Enstasy

When meditative practice meets simulated reality, profound mental powers are unlocked, but grave dangers are unleashed.

Evan wakes up to find that he has amnesia. He's held in a building in the middle of a jungle with twelve other people. A doctor runs the facility, and after struggling to calm his patients of their panic, he explains that he will cure their amnesia with a battery of exercises involving virtual reality simulations. Everything is odd to Evan from the start, and when things begin to go very wrong, it becomes abundantly clear that what the patients thought they knew was not at all what it seemed. Yet Evan believes in the mad scientist that seems to be really posing as a doctor, that something very profound is happening.

Dive into the world of Enstasy.

The Enstasy series of novels (click to be directed to the Amazon site):

1: Asylum 2: Academy 3: Atonement 4: Apocalypse 5: Ascension

In the rest of the series after the events in the asylum, Evan attends the Academy of Enstasy, where he begins to make sense of what happened to him and the others. In Atonement, Evan unlocks the mysteries of the asylum and finds the mastermind behind it. In Apocalypse, Evan returns to the asylum to rescue the survivors and learns there was much more to it than he realized. In Ascension, Evan strives to understand and resolve American political dysfunction, which catalyzed the creation of the asylum in the first place.

The Enstasy series is relevant to the struggle against rightwing forces in contemporary American politics, with a Matrix-esque mild sci-fi theme. Enstasy is a metaphysical mystery tour.

A paperback version is also available that contains the entire tale. See below for a sample chapter.




from Enstasy: Atonement by Steven S. Scott


“I guess with the brainwave entrainment,” said Sage, “you could combine the visual patterns with the sounds?”

“You have to,” said Anne. “We’ve got active experiments going if you wanna see, but obviously it has to be controlled. You don’t wanna just walk in on it. Precautions have to be taken. The participants close their eyes really quick once it’s started, and they don’t remember any of the patterns afterward.”

Evan got goosebumps.

“You can’t do entrainment without sound?” said Sage. “How does this relate to the blinders with the headphones?”

“When you use the visuals,” said Anne, “when it works, your eyes close. Obviously, you can’t wear the blinder when you start, and when you get connected with the field and close your eyes, you don’t need a blinder.”

“If they close their eyes,” said Sage, “how do you get them back to normal awareness?”

“That’s why aural has to be combined,” said Anne. “The participants keep the headphones on. I’ve heard you’d stay stuck in la–la land otherwise, but we’re obviously not gonna try that.”

Evan’s goosebumps got goosebumps. Sage looked stunned.

“What do you mean by la–la land? What’s it like?”

“Dunno,” said Anne.

She turned to Bryant for support. Bryant looked taken aback.

“It’s called limbo in the Academy. You’ve probably heard about it.”

She seemed loathe to continue, but she did.

“I believe that a person in limbo appears to be comatose. If the person isn’t restored from that state, the brain would eventually lose all function. That’s the theory, anyway.”

Anne looked shocked. She’d obviously not heard that tale before.

“And do you remain connected with the awareness field?”

“Presumably,” said Bryant, “as long as the brain remains physically within it.”

Sage’s eyes returned almost to normal shape as she pondered. The entrainment might explain how they were connected to the asylum by the webpage, but they obviously hadn’t carried field generators around their heads.

“While in limbo,” said Sage, “does the mind continue to function within the subtle state?”

“I have no idea,” said Bryant.

She considered.

“As long as the field is applied, I’d assume so.”

Sage pondered hard. What Berkeley did definitely wasn’t capable of achieving the asylum, of connecting multiple minds together over large distances. But there were striking similarities.

“You told us that multiple labs do this kind of work,” said Sage, “but this is the only one associated with the Academy? Are others doing more advanced work, something that could resemble remotely induced parapresence, possibly?”

Bryant looked aghast.

“Certainly not! There’s no other research that’s even comparable.”

It was mind–boggling to Evan that Scious evidently created something far beyond what the leading physicists in the world could achieve, and somehow they didn’t know it even existed. Bryant obviously wasn’t behind the asylum. But she was an Academy physicist, and their primary activity was practice research. They had intimate knowledge of the practices. That brought Evan back to Scious’s special practice. He decided to ask.

“You said this research has informed Academy practices? Are you familiar with any work on a practice that would combine timethreading with parapresence?”

Sage’s eyes bulged, and her mouth fell open. Evan knew he’d just at that moment reminded her of the practice Scious taught them, what he called parathreading.

Bryant looked taken aback again. She eyed Evan.

“Am I wrong that you’ve only attended the Academy for about a month?”

Evan and Sage both nodded.

“And you’ve conceived of the combination of timethreading and parapresence already? That’s unusual. That potential practice is indeed a subject of research. It’s a major question if it’ll ever be achieved at all though, let alone by induced sonance. The Academy has a group that works specifically on practice theory, you know.”

“That’s right!” said Sage.

She looked at Evan with glee at the reminder. And the subject of parathreading was obviously hot on Scious’s trail.

“Do you know who’s involved in that research, Jo?”

“On parathreading, specifically? No. I’m not really sure. You should talk to Tom Charles.”

Evan’s spirits lifted even higher. He’d already known that Charles would be the one to ask, and confirmation that parathreading was known in the Academy increased the chances even more that Charles would know who Scious was. He obviously wasn’t Scious himself. He was old and tall and dainty.

“We definitely will,” said Sage. “We’re extremely interested in that. You have no idea. But getting back to what you can help us with right now, on the work in other labs, what we’re looking for is something where the subject is put in a subtle state environment they think is real, like a fully–immersive virtual reality. Are you familiar with such a thing?”

The hair on the back of Evan’s neck stood up. He couldn’t think what it was about the term virtual reality that struck so violent a chord in him, but he knew immediately that it was very closely associated with Scious. The asylum was a virtual reality.

“What are you talking about?” said Anne.

She’d begun to tune out of the conversation when it moved to Academy practices, but now she was agog.

“Who’s doing things like that?”

“No one is,” said Bryant. “That’s science fiction, not reality. Even normal awareness virtual reality isn’t all that real. Not yet, at least.”

She gave Evan and Sage a curious look, then she shook her head to dismiss whatever she thought.

“I have a few more minutes before I have to get to work. Would you like to see anything else? How about how we apply the awareness field?”

Evan and Sage eagerly accepted the offer. Even if Berkeley wasn’t itself leading them to Scious, the subjects that arose were definitely helping to dislodge buried memories. Evan wanted to see as much as he could.

“That’s cool stuff,” said Anne. “Of course, this entrainment only gets you connected. You need the field to perceive anything. I’d love to join you, but I’ve got a lot to do here.”

“Thanks for your time, Anne,” said Bryant.

She took them into the room directly across the hallway. It looked much the same inside, but it had different equipment and no one else was there. It looked like the room had been used only for storage. Evan saw no computers, at least none that were assembled. Bryant lifted a complex–looking object off a countertop. It resembled a helmet, but it had wires and other objects like electrodes all over it.

“The awareness field is made with headgear like this.”

Evan’s mind was transported. He remembered something he’d forgotten, something fundamental to their quest: the media room of the asylum had virtual reality helmets.

A flood of memories came rushing in. Many things he’d not even realized hadn’t been worked out, became suddenly clear. The patients had not only performed the practices with meditation, they performed them using virtual reality simulators. He remembered actually performing parathreading with a time machine simulator. The asylum’s helmets had been sleek like a commercial product, not a rat’s nest like what Bryant held. Scious without a doubt was light years ahead of Berkeley’s technology.

Evan looked at Sage. It was as if she was being electrocuted, she was so affected by seeing the helmet. And then, pow! Evan remembered the patients figuring out that the asylum was not only parapresence, but a simulation of parapresence. The asylum existed on a computer. The nurse and guards were computer–controlled programs that ended up getting corrupted. The minds of Evan, Sage, and the other patients had been pulled into a simulated world, a virtual reality. That was why it had been so realistic and could endure so long. They’d certainly been on the right track to think technology had been associated with the asylum. The entire thing had been technology.

Evan still didn’t know how the webpage could’ve connected them to the asylum, and kept them connected as their comatose corporeal bodies were transported to hospitals, though. How the awareness field had followed them was the unanswered question.

“It is possible, Jo,” said Sage, “like we talked about, to broadcast the awareness field broadly like radio, isn’t it?”

“It probably is.”

Bryant frowned.

“I don’t think an instrument exists that could do it. If it did, it would be as awful an idea as using a webpage for entrainment, or worse. You could put entire cities, even whole regions under control. The idea terrifies me.”

Sage shared a knowing look with Evan. He got goosebumps again so bad that they hurt.

“Tell me about it,” said Sage. “Is any work being put into looking at awareness fields, from a quantum mechanics perspective? I’ve wondered if, by natural paraception, if two minds could connect over any distance. It must also be possible using technology.”

Bryant’s eyes became extra big.

“Uh, of course we consider the connection of minds in the Academy in terms of quantum theory. But not by using electronic equipment.”

She frowned.

“Why are you asking so many questions about connecting people remotely? Where could you get such a terrible idea?”

Sage didn’t seem to realize that Bryant was growing frightened. Sage only arched her eyebrows and nodded in recognition of how dangerous it would be, and she seemed deep in thought. She suddenly eyed Bryant.

“Has Cabbage Lanning ever been here?”

“I’ve talked to Cabbage about our work,” said Bryant, “but he’s not come to the lab. He’s very bright, and he seemed to understand the technical details. Ernie’s a theorist. But he’s not been here, either. I’ve spoken to him a lot about our experiments, but not recently.”

“Ernie Pilgrim?” said Sage.

She gave Evan a curious look. They’d not discussed Pilgrim. Evan had forgotten about Cabbage’s group of friends. He met them together once. It struck him as significant that Bryant mentioned Pilgrim in the same breath as Cabbage, on the subject of being interested in Berkeley’s work. They definitely needed to talk to Cabbage again, and ask him about all they’d learned, and his friends. Evan looked at Sage. He was sure she was on the same page as him.

“I’d like to know more,” said Sage, “but I guess we’ve taken up enough of your time, Jo.”

Bryant was clearly relieved to hear it. They thanked her. She led them to the exit and they headed toward the parking lot.
“I would’ve liked to have asked so many more questions,” said Sage. “I think I saw the generator for the helmet. It had a knob on it. They probably use that to set the strength of the field. You remembered you know who’s simulators too, didn’t you? I’d forgotten all about the helmets. The asylum must use advanced algorithms. That generator is stone age by comparison, to what would be needed to do what was done to us.”

“We have to talk to Cabbage again,” said Evan. “He’s a master programmer.”

“No doubt about it. We know better what to ask him now. I wish now that Lorentz hadn’t sent him to us so fast. Cabbage has probably tipped off you know who about us. We knew that he knew something!”

She pondered hard.

“But how in the world did he do it? I’m sure we’re on the right track. I’m sure the you know what was done with insanely advanced technology. But how could an Academy attendee do that, and the director not know about it? How could the expert at the Academy on technology not know about it? The expert on technology and the practices?”

They both pondered.

“I wish it wasn’t so late,” she said. “No one will be at the Academy by the time we could get back. But we can’t go to the police. We just can’t. Even if we knew who you know who is, they’d never believe our story. They wouldn’t know what to do. We’ve got to find him on our own, Evan.”

She continued to think furiously.

“You know, since his technology is so advanced, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s part of some large operation, like a huge multinational corporation is behind everything, and the you know what is just one of their experiments.”

She shuddered at the thought.

Evan didn’t care for conspiracy theories about the government, and he sincerely hoped she was wrong. Could there really be a program under development to enslave entire populations with Scious’s technology? It sure hadn’t seemed that way before. But now Sage made Evan afraid that they really were at the tip of a virtual iceberg of evil lurking below the surface.