today's research methods way-wrong).
I love anybody that can mess with my mind!

Put my brain into a jar and allow me to interface.

I'm a lover of all things esoteric, exotic and strange, and a fan of the Cliff Pickover's writing. I am a classically trained operatic tenor, a poet, a fiction writer, an online journalist, and on occasion a redneck. click this for kicks. I love this site (the one I'm posting on, not the one I linked-well, I like that too, but anyway)and I just found it today via weirdlinks.

when wx to be

SORRY FOR THE ERROR

A nomadic reality explorer

Lookin for YOU Liz Marie!

I'm a college student. I love thinking about the mind, the true impact/meaning of psychedelic drugs, philosophy, and science.

I have been a single, dedicated Dad to two boys who are now in college. I am retired and I work on antique automobiles all the time. I have never owned a TV. Wanted: a skinny woman suitable for marrying. Will settle for a 1934 Indian Motorcycle Fender.

Dunno. I guess that's why I am here.

Someone that is trying to sort out this crazy world and my place in it

I am a little old gray-haired lady who continues to explore the UNIVERSE. Like Albert Einstein, "I seek that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in maturity." Like Thomas Jefferson, "I cannot live without books." And, finally like Auntie Mame, I believe that "Life is a banquet, and most poor fools are starving."

I live in a cluttered home with thousands of books heaped everywhere and 4 laptops scattered about. I downhill ski in Aspen and explore Arizona for part of the winter. Otherwise, I am known as "Marie F."

I am my awareness.
Though I do not know how I came about, I can tell you a little about myself:
In one of my dimensions I stretch all the way from Absolute Zero to unimaginabley high temperatures.
I also exist in infinitely many other dimensions.
A part of me is a set of complex bio-chemical systems that work in harmony.
I perceive myself as a part of the Universe
Sometimes I feel that I am The Whole Universe, though most of me is far beyond my reach!
Now, I feel that I exist within my current body; soon I shall involuntarily metamorphose; but I shall remain The Universe.
I am again my awareness.
In one of my current dimensions you find me at sbach@edugates.net

i am a grain of sand of all beaches

I am a forty year old lesbian who is also wondering about the meaning of life.
http://groups.msn.com/lesbiansspeakout ....

I am the stuff of stars

If I IS SUSPECTED AS PARANOID YOU WORDS OF LANGUAGE THEN YOUR...this this the4se idiot things then of this.THIS YOU THINK TO ARE YOU IN THIS INGETTING IDIOT TO RHYME BE.this compleat idiot unveiled unillusion idiot hyporcrosisy of following lunatics into this thing word soplids solids into idiot kl loony nonsence.THIS HOW YOPU ARE AT A NOT OF BOGGLE MIND THOUGHT IS YOU HOW ARE NOT AN ENTIORTY THAT COULD USE AMNY KNOWN THING AS AKLL IT DOES IS WHAT IT KNOW WHICH IS IS NAT MAN,THIS MEANS ABSTRACTIVE NILLING TERMED SERISLS OF ABRST THE ILLING THING TO NON THE MAN IN ME NOTS HIM HO NO PL,EASE GIVE NATURE ILL THOUGHT OF ABSRTRAct non figure shape thing it once might have known in this means get ill molester diki docters top word say ape as that in kill to beings I MADE ALL ITS DEAD LATIN TOMVBE OF ILLUSIONS OF FABRICS FLYING ABOUT IN A-MEDIA OF THATS A WEIRD MIND BOGGLE ...MAYBE ITS ARTY...GIVE ME SCIENCE..OF HOW IT CANNOT KNOW ANY IN NON WORDSW IS ALL IT IS AS IS DEAD,THE VERY NATURE.

I'm a math teacher. I enjoy your wide selection of topics. Mind expanding. Thanks!

I stop by on a daily basis for some stimulation of my Betz cells. Your site always provides some new perspective for exploring the UNIVERSE.

Time is so fleeting. I wish that I had the time to read all of Will and Ariel Durant's great books. I've only reached their "Caesar and Christ" thus far. I'm also just starting John Horgan's "Rational Mysticism" and his "The End of Science". John Fowles' "Wormholes" is next on my hit list. I usually read several books at once. 3 x 5 index cards make convenient and inexpensive book marks as well as a place for making notes.

Thanks again for a mind expanding web site.

one night when vacationing on acidic substances, we went for a walk. through the back yard we went, but when we got past the cornner of the garage, and into the shadow, all the trees started morphing. so i stopped and stepped back into the light, and the trees went right back into normal perspective. i stuck my head bakc into the shadow a 2nd time and the trees started morphing again. i thought to myself "hmmmm... logic is telling me you see more in the dark, what happpens when you go in pitch black?" so i got a tape recorded, to record our descriptions of whatever we were going to see, and into the attic we went. it took a few minutes for our eyes to get used to the dark. during this time i was playing with my cigarette. swirling it around in a slow circle, and explaining to the tape that the trail from the cherry would be on one side of the circle, when the cig was on the other. then out of nowhere, my friend flicked his bic. BOOM! on frame of the room in front of me got burned onto my retina. then the colors rotated, the whole picture started morphing and then the picture faded to black. then a multidementional, rainbow colored fog grew throughout the room. instantly i was explaining this to the tape. describing the whole: flick the bic, catch one frame of life, watch the picture fade, and the watch the fog grow. It was beautiful. kinda disturbing at first, but beautiful. then one of the other guys started flicking his lighter like a strobe, when something happened. at the time i was looking straight at the only light in the room, the little red light on the recorder, but as the strobe started, the radio jumped off the table, falling upside down all the way to the floor, and then the last frame of the strobe the radio was back up on the table. i instantly commented something like "whoa, i just saw the radio fall upsidedown on the floor then it was back up on the table!" then about 7 seconds later, it actually fell and stopped the tape from recording. the feelings and emotions that went through me at that moment are hard to decribe, but i knew i had just recorded my self seeing and recording about 7 seconds into the future. i didnt stay in the dark very long after it happened, i was a bit freaked. the fog itself was,is, and always will be very hard to explain, but i did notice that It reacts to any conversation, thought, feeling, instantly morphing into whatever you are thinking about or talking about. the rest of the night when we were coming down was really confusing, but we made it through the dark. i was forever changed by it.

then a couple years later, i went back to see it again. no recorders this time except my own brain. i was mentally taking pictures the whole time. the first time was silent, cuz i was recording, the second time i was listening to music (tool-lateralus) and the experience was dramatically enhanced. this time i was looking at a rainbow spiral with infite windows to other worlds. the windows were composed of undescibably beautiful multidentional pictures. the second time i was looking at It, i stayed in for about 2-3 hours.... maybe....the whole time i was in the dark, my cat Nugget would brush up against my leg or my head or my arm everytime i would come to a intense segement in my thought processes. the cat was really fucking with me. when i looked up at the cat towards the end of my stay, i saw a 6-7 foot tall blue light emitting electric ghost wrapped around Nugget. It too was beautiful. it gave me hope. so back out of the darkness i went. coming down the stairs was a bit tricky, all perspective lines in my vision had just been spiralling and now all the perspectives were shifting, like an escher picture. went outside, and saw war over the skies of the city were i lived. i freaked out. but my friend let me know that it was only in my head, he wasnt tripping as hard as me that night. so i believed him, and all the war in the skies above me went away.

Edited by author 08-26-2003 01:39 AM

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I am 48 and my partner died in June, I did not know there could be solitude like this I have been up to 15 days without talking to another person. I'm also transgendered.
I really wish sometimes it was time to go onto where my partner went.

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"I seek that solitude which is painful in youth but delicious in maturity....." Albert Einstein

I know who I am, but I can't explain it to you.
Do you know who you are?
(hint: look deeper than your usual response)

I'm MiRRoRMaN, last of the true bastards. You can find my site on www.mirrorman.cjb.net I think that fucker should be posted on realitycarnival btw.

I am a mountaineer, and I channel the Voice of the Wyrm.
Check out Wormspew, http://home.earthlink.net/~herm/

We need insanity for the sake of genius,
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I am not you. You're open to all that stuff. I'm closed.
But I visit your site every day. Mine's http://www.plehar.com

Where I come from no one knows.
Where I am going....
Everyone goes.

I am indrid cold.
You can find me here or making frightening scrabbling noises around 3 a.m. just outside your window. Sweet dreams.

IT THINKS THIS THING"YOU"HAVE SAID "WORD",THIS MEANS CONSTRUCTED IDIOT SYMBOL GABBERING AS "SAY"HOW IFFY IS ARE YOU LIKE JUG LOONY ILL LAW LOONIES OF PLAY GABNBLE ILL ACT THE NON DO IN CODE PUZZEL MASS"NON AMAZE"SCHITZOI SKITS NON NONE

I may be a weak and humble human being, but I am an American, which gives me strength, a Christian, which gives me hope, and I am here, which gives me purpose.