Jesus and Christ
Шрифт:
– Oh, I thought you were on the beach drinking cocktails.
– When are you going to grow up, you're in your fourth decade and he's…" Rutra waved his hand and walked in the direction of one of the cars.
***
– Are you ready? – Rutra was jokingly prodded by his project mate a few days after the experiment, when he was already lying back in the rig.
– Let's see where you take me this time.
– Don't worry, we won't get steamed, we'll go somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
– The wilderness is supposed to be Palestinian, remember?
– We'll find something for you, Your Majesty. Rest in peace.
– Oh," Ruthra sighed, "God gave me such a partner.
– That's right, that's where you talk about God.
The optical unit was lowered – discharge! – and Rutra's body collapsed in the unit, and the soul, that is, the consciousness, had to find itself in the body of the same Bedouin and in the same terrain, which was already playing out in the virtual reality production. At least Rangit, as once expeditioners of new lands, as once explorers, with the help of an optical or radio telescope, of the cosmos, being their quantum analog, drew such a picture.
***
It was the same landscape all around. "Your imagination isn't very rich," Ruthra thought, suspecting another session of psychological training in virtual reality. That wasn't what dominated his thoughts, though: his mind remembered the thought that had occurred to him when the optical unit flashed – he had time to think about soul and consciousness. The thought occupied him: were soul and consciousness one and the same? As he supposed, they used to call this component of the human "I" soul, and in modern times, in a scientific way, they began to say consciousness. But suddenly in the process of moving he thought of such a curiosity: after all, the body in the installation is alive, though without consciousness, but the soul in the classical sense, as it is represented, is in it. It turned out that, again in that classical version of the soul representation, it, this very soul, dwelled in the body, otherwise the body should be inanimate, but it functions. That is, in that classical variant, which was justified by the ancients, the soul is what keeps the body alive. Then what is consciousness? Is it not what defines us as our "I"? It is. Without consciousness, who are we? Although, like these quantum particles, the soul, in fact, had to stay both in its own body and in the body of the one in whom the consciousness moved. Of course, if the experiment was successful.
His musings were interrupted by an unexpected voice from outside, even frightened him a little. It was the same Bedouin, but with more colored clothes.
– I know everything you're going to say ahead of time. Or almost everything," he said, suddenly confident.
– What?" Ruthra said in a long voice.
– Your doubts are valid. Everyone would have those doubts. Believe me, you were chosen for a reason. Just think about it, if a person appeared here who was unfamiliar with your invention – the method of moving consciousness through space – then obviously the whole mission would be thwarted. The person would either be in constant disbelief, doubt, or fear, expecting a trick. Or he or she would consider us or himself to be crazy, at least insane.
– What are you talking about? And who are you, anyway?
– Everything you see is real.
– I can see it's real. What's the big deal?
– Think about it. If you were asleep, you wouldn't find this amazing and unreal, would you?
– What do you want? I don't understand. Are you a director? Actor? What's my role?
– Think of me as a psychologist testing actors for mental compatibility. I'm still asking you to answer my question.
– Which one?
– About the state in the dream.
– So?
– What is happening would not be amazing and unreal if you understood what was happening as a dream.
– This is crazy. How in a dream would I know I'm in a dream?
– Now, let's be clear. How did you expect to see the result of your experiment?
– If it didn't work out, it didn't work out. God be with you, goldfish. What's the point of all this drama?
– Now imagine how it turned out this time.
– How am I supposed to visualize if it didn't work out in real life?
– And how did you in real life, as you put it, have to realize whether it worked or not? Do you remember the moment you fell asleep? You said yourself that you would not have been aware in the dream that you were in a dream state.
– Okay.
– So imagine it like you're sleeping right now.
– Why?
– You did it. This is the real world.
– Ha.
– Oh, come on. If you invented a machine that would immerse a person in virtual reality, why shouldn't people subjected to such a procedure believe in the reality of virtual reality immersion? You invented the technology yourself. So why would you not believe in the reality of the implementation?
– Hm," Ruthra looked around, the same, or almost the same, surroundings. – We were moving consciousness within the confines of a laboratory, a planet, a space station at most, just like the quantum entanglement experiments.
– Agree, – continued the strange stranger, without giving him long to think, – the natives of America, seeing Columbus' brigade, really perceived it as the coming of aliens, gods in their view. They had no idea about other worlds, i.e. territories of the planet, they knew only their own. So now it seems to you that your stay here is something fantastic, but this is actually one of the territories of a huge planet called the Universe.
– Why all of a sudden. You're repeating my thoughts!
– Think about it.
– First of all, I've never talked to anyone here before, except for you, and I see the same environment as I did a few times before, and…" Ruthra was distracted from his thoughts by otherworldly noises.
When he noticed the anxious, fixed gaze of his interlocutor expressing fatal horror, he turned around.
– Here are the politicians," the voice of the one who had just made an important and instructive speech sounded depressed.
"What other politicians are there?" – questioned one part of Rutra's brain. While the other was going through the many options associated with the question-how did that word apply to this situation?
Trying to tear his gaze away from the madness in the Jew's eyes – though he was dressed more like a Bedouin, the six-pointed star (magendavid) branded on his face left no doubt – Ruthra, feeling unconsciously anxious, turned around. What he saw gave him an answer, but it was from a different realm, though Ruthra was still questioning whether it was the right one. He was partially aware of the elite unit of the Selekwid army. The director's idea didn't surprise him much, but the horror in his gaze… something on the level of his instincts… spoke of its reality.