I lied. I told the truth but I was lying.
I lie a lot. In my experience truth is best expressed through lies. Most people aren't interested in the truth. Facts maybe, when it suits them, the truth never. But I am only interested in the truth.
Trocan, for example, is a simple man. Devious to the nth degree, true, but his aims are simple. Money and more money. Trying to outsmart him in business is impossible. Following his tangled schemes is worse than being blindfolded in a maze. But if you ignore the middle and look at the beginning and end he reveals his simplicity.
My box is a serious (in the sense of cool) piece of equipment. Whatever can be imagined will come to pass. Maybe not immediately but for sure, eventually. The world, reality, is made not of matter, not of mind but imagination. Each generation comes closer to realizing it. Language was a first step, the vital step. Out of it grew society, structure. Then the explosion. Somewhere in the middle of the second millennium the next step was taken. Imagination was at last perceived to be the very structure of matter and mind, and mathematics became the universal language. The third step began as a children's game, virtual reality, VR. People escaping from reality into their imagination, not realizing that they had grasped the double-edged sword not by the handle but the blade. They were moving deeper into the same imagination that created the reality they hoped to escape from. And from there a long journey to the present.
The box takes vringing to a new dimension because it breaks down the barriers within the imagination, and not the personal imagination either but the collective one. The effects of the old psychotropic and psychedelic drugs were pretty much confined within the self (that's how we imagined they worked). The box does not work within the imagination, it sets the imagination free to work outside of time.
We are beings imagined. My personal opinion is that human evolution is complete.
I tried explaining it to Trocan, to Welstadt.
Welstadt at least had the balls to try it. He was smiling and silent when he came back and I very much doubt that Trocan has spoken to him since. He just invokes Welstadt's name to make me think we are all good friends and in this deal together. Partners. And because the box is illegal. Should the worst happen, Trocan will have someone in his mind to shift the blame over to when questioned by the 'lice (under VR interrogation of course). I told you he was a simple man to understand.
Well what does it do? Get on with it. My apologies to you but this is not an advertisement, that is Trocan's department and I'm sure if you read the ads in the VR-Zines and know the codes (I told you he was devious) you'll get on the waiting list.
I will tell you what they look like. Orgone Energy Boxes, that's what they look like. Remember Wilhelm Reich? I kind of think of him as a pioneer in my field. The 'lice and society put him away for making the arcane altogether too mundane. Just a plain old wooden box big enough to sit in, windows optional. And that's Trocan's beef and it's where I stand my ground. Nothing fancy. Neither monro nor modo, as Trocan's streettalk so eloquently puts it. Hey, if the truth be told you don't even need the wooden box but Trocan says nobody will buy something they cannot see. I'd like to talk to Welstadt though. He's the only who's used it and maybe he's got some good ideas.
So, step inside the box and let your imagination take you for a ride...WRONG. Step inside the box and let imagination take you. You are the illusion here. Maybe you won't come back. I don't think Welstadt did. Just a body, with a silent smile.
Technologically I cannot divulge the secret, though many of you will have guessed it already. But I will say that you have the parts necessary to make one yourself. Don't let Trocan know I said that.
Before it goes into mass production and leaves my hands I am going to use it myself. Right now, in fact.
The instructions are simple.