Acoustic Waves, Battery, Fukushima, Nuclear Energy, Frequency Monitoring, Story 1, Story 2, Story 3, Carly's Story, Jesus, Dragon,

Dana's Story - Copyright 2011 Richard Collins, All Rights Reserved.

[Friday]

[Kitchen]  My name is Dana.  I just now captured a picture of someone.  His picture came into my mind so strongly that I know he must be real. 

He had his hand raised about eye level.  His head is turned slightly to his right, back towards something or someone.  I think he is leading someone. 

I recognized where he is.  That piece of woods is nearby, not more than a couple of miles from here.  Why that woods, and why that man?  Is there something unique about him, or that place, so that he comes to mind?  And why that particular moment?   I have been in that small piece of woods.  Does that have anything to do with it?  Are these images that I get limited to places and people that I have seen before?

The (young) man is about 15 years old.  He was fairly strong and reasonably handsome.  Is there any way I can find out who he is?  Should I try to go to that place myself, and look around?

Yes, I think I will.  Today.  This afternoon.

I have been getting flashes of images in my mind over the past few months.  I have never heard anyone talk about such things.  I am not sure I want anyone to know.  I am not ashamed of what I am doing, but I would like to see how it works first, before I share it with anyone.

Who would I share with, if I did?  My sister is older than me, and tends to be somewhat bossy.  I know she is smart, but I often feel she is also somewhat close minded.  She would say I am making things up, and tell me to quit wasting my time. She already graduated from high school, and will be going to college this fall.  She hasn't shown any special talents yet, just a solid personality.

My dad and mom are good people.  I mean they care about what they are doing, and they care about doing things right.  My dad works downtown somewhere.  He talks about his work sometime, but he mostly describes the people there and their problems, not so much what he does, or about the organization.  He used to work at the University, now it is something private.  But like I say, I don't know much about it.  My mom is mostly a stay at home mom.  She has a lot of part time activities, and friends.  She is active in the church.  She volunteers there several times a week.  Like I say, my parents are good people.

I have a few friends, even a few "boy" friends, but nothing serious.  I mean I like my friends, and we hang out, but they are not the kinds I want to tell about images that come into my head.  I has been too soon since this capturing started.  I barely understand it, and it does not work all the time.  Sometimes it is a bit intense too, and that worries me.

[Garage] My bike is in good shape.  I am not going to ride in the woods, it is not that kind of bike.  But I can get there OK.  I am not going to take anything with me, but I am glad I had something to eat and drink.  I should be back before dinner, but I seem to be hungrier these days.  I know I am growing still.  Does that have anything to do with these images?

Over on the other side of the church is a park, past that is a bit of a stream, not quite a river.  In between the park and the stream are some "woods".  At least that is what we call the trees there. 

[Woods] I left my bike chained to some jogging equipment, inside the park.  I think this is near where that guy was.  Just inside this small bit of trees.  It doesn't look like much.  If my image is correct, then he should have been standing just over there by that bush.  I want to be careful not disturb the ground.  I might be able to look for footprints, to see is he was really here, and to see if someone was following him.

I can see that a lot of people have walked through here.  It is part of the park after all.  That looks like dog tracks.  As I walk carefully to where I think he stood, I am in luck.  There are almost no leaves or grass here.  And there are two very clear foot prints!  Just as though someone had paused for a long moment before taking some other steps.

Very carefully now.  There are shoe marks behind him and beside him as well.  It is not clear whether someone stopped behind him and then followed.  I am not some kind of hunter, who can read tracks am I?  This is really hard.

Can I get any kind of reading here?  The image was strong and clear.  It took my breath away.  It made me stop what I was doing, so that all I could see was the image.  Let me stand here a moment and see if I can recall the image.  Maybe that will help.

He was standing here (stopped here) with his hand raised.  There was definitely someone behind him.  Was there something important about him stopping here?  Is that why I got an image just then?  Is that why I got that image?  If I stand where he did, will I feel what he was feeling?  Can I "hear" what he was thinking?  How does this work?

Yes, there is something more.  I have the original image, as well as I can remember it now.  It is already fading.  But there is something there.  I am sure that he was a real person.  That he was here exactly like I caught him.  And it was today, exactly when I caught him.

Why am I getting these images of people?  What is so important or unique about them?  Do they have any relation to me?  Who are these people?  What is so important about these moments that I should have to know about them?  I have enough going on with my life.  Is there any reason for these things to intrude on me?

Right now this is happening every few days.  So far different people, and mostly fragmentary people.  This guy in the woods is the clearest so far.  Is there a pattern yet?  I think this started several months ago, just momentary dreams or visions.  Now I am sure they are images from other people.

It is kind of like standing in a crowd. Every so often you hear a fragment of a conversation around you.  A sound or a part of a sound.  Some of it recognizable, some of it just noise.  That is what it is like.  I am "hearing" fragments of other people.  Are they talking to me?  Do they know that I can see them?  That boy did not feel like he was paying attention to me.  He was with his friends, I think.  And he just stopped for a moment.  What is so special about that?  And what happened after that?  Where is that boy now?

[Room] It is really hard to concentrate on anything.  I am glad that summer vacation is here, so I don't have homework to do any more.  But now that I am sure that these images are real, it is hard to stay focused on anything.  I want to make the images come back, but I don't know why they happen.  There doesn't seem to be anything I can do to make them happen.  The harder I try, the blanker my brain gets.  If it is like listening to whispers, then I should try to listen harder.  It is not "harder" that makes it work. What does?!

I am going to turn out the lights and lay here for a while, and see if I can hear or see anything.

[Saturday]

Drat!  I fell asleep!  And I didn't even dream anything.  Arrgh!

Let me go over this again.  Slowly.  It is like hearing people in a crowd.  People talking in a crowd.  That means they have to be talking somehow!  I have to keep listening until someone talks.  Is there any way to make this go any faster?  Can I talk to anyone else?  If they hear me will they know that it is my thoughts and not some kind of dream or brain splash?  This is so frustrating.

That boy was so clear.  Was he "talking" to me then?  Did he even know that I heard him?  Was it like he sneezed and I heard him?  Was he talking and he didn't even know it?  What do I do to send to someone else?  Would that boy hear me if I tried to talk to him?  Is that boy a loud talker, but doesn't know how to listen?  I don't know how to listen, so why would some boy?

Slowly.  I have been getting bits of images and feelings from other people for the last few months.  There is hardly ever a long piece, just a few seconds.  But that boy image, that was maybe ten seconds.  Pretty long.  I don't have any control over the images or feelings that are coming in.  Not that I can tell.  The images seem to be getting stronger, and longer, so I must be getting better at this -- even if I don't know what I am doing!

Slowly.  Can I try to listen to that boy again?  All I got was that one image from him.  In my memory, I can go back to the image/feelings again, but that is not what the boy is doing right now.  How can I listen in to him right now?

Can I find this guy?  I mean he was in the woods yesterday, does he go back there every day?  Would he be there now, or today?  Would I be able to hear his thoughts and feelings if I was closer to him?  I heard him from my house to the woods.  Does distance matter?  What matters?

[Park]  I feel a little silly and embarrassed.  I have been sitting here on this park bench for the last hour or so.  I brought a book to have something to pretend to do, and I brought something to drink.  I am glad.  But no one is here in the park at all.  The last person was half an hour ago, on a bike.  At least there are not any creepy people either.  It is sure quiet.  Too quiet.

I can cross my eyes a little and make the words go blurry.  I can pretend to read.  All the little sounds are real sounds, not something from inside.  There are car noises from down the street.  I can hear the wind in the trees a little.  I can even hear the wind in the grass a little.  Let me close my eyes a while.  The sounds are a little clearer.  It is really quiet.  I hear someone coming!

Only a lady pushing a baby stroller.  Not jogging or anything.  Just walking.  What did I hear?  I can't hear the sound of shoes.  She is wearing soft shoes.  Maybe I heard the stroller.  Yes.  Some kind of metal sound.  Eyes open, pretend to read.  My ears are a little warm and flushed.  Am I embarrassed because I was listening so hard to that lady?  Did I hear her thoughts?  Or the baby's?  Is that possible?  Was there anything coming from that lady?  Other than ordinary noises and sounds?  Can I feel anything that that woman was feeling?

More pretending to read.  More people.  A couple of moms brought their kids to play on the playground toys.  Was I ever that little?  I remember liking that roller slide a lot.  It kind of hurts as you bump along, but it is also kind of fun.  If you open your mouth and make sounds, then you can go uh-uh-uh-uh as you bump along.  Am I getting tired already?  Stay awake!

[Church]  Whew!  I am sure glad the church is so close to the park.  I shouldn't have been drinking so much in the park.  My butt was going numb too.  It is really cool inside here too, after being outside.  It is not the really hot part of the summer yet, but it is still warm.  I hardly come to the church on the weekdays, but it is always open.  The church office and the bookstore are both open it looks like.  I wonder what is going on?   I wonder what the youth counselors are doing over the summer?  I go to some of the youth programs, but not much.  I guess because my mom comes here, I will do more.

Is there anyone here that I could talk to about these feelings?  Is hearing people's thoughts and feelings a bad thing?  When God talks to you, like they say, is that like someone talking in your head?  I am pretty sure that God doesn't appear in front of you any more.  That happened in the Old Testament, but not for a long time.  Is there anywhere in the Bible where people talk about hearing voices and thoughts in their heads?  Yeah, actually, some of the saints heard voices.  Joan of Arc.  Didn't they burn her at the stake or something.   Great!  Is this something that is going to get me killed?

Yeah, and the other people who hear voices, they are crazy and they get locked up.  Bummer.

"Telepathy" is where two people talk through their minds.  That is not what is going on with me.  At least is it not a conversation (yet?).

[Room]  Hurray for the internet!  I googled telepathy and came up with the basics.  A lot of junk stuff.  Just as I expected, a lot of crazies.  Wikipedia gives "intuitive telepathy" as giving the past or present state of a person's mind.  That image I got of the boy was not just the state of the mind, because I knew where and how the arms and legs and head went.  Maybe (since the image was kind of translucent) I was seeing the state of that boy's mind.  And his mind was filled up with how his body was feeling just then.  That might give me a picture like that.

There was a picture of a guy with his head in a kind of machine called magnetoencephallography.   I know that electroencephalography is all those squiggly lines.  But that takes connecting metal electrodes to the head.  If I can sense things through the air, like, then it must be the MEG thing.  My grandma had an EEG.  I have never heard of anyone getting an MEG.

I googled magnetoencephallography and then looked at the images.  There was even a picture of a little girl inside one of those machines.  I didn't see a lot of squiggly lines.  But I saw some pictures of brains with colored patterns on them.  Is that what is inside the brain?  My brain?  Did squiggly lines from that boy's brain travel out as magnetic waves and get to my brain?  How did a whole picture of his body (well, it was a bit fuzzy), get from his brain to mine?  Those colored pictures of brain activity look too blobby, too simple to carry a complicated image, like what I saw.

There is even a picture of a baby in one of those machines!  It must be pretty safe.

The internet is good news and bad news.  The good news seems to be that people have heard of talking from one brain to another.  The bad news is that only stupid people believe it.  If I understood properly, there were even people talking about using technology to connect one brain to another.  They did talk about having a computer (or something) read a person's mind, and then do something.  They talked about having a game read a person's mind and then play the game.  Instead of a mouse, use some kind of machine.

Based on my experience, this telepathy is really flaky.  You can't cause it to happen, it just happens at random.

It just started a few months ago and it seems to be getting stronger.  If I don't learn how to use it will it go away?  Is there any way to make it happen, not by chance?

I am pretty sure now that that image I got of the boy, came from his brain and got into my brain.  It was just a moment when his brain was talking and my brain heard it.

If that is true, then those other images and feelings were other peoples' brains generating something that my brain heard.

[Sunday]

[Kitchen]  It is hard to believe so much happened over night.  Just a few searches on the internet, and I have a much better idea what is going on.  Yesterday I did not know what was going on, and now I are an expert.  Lol!  I do feel a little better though.  I almost wanted to share it with someone, but mom and dad are already gone, and my sister is still sleeping.

I think my best be is to find that boy.  His brain was the strongest brain that I have heard.

I have been thinking about what I felt when I went to the woods where he was.  I thought I felt his breathing and his heart.  But that was not possible.  That was way after I felt him for the first time.  I think it is more likely that I was bringing things from my own memory by trying very hard.  I do not think there is a way to store memories from brains.  Would they get stuck in the ground and the leaves and trees there?  Could I hear his thoughts because he left them behind in the ground?  I think it is more likely I simply tacked on new information to what I got with that first image.

Another possibility is that when I felt his breathing and his heart, that was new information coming from his brain.  Is that possible?!   Did I need to go to the woods to hear that?  If it was not stuck to the ground where he was, was it just because I was trying really hard to remember that image?   Could I get to his brain right now, just by trying really hard to remember that image?

[Room]  I googled white noise on the internet and found a site that has white noise as a service.  I turned it up as loud as possible.  It covers the little noises around the house, and it covers the street noises.  I can hear the air conditioner, but nothing else.  I am going to lie down and really concentrate.

I folded up a pillow case and put it over my eyes.  That makes it pretty dark.  At least I can't see anything. 

I pulled up the image of that boy.  It is like a glass picture of someone.  A picture of someone made out of glass.  The face is transparent and the arms and legs.  I can see through it, but not all the way through.  It does not seem to be solid.  Now it is kind of melting.  Lost it altogether.  I think I am hearing music or something in the white noise.  It almost sounds like someone is talking.  That is weird.  Now that is gone and I just hear noise.  Now it totally black with bands of whiter area around the edges.  There is something blobby white in the middle.

I got up and turned down the white noise.  It was too loud and kind of distracting.  I can still hear it, but it not making things up now.

The boy's image comes in focus, then disappears.  In focus. Disappear.  I can't keep it there all the time.  Let me try pushing.  Bring up the image. Push! to make it stronger.  That seemed to work.  How about again.  Bring it up, push!  Bring it up, push!  Again!

I think I need to do something about my breathing.  Up, push, exhale.  Wait.  Inhale, up push exhale.  Again.  Again.  Again. Again.  Whoa!  Am I getting dizzy.  Breathing too deep.

Slower.  Bring up the image while inhaling.  Very gently exhale and push!  It is getting stronger!!!

I am tired!  I have been doing this for like half an hour and I am very tired.  My arms and legs are all tight and a little tingly.  I think I have been clenching my fists and straining with my leg muscles.  It doesn't hurt, but it feels like it might if I keep on like this.

I turned off the white noise and it feels like little fingers tickling me all over.  Like I have been trying to hold onto the noise.  It went away after a short time.  Funny feeling.

No wonder telepathy never works for people.  It comes and goes at random.  Just trying to get to the point where you can hear one person takes like hours.  And if that person is not saying anything, you get nothing.  What a lot of work.  Is it worth it?

[Library] This is way worse than the internet.  At least on the internet it could give me the basic definitions, even if people don't believe in it.  All this stuff about ghosts and weird phenomena.  It is like someone threw all weird things in a bag.  I know (at least I think I do) that telepathy works.  Sometimes.  But I am not going to get any instructions from the library.  I did try looking under science fiction and telepathy.  I did that on the internet as well.  I got hits on wikipedia again -- group mind.  And there was stuff on group mind and Face book.

A group mind is like that crowd of people talking.  But it seems like most people can't hear what other people are saying (in their minds). 

Is the brain talking all the time?  Can the brain talk louder at some times than others?  If that boy's brain is talking all the time, why don't I hear him all the time?

What was he doing at just that time that I caught a glimpse of what he was thinking?  I know he was standing there, but what was he thinking?  Would that make any difference.

I have to find that boy and ask him what he was thinking just then.  I have to.

=========  End Aug 26

[Friday]

[Park]  I like the swings better than the park bench.  I can see better from here, and it is a little exercise.  I like moving around.  I have been to the park every day for five days now.  It is hard to explain how important this is to me, but I realize I might not have another chance.  If I don't find that boy this summer, I may never.

There is someone coming along the bike path, someone walking.  They are alone.  At least these days of waiting have not been a full waste.  I can at least detect people now, even if I cannot read them.  I can sense whether there is a person or not.  I can count people, even if I can't read them. 

In the last week or so, there have been only three times when I got reading from other people.  Two were very weak, I think they were far away, like in another state possibly.  One was very close, but I could not figure out where they were located.  I get a sense of the surroundings, but apparently some people are not aware of where they are.  I guess people are not always thinking about where they are.  If they don't think about it, I can't read it.

My days have been slow, but not boring.  I brought books, food and water and a small blanket.  Since it is summer time, people do not think it too strange for a girl to be sitting in the park reading for hours at a time.  Mostly people drift in and out for a while, I do not always see the same people every day.  No one has bothered me.  No one even seems to notice me very much.

I did find a fiction book that talks about mindspeech.  The people in the stories are able to talk to horses, or something like horses.  They just seem to start doing it one day when they meet.  They get training in it, but it just seems to happen.  Some people have mindspeech and others do not.

There are not a lot of kids my age in the park.  A lot of adults and younger people jogging and biking, but they don't stop in the park.  A lot of toddlers and little kids on the playground.  And their mothers.  So far I have not seen anyone in the woods where he was before.   No one has even gone in there.  Some guys were playing with a frisbee and got kind of close, but they were older.

When I close my eyes I can feel the people around the park.  I can sense where they are as they move around.   I am pretty good at this.  It is not what I started out doing, but it is a useful skill.  I tried to see if I could get people outside the park, but I have a limited range it seems.  I can sense the people that I can see, or who are close by.  It is like fuzzy balls in my head, moving around.

One little girl was running around the park, her mother was watching her.  I closed my eyes and was able to keep track of the little girl, even with my eyes closed.  I would wait until she had moved a long way, then open my eyes to see if that was actually where she went.  I did not make any mistakes.  She is one of the bright ones.  Some people are brighter in their minds than others.  I tried to read her mind, but she was moving to much.  I am really slow still.  It takes a lot of work to focus on one person.

I went into woods a ways.  There is a path that runs through there.  It is not an official path, since there is no sidewalk or bark or anything.  But people walk through here.  I wonder where it leads?  I do not want to be away from the park too long, I will follow it another day.

It is late in the afternoon, and three people went near the trees.  It was two girls and a young boy.  Not the guy I am looking for.  Could they be the people following?  But they did not go into the woods.  They were just close by.

[Kitchen]  My mom hasn't said anything yet about me going to the park.  My dad doesn't know, or really care.  I usually read a lot in the summers, so the only unusual thing is doing it in the park.  I have a few chores to do, like running the dishwasher, but they don't take very much time.  I am glad I have snacks, because I get hungry during the day.  The park is a safe area, so I ran over to the church to use their bathrooms and did not have to take my things with me.  I thought I would get really bored, but it is not really so bad.  Watching people in the park and reading are not so bad.  I feel like I am making some progress with mind skills.

[Room]  The last three times I got mind readings, they were very short.  Kind of like someone coughing or sneezing or laughing during a conversation.  Short and then nothing.  I have been practicing going into my breathing/pushing mode when I get anything like that.  I think I am starting to get longer readings, and slightly more detailed readings.  When I capture an image, it is getting more detail.  Even though those two readings were really far away (just weak and out of sight?), I could tell that one was a girl and one was a boy.

How come I get a lot more children and young people?  Are adults and older people not talking with their minds?  Why did I not hear people before when I was younger?  Why is it starting now?  Will it go away when I get older?  What is it that my day always says? "Use it or lose it"  I am not sure what he is talking about, but I think he means if I don't learn to use this now, I will lose it.  If I don't work really hard to learn how to do this now, I will never have a chance again in my whole life.

I laid down on the bed and closed my eyes.  It doesn't take me long now to get a smooth black image.  I see a lot of little dots and blobs moving around.  It is like I can see in three dimensions.  That big blob downstairs is my sister.  Just a blob that stays the same most of the time.  I think she is on the computer or watching television.  When I have my eyes open, then there is too much coming in and I lose track of these dots.  Is there any way to make this easier?  Is there any way to zoom in on a dot?  I have been trying to do that for the last couple of days.

My sister's blob is like that white noise.  It is generally circular and fuzzy around the edges.  It is all about the same colors), and it does not change a whole lot.  The shape changes so sometimes it is kind of long and skinny, other times it is even squarish.  Sometimes it disappears altogether.  I can tell it is my sister somehow.  When mom is here, I can tell the difference between my sister and my mom - most of the time.  My dad is hard to read.  He is a lot smaller and sharper.  My mom is smaller than my sister and darker.  My mom and dad do not change a lot.  They are just kind of there, but I can see some changes in color and darkness or lightness.

I tried stretching myself so I can see the people next door and down the street.  When a car goes by, or I hear people talking, I try to stretch out and see if I can see them as well.  So far not much luck.  Really big blobs for the most part, they just come and go without any pattern.  I think I am using my eyes too much, and not using my brain enough.

[Church]  I ran into one of the youth ministers today.  He and his wife run one of the programs I am in at the church.  He is really nice and has a big smile.  On the spur of the moment, I asked him if he had ever heard of anyone reading minds.  He was kind of shocked for a moment, then laughed and said "No!".  Then he laughed again and turned away as though it were some kind of joke I made up. But before he walked away, he did say that he thought it would be kind of cool, he would sure like to be able to read his wife's mind sometimes.  So I guess he doesn't believe in it, but isn't strongly against it.  Maybe it is OK.  I doubt he has any idea how hard it is. 

If this is happening to me, does it happen to everyone?  Those little blobs are hard to see.  It might not occur to anyone to try and see with your eyes closed.  How do you know if you are doing it right?  I think I read somewhere about people who can sense where other people are.  I can do that now.  Is it a common thing?

[Park] I found him!!  He and a couple of friends came into the park and immediately went into the trees.  They must be following that path.  Why didn't I go down it yesterday!?  I will have to run to catch them.  They are moving pretty quickly.  They must know where they are going.

I ran into the trees and stopped when I got there to let my eyes adjust.  I tried to see if I could track the three with my brain.  I got a fuzzy picture.  They are still ahead of me somewhere, and moving.  I started running through the trees following the path, and heading in their direction.  It is not too far, and I hope to catch them.

There are three of them.  The boy is leading them in single file.  It is like they are running too.  Why are they going so fast!  Can I catch them?  I have to!

I saw them as they came out of the trees and started over a small bridge.  They are walking a little, not running.  I ran harder to catch up and I called out to them.  Wait!  Stop!

Stop!  Stop!  Wait!  They did not know that someone was calling them at first.  Then they slowed down.  Then they stopped.  I caught up with them.  They were looking at me.  Who is this?  What do you want? their faces said.  I did not know what to say.

"What is your name?  Where do you live?  Where were you going?  Were you here in the woods last week?  Where were you going then?  I have been looking for you all week".  It all came out in a rush.

I bent over catching my breath.  I closed my eyes and looked at him with my brain for just a few seconds.  Yes!   I could see him.  This is the boy I saw in the woods.  I could just see the other two.

When I stood up to face them, I could see his face now.  It certainly seemed to fit in the image I had of him.  He was a little taller than me and a little bigger.  He had light colored hair, sort of a light brown.  His eyes were brown and greenish.  His hand was up by his face in a signal to the other two.  He was their leader.  He was telling them to wait.  Just like he was that day in the woods.

He was smiling at me, just a little.  How often does a stranger run after you and ask you your name?  His eyes were wide, looking at me.  He was not going to run away.

"Hello.  My name is Jack.  What is your name?  Were you following us?  We are running, it is kind of a game.  Yes, we were here last week.  How did you see us?"  He was not in such a rush.  He was waiting for me to catch my breath.  He seemed like a kind person.

Jack!  Now I had a name.  Now I had my breath back.  I closed my eyes for a moment and looked again.  He was still there.  He was very bright.  His mind was very bright.  And his dot was clear, almost like a picture of himself.

"Hello.  My name is Dana.  I saw you in the woods last week and wanted to meet you.  I wanted to know what you were doing in the woods.  Just before you were coming out of the trees you stopped.  What happened?  Why were you standing there like that?  Were these two with you then?"

"Didn't you see them before?  Yes, these are the same people who were with me last week.  This is Jerry and Edith, my cousins.  I am visiting here for the summer.  We were practicing cross country running.  I did stop in the woods, we were coming to the end of our run, and there were people in the park in our way.  I did not want us to run over anyone.  We walked out of the woods, because there were people in the way.  We had to stop very quickly.  We started running again on the jogging path.  Where were you?  I do not remember seeing you in the park."

He did not seem to think it strange that a stranger would come up to him and start this kind of conversation.

I bent my head and looked down.  How do I tell him this?  Will he think I am strange?  I looked back into his eyes.  "I was at home when I saw you.  I got a picture in my head.  It was so real.  I knew where the woods were.  I came and looked and found your footprints.  I have been waiting here every day since then to find you."

His cousins had come up beside him by now.  The three of them were looking at me.  There was surprise and a little worry on their faces.  They were starting to look around them to see if anyone was nearby.  We all made sure there was room on the bridge for others to get by.  No one was there.  We were just worried about others all of a sudden.

"How could you see me from your house?  Is it nearby?  Why would you want to meet me, if you just saw me running by?  Is there something wrong?"

"My house is over on Grove Street, about a mile or so from here.  I was standing in my kitchen and all of a sudden I got a picture in my head of you here in the woods.  It was so clear I knew it was real.  This sort of thing has been happening to me more and more often.  I wanted to see if it was real.  I wanted to know if that picture of you was real.  I wanted to know if the pictures in my head were real."  I was saying these things very clearly and very slowly.  I wanted more than anything for them to believe me.  Not to disbelieve me.

"You say you were somewhere else and you saw me here?  How is that possible?"

"I am not sure.  I am pretty sure it is real.  I have been practicing and I have been trying to track down any other pictures."

Now they were all leaning back from me a little.  They thought I was crazy.

"I did see the picture!  I found you, didn't I?  I have been here all week looking for you.  I thought I was crazy sometimes.  But I found you, didn't I? "

That seemed to sink in to them.  I didn't look crazy.  Just like an ordinary young girl.  I think they were a couple of years older than me.

Jack looked at me with a question in his eyes.  Now what do we do?  He seemed to be saying.

"I am not sure what to do now.  I only thought as far ahead as finding you.  I am not sure what to do now.  I wanted to know if there was something special about you that I could see pictures of you in my mind.  When I "look" at you now with my brain, I see you clearer than other people. There is something different about you.  I wanted to know what that was.  Can you see with your mind too?  What is special about you?  Why did I see you like that?"  It was hard to explain to him.

"Can you read my mind?  I was just thinking those things.  Not about being special, but why were you looking for me."  Jack said.

 "I figured that if we could meet, I could find someone who could read minds, and you would like teach me."  I said.

All this time and neither of his cousins had said anything.  His cousin, Edith, said, "Why don't you give us your name and address and phone, and we can get in touch with you later.  Then you and Jack can take some time to talk this out.  I know this is important to you, but we are supposed to be back for dinner soon.  If we don't start now, we will be late.  Would that be OK?"

Edith had a cell phone, so I told her my name again and my number.  She saved it and promised they would call me soon.  "Goodbye for now.  We will see you later"  They seemed to reassure me.  Then they started running again.  And were soon out of sight.  I walked back to the main park again, picked up my things, and went home.

[Room]  When I close my eyes and try to picture Jack, I get two kinds of pictures.  One is like he was right next to me.  The other is like a 3D image with dots that are close or far.  I am pretty sure I can see him at his cousins' house.  I think I see his cousins too, but they are darker and kind of smudgy.  They all seem fairly nice.  I am glad they did not get mad at me, or think I was stupid.  At least they seemed to treat me OK, even if it is a little weird.  I wonder when they are going to call.

What am I going to tell my parents, when Jack or them calls?  Will my mom let me talk to a strange boy?  Do I have to tell my parents about the mind reading stuff?  I don't understand it myself hardly, how am I going to tell them?  Do I have to?

It is getting stronger all the time.  I can see Jack pretty clearly.  I even know where Dad is, even though he is across town at work.  I can't hear any thoughts, but I know where people are.  I kind of hear words or something from my sister.  It is kind of like someone mumbling to themselves.  They sound like words, but I cannot make them out.  Is this any good?  Is this worth anything?  Can other people do this?

I did seem to know what Jack and the others were thinking.  Even Jerry and Edith, even though I could not see pictures of them so clearly in my mind.  When I looked at their faces and bodies, I seemed to know what they were thinking or feeling.  Why is this so complicated?!

I wrote all this down in my diary.  I did not put in there that I think Jack is kind of cute.  I don't think that is appropriate.  At least that is what my mom would say.

[Living Room]  Edith called after dinner and asked for me.  We talked for just a few minutes and made plans to meet at the park again tomorrow.  She says that she is now a sophomore at the high school where my sister, Patricia, goes.  Edith does not know my sister, but she knew her name.  Edith's dad knows my dad.  Jerry is just a year younger than her and a freshman now.  Jack is a sophomore at his own school.

When my mom asked me about the phone call, I told her that I met a girl at the park, and we were making plans to get together tomorrow.  Mom's face told me she was thinking, "That's nice, she has been spending too much time reading and by herself.  I am glad she is getting out and seeing people."  I did not tell my mom that Edith goes to my sister's high school.  I am trying not to think too much about just getting out of 7th grade and starting 8th next year.  I do not know anyone in high school at all, except for a few girl friends of Patty's.

[Saturday]

[Park]  I met Edith and the others just around lunch time.  I brought a blanket and a few snacks.  She brought some sandwiches and we all had drinks.  If they are awkward about me being so much younger than them, it does not show up on their faces.  Though every once in a while, while we are talking, I can see the idea scatter over their faces.  They are still not sure what to make of this person who chased them down yesterday.

I am glad that Edith is taking all the effort to talk for the three of them.  Even though I first saw Jack in my mind, girls should talk to girls, mostly.  She asked me to explain again what is happening and why I wanted to meet Jack.

I explained that over the past few months I had started getting pictures in my head  that did not seem to be just memories.  They were pictures of people I had not seen, and they seemed to be getting stronger.  When I got the picture of Jack, it was very strong and clearer than the rest, and for some reason I recognized the place where he had stopped in the woods.  Since it was a place I recognized, I decided to there and check it out to see if that would help me know if the pictures of Jack were real.  I explained how I had gotten to the park and found the foot prints of Jack in exactly the place I recognized.  I told them about googling things on the internet, and going to the library.  I mentioned that I was practicing to see if I could make myself see pictures, and that I was learning (I think) how to track people just using my mind.  I told them how I could "see" each of them when I closed my eyes, and how I could also "see" the people in the park a little bit, but not quite as well.  I told them I know where my sister, and mother and father were at, but that I could not see what they were thinking or doing at that moment.  I told them about coming to the park every day, learning to keep track of the people in the park.  I told them about trying to find Jack by looking with my mind, and how hard it is to keep images in my mind.  I mentioned the white noise and the breathing exercises.  I told them about seeing Jack and you two running through the park, and then chasing after.  Then I stopped.

I was kind of surprised that they did not immediately start asking questions, but began discussing this among themselves.  Jack said he thought that googling was a good idea, and he was going to look into that stuff about the MEG, and could I spell magnetoencephallography for him.  Edith asked me how I thought of the breathing exercises, and I told her that is was hard to stay focused and breath at the same time.  She said that she had heard about breathing in her mom's yoga class, and thought it was a good idea.  All of them were certain they had heard about people reading minds, but like me they had mostly heard negative things about it.  They had never heard of anyone doing it.

One question I had was about Jack.  I wondered whether he could read minds as well as be a good sender.  I was a little embarrassed to ask him to try to read me.  He closed his eyes a little and said he was trying to "see" with his eyes closed, but he did not seem to see anything at that time.  None of them had ever noticed extra images in their heads that did not belong there, but said mostly when they were awake their eyes were open and those were the images they could see.  At night when they closed their eyes, they were mostly going to sleep, or dreaming.  Maybe they were getting images and they showed up as dreams?  They all agreed to try on their own to see if they could do something like what I was describing.

When I tried to look at their faces to read what they were thinking, it mostly seemed pretty ordinary.  I knew what we were talking about and what they were likely going to ask or say.  I could see when their eyes would kind of wander as they were thinking about something else.  Mostly I knew what they were thinking, but that was pretty ordinary, it didn't mean that I was reading their mind.  It just meant that some of what they were thinking showed on their face.  It was kind of awkward to close my eyes while we were talking, but I managed a few times, and I could see them more clearly, now they were nearby and I could also hear their voices and open my eyes and see their faces.  So maybe my memory of them was getting better, or maybe I was picking up something of what was going on in their minds too.

I did ask them if they thought anyone had discovered this before.  They said that the "mind readers" in circuses and such were probably fakes.  They did say that it would be useful to find a teacher or someone who could do this for real.  Jack joked that they already had someone who could do it for real, and looked pointedly at me.  The others kind of laughed at that, but their faces were saying that was true.  My face got a little warm to be looked at like that. It made a little smile come on my face.  It is a little awkward being so much younger than these people.  I wondered if they would ever have talked to me otherwise.  They seemed real nice to me.  I did not feel like they were lying or something.

After we had eaten and talked a while, we split up.  They were going to ride their bikes home and then go running again later.  We promised to get together in a few days.  It was the weekend coming up and they were doing stuff with their families.

Jack did say to me that he thought I should consider telling my parents about what I was doing some time.  He did not know if it was the right time, yet, or how best to approach it.  He just thought it might be a good idea.  So far, no adults knew what I was doing.  They might be helpful.  They were not too likely to get mad.

===========  End Aug 27

[Room]  I am happy just to be here alone for a while.  Today was pretty stressful.  I am glad I found Jack and the others, but it is hard talking with them, since I do not know exactly what to say.  I wonder if or when I should tell my parents.

When I close my eyes now, almost immediately I start to see the 3D view of people nearby.  If no one is near, I stretch to see how many I can find.  It is pretty automatic now.  I just close my eyes and I can check where people are.  It is hard to read much off the little dots.  I have not learned how to easily zoom in to find out more detail.  I think that is possible, and I think I have done it a few times, but nothing seems to work quite the same way twice.  The dots are pretty consistent, but the zoom is not.

I can see my dad, mom and sister pretty easily.  Their dots are more like blobs.  They change from time to time, but somehow I know which blob is my dad and which my sister and which my mom.

When I watch the blob of my sister, I seem to see changes.  Like right now she is reading.  I am pretty sure she is not sleeping.  It is not very late.  I will check.

I was right, she is reading.  I asked her what it was, but I did not recognize the author or title.  I am just happy that I could tell what she was doing.

It is kind of nice to see the dots, and to be able to keep track of the family this way, but it does not seem very important or exciting.  I was hoping that when I met Jack I would just start reading minds or something.  I did get a better feel for him and Edith and Jerry, that was an improvement.  But I still can't "read minds" like I thought.  Isn't reading minds or mindspeech like talking with your brain to someone else's brain?  I feel there is some improvement, but what is this useful for? 

I thought I could use this to find lost kids, or something.  But I have to know the kids first, in order to find them, and they have to be close by.  And we don't have that many kids that get lost.  I don't have a car to go looking.  Not very practical or useful for that.

Actually reading minds might be possible if I get better.  I could tell that Patty is reading.  Will I get to the point where I can tell exactly what she is reading, like the individual words? I will try to think of other things that I could use this for.

[Sunday]

[Church]  We came to the 11:00 o'clock service at church today.  We usually go to the 9:00 am service, but we were all running late this morning.  I usually go to the earlier one because that is when most of the youth services are held.  This summer the schedule is a little odd, a lot of kids are gone on summer vacations and retreats.  I said hi to a lot of kids from school, but I am sitting with my family this morning.  I know my dad likes us to all be together as a family like this.  It feels kind of nice.

Jack and his cousins and their family all came in a big bunch and filled in a row ahead of us.  They were even later than us, and took a row near the front.  I can see them all pretty clearly.  There are four adults.  I think that is his uncle and aunt, his parents, then Jerry and Edith.  That little girl could be another one of Jack's cousins, or she could be Jack's little sister.  He did not mention any other brothers and sisters, but we did not get around to talking about family that much.

While we are waiting for the service to start, I pretended to pray.  It gave an excuse to close my eyes for a long time.  I am looking at Jack and his family to see what their blobs looks like.  Jack is very clear and seems to have a lot of detail.  It is almost like looking at him directly with my eyes.  His "mom" and "aunt" are sitting together, and all the kids are on one end, and then the two men (dad and uncle?) are sitting at the other end.  Both of the men are dark blobs without a lot of form.  I can see them, but not much happening.  Both of the adult women (aunt and mom) are clear like Jack, just not so bright.  The little girl shines brighter than Jack!  The other kids are dark.

Does this light and dark go in families?  Is it inherited, passed on from one generation to the next.  If that little girl is Jack's sister, that would make sense.  Especially if her mom is kind of light too.

When I opened my eyes at the end of my "prayer", I looked with my eyes at Jack's family again.  For just a brief moment, I could still see some of the colors and textures associated with each person.  Now that is useful!  It would be great if I could see what people's mental state was like without having to close my eyes.

When I was looking at Jack's and Jerry's and Edith's faces while they were talking.  I saw their face with my eyes, but I also saw something about what they were thinking.  So maybe I can develop a way to see both ways - brain and eyes, together.

I was hoping the sermon would have something to say that would be related to what I was going through right now.  It was thoughtful and fact filled as usual, but not particularly relevant.  Our rector is well known for his sermons, and it is something I usually look forward to.  Usually the youth ministers take care of most of the youth services, so this is kind of unusual for me to hear the rector.  Still I wish he could have come up with a sermon on how people should learn to read other peoples minds, and why this is a good thing.

After the sermon, there were some prayers for the people who needed it.  I closed my eyes again, and this time I tried to see if there were other bright people in the congregation.  We have about 800 people in each service, so I did not get very far.  I turned around to look behind me as well.  It is hard with so many people to sort out blobs.  With my eyes closed, I could only see a few blobs, and there were hundreds of people.  When I could look at people with my eyes, then close my eyes to look at them the other way, then I could tell which blob went with which person.  I saw only three likely ones, and they were not as bright as Jack's mom and aunt.  That little girl is the brightest in the entire place -- at least of the people that I could see and check over during the prayers. 

The prayers were over before I could even see maybe a hundred people.  I think I am going to come to church more often, just to look for bright people.  I did not recognize any of the bright ones that I discovered today. Those three could be here for the summer, or strangers, or always come to the 11:00 o'clock service.  There are just too many people for me to know here.

After church, I asked mom to wait for me a few minutes, then went up to say hello to Edith and the rest.  At first I started to run up there, but I saw that they were not in a great hurry, so I just hurried.  I caught up with Edith as she got to the end of the row, and said hi.  Her face lit up with a big smile when she recognized me, and immediately showed Jack and Jerry that I was there.  We all greeted each other, but we did not start talking about what we had done at the park.  In a few moments, the two older women came to end of the row, and I could tell which one was Jack's mom by her face.  I chance a quick eye closing, so I could "see" the mom and aunt more clearly.  They were almost the same brightness, but Jack's mom looked like Jack.

I felt a little frustrated, that I did not have time to really "look" at everyone.  There were definitely family resemblances in the brain pictures as well as the eyeball pictures.

I was right.  Jack's mom is really nice and I got the right person.  His dad is quiet.  His uncle is a little louder and smiles a lot.  I particularly wanted to meet the little girl.  She was shy, and kind of hiding behind Jack.  Her name is Carly, and she was, indeed, Jack's younger sister.  All right!  These brain pictures and blobs really do work.

We talked so long that my mom and family ended up following me.  They introduced themselves to Jack's and Edith's families.  My dad did know Jack's uncle.  They were both surprised to find that they went to the same church.  Well... there are so many people, and we usually go to the earlier service.  Yes, they usually went to the later service.  Edith and Jerry were not involved in the youth programs very much.  It was quiet and comfortable talking with them.  Lots of smiles all around.  It is nice meeting people who go to your same church and have kids the same age.

We had got to the point where we were all thinking about going home, when Edith asked her mom, if I could come over for brunch today.  I turned to my mom, and she hesitated, then said OK.  Edith's dad suggested, "Why don't you ride home with us now, and then we can bring you back home later?"  My mom said that would be OK and no rush, it is summer after all.  I think my mom is just glad I found a girl friend, and it was good that they went to the same church.

[Car] So I ended up riding over to Edith's house with her mom and dad, and with Carly and Edith.  Jack and Jerry were with Jack's mom and dad.  Sitting close to Carly, I could feel every little edge and nook of her brightness.  I closed my eyes, and it was like she lit up the inside of the car.  Her blob stretched out and touched everyone in the car.  I could see where she and her aunt were overlapping.  I wondered if that meant they were talking with their minds or feeling the same things.

When I opened my eyes, there was Edith looking at me directly with a big smile on her face.  Her face told me that she knew what I was doing, and she made me promise to tell her when we got to her house.  I nodded my head and agreed.

[Edith's House]  Their house had a big living room with high ceilings.  It was open and nice feeling.  I was glad that Carly went along with me and Edith to Edith's room.  The boys went outside to play a game I think.  Edith's room had a lot of stuffed toys and posters.  I guess all girls like things like that.  Carly was really quiet.  I was beginning to worry that I would never get her to say anything, when Edith mentioned soccer, and Carly's eyes lit up.  I could not miss a chance, so I did a long blink to see that her blob got brighter too.  I never played soccer on a team, so I was not sure about some of the things she was saying, and she really got into the details of how the game is played.  But she was excited, and that came through really clear.

I wonder if this is all random, or if it means anything.  There are these people who are bright when I look at them with my mind.  Does it mean anything?  It is just random like hair color or eye color?  Is it just a natural kind of thing that some people have brains that light up their whole bodies, and other people have sort of gray lights?  Can one of the gray blobs sometimes light up really bright, as bright as Carly?  My sister, Patty, is mostly a gray blob.  Does she have times when she is excited where her blob changes color too?

We talked a long time, and I learned that Carly and Edith both had a lot of interests, in clothes, in school, TV shows, movies, books.  I told them about the books I was reading this summer.  But we never got around to talking about mind reading.  Finally, Edith turned to me and asked me directly. "What does Carly look like?"

Carly was a bit shocked by that question, since I was sitting right next to her and could see her easily.  She seemed to know that Edith's question was about more than what she was saying.

I sort of took a deep breath, and turned toward Carly, but started talking to Edith.  "She is very bright, even more so than your mother or her mother.  In your family, Jack, your mom and your aunt are the only ones who are brighter.  Your dad and uncle and brother are all darker, more like gray blobs than bright blobs."

So then we had to explain what I was talking about to Carly.  She was kind of shocked, just for a little, then she started asking questions on her own.  "Do you have to close your eyes to see these blobs?  Do you have another name for blobs, that seems kind of yucky?   Well I am just getting used to it, and I mostly still have to close my eyes to get a good picture.  Just blinking doesn't do it, but I told about taking long blinks, and that seemed to work OK.  I told about laying on my bed and trying to see Patty's blob.  Maybe I could call it something else, but I am not sure what yet.  Could we just call it a blob for now?  Anyway, while I lay there with my eyes closed, I could take time to see if I could get some more impressions from my sister's blob.  I told them about thinking that she was reading, then checking on it.  They thought that was pretty cool, but then I told then that Patty reads a lot in the evenings, so it was not so great.  Oh well.

I asked Carly if she could read anyone's mind.  She did not think so, but said she would try looking for blobs later when she could be by herself.  I asked if she was close to her mother and her aunt, did they seem like people that she knew what they were thinking?  What about Jack, did she know what he was thinking?  Carly sat for a long time thinking about that.  Then she said that she got along with her mom really well, and with Jack really well.  Not so much with her dad, but that was because he worked a lot, not because there was anything wrong.  She also got along with her aunt really well.

She asked a very good question.  Do people who have bright blobs get along with each other better?  Can they read each others' minds?  Are bright blob people better at mind reading?  Or do their thoughts get out easier, like they are easier to read?  Or did the brightness have nothing to do with mind reading?

Was I a bright blob or a gray one?  I could not think of any way to see myself.  I had never tried.

[Outside]  Edith's mom called upstairs to get us all outside for the barbeque.  Jack's dad and uncle were standing by the grill cooking sausage and burgers.  They did this sort of thing pretty often when they got together.

Jack and Carly lived in Somerville, which is a couple of hours, not the sort of trip to take every weekend.  They were coming to pick up Jack after he had been staying for a couple of weeks.  So Jack would be leaving after we finished eating!!  Oh no!  I haven't even had a chance to talk with him yet.  Not really.  I knew there were more people like Jack now.  I knew there were probably some in my church, if I could get to meet them.  Three of the people that I knew with very bright blobs were leaving soon!  What can I do?

Everyone was talking to everyone else.  This was a close family and they liked getting together.  Jack and Jerry were good friends as well as cousins.  Carly and Edith liked getting together too.  The mom's were friends and sisters.  The dad got along well too.  If they are leaving today, there will be other chances.  They will probably come back again.

I think that Carly and Edith are both interested in blobs now.  I haven't had a chance to talk with Jack or Jerry today.  Are they still interested?  Are they interested at all?

Before we started eating, I ran into the bathroom for a moment.  While I was there I closed my eyes and tried to visualize all of the people here.  Jack and his sister stood out.  And the aunt and mom pair as well.  I could tell that Carly was talking to her mom.  As I watched them, I could see their blobs expanding and changing while they were talking.  I cannot tell what they are talking about, but I can tell that is what they are doing.  I could see a blob for every member of the families.  Some were gray and some were a bright golden yellow.  They were all about the same size, but Carly was brighter and stretched farther than anyone.  All people seem to have blobs, some are just different colors.

Lunch/Brunch was really good.  I liked the potato salad the Carly's mom had made earlier.  Now I had something to eat, I am not so anxious.  If I don't get to see them again, for a while, that is OK.

Edith must have seen something on my face about what I was thinking, because she came up and asked me if I was not feeling well.  I said no, I was OK, just I was feeling a little sad that I had just gotten to know Jack and Carly and everything, and they were going to be leaving soon.  I hadn't really got a chance to talk to Jack.  Yes, I was feeling a little sad.

[Room]  Carly called me!  They just got home, and all the way home in the car they had talked about mind reading.  Jack and his mom both said they were going to try to see blobs too.  And they were all going to see if they could read minds.  Everyone was either excited or serious about it.  Carly's mom said that I might want to google "aura" and see what they say.  "Is it possible you are seeing people's aura?"

I googled "aura" and got a lot of hits.  Wikipedia is usually a good starting point, so I read their article on aura (paranormal).  It had a lot of information.  Some of it I don't believe.  Some of it sounds right, and some of it sounds wrong.  When I see blobs, I have my eyes closed.  When I look at someone's face and seem to get thoughts, my eyes are open but it seems like there is something twinkling around their face.  When I see someone like Carly standing next to me, it is almost like I am looking at her even with my eyes closed.  The blob sometimes looks exactly like the person.  Sometimes it looks like a dot or a blob.  I will try to see if I can see an aura around people with my eyes open.

I think that an aura might be a combination of the eye image and the brain image.  It just looks like they are part of the same picture.  My eye image is part of it.  My memory of eye images is part of it.  My brain image is part and my memory of the brain image is part.  All stirred up together.

I googled aura and looked at images.  There was one picture of two people standing next to each other.  Each person had a blob around them and the blobs were kind of overlapped.  The blob surrounded the body.  When I see blobs and people, sometimes the blob would be inside the body and sometimes it would be outside the body.  I did not see any google image that matched closely with what I am seeing.  I googled "aura photography" and found some images where a person is sitting there with a colored blob around them.  The colored blob is the aura.  The picture of a person is the eye picture of that person.  Is the aura the brain image of a person?  Can eye images and brain images overlap?  Yes, I think so, since the eye and the brain are always running, always gathering in images.

Could it be that eye images are combined with brain images?  Like when I close my eyes, get an image of someone's blob, then open my eyes again to see that person.  The memory of the brain image is overlapped with the eye image.  Or maybe I am training my brain to take images, and they are getting so bright that I can see them with my eyes open?  Oh drat!  There is so much to learn.

I googled aura colors.  There were some pictures there that seemed interesting.  Mostly they show different color blobs around people.  Some of them show shining light coming from the eye image.  My blobs are either gray or yellow.  The brightness I see is mostly yellow or golden.  I do not see any other colors.  Of course I have not really been looking for colors either.

When I captured that first image of Jack, it was like a clear, golden eye image of him.  It was like I was standing so close to him that I could not see all of him.  Just the upper portion, his chest and face and hands.  It was only after thinking about it that I added legs and arms.  So the initial image was like an eye image, and I filled in with memories of eye images.

Before I sleep, I want to take a close look at Patty's aura/blob.  I want to see if there are any colors.  I am going to have to tell my family what I have been doing.  Now that Jack's family knows, it won't be long before Edith's family does to.  I am sure my dad is going to talk to Edith's dad pretty soon.  I will tell my parents and Patty soon.

Patty is dark gray, almost black, with tiny flickers of green.  Very dark green.  My mom is dark gray with some hints of white or bright yellow.  My dad is a very dark blue.  That doesn't seem like what I saw before, but then I haven't been trying to see colors too much.  I just try to see detail.  Trying to see color is looking for a particular kind of detail.  It seems easier.  I will try looking for colors on everyone.

As I watch Patty, I see the flickers of green more easily.  They are in constant motion.  They get brighter and darker.  There are bits of other colors too, but too faint or too fast to see.

[Monday]

[Kitchen]  This is the first day I do not have anything planned.  All last week I was at the park looking for Jack.  Once I met him, a lot has happened.  I have met eight new people, and I think I have friends with four of them.  I particularly like Carly.  She is a little younger than me I think, but she is really interesting and funny.  Edith is older, but she listens real well and she is very kind.  I wonder what they are going to learn as they try to see blobs/auras.  I would like to get to know Jack better, and maybe Jerry.  But they are boys and I am not sure what to say.  Maybe if we get more involved in auras and such, there will be more things to talk about.

I think I will go to the park again and see what kind of auras/blobs are there.  I would like to find more bright ones, or maybe some with interesting colors.  I also want to see people when they are talking.  I want to see if their blobs merge.

Patty just came downstairs for breakfast.  My mom is drinking coffee in the dining room.  When we are all at the table, I ask them what they know about auras.  "Have you ever heard of things called auras?"  "Aura's, like those Indian things?"  "You mean like ghosts?"

"Well, I googled it last night and got some stuff about the paranormal, and aura colors and such.  The idea seems that some people can see colored lights around people.  That this light is part of people.  I wondered if that is real, and what it is good for".  I said, "You can google aura, then look at images.  I don't think the images are that good, but you can get some idea what they are talking about".

My mom said, "I am not sure.  I thought it had to do with something mystical or something.  Or I thought it had something to do with taking drugs and seeing colors."  I said, "They mentioned something about both of those possibilities in the Wikipedia article, but that doesn't seem to explain what it is good for."  "I guess my question is, if there are auras, what are they good for?  Does it matter whether you can see them or not?"

They both did not seem to know what to say, so I asked them a little more directly.  "Do you think that there are people who can read minds?"  My mom said, "Whoa, where did that come from?"

I said, "Well, I was thinking about seeing auras, and what they could be good for.  I wondered if they would change when people are talking or doing stuff, or when they are thinking about different things.  If they changed maybe you could read someone's mind.  Something like that."  My mom said, "Is this what you have been reading about this summer?  I know you have been at the park all last week, reading.  Is that some of what you are reading?"

I said, "Well, yes, sort of.   I did read some books about people who could mind speak they called it.  It was a fantasy book with magic and such, but I did get to thinking about whether people could mind speak for real, and how they would go about it.  When I talked to Carly and Edith about it yesterday, they were the ones who suggested that I google aura.  We were just knocking around ideas.  In the stories, they just throw in that people can do this.  But that is not very satisfying.  I want to know how it is done, and how people could learn something like that."

Patty had been silent to this point, but she had been listening.  She said, "You are right.  I think I know those books you are talking about.  They just suppose that people can do it, and go on with the story.  They never tell you how people started doing this in the first place.  They never tell you that there was a first person who learned it.  In fact there had to be two people, if there was to be true mind speech.  Dana, that is a pretty interesting idea.  What are you going to do next?"

"I am not sure.  I think I want to run upstairs and google mindspeech.  I am surprised I haven't done it already.  But I am going to think more about it.  Maybe something will come to me.  Mostly I read about telepathy"

My mom said, "Yes, telepathy!  That is all fake isn't it?" 

I said, "Well, I am not sure.  The Wikipedia article was really long and there were some things that sounded likely, and others that sounded unbelievable.  I am not sure."

"Patty?"  I asked.  "If you were going to try mindspeech with someone, how would you go about it?

Patty said, "Telepathy is part of parapsychology.  I seem to remember reading about how psychologists went about testing people for telepathic abilities.  There was something about cards and trying to guess which card someone else was seeing."

"That's kind of cool.  You mean you get a deck of cards, then try get a picture of what someone else is seeing?" 

[Room]  I think I am going to talk to Patty some more.  She had some good suggestions already.  She does not seem to be against the idea.  I felt that mom was kind of against the idea of mindspeech, she really came down hard on telepathy.  I wonder why she thinks that way.  I do not necessarily think I am right, but I do not want to be thought wrong before I even get started.

I googled mindspeech and found a short wikipedia article on it.  They talk about science fiction mostly.  There was one guy who learned how, but he got his from an alien species.  In the story I read, there were already some teachers who knew how.

I went back and read the article on telepathy.  Too much there still.  I did click on parapsychology.  That is a really long article.  I got kinda lost reading it.  But one picture next to "Ginzfeld experiments" caught my eye.  They used white noise for the receiver.  They used a deck of cards.  And they had someone trying to transmit.

One thing I got from the article, is that a lot (most?) people consider this to be junk science or hoaxes.  I think that some of the people tried to be even handed.  But "real scientists" don't touch parapsychology seems to be the message.  The article ends with "criticism and controversy".

OK. I need a deck of cards.

[Park]  Most people have blobs/auras that are mostly black and a little bit of color.  The dark blobs might be simply dark colors.  My dad is dark blue for instance.  I saw one mom and her little girl today.  The girl was bright yellow gold, and the mom was kind of ordinary dark gray.  Real little kids seem to have more colors than adults.  They are not bright overall, but seem to have splashes of color that come and go.  Once I see (with my regular eyes) someone come to the park, then I close my eyes and try to find their blobs.  It is a lot easier than it sounds.  I can sit on the swing and watch people, then it is easy to close my eyes and swing for a little bit without anyone noticing.  With my eyes closed, if I see their blob moving around, I can peek for just a bit with my real eyes and see if they have moved around for real.  There is a close connection between the blobs and the real people.  I can track a blob all over the park.  When joggers come down the path.  I can track them with no problem.

I am worried that my blobs are simply eye image memories.  That I am simply seeing in my mind a blob to represent the people that I just saw with my real eyes.  I am not seeing them with my brain, I am just seeing a memory of them.  And when I am tracking them around the park, maybe I am just tracking them by the sounds they make.

Well, that was easy to check!  I brought my MP3 player with some music.  I haven't been listening because I wanted to hear people too.  When I turned up the sound I could still track the joggers and the other people in the park.  Their blobs go exactly where I think they are going.  If a little kid is running, I can close my eyes for a few minutes and track with my mind.  When I open my eyes, they are exactly where they ended up, and where I tracked the blob.  This stuff works!

I guess a people locator might be useful if there was an avalanche or something.  Of if there was a disaster and there were buildings all knocked down.  I am not sure I want to be in a situation like that.

[Kitchen]  Patty and mom are both gone.  I think I am just going to read for a while.  I closed my eyes anyway, and checked for people nearby.  I can just see the people in the houses next door.  Since their houses are almost exactly like ours, I can almost guess which room they are in.  The people in the house on the next street behind us are just dots.

I will have to get Carly's email address.  I want to ask her and Jack and the family to try reading cards to each other.  I will try it with Patty.

==========  End Aug 28

[Tuesday]

[Patty's Room]  Patty was home today, so we are trying to find a way to test mind reading.  We have a deck of cards, but neither one of us thinks that is going to work.  The problems is that she nor I know how to send thoughts, and even though I can see blobs and such, I don't know how to receive actual thoughts.  So we are sitting around talking about different possibilities.

Patty said, "Can you see details on the blobs?  Do you sense any thoughts at all?"   I said, "Yes, I can see some shapes and some colors on blobs.  For some people, some of the time, it is like I am looking at them, but I do not see any thoughts.  Sometimes when I look at a person's face, I seem to see or hear or understand thoughts.  What did you have in mind?"

Patty said, "Well, do you want to see thoughts, or do you want to hear them?  It sounds like you can see people, but wouldn't you have to hear them to get their thoughts?  If you see them, you would need like a sign language or something."   I was surprised at that.  "But I do not know sign language.  How would that work?"

"Well, look at me with your eyes closed.  Can you see me?"  She said.  "Yes, I can." I said.

"When I raise my arm can you see that?" She said.  I was watching her blob with my eyes closed.  I did not see any change, assuming she had raised her arm.  "No, I do not see any change."  I said.

"Does it matter if I move around?  Can you see that?"  She asked.  "Yes I can see you when you move around, but I don't see any arms or legs.  It is just a big blob."  I said.

"Can you see me if I sit down?  Does that change the blob any?"  She asked.  "Wait!  Try that again."  I said.

"Can you sit up and down a few times?  I think I see a little change."  I said.  After she had stood up, and then sat down on her bed a few times, I could start to see a little change in the height of the blob, or something.  "Yes, there is some change when you do that.  You are sitting down right now aren't you?"   "Yes!" she said.  But we both knew I could hear her, so that was not such a big thing.

"Can you tell which way my head is pointing?"  She asked.  "What do you mean?"  I replied.  "Up? do you mean?"

She laid out on the bed with her head pointing toward the window.  "I am going to spin all the way around.  Can you tell which way my head if pointing?"  So I closed my eyes, and followed her blob while she turned around.  "There is a definite change when you do that.  Your head is pointing toward your headboard isn't it?"  I said.  When I opened my eyes, that was exactly where she was pointed.

"So I can see your head on the blob, but not your arms and legs."  I liked her suggestions.  We just learned something more about blobs, and I have been trying them for a while.  I do not think I would have tried that.  I could not have tried that without Patty's help.  Wow!

Patty said, "I think we are making some progress.  Now close your eyes and turn around.  Look away from me altogether.  I am going to try some different things, so tell me if you see any difference".

I turned around and closed my eyes.  I got hold of her blob and watched it very carefully.  It was still mostly dark with some green.  It was sort of oblong.  I could tell that she was standing up.  "There!  What did you do?  I saw a change".  I was surprised that she had changed her blob already.  "I turned around and am facing away from you now."  She said.

"Go slowly, and turn all the way around a few times then."  I suggested.  She did it, and I could see the blob changing.  "That's it!"  I cried.  "Wow!" 

"Which way am I facing now?"  She asked.  "Toward the door", I said.  "Yes!"  she replied, a tone of excitement in her voice.

"How about turning your head now, just your head?"  I suggested.  She turned her head and said, "Did you see that?"  "No"  I said.  "I'll try it again." 

I closed my eyes again, looking away from her.  I said, "You are facing toward the door.  Turn your head to the right."  I could see her doing it.  "Now turn all the way back to the left."  She did that and I could see it, but it was not as clear when she was facing away from me.

I turned around to face her.  That seems to work.  At least I can tell the difference between where she is facing, and which way her body is pointed.

"Now I want you to try moving your arms again."  I suggested.  So I closed my eyes, and this time I could see a small difference when she said her arms were out or not.

"What seems to be going on, I think, is that you are learning how to see."  She said.  "First you had to get your top and bottom straight, then your right and left, and your directions."  She continued.

[Living Room]  We have been upstairs and downstairs, trying out all kinds of things.  My picture of her blob is improving constantly.  I can see her from any room in the house.  I can tell whether she is standing or sitting.  I can tell which way her body is facing.  I can tell which way her face is facing.  The more I do, the better I get.  It is relatively easy, but it is hard to talk to each other while we are training.

One thing that helped a lot was we have matching digital watches with timer function on them.  Patty wrote out a series of positions and postures in a list.  She stayed up in her room with the door closed.  I sat downstairs in the living room or the kitchen.  I have my watch in front of me.  She shouted out, "Start!"  and I started my time.  When I got to 30 seconds,  I wrote on a piece of paper what position or posture I saw.  At one minute, I wrote down the next, and so on.  After 10 minutes we had 20 positions, she called out "Stop!".  I wrote down the last one, then she came running downstairs with her list.

OUR LISTS WERE EXACTLY THE SAME!

"That is awesome!"  She said.  She was smiling so much, and so was I.  We both just kind of looked at each other.  I did not know what to say.  We smiled at each other again.  "Wow"

"Take a break for a few minutes."  She said, and raced back upstairs.  I was glad to have a break.  It was not hard, but it was a strain.  I was kind of tired, so I got a drink.  "Would you like some iced tea?"  I yelled.  "Yeah", I heard back.  So I got her some tea and went upstairs to her room. 

[Patty's Room]  "Give me a few more minutes."  She said.

I sat just looking out the window for a while.  She was typing away like crazy on her computer.  Eventually, I heard her printer running.  Then she brought me a page from Wikipedia.  It was marked, flag semaphore, and it showed a series of little diagrams with a person holding flags. 

"Do you think you could track my arms close enough to see which flag semaphore is being sent?"  She asked.  "I am not sure."  I responded.  It kind of gave me a sinking feeling.  I was really getting tired, and I did not want to start again on something that looked so hard.  "Could we try it later, or tomorrow?"  I asked.  "I think I want to try this on some other people too."

I learned so much in such a short amount of time.  I wanted to try looking at blobs of some other people to see if I could tell which way they were facing, and how they were standing, and such.  I sort of wanted to go back to the park, because people there were standing, and stooping and crawling and hopping and swinging.  But then again, I was kind of tired of being at the park.

"Could we go to the mall?"  I asked.

[Bus]  I tried blob watching on the bus, and I could tell when people were sitting down or standing up.  It was kind of hard, I had to keep opening and closing my eyes.  And it was noisy and the motion of the bus was unsettling.  I could do it, but I was pretty uncomfortable.  When we were just driving along in a straight line, I could sit with my eyes closed, and "see" near the bus.  I could "see" the people in their houses and in the stores.  They were mostly dots, but they seemed a little more like blobs than before.

[Mall]  At the mall, Patty and I tried walking around first, but that was really hard to do, with my eyes closed.  So we got some ice cream, and then sat down on some benches in the main part of the mall.  There were people coming and going everywhere.  I closed my eyes, and Patty kept up a running commentary on what people were doing.

"There is a mom and a toddler coming next on your right.  Behind them are three girls carrying packages.  By the fountain are two women standing and talking.  There is a little boy playing in the water.  In front of you there is a man carrying a package in each hand.  Behind him are two boys, just walking.  There is a girl looking over the railing."  She said.  And so on, and so on.

"I am getting almost all of it, I said.  "Does the little boy have his right hand in the water?"  I asked.  "Yes.  You mean you can really see that well already?"  She replied.

"Once my brain got the idea of top, bottom, right left, and so on.  It gets easier to apply it to any blob.  I guess a blob is a blob is a blob.  They are all human shaped after all."  I said.

When we finished our ice cream, we were both in a mood to do something else for a while.  So we went shopping after all.  I found a cute skirt that I was going to ask mom to get for me.  I did not have a lot of summer clothes yet.  Mom said she was going to take me, but it hadn't happened yet.  I would close my eyes and check on blobs now and then, but I already knew what I could see.  I was starting to think about the future.  Patty and I made plans to check out the semaphores on the next day.  I wanted to be fresh, so we planned to get together after mom left in the morning.

"What do you think this will be good for?"  I asked Patty.  "I do not know.  I guess we will just have to keep trying things, and find out."  She said.

"This is not mind reading, or mind speech."  I said.  "I still sort of think that mind speech is worthwhile.  But we still do not know how to do it."  I continued.

[Kitchen]  I told Patty about Carly, Jack and their parents.  She knew that I had gone to a picnic/barbeque at Edith's house over the weekend, but she had not heard any detail.  She had met all of them on Sunday at church.  I told her that Carly had called me, and told me they were all going to try looking for blobs.  Since Patty and I had discovered a lot of new information about blobs, she suggested that we try to update everyone on what we had learned.  I said that I thought about calling Carly, but then I was wondering if I would also have to call Jack.  His mom was interested too.  Would I have to call all of them?

"No, let's use Skype and use video chat to talk to them all at once.  You and I can talk to them on our end, and as many of them want to join from their end can listen and talk to us."  She said.

I called Carly, and talked with her a while.  She said they had not made a lot of progress yet, and she had a few questions.  I answered a few, then Patty got on my phone, and Jack got on her phone, and they talked out details for a Skype call.  I understood generally what they were doing, but did not know the details.  Jack was apparently going to have to get a camera for his laptop, and then we could all talk together.  Patty told him about the progress we had made that day in figuring out positions and postures.  Jack got all excited and wanted to build a website about it.  I sort of heard what they were talking about and I made a sign to Patty to slow down, and let's talk later.  She wrapped up the conversation, and we promised to do a Skype chat as soon as possible.

"They haven't been able to duplicate any of what I have done with blobs yet."  I said.  "And, you haven't been able to try to see blobs yourself, yet."  I told Patty.  "I am getting pretty good with them, and moving along, but no one else can see blobs yet.  Don't you think we should do something about that, first?"  "Yes, I guess I better try it myself."  She said.

[Patty's Room]  "I have been doing this for a while now."  I said.  "And I have been practicing looking at blobs every day, in lots of different situations.  It was really slow at the beginning.  So I do not want you to expect to see things right away.  When I first started, I closed my eyes and listened to white noise, and tried to just see with my mind.  I wasn't looking for people around me, but I was looking for Jack.  I had gotten a detailed picture of him in my head, and I wanted to know if it was real.  So I didn't start looking for blobs around me at first.  Close your eyes and see if you can see a blob for me next to you.  Look around with your eyes closed, and see if you can feel/see any more blobs of people nearby.  Blobs for me tend to be dark with some colors.  I do not know what they might look like to you.   When mom and dad are home, try to see their blobs too.  Look really close at dad, and I think you might see some colors.  See if you see the same colors as I do.  I do not know if you will see things the same way I do.  You might have to go to the park, or the mall, or church, to try to see more different kinds of blobs and get used to it.  I had to close my eyes, like a long blink, to get a picture of a blob, and then open my eyes to see what the people looked like.  Going back and forth a lot is how I learned.  That is all I know how to   It took me more than a week to learn enough, so that when we went through postures and positions today, I was able to tell the difference.  I do not know the best way to learn about blobs."  I explained.

Patty seemed to absorb that all at once.  Then she took a deep breath, turned around and closed her eyes.  She said, "All right, lay on the bed with your head toward the street.  Then turn so your head is toward the headboard.  Then the door, then the footboard.  Then back to the street." 

And we went through most of the postures and positions that I had learned that morning.  Then we stopped.

"I do not know how to do this blob watching, but I think we made a lot of progress this morning, by just doing it.  At first you could not tell where arms and legs went.  You felt that was impossible.  But we got used to it after learning the basics of up down, right left, north south east west, and so forth.  I think your brain just absorbed all that and you learned..  So I think it is worthwhile going through this in this order.  What do you think?"  She explained, then continued.  "I will practice on my own with trying to see the blobs, if you will work with me on postures and positions.  When I was learning how to play the piano, at first it was really awkward.  I had to learn the scales and practice where to put my fingers.  After a while it got easier.  I think this will be the same."

I told her how to google white noise and showed her the site I found that gives white noise as a free service.  She said she would use it tonight as she practice blob watching.  I told her that I could see the 3D dot picture, and that I could also see some people as though they were nearby.  Some of the distant people look like dots, but they are really just small looking blobs.  And the blobs have a lot more detail to them.  I was going to tell her more, and she smiled at me and said, "No more!!!!"  We both laughed.  It had been a very long day.

[Room]  It is pretty late now.  I have the white noise now on some headphones.  And I am looking very intently at the blobs in this house and nearby.  I can tell that dad is sitting on the couch in the living room.  Mom is sitting next to him on the recliner.  They are probably watching television.  Patty is laying on her bed, probably trying to read blobs herself.  Or maybe she is asleep.

On a whim I focused on Patty's blob and sent her a message, "Good night!".  Nothing happened of course, but what the heck.  Maybe she moved a little.

I will have to remember to tell her about bright people.  She and I got involved in looking at blobs, and I sort of forgot why I started this in the first place.

I watched blobs in the neighborhood for a while, and I remembered to look for some bright ones.  Then I fell asleep.

[Wednesday]

[Kitchen]  I am in the kitchen again, writing down semaphores.  Patty is sending me a new one every thirty seconds.  She shouted out, "Start!"  and then held a semaphore for 10 seconds.  I wrote down what I thought it was as a little diagram on a piece of paper.  Then thirty seconds and another one.  Some of my diagrams are really vague.  Some of them I only can "see" one arm.  It is really frustrating.  Maybe I will get it better with time.  Right now I think I am making a lot of mistakes.

Patty came down and we are comparing her sending list against my receiving list.  I am missing 90% of them.  But of those I miss, 70% have part of the diagram OK.  She says that only 10% have both arms in the right places, 20% have the right arm wrong, 40% have the left arm wrong, and 30% have both arms wrong.

Patty is going over the basics now.  I close my eyes and turn my back.  She is sending right hand first position, right hand second position, left hand first position, left hand second position through all the positions that each hand can take.  When she is close to me, it is a little easier than when she is upstairs.  We go through all the right hand positions, and all the left hand ones a couple of times.  Then she has me (still eyes closed, back turned) say quietly the hands and positions as she tries them.  "Right hand third position, left hand first position (up), left hand fifth position (down), left hand second position, right hand second position..."  I say each one quietly just after she changes.  I am getting them all right, though I hesitate a few times.

Patty went back upstairs and sent right and left hand positions at random.  She made up a list of them on paper, then she sends.  This is the way she sends them.  First she puts both hand up (it is easy to see).  Then she does a signal with either the right or left hand.  I write down the hand and the position.  Then she waits a bit and then puts both hands up.  Pauses a second, and sends the next.  She can send one hand position every 5 seconds that way.  She just did 100 random hand positions, and I got 93 of them right.  I have problems with down position on either hand.

Now she is sending pairs of hand positions in the kitchen.  She puts up her right and left hands, and then I repeat after her right hand third position, left hand first position.

"I see what I was doing wrong", she said after a while.  She stopped sending for a minute and interrupted.  "There are more than five positions for the right and left hand."  She said.

"What do you mean?"  I asked.  "The letter I and J and O, W, X and Z all have flags on one side or the other.  For those letters I have to put both flags on the same side. The right or left hand crosses over so that both flags are going to be on the same side."  She said.

"Let's take a break and think about this for a minute." She suggested.  Are we going in the right direction?  I can see that you are getting right and left and the positions right without much trouble.  You only need a little more practice with the down positions.  Do we really want to have one person doing semaphore, while the other one closes their eyes and looks for the signal?   Is that really a practical way to communicate mind to mind?  It really seems like it is body to mind communication.  And it is pretty complicated.  Wouldn't you rather talk directly from one brain to another?  Patty continued.

For a moment I am struck by how much I like (love?) my older sister.  Here she is taking all this time to help me learn how to do something that is basically weird, and she comes up with this kind of question.  I was just getting into the rhythm of it, and enjoying learning how to track hands and positions from a distance with my eyes closed.  But the same question has been bothering me.  Are we going in the wrong direction?

"If we were talking mind to mind, then I would say something.  You would listen and then you would say something and I would listen.  We would be talking with our mouths, and listening with our ears.  Right now we are trying to do this with our brains to "see"."  I said.  "Instead of "seeing" should we be listening?  Is that what you mean?"

She said, "You are getting really good with hand positions now.  Just yesterday you couldn't really see arms.  Your skill in seeing detail in blobs is getting really good.  But it is all about "seeing".  You can see the blobs.  Is there any way to hear a blob?"

"When I first tried to see blobs, I was using white noise.  I turned it up really loud at first to drown out the outside noise.  Noises around the house were getting in the way of seeing the blob.  I thought a couple of times that I was hearing voices or music in the white noise, and it was getting in the way, so I quit using the noise.  Do you think that I should go back and try again?  Maybe the way to read someone's mind is to listen really hard, with eyes closed and white noise that is really loud."  I said.

So we switched sides for a while and I began to give her hand and position signals and she was the one with her eyes closed.  We concentrated on right arm, left arm, face right, face forward, face left, and some of the simpler one.  She still got most of them wrong, but she was getting some of them right.  Another thing we were going to have to do is get Patty to the point where she could see blobs as well as I did.  Up to the point of right hand first position, and so forth.

[Room]  Patty and I spent the afternoon doing chores and on individual projects.  She had some reading to do.  I think she has a summer project she wants to do before starting college in the fall.  I feel like the days are going fast right now.  These days spending time with her are very nice.  We are doing something together, and I think it will be important -- for both of us.  And maybe for many others.

Patty got an email from Jack.  He got the camera for his computer, and set up the Skype account.  So he is ready now, but we are going to get together tomorrow when we are all free.  His mom and day want to join us, and the earliest is tomorrow evening.

I am listening to white noise again tonight.  For the next ten minutes, Patty is going to be repeating some words in her mind and try to send them to me.  We will compare notes in the morning.

==========  End Aug 29

Patty's blob looks like it has more detail than before.   We have been practicing the arm and hand motions, and the positions of the body, and the direction of the body.  So now I can "see" her arms and legs when I look at her with my mind.  I can tell that she is sitting down.  I have the white noise on, so I do not hear anything else.  These little ear buds are comfortable and the sound is very clear.  I know that I should try to listen now, but I am so used to looking at blobs, I keep looking to see if she is saying something, rather than listening.  I have to listen.  So I am concentrating on the sounds in the white noise.  I am listening to the noise.  It does seem like there are words or music in the noise.  Patty is supposed to be saying words right now.  Is she saying "hello, hello"?  Is she counting?  The sounds are like "blah, blah, blah, echo", "blah, blah, blah, echo".  I can't hear anything else.  I open my eyes to peak at the clock, it has been five minutes.  I keep hearing the same pattern again and again, "blah, blah, blah, echo".  What does it mean?

[Patty's Room]  I cannot wait for morning, so I went down to check with Patty, after the ten minutes were up.  I asked her what she was saying in her head to me.  She said, I was saying "One, two, three, hello", followed by "One, two, three, testing", and I told her what I was hearing.  We both grinned.  That was pretty close.  Not enough detail, but maybe it was working.  I told her that I thought there was some changes in the head or face of her blob while she was saying the words.  There is like a face on the blob.  No details, just the place where a face would be.

"Let's start fresh tomorrow and try some word sending while we are together, like we did the hand motions.  You seem to learn really quickly when we are in the same room together"  Patty said.

Patty seems to have really good advice.  It is kind of like she is in charge of the training, but she is very careful to listen to what I am saying.  It is nice having a sister you can rely on.  I wonder when she will start seeing blobs.  How long will it take for her to catch up to me?  Will we be able to talk to each other with our minds?

When I told her these questions, she laughed, and said, "I am working very hard on the blobs.  I am pretty sure I am seeing them.  I can see you and mom and dad, I think, for sure.  I want to work on body positions, and arm and leg positions.  If it works like it did with you, then when I follow your body motions in my mind, I will get a better, more precise, picture of your blob.  I am about a week behind you in the training, but I do not want to slow you down, while you are making a lot of progress quickly."  She said.

"Do you think we should tell mom and dad what we are doing?" I asked.  "Let's wait until we are sure that we can do mindspeech.  We are making good progress right now.  I really do not want to have to do a lot of explaining and getting someone else involved right now."  She said.  I am glad she answered that way.  I felt pretty tired and wasn't sure we should take on any more than we were doing.

[Thursday]

[Kitchen]  My mom was in the kitchen when I came downstairs this morning.  Patty was sitting across the table from her. 

"What are you girls doing this summer?  You seem to be together all the time."  My mom was curious about what we were doing.  Just when we decide not to say anything to her, she asks us directly what we are doing.

Patty said, "We are talking a lot, and then we each have things we are doing.  We are still reading and listening to music, and such like that."

"Don't you want to get out of the house more?"  She said. 

"Oh, we were at the mall the other day, and I found a cute skirt that I wanted for the summer.  Could we go there and get it some day?"  I asked.

We chatted about the mall for a bit, and about summer clothes.  We agreed to go shopping soon and find some summer clothes.

[Living room] Patty is sending me words, while I listen with the white noise.  Patty lent me her cell phone.  She found a white noise app on the internet for free.  And she has some ear buds.  Very convenient.  We are working in the same room with a clock.  She is giving me numbers from one to ten in random order.  One number every thirty seconds.  She sends me like, "One, one, one, one ..." for ten times.  Then waits until 30 second are over and then starts sending the next one, "Five, five, five, five ...".  And so forth.  I am writing down the number on a piece of paper.  I have my earbuds in, my eyes closed at the beginning of the sending time, and a piece of paper on a pad in front of me.

After twenty minutes of this, I am really tired.  Patty is too.  She says that it is hard to keep saying the same thing in her head, she gets kind of distracted.  She says that she has to keep track of how many times she sends the numbers by counting on her fingers, to be sure she sends the same number of numbers every time.

I am getting a lot of them right!  "One" I seem to always get right.  Four, five, six and nine are mixed up. But eight and ten I get right.  Two and three are mixed up.

We changed the way we are sending to make it go faster.  I sit facing away from Patty.  I wave my hand and she starts sending a random number, "Six, six, six, ..." ten times.  I would hold up that many fingers, "Six!" and she says back out loud to me "Six!" or whatever number it really is.  I am getting most of them right.  If I get it wrong, she sends it to me again, ten times, so that I can try to learn the correct sound through the white noise and going from brain to brain.

We worked at that for a couple of hours.  We are both exhausted.  It doesn't seem like it would be so hard, but it is really hard to concentrate.  We are both excited that most of the numbers sent are getting through.  I hardly make a mistake now.  It is still very slow.

My mom showed up at the house, sort of by accident, a little while after we stopped for our break.  She had this really curious look on her face as she looked at the furniture, the cell phone with earbuds, the watch and the papers in the living room.  We just said, "Hi, how was church? We didn't expect you back so soon."  She went upstairs to put some stuff in her room.

We all had lunch together, since she was home.  We had cleaned up the living room and had it back to order by the time she came back downstairs.

Very casually, she asked, "What were you guys doing this morning while I was at bible study?" 

Patty said, "Oh, just hanging out.  We were listening to music, watching television, talking.  That kind of thing.  We were wondering about whether we should invite Edith over for dinner some night.  Remember meeting them on Sunday.  That is where Dana went for lunch.  Maybe we should have the whole family over.  What do you think?"  Patty was turning the conversation to something else. 

And I would like to see Edith and Jerry again.  I also wanted to see Edith's mom up close to look at her blob/aura again.  I wanted to tell Edith and Jerry about the progress Patty and I were making.  I wanted to introduce them to Patty.

"They seemed like really nice people."  Mom said.  "Yes, let's plan on having them over some time.  Do you want to invite Edith this weekend?" 

"Yes, could we invite both Edith and Jerry over on Saturday?  Is that all right?  We could eat dinner and then watch a movie or just talk in our room for a while.  Dad or you can take them home."  I suggested.  Mom agreed and promised to call and make arrangements with Edith's mom.  They were in the church directory.

After lunch, mom wanted to watch something on television, so Patty said she had something she wanted to do on her computer for a while.  I went to my own room to read for a while.

[Patty's Room]  I finally finished a book I had been trying to read for the last week.  When I was done, I checked in to see what Patty was doing.  I kind of wanted to continue with practicing if we could.  She had just finished up with something and was taking it out of the printer.

"Take a look at this.  I am going to send it to Jack and Carly and them before we get on Skype this evening.  Tell me what you think."  She said.

She had written down instructions for all the training we had been doing for ourselves.  There was the private practice with white noise, the body position practice, the hand position practice, and the practice with sending random numbers.  She covered everything we had been doing.  It was a great instruction booklet for what we were doing!!

"Wow!  How did you do that so fast?"  In a couple of hours she had written down all the stuff we had been trying.  It looked great. "I have been worrying about how we were going to tell Carly and Jack's family what we were doing."  I said.

"We can send it to Edith and Jerry as well.  It will save a lot of time not having to repeat everything.  And we can just keep adding on new types of practice as we think of them.  I am thinking of putting this on a website so that we can all get to it anytime."  Patty said.  [BlobWatcher.com] "I will talk to Jack about a website, since he mentioned wanting to so something like that.  We can talk about it later on Skype."

We managed some silent random number practice the rest of the afternoon.  I had the white noise on her phone with earbuds.  I was facing her and watching her face.  She would put up her hand, like "stop", then she would make a fist, "go".  She started sending a number to me.  Then she would make the "stop" sign with her hand.  I put up however many fingers I thought matched the word she sent.  And then she would do a thumbs up or a thumbs down if I got it right.  If I got it wrong, then she would put up the correct number with her fingers, then make the "go" sign again and send me ten of that number again.  Then she would go on to the next one.  She was reading numbers out of the phonebook.  She said she was just doing the last four digits of each number because they were probably more random.

Patty wrote down that silent numbers practice on her instruction sheet.  "I have to do it while it is fresh.  I do not want to forget.  We are doing a lot of different things."  She said.

Patty sent the instructions to Carly and Edith by email, and they would forward it and share it with their families.  We had called Edith to tell her we were going to invite her and Jerry over for dinner.  She said she did not have a conflict, and was looking forward to seeing us.  My mom and her mom would work out the car situation.  Edith was happy to get the instructions that Patty wrote up.  She and Jerry had been trying to practice seeing blobs, but they were not making any progress.  We told her some of what we were doing, that we were getting some good results. She said should could tell, from the detailed explanation that Patty sent.  They were excited to come visit tomorrow.

After dinner, we waited until eight o'clock to get on Skype.  Jack and Carly and their parents were in their living room with Jack's laptop and camera.  Patty and I were in her room with her computer and camera.  The Skype connection took just a minute to set up.  We clicked on "Call with Video", exactly at 8 pm, and they answered about three rings later.

"Hi.  Hello. How are you doing?  Good to see you again.  This works pretty good."  Jack's dad, James/Jim, was kind of cut off  so they did a little shuffling of chairs and tilting the camera.  Jack did something with the camera controls to set the zoom.  Anyway, in a few minutes we were all settled.  They could see and hear us just fine.

Jim decided to start out for his family.  "We have all read the summary that Patty wrote for us.  Thank you very much, that really helped bring this into focus.  Jack and I have talked about a website, and we think that is a good idea.  I think we should set it up as a secure website that we can log into, but that is not open to the public."

Jim continued.  "We talked about this between us, and think that since you are getting this good results already, then we should plan as though there were going to be real mindspeech in a fairly short time"

I interrupted.  "But I am the only one right now who can receive.  I think that Patty must be a good sender, because I do not have much trouble reading what she sends.  Have any of you made any progress with blob watching?"

Jack said, "Carly and I both think we are getting some results.  Mom and dad have not had too much time yet.  Carly seems to be really good at it and can already tell arms and legs.  I am still just seeing blobs, but I can tell the difference between mom and dad and Carly.  I can confirm for you that Carly is really bright, and then mom and then dad.  Carly can see me, and I am bright, then mom then dad.  I do not see colors yet, but Carly does.  We are looking forward to seeing you the next time we get together.  Carly and I would really like to see whether you are bright or not.  We would like to see what your blob looks like, and your family."

Patty said, "We have talked about this brightness that you can see.  Do you think it has any relation to the ability to see blobs, or to send and receive mindspeech?"

Jim said.  "I think it must be inherited, whatever it is for.  It seems like both my wife and her sister have it, and then Jack and Carly inherited it from her.  We are going to check some of the rest of the family too, to see if they are bright, now that Jack and Carly are able to see blobs like you do."

Patty asked, "Does anyone have any suggestions for how to increase the number of words we can send using mindspeech?  Dana and I can do the numbers one through ten, and that is about it.  There are so many words, do we have to do every word individually?  Or is there a better way?"  Her voice told me that she was more tired than I thought, she seemed to be begging them to come up with some answers.

Jack's mom, Karen, spoke up for the first time.  "Maybe we could get together again next weekend.  It is not too hard to drive down there.  I do not think that Frank and Susan would mind if we stay with them again.  It seems like you kids need to do some face to face practice.  I do not know where this is leading, but I think it is very important.  I would like to be able to do just what you all have done so far.  I am going to spend more time on blob watching on my own.  Dana, didn't you say that you made a lot of progress once you found Jack?  Didn't you say that seeing Carly's blob made a difference in how you saw them overall?"

"Yes, once I saw Carly and John, it was clear to me that I was seeing other people with just my mind.  The pictures of them that I got when I had my eyes closed were much more detailed and much brighter than I got from anyone else.  It was a great encouragement to see a real blob or aura."  I replied.

Karen said.  "We are going to have to tell Susan and Frank, my sister and her husband what you kids are doing.  You haven't told them yet have you?"

Patty said, "I think that will be fine.  Now that we have some things in writing, it is much easier to share what we have learned so far.  We have all the training materials.  Maybe Jack and Carly could get together, with your help and write out some of what they have learned about blobs, or auras, and brightness.  I think that Susan is really going to be interested, since she is one of the bright ones." 

Patty was a little uncomfortable using Susan's name for the first time.   It is not usual for kids to use first names of parents.  Me I think I would still call her, Edith's mom.

Patty continued.  "I am not sure what you think of this.  Jack and Carly were able to see blob or auras pretty quickly.  I think it helped them to have someone with a bright aura close by to look at.  I am looking forward to meeting you all, because I have been having a hard time seeing blobs.  I look forward to seeing a bright blob as you have been calling it.  It is pretty frustrating for me sometime.  Dana is learning this on her own, and she is so far ahead of me, I wonder if I will ever catch up.  Anyway, I was wondering if Susan, Edith's mom, would let us see her, until we get together next weekend.  Is that is possible?"

Karen replied.  "I will ask Susan to come by and meet you some time this week.  She works, so she will have to meet you after work sometime.  Would that be OK?"

I said, "Edith and Jerry are coming over for dinner.  Maybe you can ask her if she has a few minutes then.  It only takes a few minutes to get a good picture of someone's blob or aura."

Patty said, "Well it might take me longer than that.  And I know that Edith and Jerry are trying to learn how to do this.  It is nice for them to have a bright source at home to work with."

We talked about a range of different things then for a while.  Jim and Jack were interested in setting up a website.  I think they were going to call it something like BlobWatchers.com.  Patty said she would keep track of the training practices that she and I were doing.  And we all said we would try to write up some notes about brightness.  Jack and Karen said they would edit all the pieces and come up with something for the website.  Karen did not say much, but when she did, we all listened, because she brought up good ideas.

[Room]  I am glad to be alone again.  That was a lot to think about all at once.  This seems to be taking on a life of its own.  First I found Jack, and then I met his cousins, and then his family.  Now his whole family was working on this.  I do not know if a website is a good idea.  I already have so many people to keep track of, I don't know what to do. 

We barely can do the numbers, one through ten, without making mistakes.  How am I going to become a real mindspeaker?  When is Patty going to have the time to catch up to what I can do already.  Am I going to be a good sender like she seems to be? 

I was tired, so I just turned on the white noise and lay listening for a long time.  I think it was a coupled of hours later when I turned off the noise and was ready to sleep. 

I can see blobs further and further away now.  If I focus on a single blob somewhere, I can bring it up and look at its details more easily.  When I am focused on a blob, I seem to hear noises.  It is not words, more like mumbling.  If we are going to have mindspeech, I think the person sending is going to have to be careful to speak slowly and carefully.  I think most people have stuff going on in their heads.  Maybe that is mumbling I hear.  But to be clear and understandable, the person needs to be awake and trying to send clearly.

[Friday]  Patty and I did some practice with sending numbers again on.  But we are both tired.  We tried sending a few words and I seemed to be able to hear the words she was sending.  It still seems like mumbling to me.  We are going to rest some today.

[Saturday]

[Patty's Room]  Edith and Jerry are here now, Susan brought them over for dinner.  Mom and Edith's mom, Susan, are downstairs in the living room with my dad.  Edith and Jerry can see their mom's blob pretty easily now, and they are trying to help Patty to get the hang of it.  Patty was amazed when she looked at Susan, since she had never seen anyone that bright before.  Edith and Jerry were pointing out details they had seen, and Patty was trying to absorb it all.  I had my eyes closed too, and was looking at Edith's mom while they were talking.  I had forgotten how much easier it was to see someone that bright.  I had been working with Patty all week.  Patty is mostly gray with some green highlights.  At least to me.

Edith and Jerry also looked at me and Patty.  They confirmed that she was mostly gray.  They said that I was mostly gray with blue highlights.  Patty said that matched what she was getting from me.

I was kind of glad, and kind of not happy, to learn that I was not a bright one.  The bad news is that I am not an easy one to see.  The good news is that it is not necessary to be a bright one in order to see blobs clearly and to learn the beginnings of mindspeech.  Just from our small group, it seemed that anyone could learn to see blobs.  And I was hopeful that anyone could pick up the basics of mindspeech.  I hoped that I, and the others, would be able one day to have full ability to understand what someone is sending to us with their minds.  Brain to brain transfer of words.

============ End Aug 30

I concentrated on Edith's mom.  I seem to hear her words while she is talking.  They are kind of faint, but much more word like, than mumbling.  I need to try to white noise and get quiet myself to really see.

After dinner we came back to Patty's room to practice body positions and hand positions.  Patty is a really good teacher, so she is taking Edith and Jerry through some of the basic forms.  There is not enough time to go though all the practices, but this gets them where they know how to do it.  Part of what I think they are learning is how to do this quickly, and still keep it fun.  Edith and Jerry are smiling a lot and enjoying the success they are having in reading body positions.  We all agree that it would be a lot easier to have a bright person teaching when there were body positions to learn, but agree too that most people are gray blobs.

[Sunday]  I met Edith and Jerry at the side door.  We made our way into the new sanctuary, it holds almost 1000 people.  We are looking for bright blobs today.

Edith said, "I was wondering whether these blobs are like the "soul" or "spirit" we talked about in Sunday School."

Jerry replied, "The idea of a soul seems to be that it lasts after the person is dead.  I think these blobs are just part of the body.  And a spirit also can live outside the body, sometimes.  I don't think they are the same thing.  It does sound a little better to say someone has a bright soul, or a bright spirit, but I think those words really mean something else altogether.  I suggest we stick with "blobs" for now, unless someone else can think of a better word."

"Let's look around and see if we can find any "bright blobs" is this service", I smiled.  "We have about fifteen minutes before we start.  Let's each take a part of the church, and then compare notes." 

So we knelt in a pew in the back, and closed our eyes and pretended to pray.  We were really looking over the congregation, looking for a person with a bright blob.

It did not take long.  In a few minutes everyone was ready to compare notes.  Both of them, and I, were able to scan the whole congregation quickly.  We were all getting better at seeing the images of people with our brains. 

"There, that woman down in the front, over on the left side.  There is an older woman next to her.  Do you see them?"  Jerry asked.  "Yes, that is Mrs. Sawyer, isn't it?  The older woman?" 

"Yes, I think you are right."  Edith said.  I looked surprised, so they explained that Mrs. Sawyer worked in the church Day School for many years.  Edith and Jerry had met her there when they went to the school when they were little.  I remembered seeing her before, but did not remember her name.

"Let's go say hi to her, and find our who that is."  Jerry said.  Then he led us over to see them.

"Hello, Mrs. Sawyer, how are you?"  Jerry said when we arrived.  Mrs. Sawyer was probably in her 70's.  She was a small woman and had a cheerful face and very expressive eyes.  The young woman next to her was probably in her early to mid 20's.  She was well dressed, kind of like a young professional.  I bet she is out of college and working already.

"Hello, Jerry, Edith.  Who is this with you?"  She responded.  She had a nice smile.

"This is Dana Freehurst.  They are in our church, have you met her before?"  Edith replied.

"I think so, yes.  Do you remember me.  I think you came to the Day School when you were younger.  It has been a few years."  She said. 

"Yes, I think so.  Is this your granddaughter?"  I said, smiling toward the young woman.

"Yes, this is Sandy Green, my daughter's oldest"  She explained.  She moved here this Spring and found a job nearby.  She is staying with me for now, but is looking for her own apartment.  I wanted to introduce her to people here in church. 

"How do you do?"  We asked of her as we exchanged greetings.  "Where are you working?"  I asked.

"I work as a legal secretary for a firm here in town.  I really like it, but I have not had a lot of free time yet."  She explained.  She did not seem to mind that we were kids.

"You have brothers and sisters?  Do they live around here?"  I asked.

"I have a brother and two sisters.  They live in California.  They are still in school."  She said.

I sighed to myself.  "Here I thought we might be able to find another whole family of brights.  Oh well".

"Do you mind if we sit next to you?  Church is about to start.  Our parents went to the earlier service.  We wanted to come to the later service today."  Jerry said.

So we arranged ourselves along the row, and picked up our hymnals to prepare for church.

I sat next to Sandy.  When we were going through prayers, I concentrated really hard to listen to Sandy.  Her real voice, and her mental voice.  I did not have my earphones and white noise with me, but by concentrating, I could make out words in her head.  When she was saying the words out loud with her mouth, she was also saying the words quite clearly with her brain!

It was pleasant and nice to be sitting next to a person whose blob was so bright.  Seeing her with my mind, was like seeing her with my real eyes.  It was almost like a picture of her, just made out of a medium bright golden light.  I pretended to say my prayers, but I was really just watching Sandy and wondering if there was any way I could bring up the topic of mindspeech.

Edith and Jerry and I went to a local cafe after church.  We had made our goodbyes to Mrs. Sawyer and Sandy.  It was like there was something left undone.  Something incomplete.

"How are we ever going to bring up the topic of mindspeech and seeing auras to someone we just met?"  Jerry burst out.  "We can find them, even if they are pretty rare.  But how do we get involved with them?  Should we get involved with them?"

"Sandy has her own life.  She is not going to want to get involved with a bunch of young kids like us.  And why do we want to know her anyway?  It is because it is easier for us to see her with our minds.  What does she get out of it?"  Edith added.

"It certainly makes learning how to see blobs much easier when there is a bright around."  I said.  "You two were able to pick it up much faster than I could.  I did not make much progress until I met Jack and then your mother and Jack, Carly and your aunt.  Are we going to try to train everyone to be able to see blobs?  If we are, then brights are very important, and could make the difference between people being able to learn to see, and not being able to see.  I think brights would make very good teachers.  And I found out something about brights today, that could make all the difference when we go on to learn mindspeech."

"What is that?"  Jerry spoke quickly,

"When we were saying the prayers, I was listening to Sandy, and listening to her mind as well.  It was pretty hard to try mind speech stuff, when there was so much noise around.  But I think that when a bright is talking, their brain is also naturally sending out the same message.  I could hear the words she was saying with her mouth, in her mind as well.  If that is true, that brights are naturally very loud senders, then learning to listen to mindspeech might be much easier.  We need to try this with a bright.  Would your mom be willing to help us?  She is the only bright that we have in town right now.  I sure wish that Jack and Carly lived nearby."  I said.

"Call your mom and ask her if it is OK for you to come over.  I will call my mom and ask her if she would help us with mindspeech."  Edith said.  "It is kind of a long bike ride, but we can get some exercise that way."  She smiled.

[Edith's house]  Edith's mom met us in the living room as we came in.  She had an expectant look on her face.  "How can I help you with mindspeech?"  She asked. "I have just started to try to look for blobs, as you call them.  I am not sure whether I am seeing anything at all.  I read the instruction booklet that Parry wrote, and I have seen some of the emails going back and forth about blob watching.  I am not sure what I can do to help."

"Well, you are a bright.  We do not know why some people are bright and others are different.  We know that it is much easier to see brights than other people.  I am kind of gray and don't have a lot of detail when people look at me."  I said.  "Until I met Jack I was struggling to learn how to see blobs of people. He is so bright!  Even brighter than you.  Anyway.  We think that brights are going to be good teachers.  And we think that training in blob watching and in mindspeech is going to be much easier with brights around to work with.  No. I will say that I think it might be impossible for someone to learn blob watching or mindspeech without a bright around as a sender."

"What do you want me to do?"  She asked.

What we would like you to do is to talk out loud, and let us listen and try to hear your brain making the same sounds.  It might be that you can simply read out loud, and we can listen in.  We will be upstairs with our white noise on, and will make notes about what you are saying.  After a while we will come downstairs and compare notes.  We will not take up a lot of your time, it gets tiring to try to concentrate really hard for a long time.  So maybe an hour or so...?"  I said.

"I have time for that.  Ok.  But what is white noise?  I heard you mention it, but I did not know what you were talking about."  She said.

Edith had her cell phone app with her, and her earbuds.  So she let her mom listen in to the white noise for a while.  "Oh, I see.  This way you can't hear my actual voice when I am talking, even if I am downstairs and it is hard to hear anyway.  This will wash away all the sounds.  You mean you can "hear" my words even from inside my brain, somehow?"  She said.

"That is the plan."  I said.  And we went upstairs to try.  Susan was going to read from a book.  And she was going to just talk out loud to us, as though we were in the same room.  We were going to try ten minutes of reading, then ten minutes of talking out loud.  We would start right on the hour.

We got ourselves arranged in Edith's room.  The door was closed.  Rather than each of us having earbuds, Edith turned on her computer sound with white noise from SimplyNoise.com.  She turned it up pretty loud, so we even had to talk sharply to be heard.  Each of us found a spot to sit with a paper and pencil. The clock was near to the hour, so we settled down and just listened to the noise, and prepared ourselves to listen.  We each, in our own way, located Susan with our minds.  She is a bright, so it was like there was a glowing person downstairs.  We were all pretty good with body positions and hand positions, so I expect that Edith and Jerry were seeing what I was seeing - a picture of Susan as she was sitting on the couch.  It was like we were just looking at her, but she was glowing.

As I concentrated on Susan, I saw her reach forward and adjust the clock.  It was coming up to the time.  She seemed to be holding something.  Probably a book or magazine.  Time to start listening.

Listening to the noise, I only heard the noise.  I tried to concentrate on Susan and tried to hear words as well.  I seemed to be hearing a whispering, but no real word sounds.  I kept at it.  Five minutes into it, and I still had not heard a sound.  I still heard the whispering, but only just after I reset my attention on Susan.  It was hard concentrating on two things at once.

When the first ten minutes were up, I sort of moved around a little because I was feeling stiff.  We should have planned a break in between.  I forced myself to concentrate on Susan again.  This time I looked mentally at her face particularly.  If she was going to make sounds with her mind, wouldn't it come from her brain?  So I looked at her head with my mental eyes.

This time there was not so much whispering, as mumbling.  Once in a while I seemed to get whole words.  I think she was saying something about how interesting this was to be trying mindspeech.  And how she hoped that she could be of help.

When the time ran out, we all went downstairs together.  Jerry was really excited.  And Edith seemed to have a smile on her face.  I wonder if they were able to hear more than I was?

"That was harder than I thought it was going to be.  It was hard to think of things to say for ten minutes.  The reading was easy enough."  Susan said, when we came down.

Jerry said, "I heard you!  I could not make out all the words when you were reading, but I got a whole lot when you were talking out loud."

Edith said. "I could hear you talking, but not when you were reading.  I definitely got something."

I said, "I got a kind of whispering when you were reading, and I got some words when you were talking.  I definitely think I was getting something.  I want to try it again, but slightly different this time.  First, I want to switch back to earbuds for the noise.  And, I want to have someone down here talking to you.  I think it will be easier for you to talk if you have someone to talk to." 

Edith volunteered to stay downstairs and talk with her mother, so we could listen in.  Jerry and I went back to Edith's room.  He borrowed her cell phone and buds.  This time we were going to do five minutes of reading.   Then a minute of silence.  Then five minutes of talking.  Then we would go downstairs.  We would start on the half hour.

Jerry and I looked at each other and smiled.  Then we settled down to focus.  We had just a couple of minutes to prepare and it was going to be time to start again.  When the half hour came up, I was already focused on Susan's whole body.  I did not expect to see words come out, but I wanted to be as connected as I could to her.  I wanted to fill my brain with her, and then listen.  Having a few minutes to listen to the white noise helped, since I was able to get used to it, and start to filter out my own distractions.

When the half hour started, I heard words right away.  They were faint and kind of whispery.  She was reading from a magazine about potting plants, and raising flowers.  I had a big grin on my face, and so did Jerry.  The first five minutes went by, and then our rest period.  I concentrated again, and listened hard.  I tried as hard as I could to see every detail of Susan.  When she started talking to Edith, I could hear every word she spoke!  Then it was kind of mumbly, then it was clear again!

When the time was up, Jerry and I ran down the stairs.  "We could hear you!  That was much easier this time.  It is still not all clear, but it is better."  He said.

"I could hear you better when you were talking than when you were reading.  I could hear both this time.  I think it helps to have someone here.  Maybe having someone here makes it easier to "send".  What do you think?"  I asked Susan.

"It was definitely easier to talk and read when there is someone her listening.  I guess if you want to do this when no one is hear in front of you, then you have to try harder."  Susan related.

"The earbuds help. And, I think that gets over a worry I had that we were just hearing your from the sound getting upstairs.  When we have the earbuds in, and the sound turned up, then nothing is likely to get in.  But we can be sure this time, if we try something different."  I said.

"I think I know what you are going to suggest."  Edith said.  "Mom needs to read silently, and she needs to try to talk to us -- without saying anything out loud."

"Exactly."  I said.  "Are you getting tired?"  I asked Susan.  "No, we are making some progress, let's keep going."

"I want to listen too."  Edith said, a little sadly.  "But I can practice with mom other times.  We are doing this since Dana found out that brights are good senders.  So we should let her keep trying."

"You go up and listen.  I will stay with mom."  Jerry said.  "I can work with mom some other times too."

"Just to be sure.  When you are reading silently, and when you are trying to talk to us silently, would you SHOUT in your mind?  I think it would help if you intend to send us something loud."  I suggested.  "OK" Susan replied.

So Edith and I went back to her room.  This time there was going to be four minutes of reading out loud, four minutes of talking out loud, four minutes of reading silently with mental shouting, and then four minutes of silent talking with shouting.  A one minute break in between.

When the start time came around, I was ready.  I had a good concentration on Susan.  I could see her almost as well as I could see her real body if I was next to her.  I had filtered out the noise and was used to listening for words in the noise.  When she started reading it was still faint and whispery, but I had little trouble following.  It faded a little part way through the reading.  I thought that maybe even a bright had to learn to talk or read evenly.  Maybe her concentration was changing while she was reading, and that was why we heard it come and go like that.

When she started on the talking, it was clearer and easier to understand.  She was simply talking about what we were doing and how interesting it was.  She was asking Jerry if he wanted to practice later that day, or sometime during the week.  I could see Jerry's blob pretty well, but nowhere near like his mom.  I did not hear any words from him, but I did seem to hear a whispery mumbling when he would be talking.  I had not thought about having two people to listen to.  I should have tried to listen to Edith when she was down there.

When it came time to hear the silent reading, I was shocked to hear it really well.  It did fade in and out a bit, but mostly it was very clear.

And then, finally, the silent talking.  That came through well.  It was almost an afterthought.

We had a method of doing mindspeech!  It was awkward and still required white noise and special circumstances, but it worked!

[Room]  It is good to be home again.  Patty and mom and dad are all downstairs watching a movie, so I have a few minutes by myself.  I will tell Patty all of what I learned today.  I think she will be very pleased.  We have mindspeech!!

I am going to write up a description of what we did today and send it to Jack to post on the website.  He and Carly and Karen, their mom, will be able to reproduce what we did today.  They are all brights, they should be able to try mindspeech in various combinations, since all of them are brights.  Jack can send to Carly, and Carly can send to Jack. They should be able to communicate in both directions.  True mindspeech.  I wonder how long it will take them to test it out?

I want to talk to Patty tomorrow and ask her to help me with mindspeech between non-brights.  Between her and me.  I think that Patty can be a pretty good sender.  She seems to be good at keeping her mind steady.  She might not be as strong a sender as a bright, but she might be able to send well enough that I can receive something from her.

[Monday]

[Kitchen]  I have gone over everything that happened at Edith and Jerry's house yesterday.  Patty understands now about brights.  She read over what I wrote up for Jack.  She had a few questions about what we did.  Then she sent a follow up to Jack on a few points.  Jack is putting stuff up on the website almost as soon as we send it to him.

Jack and Carly have been able to mind speak a little.  As soon as they heard from us, they tried some of the things that we did.  They have not had as much experience with blob watching as we did, so I think that was why they were not as quick to get solid results.  I expect that in a few days, they will be able to do mindspeech between Jack and Carly without problems. 

They started with silent speech immediately, but that did not give good results.  I think that talking out loud to someone gives you a good signal to follow, and you have to get used to that as a receiver before you can do the silent talking.  The best thing to do is to try talking out loud first, then do silent "shouting" so the receiver can get used to things.

"What are you going to do about Sandy Green?"  Patty asked.

"I am not sure that we have to do anything about her right now."  I said.  "She is a bright, and we could use a bright to help us with learning more about mindspeech.  The more practice we get, the better we will be.  But I am still not sure how to get her involved.  It she is like Jack and Carly and Karen, then it is going to be as hard for them to learn to receive mindspeech, as it was for anyone else.  So it will take her a while to learn how to receive mindspeech, or to watch blobs.  It is even hard to learn how to send clearly.  Susan still faded in and out when we were working with her.  It takes effort to learn how to send mindspeech.  What is in it for Sandy?"  I said.

"Well, she might want to be able to mindspeak, or to watch blobs.  Do you think she might want to do those things?  Patty asked.

"What are we going to do about mom and dad?  We still haven't told them what we are doing.  Jacks' family and Edith's family are both working on this a lot.  Should we ask them to help explain to our parents?  Should we ask for Susan and Frank, or Karen and Jim to explain this to them?  Or should we let them read what we have written?"  I said.

"The website if up now, did you know that.  It is BlobWatchers.com.  I think the important thing is the ability to see blobs and that mindspeech is a part of that.  If you cannot see blobs, I doubt you can hear mindspeech.  So BlobWatchers is ok as a name."  Patty said.

Patty had things to do for most of the day.  We planned to work on mindspeech later.  She felt it was important to try to expand to non-brights, but she felt that it was going to be much harder, and was kind of hesitant to get started.  I knew how she felt.  Sometimes it was very hard to concentrate enough to make things happen.  Even with a bright, mindspeech was hard.  I think both Patty and I were not looking forward to it.

[Room]  Patty came to my room after supper.  We were trying to be quiet, so we decided to try reading and sending.  Patty was going to read something and concentrate on sending it to me as loud as she could.  I was going to be using the earbuds and noise to keep it familiar.  We would use the clock to start, and then send for five minutes.  And then see if we got anything.

I spent the time while I was waiting for the clock to start to focus on Patty.  I could see a pretty good image of her in my mind by now.  The more I looked at her with my mind, and the more practice we had with positions and postures, and such, the better I could see her.  It was still mostly a blob, but I could definitely see where the arms and legs were.  I felt pretty comfortable with Patty by now.  When she started to read and send to me, I could not hear anything, so I concentrated harder on her.  Nothing.  Then all of a sudden I got some whispers and mumbling.  Then nothing.  The five minutes when by very quickly, and I was not sure what I heard.  I related to Patty what had happened.  She said, let's try it again and she was going to try sending harder and louder.

Again, I was getting ready for the clock to start.  I had a pretty good image of Patty in my mind.  I could even tell that she had her hands in her lap or so, holding something.  Probably the book.  As the time started, I hear a few words, they were very loud!  Then it got soft and I could only hear whispers.  Then it got loud again and then it got quiet.  Toward the end of the five minutes, I could hear again.  I was hearing clear words when she ended.

"At the end I was hearing you pretty clearly.  What were you doing differently at the end?"  I asked.

"Well I started out kind of strong.  Then my mind wandered.  Then I remembered I was trying to send to you and I tried harder toward the end.  I think this is definitely different than just reading.  You have to really try hard to send."  Patty said.  "Let me just try sending to you for five minutes".

Again I got ready and concentrated on Patty's image in my head.  I tried to focus on her whole body, to get as much detail as possible.  I listened to the white noise, and then tried to filter out the noise.  When she started talking, it was faint and whispery, but it was clear.  She was telling me that she hoped we could develop mindspeech for anyone, and that she was happy to have a sister like me who would come up with such an important thing.  She wanted to write out what we were learning tonight and put it on the website.  If non-brights could learn to mindspeak, than anyone could do it.  How would the world change if people could talk to each other using their minds?

I blushed, and tears came into my eyes.  I looked toward Patty and nodded.  "I heard you."  I said.  It works.

[Tuesday] 

[Room]  Patty went over to Susan's to see Edith and Jerry.  Susan is going to give them all some practice in receiving.  I hope that seeing Susan's bright image will help Patty to get more used to blob watching.  And I hope she will get to the point where she can hear mindspeech.  I think the only way to learn to hear mindspeech is if you are good at blob watching, and having a bright available makes that go easier.  Jerry and Edith said they were going to practice mindspeech the same way that Patty and I had.  We need to get more experience with non-brights as senders.

It amazes me how quickly we have progressed.  Even with brights to make this go easier, it seems like blob watching and mind speech are fairly natural things for the brain to do.  You just need the proper training, and the right environment.  It is hard work.  And, we would not have made as much progress, but we had cell phones with white noise apps and earbuds.  I doubt we would have jumped so far with mindspeech without the proper equipment.  Thinking back I know that even the white noise from the computer speakers was not as good.  In fact we were having a hard time with that method of mindspeech, and we had a bright to help us.

And the brights (or regular senders) need training.  It takes effort and focus to send properly.  The first time a person tries it, there is a high likelihood of failure.  So we need work on both ends.

So far we have not had a full conversation.  Two brights, or a bright and a regular, or two regular senders.  But we are making progress.

We have not tried over a distance yet.

I called Edith.  They were just getting started.  They were going to do their first sending in about ten minutes.  So I asked her to describe to me what they were going to try to do.  I told Edith that I wanted to see if I could "hear" Susan from our house.  Edith said that was wonderful, why hadn't we thought of that before.  I said that I was not sure whether I could even see Susan from that far, let alone hear her.  Then I hurried to get ready.

I found my noise app and earbuds.  I checked my watch.  They were going to start in just a few minutes when the hour changed.  They were doing four minutes of out loud reading, then talking out loud, then silent reading and shouting, then silent talking and shouting.  With one minute breaks between.  Just like we had done the other day.  I was ready.

As I waited for the clock, I concentrated on an image of Susan.  I could not tell if I was looking at a memory image from my own head, or whether I was looking at her in real time. The image seemed to be a combination of the two.  Anyway, I concentrated on her as much as I could.  I tried to filter the white noise.  I seemed to hear something very, very faint.  It was whispery, just barely there.  When the four minutes were up, I rested for just a few seconds, and then concentrated again.  This time when the clock came around, I could hear whispers, but not words.  When the four minutes were up, I rested again for a few seconds.  Then I got as ready as I could and I started to hear faint words.  She was reading and "shouting".  I heard her words all the way through.  The final four minutes when she was just shouting and talking silently, I heard pretty clearly. 

I called Edith right away.  "I can hear some of it.  I think I got better as we went through the sequence.  The last one was clear, but faint. It works from a distance!"

I said, I would have had a hard time doing this, if we had not already done it close by.  I asked how Patty was doing, and she was hearing something, but nothing very clearly.  I said that I thought it would take her a while to get more used to is, since she had not had as much practice as I did with blob watching.  I said it is good experience for her to be near a bright. That will really help her with blob watching.  And her mind reading would get better too.

Edith told me what they were going to do next, and I decided to go ahead and follow their whole training program remotely.  So that is what I did.

It is definitely harder from a distance.  I could definitely hear her, and it works even over a couple of miles.  Part of the difficulty is coordinating over the phone to know when to start listening.  We managed without too much trouble.  Patty called me a couple of times to tell me what the practice was going to be and when it would start.  I called a few times to ask if everyone was having problems with certain parts of the practice.  By comparing notes, we found there were times when Susan just quits sending loud enough.  We could tell because all four receivers had times when we could not hear.  Susan said she would think about how to keep the sending smooth and loud enough.  Mostly it is when she starts to think of something else.

I called Carly and just chatted for a while.  We were really interested in what was happening with mindspeech, but I think there is a growing friendship between all of us.  It is certainly fun to talk and laugh together.  I did go over what we had tried over a distance of two miles.  I was wondering if there was any way to make a test over the hundred or so miles to their place.  She said she would talk it  over with everyone their.  Carly did say that hardly anything else was getting done.  Her mom was spending a lot of time with her and Jack to try to get blob watching, and mind speech working.

I wrote out what I had discovered about long distance mindspeech receiving, and sent it to Jack to post on the website.  I finally got on the website to see what was there.  I was surprised to learn that it required a userid and password.  Carly had told me what they were, but I am not used to having to do that for a website like this.  Carly had explained that Jack's dad set it up so that we could keep the site private until we were sure we wanted to share it with more people.  Right now it was intended to be a private place on the web for sharing information related to blob watching and mind speech.  I got logged in, and found links to the white noise generator, and links to the various Wikipedia articles.  There was a long article on brights, and the practice sessions for body position, hand positions, as well as the newer stuff on mind speech.  I could see where they would probably put the new stuff on long distance mindspeech.

They were taking a break for lunch over there.  I was a bit tired and wanted a break from everything, so after my own lunch, I took a short nap.  I automatically tuned into what Susan was doing, and I could hear her talking to her kids and to Patty.  It was kind of strange to be able to listen in to distant conversations like that.  I wasn't even using the white noise either.  It seems like the brain gets used to this kind of speech very quickly, once you have a few examples to work from.

My problem was I wanted to know what this was all for.  I remember those first random flashes of images I got.  And I remember how hard I looked for Jack.  Those long days of trying to watch blobs, and now learning mind speech.  I see how easy it seems for Jack and Carly and them to learn mind speech.  Jack and Carly would talk back and forth to each other now.  It won't be long before Jack's whole family, and Edith's family will be good at blob watching, and at mindspeech.  Even Patty and I are making pretty good progress.  I think she will make a big jump today, since she is getting exposure to a bright and to mindspeech.  It helps to be around other people working on the same thing.  It helps to share the excitement and disappointments together.

So where it is going?  Are we going to just keep finding new brights, and training new people on blob watching and mind speech?  Will we just keep getting better and better at it?  What is it used for?  For those people like Sandy, they are brights, will they want to do this?  It seems like brights will be able to talk to each other.  I think even Patty and I will be able to after we get more practice like today. 

How am I going to tell my own parents?

When Patty came home, we went over all that she had learned today.  They were only going to spend a couple of hours, but they ended up spending the whole day.  Even Susan, who up to that point had not taken a whole lot of interest in blob watching, was asking a lot of questions about it.  She was looking forward to when she could be with her own sister and Jack and Carly, so she would have a bright to learn from.  It must be really frustrating, to be a bright, and not have one around to practice with.

She went up to her room to write down some notes for the web site.  They had done a few different practice sessions today, so she was going to write out the new ones.  With all the practice and training materials now, it was going to be a problem how to best train new people that we met, who wanted to learn mindspeech.  What would we tell someone who did not have access to a bright?

[Dining Room]  Patty suggested that we let mom and dad look at the website, so they could see some of what we had been working on for the last couple of weeks.  I brought my laptop downstairs after dinner was cleared, and we started going through it with both of them.  At first there were a lot of questions, "What do you mean by a blob?  Do you mean like reading minds? Can you read my mind?"  and so on.

Patty tried to explain it.  "A lot is going on right now.  Jack's dad set up this website for us so we could share what we are learning.  Jack and Carly can now talk to each other mind to mind in simple sentences and slowly.  They are getting better.  All of us, except for Jack's dad and Edith's dad and mom, can close our eyes and get a mental picture of people around us, and at a distance from us.  We can tell where someone is in the house, and we can tell which way they are standing or facing."

"But why are you doing this?"  Mom asked.  She seemed to be kind of anxious, and was looking at Dad.

"I started getting images of people in my head.  I wanted to know if the image were real so I tracked down Jack and met him and Edith and Jerry.  Once I saw Jack, I could tell that he was different from other people, the image of him I had in my head was really bright.  When we went to church and met his family, I could tell that he was not the only one who was bright.  Carly and Jack and Jack's mom and Edith's mom all had bright images as well.  Now it turns out that bright people are good senders for mind speech, and the only really good way to train people to see images with their minds is to show them a bright person."

"That is not really answering your question.  We are doing this because we think that mind speech will be a good thing.  We have shown that it is possible to teach ordinary people how to do mindspeech.  There is a lot of training and practice to go.  There is a lot to learn, but we are all working on it together."  I continued.

"That is really amazing."  My dad said.  "I think I have a good idea why you decided to do this, and why you have been working on it so hard."  I can certainly see why Jim and Frank were interested in it.  You kids have done something really unusual.  I think this is very important.  Have you thought about who you are going to tell about it?  Have you thought about how you are going to grow this?

"What do you mean?  Grow it?"  Patty said.

"It sounds like only a few people in a thousand are what you call brights.  Anyone who has access to a bright can learn mindspeech, unless you run into something you haven't anticipated so far.  There are about 300 million people in the US, so conservatively, there are about 300,000 brights in the country.  If an ordinary person can learn to receive thoughts and to transmit thoughts after they have some training with a bright, then potentially everyone in the country could learn to mindspeak."  He explained.  "Don't you think that everyone will want to learn?"

"I don't know.  Maybe not everyone will be interested.  It is hard work, and I would say that it is impossible to learn if you don't have a bright.  Jim and Frank both have not even learned how to blob watch, and they both have access to their wives who are both brights.  I do not think it is a matter of interest with them, but rather a matter of time to practice and be involved."  I replied.

"A lot of people are interested in mind speech.  Let me tell you.  In my generation most everyone is interested and dreamed about it as they were growing up."  He said.

"I don't know, I never thought about it too much growing up.  I thought it was kind of a bad thing"  My mom said.

"How can it be a bad thing?"  Dad asked.

"Maybe it is not a good idea for people to read your mind.  Do you want anyone to be able to see your thoughts?"  She said.

"It doesn't seem to work that way, Mom."  Patty said.  "The person sending has to make a concerted effort to send you anything.  If a person is just thinking, it is not like you can pick up pictures or anything.  And if they are not concentrating, then mostly you get whispers and mumbles or nothing.  Also, if you are not a bright, like in our family, then mostly it is hard to send anything at all, even if you try.  I can send things to Dana, but it takes a lot of effort on the part of both of us."

Patty said. "I think we are kind of committed to helping out.  Both Jack and Edith's families are involved because they have brights, and they are all learning mindspeech as fast as they can.  I have been helping Dana.  And Dana discovered this whole thing and got it started.  She can hear mindspeech from a bright and from me as well.  And she has tried mindspeech over two miles.

"What!?"  Dad said, surprised. 

"Yes, she listened in on our practice sessions today.  She was here at home, and I was over at Edith's house with Jerry and Susan.  Dana could hear Susan's thoughts over that kind of distance.  She is the most experienced receiver that we have.  Even Jack and Carly are not as good at receiving as she is.  After all, she learned by trying to detect non-brights first.

"Let us read over this stuff on the website, and think about this for a while.  Can we talk about it more tomorrow?  I have a lot piled up at work right now.  But I think this is very important.  Would you mind if I call Frank, Edith's dad, and talk to him about it?"  Dad said.

"No, go ahead.  We wanted you to know.  We just waited until now to be sure that it was possible to do mindspeech.  Now we know, I guess it would be ok if anyone knows.  We will have to wait until Jack's dad decides to open up the website before anyone else can see that stuff, but if someone wants to learn mindspeech, I cannot see a reason to keep them from knowing how."

My mom was kind of quiet still, but she seemed to be OK.  I would check with dad later to see if mom was all right.

======== end Aug 31  -- 30,297 words  82 pages.

[Wednesday]

[Room]  Jack and Carly called.  They want to try sending to me to see if we can do this from their house to ours.  We are going to start in a little while.  It is good that we have all had experience with the different training exercises.  I only needed to explain briefly what I was going to try, and they knew immediately what I was suggesting.

We are going to do a random number list of 50 numbers.  It will be every 10 seconds with five seconds of sending the same number, then five seconds of rest and preparation.  I will listen and write down what they send.  We will try it first with Carly as a sender, then with Jack as a sender.  We will check the results after each set.  I know that we have been able to do mindspeech from reading and talking over two miles, but I wanted to try something simpler first.  If I get good results with the numbers, then I will try straight mindspeech.

When the clock came to the start time, I was prepared to listen.  I had earbuds in, and was already filtering the white noise.  I was concentrating on Carly, or at least on my memory of Carly.  When the time came for the first number, I heard nothing.  When the time was up I wrote down a dash.  When the second number came up, nothing.  Another dash.  Is she really sending?  Well. Just keep going.

I was about half way through the list of 50 numbers, and still nothing.  I concentrated harder on Carly.  I tried really hard to get a good picture of her when I saw her last.  She has such a bright blob.  It is not really a blob, but a bright image of her.  It is as though I was looking at her.  She glows with a warm golden light.  My mental image of her was very similar to my eye picture of her.

Faint, but clear, "Five, five, five, five ....".  I finally got something.  I wrote down five on my list.  The next one came through really faint.  I wrote down seven on my list, but I was not sure.  I concentrated on Carly again each time after I wrote down the number, and I started getting clearer results each time.  By the time I was near the end of the list, I was getting a clear number each time.  When I concentrated on Carly more, I got better results.

When we were done with the list, the phone rang, and it was Carly.  "How did we do?"  she asked.  I explained that I missed the first part of the list before I started getting anything.  We went through the list backwards, and found that I got all the last 20 or so correct.  "What did you do different?"  Carly asked.  "I concentrated harder on you toward the end."  I explained.

When Jack started sending I already was waiting for him.  I concentrated really hard on him before hand.  So when the start time for the numbers came up, I immediately heard, "two, two, two, ..", and wrote down two.  I did not make a single mistake with Jack's list.  We had successfully transmitted a mind message over 100 miles!

While we were making progress, we moved on to regular mindspeech.  Jack was going to read something out loud, then talk out loud, then read silently, then talk silently.  In four minute segments with one minute breaks.  We began.  Again, I was prepared beforehand.  The reading was faint and whispery.  That is usual for reading.  The talking out loud was clear, but very faint.  The silent reading worked a little bit.  The silent talking worked well.  The last thing that Jack said with his silent speech, was "I will call you on the phone now.  This is awesome!"

We talked on the phone for a while.  Carly wanted to practice her sending, and wanted to send over a long distance, so we went through the same practice that I had just done with Jack.  The reading was all whispery, the talking out loud was faint but clear, the silent reading and shouting was faint and muddy, the silent shouting was clear.  In both cases, when they were silently shouting words to me with their minds, we got good results.  The best results seems to be where they are directly trying to talk to me with their minds.  It seems that they have to "shout" even then.  They had to "try" harder and it will get to me clearly.

I suggested that Carly and Jack practice this whole set of ways to send.  While it depends on how hard to reader concentrates, it also depends on the sender sending out a clear signal.  A good receiver can make up for a poor sender.  A strong sender can make up for a weak receiver.

Jack and Carly said that they were mostly just talking to each other with their minds now.  They don't even have to shout when they are talking to each other.  Oh, the advantages of having two brights talking and listening!  They said that they were going to be coming to see us and Edith's family this next weekend.  Probably they will come Saturday afternoon. and then go back Sunday evening.  They were thinking about having a late lunch, early dinner at Edith's house, and we were all invited.  I explained to Jack and Carly that we had told our parents finally.  They said to also invite them.

Patty got back later in the afternoon.  She had gone to a meeting at the church.  Something to do with her youth group.  I think they are planning to have a retreat somewhere this summer.  I will ask her about it later.  I explained to Patty what we had accomplished.  She was excited, and wanted to practice her sending too.  I think that once she has more time close to Jack and Carly, she could probably be able to distance mind speech like we were doing.  Until someone has a good clear picture of the sender, I do not think that mindspeech will work.  I suppose that someday it would be possible to scan for blobs, find one of them, and then listen for mindspeech.  It requires cooperation on both ends right now.  The person sending has to try, pretty hard, to send anything.

I had rested after the morning sessions with Jack and Carly, so I spent a while with Patty on mind speech.  We decided to concentrate on silent shouting and silent reading and shouting, since we wanted to work in the same room.  I turned my back on her, and put in my earbuds.  We tried five minute silent shouting.  That came through OK, but it was faint.  So we tried it again.  That was a little better, but still faint.  We tried again.  This time is was almost a normal volume.  Patty said that she was really shouting, almost screaming in her head that time.  I said, "Try it again, but don't strain yourself".  I concentrated harder on her image.  That time it was normal shouting for her, and I heard it faint but clear.

Good mind speech was a matter of the sender and receiver getting to know each other.

[Patty's Room] 

"Patty.  When you are sending to me, do you try to send to me specifically?"  I asked. "What do you mean?"  She asked.

"Do you get a mental image of me and then try to send to me, or are you just talking in your head?"  I asked.

"I did not think to get a mental image of you before I started sending.  Do you think that will help?"  Patty said.

"Let's try it."  I said.

So we did another five minute test.  But before we started, we each spent time preparing a good mental image of the other.  When she started, I heard her loud and clear.  And, it turned out, she was not having to strain to shout to me.  Mindspeech really works better when both people are concentrating on the other.

We traded places then, and I practiced sending to Patty.  I paid particular attention to my mental image of her.  Since I had worked with her so much, her "blob" was no longer just a blob of dark color.  It was a pretty clear picture of her as though I was looking at her.  It was still dark, but there was a lot of detail.  Anyway, she was able to receive OK.  She said it was faint and whispery, but she could understand.  We practiced some more, and then we were both getting tired.  It takes effort to do mindspeech.  At least while we were learning.  I had an idea that we would get better and better at it, so that when we wanted to talk to someone, it would only be a matter of bringing up a familiar image of the other person.  And with the partner also trying to send to a particular person, the sending would be more effective.

Patty and I tried a little bit of silent reading.  This time I was reading, and I made an effort to focus on her before I sent.  She said it came through faint but clear.  So the problems we were having with reading and sending, might have been mostly because the sender was not thinking about the receiver.  We were going to go through the whole protocol with reading out loud, talking out loud, silent reading, and silent talking again soon.  But we both knew that it would work. 

Patty promised to write up our practice session for the website.  She writes really fast, and she is a good writer.  I am glad she is helping so much with that side of things.  I can do it, but it takes me longer.

Before I left to go back to my own room, I tried sending a message to Patty when she did not have the earbuds in.  I made a signal to her with my eyes that I wanted to send her something.  Then I concentrated on her mental image.  Then I sent, "Thanks for the help.  That was a good practice session."  She sent back, "Yes, that worked out pretty well.  Thanks."  What she sent was pretty clear, but faint.  I asked her how it came through for her.  She said it was whispery but clear.  We both smiled.  Mindspeech!

[Room] 

I called Carly and explained about how it really helps if the sender concentrates on the receiver's image.  She thought that made perfect sense.  She said she and Jack were doing something like that, but had not been particularly careful to image before sending.  They were going to adopt that method from now on.  And they would tell their parents.  Their parents were getting pretty good at blob watching, and their mom could pick up some of Jack and Carly's mindspeech.  Things were moving along quickly.

I called Edith and told her the same thing.  She was going to be sure to tell her mom about it right away.  They had been practicing with their mom quite a bit, and were all getting pretty good at receiving from their mom.  If she would make an effort to focus on mental images of them while she was sending, she probably would not have to work as hard.

After dinner, I just read for a while.  I found a series of books where the characters routinely used mindspeech with their companions (like horses but smarter), so I was reading as many of those as I could find.

I looked at the website for a while.  It seems to be growing every day.  Someone had taken all the Wikipedia links and put them on a separate page.  Now there was a fairly organized list of links like that, but the main page was cleaner looking.  Likewise all the practice sessions were now better organized.  I think Frank (Jack's dad) had organized then so they were in the order that someone would need to learn how to do mindspeech.  That is pretty much the order in which we discovered them, but he put more emphasis on training with brights and getting a focus on the sender.  From what we learned today about also focusing on the receivers, I expect that soon there will be some notes on focusing.  Maybe I would suggest that we call it imaging - whether it is getting a better image of the sender or receiver.  Each of the sender and receiver does their imaging, and then does the sending and receiving.

[Thursday]

Mom was home today, so Patty and I asked her if she could take us to the mall.  I had been wanting to go for three reasons - to get some more clothes, to look for more brights, and to see how well I was imaging blobs.  To see how well I was imaging.

That was fine with Mom, so we drove to the mall.  When I got near to it, I tried to image as many blobs as I could, before we went in.  I could see whirls and pools of them.  But I could not get much detail.  There was just too much to see.  Everyone was walking and moving for the most part.  I was having a hard time keeping track.

[Mall]

Mom needed a few things from one of the department stores, so we went there first.  Patty and I waited in the mall while mom went in and got her things.  I did not see any brights, but I did see a lot more detail on the blob images.  Patty and I were standing there with our eyes closed, when mom came back out.

"What are you doing?"  She asked.  She sounded a little concerned.  "Are you reading people's minds?"

"No, mom.  We are just getting mental images of the people here.  It helps to close your eyes, since we are trying to see with our minds and not our eyes."  Patty said.

"What is it like?  What do you see?"  She asked.

"Well, for some people, all we see is a blob of dark colors.  Sometimes there are little bits of color.  If we happen to see a bright, then they are usually golden colored and like a picture of the person as you would see them with your eyes.  The more experience you have with a person, the more detail you can see.  I have worked with Patty a lot, so I can see her pretty clearly.  I think she has a good mental picture of me as well."  I said.

"What do I look like?"  She asked.

Patty and I both looked at her and closed our eyes briefly.  "You are dark gray, with white and yellow highlights"  We said.

Mom had a look on her face like she wasn't sure whether she like those colors or not.  And at the same time kind of pleased that we could see her.

"Well, shall we get some shopping done then?"  She suggested.

We went through the mall to get to another department store.  This one had a pretty good selection of cheap, but good, clothes.  Patty and I tried to keep an eye out for brights or unusual blobs.  We would kind alternate with our long blinks.  Or we would just stop in out of the way places, and close our eyes.  People do strange things in malls, so we did not feel too strange.  Mostly if you are looking out over the railing down at the mall, people behind you cannot see your eyes, and people below you are too far to see much detail, if they look up at all.  Periodically, we would stop like that and look over the downstairs.  By the time we got to the department store we still had not seen any brights.  We did comment on some of the little kids.  There were quite a few kids with bright highlights.  But mostly everyone was a dark gray.  There were a few people with solid blue, really dark.  And one was a dark green.  We did not know what the colors meant.  We knew that brights were good senders and easy to see.  Did these other colors mean anything?  Did dark green mean anything, or was it just like hair color, and did not matter?

Patty got two tops, and I got two skirts and four tops.  Mom said I needed to get caught up.  When I was littler, I could wear Patty's older clothes.  Now I was as tall as her, and I did not like the same styles.  Mostly it was stuff on sale, so mom did not mind.  She seemed happy to be out at the mall with her two girls.

We went and got burgers at the food area, then sat down at some tables in the middle.  Patty and I were doing long blinks to keep track of all the people coming by. It was pretty crowded .

Mom was getting a little bored, since we were kind of ignoring her while we were looking for brights.  Actually we had given up on brights, and were just interested in the variety of colors and textures that people presented.  Patty and I started explaining to mom some of the training and practices we were going through.  "You mean you can talk to each other with your minds now?"  She asked.

"Yes, we have made a lot of progress.  When we first started, we could only see dots and very crude blobs when we are looking at other people.  Now we can send and receive without too much trouble.  We tested sending from Somerville yesterday, and that worked OK."  I said.

"What do you mean?  Somerville is over a hundred miles away."  She said.

"Yes, both Jack and Carly sent messages to me yesterday.  It came through clearly.  We are not sure what the limit on distance might be.  It seems harder over a longer distance, but that might be because we were worried and expecting it to be hard.  An important part of sending seems to be getting a clear image of the receiver before you send."

"So the mental image you are getting of the people here in the mall.  Does that mean it will be easier to send or receive from them?"  She asked.

"Yes, I think so.  A clear mental image seems to be key."  Patty said.

"I was thinking about Sandy Green's family."  I said.

"Who is that?"  Mom asked.

"Sandy Green is Mrs. Sawyer's granddaughter.  You know, she works in the Day School, or used to."  Patty said.

"Yes, I know her.  She used to be there when you guys were really little."  Mom said.

"Sandy Green is a bright.  Mrs. Sawyer is not.  Sandy has brothers and sisters that live in California.  Brightness seems to be inherited, so it is very likely that one or both of the parents are going to be bright.  and some of her brothers and sisters might be bright.  If we could find a bright in California, I wonder if we could send a message that far?"  I said.

"But how are we going to get a sender trained in California?"  Patty asked.

"I am not sure.  I was just thinking of possibilities."  I said.

"You guys are really into this, aren't you?"  Mom asked.  "Is this all you are going to talk about for the rest of your life?"  She smiled.

"Maybe.  It sure seems to absorb a lot of time."  I said.

"Well, I am feeling a little better about it now that I have seen you using it a little.  It seems like you are not going to go around reading people's minds all the time."  Mom said.

"It takes cooperation to get anything from someone."  I said.  "But do you think that mind reading is bad?  You seem to be worried about it?"  I asked my mom.

"I am not sure I would like anyone to be able to hear what I am thinking."  Mom said.  "I mostly do not think bad thoughts.  But sometimes I say things to myself about people and about situations, that I would not necessarily want to be public.  Like what I think of someone's clothes.  Say I see someone and they are really concerned about their appearance.  I might tell a white lie and say they look better than I really think they do."

"I think I see what you mean.  Yes, there are times when I shade the truth because I don't want to hurt someone's feelings.  If they could read that right out of my mind, I would have to be careful what I was thinking."  Patty said.

"Jack and Carly can talk to each other with mindspeech, almost as well as they can with ordinary speech."  Patty said.  "They told me they were getting really good at it.  I bet they are also have some control over when they are sending stuff to each other, and when they don't want to send to each other.  If they deliberately do not send something, I do not think the other person can hear it."

"Suppose someone was really good at receiving.  Do you think that they could hear someone else's thought, even if that someone else was not deliberately sending?"  Mom said.

"Maybe so.  When I was sitting next to Sandy Green, I could hear her thoughts while she was reading out loud from the prayer book.  I could not hear her when she was reading silently.  That was a major step in my understanding of how to do mindspeech.  But I was not very good at receiving, as I am now.  Maybe it might be possible.  I will have to think about that some more."  I said.  "Mom, you are asking some really good questions."

When we finished our food, we went back upstairs and continued window shopping.  There was nothing special we were looking for, just looking.  It was kind of fun being out with my mother and sister, spending an ordinary day.  Except that periodically Patty or I would still keep checking for brights.  We never did find any.

[Living room]  Mom wanted to watch something on television.  There was some news show that she watched in the afternoons.  I decided to watch along with her, but my mind was on other things.

There was something on about the earthquake in Japan.  They are going to be years rebuilding.  I remember those pictures of the tsunami, and all the devastation.  I wonder if there were trained blob watchers, whether they could help find people in the rubble?  When I was thinking about avalanches before, I was thinking that I would have to do it, but now I was beginning to realize that a lot of people could be trained to do imaging, and to do mindspeech.  If an earthquake or tsunami happened right now, Jack and Jerry and Edith might be willing to help.  I think Carly and I are too young.  But if it was the difference between life and death, maybe we could to.  I would be scared to go where there was danger, and where there were dead people.  But I might, if we could find some people alive.  Remember when 9/11 happened?  They showed it this spring at school.  They needed dogs and people to look for survivors.  I will have to remember to ask my dad about that later.

There was a report on riots in some of the North African countries.  I wonder if there are brights there as well.  Can anyone learn to mindspeak?  Brightness seems to be hereditary, are all the people in the world likely to have brights?  Could there be places where like everybody is a bright?

I thanked my mom for taking us shopping, and thanked her for the new clothes.  Then I went up to my room.

[Room]  I wonder if older people can do mindspeech?  All the parents seem to be taking a while to learn it.  I think it is mostly they don't have a lot of time, what with work and other things.  Both Susan and Karen are brights, and they are picking up some of the imaging and mindspeech.  We really need to find a bright for Susan.  Too bad there is not a way to see yourself.  Then brights could teach themselves.

I spent the evening reading.  I am enjoying summer, where I have time to just relax.  This mindspeech stuff is almost like work sometimes.

[Friday]

[Library]  I got here pretty early, I wanted to return these books, and see if there were any more by this same author.  I might have to use the interlibrary loan to ask for more of them.  Our library is pretty small.

While I was locking up my bike outside, I closed my eyes and took a peek at the library to see if there were any brights.  I think there is someone on the second floor.  So after I turned in my old books, I went upstairs.  Looking around, I cannot tell who it might be, so I stepped into an empty aisle and closed my eyes.  Over there.  I moved closer to the nonfiction area, and did a long blink.  Yes, in the middle of the nonfiction section, just a few rows down.

I went down the row.  There was just one, older man, there in the aisle.  I closed my eyes briefly, and was sure it was him.  He was bright.  Sort of like Susan and Karen.  Not as bright as Jack and Carly.  I looked to see what he was reading.  He seemed to be in the chemistry or science section.  He seemed to be reading to himself.  I did not know what to do.  I was afraid he was going to walk away any minute.  We only had two brights in town, and only one of them was helping right now.  Will he think I am really strange if I introduce myself?  Just do it!

"Hello, my name is Dana Freehurst.  Do you live around here?"  I said.  I was blushing.  This is seriously embarrassing.  I held out my hand to shake his hand.

He seemed to wake up from his reading.  Then he looked at me, and he sort of blinked.  And then he smiled a little and shook my hand.  "My name is Edward Baker. How do you do?  Are you interested in science?"  He said.

"Nice to meet you.  I am interested in science a little.  But right now I am most interested in something called mindspeech".  I said.

"Do you mean telepathy?"  He asked.

"Yes, sending and receiving messages with your brain.  And being able to see other people with your eyes closed.  That sort of thing."  I explained.

"Do you need help with it?  I know what you are talking about, but I am not an expert on it by any means.  Do you want to ask the librarian, I am not sure I can help you."  He said.

I was losing him.  In another second, he would go back to his book and I would never see him again.

"You are a bright."  I said in a rush.

"What do you mean?"  He asked.

"I mentioned that it is possible to see people with your eyes closed.  I can see you and your image is bright.  That is pretty rare, and I have been looking for more brights"  I said.  I had a sinking feeling.  His eyes seemed to have closed a bit, and he was pulling back from me.  His eyes were kind of darting here and there, looking for a way out.

I took a deep breath and continued.  I am working with a small group of people.  We have four brights who are involved.  There is only one in town.  We have managed to teach ourselves how to do mindspeech.  But we are limited because brights are so rare."  I continued.

"That sounds interesting.  What do you want from me?"  He said.

Now I could see that I was really losing him.  I never should have started this.

"Would you be interested in meeting with us this Sunday afternoon after church.  We have people coming into town to talk about mindspeech, so we all can compare notes.  It is going to be a late lunch/early dinner about a mile or so from here.  Would you like to have lunch with us.  I am sure everyone would like to meet you.  There are twelve people and yourself."  I said.

"This is pretty unusual."  He said.  "But I might be free.  What church do you go to by the way?

"St. Thomas."  I answered.

A big smile grew on his face.  "I go to St. Thomas, too."  He said.  "Is your Dad's name John by the way?"

"Yes."  I said, with a curious look on my face.  Now I was the one not sure what was going on.

"Your dad and I were in the same bible study at one of the Men's Retreats.  It was a while ago, but I still remember him."  He said.  He still had a big smile on his face.

"Do you know Frank and Susan Sanders then?  That is where we are getting together. They go to our church too."  I explained.

"No.  I do not know them, but I might recognize them if I saw them.  I have been around the church a long time.  I have probably seen every one."  He said.  Then he continued, "Yes, I would like to meet with you on Sunday.  I will be very interested to hear what you all have been doing.  Can you really do mind speech?"

"Yes, Jack and Carly who are coming from Somerville will be there.  They can talk back and forth without any problem.  We just ran some tests and can send from Somerville to here without too much trouble.  We can send here in town across a couple of miles as well.  I am a pretty good receiver, and I am learning how to send more clearly all the time."  I said.

"Amazing."  He said.

I could tell it was time for us to go our separate ways, so I asked.  "Are you in the church directory?  You name is Edward Baker, isn't it?" 

"Yes I am in the directory, and you are correct."  He said

"Could I have someone call you and give you the time and directions.  I think it will be about 1:00 o'clock to give everyone time to get back from church.  I think that my mom and Susan and Karen are all going to take care of the food."  I said.

"That will be fine.  I look forward to it."  He said.

I nodded and went back out of the aisle.  My face was still blushing.  But I was proud of myself for finding a new bright, and inviting him to join us.

[Kitchen]  "Patty!  Are you home?"  I yelled.

"Sure, what's up?"  She said when came down the next moment.  She must have heard the excitement in my voice.

"Have you ever heard of Edward Baker?  He is in the church."  I said, smiling.  Patty seemed to have a blank look on her face, so I continued, "Well, he is a bright, and I invited him to our meeting on Sunday.  Do you think that will be OK with everyone?"

"Well, yes, that should be OK.  But how did you manage to do that?"  She said.

So I explained how I had found him at the library, and then went up to him, introduced myself, and ended up inviting him to our get together.

Patty had a funny smile on her face.  "And you didn't even know him?"  She asked. 

"No, I was really embarrassed.  But I did it anyhow.  I thought that it was pretty important to find more brights."  I said.

"Didn't you think it was odd, going up to a strange man in the library?"  She asked.

"Well, he was in the library, he is an older man, and he was reading chemistry and science books.  I thought it was OK.  I could see that he was a bright."

"Not every bright is going to be a good person."  She said.  "I guess you are OK. I am looking forward to meeting him now.  Is he really bright?"

"About like Susan."  I said.

When Dad came home later, we explained about Mr. Baker.  Dad was really happy to hear that Mr. Baker was coming on Sunday.  Dad called Edith's dad, Frank, and explained who Mr. Edwards was and was it OK to bring an extra person along.  Then he called Mr. Baker and had a long chat with him.  Listening in to Dad, I was kind of surprised how knowledgeable he was about what we were doing with mindspeech.  I guess he had time to read the website, and he must have talked to Frank about it before.  They seemed to chat along quite happily.

So my adventures at the library bored good fruit.

[Patty's Room]  Patty and I talked to Jack and Carly over Skype tonight.  We were all pretty well caught up with news, but we did tell them that Mr. Edwards was going to be coming on Sunday.

"Have you and Susan tried to do mindspeech from Somerville to here yet?"  We asked.

"Yes, both Carly and I can mindspeak with Susan in both directions.  And Edith and Jerry can each hear something from us when we send.  After you and I and Carly were able to mindspeak, then we just had to try it with our cousins."  Jack said. "My mom and her sister are also able to do some mindspeech.  Everyone is practicing with every other person they have time for."

"Something I wanted to talk about on Sunday is what are we going to do with this.  I was thinking about how hard it was for them to search for survivors after the tsunami in Japan.  Do you think that trained blob watchers could help find missing people in a situation like that?  I am thinking that it would be a good skill for firemen to have.  Like even if they were going into a fire, could they tell where any people might be.  That sort of thing."  I asked.

Jack said, "That is a pretty good idea. There might be other places where just blob watching could be very helpful.  Missing people in the forest. Avalanches."

Well, let's think of things like that.  Could you start a list on the website of possible applications, Jack?"  I said. "You could start with tsunamis, firemen and avalanches."

"What about people who have hearing problems?  Could they learn to listen to mindspeakers?  What about people in comas?"  Patty asked.

"What do you mean, people in comas?"  Carly asked. 

"Well, suppose we got good enough to hear people's thoughts even if they were not trying to talk to us."  Patty suggested.

"Do you think we could get that good?"  Carly asked.

"Maybe."  Jack said, after a slight pause.

We talked about half an hour, then decided to break up.  We wanted to save some stuff for Sunday when we all got together.  We were looking forward to that.

[Living Room]

I asked Dad if he would mind calling Sandy Green, and could we invite her to the dinner on Sunday?  I explained again to him who she was, that she was a bright, but did not know what we were doing.

He called Frank again, and they talked about it a while.  In the end they invited both Sandy and her grandmother.  Susan actually made the phone call to Mrs. Sawyer, because she knew her from church pretty well.  Anyway they both accepted.  Now there were going to be 15 people at the Sunday dinner.  I will definitely have to help with the food and preparations.

Jack's parents were going to be bringing some coolers of drinks, and some plastic cups and plates.  Our family and the Sanders (Edith's family) were bringing the food.  And the people we invited were not expected to bring anything.

[Saturday]

Patty and I asked Dad to take us to the mall, to look for more brights, and just to blob watch.  Mom smiled and told him to take his daughters out to lunch somewhere nice.

Since it was Saturday, there were probably going to be a lot of people.  Going at noon on Saturday would hopefully give us the best chance to find someone.  What we were going to do if we found someone, that is something else.

We parked in the corner of the parking lot nearest to the restaurant that Dad had chosen.  It had pretty good salads and sandwiches, and it has good desserts. We came into the mall at the end, near a department store, on our left.  We decided to eat first, then walk around the mall looking for brights.

The good news is there was no one waiting in line.  The bad news is there was a bright walking down the mall, just in front of us.  Patty and I stopped, and looked at each other.  Dad, whose mind was on food, probably, felt us stopping, so he turned around to see what was the matter. 

"There is a little boy over there.  He just got off the escalator.  See them going that way?  He is a bright.  Do we chase him down?  Or do we let him go?"  Patty said.

Dad made a quick decision and said, "Let him go.  We might catch him later.  We need to talk about what we are going to do if we find someone."  Dad said.  Then he led the way.

We sat down, read our menus, then ordered.  While we waited, Dad said, "You met Mr Edwards and you were just lucky he knew me.  He told me that he was kind of shocked to have a young woman come up to him in the library.  When you started talking about mind reading, he really had doubts about you.  That is probably the same kind of reception anyone is going to give you if you just start talking to them about mindspeech.  What we can do today, is go around the mall and get an idea how many brights there might be.  We will have to take each one as they come, and decide if there is anyway we can approach them.  If they are your age, you can try to talk to them.  If they are my age I can.  We will just have to wait and see."

When the food arrived, we stopped talking for a moment.  Then Dad asked, "What do you want with brights anyway?"

"Well for anyone who does not know how to view blobs, it is a hundred times easier to learn how to do it, if there is a bright available.  All it takes is looking at them with your eyes closed and a some practice, and you can learn to do it.  Once you are used to the idea of blobs that way, then it is easier to view regular people.  I think it would be very, very hard for someone to learn how to view blobs if they never saw a bright.  It took me many long days of searching on my own before I found Jack.  Of course I didn't know what I know now, but I think it would be hard without brights."  I explained.

"Also, once you know how to view blobs, then the brights are good senders."  Dad said.  "I read this on your website, and you have probably told me this several times, but I am still getting used to it.

"We have Mr. Baker and Sandy Green coming on Sunday.  So there are some new brights coming along.  Sandy's family is all in California.  Did Mr. Baker say if he had any family?"  Patty asked.

I don't think he has any family." Dad said.  "I think his wife died a year or so ago.  He is old enough he could be a grandfather.  Maybe even a great grandfather.  I do not know." 

We walked around after lunch and look at various stores.  Dad wanted to stop by the bookstore for some magazines.  I flipped through some too.  I was trying to think of ways that we could use mindspeech to help people.

"We haven't tried cards yet.  We haven't tried sending and receiving pictures.  I wonder if there is something like white noise for the eyes?"  I thought.

[Sunday]

[Church]

Patty and I went to the 9:00 o'clock service, and met a lot of our friends from school.  Many people were getting back from early trips during the summer.  So there were more people there than last week, which was kind of dead.  No brights, but we had a good time.  Jerry and Edith were not there.  They were going to the 11:00 o'clock service to check for brights.  We were all going over to their house this afternoon.  We all left quickly to go home and get ready for the meeting.

[Edith's House]

Everyone is here.  Everyone is talking up a storm.  Jack and Carly and their family came in last night, and they all went to the 11:00 o'clock with Edith's family.  Their family had a chance to talk and visit on their own last night, and this morning.  There is an air of expectancy.  I am not sure what will happen, but we can all feel something.  Jack and Carly seem to have their heads together a lot.  They are mindspeaking all the time now.  Everyone seems to take time to do blob watching.  I forgot how bright Jack's family was.  It is really apparent now that we are all together.

Mr. Baker and Sandy Green came, Mrs. Sawyer did not come for some reason.  We had seen Sandy in the 9:00 am service.  I think he must go to the 8 am service.  Both of them are very cheerful and seem to be enjoying themselves.  People are talking about mindspeech.  I can tell by watching people that a lot of small decisions are being made about what kinds of practices to plan for mindspeech.  There is some discussion of the purposes of mindspeech.  There is some discussion of whether to invite more people to join in what we are doing.  A major question seems to be whether we should start teaching everyone how to mindspeak, who should do it, and who to teach.  Since several applications of blob watching have come up, the question becomes how to teach people to blob watch, who should do it, and the most effective way to do it.  There is a little discussion of brights and how to get them more involved. 

Sandy Green is already contributing ideas.  She has a general sense of what we are doing.  She thought we might want to start making a few youTube videos, or make some videos to go on the website to explain what was going on.  She also suggested that we get an artist to paint or draw some pictures of blobs.  It would be very helpful to see pictures of dots and blobs, and of brights, so people will know what we are talking about.  Jack's Dad said that he would work with an artist that he has for websites.  That is a very good idea.  Jack was going to get involved also.  Carly took some crayons, and drew some simple pictures to show Sandy.  I was surprised, because it looked exactly like I see them.  It is nice to know we are all seeing the same thing.

I overheard my Dad, Jack's Dad, and Edith's Dad all talking about inviting new people in.  There were several ideas.  One was to open the website to anyone.  One was to start a Facebook site.  One was to go on Twitter and ask people in the area to go to our website.  Setting up a feedback/email service on our site, so people could contact us.

Mr. Baker wanted to know how he could help.  Jack and Carly said, let's do a quick test.  Try to send us a brief hello and say a few words.  "Hello, I'm Ed Baker.  Nice to meet you.  Can you read my thoughts".  He smiled really big when they repeated back to him what he had just sent.  Jack and Carly are making incredible progress.  They are better receivers than I am.  I could hear him, but it was faint and scratchy.  What it did demonstrate is that Mr. Baker could be a good sender, and could be used to train blob watchers and mindspeakers.  Mr. Baker seemed to be pretty comfortable with what he was learning.

After a while, there was a break so everyone could eat.  We lined up in the kitchen and said a brief prayer, then everyone cycled through and filled their plates.  The dining room table had extra leaves so that ten people could set there.  And then we had two card tables for everyone else.  There was lots to drink and eat.  Everyone was chattering like crazy.

I snuck off into the kitchen for a minute to get something else to drink.  I closed my eyes and looked at the whole group together.  There were fourteen people, among them six brights.  As my skill with blob watching has increased, I was seeing more and more detail in ordinary people.  Everyone seemed to be flickering.  I seemed to see several places where blobs were overlapping.  Was that just a visual effect, or were people actually linking?  Jack and Carly definitely seemed to be overlapping.  If people worked together could they do more than if they were apart?  What was this group going to do?

When I sat down again, everyone seemed to be in place.  Frank (Edith's dad) stood up and officially welcomed everyone, and asked if anyone else needed anything else to eat or drink.  When no on needed anything, he asked us all to move into the living room.  When we had arranged ourselves there, he had everyone go around and briefly introduce themselves - this was mainly for the benefit of Sandy and Mr. Baker.  I enjoyed it, because I took a minute to look at each person as they spoke.  More than half of them I could hear the words in their heads, as they spoke out loud.  When it came time for me to say my name and a few things about myself, Edith's dad stopped me and then said, "I think we need to offer a special thanks to Dana.  Without her original discoveries we would not be here today."  Then they clapped!  How embarassing!

======== End sept 1

Frank gave a summary of what had been done to date.  He went over the website, and summarized the various training practices that people had discovered. 

"Ed and Sandy have both said they were willing to help.  They can help new people learning to blob watch, and they can help people wanting to practice mindspeech receiving.  We can put a schedule of when they are available on the website."   There were smiles all around, as people offered their appreciation.

Frank said, "I have been talking to friends of mine at work, and in the church about mindspeech.  They are excited by the possibilities."

Jim and Karen said that they had been talking to their friends.  There was general agreement that this was a good thing to be doing.

Frank asked, "Who should we train first, and how should be go about it?"

My Dad suggested that we could offer classes in blob watching and in mindspeech at different times.  We would open up the website to anyone, and we would put a form there for people to sign up for classes.  Since Frank and Jim had brights at home, they could be available as subjects and as teachers.  My Dad offered to have Sandy and Ed come over to our house and offer training there.  That was fine with them, they said.  They seemed pleased to be included.

I was really amazed to here all this happening.  It occurred to me that our parents were taking this a lot more seriously than we were.  Yes, it was a lot of fun to blob watch and mindspeak.  We were having fun learning.  But our parents were treating this like a business or something. 

Susan talked about the potential applications.  She went over the list from the website which included search and rescue, and firemen.  She suggested that we put together a course outline for teaching blob watching to search and rescue people.  Edith and I offered to help her, to read over what she wrote, and to try to offer some efficient ways to teach blob watching.  We thought that we could start with 3D watching, then introduce brights.  We were going to have to streamline the training on body positions and such, because we had been trying so many things.  It was going to take some real work to get it down to a science, rather than the somewhat haphazard approach we had now.

Jack and Carly and Karen all said they were going to work on people with hearing problems and people in comas.  We all agreed that everyone would try to work on the applications we had already found, and to try to come up with new applications.  Jim said he would add a form onto the website so that other people could submit possible applications.  He would edit the submissions before he posted anything.  He promised to call different people in the group to get their opinions and advice of new applications.  Everyone offered to help on new applications, so he said that he could send new application to everyone by email list.  That way everyone could see them and make comments.

Jack said he was thinking about setting up a Facebook for blob watching and another one for mind speech.  You need training in one to learn the other, but they really have different kinds of applications.  Jim said that he would work with Jack to reorganize the website into two parts - one for blob watching and one for mindspeech.  He even said he would put up another domain name, something like "mindspeakers.com" so people could find the different parts easier.  He also suggested that we make some YouTube videos to explain what we were learning and how to go about learning mindspeech.  Several people offered to work on that.

I was distracted for a moment, and then someone asked whether this was a lot of work to do the websites.  Jim said that he and Jack were happy to do it, and if it became too much, he would ask for more help.  He said that if anyone wanted to work on parts of the web, he could get them set up with account access.  Patty offered to clean up some of the blobwatcher practice sheets, so she was going to work with Edith and I on blobwatcher training. 

Sandy and Ed asked for more details about the website.  They had seen printouts of some of it, but wanted to do more.  Everyone expressed gratitude for the work the website builders had done, and everyone said they would go back to read and comment on what was there.

Then we went around and gave an update on results.  Patty and I gave a report on mindspeech between non-brights.  I told about the experiments to mindspeak over a distance, both here in town and all the way to Somerville.  I mentioned my interest in trying to find some brights far away.  Sandy said that she had two sisters living in California.  She did not know if they were brights or not, but if they came to visit, we could find out.  It was taking anywhere from a few days to a few weeks for people to learn how to blob watch.  Once someone was a good blob watcher, an introduction to mindspeech could come in an hour, or a few days at most.  If we could train people in a few days to be blob watchers and mindspeakers, then if someone came to visit - especially if they were a bright = then we could train them, then let them go home.  Once we could get a sender at a distance, then we could try to do long distance mindspeech.  Jim said, perhaps we could send someone on a plane for a long trip.  He said he had friends and family across the US.  If he went to visit them, he hoped to be a good enough mindspeaker to try to send.  We kind of joked that we should send Jack and Carly to visit their family in Texas.  Jim thought a moment, then said that that might be a good idea.

Jack and Carly asked, "We are getting pretty good results talking to each other. We don't need white noise for the most part, and we do not have to "shout" in our heads to be heard by each other.  We are trying to listen in to people who are not brights, and who are not deliberately sending.  There is always some small level of thought that comes through."  This caused some excitement.  "How does that work?"  My mom asked.

"It helps to use the white noise then.  But if you listen to someone and they happen to be talking to themselves in their minds, then you can hear it.  At least you can tell they are talking."  Jack said.  Carly said, "I think that as we get better at this, it will be easier to read anyone.".

"Susan, would you be willing to help Patty and I with sending and receiving pictures?  We have been sending words that can be heard in our minds.  But we have not tried sending pictures."  I asked and explained.

Susan said that she would be happy to help, let's try it some evening.  Jack and Carly said they had tried sending simple pictures, like the picture of a hand with fingers sticking out.  But they had not made much progress.  "Let's all try sending pictures, and then write up what we find.  We can put it with the mindspeech section of the site."  I said.

Finally, we talked about finding more brights.  I suggested that we send someone to a rock concert or some kind of event where there were a lot of people.  At least we might be able to see if there were a lot of brights out there.  This sparked some interesting comments and suggestions.  Sandy and Ed both said they were happy to be invited, and were hoping to contribute in some way.  They were going to think of ways to invite other brigths to become involved.

We kind of broke into small groups and started talking then.  Susan, Edith, Patty and I made plans to work on the blobwatchers section of the website.

I found a quiet corner again to just do some blob watching.  There were so many different patterns.  And the blobs seemed much more active than usual.  I think the colors were brighter - as people talked and interacted.  I wanted to get really good at blob watching.  I thought ahead to what I needed to do.  But mostly I resolved to spend more time just doing it, and not talking about it so much.

[Room]  Jack and Carly and their family stayed pretty late before heading back to Somerville.  We did have some time to do some mindspeech.  It is easier when people are close by.  I think it is because when you see them with your eyes, it reminds you a lot of how their blob looks.

I wrote a lot in my diary, but nowhere near enough to cover everything that has happened.  I feel like it has taken on a life of its own.  I am getting more involved.  How am I going to have time for my friends?  Reading?  Anything!?

[Monday]

[Park]  Mom and Patty had some thing to do, so I decided to look around a bit.  I wanted to do some private blobwatching.  First I went to the park for a while.  There were only a few people there, but I watched anyway.  What I was trying to do was to see anyone in the church nearby, or in the houses nearby.  People I had not seen up close came through as dots or blobs.  People that I had time to see with both my eyes and my mind came through as images of people.  If I were a fireman coming to a house, I could probably see everyone in the house and where they were.  They might only show up as dots and blobs, but they would show up.  My range seemed to be about half a block.  Beyond that it was just fuzzy.

[Library]  I went to the library to take back some more books, and to pick up some books that came to me from other branches in town.  I had found quite a few of the mindspeaker books in the library catalog; it was an easy thing to do to put them on hold for me at my own branch.  I sat for nearly an hour in one of the comfortable chairs there, pretending to read, but really I was blob watching.  I could see the people upstairs or downstairs.  I could also see the people in the coffee shop nearby.  There is a small shopping center a few blocks away, but I could only tell that there were people there.  It was hard to get an individual dot to give me more detail.

I need to come up with a way to zoom in on a dot to get more information.  Just like I can get an image of Jack in my mind, I know that it is a memory image based on seeing him with my eyes and with my brain.  For people that I don't know, I have no physical image of them to work with.  Is there any way to get a blob to have more detail?  I know that I can learn where arms and legs are by working with someone, like when I was working with Patty and learned her blob in more detail.  What about for people that I have never met?

There was a blob at the coffee shop next door.  It was roughly spherical, but I could guess that the head was at the top, and the feet were at the bottom.  I could guess also that they were sitting down and their hands were probably on top of the table.  A lot of guessing.  I went over to the windows that overlook the coffee shop.  There was that person, a man, sitting at one of the outside tables.  His hands were on top of the table, one hand holding onto a cup the other a book.  Was that guessing, or was that real?

Jack and Carly are both brights.  After yesterday, when I had a chance to see them again, and to see their blobs close up, it is easier to recall their blobs when I want to look at them over a distance.  I remembered both of them as though they were right next to me, so what I see is two bright blobs with fantastic detail.  It is like photographs of living people made up of light.  But where are their blobs right now?  Not just memory of them, but their actual blobs, right now? 

I closed my eyes tight, and concentrated.  "Jack, Jack, Jack, ...."  I repeated, and tried to locate him with my mind.  I had a general sense of where Somerville was from geography.  My mental sense of direction seemed to match my remembered sense of direction.  "There!"  I thought.  That is the direction he is in.  My mental image of Jack began to take on life.  It was not just a snapshot, an old image of him, but a living, breathing version of him.  I could get direction, and I had a vague sense of how far away he was.  And I had a larger image of him from memory.  Distance, direction, image, details.  I think that he is walking somewhere.

My picture of the person at the coffee shop was still fresh.  It was easy to pick it up and look at it again.  I think I can see him moving around a bit.  I think I see his hand move when he takes a drink of coffee.  I think I see his other hand holding something.

[Shopping Center]

There is a shop at the little shopping center that sells smoothies.  I got a peach, then set down near the window.  There are only a few chairs here.  I closed my eyes and started building a mental image of the shopping center, keeping track of all the people here.  I could see the people working here, and the customers.  Behind this shop, there were people in the alley as well.  They were loading something or doing something next door, it seems.  Gradually, I built up a picture of everyone in the center.  I could not keep track of them all at once, but I could see them store by store.  I could see the people walking around in the parking lot.  I could kind of see the people driving by in their cars.  It is hard to imagine that only a couple of weeks ago, I could not do this at all.  Now it seems so natural and easy.

"Dana!  What's happening?"  I heard.  I had to blink a bit to get my eyes focused again.  "Hello, Paul.  How is it going with you?" 

"Were you sleeping?  I saw you sitting here with your eyes closed.  Are you tired?"  He said.

"I was trying to get a mental image of the shopping center and the people in it."  I said. 

"Why don't I grab something to drink, and then come join you?"  He said.  "OK.  I'll wait for you here."  I replied.

"Are you studying architecture or something?  Why are you studying a shopping center?  Is this some kind of homework that you got assigned over the summer?"  Paul said.

"I am more interested in the people here, than the shopping center itself.  I can see the people in their cars going by too.  I am trying to see how many people I can locate.  I was thinking about how firemen and rescue workers have to find people during an emergency, and I was wondering what kind of training program would be most effective to teach them how to locate injured people with their minds."  I said.  I sounded like my dad or Jim or someone from the meeting yesterday.  It seemed kind of odd saying that, but it was the truth.  That is what I was doing.

"You are serious, aren't you?"  He said. "What do you mean "locate people with their minds"?  Is that what you said?"

"Yes, that is exactly what I said.  I am working with a group of people who are learning how to mentally track people, and how to do mindspeech.  We have only been doing it a short time, but we are already making progress.  I am sort of the person who discovered how to do this, and I feel responsible to stay ahead of what others are doing.  I volunteered to help with blob watching -- mentally locating people."

Paul just sat there looking at me.  He was looking for some hint that I was making a joke.  But he must have seen some of the tiredness and care in my face, so he did not say anything.

"One of the applications we came up with is emergency services, search and rescue.  If I look at a building, I can see the people inside it from the outside.  Right now I can see everyone in about a half block distance from here, whether they are in buildings, behind the buildings, in their cars, or just walking by.  I can see enough detail to sort of tell what each person is doing.  At least I can tell which way they are facing, and a little bit about where their arms and legs are.  I think that I could tell where someone is, even if they are unconscious. But I am not sure about that."  I continued.

Paul was still just listening.  He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again.  He took a long drink from his smoothie.  I did the same.  We looked at each other.

"Well, my summer has not been so interesting as that."  He said.  Then he paused. Then he said, "Is it hard to learn how to do that?  What you said, blob watching?" 

"We are trying to come up with a simple training program so that we can teach people how to do blob watching.  I am part of a group that volunteered.  Would you like to learn?"  I said.

"What would I have to do?"  he said.

"We are just starting to set up classes at my house.  The classes will probably have to be in the evenings.  It usually takes a few days to learn blob watching, and then a couple of weeks of practice.  Mindspeech takes more effort, and you need someone to work with you who is able to to send strongly so you can learn to receive thoughts."  I said.

"You mean like telepathy?"  he asked.  He had a big question on his face.

"Yes, once you are good at blob watching, then it is fairly easy to learn to hear thoughts from a strong sender.  It takes practice to be able to send clearly, and you really need to know blob watching first to be a good sender.  If you learn blob watching well, then you have the option if you want to learn mindspeech.  I am pretty good at blob watching, and I am a good receiver.  I have not had a lot of practice with sending, but I am learning that too."  I said.  "Some of the people in our group can routinely talk back and forth with their minds, just like we are talking now with our mouths.  That takes a lot of practice."

"Let me find out when our classes are going to start, and then you can come."  I said.  I took out my cell phone and took his number.  I promised to call him with details.

Paul was finishing his drink.  We just looked around the parking lot for a while.  He looked at me a couple of times.  But he did not say anything.

"Oh, you can probably get to our website now.  It is BlobWatchers.com"  I said.  His eyes got bigger again.  We waved goodbye to each other.  Paul's blob was gray with tiny red highlights.

[Patty's Room]

I explained to Patty what I had learned today doing blob watching.  I felt pretty certain that if a fireman or a search and rescue person was able to blob watch as well as me, then they could locate people in an emergency.  I told her that I could see about a quarter of a block in detail, and a little more than a block in distance.

When I mentioned Paul, she was very interested.  She said that Dad was scheduling a new class to start on Wednesday, with a few friends of Dad's and with Sandy as the bright.  Dad even bought a couple of MP3 players and some more earbuds, because we would probably start out with white noise for people just getting started.

[Room] 

I was tired and just wanted to veg out and play video games, but I forced myself to write out some notes about what I learned about blob watching today.  I finished up something, and sent it to Jack to post on the web.  I figured he would sort it out.  I also sent a copy to Patty, even though I had just verbally told her the same thing.  She was going to organize all the blob watching materials, so I might as well contribute.

I lay on my bed, listening to white noise from my cell phone.  I tried to stretch myself as far as I could.  I must have been tireder than I thought, because I woke up in the middle of the night with the earbuds still in.  It was late at night and everyone was asleep I thought.  I reached out with my mind, and I was able to find each member of the family.  Awake or asleep, their blobs were still visible.  That reminded me about a question I had about people in comas.  Could you see their blobs?

[Tuesday]

[Room]

I called Paul and told him about the class on Wednesday.  Yes, he was still interested and would come.  He had time to look at the website, and was very interested.  He asked me if we were going to have a bright there for the first class.  I said, yes, there was a volunteer who would be there.  He asked how long it took to learn mindspeech, and I said that once he learned blob watching, if he was really good, then he should be able to hear a bright sending words the first time.  I said that it was usually faint or scratchy when you first tried it, but that most people got something their very first time.  I did not know how good Sandy would be since she has never tried to send before.  I could have tried when we were all together on Sunday.  Maybe someone else did.  I had already "overheard" Sandy while she was just reading out loud.  So I did not expect any problems.  My biggest worry was coming up with a quick and reliable way to teach blob watching to new students.

I put in my earbuds and started tracking the people in the neighborhood.  I was trying to stretch myself to see as far as possible.  I wanted to know if there was any limit on how far you could detect someone.  I was thinking about finding people lost in the woods, or something like that.

I stopped for a moment and went to my computer.  I googled "search and rescue" and then found the Wikipedia article.  Under Urban Search and Rescue, there were a lot of applications.  There is also Combat Search and Rescue, and Air-Sea Rescue.  It made me think about urban fighting, police in hostage situations, police trying to capture criminals, and warfare in general.  I also found some material on hostage rescue.  It seemed like there were several application of blob watching when you wanted to know where people were inside buildings.  I wrote a quick email to Jack and asked him to include a few Wikipedia links in the blobwatchers' area.  I copied Patty.

I am feeling like I am twenty years old!  I feel like I am working at some kind of job.  Is this what it feels like to be an adult?  I am not sure I want to.

Tracking people is gettting easier.  But I seem to run into a limit in distance of a block or so.  It is hard to force myself to see farther than a block.  I do not know if this is a real limit, or something I will get used to.  I can track everyone it seems.  I do not know if there are people I cannot track.  They would be invisible, and I would never know it.

[Living Room]

I watched a couple of movies this afternoon.  Quite a break for me.  I watched two of the Harry Potter films.  It was fun.  I kept thinking that mindspeech is kind of magical.  What I was doing was kind of magical.  But it was real!

Dad got home early.  I asked him if he knew of any hospitals around where there might be people in coma's.  He was surprised at the question, but when I explained that I was wondering if I could see the blobs of  people in coma's, he understood. 

"I know a few doctors, but I am not sure whether they have hospital priveleges or not."  he said.  "What you want is to find someone in a coma, then check whether you can see their blobs, and then see if there is any brain activity?  Isn't it likely people in comas are similar to people sleeping?"  he said.

 "I can see the blobs of people when they are sleeping."  I said. "But I have never seen anyone in a coma."

"Would you not watch us when we are sleeping?"  he asked.  I nodded.  He thought for a moment.  "Would you not watch us when we are sleeping, please?"  he requested.  I understood why he would ask that, then I nodded again and said OK.  There are times when blob watching could invade someone's privacy.  I blushed deeply.  If I keep up blob watching, I am sure to run into times when people want privacy.

===== end sept 2

[Room]  I am trying again to extend my blob watching to larger distances.  When I look out mentally to see the neighborhood, it takes me a while to locate all the blobs.  Then it takes time to gather information on each one.  It is not a fast process.  The more I do it, though, the faster I get.  What I am trying to do is speed up the initial phase when I locate all the dot and start to turn them into blobs.  I am also trying to extend the distance I can see.  Right now as I look over the neighborhood, I can get both sides of our street, and then the street on either side.  I can get our whole block and then half a block beyond.  I think that is sufficient for many types of search and rescue, and for other applications.  I did not like to think that it could be used for warfare, but that was also possible.

[Wednesday]

====== end sept 12

[Patty's room]  Sandy Green is coming today, as well as the first class of people wanting to learn blob watching.  I spent the morning reading over the blobwatchers.com website, to remind myself of all the various methods we tried while teaching ourselves how to blob watch.  Patty and I have been talking about how to teach new people.  Mostly each person has to try on their own to see blobs and then learn about details of individuals.  It is not easy, and there is no magical way to learn to do it.

"Do you think that older people are going to be able to pick this up quickly?"  Patty asked.

"I am not sure.  Susan has been having a hard time with it, mostly because she does not have a bright to work with all the time.  She made a lot of progress when her sister, Jack and Carly all came to see them this weekend.  Karen and Jim are both doing well, but Jim does not have much time to practice."  I said.  "Mostly it seems like it is a matter of how much time you devote to it.  We will have to see how the class tonight does, and whether they can spend enough time with it."

"Dad said you were interested in seeing someone in a coma.  Is that right?"  Patty asked.

"Yes.  I have been thinking about it, and I think that it might be better to look at someone who is having an operation.  Isn't being unconscious for an operation the same as being in a coma?"  I said.  "If I could see someone before they were given anesthesia, and then during surgery, I could see the difference between a normal person, and one who is unconscious.  I have been studying people who are asleep, and they do not appear much different than when they are awake."

"Perhaps that is because we are not able to see details very well.  I know that I cannot see details of blobs the way you do.  You have had a lot more experience than me."  Patty said.

"It took me a long time to learn to see small differences in blobs.  Brights are something else.  For most ordinary blobs, there is not a lot of detail until after I become very familiar with them."  I said.

I closed my eyes and took a moment to look at Patty.  "You are still mostly gray with green highlights.  But these days I could see arms and legs and head in their proper place.  With familiarity, I have come to see a lot more detail.  My mind is filling in the detail."  I explained to Patty.

Patty "looked" at me.  "You are still gray with blue highlights.  I can guess where your arms and legs are, because we have practiced arm and leg positions.  But I do not have a clear mental picture of you yet.  I agree with you that, with time, I can see more detail in blobs I am familiar with.  Even with strangers now, I seem to pick up more detail the first time I see someone."  Patty continued.

"Could we try sending pictures to each other now?"  I asked Patty.  "We haven't yet been able to send pictures at all."

"I have some time now.  How do you want to do it?"  Patty replied.

"Let me get my laptop and you get yours.  If you do not mind being the sender, bring up some large letters and numbers in Word and concentrate on them. Try to send them to me.  I will try looking at white noise images, and listening to white noise at the same time."  I explained.

I got my laptop, then googled "white noise movie".  I found several apps and online sources of white noise images.  Since I was going to be receiving images from Patty, I did not want to be distracted by having something in front of my eyes.  I was also going to try it with my eyes closed.  I had an idea that the white noise images would give me something random to start my image searching.  In a few minutes the computers were ready.

"I am going to start with the upper case letters, ABC and D."  Patty explained.  "I will work from the clock and give you 30 seconds of each random letter from a list.  I will tell you "done", Then a 30 second rest for you to write down the letter and get ready for the next one.  After we get through a list of 20, we will stop and see how we are doing."

"We will need the extra time since we haven't done this before.  I will be concentrating on your blob, ignoring sounds with the white noise sound, and ignoring images with the white noise images.  That is a lot to do all at once."  I replied.

"Start in one minute."  Patty said.

I moved closer to my computer screen to fill my eyes with random dots from the app I found.  My earbuds were in place with a fairly loud white noise from another online app.  I had a piece of paper and a pen ready to write down letters.  I settled down my breathing and forced myself to concentrate on Patty's blob, even with my eyes open.  My eyes kept trying to make images out of the white noise on the screen.

"Give me another couple of minutes.  I am not ready yet."  I said, with a smile.  "There is a lot going on here.  It is hard to focus."

"OK.  Starting in three minutes."  Patty said, also with a smile.  "I need more time to get ready to send, too."

Patty had made a list of random letters in Word.  She made the letters 72 point and then zoomed in the screen to 500%.  She turned off formatting marks so that spaces and paragraph marks would be hidden.  This made it so that she could only see one letter at a time.

After 3 minutes Patty said, "Start."

I already had a pretty good image of her blob.  I concentrated on the random dots, looking for some patterns in the noise.  I immediately found a serious problem.

"Stop, we have a problem."  I said after a few seconds.

"What's the matter?"  Patty asked.

You are repeating the sound of the letter to yourself as you are trying to send.  I can hear you sending, "D D D ....  That is the letter you were trying to send isn't it?"  I said.

"Ha ha ha!"  She laughed.  "That is exactly what I was doing.  This is going to be hard to send.  Let me try something."

"Start in one minute."  She said.

Again we concentrated.  This time when she started sending I could hear her saying "Lah, lah, lah..."  again and again in her head.  So I went ahead and concentrated on an image.  I thought it was an A, so I wrote that down, cleared my head, and got ready for the next one.  "Start" listen "Done" write clear, "start" listen "Done" write clear, again and again.

"Stop" Patty said at the end of the list, instead of "done".  I wrote down my guess on the last letter, and we compared lists.  I got 8 right out of 20.

Patty said, "I think that is more than you would get if you were just guessing.  I think I am still slipping and saying the letter in my mind as I am trying to send the picture.  It is hard to concentrate for 30 seconds on one letter, and not say it to myself."

"You are right.  I think I still hear you talking to yourself now and then.  Thirty seconds is too long for sending.  But I need time to write down the letter and get ready for the next one."  I said.

"So let's do five seconds of sending and then ten seconds to write down and prepare for the next.  This time we will do forty letters."  Patty said.  She wrote down a list of 40 letters at random.

"Start in thirty seconds", she said.

"Start"  I heard.  I heard Patty counting in her head, "One, two, three, four, five".  Then she said, "Done."  And I heard her counting in her head up to ten, as I wrote down my guess.

Then "Start" again, and she started all over again for the next letter.  When we had finished all 40 letters, she said "Stop", and we compared lists.  This time I got 14 out of 40.

"That was better."  I said.  "Can you try counting silently?  And can we try again, but this time five seconds of sending and five minutes rest?"  I requested.

Patty agreed, then got ready with a list of 50 letters as random as she could make them.  "Start in 30 seconds."  she said.

I concentrated on Patty's blob.  "Start"  I heard.  I concentrated harder.  I heard her counting silently in her mind, "nuh, noo, nee, no, ni", then "Done" and I wrote down my guess.  I prepared for the next letter and heard her say out loud, "Start".  And so on, until we had tried to send and receive 50 letters.  She said, "Stop.", and we compared lists.  This time I got 18 out of 50.

"Let's do the same list again, backwards."  I suggested.  "Ok.  We start in 30 seconds".  She said.

We sent and received 50 letters.  This time, when we compared lists, I got 23 out of 50.

I went downstairs and got us each a glass of ice tea, while Patty prepared a list of 100 random letters.   We chatted about our results so far as we drank some of the tea.  Then we started again.  This time I got 64 out of 100.  We both agreed that we were making progress.

Patty said to give her a few minutes.  She was working on her computer.  Again she had the zoom up to 500% and she had a list of symbols.  She used the feature in Word that allows you to enter symbols.  This time she made a list of random symbols, based on the symbols from cards - heart, spade, diamond, club.  She used the word count feature to count how many she had, then added a few more symbols.  She had 100 to send.  She showed me a picture on her screen of the four symbols she would be sending.  When I looked away, she cleared that and got ready with her list.

"Starting in 30 seconds."  Then, "Start", and we began going through the new list.  Somehow it seemed easier.  When we finished the list of symbols, we compared my list to hers.  I got 73 out of 100.

"Let's do the list backwards"  she said.

So we did the list in reverse.  When we were done and compared, I got 88 out of 100.

At this point we were both getting pretty tired.  It took a lot of concentration to send or to receive this way.  So we called it a day.  Patty immediately wrote up what we had done and sent it to Jack so it could be posted online.  We were the first people to send and receive pictures using our brains.  We were happy to be making progress, but we both felt like there was a lot ahead of us that remained to be done.  We had not sent real pictures.  We had not sent pictures that we just made up in our minds, rather than seeing them on a screen.

[Living room]

Sandy Green got here a little early, so Patty and I, and mom and dad could all visit before the class arrived.  Mom and dad were both going to be in the first class as well, since they had not made much progress on their own with blob watching.  This would be their first concentrated attempt to learn how to do this.

There were three people coming to the class.  Paul, whom I had invited, came first, then Angela and Henry came together a few minutes later.  Paul was my age, but Angela and Henry were both about my dad's age.  Patty and I would be teaching the class, and five people was enough for a first class.  Sandy Green said that she was looking forward to learning as well.  She said that she would go over to Susan's to practice with another bright, since no one yet had figured out how to see your own blob.

Patty started the class by introducing everyone again.  She asked if everyone had had a chance to read what was written on the website about blobs.  Luckily everyone had done so.  So she repeated what she was going to cover, and said that it would depend on how well everyone progressed, then we would see what we would cover each week.  We would meet as a class once a week, and would practice as much as possible on our own, or in groups, in between time.

She asked everyone to close their eyes and concentrate on the people around them.  She asked each person to try and form a mental image of the people around them.  She suggested that each person mentally look at Sandy, then she asked them to relate what they were seeing, if anything.  Everyone was using white noise apps, on cell phones or MP3 players.

Dad said that he could see a mental image of each person, but felt that it was mostly a memory of them, since he could see each person there, with his eyes.  He did say that he felt there was something different about Sandy, but he could not tell yet what it was.  Angela said she had been practicing on her own.  She felt like she could see each person, with her eyes closed, and that Sandy was shining, just like the website described a bright.  Paul said he had tried on his own as well, and thought that he could see dots and blobs for the people around just like the website said.  He also could see Sandy very well in terms of brightness, but his mental image of her was still mostly a blob with no features.  Henry said he had not practiced ahead of time, though he knew what they were talking about, and he was not getting any particular images from anyone, including Sandy. 

Patty suggested that she and I could demonstrate what should be possible after people got used to doing this.  So she stood behind me and I closed my eyes.  When she raised her right hand, I did too.  When she turned right, I did too.  When she lifted her leg, I did too.  Whatever she did, I copied it.  After a while, Patty said we were done, and so I opened my eyes and looked at the class.  All their faces expressed surprise and a measure of shock.  I had copied every motion that Patty made, exactly.

"Henry", Patty said.  "I would like to try an experiment.  Would you close your eyes and concentrate on Sandy.  While you are trying, Dana and I will try to help you.  I do not know if this will work, but it might help."  Patty explained to me briefly what she had in mind, "Concentrate on Sandy's blob, and send that image to Henry.", she said.

So I concentrated on Sandy, and got a clear image of her blob, then I concentrated on Henry to get a clear reading of his blob.  Then I mentally tried sending a mental image of Sandy to Henry.

"Whoa!  said Henry in surprise.  What did you do?  Sandy got even brighter and more detailed.  Is that really what her blob looks like?"

Everyone got really excited.  It took a few minutes to explain to everyone what Patty and I were doing to send an image of one person to another.  Then Patty and I began to systematically send images of Sandy to each person there, as they were concentrating on her themselves.  In every instance, we got results, so that everyone got a good idea of what a mental image of Sandy looked like.

Then we had Sandy concentrate on Angela, while Patty and I sent Sandy images of Angela.  Sandy felt like she got some sense of what blob watching was about.

We were making good progress, so Patty and I took each person again, and sent that person an image of everyone there, naming them as we changed.  So for Sandy, we went through Angela, Henry, Paul, John (dad), and Grace (mom), Patty and Dana.  It took a while but it went pretty fast.  Patty and I were able to boost the ability of each person, so they could get a better image of each other person there. 

One offshoot of the evening's practice was we now had a method for sending each person an image of themselves.  Patty concentrated on me and sent me an image of myself.  She could also send an image of me to everyone else.  Patty and I sent an image of Sandy to herself.  It was not as good as having a bright there for Sandy to practice with, but it was better than trying it on her own.

The evening went by quickly.  Patty and I were pretty sure that everyone had a clear experience how to see blobs.  We had just proven that new blobwatchers could learn more quickly with the active assistance of experienced blob watchers.  Patty and I were able to boost each person's natural ability.  And we were able to send each person a picture of themselves.

Paul was very happy with his first class in blob watching.  He and the others all said they would practice during the week, and they would see us again next week.

[Thursday]

[Kitchen]  Patty was sending me a mental image of my own blob.  She was acting like a mirror to me so I could see myself.  Then I did the same for her.  I had told her that it was mostly a grey blob with blue highlights, but I had so much experience with Patty now, that her blob, to me, was very detailed and lively.  What I sent to her was very detailed.

"Your image of me seems to be as detailed as your image of most of the brights.  Can you send me images of other people?"

So I sent Patty blob images of mom and dad, then everyone in Edith's family, then everyone in Jack's family, then images of Sandy, Mr Baker, Angela, Paul and Henry.

Then I had her send me images of the same people, fairly slowly.  She would say a name, then send me the image, then I would bring up my own image of that person.  I saw a few differences.

Then I went over the list again, saying a name, sending a blob image for all of the people -- so that Patty could form her own image of those people and compare.

"We were able to boost each person last night, by working together."  she said. "Do you think that mind speech would be easier with two people sending?"  she asked.

"I am not sure how that would work, since it would be hard to decide when to say something exactly together."  I said.  "But if you were mindspeaking with Jack, for instance, could I help boost your link to Jack by concentrating on Jack and sending you his blob image?  And, could I also send your blob to Jack?  In each case, try to strengthen the bond between you?"  I continued.

"The class last night was able to do blob watching well beyond their experience, with us helping.  We did that by boosting their image of others.  If we can boost someone's image of others, then that should also help in mindspeech.  We will just have to try it."  Patty said.

[Patty's room]  "Do you realize that we were just sending images to each other?  It seemed rather natural to be sending blob images."  Patty said.  "I am going to write that up and add it to what we did yesterday trying to send and receive images and symbols."

"Let's try an experiment", she suggested.  "I will send you a picture of a person's face, and their blob image, and you name the person."

"OK"  I said.  "Should we keep track?"

"Yes, I will make a list of the people, and then send to you."  she said.

So she made a list and then went through it in order.  I concentrated on her and listened to hear what she was saying with her mind, and looked to see with my mind what image was in her mind.  She was saying "blah, blah, blah... " in her mind so she would not tell me by mindspeech who she was sending.  The first person she sent was Jack.  The image of his face she sent was already showing me an image of his blob, they followed on each other instantly.  "Jack"  I said.  "Yes"  she said.  Then she sent me Jim and I got that OK.  She sent me Edith's face, but I got Jerry's blob.  I told her that, and she said, "Opps, let me try again".  This time I got Edith's picture and Edith's blob together.  Slowly, with a few mistakes we went through our list of people we were working with.

Patty is a good sender.  She is able to focus well and keep extra stuff out of her mind.

Then we reversed it -- I sent her face images and blob images, and she would guess who I was sending.  I made my own list of all the people, so it would be in a different order.  Patty received every one correctly.  Patty is also a good receiver.

"You were sending me real time blob images weren't you?"  She suggested.

"Yes, I was looking at the people's blobs while I formed a picture of their face, then I sent the face image and the blob image to you."  I said.

"From the face I would guess a blob, then I was looking at the blob when you send it to me as well.  That seemed to strengther my image of their blob, just like when we were doing it earlier.

[Edith's house]  Patty and I are here for dinner, and to give our class again to Edith's family and a couple of friends they invited.  After introductions, we asked each person to relate where they were in their ability and practice of blob watching.  Just as we had done the previous night, Patty and I, along with Edith and Jerry, all concentrated on each person in turn, and sent that blob image to the new class members.  With four people boosting, the new people were able to pick up blob watching very quickly.  When they looked at Susan, a bright, along with Patty and Edith and Jerry and I boosting, it was "like looking at a bright photograph".  The more people there were to boost, the faster someone could learn to blob watch.  Once they knew how, they could help boost and teach others.

Susan was very happy to see her own blob when we all mirrored it to her.  Patty and I are particularly strong, relative to the others, so that we can work together and give someone feedback on how their own blob looks, or we can boost their image of others.  All in all the evening went quickly.  Everyone, even the completely new students, including Edith's dad, said they had a good idea how blobs look now.

Edith is one of the stronger receivers.  Patty and I spent a few minutes sending her facial and blob images of people we knew.

[Patty's room]  We called Edith and Patty and I played the face and blob game with over a distance of a couple of miles.  With both Patty and I sending, Edith said she was getting it like we were in the same room with her.  We even modified the face blob game to use mindspeech for the person to guess.  We would send Edith the face and the blob, then we would listen to Edith to hear what she guessed by mindspeech.  We were mixing blobs, and images, and sounds in a more complex mindspeech.

If I meet someone who can do mindspeech, I can now introduce them to someone they have never met - by sending a face, a blob and a name.

[Room]  Again, Patty wrote up what we had learned that day, especially about sending blobs and faces.  We both think that will be a very useful ability to pass along to others.

============== end Sept 13

[Friday]

[Room]  My mind is full of new information.  I am trying to understand what I have learned in the past few days.  Working together with Patty has made a huge difference in how long it takes to teach someone how to blob watch.  It is also going to affect how quickly we can teach someone mind speech.  When Edith and Jerry were helping Patty and I, that worked even better.  So we can work in groups of two or three or four or more, and give a boost to anyone.

What should I do today?   There are so many people working on so many different things, what is best to work on?  Or should I take a break?  This has been a busy week.

Patty is in her room, working on the computer.  Mom is downstairs getting ready to go out, probably to church.  Dad is already at work, but I can see his blob clearly.  He seems to be in a meeting.

[Library]  I had to return a few books, and then I found a few new ones.  Summer is going by quickly, and I want to do some ordinary things too.  I am enjoying the books about mindspeech.  It seems they just start doing it.  There is very little about when the people first learn how to do mindspeech.  And blob watching is hardly mentioned, if at all.

I am sitting in a comfortable chair with my eyes closed.  I am looking at all of the people in the library and nearby.  I called Patty a little while ago.  I am going to try sending her blob images of the people at the library, just to see if we can do it.  I do not have faces for most of them, and, of course, I do not have names either.  I just want to know if Patty can get the image, and then see the people from home.  For each person, I bring up the blob image, then I make comments to Patty using mindspeech about whether I think it is a young person or old, whether it is male or female, and any other thing I can think of about the person.  I can hear Patty's mindspeech - asking questions, and confirming that she got the images and information.

Patty was really interested to receive a map of the library and nearby, with the blobs mapped out where people are.  I sent it to her with all the blobs in their proper places.  She confirmed that she got the image from me, and it strengthened the image she got from looking at the library area on her own using blob watch.

When she sent me her picture of the blobs in the area, it was like the brightness of my image was increased.  She was able to boost my image by adding her own to mine.  And I could do the same for her.  Our mindspeech was clear, but faint.  When I would concentrate on her blob, I could send better.  When she would concentrate on my blob, she could receive better.  And visa versa.

[Shopping Center]  I must be in a rut.  This is what I did the last time I went to the library, afterwards I stopped to get a smoothie.  Today I tried the raspberry one.  It is a little tart, but I like it.

Maybe I was hoping to see Paul here again.  That was probably an accident, when I ran into him last time.  Paul really jumped into blob watching, and he seemed to really enjoy the class on Wednesday.  I really did not have time to talk with him then, just about "businesss" -- blob watching and mind speech.

Blob watching is becoming so natural, I do it everywhere I go.  I do not know what it will ultimately be useful for, but I have already used it to help teach, and to help mindspeech.  New things might come along with more practice.

Again, I called Patty on the cell phone, then sent her blob images and mindspeech details about people in the shopping center.  We were practicing sending images over a distance, practicing our mindspeech, and learning how to work together to get better blob images.  We are getting very comfortable helping each other with sending and receiving mind speech.

[Living room]  Mom is home today for some reason.  Usually she is out running errands, and over at the church. 

"Dana, how are you doing?  I haven't seen you in a while."  Mom said.

"Oh, I went to the libary today to take some books back, and then I stopped for a smoothie on the way home.  I have been working with Patty a lot on blob watching and mind speech.  She has been writing up all the things we are going, and adding it to the website."  I said.

"I was very impressed with the class you gave on Wednesday, your father and I learned quite a bit.  We both feel a lot more secure with blob watching now.  We sort of understand what you and Patty have been doing, and we are trying on our own to learn more.  I think that we are not going to have more than one class every week, but more people will probably show up next time.  The website has been attracting a lot of attention, and everyone seems to be talking to their friends and relatives about what we are doing."  Mom said.

"There are two things I have been thinking about a lot recently."  I said.  "I wonder about how blob watching and mind speech will  be used by people.  I wonder if it will have a lot of practical applications.  I am also wondering about people when they are unconscious."

"What do you mean, unconscious?"  she asked.

"I would like to work with Patty and observe a medical operation where a patient is put under general anaesthesia."  I explained.  "People will go from being wide awake, to just sleeping, to completely unconscious, as I understand it.  Then I would like to be there as they are waking up."

"What will you learn from this?"  Mom asked.

"I am not completely sure.  I am mostly trying to understand how blobs change as people are awake and asleep.  It is hard to know when someone is awake or asleep if you just watch.  I think I can tell whether someone is deeply sleeping, or just dreaming, or wide awake.  But in a hospital setting there should be a sharp change.  I thought that it would be worth trying."

"Isn't this one of the applications we talked about when we met with everyone?   I remember there is a growing list of applications on the website."  Mom said

"You are right, this is closely related to the coma project.  I will have to check with Jack and Carly to see how they are doing, and what they have learned."  I said.  "I will also make sure to add anaesthesia monitoring and sleep monitoring to the list of applications."

"You really have been working very hard on this, haven't you?"  she said.  Mom got a smile on her face as she said this.  I think she was trying to say she was proud of me, but worried if I was doing too much.

[Patty's room]  We were looking at the website to see what applications were there.  We wrote up a brief description of monitoring anaesthesia and monitoring sleep to go under the blob watching applications.

Patty said, "Do you think that blob watching would be helpful to people who are blind?  If they could at least see the people around them, that would be better than being completely blind."

"You are right!  That would be a very useful thing for someone who is blind.  Aren't there a few people in the church who are blind, or have severe vision problems?  What about people who are not able to speak or hear?"  I said

"We already have hearing problems on the applications list.  But I do not know if anyone has tried teaching a deaf person how to do blob watching or mind speech yet.  Jack and Carly and their family have been very busy, but I have not seen that they tried anything along those lines yet."  Patty said.

"I am going to have to spend a lot more time reading the website, to keep up with what others are doing." I said.  Some times this all weighs on me.

"Do you think that Mom would take us to the zoo?"  I asked.

"You want to try blob watching with animals!"  Patty exclaimed.

"That's right.  I seem to pick up something like a little blob for dogs and cats.  Their brains are a lot different than ours, that is why I think we do not get much from them.  But maybe some of the bigger animals might be different.  And I was wondering about dolphins.  Aren't they supposed to be pretty smart?"  I said.

"You are right, I seem to pick up the neighbors' dogs.  It seemed so natural to me, that I never paid much attention before.  Do you think it would be possible to do mind speech or image sending with an animal?"  Patty said.

Some of the people this week were not strong senders or receivers or very good at blob watching,  but you and I were able to boost their abilities.  Once they learned how to blob watch, their brains just naturally remembered.  Maybe we could do something like that with an animal.  But don't you think we have enough to do already without also teaching animals?  I said.

"I guess so.  But it is interesting."  Patty said.  "I will write up an application note for the website about animals.  Once we go to the zoo, we can write up an article to post under blob watching.

[Living room]  "We could go tomorrow morning.  It should not be too hot, and because it is summer, there should not be a large crowd.  If there are a lot of people, you can do your blob watching for people as well as animals.  Mom said.  Are we still looking for more brights?"  Mom asked.

"I am looking for brights still, even if I do not know what to do about them once I find one.  Do we just go up to them and start talking about blob watching and mind speech?"  I said.

Patty said, "Wait, just a moment." and then she ran upstairs very quickly.  When she got back, she handed me a business card.  "I helped Dad make some business cards not too long ago, and we had some left over laser printer stock."  She said.  The card said, "Blobwatchers.com/brights" and Patty's cell phone number.

"I do not know if these will help, but I made up a few on the off chance that we ran into someone.  If we run into a bright at the zoo, we can try to talk to them."  Patty said.

You had to admire my sister, she was constantly thinking.

[Saturday] 

[The Zoo]  We had a pretty long drive to the regional zoo.  Our little town does not have its own zoo, but the regional zoo is very large.

My first impression of the zoo, is there were a lot of mothers and strollers.  As we stood in line to buy our tickets, I was surprised to see that I was classified as an adult (12-64).  There were people milling around all over.

Patty and I were both in blob watching mode.  It only took brief moments with our eyes closed to get a good picture of all the people.  No brights near the front gate, but a lot of people.

We decided to head directly to the monkeys.  This skipped quite a few animals, but we were curious about the primates, and there was a lot to see.  If we were going to see any similarities with human blobs, it was probably going to be the monkeys, orangutans or apes.  When we got to the enclosures for the apes, Patty and I both stopped and closed our eyes.  We had to ignore all the human blobs, there were so many people around.  But the apes did have blobs.  They were very dark gray, and had no detail, but there was definitely a blob for each animal.  Some of the younger animals seemed to have bits of color.  Patty sent me a blob image of the apes, and I sent her one back in turn.  That helped to increase the detail a bit, but overall the blobs remained simple, without a lot of detail.

We went to see the monkeys next.  They were mostly gray, but some had bits of color, just like humans.   The blobs seemed smaller and less bright than a corresponding human.  I was watching some young children near the monkey window.  I could see the monkeys and the humans together, just separated by a piece of glass.   The smaller humans had blobs that were similar in size and brightness to the same size chimps.  Larger animals seemed to have larger blobs.  Was it a function of brain size?  Were animal brains as complex as humans, for the same size brain?

I got to watching a group of women with little babies in strollers.  The babies' blobs were simple in shape and had hardly any color.  It was hard to tell the human babies from the chimps.

In the monkey area, we got a little bit of a surprise -- one of the chimps was a bright.  Not nearly as bright as a human, but significantly brighter than the others around them.  Patty and I both tried to get a good image of that one's blob.  We both tried to send words to the chimp by mind speech.  But no apparent changes.  If people were going to research animal blobs, it was going to have to take many years of experiments and practice.  We had learned that animals have blobs, and there is a lot of variety in the animal blobs, as there was in the humans.

Since we had no particular animals in mind, we wandered around among the exhibits.  Tigers and cougars and jaguars had blobs.   Lions and cheetahs and wild dogs.  All in varying degrees of dark gray.  Only the lion seemed to have any physical detail.  There was some sense of legs and back and head.

I got nothing at all from the osterich, nor from any of the birds.  Maybe their brains were not large enough, or were so different from ours that I could not receive them.

The elephants had definite blobs that were large in comparison with smaller animals like the rhino or hippo.  One elephant had physical detail of legs and back and head, as well as bit of blue.  It was almost like a human blob - just different shape because of the body shape I guess.

The bears had large blobs in comparison with the rhino.  The grazing animals had blobs that were very simple, but there were definite variations in color and size.

It seemed like every animal had a blob, roughly in comparison with its size.  But there were variations is shape and color and texture.

I got nothing from the snakes and reptiles.  Maybe they were just too different.

We stopped finally and got a soda, then sat people and blob watching.  Patty and I would take turns just browsing the crowds.  I think we were both pretty tired from all the impressions we had just made.  It was a strange and bewildering world to finally see.  Just the physical features of the animals varied so much, that was hard to absorb.  But when you added in the complexity from the blobs, then it became almost overwhelming.

"There, coming out of the gift shop."  Patty said.  "A bright".  In fact there were two brights, a woman and a child, walking along together.

Mom said, "Let's go introduce ourselves.  We will not get another chance."  So Patty and Mom and I tossed our cans in the trash and started down the walk toward the two.  As we got closer, we could see that the woman was in her middle thirties, and the child was actually closer to my age, a young girl.

"Hello, are you visiting here from out of town?"  Mom said.  "My name is Grace and these are my daughters, Dana and Patty." 

Wow, adults sure are brave.  Talking to strangers like that.

"The woman did not seem to be too taken aback.  She smiled and introduced herself, "Hello, my name is Elenore and this is my daughter Janie.  We live here in town, but have not been to the zoo since Janie was very little.  Since she is on summer vacation we thought we would come and see the zoo again." 

"My daughters are also on summer break.  Patty is going to college this fall, and Dana is just starting 8th grade next year.  What grade is Janie in?"  Mom continued.

"She will be starting 7th grade next year."  Elenore explained.  "Did you just get here, or have you already seen everything?"

"We got here this morning, and are about finishing up."  Mom said.

"Us too.  We were getting a little tired."  Elenore said

"My daughters have been studying something rather interesting this summer.  We came here to the zoo as part of their research.  Would you like to take a break for a little while, get something to eat or drink, and they could try to explain what they are doing.  I think you will be interested."  Mom continued.

"Well, we were just about to leave".  Elenore said.

"It will be my treat."  Mom said.

"That is very kind, let's do it, but go dutch.  Do you have a recommendation?"  Elenore said.

"I am a bit hungry, can we get some french fries or something?"  Janie said.  It was the first thing I had heard her say.

It took us a while to get though the lines and to find a place to sit, but fairly soon we were sitting at a picnic table outdoors, with fries and drinks.  The restrooms were there, so we took care of everything and then sat down to talk.  Mom and Elenore sat together, and us three girls sat together.

"Was 7th grade very hard for you?"  Janie asked me. 

"No, it was kind of fun.  I think that people are getting used to each other.  When we were in 6th grade, people did not know each other very well.  In 7th grade, everyone is coming back to very similar classes, where more people know each other."  I explained.

"What kind of research are you doing?  Isn't it kind of early to be doing research?"  Janie asked.

Since she was looking directly at me when she asked, I tried to answer for Patty and myself.  "We learned that it is possible to close our eyes and to see people with our minds.  We call this blob watching, since people kind of look like blobs when you see them with your mind.  We are here at the zoo to see if the blobs for animals are anything like the blobs for people.  And we were looking for people we call brights.  A bright is someone whose blob is very detailed and very bright to look at with your mind.  You and your mother are both brights."

Janie seemed to absorb this.  You could almost see the thoughts flashing across her face.  She had nothing really to compare with, so she finally closed her mouth firmly, then opened it to ask, "What does that mean?  Brights?"

"Well, close your eyes for a moment, and think about your mother.  Imagine her with your eyes closed.  Also imagine there are blobs for each person sitting around you, and at the tables nearby, and walking along.  Imagine, if you want, all the animals with their blobs.  But most of all try to see your mother with your eyes closed."  Patty said.

I could tell that Janie was embarrassed.  I smiled at her, and she gave me a little smile back.  Then she closed her eyes.  Patty and I both concentrated on her mother and Janie and the people around her.  We built up a very detailed picture of the blobs around us, then we concentrated on Janie's blob and sent her the image we had created.  With both of us helping, and because Janie and her mom were brights, it was not long and we saw a big smile come over Janie's face.  She still had her eyes closed.

"Now we will send you a picture of your own blob."  Patty said.  So Patty created a very detailed picture of Janie and sent it to me.  I took it and added what I could to the image.  Then I sent it back to Patty and on to Janie.  This all happened in just a few moments.  Janie's face had gone fairly blank for a moment, then that big smile came again., and she opened her eyes.

"That is very beautiful"  Janie said. 

"Yes, it is.  One of the special things about brights is their blobs are very beautiful."  Pattie said.

"Patty and I, and many others, have been trying to learn more about blobs, and we are also learning about mind speech."  I started.

"Mind speech?"  Janie asked.

"Yes, once people are able to see blobs clearly and consistently, it is possible to teach them how to send and receive words and images with only their minds."  Patty said.

"You mean telepathy?"  Janie said.

"Well, yes, but it seems to be hard to do.  Patty and I can mindspeak each other.  And there are a few others that we can mindspeak with.  But it takes training, practice and patience."  I said.  "Close your eyes again, and this time visualize Patty's blob and then listen to hear what she says with her mind."

Janie closed her eyes again, and I concentrated on connecting the two of them together.  Patty's blob I sent to Janie.  Janie's blob I sent to Patty.  I was trying to use my mind to bind together their minds.

"I heard you!"  Janie said.  You said, "Hello.  How are you?  Do you like mindspeech?"

While we talking, Mom and Janie's mom were talking too.  I had not heard much of what they were saying, but I suspected they were also talking about mind speech or something related.

In fact, Mom and Janie's mom had been listening to our brief demonstration of mindspeech.  Elenore was sitting there with a grin on her face.  "You can really do it?"

"Dana and Patty have been spending most of their time learning how to do blob watching and mindspeech.  They gave a class on Wednesday to new people who were beginning blob watchers, and taught them all how to do it.  They did the same thing on Thursday with another group.  The fact that they could demonstrate blob watching and mindspeech to Janie in just a few minutes points out how well they have learned, and how well they can teach."  Mom said.

"I must say I had my doubts as you were explaining this."  Elenore said.  "But when Janie could do both blob watching and mind speech, I was really impressed."

"Dana and I were both helping her as hard as we could.  If she tries blob watching and mind speech on her own, it will be harder.  I think she will pick up blob watching on her own fairly quickly since she seemed to understand what to do.  It will take working with other blob watchers and other mind speakers to learn them well."  Patty said.

Patty handed each of them a business card with the blobwatchers website information, and her phone number.  Mom wrote her phone and my phone on the back in case they wanted further information.  We wrote down their phone number and address.

"We live pretty far apart, but not so far that we can't get together now and then.  You said you are having weekly classes.  It might be worth the drive to have Janie learn more.  I would be interested too, but I am not sure I have much time to practice."  Elenore said.

"Another possibility is that Dana and Patty could come to your house and give a class.  Since you are both brights, that gives enough for new people to get started.  A bright and a couple of trained blob watchers is all it takes to teach new people.  Take a look at the website and see if there are any things you might want to learn or be involved with.  You might find the section on applications to be very interesting.  For instance, we are thinking about teaching blind people to blob watch.  And firemen and search and rescue.  Maybe something will strike your interest."

Finally, we all had talked ourselves out.  Janie and Elenore left to head home, and we did the same.  We did one last walk to look at animals, that kind of meandered.  We were very tired when we finally got home.  We had made some new friends, and we had started another group in a nearby city.  Blob watching and mind speech applications were growing in number and variety.

[Patty's room]  It took Patty over an hour to write up what we had learned about animal blobs.  She also wrote out how it was possible to teach someone how to blob watch and mindspeak in just a few minutes - albeit with two very trained blob watchers, and a bright.

"Do you think that Janie is naturally a good mindspeaker and a natural blob watcher?"  I asked Patty.

"Maybe.  She really picked it up quickly.  I know that Jack and Carly are picking up a lot very quickly because two brights seem to be able to mindspeak each other easier.  I know that we were able to boost both her blob watching and her mind speech.  Part of that was because she is a bright and it is easy to pick up her blob and send to her, or receive from her.  It is like the volume is turned up so that it is easier for everyone to hear.  You and me, and us and Janie."  Patty said.

"Well it is probably only a matter of time and practice, if someone is not a bright, or takes longer to learn.  It seems like everyone has a similar ability for these things.  Being a bright does make things easier though."  I said.

"Brights are pretty rare.  To have two in the same family is not so strange.  I wonder if Elenore and Janie are already aware of each others' blob already, without any training?"  Patty said.

"I think you are right.  It does seem like people in families where there is a bright, are naturally more sensitive to each other.  Then it is a matter of learning what to do."  I said.

[Room]

I wonder if it is possible to send emotions between people?  Could I tell whether someone is angry, or sad, or puzzled?  Can emotions be transmitted?

What are Jack and Carly doing?  Have they learned how to help new blob watchers?

There must be someone at church who is blind.  I think I have seen a man there with a cane.  What is most important to do first?

I am pretty tired, but it was a good day.

===== end Sept 14

[Sunday]

[Church]  Just sitting here in church is different now.  I am used to being surrounded by a lot of people, but with blob watching, I can not only see the people in the sanctuary, but also in the halls and meeting rooms, Sunday School classes, parking lots, and offices.

Edith and I are sitting next to each other, Jerry and Patty have gone off to be with their friends.  Edith and I are mind speaking to each other before church starts.  It takes quite a bit of concentration, and it is not always clear, but it works pretty well.  We both are trying a slightly new approach, she is sending me my own blob and I am sending her her own blob.  It seems to help.  If we don't do that, then what we receive becomes more whispery and faint.

We are talking about what we have been doing.  I told her about the trip to the zoo.  She told me about some of the people who have been learning blob watching, and she told me about the progress she has been making with mindspeech.  She has been able to do long distance mindspeech with Jack and Carly.  Jack and Carly have been teaching people how to blob watch, using the techniques that Patty and I came up with.  Their dad was going to contact some search and rescue organizations and try to get them interested in blob watching.  Everyone was surprised how quickly the training was going, but everyone was also dissatisfied with how much more there was to do.  I told her that I was a little tired from it all.  She laughed and told me that she was too.

When her laugh came through the mindspeech, I told her about my idea of transmitting emotions.  She said that she and Jerry had already noticed that they could tell what the other one was feeling.  It seemed to come across naturally with the mindspeech.  When I though back, I realized that when I was mindspeaking, mostly I was not emotional.  I guess I need more practice just mindspeaking.  Patty and I were doing a lot of experimenting.  We could spend more time just talking.  Then I would probably notice the emotions more.

It was not like most people are highly emotional all the time.  I suppose that emotions would come across as part of the blob, just like mindspeech and image sending.  I will have to see if I can find people with different emotions, and then watch to see what happens to their blobs.

[Living room]  Carly called to see how we were doing.  We hung up the phone and switched to mindspeech.  Not as clear as talking on the phone, but most everything is getting through ok.  Jack and Carly are using mindspeech almost exclusively, so they have more practice at it than Patty and I.  I notice that Carly is able to send images along with words.  At first I thought that the images were just coming up in my head, but eventually decided that they must be things that Carly was thinking.  Carly and Jack were planning to teach other people how to mindspeak, using the boosting methods that Patty and I discovered.  The website is growing and growing, and the number of people visiting the site is growing all the time.

Hearing about Carly's experiences made me want to spend more time with mindspeech.  I feel that it is important.  I just wish there were more people to mindspeak with.  Patty and I are just too serious all the time.  Maybe we need to just do it, and not spend so much time working at it.

[Room]  I am taking time to read a book.  This one has mindspeech in it.  They tend to just use it without thinking too much how to do it.

[Monday]

[Shopping Center]  I am meeting Paul here.

"Hi, Paul!"  I called to him when he came in.  I went over to meet him, and then we went to get drinks.  They have a large selection of flavors, so we took time to look for something new.  I got something with mango and bananas.  Paul tried the peach.  We went to sit by the window again.

"Dana, can you help me see the blobs in this area, like you did the other night?"  he said.

"Sure.  Close your eyes and try to get a good image of all the people around here, and I will send you my image for you to compare.  While you are looking at everyone, also concentrate on my blob, and that will help you get a clearer picture from me."  I said.

I closed my eyes and visualized all the people in the area.  Then I got a clear image of Paul and sent him the area image including images of himself and me.  I had a pretty good self image now.  After receiving it from a number of other people, I could see myself now fairly naturally. 

"Wow!  It is a lot clearer when you are sending it, than when I try on my own."  he said.

"That will get better as you get more practice."  I said.

"How did you get so good at this?"  he asked.

"Practice, lots of practice".  I explained.  "It seems like this entire summer has been nothing but blob watching and mindspeech."

"But that is really cool."  he said.  "You are really good at it."

"Jack and Carly, and Edith and Jerry are actually as good or better than me with mindspeech.  I am good at blob watching, which is the basis of mindspeech."  I continued.

"Can I try mindspeech?  I read a lot about it on the website.  Is it hard to learn?"  he asked.

"It really helps to have a bright when you are starting out.  It gives you a strong blob image to work from.  Patty and I can use mindspeech, and neither one is a bright.  It helps to have a lot of practice at blob watching.  And we practiced mindspeech with simple messages and images."  I explained.

"Can we try it now?"  he asked.

"OK.  Close your eyes and concentrate on me and my blob.  I will send you an image of my blob to help strengthen you, and I will concentrate on your blob so I can try to send to you.  I want you to concentrate on me, and then listen.  I will say just a few words.  See if you can hear me."  I said.

After a few minutes, he said, "I seem to be hearing something, but it is faint and sounds like blah, blah, blah".

"Here, use my cell phone.  I have a white noise app on it."  I said.

"That's ok, I have my own phone and it has white noise too.  Let me get ready, and we will try again."  Paul said.

Again I helped him to get an image of myself, and I concentrated on him to send him a message.

"I heard you!  It was faint but clear."  You said, "Hello, I hope you enjoy mindspeaking".  There was a big smile on his face.  It made his whole face light up.  His green eyes were very vivid and alive.

"Yes, that is what I said."  I replied.  "Do you want to try sending something to me?"

He sent back, "Yes, I enjoy mindspeaking.  Thanks for your help."  It was faint and faded in and out, but it was clear enough.

We practiced  some more, but it was kind of awkward to do this in a public place.  He had to have the white noise going, and he had his eyes closed.  And there were people talking in the background, as well as car noises from outside.  But we had made a step.  It was possible for a strong mindspeaker to work with someone who had never done mindspeech, and help them - if they had some experience with blob watching.

[Patty's room]  I had written up what Paul and I were able to accomplish, and showed it to Patty.  She made a couple of changes to it, then we sent it on to Jack to post on the website.

"In our Wednesday class, we can probably start on mindspeech as well, for some of the people.  It seems to be a matter of practice and motivation, how fast people learn."  Patty said.  "Paul certainly made quick progress.  Maybe he is motivated by a cute young girl"  she said, teasingly.

I blushed.  "We'll see.  Right now we are focused on learning to mindspeak."  I said. "I have enough on my plate."

============= end sept 15

[Tuesday]

[Living Room]  Right after breakfast, mom got a call from a friend of hers from church.  Mrs. Painter's son was in the hospital, after a bad car accident over the weekend.  He had severe injuries and was on a ventilator, which was breathing for him.  He seemed to be awake, but the tube in his throat prevented him from speaking.  He was stable enough to have family come to visit, but they were desparate to know what he was trying to say.  Mrs. Painter had talked to mom about the mindspeaking that Patty and I were doing, and was asking us if we could come help her talk to her son.

"Do you think he is awake?  But just can't talk?"  I asked Patty.

"Yes, that is what it sounds like."  she said.

"Let's get going.  Mrs. Painter has been at the hospital all night, and is tired.  She sounded pretty stressed on the phone.  We had better go right now."  Mom said.

The drive to the hospital was short and uneventful.  It was a beautiful day, clear and not too hot.  It seemed strange to be going to a hospital.  When we got there, we parked in the lot nearest the emergency room, and went in through that entrance.  There were just a few people in the Emergency Room, it seemed like most of them had been waiting for a while.  There was the sound of ambulances in the background, I could not tell if they were coming towards us, or going away. 

We went to the second floor, to the intensive care unit.  There was a constant background of beeps from various monitors.  The air was very cool and smelled of disinfectant, and other less pleasant odors.  We met Mrs. Painter, who was sitting in a small waiting room for family of patients in the ICU.  She looked tired and frightened.  Her husband sat next to her, holding her hand.  He looked even more tired and lost.  They both stood up when we came in, and we all introduced ourselves, even though we had met briefly at church before.

"I am so glad you came.  We have been with Mike all night.  He has mostly been asleep, but he is awake pretty often, and when he is awake, he is trying to talk to us.  I know this is hard for you, but we could not think of anything else to do.  Can you help us talk to him?"  Her voice rushed out in a breathy whisper.  She pushed back her hair that was falling into her eyes.  It was messed and stringy.  It looked like she had been pushing it back again and again, in a nervous habit.

"Is he awake now?"  Patty asked. 

"Not yet, but it is about time.  He has been asleep for a while now.  It should be time for him to wake up again."  Mr. Painter said.  "Let's go in for a few minutes, so you can see what is happening.  Then we will decide what to do."  Mr. Painter continued.

We all went to Mike's room.  There were two beds there.  Mike's was by the window.  We went quietly and arranged ourselves around the bed.  Patty and I both started concentrating on Mike.  We had already decided that Patty would take the initiative, and I would try to boost her.   So I got a good image of Mike's blob, and fed it to Patty.  Once I was sure I had a good lock on Mike, then it was not necessary for me to stay in the room.  Mike was still sleeping, so Mom and I and Mr. Painter went back to the waiting room, and Patty and Mrs Painter stayed with Mike.

Mr. Painter went downstairs to the cafeteria and got us all coffee and hot chocolate.  It was so cold from the air conditioning, it was good to drink something warm, even though it was summer outside.

Every so often I would mindspeak with Patty to see if anything new was going on.  She and I had decided on a "Hello" that we could use to tell the other one that we wanted to mind speak, so either she would call out to me, or I would call out to her with my mind. 

"Let's try to see if we can read anything from Mike's mind, even though he is asleep."  Patty sent to me.

So we tried to read what we could from Mike's mind.  I mostly tried to send Mike's blob to Patty, to boost her abilities.

"I seem to get a lot of mumbling and a few random images.  I think he is sleeping and dreaming,"  She sent.

When I tried to see Mike, that is what I got as well, so I sent to Patty, "Yes, I think you are right."

The morning went by slowly.  Nurses checked in on Mike and the other person in his room on a regular basis.  People came in to take blood, and someone came in to do a little bit of cleaning.  One doctor stopped by, but he was there looking at Mike's roommate, so there was no new news about Mike's condition.

Finally, I got a call from Patty.  "Mike is waking up, it seems."  She sent.

I told Mom and Mr Painter this, and then closed my eyes to concentrate on Mike and Patty.  I was looking at both of them, trying to send Mike to Patty and Patty to Mike, like in mindspeech.

"He is saying hello to his mom.  He is asking where he is.  He is asking why he can't talk.  He is saying that he hurts a lot and wonders what happened to him."  Patty sent.

I told Mom and Mr Painter this in a whisper.  Patty was sending me bits of what Mrs Painter was telling Mike.  "He is saying that he is very thirsty, can he have a drink of water".  Patty sent.

"Let's all go in to see him while he is awake."  Mr Painter said.  So we went down the hall to Mike's room, then stood quietly around the bed.

"What happened to me?"  Mike sent.  Patty repeated that for everyone. 

Mrs Painter explained that he was in a car accident. Someone had run a stop sign and had hit his car on the passenger's side.  He had been hurt pretty bad, but was stable now.

"How long will I be here?"  Mike sent, and Patty repeated.

"We are not sure.  This is not the emergency room, but you are still in intensive care.  The doctor seems to think it will be a couple of weeks.  You have to get off the ventilator first."  Mr Painter explained.

"How am I talking to you?  I do not hear myself talking."  Mike sent, and Patty repeated.

"You are on a ventilator.  It is breathing for you.  The doctor says that you are starting to breathe on your own already, so he might be able to take it out soon.  Patty and Dana, here, are listening to your mind and telling us what you are trying to say.

"They are reading my mind?"  Mike asked, and Patty repeated.

"Yes.  They can read what you are trying to say, but not your thoughts.  So you have to try to talk to us, for us to understand."  Mr Painter explained.

"Can you repeat that?"  Patty asked Mike.

"Thank you."  Mike sent, and Patty repeated.

[Living room]  Patty is staying at the hospital today with Mrs Painter and Mike.  I can boost her from home, when she needs help.  Mom had some things to do, and Mr Painter had to go to work, at least part of the day.  I can pretty much listen in on the conversations remotely, especially when Patty repeats out loud, I can tell what Mike is saying.  She mentally repeats questions and information for me so I can follow along.  Mike is asleep most of the time, so I am only on call about 20 minutes every couple of hours.  I do not want to get too involved with anything, so I am watching old movies as I am waiting.

Mike is able to talk to his doctor through Patty.  He was kind of shocked to communicate with a patient that way, but it became normal and routine quickly.  Kind of like having an interpreter in the room with him, quietly explaining what the patient was saying. 

Mike was able to tell the doctor that he hurt a lot on his side.  The doctor explained that he had broken a few ribs, and that it was going to hurt.  They did check the bandages and rearranged them some, and that seemed to help.  Mike was able to say that he was in a lot of pain, but that it was bearable.  Patty had relayed once earlier that the pain medication was wearing off, so they gave Mike some more.  Mr and Mrs Painter were just happy to know that their son's brain was not damaged.  They were sure now that when he got off the ventilator, Mike would be OK and would eventually heal and be normal again.

Some other doctors came by to "talk" to Mike as well, since they were curious how someone could use mindspeech to talk to a patient like that.  And there were nurses looking in, whenever Patty and Mrs Painter were talking to Mike.  I think it was a good thing that it seemed fairly normal and routine, the way they were doing it.  Patty is really good, she hardly made any mistakes, and rarely had to ask Mike to repeat.

Mike's doctor asked Patty and I if we could come talk to some other patients at the hospital.  There were two other patients on ventilators, and one on a tracheotomy, that doctors and family would like to talk with.  Patty explained that it took both of us to mindspeak with someone with no training, but we would be happy to try.  This was something we had never done before, so she could not make any guarantees.   The doctor was kind of shocked to learn that I was helping her from home, once I had a good picture of Mike to work with.  I would need to get back to the hospital before Patty and I could try talking to the other patients.

[Hospital]

Patty is really tired, and Mrs Painter has gone home for a while.  Patty has been sitting by Mike's bed all day.  Mom bought her some magazines and a couple of paperback's to read while Mike is sleeping.  Mom brought me over again, and we were both happy to see Patty.  Mike was awake when we arrived, so we talked with him a little.  Mostly he falls right back asleep in about fifteen minutes, so we tried not to tire him out.  We explained that Mr Painter would be there shortly, and his mom had gone home to check on the rest of the family.

Mike's doctor came to see Patty and I, while Mom stayed with Mike.  He wanted us to talk to some of his patients, would that be all right?  So we went to see the first one.  This woman was on a tracheotomy.  She was awake, but still not breathing on her own.  They had tried a "talking trache", but for some reason it did not work.

Dorothy was an older woman who had had a stroke.  She was paralzyed from the stroke, but she seemed alert and attentive when we came to her room to meet her.  The doctor introduced us as friends visiting the hospital.  He did not explain what we were going to try to do.

"Let's do it the same way we did Mike, OK"  Patty sent to me.

"All right.  It will take me a minute to get ready."  I sent to her.

I first concentrated on Dorothy to get a good image of her blob.  It was fairly clear, and I had no trouble focusing on her.  I sent that image to Patty, and I also sent an image of Patty to Dorothy.  This seemed to help strengthen the link between people when they are mindspeaking.

"Ask her some questions."  Patty said to the doctor, quietly.

"How are you feeling?  Did you have dinner yet?"  The doctor asked Dorothy.

"I am feeling OK, but my arm hurts.  I had dinner already."  Dorothy sent, and Patty repeated.

Dorothy looked at Patty in surprise.

"What are you doing?"  Dorothy sent and Patty repeated.

"I am translating for you so you can talk to the doctor.  Do you have any questions for the doctor?"  Patty explained to Dorothy.

"How are you doing this?"  Dorothy sent to Patty and Patty repeated for everyone else.

"I am listening to what you say in your mind when you want to talk to us, and repeating it so everyone can hear.  Dana is helping me."  Patty explained further.

The doctor said, "I have a few questions for you, Dorothy, would you mind answering?  Patty and Dana can translate."

Then he went on to ask a series of questions about her health and care in the hospital.  He was particularly interested in knowing how she was eating, since eating with a trache is not always easy.

Patty repeated everything that Dorothy said in her mind.  There were very few problems with this method of communication.

"Thank you, Patty and Dana."  The doctor said to us.  "Would you be willing to translate for Dorothy's family.  There are a few of them here now.  I told them they could visit after I saw her.  Would that be ok?  He asked.  Also, he asked if we could come back tomorrow and help with two other patients.  He was meeting with them around 10 am tomorrow.  Would that be OK? 

"Yes, fine."  Patty said for both of us.  We got surprised looks from the family when they first came into the room.  The doctor introduced us, then left.  He did not explain beforehand, except to say that we would be translating tonight. Then we spent almost half an hour translating what Dorothy said, for her and her family.  All Patty said was that she was repeating what Dorothy was saying in her mind.  It seemed to be very natural and easy.  After a few minutes, everyone was catching up on family news.  They hardly noticed that Patty was talking for Dorothy.  But there were smiles and thank you's when we left.

When we finally left Dorothy's room, we went back to see Mom and Mrs Painter.  Mike had just fallen asleep again, so Mom and Patty and I decided to go home.  We said we would be back in the morning, and that we would come around 9 am to help her talk with Mike for a while.  We explained that we had a 10 am appointment with the doctor.  Mrs Painter said that was OK, and thanks.

[Patty's room]  I though Patty would be exhausted from all her time at the hospital, but she wanted to talk, and so we went over everything that had happened.  Then she wrote up her hospital experiences and sent them to be posted under mindspeech applications on the website.  I read over what she wrote and had only a few questions and suggestions.  I explained to her how I was strengthening the link between her and the people she was helping.  And I also explained that it was no great difficulty helping from home, once I had a good link to the peron she wanted to help.

We were both happy that we could help other people.  It seemed to make a great difference to the family, and the doctor, to be able to talk to these patients.

[Wednesday] 

Patty and I helped Mrs Painter talk with Mike for a while in the morning.  He was awake more and more.  They were talking about removing the breathing tube later today or in the morning.  We were all happy for Mike and his family.

We met the doctor at Mike's room just before 10 am.  He took us to a room down the hall, where there was a man on a ventilator.  His name was Sam.  He already had his family with him.  There were four of them. 

"Who are these people?  Sam sent and Patty repeated out loud.

The doctor introduced us as Patty and Dana, and explained that we were going to be helping translate for Sam.

"What do you mean, translate?"  Sam sent and Patty repeated.

"As you can see, whatever you want to say, Patty will repeat out loud so we can all hear."  The doctor explained.

"How are you feeling?  Is there anything you need?"  The doctor asked Sam.

"I have a terrible head ache and my eyes are itchy"  Sam sent, and Patty repeated.

"Let me get you something for that soon."  Said the doctor.  "Is there anything else?"

"When can I get this out of my throat.  I feel like I am breathing on my own.  I have heard you talk about this."  Sam sent, and Patty repeated.

The doctor explained that they would be testing to see whether Sam could be taken off the ventilator soon.  Then he said that he was going to leave and let the family talk to Sam for a while.  He asked for them to take note, if Sam had any particular requests. 

When the doctor was leaving, I nodded a quick signal to Patty, then I excused myself and went back to the waiting room.  I could help Patty as well from there.  I already had a good image of Sam, and that was one less person in that crowded room.  The family talked to Sam for about half an hour, then Patty could tell that Sam was getting tired, and she was having problems translating any more.  She told the family that, and then excused herself.  There were smiles and thank yous.

Patty came back to the waiting room.  She and I chatted about what Sam's family had asked, since we had a few minutes before the doctor wanted us to meet another patient.

Right at 11 am, we met the doctor in front of another patient room door.  Again there was family in the room.  This time just a mother and father, we guessed, as it was a little boy in the bed.  He could not have been older than four or five.  His name was Tommy, the doctor explained.

"I hurt a lot, when can I go home?"  Tommy was sending, and Patty translated.  Tommy had bandages over most of his head.  His arm was broken and one of his legs.  His eyes were black and blue.  I felt really sad for him.

"What?"  the father asked, surprised.

"Tommy says that he hurts a lot and he is asking when he can go home."  Patty explained.

Both the mother and father turned to Patty.  Their faces were stricken.  They were kind of angry looking.

"Patty is translating for Tommy, since he can't talk right now.  Let's talk with Tommy and find out how he is doing."  The doctor explained.

"My back is all itchy and I can't scratch it."  Tommy sent, and Patty repeated.

The doctor gently moved Tommy onto one side and checked his back.  Then he did the same on the other side.

"He seems to have a slight rash.  We will get something for that soon.  Is there anything else bothering you right now?"  The doctor said.

"I am hungry and thirsty" Tommy sent and Patty repeated.

"You had a very nasty fall and hurt your head very badly.  That is why we had you on the ventilator.  You are getting better.  Hopefully soon we can get you where you can eat and drink normally again.  You will just have to be patient for now."  The doctor said.

Soon the doctor excused himself, then Patty and I translated so that Tommy could talk to his parents.

"Where is Suzy?"  Tommy asked and Patty repeated.

"She is at home with grandma.  We will bring them by later to see you."  Tommy's father explained.

"I want to go home.  I miss Suzy."  Tommy said and Patty repeated.   There were tears in his eyes, and I noticed there were tears in Patty's eyes as well.  I had not doubts about sending emotions now.

So we stayed there almost an hour as they talked back and forth about toys, and friends and pets and family members.  It was not anything big, but it was very important to them.

Eventually, Patty had to say that she was getting tired.  The family wished she could stay some more.  We explained that we had our family to see.  We did not make promises to help again, but I think that Patty was already setting aside time to help them later.

[Waiting room]

When we got back to the waiting room, the doctor came in after a few minutes.  He had been expecting us to come back and wanted to thank us for our help.  He said those three patients were ones where the patient was mostly awake, and where they had not been able to talk to their families.  Also, the doctor said that he learned some valuable information from each patient, when they could talk for themselves.

Dr. Acres asked us if there was anything he could do for us.  At first, we could not think of anything, then I said, "Do you think it would be possible for us to be nearby when someone has an operation?"

"Why is that?"  He asked.

"We were wondering if people are different in the various stages of sleep and unconsciousness.  We thought it would be useful to know what people were like if they are awake, or asleep, or unconscious, or in a coma.  Then maybe we could look at someone and tell what state they were in."  Patty explained.

I do not have time right now to show you people in comas, but there are some right here in the hospital.  In fact two of the people you helped were in comas to begin with and then woke up.  We have people here who have been unconscious for weeks.  There are people in comas for years at other places.  It is a serious problem.  Do you think you can help these people?"  He asked.

"No, we don't expect to pull someone out of a coma."  Patty said, hastily.  "But we might be able to tell if someone is in a deep coma or nearly awake.  We are not sure what it would be useful for."

"Would you be willing to help talk to other people like today?  Or would you be willing to help these same families again?"  He asked Patty.

"Yes, I would be glad to help."  Patty said.  "Me too."  I said.

"I am not sure I understand why there are two of you doing this."  Dr. Acres said.

"I concentrate on the person and what they are saying in their mind.  While Dana is concentrating on the person and on me and helping to strenghten our connection.  If Dana wasn't helping, I would only hear very faint sounds and scratchy noises.  When she helps me, the sounds come through clearly, but faintly.  It takes a lot of concentration to hear someone who does not have mindspeech training. but with two people, it is possible.  We think that if more people work together, then even fainter signals can be heard.  Dana and I are getting used to working together."  Patty explained.

"Once I have seen someone close up, even for a few minutes, I can then help Patty from a distance.  Today, I stayed for a while in the room, then went and helped Patty from the waiting room.  We don't physically have to be in the same room."  I explained.  "I helped her yesterday from home.  We have even tried mindspeech between here and Somerville.  That works fine.  I expect that if I were in Somerville, I could help Patty here with these patients.  Distance does not seem to matter too much, just familarity."

"You mean you two can mind talk from here to Somerville?  And you can talk to each other?"  He asked.

"Yes, we have been doing mindspeech a lot.  There are about a dozen people now who can routinely mind speak with each other.  We are having a class tonight to teach more people how to do it.  This method of having one person help another means it is easier to teach mind speech to people who have little or no training.  And it makes it possible for two good mindspeakers to read someone who does not know mindspeech - just like we were doing today."  Patty explained.

"Why don't you take a look at our website at MindSpeakers.com.  I have already written up the particular application of helping people on ventilators.  You can see if you have an suggestions or changes."  Patty continued.

Dr. Acres was sitting there with a strange little grin on his face.  "All of a sudden, I am finding a lot of new things to think about."  He said.

"You mean I could learn how to mindspeak, just like you two?"  He asked.

"Yes, it takes a lot of practice, and it is much easier with a helper, someone who already knows how to do it;  but, yes."  Patty said.

"I really have to go now, I am going to be late for my rounds.  But I want to know more about this.  Can you come back to the hospital tomorrow?  Around 10 am again?"

"Yes, we will come back tomorrow around 10.  Should we meet you here?"  Patty said. "Here is our website."  She continued and handed him one of her mindspeaker cards.

"Yes, that will be fine.  See you tomorrow."  He said as he left.

[Living Room]  After being at the hospital for a couple of days, Patty and I were both tired.   We both took naps when we got home, then we updated our notes on the hospital visits.  We were sitting in the living room going over our plans for the evening class.  It seems like it was just yesterday we had the last class, and it also seemed like weeks had gone by.

Sandy Green got there early, so we worked with her individually to teach her how to do mindspeech.  With both of us helping, she was able to both send and receive messages with Patty.  When they tried it alone, without me, they could still hear something, but it was faint and noisy.  Patty and I sent Sandy an image of herself, and we sent images of ourselves to her.  With a solid blob watching capability, it was possible to do mind speech.  The stronger the blob watching capability, the stronger the mindspeech.  What we were trying to do was to give each person a glimpse of what it was like.  Once they knew what to do, they could practice and get better and stronger at it.

Paul came next, so we went over the same thing with him.  This time I had Sandy practice helping them as well.  When Paul and Sandy were trying to mindspeak each other, Patty and I could help a lot. but it also mattered that Sandy was a bright, so Paul could see her easily to send and receive.

Dad and mom actually got there later, since they were out shopping for a few things.  They apologized for being late, and then set out drinks and snacks for everyone.  Paul and Sandy did not mind, since they were busy learning mindspeech.

Angela and Henry came just a few minutes later.  Since we had already started, Patty and I helped each person in turn to do mindspeech with Sandy.  We tried it when both Patty and I were helping, and then we let the people try it on their own while mind talking with Sandy.  Sandy was improving quickly, and each person was getting practical experience.

Angela and Henry wanted to try mindspeech together, so we let them try on their own.  That did not work very well, so Patty alone helped them, and they were able to do mindspeech.

Paul had a little introduction to mindspeech, now he was getting a chance to try it with other people as well.

When Paul and Angela were trying mindspeech, we had Sandy helping them.  Sandy was getting a mental image of each person, then sending it deliberately to each in turn.  We did not fully understand the mechanism behind mindspeech and behind boosting, but it worked, so we kept trying different combinations and possibilities.

By the end of the evening, everyone had practice in mindspeech, enough so they could try it with anyone else in the group without assistance.  It was pretty scratchy and faint without a booster, but it was good enough for practice.  White noise helped when working without a boost.  We felt that everyone would gradually improve with practice.  It seemed like the mind only needed a good starting point, a good example, and it would learn mindspeech on its own.  When Patty and I look back on the weeks it took us to learn mindspeech, we were shocked how easy it was when there was someone to help.  Either a good mindspeaker, or a bright, or a good blobwatcher to help.  Luckily there were several combinations that worked.

[Thursday]

[Hospital]  Dr. Acres met us promptly at 10.  We went through his early rounds with him to see Dorothy, Mike, Sam and Tommy.  We did not meet with the families, but Dr. Acres did get some good feedback from his patients, that would help in their treatment.  Mike was going to have his ventilator tube removed later in the day.

"Come with me, there is someone I would like you to meet."  He said.  And then he took us along a nearby hallway to one of the patient rooms.

There were two beds in the room, but only one patient.  There were no visitors.  "This is Lila."  he said, as he introduced his patient.  "Lila had a stroke a few weeks ago, and she has not yet recovered from it.  Hello, Lila!"  He said, raising his voice a little.

Lila opened her eyes, but they were not focused on anything.  She seemed to look around, but not in any serious manner.  Just gazing around at various things.  If she noticed Dr. Acres, she did not make any response.  Patty and I had a good idea why the doctor had introduced us, so we both looked closer at Lila's blob and tried to see if there was anything on the surface of her mind.  Was she trying to talk?  Was there any response?

"Say hello again, and ask her a direct question."  Patty whispered to the doctor.

"Hello, Lila.  How are you doing today?  Is there anything we can get you?"  he asked.

"She is trying to talk, but it is muddled."  Patty said.  Then Patty turned to me and said, "Help her as though Lila were trying to learn mindspeech to Dr.Acres."

"Ask her again"  Patty said to the doctor.

"Lila, Is there anything we can get you?"  he asked.

"Water.  I want some water."  Lila sent, and Patty repeated. 

"She is thirsty.  Can she have some water?"  Patty said.

The doctor gave her some water, and she sucked on the straw a little.  There was a little smile on Lila's lips.

"Lila, has your family been to see you?"  Dr. Acres asked.

"No."  Lila sent and Patty repeated.

"Lila, can you see?"  Dr. Acres asked.

"Fuzzy."  Lila sent and Patty repeated.  "All fuzzy." they continued.

"Lila, how many fingers do you see?"  he asked.

"Fingers?"  Lila sent and Patty asked.

"Lila.  How many fingers am I holding in front of your right eye?"  he asked.  Holding up two fingers.

"Fuzzy.  Two."  Lila sent and Patty repeated.

"Lila is getting stronger."  Patty said.  "Keep asking her questions."

"Lila, What is your last name?"  the doctor asked.

"Peterson.  Lila Peterson."  Lila sent.

"Lila, what is your birthdate? When were you born?"  Dr. Acres asked.

"June.  June 26th 1930"  Lila sent.

"Do you have any children, Lila?"  Dr. Acres asked.

"Two children - John and Lilly.  They live in California and Texas."  Lila sent and Patty repeated.

"Where do you go to church, Lila?" Dr. Acres asked, suddenly excited.

"St. Stephans Episcopal"  she answered.

Dr. Acres suddenly went to the phone in the room.  He dialed a hospital extension.  "This is Dr. Acres.  I am in room 2310.  Could you come up here right now.  Yes, it is important."

"That is Social Services.  I am afraid they do not know about her children.  No one has visited since she has been here.  Her sister and she live in a retirement home.  And they had no record of any family.

"Lila, what is your son's name?  Where does he live?"  he asked.

"John Peterson.  San Francisco."  Lila sent.

"What about your daughter?  What is her name and where does she live?"  he asked

"Lilly Thomas, Houston"  Lila sent.

"What is her husband's name?"  he asked.

"Fred Thomas"  Lila sent.

Dr Acres was writing this all down.  So that when the lady from Social Services came up to the room, he had all the basic information in hand.  "Here, could you please try and locate her family and tell them about her."  He asked.  "Also, can you contact the retirement home and find out if she has an eyeglass prescription?  Can you contact her church and make sure someone there knows about where she is?"

We found out later that Lila had moved into the retirement home recently so she could get help taking care of her sister.  She was younger than her sister, and in good health.  For some reason, the retirement home only listed her name as the next of kin for her sister, but had no information on the family.  She had not been to church in a while, since she had moved.

We also found out that after the stroke, Lila could no longer speak.  Her mind was clear, but she mostly slept, since there was no one to interact with.  Without her glasses she was almost blind.

When we went to see her a week later, she had on her glasses, and was sitting up in bed.  She was weak, but seemed to have a reason to live now.

[Dr. Acres Office]

"That was really amazing.  We were not sure if her mind was gone altogether or not.  We did not know she had a family.  In a few minutes talking to her that way, we found out more than we had known in weeks.  Thank you."  he said.

"You are very welcome.  We are happy to help.  We are as amazed as you are."  we said.

"What I am not sure about, why did you ask Dana to help her mindspeak to me?  I can't mindspeak."  He said.

"Well, it was just a hunch.  Rather than just two of us trying to get her to send to me, since you were asking the questions, it was really a conversation between you and her. So we were just there helping you talk to her, and I was listening in on her thoughts as she replied to you.  It seemed to be much easier that way.  Also, she was drowsy when we first started, then she woke up more and could understand better.  It is just that she can't talk with her mouth that was getting in the way."  Patty explained.

"It does not take that long to teach someone to do mindspeech.  It seems to be something fairly natural.  What is hard it getting started.  It take one or two strong mindspeakers to teach someone who has never done it.  We can both hear your mindspeech, if one of us listens and the other helps -- just like we have been doing with the patients.  If you wanted to hear mindspeech, we would both have to help, and it usually is necessary to also close you eyes and use a white noise source to block out noises."  I said.

"Usually we like to have someone learn how to blob watch first, then to do mindspeech.  In our class last week we introduced blob watching.  This week we introduced mindspeech -- for people who could not do either before."  Patty said.

"I think I would like to learn how to do it.  But I think it takes a long time to become as good at it as you two."  he said.

"Yes, you are probably right."  I said. "Still, we could teach you sometime, if you would like".

"Earlier you were asking about people in comas, and during operations.  I think we can show you people during operations.  Do you have to be in the operating room?"  he said.

"No, just somewhere nearby.  It would help if we knew ahead of time, so we could see the person before and after.  Once we have a good connection to someone, then distance does not matter too much.  But we get a lot more detail if we are close by.  I said.

"We will see what we can arrange."  He said.  "You know, I thought that Lila was in some sort of coma.  She was not responsive.  I would like to show you someone in a real coma, sometime."

"I think that would be good.  We are happy to help you too.  We just have to make arrangements with our parents.  My mom has been visiting here everyday, anyway, so she did not mind.  Later we might have to make other arrangements."  Patty said.

[Living room]  Mom brought us home after noon.  Again we were pretty tired.  A lot was happening, quickly.  Patty and I were both very happy that we had been able to help Lila and the other people at the hospital.  We had made no special plans with Dr. Acres, but he was going to call us in a couple of days.  He did ask if we might be able to visit with Tommy, Sam, Dorothy and Lila over the weekend, just to ask them if there was anything special they needed.  We could tell the head nurse.  He, Dr. Acres, would make sure the head nurse knew we were coming.  If any of the family was there, that would really be nice.  So we left it kind of open that way.

We practiced mindspeech with Mom for a while.  She was getting the hang of it, and could talk to either one of us without a boost.  We wondered if it was some kind of mother/daughter thing.  It seemed to be easy to talk with her.  She had a little trouble when we first started sending to her, but it was only necessary to assist her for a while, and then have one of use send a little stronger.

It seemed to be purely a matter of practice.  The more you do, the better you get.

[Patty's Room]  I brought my laptop into her room, and then we both wrote up what we had learned at the hospital.  We left out names, and some details, to protect the privacy of the people there.  We did talk about mindspeech as a way to help people who could not talk for various reasons including traches, ventilators, and brain damage.

[Friday]

==== end sept 16

[Living Room]  Dr. Acres called this morning to ask us if we could come tot he hospital this afternoon to watch an operation.  It had been scheduled before, but he had to check to make sure it was ok with the patient.  The operation was scheduled for three, so we were going to get there early and do a little visiting.

Paul called, and wondered if he could come by and practice mindspeech with me.  I asked Mom what would be a good time, and she said to invite him for dinner.

[Hospital waiting room]  We came here to wait for Dr. Acres before the operation.  Patty and I visited Sam, Dorothy and Tommy for a few minutes each, just to check on them and see how they were doing.  Each of them was happy to see us, we chatted briefly about how they were doing, and asked if they needed anything.  Tommy was going to have the tube removed.  We were really happy for him.  He was getting better enough so he might go home in a week or so.

"Hello, how are you doing?"  Dr. Acres asked when he arrived.

"We are fine."  We said.

"This is a relatively minor surgery, but it requires general anesthesia.  The patient will be out for about an hour.  You really don't need to know what the operation is about, right?  You just need to know when we start the anesthesia and you want to be there when they wake up?  It that it?"  Dr. Acres asked.

"Yes, we can be almost anywhere, but we would like to at least know where the patient is before we begin."  Patty said.

The doctor led us up to another floor, and down a couple of hallways.  We got to the room just as they were coming to pick up the patient for surgery.  The doctor pointed out the man, in his sixties it seemed, as they were transfering him to a gurney for the brief trip to the operating room.  Patty and I both closed our eyes for a few moments, and then we had a good lock on the patient.

"Follow me now."  The doctor said, and we followed him to yet another floor and came to a door.  It opened into a narrow stairway, which we followed to a small room above the operating room.

"You will not see a lot of detail of the operation from here, he said.  We are not televising this operation, but you can see generally what is going on.  The anesthiologist knows you are here.  That is her there at the head of the table.  He pressed a button near the window, and said, "They are here now."  The anesthesiologist waved.

As we were talking, the patient was wheeled into the room, and transfered to the operating table.  He was still awake, and talking to the people around him, quietly.  They were saying things to him.

In just a few minutes, the room seemed to fill up quickly.  There seemed to be two surgeons, the anesthiologist, and some nurses.  There were other people moving around, but I did not know what they were doing.  As we watched, the anesthiologist waved to us, and she started to put the patient under for the surgery.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the patient.  I had a good image of him.  His blob was gray with blue highlights.  I sent my image of him to Patty, and she sent her image of him back to me.  This strengthened our lock on the patient, and brought in more detail.  We both had our eyes closed, and were mindspeaking to each other quietly.

As we watched, the patient's blob seemed to smooth out and darken.  The blue highlights became less ragged and jaggy, and more smooth and thick.  "He is counting backwards", Patty said out loud.  Then his mind was quiet.  "He must be under."  I said, and Patty said, "Yes."

The doctor said that he had some things to do.  We could stay there as long as we wanted.  Once they were done, the patient would go to a recovery area for a while, before going back to his own room.  "Go to room 2110 and you can wait there for him to wake up.  Will you have any problem tracking him?"

"No."  We said.  "We could keep track of him from anywhere now, even from home.  But it does seem to help to be a little bit closer, to see more detail."  I said.

"Ok, see you later."  He said.  "Thanks for arranging this."  We said.

Patty and I watched the operation.  There was not a lot to see.  From where we were, one of the doctors was standing so we could not see the actual surgery.  It looked like a crowd of people huddling over someone.  We could see the tools as they were handed to the surgeon, and we could see the nurses moving around.  But it was like a quiet play.

Once we decided that there was not going to be many changes in the patient, Patty and I decided to watch the blobs of the people in the room.  The blobs seemed to overlap in many places.  It was almost like watching one blob with many parts.  "Do you think they are using some type of mindspeech?"   Patty asked.

"I think you might be right."  I said. "They seem to be very close to each other.  They might be picking up images and words from each other.  But I doubt they even realize it.  They probably think of it as working closely together."

The patient was still the same, as the operation continued.  Eventually, the surgeons stepped back and you could see the nurses putting things away.  The anesthesiologist looked up at us and waved.  She was going to back off on the anesthesia now.  Patty and I got a good lock on the patient, then left the little viewing room to go wait for him.

In the waiting room, we could tell that the patient was being moved from the operating room down to the recovery room.  Since there were people right around him, we could guess there were two people pushing his gurney.  We followed them through the hospital until they came to our floor.  Then we watched them bring him to a room near to us.  There were nurses and patients there already.  We watched the two bring the patient into the room, and then transfer him to a bed.  Then they left and we could see the blobs of the nurses checking on the patient.  There were also people there who were not moving around.  We could tell they were sitting.  We guessed that these were family waiting for the patients to wake up.

"I think that the blue is starting to get more raggedy, and the grey is taking on more detail.  It is not as smooth as it was."  I said to Patty.

"You are right.  During the surgery, the blob was very smooth and not changing very much."  Patty said.

"Can you pick up any words or thoughts or images?"  I asked.

"No.  But I think I can hear some mumbling."  She said.

"I think I do too."  I said. "Kind of like when someone is dreaming and talking to themselves."

We continued watching.  Gradually the blob picked up more detail, and we started hearing the mumbling and whispering we had come to associate with someone talking to themselves.

"Wow!"  Patty said.  "There was a brief flash of something.  An image.  Did you get that?"

"Yes, it was not clear, just sort of like a lightning flash of some image."  I said.  "But it was much brighter than usual."

In a little while, "Again!  Another image.  That looked like someone's face.  What do you think?"  Patty said.

"A face for sure.  Just a part of a face."  I said.

This went on for about ten minutes, with images flashing every few moments, then we started to hear louder and louder mumbling.

"I think he is nearly awake now."  Patty said.

"Is that someone with him?"  I asked.

"Yes, there is someone sitting near his bed.  You can tell they right next to him, maybe holding his hand.  Listen to the person sitting nearby."  Patty said.

"John, John.  How are you feeling?  Are you awake?"  Patty repeated out loud. 

We watched for a while longer, but it was clear that John was awake now.  We could hear his thoughts as he talked to his visitor.  We guessed that it was his wife.

Since we did not want to intrude, we stopped listening to them as they talked.  John was still groggy and did not answer very clearly, but his mind was generating images that were very clear, if disconnected. 

"The images must have something to do with waking up from anesthesia.  But it could be a natural part of waking up.  I do not think I have ever listened in to someone waking up.  And with both of us working together like this, we are seeing a lot more detail than we would if we just happened to hear someone waking up."  Patty said.

"We could spend years doing this, and there would still be more to learn."  I said.  "But I think we learned some valuable things today.  From this I think I can tell whether someone is awake, or asleep but not dreaming, or unconscious, or asleep and dreaming."

"Me too."  said Patty.

When we were ready to leave there, we went back to the ICU waiting room to meet Mom.  She and Mrs Painter were there, they had just come out from visiting Mike.  He was doing a lot better.

We called and left a message for Dr. Acres that we were going home.  We thanked him and left our number in case he wanted to ask any questions.   And we promised to email him with details of what we had learned.

[Patty's Room]  We wrote up what we had learned at the hospital, then emailed it to Jack for posting on the web.  We sent a copy to Dr Acres.  He had given us one of his business cards, and had written his email on the back.  We included a question about drugs.

"Suppose that someone was given the medicines that they use during general anesthesia, then just we let them wake up.  Do you think that they would have those image flashes like John did?"  Patty asked me.

"I think that is likely.  I wonder if there are drugs that you could take that would increase the ability to send and receive mind images and sounds?  Could you make an artificial bright with the right drugs?"  I wondered.

"Do you think that our brains are changing as we are doing this?"  I asked Patty.

"They probably are.  We are learning new skills and our brains are different than they were before.  It is kind of like using muscles.  Our brains are getting stronger."  Patty replied.

[Living Room]  Paul came over early for dinner, so I am working with him individually to practice mindspeaking.  He is wearing his white noise generator, and we can talk fairly well back and forth.  His sending is faint, so I have to concentrate really hard, but mostly there are no problems with carrying on a conversation this way.

I am reading silently to him, and sending, so he can practice listening.  We have spent almost an hour practicing, and it is time for dinner.

[Dining room]  "Are you all able to do mindspeech now?"  Paul asked me.

"Mom and Dad can tell you how they are doing.  Patty and I use it pretty routinely now.  I can talk to Jack and Carly in Somerville without too much trouble.  And I can talk to Edith and Jerry here in town."  I said.  "Everyone in the Wednesday class has been exposed to it now.  I think it is just a matter of practice."

"We can boost you, if you want to try talking with Mom and Dad, that way you won't need to use the white noise."  Patty said.

We all practiced during dinner, then moved into the living room.

[Living Room]  Paul and Mom and Dad practiced mind speaking to each other, while Patty and I boosted.  We had some trouble coordinating so we knew when to help send or receive.  After a while Patty and I tried just keeping a general picture of everone's blob, and then sending it out to everyone.  This kind of boosting seemed to work, so that if Mom and Dad were trying to talk, they could do it.  If they wanted to talk to Paul, they could, and we were all ready to help them.

"When you practice together during the week, you are probably going to have to use white noise to help you receive.  And you are going to have to try reading out loud and sending to get more strength in sending.  You might want to read some of our earlier posts on the website about how to practice mindspeaking with a non-bright.  If you can get a chance to have a bright over, they can send to you without much extra help.  I think you will find it easier to send to a bright as well, since they are easier to visualize."  I explained.

Dad drove Paul home, since it was after dark.  He put his bike in the back.

[Saturday]  Paul was eager to continue practicing, so he made arrangements to visit with Mr Baker today.  The plan was for Mr Baker to read out loud, and for Paul to listen.  Just in case, he was going to use white noise as well.  We were going to have to make arrangements for people to practice in between classes.  It was hard to give individual instruction to everyone who wanted to learn.  And there were only so many hours in the day.  Sandy said that she would be willing to help people with mindspeech on the weekends, but she was working and did not have much time during the weekdays.  She would continue to come on Wednesdays.

[Sunday] 

[Edith's House]  Jack and Carly's family is in town today.  They are just coming mostly to coordinate between Edith's family and Jack's family.  Both families are very much into mindspeech and blob watching now.  They are both having growing pains as they try to keep up with the demand for classes.  We had dinner with them, but most of the time was spent on schedules and plans.  We really did not have much time to talk or just visit.  I think everyone is wearing out.

Patty and I did give a verbal summary of what we had learned at the hospital this last week.  Jack and Carly said they had not had a lot of success in finding more about people in comas.  What they had learned they were posting on the website under mindspeaking and blob watching applications. 

Jack's dad, Jim, offered to put an app on the website so that people could sign up to get together for practice.  He was going to organize it by city, so that you could specify when and where you were going to be available, and what you were looking for.  Like, "Need bright for reading practice in Somerville", "Good sender wants more practice receiving".  That sort of thing.  Enough people were also getting long distance experience, so that mindspeaking between cities was possible now.

Jack said that he could send blobs of people who wanted to do long distance mindspeaking to people he knew in other cities.  That way he could introduce two people who had not met yet.  I had a pretty good image of most of the people I had done mindspeaking with, so I offered to also be available for introductions in our city.  Jack had a couple of people who were doing well with mindspeaking who wanted long distance practice, so he sent those blobs to me, and told me their names.  I sent him a couple that he did not know.  He was keeping track of most of the mindspeakers in both cities.

If we could get more people doing long distance work, then we could post requests online for "Practice long distance reading", and so forth.

The website is getting something like 10,000 unique visitors each week.  A certain number of people from various cities were learning blob watching on their own.  It was very slow, like I learned it.  What we needed was a way to find brights in various cities, so people could get started.  All of our parents were able to mindspeak now.  But most of them could not boost very well.  We needed a way to get teachers and brights to other places.  Jim was going to put up something like Google maps, so that we could map out where people lived and what their capabilities are.  If we could get a group of beginners together in another city, then we could send a bright and a teacher to get them started on blob watching.

Jim was also going to start a nonprofit foundation to promote mindspeaking.  He had already gotten the domains for mindspeakers.org and blobwatchers.org, so he had a place to put information specific to the foundation.  And he wanted to start fund raising, as soon as the paperwork was completed.  He thought that we could use funds raised to pay for travel of brights and teachers.

[Room]  Paul called and we switched to mindspeech.  I told him some of the things we did at Edith's.  He was very interested, and wanted to help in some way.  He said that he was going to visit family in Houston soon.  Is there anything he could do to help teach?  I said that we needed to find some brights there, that was something he could look for.  He said he would get some business cards like Patty's to hand to brights that he might meet.

Paul is really motivated.  He said he was going to spend more time with Ed Baker and get him involved in individual teaching of mindspeech.

My mind is a whirl of information and ideas.

[Monday]

[Hospital]  Patty and I made the rounds with Dr. Acres this morning.  Luckily Mom is still coming to the hospital to visit people for church, so we could get a ride.

We visited Sam, Dorothy and Tommy first.  They were all doing better.  We translated the things they wanted to say, and we helped them answer the doctor's questions.  It was beginning to be fairly routine.  But we were also beginning to think that the hospital needed someone on staff to do these things.  It was ok while Mom was coming to the hospital every day, but how were we going to do this when she had other things to do?

"I really wanted you to come today to see a new patient who came in over the weekend.  He was in an automobile accident and has a severe head injury.  He is in a coma, and we are wondering when he will come out of it.  The family thinks he is trying to wake up.  Could you look at him and tell me what you think?"  Dr. Acres said.

We followed the doctor to the patient's room.  Dave was in an ICU room.  There were monitors beeping, and plastic tubing going everywhere.  There were tubes going into both arms.  And there was a bad smell in the room.  I looked at Patty, and she looked back at me.  "Let's do this"  she said.

We both locked in on Dave.  From our experience just the other day, we could tell that he was not unconscious.  There was a little bit of image and sound activity, but it seemed like he was in a deep sleep, rather than unconscious.  We related this to Dr. Acres.

"Could you wait here for a while and monitor him.  His family is going to be visiting in a few minutes.  I want to know if he wakes up more when they are here."  Dr. Acres requested.

 So we stayed there standing near the window, watching the monitors and watching the nurses and people going by.  We monitored Dave, but did not see any difference.  My guess, and Patty agreed, is that he was asleep, and maybe dreaming.

Two people came into the room.  One woman was about Dave's age.  We figured that was his wife or girlfriend.  The other woman was probably his mother.  They did not say anything to us when they came in.  The acknowledge that we were standing there, but their attention was on Dave.  They immediately went on either side of the bed and went to hold his hands.  There did not seem to be much damage to his body, just a head injury.  He must have gone through the windshield, or hit the air bag.  His face was all red and there were some cuts.  He looked fairly normal, except for the bandage on one side, and the fact that he was in an ICU bed with all that stuff.

Dave's "wife" and "mom" were talking to him in low and urgent tones.  They were saying things like, "Hello Dave.  How are you doing?  We love you.  Won't you wake up and talk to us?"  That kind of thing.  The wife seemed to be the more urgent of the two.  There were tears in her eyes and on her face.  The mother seemed to be in shock.

Patty nodded to me that she wanted to mindspeak, and she sent, "Let's try to help them mindspeak.  Let's concentrate on the wife first, then the mother.  They could be trying to mindspeak with Dave, even if they do not know how.  Let's boost them and help them talk to Dave."  I nodded back my agreement.

I adjusted myself to help the wife talk to Dave using mindspeech.  Patty was probably doing the same.  We were both boosting.  Dave could hear them with his ears.  And now we were trying to help him also hear with his mind.

"Hey, Dave.  How about we get you out of here and take you home?  Dave, can you hear me?  Dave, please open your eyes and talk to us.  Dave, please wake up and talk to me.  I love you, Dave.  I want you to come home."  Similar words were coming from each of the vistitors.  I adjusted myself to boost from either one of them to Dave. 

"Are you listening to Dave?"  I sent to Patty.  "Yes.  He seems to be waking up more.  Let's continue as long as they are talking and trying to wake him up."  she sent back.

"Dave, a lot of friends at church are praying for you.  They all want you to wake up, and get better.  The family all sends their prayers and good wishes.  Your brother, Tim, is flying in this evening, and will be here to see you tonight.  Dad is at work, but will be by later.  We love you.  We want you to get better.  We want you to wake up, Dave"  They continued to talk to him in urgent, whispered tones.  Patty and I kept up the pressure to send their words and thoughts to Dave.

Patty leaned over toward the bed.  She was behind the wife.  "Is your name Betsy?"  she asked.  The wife looked up in confusion, and said, "Yes, Do I know you?"

"No, but we are here to help.  Dave just was thinking about your name.  I think he is waking up.  Can you just keep talking to him, and call out his name.  Tell him that you are here.  Tell him your name."  Patty explained.

"Dave, Dave, Dave.  This is Betsy, your wife.  I am here with your mom.  We want you to wake up."  Betsy said, urgently.

"Betsy"  Dave sent and Patty repeated out loud.  Patty explained to Betsy that Dave had just said her name.

"Where am I?" Dave sent and Patty repeated.  "He wants to know where he is."  Pattey explained.

Betsy looked at Patty with a strange look.  Patty nodded, and Betsy went on to say to Dave, "You are in the city hospital" she said.

"Where?"  Dave sent and Patty repeated.  "Say it again, maybe a little louder."  Patty told Betsy.

"You are in City Hospital emergency.  You were in a car accident."  Betsy said, just a bit louder than before.

"City Hospital?"  Dave sent and Patty repeated.

"Yes, City Hospital."  Betsy confirmed.

"Tell him to open his eyes."  Patty whispered.

"Dave. This is Betsy.  Open your eyes and look at me."  Betsy said.

"What?"  Dave sent and Patty repeated.  Betsy was getting used to Patty answering for Dave.

"Dave. Open your eyes."  Betsy repeated.

"Ok"  Dave sent and Patty whispered to Betsy.

"Try harder Dave.  Open your eyes."  Betsy repeated.

"Ok"  Dave sent and Patty repeated.  Then he opened his eyes.

"Hi honey.  What's going on?"  Dave sent.  Patty repeated for Betsy.

"Can you see Ok, Dave?"  Betsy asked.

"Yes, I see fine.  It is a little blurry.  I see you fine.  How are you?"  Dave sent and Patty repeated.

"Tell him to say something out loud.  Tell him to talk to you."  Patty whispered to Betsy.

"Dave.  You need to talk out loud.  Say something to me."  Betsy said.

"What do you want me to say?  I love you."  Dave said, out loud!!

"Oh, Dave.  I love you too.  Your mom is here, can you see her?"  Betsy said.

Dave's eyes slowly moved to the left and came to rest on his mother.  "Yes, I can see her fine.  What happened to me?"  he said out loud.

"You were in a car accident.  You hit your head.  You have been unconscious for a couple of days.  How do you feel?"  Betsy explained.

"My head hurts a lot.  I have a headache.  My arm and shoulder hurts too, but not as much.  I am hungry and thirsty."  Dave said.

Patty and I nodded to each other, then started to leave.  Betsy said, "I want to talk to you two soon".

"We will be in the waiting room across the hall.  We will let you and Dave get caught up.  Come by when you are ready."  Patty said.

In about 20 minutes, Betsy came into the waiting room to see us.

"He fell asleep I think.  I do not think he went back into the coma."  She said.

"Yes, he is sleeping and dreaming."  Patty explained.  "My name is Patty and this is Dana, my sister.  Dr. Acres asked us to monitor Dave, and he said you were coming by to visit, and to try to wake up Dave.  I think he wanted us to help you, but he did not give us any instructions.  It seemed like you were able wake up Dave without too much trouble."  Patty said.

"Yes, but what were you doing?  You seemed to be saying what Dave was thinking, before he started talking out loud."  She said.

"That is exactly what we were doing, once he was starting to wake up.  Before that we were sending your thoughts to him to try to help him wake up.  You were trying so hard to talk to him and get him to wake up, that we thought you were trying to mindspeak with him.  So we helped you to do that."  Patty explained.

"What do you mean, mindspeak?"  Betsy asked.

"Well, whatever you were saying with words, your minds were also trying to say to his mind.  So we helped those thoughts get to him.  He was sort of listening with his ears, but he was also trying to listen with his mind."  Patty explained.

"We have been helping out here at the hospital recently.  There were several people here who could not talk out loud, so we listened to their mindspeech and said that out loud for the people visiting them.  Dr. Acres asked for our help and he has been able to talk directly to some patients now."  I continued.

"Is Dave going to be all right now?"  She asked.

"I do not know.  You will have to ask the doctor.  At least he woke up and talked to you.  You know that his mind is OK, even if his head hurts still.  I do not know if he will go unconscious again.  When we got here, he was mostly sleeping and dreaming.  We are pretty sure that is what he is doing now.  I imagine he needs some rest before he talks to you again."  Patty said.

"If he wakes up but cannot talk, you might try reminding him to talk out loud.  He will try mindspeaking first before he uses his mouth.  I think he is just tired from the injuries."  I said.

"I am going back in to be with him."  Betsy said. 

"Here is my phone number.  Call us if you need help with talking to Dave."  Patty said.

[Living room]  We called the doctor and left a message briefly outlining what we had done.  He was probably going to be stopping by to see Dave anyhow.  We said we would be on call if he needed help talking to Dave.

Not long after we got home, the doctor called.  He was in Dave's room talking to Betsy.  It seemed like Dave was trying to wake up again.  Could we come back to the hospital?

Mom had just left to go on some errands.  We could not go back to the hospital, but Patty and I immediately agreed to help.  She was talking to the doctor on the phone.

"Have Betsy call to Dave"  Patty said on the phone.  We were monitoring Dave and Betsy from home.

"Betsy, is that you?"  Patty relayed to the doctor.  He relayed it to Betsy,

"Yes, Dave, this is Betsy.  We want you to wake up."  Betsy said.

"OK"  Patty relayed to the doctor and Betsy.  "Tell him to open his eyes and talk out loud."  She continued

"Dave, this is Betsy.  Open your eyes and talk out loud."  She said, firmly,

"Ok" Patty relayed to the doctor and Betsy.  "Tell him his eyes are not open."  Patty said.

"Dave.  Open your eyes.  Your eyes are not open.  Open your eyes."  she said.

Dave's eyes opened gradually.  Betsy was saying encouragements.

"How are you feeling?"  Betsy asked Dave.

"I am thirsty and hungry."  Patty relayed.  "Is he talking out loud yet?  If not, then tell him to talk out loud."  she said to the doctor.

"Are you hungry and thirsty?  Would you talk out loud, please?"  Betsy said.

"I am hungry."  Dave said out loud.

"He's talking out loud now.  His eyes are open.  Thanks for your help."  The doctor said to Patty over the phone.

"We are glad to help.  Do you think you will be ok from here?  Call us if you need us."  Patty said.

"We have a lot to write up now."  she said to me.  And we went to our rooms to get our computers.

[Room] 

The doctor did not call back again.  I guess they were doing OK now.

Patty and I seemed to be helping.  What we were doing in the hospital seemed to be helping people.  At least I was glad that we were there and could help wake up people, and talk to them.

Paul called.  I missed his earlier call.   He wanted to practice mindspeaking.  I told him that we had been helping out at the hospital, and I needed to write down what we had learned, before I forgot.  I asked him if he had worked with Anglela and Henry yet.  He said no, and I gave him their phone numbers.  As much as I like Paul, it was too hard to help everyone practice individually.

He said he would contact them, and try to practice before the Wednesday class.  I told him that I thought there were going to be more people at the Wednesday class than usual, and for now, to try to get as much practice as he could on his own.  There were three brights in town who could help by reading silently or talking silently.  That might be the best way to make progress now.

====== end sept 17

[Living Room] 

Jack called, and we switched to mindspeech.  He wanted to know if we had come up with any way to "ring" another person, to start a mindspeech conversation.  Once we knew that someone was waiting to talk, if we knew them and could visualize their blob in detail, then we could mindspeak.  But it was hard to keep an open link to someone, on the off chance they wanted to mindspeak right then.  I told him that we were putting more intensity into our sending when we were working in the hospital with people who were asleep.  I said that I could try calling him that way and see if it worked.

I waited a few minutes to let him get fully disconnected from me.  I did not know if he was still listening to me, waiting.  I focused on him and got a good image of him, then I sent "Hello!  Jack!  This is Dana!  I want to talk to you!", as loud as I could.  Almost immediately he replied, "Hello.  I heard that clearly.  How did you do that?"

So I explained to him how to focus, and the intensity I needed when I was calling.  "Let me try calling you, then."  He sent.

I dropped my image of him that I was using while I was mindspeaking him, and tried to distract myself.  In fact, I was very involved in worrying about the Wednesday class plan, when he called me by mindspeech, "Hello!  Dana!  This is Jack.  I want to talk to you!".  "Hello Jack."  I sent.  "This seems to work.  My one worry is how do you refuse a mindspeech call.  If someone calls on the phone, you can ignore it and let it go to phone mail. Or you can turn off your cell phone altogether."  I sent.

"I guess we could just send back "Busy!"  and drop the mindspeech call.  It is going to take some practice.  At least we have a method of calling.  We can try it with other people to see if it works."  Jack sent.

Since Patty had just gone to her room, I did not think she was too busy, so I mind called her, "Patty!  This is Dana! I want to talk to you!"  I got no answer.  "Patty!  This is Dana!"  I sent.

"Hello, I was looking at the computer when you called.  How did you figure out how to call like that?"  she sent back.

So I explained that I was simply focused on her blob, and mine, and I was using the intensity we used when we were trying to wake up people at the hospital.

"That makes sense.  I bet with that intensity, you can talk to someone who is not familiar with mindspeech."  she sent.

"When I am mindspeaking with Paul, I tend to send much more strongly.  He is still learning to listen and has a hard time if I send at normal volume."  I sent.

"The new mindspeakers are pretty weak at sending and receiving.  I think I have been sending stronger to them too.  It is like you want them to hear you, so you push harder."  Patty sent.

Patty called me back to practice.  When I answered her, I asked her to try again, to see if she could make it a little louder.  This she did, and there was an improvement.  I am a pretty good receiver, but it helps to have a loud call when you are busy doing other things.

"Patty, could we check on Dave do you think?"  I sent.

"Sure.  Let's see how he is doing."  she replied.

We focused on Dave and could see that he was awake.  He was talking to Betsy.  "He's Ok it seems."  send Patty.

"OK, talk to you later." I sent, then disconnected from Patty.  It was becoming more and more routine.

[My Room]

I called Jack by mindspeech, just to see if I could catch him when he was not listening for me.  I got him right away.  He was surprised to hear from me again so soon, but I said I was just testing, and he said OK.  Disconnect.

I called Edith by mindspeech.  I had to call her five times before she answered.

"Hello.  I kept hearing you call, but I wasn't paying attention.  I was in the middle of something here.  How did you learn to call like that?  Being able to call someone by mindspeech is really handy."  Edith sent.

"You need to send very strongly.  It is like mental shouting.  Do you want to try calling me?"  I asked.

Disconnnect.

"Dana!  This is Edith!  Hello!"  she called to me.  It was pretty strong, and I told her so.

"Edith, can you show Jerry and your family how to do mind speech calling?"  I asked.

"Sure.  It is not hard, it just takes an effort."  She sent back.

I called my Mom by mindspeech.  She did not answer.  I went downstairs to see what she was doing.  The car is gone, so she must have gone out.  Maybe she it driving and too distracted to drive and mindspeak at the same time.  She is still using white noise for her mindspeech.  I need to practice with her more.

I mind called Carly.  She answered after three calls.  "Hello.  Jack said you had come up with a method for mind calling"  Carly sent.

"Yes, I was just testing to see if you would answer.  Do you want to try calling me?"  I sent.

Disconnect.

"Dana!  This is Carly!  Hello!"  I caught it on the second call.

"That was plenty loud.  I do not think I would have any trouble hearing that, even if I was distracted."  I sent to Carly.

"Thanks for your help.  Talk to you later."  Carly sent.

"Ok, Try calling Edith and Jerry.  She knows how to do this now."  I sent.

"Ok. Bye"  She sent in reply.

Disconnect.

I wrote up what I had just learned about mind calling.  I emailed it to Jack for the website, and copied it to Patty.

[Tuesday]

[Library]  I did not have any books to bring back or to pick up this time.  I just needed some exercise.  It was not too hot out.  We had some rain in the last few days, and the weather was cool for summer.

I found a couple of books on coma and brain injury.  They were fairly helpful, but I did not check them out.  Since I did not know what kind of patients we might meet up with, I did not know what to expect.  It did seem like there were going to be people so deeply unconscious that we could not wake them.  Patty and I had been lucky that the people we helped were already awake, or almost awake.  I did not know how hard it would be to wake someone from a long term coma.

[Living room]  Just got home and the doctor called.  Patty answered.  She said the doctor was just checking in with us.  He did not have any new patients, and everyone was doing ok.  He wanted to thank us for helping with Dave yesterday.  He wanted to know if we were interested in writing an article for a medical journal.  He said he would write the article and we could add some details about what we had done to wake up these patients.  Patty said that sounded Ok.  She promised to organize our notes we had written, and send him copies by email.

"We already sent him most of what we wrote.  I will take all of it and try to write out a brief description that might go into a journal article."  Patty said. "That will save him time, trying to rewrite what we wrote."

"What are you planning for the rest of the day?"  Patty asked.

"I had no particular plans.  Mom is not going to the hospital today.  She is over at the church, helping at the Day School, I think.  So we are probably not going to the hospital.  I have been reading about people in comas and trying to figure our how to wake them up, if they are in a deep coma.  But we will have to wait for the doctor.  I spent a lot of time yesterday, mind calling various people, and practicing.  Mind calling seems to be pretty easy for the stronger mindspeakers.  Pretty much everyone can do it now."  I related.

"Mom said there were going to be a lot of new people coming to the Wednesday class.  There might be as many as a dozen new people."  She said.

"We have the existing class, and they are still just learning blob watching and mindspeech.  I do not think any of them are very strong yet, even if Paul is working very hard.  It just takes practice."  I said.

"Perhaps we can have the existing class members work with Sandy.  We can have Sandy read out silently to them, so they can practice listening to mindspeech."  Patty said.

"These others are brand new, aren't they?  No blob skills and no mindspeech?"  I asked.

"That's right.  Brand new."  Patty replied.

"Why don't we have the entire new class work on blob watching.  We can have them focus on Sandy as a target.  We will put Sandy and the old class in the dining room, and we can work on the new class in the living room.  We will close the door.  You and I can boost each of the newcomers so they can find and lock onto Sandy.  We will have them spend the entire time just on her.  That way they will get more detail.  We might be able to get some of them to where they can hear Sandy mindspeaking."  I suggested.

"That sounds like a plan."  she said.

Just then the phone rang.  It was Mom.  She was going to be at the church for a while yet.  But she had run into George Tilson at the church.  He is completely blind.  She had been talking to him about what we were doing, and said that we were looking for someone who is blind to see if blob watching would help.  George was very interested.  Could we ride over to the church on our bikes and visit with him for a while?  He was going to be their for another hour or two.

We said that we were free right now, and we would be over in about fifteen minutes.  We would meet them in the parlor at the church, just across from the offices.

It was very pleasant out, so we did not mind the ride up to the church.  We put up our bicycles on the rack outside and then went to the parlor to meet Mom and George.  I had seen him before at the church, but not very often.  He always seemed to be going somewhere, so I had never met him.

"Hello"  George said, and extended his hand.  I shook his hand and said "Hello".  She shook Patty's hand, then we all sat down in some of the comfortable chairs in the parlor.

Mom said, "I told him a little about blob watching.  I have been getting better at it, but still have a lot to learn.  Can you start from scratch and explain it?"  She asked.

Patty explained, "Every person, in fact every mammal, seems to have a mental field around them.  It is possible to close your eyes and see this field.  When we first learned to see these fields, they looked like blobs without much detail, so we still call them blobs.  So we talk about "blob watching" as a way of saying we are looking at the field around someone."

"I can mentally look at you now, George, and I can see your blob, the field that your mind makes.  I can see some detail.  I know that you are awake for instance, and that you are forming some words in your mind, but you are not speaking to us mentally."  Patty said.

"Hold up just a minute.", George said.  "Everyone has a 'blob' associated with them.  You are saying that if I can learn to see these blobs with my mind, I can see people again?"  He asked.

"Yes, that is what we think will happen".  Patty said.

I have tried to see people all my life, why haven't I come across this before?"  He asked.

"I only found out how to do this this summer.  Partly by accident, and partly by very tedious and detailed practice."  I said.  "We are working on this every day, and we are still learning new things".

"What do I have to do to "see" these blobs?"  He asked.

"Did you ever have vision?"  Patty asked.

"Yes, when I was very young.  Then I lost my vision from a rare disease."  George said.

"Then you know what people look like, then?"  Patty said.

"Yes."  George said.

"Dana and I are going to help you.  We will focus on the blob of someone nearby, and send it to you.  We call this "boosting".  We will help you to form a mental picture of someone.  We will start with my mom, and then we will do it for others nearby."  Patty explained.

Patty and I locked onto Mom, then we locked onto George.  We sent a mental image of Mom's blob to George.

"I felt or saw something.  What are you doing?"  George said.

"We are sending you a mental image of Mom' blob for you to look at."  I said.  "Why don't we let him try the white noise as well."  I suggested to Patty.

"We have white noise on this MP3 player.  Would you put these earbuds in your ears.  Set the sound level so that you can still hear us, but where it blocks most of the sound.  We think this will help when you are just getting started."  I said.

"Is this necessary?"  George asked.  "It will help.  Once you begin to see blobs and what they are like, you will probably not need this after a while.  We find it helps when we are getting started."

"OK."  George said, and he put the earbuds in.

"Now we will try again."  Patty said.  She spoke loud enough for him to hear.  He adjusted the volume slightly.

We locked in on George and Mom, and sent an image of Mom to George.  This time I "sent" it like I had been sending mind calls.

"I saw something!"  George said.  "Do it again".

So we sent it again.  This time continuously sending as loud as we could.

"Yes, I see something.  It is like a gray blob with bits of color!"  George said.

"That is my Mom."  I said.

"Ready for another one, George?"  I asked.

"Yes"  he said.

"Here is an image of Patty."  and we sent an image of Patty to him. 

"It is different.  Slightly different colors"  he said.

"Here is an image of Dana." and we sent an image of me to him.

"I see the differences!"  He said.  There was excitement in his voice.  His blind eyes were looking around the room, and a smile on his face.

"Now, here is your blob".  And we sent his own image to him.

"I am getting images.  But where is everyone?"  George asked.  "I mean, where is everyone in relation to each other and to me?"

"Let's send him an image of the four of us."  I sent to Patty by mindspeech.  She nodded.

So we sent George a mental image of our four blobs as you would see it from up in the sky above the room.  "Here is a map of this room, with the people in it."  I said.

"Send this to Mom too."  I sent to Patty by mindspeech.  She nodded again.

"Oh, my!"  Mom said.  "So that is what you are looking at.  It is much brighter and more detailed than what I can see when I look at the blobs in this room.  There are arms and legs and head and everything.  It is not just a blob."

"Yes, Mom.  That is what you will learn to see with more practice."  Patty said.

Patty and I continued to send the room map.

"Watch what happens when we start adding in other people now."  I said.

I took a mental image of the blobs inside the building.  There were about 30 people scattered over many rooms.  I made sure to include my own image in its proper location.  Then I sent that to Patty.

"Here you go.  Let's use this one." I sent to her.  She took it and added to it her view of details, and then sent to combination to Mom and George.

"It is like a map!"  George said.  "I can see everyone."

"Let's send him an image of Susan, so he will know what a bright looks like."  I sent to Patty by mindspeech.

"This is an image of Susan Sanders.  Do you know her?  She is in the church."  Patty said to George.

"I have heard her name mentioned, but have never been introduced."  George said.  "It is like having eyes again.  I can see her just like a photograph but more detailed.  Why is she glowing like that?"  He asked.

"We do not know why she is bright like that.  It turns out that a few people in every thousand are bright for some reason.  We have found a few like this.  Most of the people you make mental images of will be grey with a bit of color.  Even many animals have blobs."  Patty explained.

"What do we do now?"  George asked.

"Mom could you get up and walk around a little?  Move your arms and legs.  Pick up a book.  Sit down again.  Just move around."  I suggested.

Patty and I locked into George and pulled his mental image of the room from his mind. It was close to what we were seeing.  We sent it back to him, amplified.

George was following her with his blind eyes as she moved around the room.  He could see where her arms and legs were.  He could tell when she was picking up a book from the position of her arm and hand.

"I can see her!" he said.  His voice was broken.  He said it with great emotion.

"That is what you can see when there are two of us here to help boost you.  With practice you will learn to do this on your own.  Let's try this with just one of us."  I said.

"You try it on your own."  I sent to Patty by mindspeech, and I disconnected from George.

"It went darker all of a sudden."  George said.  "And I lost some of the detail".

"This is what it is like with just Patty helping."  I said.

I nodded at Patty, and sent, "You disconnect too".  Which she did.

"It went almost black, but I can still see the map and the blobs."  George said. 

"Good.  That is what it is like on your own.  I was hoping that when we showed your brain how to see, it would remember and continue on its own.  That is just what happened."  I said.

"Mom, would you walk around again?"  I asked Mom.

"Sure."  She said, and then went walking around the room, doing things different than before.

"I can still follow her"  he said.  "It is very dark, but I definitely still have details."

"Let's take a walk."  I suggested.  I led the way ou of the room, George followed me, while Patty and Mom stayed behind, George held lightly to my shoulder as he followed along.

All the way I kept reading the blob image map from his mind, and sending it back to him stronger.  I would drop it and then bring it back again.  Drop it and bring it back again.

"I am glad you are doing this."  George said.  "I am getting a handle on how to do this.  It seems to be lighter and brighter when you let go, now."  He continued.

We went outside and walked to the corner of the block.  I brought the intensity back up for him, so he could see all the people in the cars going by.  He could "see" the blobs of people down the street as they were driving towards him.  Because every car had a driver and maybe passengers, he could see where the cars were, and how they were moving.

"I can see behind myself."  He said, with a smile.

"Will this help you when you are walking down the street?"  I asked.

"Yes, definitely, it will help me see where there are cars.  I won't run into any people either.  Since I can see them pretty well."  he said.

"Is there anyone you would like to see particularly?  I can give you some strong images to remember.  That will help you when you want to see later on."  I said.

We walked back to the church.  When we were coming in, one of the ministers was coming out of the bookstore.

"That is Father John", I told George, and sent him as detailed an image as I could manage.

"John, how are you doing today?"  George said, extending his hand towards the minister.

Father John Williams was somewhat surprised to see George walking directly towards him; but shook his hand and said, "Hello, how are you doing, George?"

"Very well, actually.  Dana here is teaching me to see again."  he said.

"What!?" Father John said.  He looked at me.  I am not sure he remembered me very well.

Just then Mom and Patty came into the lobby.  "Oh, hello, Mrs Freehurst.  Is this your daughter, Dana?"  he asked her.

"Dana and Patty and Mrs Freehurst have been showing me how to see with my mind, instead of with my eyes.  I can already tell the difference and we have only been working together for an hour or so."  George said.

This took quite a bit of explaining, so we stood there in the lobby and talked for about 20 minutes.  Then Father John said he had to leave to go to the hospital.  We asked if he was going to see Mike, and we asked him to say hello for us, then quickly explained that we had been helping out at the hospital lately for people who could not talk.  Father John's eyes were round and wide when he was leaving.  The surprise and interest were evident.  He promised to spend more time with us soon, and asked us if we would be willing to help other people with blindness.  Then he had to go.

"Quite an interesting day.  One I will remember for a long time.  I only have one more request."  George said.

"My wife, Martha, will be here in a few minutes to pick me up.  Would you give me a mental picture of her?  I lost my sight as a child, and I have never seen my wife.  I would really appreciate knowing what she looks like.  And I would like to see my son as well.

We waited only a short time, and then George's wife drove up in a small minivan.  Their son was in a baby seat in the back.  We all walked outside to meet them, and we sent George pictures of his family that we could see with our eyes, and we sent him the blob images as well.  Patty and I sent as hard as we could, so that he would have the most detail and the brightest images to remember.

"We will see you again in church, no doubt"  Mom said to them.  "Which service are you planning this Sunday?"  She asked them.

"Probably the 11 am service."  They said.  "We will try to meet you before services then."  Mom  said.

Patty gave George a business card.  "Call us if you would like a boost at certain times.  Distance does not matter.  You can return the MP3 player later, we have extras." 

[Patty's Room] 

I wrote up our experiences with George, and then went over them with Patty.  She looked over them briefly, then sent them by email to Jack for posting under applications of blob watching.

"Do you think we could have done it any differently?"  She asked.

"Probably, but I think what we did worked as well as we could expect.  Each person and each situation is unique.  I am just trying to take each one as it occurs."  I said.

"There are a lot of blind people."  Patty said.  She reached over to her laptop and googled, "blind population".  "There are about 38 million people in the world who are blind, and about 4 million in the US.  Probably not everyone can be helped.  Even if we only helped people who had previously had sight, that is a lot of people."  she said.

"It only took us about an hour for the two of us, and Mom, to give him an introduction to blob watching.  We do not know if he will remember how to do it later or tomorrow.  It could be that he will forget.  How long do you think it should take to help someone?  George is very intelligent, and had sight previously.  He was very motivated, and he was not reluctant to try.  Do you think that everyone will be that easy?  How important do you think the white noise might be?  It seemed to help him?"  Patty said.

"One thing I did not realize, is that we can send him regular eye images directly to his mind.  When we sent pictures of his wife and son to him, he was very, very grateful.  But I am not sure he fully realized that it should be possible for us to be his eyes, literally."  I said.

"Well, the blob images are the most important.  I think he was very happy to see a real picture of his wife and child, but for everyday purposes, he needs to know how to visualize and use the blob images.  I think we did it right to spend most of our time on that."  Patty said.

"Dana! This is Jack.  Hello!"  I got a mind call from Jack.  "Hello, Jack.  Hold on a minute." I sent back.

"Patty, listen in on this."  I mind sent to Patty, and included Jack's blob so she would know who I was talking to.

This was the first time we had a three way call, though we were used to working together.  It felt pretty natural.

"What Jack?"  I sent.

Carly and I were just reading what you wrote about blind people.  The man you helped today was totally blind?"  she sent.

"Yes, I thought I wrote that.  He was blind since he was a child."  I sent.

"And you only took an hour to teach him how to do blob watching?"  Jack sent.

"Yes, but it took Patty and I and my Mom to help.  So three of us, two sending images and one helper.  When I walked him down the street to look at cars and drivers, it was just him and me."  I sent.

"So two senders to get started, and then one for individual training."  Jack sent.

"Yes, we really had to 'shout' to get the images to him, but after a while he started picking it up on his own.  While we were walking, the two of us, I was deliberately dropping the volume of my sending so that he could be trying alone.  He said that it was getting brighter and easier to see blobs, in just a few minutes.  I do not know if everyone will have the same experience."  I sent.

"Do you realize how important this is?"  Jack sent.

"Jack.  Did you pick up that we were able to send him regular eye images too?"  Patty sent.

"Yes, I was shocked.  That is hard to do with most people.  I am not sure I have been able to send images yet.  Have you two been practicing something different?"  Jack sent.

"You can read what we wrote about our practice sending images.  It was very hard.  But once we started sending blob images, it seemed to get much easier.  We have been doing a lot of that recently, to each other, and in our classes.  That is how we teach blob watching to newcomers - we send them blob images directly to their minds.  Once we were used to doing that, it seemed a natural step to send regular images."  Patty sent.

"When we were sending him images today, it seemed natural.  One minute we were sending detail blob images, and then the next we were just sending the images that we could see with our eyes.  George did not seem to have any difficulty with the regular images."  I sent.

"It has take you five or six weeks to learn how to send images like this.  How long would it take to train a newcomer to the point where they could help other newcomers to do blob watching?"  Jack sent.

"We have gotten results with just one of us, using a bright, in a few minutes for people to be able to see blobs.  But it takes weeks, it seems, for someone to get strong enough to send blob images strongly."  I sent.

"No, that is not quite right.  When we were doing that first newcomer class, we used everyone as a blob source, not just Sandy."  Patty sent.

"You are right.  We sent images to everyone, or every other person there.  That way we gave an introduction of everyone to every other one."  I sent.

"Also, remember that when we were teaching mindspeech last week, we used Sandy as a source for blob images.  We had Sandy get mental images of each person, and then send it to others.  It seems like brights are natural strong senders.  Or it is just easier for most people to read a bright."  I continued.

"Tomorrow, I think we should have Sandy go over all of the blob images of the group again, and send them to each person in turn.  We need to get our first group where they can do blob sending and boosting, so it will not all depend on us."  Patty sent.

"I am going to spend more time on blob watching and blob image sending and on boosting."  Jack sent.  "Carly and I have been doing a lot of mindspeech, but in our classes with newcoming blob watchers, it is taking them a long time to get it.  Would you two be willing to come to Somerville this weekend and teach out blob watching class?  We have almost twenty people who are in various stages of learning it."  Jack sent.

"If it is OK with Mom, I think that would be OK.  We could take the bus up, and that would save a lot of driving.  We wanted to see George on Sunday, but Mom will see him, and we can help him long distance if necessary."  Patty sent.

"When is your class?"  I sent.

"Saturday afternoon."  Jack sent.

"We could come Saturday morning, and then come back Sunday afternoon.  We can check the bus schedule."  Patty sent.

"Would you be willing to come Saturday morning and return on Monday morning?  That way we could schedule a class on each day.  I think you have been able to boost your classes along very quickly.  We would like to see how you do it.  Also that would give our people here two chances to learn from you."  Jack sent.

[Wednesday] 

[Shopping Mall]  Mom drove me over to George's and picked him up and drove us to the Mall.  George works in a consulting company.  He was taking a few days of vacation, and that was why we could see him during the day at the church.  He did not need anything at the Mall, but wanted to get some practice with blob watching.  It was one of the places where he had more difficulty because of all the people.  Even with a white cane, people ran into him.

George and I walked around the Mall together, sort of at random.  Mom wanted to do so shopping.  She said she would mind call me, or at worst, cell phone call me, to meet up.  George was in charge of direction.  He held on lightly to my shoulder, but he was giving me direction, I was not leading him.  I sent him blob images of the Mall, concentrating on the people nearby.  It was an art to blob watching - how much detail to include, and how far to look.  I was taking his image from his mind, amplifying it, and sending it back to him.  It was a little distracting to do that with so many people around.  I was almost as blind as him, so we sort of led each other.

I had my own mental image of the blobs to work from.  Mine was more detailed than George's, so I added that detail to the image I sent him.  Gradually I noticed that his image was getting more detail.  It seemed that it was very natural for the brain to use mental image of people.  I wondered if humans had always had the ability to blob watch, and then forgot how.  I did not think that it was something we just now learned how to do.  I wasn't learning something totally new.  It was something that my mind was already prepared for.

As we walked, I would reduce the volume or intensity of what I was sending him.  I wanted him to be able to do this on his own without my help.  So I would send, send, send, and then stop.  He got used to it pretty quickly, and would make comments to me like, "It is getting brighter now.  I see more detail.  It is very dark right now."  So I adjusted my sending.  After a while, I was only sending just a little bit of help, and he was doing it all on his own.  When we finally did meet up with Mom again, he was completely on his own.  In fact, he told me, "Wait here for me".  Then he walked on down the mall, across an intersection, then back upstairs, around, down the escalator, and back to us -- without a pause.

"That is so much easier, when I can see where all the people are, where they are going, and what they are doing."  He said as he came back up to us.  He spoke directly to us, as though he could see us.  In fact, that was exactly true.  He could see our blobs.  When I checked his blob image, it had details of how we were standing, which way we were facing, where our arms and legs went.

George's wife was at home when we dropped him off, so I sent him eye images of her and his son again.  He returned the MP3 player.  He said that he did not need it any more.  Since he was blind, he was very able to concentrate with outside aids.  But it had helped the very first time.

[Patty's Room]  Mom had agreed to Patty and I going to Somerville this weekend.  Jack sent us a list of all of the people that we were going to see.  There were 31 of them.  They were planning afternoon and evening classes on Saturday, church on Sunday, then afternoon and evening classes on Sunday.  Each class would have about 16 people.  They were roughly divided into complete newcomers, and people who had some training.  We were going to concentrate on blob watching applications, but would fit in as much mind speaking as possible.  On Sunday there was going to be a luncheon after church, just after noon.  Then we were going to talk to everyone, after lunch, before the afternoon and evening classes.

We asked Jack and Carly to ask everyone to practice as much as possible beforehand with blob imaging, and ask them to try to pick up and send blob images to each other.

"Are we really going to be ready to do this?  That is a lot of teaching, and we do not have a detailed lesson plan."  I said.

"If the class goes for an hour, and there are 15 people, that is like four minutes for each person, if we work with them individually."  Patty said.

"Let's see if there is some way to get everyone working at once."  I said.

"What do you mean?"  Patty asked.

"If we use one source, and then get everyone to follow that one source, then we can go over blobs very quickly.  Remember how we had Sandy leading everyone?  Let's try that again."  I said.

"We are trying to get everyone to become a good booster.  How do we do that, quickly and efficiently?"  Patty said.

"Let me think about it some more.  We can practice on the classes this evening.  I think we are going to have everyone here for two hours."  I said.

[My room]  I wanted to rest a bit before the class.  It had already been a long day, and we were gearing up for a long weekend.

I just rested and read a book.

[Living Room] People started arriving around 6:30.  We were going to start at 7:00 pm and there were about 20 people coming.  We had set up chairs in the living room.  A couple of people brought extra folding chairs.  We set drink coolers in the dining room and left the door open into the living room.  We had cookies, and snacks for people who got a bit hungry.  There were trash bags in the dining room for plates and such.

We moved most of the furniture out of the way, and managed to get everyone seated.

"Our original plan of separating the classes into beginners and more experienced, we changed at the last minute.  We were going to try some things that the whole class could do, and that the more experienced could help with.

There was a lot of talking going on, while we waited to start.  Most people had read some of the website, but it had grown a lot, and had so much information that most people did not really grasp what it said.  Patty and I were going to make a general introduction, and were going to introduce what we were going to try to do tonight.  I had several plans in mind, but we would have to wait to see what we could accomplish.  If it went well, I hoped we could do a little bit of assisted mindspeech tonight.

"My name is Patty Freehurst, and this is Dana Freehurst.  Welcome."  Patty started.  There were murmurs of hello.  "There is a sheet passing around.  Please fill in your information.  If you put an email, we will send you notices of upcoming classes.  If you indicate you are willing to help other people with practice, indicate blob watching or mindspeech."

"This is a mixture of beginning and more advanced students to teach you how to see blobs of people, how to help others to see blob images, and possibly how to do mindspeech.  Our main goal tonight is to get more people to where they can help others."  Patty continued.

"Could you back up and start a little earlier, this is my first time here and I do not know much about this yet.  I heard that this might be a way to learn mindspeech.  I am not sure what you mean by blobs of people."  Someone said, a man in the back, a friend of my dad's I think.

"Why don't we start with you then, and make sure everyone is on the same page.  Raise your hand if you have not seen a mental image, a "blob", before."  Patty asked.  About 12 hands went up.

"Let's do this quickly.  Everyone, this is Sandy Green."  Sandy stood up and made her way to the front.  She took a chair at the front. "Sandy is a bright, someone who's blob is very bright and therefore easy to see naturally.

"Since you asked the question, would you close your eyes and concentrate on Sandy.  Try to see her with your mind."  Patty instructed.

I was watching Patty, so I got a strong image of Sandy's blob, and sent it to the man who had spoken.  I knew that Patty was helping too.

"I see her.  She looks like she is glowing.  It is like a 3D photo almost."  The man said.  We let him look for about 30 seconds, then Patty dropped off, and then I dropped off.

"It went dark, but I can still see a little" he said.

"We (Dana and I) were helping you to see her.  That faint image that you can still see is your natural ability to see a bright with your eyes closed."  Patty explained.

"I think you have not seen it yet."  Patty pointed to the woman next to the man.  "Would you like to try next?"  Patty asked.  The woman nodded, and closed her eyes.  Patty and I sent Sandy's blob image to her.

"I see something, but it is faint"  she said.  So Patty asked Sandy to also send.  This time there was a surprised "Yes, I see it.  I see what you mean."  The woman said.  We let her see it for a full minute, then we dropped off.  "It is completely gone now."  She said.  So we had Sandy send again. "Yes, it is there".

"Ok, let's take the people in the front."  Patty said, and pointed to a woman in one of the folding chairs.  We went through the same pattern for each person.  In about 20 minutes everyone who had raised their hand had seen a blob for the first time.

"Now I want to try an experiment.  Everyone, new or old, close your eyes and get a blob image of Sandy.  If you do not get an image raise your hand, and someone will help you.  Let us begin."

Everyone closed their eyes, 7 hands went up, and then another one tentatively.  I split my attention.  I sent an image to the first person.  Their hand went down.  I kept sending.  I went to the next person with their hand up.  Their hand went down.  I noticed another person whose hand went down, that must be Patty.  Finally, I was helping five people, all of the hands were down.

Patty nodded to Sandy.  Sandy used mindspeech to say to everyone, "I am speaking to you with mind speech.  If you hear me, raise your hand."  About 12 hands went up. 

"Ok, everyone, eyes open.  About half of you are able to hear mindspeech.  If you did not hear mindspeech just now, raise your hand and we will help you to get an experience of mindspeech."  Again, we took them one by one, and made sure everyone could hear mindspeech.  With a bright sending the mindspeech, and two strong boosters, we managed to get everyone up to speed. 

"Let's try one more thing, and then we will take a break.  Everyone close your eyes.  Get a good blob image of Sandy, and then listen for mindspeech.  If you do not hear after about 20 seconds, then put up your hand, and someone will help you."  Patty explained.

"Everyone closed their eyes.  There was a pause for about thirty seconds, and then hands started to go up.  There were about 10.  I tried something new.  Rather than taking them one at a time, I fixed my attention on all of them, and sent at once.  A few seconds later, half the hands went down.  I increased my intensity and sent to the remaining hands without changing what I was doing.  The remaining hands went down.  We let that go on for a few minutes.  Then Patty indicated to Sandy to stop sending.  "Open your eyes now."  Patty told everyone.

"We are going to take a 15 minute break now, then we will continue.  Drinks and snacks are in the dining room.  There are signs in the hall for two bathrooms on this floor, and one just at the top of the stairs on the second floor."  Patty explained.

Paul came up to me during the break, Patty was standing right next to me.  "Did you do anything new during that last mindspeech session?"  He asked. 

"Why?"  I asked.

"Well, about thirty seconds into it, I could hear Sandy mindspeaking.  That was when a lot of hands went up.  Then all of a sudden, Sandy's mindpeech got much louder.  What did you do different?"  He asked.

"I was doing a general broadcast to all the people who had their hands up to help them hear Sandy better.  I have never tried that before, but it seemed to work.  Earlier I took each person in turn to help them see blobs, until I had five individuals.  It seemed like I could try sending to everyone at once, so I tried it, and it worked."  I explained.

"How do you do that boosting?"  He asked.  "That is what you are trying to get us to help you do isn't it?

"Yes, if we can get more people who can boost strongly, either alone or in pairs, then we can have them help people who are blind, or help people in hospitals, or help people who cannot talk.  Those are all things that Patty and I have been able to do because we are good at boosting others."  I said.

I took a quick pit stop, and then grabbed a cold drink.  I was just sitting down as most people came back to sit down.  Everyone was chattering like crazy.  A lot of people were pretty excited.

When everyone was seated, Patty introduced me again, and asked me to spend about five minutes and talk about some of the things we had been doing in the last week at the hospital, and with George.  I spoke carefully and loud enough for everyone to hear me. 

"Patty and I have been going to the hospital this last week or so.  There were several people there who had breathing tubes in their throats.  They could not talk.  Patty was focused on listening to their minds, and I was helping to boost the patient, so that Patty could hear what they were thinking.  We were able in each case to translate what people were thinking out loud so that the doctor and the family could hear.  The doctor was interested to know about how the people were feeling, and whether they were conscrious or not.  In some cases we were worried that there might be severe brain damage, so we were happy to help the family and the doctor to talk to the patient and find out their mind was ok.  In one instance, they thought a lady was in a coma for several weeks.  We were able to listen to her mindspeech and found out that because of her stroke she was no longer able to talk.  Her mind was perfectly clear, but she could no longer talk out loud.  We were able to ask her about her family and how she felt, to give her a better prospect for recovery.  One woman had a tracheotomy and could not talk because of that.  We were able to help her talk to the doctor and family.  Patty was using mindspeech reading, and I was sending a blob picture of the patient to Patty.  That is all that was required.  It takes two of us, but we were able to help several people."  I said.

"Yesterday, Patty and I met with a man from church who is blind.  We were able to boost him so that he could see blob and blob maps (blob pictures of all of the people around) in order for him to visualize in his mind where people are, what they look like, and what they are doing.  As you can tell from seeing the blob image for Sandy, there is a lot of detail in these mental images of people.  I took him down the street from the church so he could see traffic in the busy intersection there.  He could not see the cars, but he could see the people in the cars, so he knew where the cars were and where they were going."

"Today I took him through the mall and helped him get a mental image of all the blobs of all the people there.  Working together, boosting his ability to see blobs, he was quickly able to learn to navigate much better.  Since he could see a blob for every person, and detail of how they were standing or walking, he could much better navigate."

"Since we were helping him to navigate by sending him boosted pictures of blobs.  It seemed natural to send him pictures from our eyes.  We were able to send images of his wife and child to him, so that he could see them for the first time ever through our eyes.  These were eye pictures from our eyes, and not just mental images like the blobs."  I finished.

There was spontaneous applause as I began to sit down.  Patty stood up and waited a second for silence.  "There is a lot we can do, but we only have about half an hour really.  I would like to try a few things fairly quickly with the whole group.  I would like Dana and Sandy to help on this first one.  We are going to close our eyes again, and this time, I want you to focus on me as you target.  I am not a bright, so my blob is much darker and has only a little color.  If you have experience with blobs, the more you see blobs, the more detail you get.  If this is your first time.  You may only see a simple oblong shape.  We will try to boost the image so that every one can see.  Please put up your hand if you need help".  Patty said.

Everyone closed their eyes and focused on Patty.  About half of the hands came up.  I started boosting to the whole group and the hands started to come down.  In a minute or so, all of the hands were down.  "I am going to ask you to continue looking as I move around.  See if you can see which way I am standing, and whether I have my hands out."  Patty said.  Then she began to move around and walk around.  She sat down, then stood up.  She turned in circles.  She put her hands over her head. 

"Is everyone following ok?"  She asked.  People muttered yes, and OK.  A couple of hands raised.  Patty continued moving around.  I concentrated on the people with hands up, until they went down.

"OK,. I think we can let that go now.  Any questions?"  Patty said.

"I saw you moving around.  It was like a gray blob.  Did I see any colors?  I thought so."  someone said. "Yes, usually I have green highlights."  Patty said.

"You mentioned something earlier about blob maps.  Does everyone in this room have a blob?  Can we see those?"  They asked.

"A blob map is an image of a room, for instance, with a blob image everywhere there is a person.  If you look at this room with your regular eyes, you would see everyone in their place.  If you look at this room with your mental eyes, you will see blobs in their proper place.  Would everyone like to see the blob image of this room?"  Patty asked.

General murmurs of agreement.  There were smiles on some of the people's faces, they had been thinking the same thing.

"OK.  Eyes closed again.  This time try to imagine the blobs of the people in this room as though you were looking through the ceiling from the sky.  There will be a blob for each person wherever they are sitting.  Try to get that image yourself, and then we will add to it."  Patty said.  "I will help Dana to send you the image"  she said.

I grabbed a blob map for the room by looking at everyone with my mind.  I took that image and sent it to everyone as hard as I could.  I could feel Patty helping.  I saw a few hands go up, so I sent harder.  The hands went down.  I tried mindspeaking to the whole group.  "This is a blob map of this room.  You should be able to see everyone including yourself.  If you can hear me, raise your hand."  I sent.

All of the hands went up.  "Leave your hands up and open your eyes."  I sent.  Everyone opened their eyes and saw all the hands up.  People broke into applause.

Something that had seemed so strange just a couple of hours ago, was becoming more familiar.

"We are about done.  We have a few minutes to do one last experiment.  I need three volunteers from the people who had never seen blobs before."  Patty began.

"Two of you are going to be helpers, and one will be our target."  She sorted them out - "The target can sit here.  The others will stay in their seats."  Patty said.

"Two of you are going to be helping the target to see my blob.  Do you understand what I am saying?  You two start and help this one, she pointed.  Try to get a mental image of my blob, and send it to the target.  Close your eyes and try it.  Don't worry if you are not getting anything, just focus on me and try to see or try to help."  Patty continued.

I sent an image of Patty's blob to the two helpers, and just the helpers.  "I saw it." said the target. They had successfully sent an image from their minds to the target.  I helped them just a bit, but they did most of the work.

"I think we are just about done.  I would like everyone who can, to practice blob watching at home or where ever you are.  You should be able to see the blobs of people around you now.  They will most likely be faint blobs for some of you without assistance.  But try and do it yourself.  If you are already fairly good at this, then practice in more complex situations.  Try going to the park and see everyone's blob there.  Try going to church and see blobs there.  Try the mall or shopping centers, stores. where ever."  Patty requested.

"If you can get together in pairs with a more experienced blob watcher and a less experienced one, then do so.  You can have the more experienced one send blob images to the less experienced one.  The more exposure you get to these images, the quicker your brain will start seeing them and using them.  When you can see the blob of someone clearly, then you can often mindspeak with them.  Some of you have already tried mindspeech.  Keep up your practice.  We will see you next week.  But we will break into an advanced and a beginners class then."

[Patty's Room] 

I was really tired.  Patty did most of the talking, but I was worn out.

"Can you think of anything else we might have done?"  she asked.

"It was a beginners class really.  I think we covered the basics pretty well in the time we had.  But we never really got around to having people help each other."  I think we are going to have to work in small groups, where people can get practice helping others.  You and I did all the hard work of boosting this time.  We have to find a way to teach others how to boost."  I said.

==== end sept 18  74,250 words  about 145 paperback pages

[Thursday]

[Living Room]

It looks like we are going to have to leave Friday afternoon, since the Saturday bus gets there too late for the classes they have scheduled.  So we are trying to make arrangements to have someone cover for us at the hospital.  And we wanted to have someone help George while we were away.  We are meeting George at his house in a few minutes, and will go from there to the hospital.  Susan said she could help for a few days.  She is picking us up to go to George's.

[George's House]

"George, hello!  This is Susan Sanders, and her daughter Edith.  She is in the church."  I said when we arrived at the door.  "Susan is a bright, and a good sender as well.  She should be able to help you."  I continued.

George held out his hand to Susan.  "She certainly is bright.  Glad to meet you."  He said.  "I have been practicing constantly since we went to the Mall.  I am getting better at this all the time.  I may not need a lot more help on ordinary things, but I would like to go back to the Mall to practice."  he continued.

"I would be happy to help.  I am going over to the hospital with Patty and Dana for a while.  I can come back and take you later this morning or this afternoon."  Susan said.

"How about after lunch, around 2 o'clock?"  George asked.

"That will be good.  Should we check now that I can actually boost your images?"  Susan said.  She built up an image of the blobs around her, and sent those to George.

"That is fine, but it is from your perspective.  Can you boost my image?"  George asked.

Susan read the blob image from George's mind, and then sent it back to him stronger.

"That's better.  I think we will be ready this afternoon.  Do you have an appointment at the hospital?"  George asked.

"Yes, we do.  We better get going.  But first we want Edith to also try to help you.  Then we will know if we have someone extra to help."  Susan said. 

It turned out that Edith was as good, or better, than Susan.  So we had another backup to help George.

[Hospital]

We met Dr. Acres at his office, and introduced Susan and Edith.  We went downstairs to the patients' rooms to visit Lila, Sam and Dorothy.  Tommy was off the ventilator.  We introduced everyone, and then Susan and Edith read minds and translated for the patients' and doctor and family.  Edith turned out to have better mindspeech abilities, so she was the one to read the words from their minds, and relay them to the doctor and family.  Dr. Acres was very pleased that there were more people who could do this kind of translation.  He asked Susan and Patty if they would write up their experiences for an article his was writing.  He gave them his business card with the email on the back.  Susan said she would work out a schedule with mind speakers so there would be a pair available most every day at the hospital.

We all visited each patient and family.  Patty and I knew most everyone, it was good to see them again.  Lila's son was with her.  We met him and he thanked us for notifying him.  She was sitting up and smiling when we arrived.  Her glasses were on, so she could see.

"Hello.  I am sorry I forgot your names."  Lila sent and Edith repeated for everyone.  So we introduced ourselves all around.  She looked good.

Patty and I left with Dr. Acres after a short while.  Edith and Susan stayed to help Lila talk to her son.  It was they first time since he arrived that he could talk to her and understand.  I think that was going to be a long session.

The doctor gave us a copy of the article he had written.  There were sections for our experiences, explaining what we were doing.  He said he would incorporate notes from Susan and Edith, since their explanation of what they were doing might be slightly different than what we wrote.  That sounded reasonable to me.  He was hoping to have it published in an online medical journal, in as little as four weeks.

Patty and I had a drink in the cafeteria, while we waited for Susan and Edith.  Edith mind called me and they took us home.

[Living Room]  We had lunch with Susan and Edith before they dropped us off.  Their experiences in the hospital, and with Goerge, showed them how important mindspeech and blob watching could be. They had been teaching other people in small classes.  Now they were going to train people specifically to help people with blindness, and people in hospitals.  We went over what we had done when we were trying to wake people up.  That was the only thing they had not practiced yet.  We gave them a copy of the article the doctor was preparing, and they said they would write up their notes for him when they got home.  They were going to include the fact that they were going to be training - specifically to help people with traches and tubes and brain damage.

[My room]  I was resting and reading a book when I got a mind call from Paul.  I was a bit surprised, because he has not been doing this for very long.  He is surely motivated.  He wanted to ask if he could help out at the hospital.  I told him what Susan and Edith were doing, and they were going to be coordinating new volunteers at the hospital.  He said he would contact them.  I sent him a clear image of Susan and Edith, so he could mind call them.

After a while I just rested and tried to organize my thoughts about the weekend coming up.  I was a bit hesitant, since there were going to be so many new people to meet and to help.  I also wanted to effectively use peoples' time to get the most out of this trip.  I was thinking that if there were some blind people there, we could train some of the mindspeakers and blob watchers to help the blind.  If there were ordinary people with no mindspeech, we could use them to teach people how to work together to read minds.

[Friday]

[Living Room]  Edith and Susan came by today. They brought Rachel Levins, a friend of George's.  She was blind from birth.

"I have a general sense of where people are around me from their voices, from sound, and sometimes from heat.  I wondered if you could help me, like you helped George."  she said.

"Would you think about the people in this room, and where they are?"  I asked.

I locked onto Rachel and tried to read the image she had in her mind, as though it were a blob image.  To my surprise, she had a pretty complete blob image already.

"You already have a blob image in your mind, I said.  We don't have to teach you how to do it, since you are already doing it.  We will just help you to see more clearly, and to help you see farther."  I said to her.

Then I sent her a stronger picture of the blobs in the room.  I took her blob image as the starting point, then added detail from my own mind.

"Oh, my!  That is amazing.  How did you do that?"  She said.  Her face was lit up, and she was smiling.

"I am boosting your natural ability to see and understand the people around you."  I said.  "Edith would you do the same for her now?"  I continued.

"That works as well.  Did Edith do that?"  Rachel asked.  "Yes"  Edith replied.

"Now Susan."  I requested.  And that worked.

"Now Patty."  I requested.  And that worked.

"This is easier than we expected.  Your mind has compensated for your blindness by developing your blob watching capabilities."  Patty said.

While Edith amplified images for Rachel, the rest of us moved around and postured to show her how the detail on the blobs worked.  Patty went upstairs to her room, and I watched to see that Rachel was able to follow her up the stairs.  Just a little bit of amplication was needed for her to follow.

"Let me show you the neighborhood."  I said.  And then I sent Rachel a blob image of the immediate neighborhood.  There happened to be a car going by, so that got included.

"That's someone in a car!"  Rachel exclaimed.

"Yes.  One of the things we want to do is take you to some busy intersections to show you how to use blobs to track traffic.  And we can take you to the Mall to give you some experience with lots of people going every which way.  Do you have any specific requests for places you would like help with?"

"I would like to go to the park, and along the bike path.  I always am frightened by the bikers, since they come so quickly.  If I could see them as they are arriving, I would know what to do."  she said.

"What about the zoo?  Would you like to go to the zoo?"  I asked.  "Every animal, at least all of the mammals, have blobs.  So you can see the animals too."  I continued.

"Yes, I have been before.  I could smell the smells and hear the sounds.  I would like to try to "see" the animals as well."  Rachel said.

Susan and Edith and Rachel talked about schedules then for a while.  Patty and I were going to concentrate on the weekend and training for now.  Susan was already lining up people to help the blind.  I was just as happy to let her do the organizing.  It was really hard to do things without a car.

"Is there anything else you would like help with?"  Susan asked Rachel. 

"Yes, I would like to see a picture of my husband.  We do not have any children yet.  But I would like to see what he looks like."  She said.  She had a sad smile on her face.

"Here is what Susan looks like."  I said. and I sent an eye image of Susan to Rachel.

"I saw something, but it was fuzzy and vague."  Rachel said.

"Help me."  I sent to Patty.

"I can see it!  So that is what you look like!"  Rachel exclaimed.  She smiled and smiled.

[My room]  I had my things packed.  Mom was going to come home soon and take us to the bus station.  I was anxious about the weekend.  Would I do ok?  Could we help everyone?

[Jack's House]  We arrived after a pleasant trip.  I mostly read on the bus.  It went faster than I expected.

Jack and Carly and Karen were all there to meet us at the station.  I looked at their blobs.  They were so bright!  The three of them.

We talked and talked about the weekend, until after dinner the doorbell rang.  Jim introduced Arthur and Cynthia, and Mark.  Art and Cynthia were married.  Mark and Cynthia were both blind.

As we were being introduced I took a look at Mark's and Cynthia's blob maps, the images they had in their minds of the blobs in the room.  Mark had a basic image with some detail.  Cynthia's map was weak and mostly dark.  I immediately sent Mark an amplified version of his own map.  His face reflected his surprise.  He was looking around with his blind eyes.

"What did you do?"  Mark asked.

"I sent you an amplified version of the blob map that was in your own mind."  I said. "These are the people around you that you are aware of.  I am just giving you more detail, and I am strengthening the map for you so you can have an idea how it could look.  When you get some practice, you should be able to see like this without outside help."  I continued.

We sat down in the living room.  Patty was explaining to Mark some of the places we could take him where he could get practice in using his blob sight.  While she was talking, I was examining Cynthia's blob map.  It was very basic.  She had dots for most of the people, she had a blob for Arthur.  I was not sure I had enough strength to boost her alone.

"Patty!  Can you help me boost Cynthia's blob map?"  I sent to Patty.  I was looking at Patty while I sent this, so I did not need much of a mind call.

"Ok."  She sent back.

We took Cynthia's blob map, amplified it and added detail, then sent it to her mind.  She had been sitting there quietly listening, a sad little smile on her face.  When we sent the map to her, she immediately brightened and said, "You are sending to me now aren't you?"

"Yes, Patty and I are working together to send you a strong image.  We wanted to be sure that we sent you a strong map to work from."  I said.

I explained to Jack's family what we had done.  I told them how to get a blob map from each person's mind, and then send it back to them stronger.  Jack tried this with Mark and it worked.  Carly tried and it did not work very well, so she tried again, and that worked.  Karen got it the first time and Jim had some trouble.  Karen ended up helping him to boost the image for Mark.

"Jack, would you try to amplify the map for Cynthia, now?"  I requested.  Jack tried, but the results were not really good.  Jack and Carly, working together, could help Cynthia.

We tried various other combinations, so that everyone got a good sense of what it took to amplify a blob map for a blind person.

"Now lets try sending some eye images."  I said to everyone.

"What do you mean?"  Mark asked.

"We are going to send you pictures of people here for you to see."  I explained.

"You can do that?"  he asked in surprise.

"We are going to try.  We have had luck with other blind people"  I said.

Patty and I sent a picture of Mark to himself.  "I could see someone?  Who is that?"  Mark asked.

"That is a picture of you.  I took the image of you from Patty as she was sending it to you, and I amplified it and sent it to you."  I explained.

I asked Patty to send an image alone.  Mark was able to see that as well, but it was not real clear.  At least it worked somewhat.

As I suspected, it took both Patty and I, working as hard as we could, to send a picture of Arthur to Cynthia.  Her blob sense was not as well developed, so it took more energy on our part.  I expected that she would gradually get better at it with practice, then it would not take so much effort on the part of a helper.

Jack, Carly, Jim and Karen all tried sending images to Mark and Cynthia.  They were mostly successful, although Jim needed more practice.

"Jim, I notice you are having a little trouble.  Would you like me to help you?"  I asked Jim.

"What do I need to do?"  he asked.

"If you are trying to help Mark see his blob map more clearly, you need to first get a clear image of his blob map (I sent Jim an image of Mark's blob map).  Then you need to add detail from your own blob map (I took the blob map from Jim's head).  Look at them briefly together and wait for the image to settle, then send it to Mark as strong as you can."  I explained.

"Ok.  That is how you do it.  The hard part is getting the two blob maps to merge." he said.

"Yes.  I am not sure how that works.  It just seems like when you try to hold two blob maps in your mind at the same time, your brain automatically merges them.  But it takes just a second or two to merge.  It is hard when you are doing that while walking.  When I went with George (he is blind) to help him at the Mall, he was actually directing me around while I was feeding him updated blob maps.  It was not easy, but it worked."  I said.

We visited and practiced for a while after that, but Karen must have been thinking about all the rest of the things we had to do this weekend.  She did not want to wear Patty and I out, when we just got here.  Mark and Cynthia promised to come back on both Saturday and Sunday so that people would practice their blob map sending.  Mark and Cynthia could tell someone immediately whether they were sending well or not.

[Saturday Morning]  After the family had breakfast, Jim invited his neighbor over for coffee.  Phil was not a mindspeaker and he had only a sketchy blob map.  He had no exposure at all to mindspeech.  Phil had promised to be a guinea pig so that people could practice the kind of mindspeech they would need for someone in a coma.

Patty and I worked with Jack's family so they could all help to read a newcomer's mind.

"Patty and I find that it takes two of us to do this most of the time.  I expect that if you find someone with a strong blob map, they are going to be able to do mindspeech more easily.  Also, I expect that as we each get more practice, and get stronger, we might be able to do this on our own.  It is very hard to read a non-bright with a weak blob map.  That is what we are going to do this morning."  I explained.

"The first thing we want to do is to read the person's blob image so we know who we are looking at.  Then read their surface mind to take out their blob map.  See if it is complex or simple.  If it is complex, you are likely not going to need as much power to read them or to send to them.  Then try to listen for mindspeech."  I said.

"When Patty and I are working in the hospital with people who cannot talk for some reason, Patty is almost always the mindspeech reader, and I am the amplifier.  These are the steps that she goes through when she is trying to read their words.  Now, in the hospital, the people are trying to talk.  In some cases they are trying really hard to talk.  That helps because they are also, naturally, to send mindspeech."  I continued.

"So she is the mindspeech reader.  What are you doing when you amplify?"  Jim asked.

"I take the surface thoughts from the person we are reading, and send them as hard as I can to Patty.  I am also sending Patty's blob image to the person so they can know whom to mindspeak.  And sometimes I also try to send the person's blob image to Patty so she can get a better read on the person."  I explained.

"I had no idea you were doing so many things at once."  Patty said.  "I was just concentrating on their mindspeech, listening as hard as possible."

"Let's try this with Jack and Carly trying to read Phil."  I requested.  "Jack, you do the mindspeech, and Carly try the amplifying".

"What do I do?"  Phil asked.

"Try to carry on a conversation with Jim, but keep silent. You do not have to make any special effort to send him your answers, just answer his questions in your mind"  I said.

Jim started talking to Phil.  He asked him how he slept the night before.  He asked him what he had for breakfast.  He asked him his favorite football team, and he asked about which service he usually went to at church.  He asked him if he had children.  What was his wife's name.  Did she have any family.

Patty and I were monitoring his answers.  There was clearly enough signal to listen to his mindspeech.  Patty was mumbling the answers under her breath.  The question was whether Jack and Carly could track it.

After a few moments Jack started answering for Phil.  "My wife has a large family.  She has three brothers and a sister."  Phil sent and Jack repeated.

"Are her parents still living?"  Jim asked Phil.  "Yes, they are both alive.  They live in Maryland."  Phil sent and Jack repeated.

It worked.  Jack and Carly could read one side of a conversation when one of the people could not talk out loud.

We went on to have Jack and Karen try it.  Jack and Carly switched places.  Jim and Jack switched places.  Patty and I walked Jim though the steps in mindspeech reading.

I noticed that Karen was writing down what we were doing.  She said that she would write out the instructions I had given to Jack and Carly and put them in a handbook she would hand out later.  It would be our guide to how to conduct a one-sided conversation.  She also had notes on working with the blind. 

Phil went home after a while, with our heartfelt thanks.  He had been a good mute.  He was very interested in what we were doing.  He said he would come back in the evening to be a guinea pig again.

[Saturday afternoon]  The afternoon class was going to be a beginner's class.  Everyone was invited early, and many people had brought various foods for a pot luck luncheon.  People started arriving around noon.  They talked and everyone ate and drank until after 1:00 o'clock.

Karen had given me a list of the people who were coming to the afternoon class. There were 18 people.  More than I had planned on, and that did not count Jack's family who would be sitting in to listen to our presentation.  I took the list and went over it as I met the various people.  I made it a point to meet everyone beforehand.  I make a note on the list for each person about their blob map.  Those people with very primitive blob maps I flagged for extra help.  I could tell ahead of time who was going to be able to see blobs, and who was going to hear mindspeech, right away.  For those people with better developed blob maps, I sent them a boost of their map to see their reaction. Seven of the people were at a more advanced level.  I mindspoke the advanced ones, and found two who could already hear mindspeech with assistance. 

We were going to start the class at 1:30, so we had about 20 minutes.  I had Karen help me locate those people I had marked for extra help,  I took them, with Karen, to the front where the chairs had been set up.  We were working outside since it was a nice day.  We had them sit down, and then in a few minutes I sent them a detailed blob image of Karen, so they would have an idea what they were going to be seeing.  I also sent them a blob map of the back yard with all of the people in it.  I sent them a blob image of myself so they could see that most people had fairly dark blobs.  We finished up just as everyone was coming to join us.  Finally, I told them if they had trouble seeing anything to be sure and ask for help by raising their hands or signalling to Karen or myself.

We started right on time with brief introductions.  Jack's family and Patty and I were all at the front.  After our introduction, I sent a blob image of the six of us to everyone.  Patty was helping me to send to the newbies at the front.  Then we let each person introduce themselves.  I sent each person's blob to the whole group as part of the introduction.  When we had all introduced ourselves, I sent the whole group image back to everyone in the group.  I noticed that Patty, Jack, Carly and Karen were all helping to boost so that everyone could see what I was sending.

"You have all just seen blob images of the people here, individually and in groups.  Is there anyone who did not get a clear picture.  We will send that to you now.  Raise your hand if you need help seeing blobs."  I told them.

A few people raised their hands.  "Here is Jack's family"  I told them, and we sent blob images to everyone.  "Here are Patty and I."  I told them, and we sent our blob images to everyone.  "Here is everyone"  and we sent that.  There were no hands still raised.

"You are all here because you have heard about blob watching and mindspeech, and you want to know more.  We are finding applications for these skills every day.  Just in the last two weeks, we have found how to help people who are mute, and how to help people who are blind.  We are making lists of anyone who wants to help either of these groups.  You can get individual training at some point."  I said.

"Every person has a blob.  Every mammal seems to have one.  You each already have a basic map of the blobs around you, the people around you, in your head.  When I met you all earlier, I was looking at your blob maps to see how much experience you have with blobs.  Apparently everyone has some experience with blobs from birth.  Some seem to be better at it than others.  Everyone has an ability to learn how to see blobs and to mindspeak, as far as we know.  Most people seem to pick up the skill naturally as part of how their brain works."  I continued.

"Some of us have been doing this all summer and have learned how to mindspeak, to call to each other with our minds, to see blob maps of the people around us.  We do not know all of the skills that are possible.  We do not see any reason why everyone cannot do all of them.  It is mostly a matter of exposure and practice.  We hope that we can help people who are blind and mute, people in hospitals in comas, people who are lost or hidden for search and rescue.  We are not sure all of what is possible.  Perhaps some of you here will be coming up with new applications."  I said.

Patty and I had everyone focus on Carly as a subject.  We could see the blob maps of the people in the class.  We sent boosts to the ones with minimal maps, and we just barely boosted the ones with stronger maps, so that everyone was seeing Carly's blob in all its detail.  Once they were locked onto Carly, she started walking and moving around so they could track her blob image.  Patty and I kept the class up where they could all see this detail. 

Next Patty was the target.  This was harder for people since Patty had a darker blob than Carly.  But we managed to boost everyone and to go through the same motions when they were locked on.

Jack came on as a target.  We helped everyone to lock on, and then we had him mindspeak to everyone.  "If you did not hear mindspeech, put up your hand" we instructed.  Patty and I and Carly helped the ones who were having problems hearing, and we tried it again.

Karen came on then, and handed out the draft handbook she had been writing.  "These are some of the applications we have found, and how you, as a mindspeaker/blob watcher, can help.  If you would like to learn more particular skills, then sign up on one of the lists."  She instructed.

"We are going to be breaking into groups now, so you can get some particular experiences.  Jack and Carly are going to help you if you want to hear some more mindspeech.  Anyone who can hear unassisted mindspeech (and she demonstrated) please go with them, they will be meeting in the living room.  If you have good unassisted blob watching capabilities (and she demonstrated) then come with me.  Everyone else stay here and work with Patty and Dana.  They will show you how we assist people people who are blind by using blob skills.

There were eight people left in our group.  We stayed where we were outside.  We asked each person to close their eyes, then we showed them a blob map of the back yard.  We had them walk around with their eyes closed -- using only their blob watching ability.  We were taking a few minutes with each person and the others were getting restless.  So we moved into an open area of the yard, I sent a blob map to all of them, and asked them to close their eyes and try to walk around slowly.  They were going to bump into each others, but would not get hurt if they were careful.  It looked a little strange, with everyone walking blindly around the yard, but they seemed to take it with good humor.  Many of them were waving their arms around, or turning.   We were sending them a picture that included everyone, so they could see themselves.  People were waving to themselves to see how the blob map changed as they moved in various ways.

When I checked all the individual blob maps after we had done this, I could see that everyone had improve substantially.  I was going to add this "blind dance" to our regular training for newcomers.

We switched groups after about thirty minutes.   Karen's group came outside and we let them do the blind dance.  We did not have to assist her group very much, just a few people needed help.  We let them play for twenty minutes. That is a long time to have your eyes closed and to be moving around.  I wonder if they had some better appreciation of what it means to be blind, and what it might mean for a blind person to be able to use blob maps.  We chatted for a while with them, and then changed groups again.  The last group we had were the mindspeakers.  Everyone else was done.  When this last group did the blind dance, they were also able to talk to each other and tell each other what to do.  It was really funny to watch.  But it was very serious practice for their basic skills.  Everyone watching was also able to see the blob map, so everyone was getting some practice out of it.

We finally broke up around 4 o'clock.  Everyone was both tired and excited.  We had a lot of extra hands to help clean up, so the yard was back to normal fairly quickly.  All of the food, chairs and tables were put away, and all the extra food parceled out.  We were not going to be hungry.

Jim and Jack went to the store to pick up some more ice for the evening class, as well as some more drinks.  Patty, Karen, Carly and I puttered around in the kitchen, cleaning up and mostly talking.  Then we went into the living room to sit down and rest a while.

The evening class was going to be an advanced class.  Some of the people coming had been working with Jack and Carly and Karen for several weeks.  They wanted to learn how to help the blind particularly, and they wanted to help the mute - which included those people in the hospital.  There were twelve people coming.

===== End Sept 19

[Saturday Evening]

Everyone arrived early for the 7 pm class.  It was scheduled for two hours, but everyone expected it to go longer.  After introductions, a fairly long description of applications, and a handout, we broke the group into two classes of 6.  With one class, Jack, Jim, and I worked with the six.  With the other class, Carly, Karen and Patty worked.  Mark and Phil went with group one.  Cynthia and Art went with group two.  We first went through how to help someone who is blind, taking each person in turn, and letting them be the helper. Then we took different pairs and had them help someone who is mute.  Phil and Art were the mutes.  We went slowly enough that everyone felt satisfied that they could probably help someone who is blind, or someone who is mute.

The handouts were really good.  They gave the instructions for mutes and people with blindness in clear detail.  Also Karen videotaped our practice sessions, and was going to produce a youtube on how to help mutes, and how to help the blind.  She promised to email the link to the video for everyone in the class.

We finished before 9 o'clock, so then we gathered in the living room with everyone and just talked about what we had done.  People were trying out their boosting skills on each other.  If you boosted someone with mindskills, they could try things that would otherwise be far beyond them.  We now had a core of people who could go out and begin working regularly on applications.  Karen's lists for volunteers was growing.  The advanced class we just taught would help us train the newcomers in mute and blind applications.

[Sunday]  Church was very nice.  We met many people from Jack's church.  We went to the later service where there were a lot of families.  There was one bright there, that Carly introduced us to, a young girl whose mother was also a bright.

The Sunday afternoon class for newcomers was a repeat of Saturday.  We had 21 people there who had never seen a blob.  Again there was a mix of people with varying degrees of natural ability to see blobs.  With so many helpers we were able to boost the whole class at once.  Karen handed out details on various applications, including mute and blind.  She had summary application notes for search and rescue as well.  She went over these fairly slowly so that the whole class could get a good sense of why they were learning.  Just a few of them were there just to learn mindspeech. I felt they would also volunteer for applications as they were discovered and developed.

The "blind dance" was actually very popular.  We did it earlier in the program to let people get a good idea of what blobs were, and how they might be useful to someone who is blind.  We had groups of about 7 this time, and we used blindfolds.  One group almost immediately started a sort of snake dance where everyone followed one person, making intricate weaving and twisting motions.  It must have been fun to do with your eyes closed.  Subsequent blind dances had similar activities.

Sunday evening the class was small, only 8 people.  We did a repeat of the Saturday advanced class.  Again Mark and Cynthia were there so people could practice helping the blind.  And Phil and Art both helped with the mute practice.

Jack's Dad, Jim, said that he would rearrange the website so that volunteers could better coordinate on blind and mute applications.  He was going to take all the hospital applications that related to ventilators and tubes and put them where they were accessible from the mute applications area.  Patty and Jack said they would help.

[Monday] 

[My room]  We had a great breakfast this morning, and then took the bus home.  There were a lot of smiles and congratulations as they saw us off.  Jack and them said how much they appreciated our help, and that they could not have held such big classes if we were not there.  They thought that my skill in broadcasting to a larger group was critical to the success of the weekend.

I decided to write a note about the weekend, with emphasis on how it might go smoother.  My one suggestion that I felt was important, was to keep the class size down to 6 or 8.  Then it would be possible to combine portions of the beginners and the applications classes for mute and blind.  I sent that note to Karen, along with my thanks for the weekend.  They had been very gracious.

From this point onward, I could see going to give classes in Somerville, but more likely I would concentrate on teaching the teachers, so they could do a better job.  I was already designing a class for people to help them become better boosters.  I wanted to teach my technique of broadcasting to the whole class.

While it was fresh, I sat down and wrote a note on broadcasting to the whole class.  I described how to read the blob maps of everyone to determine their degree of skill, and how to send an image to all of the people at once.  I mentioned that reading blob maps was a critical skill for teachers.  It allowed for gauging what the student might be capable of, and how much boosting was necessary.  I sent this to Karen, Patty and to Susan.  They were already planning to combine their materials from classes they have been giving into a standard text that everyone would use.  I had been teaching my method for boosting all weekend, and at Edith's last week.  I think that a lot of people now knew how to do that.

[Living Room]  Edith and Jerry came by to talk about the weekend.  They had read some of the material that Karen had prepared for handouts, and they had watched some of the videos.  Someone had set up a Facebook page for blind and another for mute applications.  There were some YouTube videos of me talking about blobs and applications that someone had taken with a cell phone. 

George had made a list of his friends, and had given Susan contacts at local blind associations.  He already had called a dozen or so of his friends and told them about what he was learning.  He was scheduled to give a talk to a blind group later this week.  He felt that people with limited vision would also benefit.  If blind could be paired with volunteers, that would significantly affect their quality of life.  Edith said that George was already thinking about teaching other blind people.  He was already getting a good sense of blobs, he was going to be using them everyday.  He wanted to learn more about blob images and boosting.  If he could learn to boost, then he could help other blind people get started.  He could pair up with a blind who had been given a basic introduction to blobs.  I got a mental image of George and a blind friend walking through the Mall together, using their blob sight to navigate, and chattering away like crazy using mindspeech.  I hoped that would really happen.

Edith said that their weekend at the hospital went well.  One new patient had been intubated.  Edith and Susan were able to translate their mindspeech words for the doctor and family.  It was a very moving event.  They felt how important it was to be able to communicate in that kind of situation.

Edith described how she and Susan had worked with one of George's blind friends to teach them to navigate with blobs.  She said that it was a little awkward at first when they had to remember how to boost properly to get a strong image to the friend.  It took them two hours to do something that Patty and I had done in less then an hour, but I was really proud of Edith and Susan.  They had only a short introduction to how to boost, and they were already using it to help others.

Jerry had gone walking with George on the bikepath.  George said that really helped, since he, too, was concerned about bicyclists riding by so quickly.  Jerry said it was not hard, since George was rapidly learning to see well on his own using blob sight.  Jerry's blob images were not as detailed as mine, but they still had more detail than George's.

They stayed until lunch time, ate a sandwich with us, and then had to leave.  They were going back to the hospital later with their mother.  The new patient needed more help, and they wanted to visit all of the patients who were mute because of their circumstances.  Jerry was practicing his mindspeech and boosting.  He wanted to help at the hospital as well.

[Library]  I wanted to get away on my own for a while, so I rode my bike to the library.  I was lucky to get an internet terminal right away, so I was reading articles on intubation, muteness, and related subjects at Wikipedia.  I could not figure how many people in the US were mute for various reasons, but I figured that it was standard practice in hospitals to intubate for different periods of time.

I also read some articles on search and rescue.  I felt bad that we had not contacted anyone about this application of blob mapping.  Now that we were able to train whole groups of people at a time how to see blob maps, it was time to work on this application.

[Living Room]  Patty was home watching an old movie with Mom.  It was almost finished so I got myself a cold drink from the refrigerator.  By the time I was settled, the movie finished and I joined them.

"I was at the library just now, thinking about search and rescue applications of blob mapping.  I would like to do something.  Do you have any suggestions?"  I said.

"Why don't we go and visit a firestation here in town.  The one downtown is a regional station and it has about a dozen people there almost all the time.  I visited the station when we were in grade school.  They had a lot of free time while they are waiting for a fire.  They keep busy and are constantly working, but I had the impression they would like to have something interesting to do."  Patty said.

"You could teach them how to blob map.  Isn't that the main thing you are trying to get them to do?"  Mom said. "So that they can search a building on fire and tell whether there are any people there."

Mom continued. "I can call the non-emergency number in the phone book for the downtown station.  I can ask to talk with the Chief.  If he is available, I will take you there.  I would be interested in seeing a station again, it has been many years for me."

[Fire Station]  I am a little dizzy.  Mom called and was immediately connected to the Chief.  She explained in general terms that her children wanted to know more about firefighting and search and rescue, and could she bring them by to see the station?  The Chief was really nice.  He said that if we could come by at 4 o'clock he would be happy to visit with us.  They did not have anything special scheduled then, and he was sure the firefighters would be glad he was busy.  So here we are in the Chief's office.  He had given us a brief tour of the firestation and now we were sitting down for some questions and answers about search and rescue.

"We were particularly interested in situations where it would be helpful to know exactly how many people are in a building, and where they are."  Patty said.  "Also, we wondered if it would be useful to know if someone was unconscious or not."

"In most fires, the first thing we would like to know if if there are people in the building, and whether they are hurt."  He said.

"How do you tell whether there are people in the building?"  Patty asked.

"Firemen have to go in and find them usually.  We have pairs of firefighters who go room to room looking.  It is a very dangerous task."  He said.  He had a curious look on his face, like he was wondering where this was going.

"We have been working recently with blind people, teaching them how to navigate with their minds.  We just had classes over the weekend where we taught about 20 people how to do this.  We are organizing volunteers to help train the blind, and it seems that the blind people are going to be training themselves."  Patty said.

"That is very interesting.  How does that relate to finding people in buildings?"  he asked.

"Their mental map has the location of all the people around them, including people who are behind walls or at a distance.  It has information about where people are, and their condition."  Patty explained.

"So you are saying that the blind people could help us locate people in buildings?"  He asked.

"No, we are saying that your men can be trained to see these maps themselves, so when they arrive at a building they can themselves see where people are, and their condition."  Patty said.

"Would you like to see what such a map looks like?"  I asked.

"Yes, I would.  But you said it was a mental map?  Do you have drawing or diagrams?"  He asked.

"If you do not mind, just close your eyes for about a minute.  We can show you one directly."  I said.

"Are you sure?"  He asked.  Then he closed his eyes.

"Yes, it is actually fairly easy."  I said.  I had been looking at his blob map since we arrived.  I was also looking at the maps for the people in the building, thinking about how to train them to do blob mapping.  So when he closed his eyes, I nodded to Patty.  We read his blob map, amplified it, and sent it back to him.

"What!  I saw something in my mind."  he said, opening his eyes.

"Would you mind closing your eyes for a few minutes?  We can send you the map of this area and then explain it to you.  You can determine whether it would help in a fire situation."  I said.

He nodded his head and then closed his eyes.  There was a very intent look on his face.  This was probably a strange situation for him, but it was so important, that he went ahead and did it anyway.

Patty and I sent him a blob map of the room we were in.  "This is a map just of the room we are in.  There is a blob for each person here.  If you raise your arm, you can probably see which one is you."  I said.  He raised his hand and waved it around.

We sent him a map of the station then.  "Here is a map of the station itself.  You can see your men in various rooms around the station.  We can't see the room or the wall themselves, you can get a general location of each person.  Notice that we are sending you detailed images for each person.  You can generally tell which way someone is facing, and where their arms and legs go.  With training, it is possible to look at one of these images, and tell whether the person is awake or unconscious.  We do not have enough experience yet to tell whether someone is injured or in pain.  That might be possible too."  I explained.

We sent him a map of the block including cars going by.  "This is a map of the block we are in and across the street.  It takes lots of practice to get to where you can learn how to do this kind of mapping on your own, but it is fairly easy, now, for us to help you.  We would like to set up training for your people here, so they could start towards being able to make maps like this on their own."  I said.

The Chief opened his eyes, and they continued to open until they were wide with surprise. "That is the most amazing thing I have seen in my entire life.  You are right that it does not show walls and such, but we have blue prints for that sort of thing.  It does give you a count of how many people there are, and roughly where they are at."  he said.

"How do you know whether they are unconscious or not?"  he asked.

"We went to the hospital the other day.  Dr. Acres had made arrangements for us to see an operation where they used general anesthesia.  We watched his image as he was going under, and could see the fine detail change.  People who are unconscious have smoother shapes and slightly different color variation.  If you wanted to learn how to see that, you would probably need to teach your people how to see the maps first, and then let them get experience at the hospital and emergency room."  I explained.

"I know Dr. Acres very well, he said.  You say you have been working with him?"  he asked.

"Yes, we have been helping him with his patients who are either intubated or on traches.  We can listen to their minds and tell what they are trying to say.  That helps the doctor to talk to them while they are mute because of the tubes.  One woman had a stroke and could not talk.  We were able to listen to the words in her mind directly as the doctor was trying to talk to her, and tell the doctor what she was trying to say."  Patty said.

"I was able, with your help, to see these maps in detail.  That information is coming from your minds, isn't it?"  he said.

"Partially.  We are taking the map from your mind and then adding some detail and sending it back to you, greatly amplified."  I explained.

"How long would it take for me to learn how to see these maps without assistance?"  he asked.

"It depends on how much time you could devote to practice.  I would say that if you could spend an hour a day with an assistant, it will take you a couple of weeks.  You already have a natural aptitude for this."  I said.

"How can you tell that I have an aptitude for this?"  he asked.

"I can see your map in your mind, just by looking.  I see that the map if fairly detailed.  You are already somewhat used to using your mind to keep track of people and where they are."  I said.

"Yes, you are right,  I have always been able to know where people are.  I think it was one reason I went into firefighting.  I wanted to help others, and I was good at coordinating fire fights."  he said.

"We can arrange for a volunteer to come and help you every day, if you like.  At least I am pretty sure that some of the volunteers who are already planning to help the blind, would be willing to come and help you.  An alternative, or something that can also be done, is to have a volunteer ready to go to a fire when needed.  They could boost your natural ability, like we just did, and you could see the map and make your own judgement."  Patty said.

"I would like to look at the map of the neighborhood again.  Could you show it to me?"  he asked.  Then closed his eyes.

So Patty and I sent him a map of the neighborhood.  I mindsent to Patty to drop out after a few monents.

"It got a bit darker, but I can still see it.  It that something that I did?"  He asked.

"No. We did that. Dana is helping you alone now.  We wanted to know whether it would take more than one of us to help you.  It seems like she could do it on her own, since you already have some basic skills."  Patty explained.

"Amazing.  Simply amazing.  How did you ever decide to call me?"  He said, and opened his eyes.

"Patty came here when she was in grade school.  This is the closest station to us."  Mom said.

"It is about the time I normally leave for the day, but this is too important.  Could you show these maps to my men?  Do you have time?"  he asked.

So we gave an informal class in blob mapping to his men.  Only one of them had to stay near the radio, and they swapped out.  We took each person in turn.  I checked to see if they had natural ability, and then either Patty and I, or I alone sent them maps of the room we were in, the map of the station, and one of the neighborhood.  It took only a few minutes per person, but there were nearly a dozen people there at that time, so it was almost 6 pm when we finished.  Everyone was really appreciative.

"I am going to have a long talk with Dr. Acres.  Do you think that we could train our paramedic in how to do this?  And to be able to determine if someone is unconscious and in pain?"  He asked.

"Which one is your paramedic?"  I asked.  He pointed and I could see a fairly well developed blob skill.  "I think he would be very good at this."  I said.

[Living Room]  That was really exciting, but now we were commiting ourselves to help still more people.  I promised to go to the fire station every afternoon this week to practice with each person for a few minutes.  They promised to try to visualize the maps for themselves in between times.  It was natural to use the mind for this purpose.  Once people could see how it was done, they could try on their own to learn themselves.  It was slow learning on your own, but it was possible.

Patty and I both wrote up what we had learned and sent it to Karen and Susan and Jack.  They quickly posted it to the website and passed it along.

[Tuesday]  Very busy day.  I went to the fire station and helped everyone practice their mapping.

[Wednesday]  Again very busy. 

[Fire Station]  When I went to the firestation, one of the firemen had a cell phone, and he videotaped me talking to the Chief about maps.  It showed me sending mental maps to the Chief.  The Chief had a blue print of the fire station, and he marked on in where all the men were at that moment.  He also had blue prints of the building next door, and he showed how to mark the location of everyone there.  He was going to send the video to YouTube, and then post links on their firestation website.  He was going to email links to the video to the chiefs of all of the firestations in our region.  He was asking if we could hold classes for other chiefs, when they met in their regional association.

[Living room]  We had our regular class.  There were 18 people here with a range of skills.  Patty and I spent the whole evening teaching each person how to help boost others.  We even taught some of the new ones.  We taught everyone how to do a blind dance, and that was really a fun time.  People bumped into each other at first, and then it became a kind of complex dance.  It was an excellent way to learn to see blobs and to navigate.  Some of the people with more advanced blob map skills we taught how to help the blind.  Mom was going to have some of the mind speakers come to the hospital and visit with the mutes there.  Sandy was getting to be a good mind speaker, so she was planning to go to the hospital on the weekends.  It seemed like everyone was trying to learn everything all at once.  We went over what we had done over the weekend, and we explained about our new work at the firestation.

One thing that came out of the evening is that it was possible for three or four newcomers to get together and boost another newcomer.  There had to be a certain level of general skill for this to happen, but it seemed like the skill was additive.  If enough small people got together, they could do as much as one strong one.

[Thursday]

[Fire Station]  Jerry came by and was able to help most of the firemen with their mapping practice.  There were just a few who needed more boosting than he was able to provide.  I filled in for them.  But we could schedule for him to come by and help certain of the men and women, if I was not available.  I worked with Jerry a little to help him with his boosting technique.

We re-did the video with a regular video camera.  This time the Chief spent more time explaining how this could be used in various firefighting situations.  He had contacted the national firefighters and international firefighters assocations.  They were both going to be posting articles about this on their websites, and in their magazines.

A newspaper reporter came while we were helping the individual firefighters with their maps.  The photographer took our pictures.  The Chief answered their questions for an interview.

[Living room]  Another group of about 20 people came tonight.  They were a lot more focused on specific applications.  There were some who wanted to help the blind, and others who wanted to help firefighters.  Several of the people from our advanced group were there to help.  I actually stayed out of it, mostly, since I wanted other people to take the lead on training.  Once I trained the trainers, they should be able to do it on their own.  The evening went smoothly.  We hand out copies of most of the applications, with detailed instructions on how to handle the boosting and training.

[Friday] 

[Home]  Today started out pretty exciting.  We got a call from the fire Chief.  They were sending a police car to pick us Patty and I.  Would we come and help him at an office building fire!

Patty and I were outside in a few minutes.  Almost as soon as we opened the door, we heard the siren from the police car.  It pulled into our driveway, we hurried to get into the back seat.  The officer said a brief hello and then turned on the siren and sped away.

[Downtown] We were downtown in a few minutes.  We could see smoke coming from a building, and the street filling up with people and equipment.  The people were exiting the building in a pretty orderly fashion.  Patty and I met the Chief, and he immediately asked us to give him a mental map of the building across the street.  He closed his eyes and we sent him a map.  It was a little confusing because there were people on every floor of the office building.

"There are people still on the third floor at the west end, get someone up there to help them.  Also we have people on the fourth and fifth floor down at the east end, over the fire."  he told his assistant who was standing there with the radio, relaying this information.

"Can you give me a blowup of the east end on the third floor?"  He asked. "That is where the smoke is coming from."

We narrowed in the view of the building to show just the third floor.  We were taking this information from his mind, so that we could boost it and give it back to him.  When his view changed, we simply had to take it and amplify it to give it back to him.  So we did.  I also used my own map to verify and compare with his.  It took only a part of my mind to help him.  I could also see what was going on myself.

"That group of three there on the far east side.  Does that look like they are not moving?"  I asked him.

"What did you say?"  He asked.

"I see three people on the third floor.  They are about where you said the fire was.  They are not moving.  I think at least one of them is unconscious"  I said, and I sent him a very detailed picture of that part of the map.

"I see what you mean."  he said.  Then he turned to his assistant. "Get someone in there now.  I see three people that are stationary.  Everyone else is moving away.  They are in that third floor area probably in the last room at the end of the hall."  He said.

There was not much we could do at that point, but watch.  There were four firemen in the hallway.  We could tell because they were moving toward the fire.  We watched them move into the area where the three people were. They found the three people inside and carried one of them out.   We followed them as they made their way down the stairs, and then we saw them come out of the building with out own eyes.  Two people were walking, but being helped.  One was being carried.

"There are no more people in the fire area."  He said to his assistant.  "Let's get that fire out."

"I still see people on the fourth and fifth floor.  They are standing near the end of the hall at the west end.  Get someone up there and help them down the stairs."  He said.

It turned out there was a lot of smoke on the third floor landing.  It was not too thick but people were waiting to see what happened.  When the firemen got there, they were able to direct everyone out and clear the building. Also, those three people, one person had collapsed from the smoke, and the other two were waiting there with them, trying to help.

It took quite a while longer to be sure the fire was out.  Patty was able to drop out after a while, and I helped the Chief by myself.  He only had to look at the building every once in a while.  He could see that all the floors were clear, and he could see where the firemen were working.  He could see two man crews on the fourth floor, checking to see if there was fire there.  It seemed to have been all due to a smoking fire in a storage room there on the third floor.

The same newspaper reporter who had interviewed the Chief the day before, was there again today.  The photographer took pictures of him, Patty and me.  We were in the Saturday paper on the front page.

[Saturday] 

[Kitchen]  Dad brought in the local paper and showed us the picture of ourselves at the fire.  He had bought several copies to send to family and friends.  "Mental Map Helps Local Firemen" was on the front page, and then pictures of Jerry and myself, helping the firemen with their mental maps, was on the inside.

The same story was on the newspaper website, so we sent links of it to Jack and Karen and Susan.  They called or mindcalled later to ask us questions about what we were doing.  Jack was joking that we were going to have to hire someone to just report on what I was doing.

Mom, Susan and Karen all volunteered to help coordinate the volunteers.  Jim found a volunteer app for the website and had installed it.  Mom, Susan and Karen pooled their information on volunteers and keyed it in to get the database started.  Jack and Jim worked on the volunteer signup page and added questions about mindspeaking, blob mapping and booster skills.  They posted notices about volunteer needs for blind, mute, and firemen helpers, with descriptions of the skills needed.  It had detailed descriptions on how to perform the duties.

Jim called to talk to my dad.  Jim had set up the nonprofit.  There are several donors who have offered money to the foundation to help pay for salaries, travel, and other expenses.  They suggested that we get professionals to help keep up with the website full time, someone to keep track of volunteers, and others to raise money and give talks. He suggested that we could have a professional association as well, where they would help set standards, and set qualifications.  They suggested a certification in mind mapping, and another in mindspeech.  Especially if we were going to be working in hospital and with firefighters, they would want there to be some assurance that we were reputable.  Dad listened to him and made a few suggestions, then he came and told us what was happening.

George called and said he heard about the article in the paper today.   He was a little worried that the work with the firefighters would distract us from helping blind people.  Mom told him about all the volunteers who were already signed up to help the blind, and the teachers who were getting new people ready.

The Chief called and said his phone was ringing off the hook.  He was getting calls from search and rescue units all over the world.  CNN wanted to do interview him, and they were wondering if Patty, Jerry and I could be there.

Then the phone started ringing from reporters around the country.  Apparently this local report had picked up interest all over the country, and they had finally figured out my Dad's name so they could start calling.

I was lucky enough to avoid most of this.  Mom did allow Patty to make a few brief statements to the local newspapers and television stations.  Most of the people we referred to the website for more information.

Jim called to say that the website had gone from 10,000 people a week to something like a million hits in the last day.  He was upgrading the server that it was on to a dedicated server, and he was already worrying about using a bank of servers to handle the volume.  He had registered a couple of new domain names, like MindMappers.org, for the professional organization.  He was going to hire a website manager to help organize all the new information we were generating.

Susan called and said they had gotten Jerry's Dad's name and number.  They were calling him for interviews and background.  What did they suggest?

Jim called again (on my cell phone, since the house phone was too busy).  He said he had hired a professional public relations manager to help handle the press.  His name is Craig Clarkson and he would handle the calls and emails from the press. We took his phone number and email address.  When we answered the phone after that, we gave Craig's name as the point of contact.

Jim called again, and said that Craig would be sending an email to my Mom in a few minutes with questions he needed answers to.  We would answer by email, and Craig would get them onto the website, onto a facebook page, and to the press in press releases.  He also said that he had two lawyers working with him on forming an association, they were donating their time.

We called Susan and gave her Craig's information to pass along to the press.  If we needed help answering Craig's emails, we would forward them on to Susan.

There was a spot on the local television about us at noon.  It was mostly OK, but it had some serious errors about how mind maps worked, and how we were helping the firefighters.  They mentioned the blind, and said that we had a way to help the blind see again, implying that they did not need eyes anymore, but could see everything around them.  What they said about our work at the hospital made if sound like we could wake people out of deep comas who had been there for years.  I could not see how we would ever dig ourselves out of this misinformation.

Patty and I started in on the questions from Craig.  Some of them were so off the wall we did not know how to answer.

Jim called my cell phone again.  He said that Craig wondered if we could Twitter some of the answers.  We said that we were not that familiar with it, and with all the commotion, it might be too easy to say something that everyone would misunderstand.  He said OK.  Then he asked us if we could make some short YouTube video to demonstrate how help blind and mutes and firemen.  We reminded him that Karen had made videos of some of our work, and that was already on YouTube.  And then we mentioned the ones that the firemen had made.  Patty and I found these while he was on the phone and then we emailed links to Craig, and to Jim.

Dr Acres called and said that he was getting quite a few calls about what we were doing.  He agreed that what had gone out over the local television station was totally misleading. We gave him Craig's information for general inquires.  He had a personal friend who was an editor in the medical journal where he was going to publish.  They indicated they might be able to publish a letter to the editor outlining what we had accomplished, and then follow it up with a longer article.  There was also a fast publications area of their website.  Because of all the news interests, they said they might be able to get some information there in the next day or so.  It was a little complicated by the weekend.  He also said that the governing bodies of the hospital wanted to have demonstrations of what we had been doing.  Could we be available to demonstrate this for a small group.  Some of the patients we had helped said they were willing, since they thought it would help others.

Craig sent Patty a Press Release under some new letter head that Jim must have just made up.  It was for the MindMappers.org website.  It announced the formation of the MindMappers Association, and gave Craig's information as the press relations contact.  There was also listed Jim as acting Director of the organization, and Mike Volta as the website manager.  The only contact information was for Craig.  When we tried the MindMappers website, we were surprised to see it already active.  There was the same letterhead design, and the same press release.  There were links for MindSpeakers.org and BlobWatchers.com.  As well as links to YouTube and Facebook.

When television reporters would come to the door, we would hand them these press releases, and tell them to contact Craig for details.  We said to email Craig with any question they might have.  That we were helping him to answer the questions.

By this time, we were not surprised when the national nightly news came on, we were the lead story.  We were pleasantly surprised that the explanations they gave were reasonably correct, and we were very happy to not be named.  The newsmen mentioned that the topic had gone viral, and more information could be found at MindMappers.org.

Craig called and said he had five volunteer website designers working on the site.  It was a bank of servers that could handle the volume.  He had to talk to the owners of the small website development company he contacted. They were working on the weekend to get everything in place.  He was indentifying holes in the website, and was going to ask us to help fill them in.  We might get some emails from Mike Volta, the new website manager.

Dad was starting to get some strange calls now.  One man said that his wife was in a coma for four years, could we help her to get out of it.  Was there any way to mindspeak her out of it?  Another man said he was from a mindspeaking group in California, would we like to join forces.  A woman called and asked if we could mindspeak her dead husband.  One was fairly serious, it was from a national search and rescue association. They wanted to know how we could use mind maps in search and rescue.  We gave them the station address where the Chief works.  We also told them to go to MindMappers.org and follow the YouTube links.  Most people we just gave the MindMappers.org address and told them to contact Craig once they got there.

Craig is pretty good.  He filtered out the really crazy ones, and sent us only the serious questions that he could not answer.  He assigned a tracking number to every email or question, and he kept a database of questions and answers.  When we answered something, it was only about ten minutes and it was up on the website.  I think he had some volunteers working right next to him.  Some of them were apparently answering the questions based on what was written on the website already.  Craig sent a note that indicated he was tracking the questions that were being answered by volunteers (we would later learn they were people from the advanced classes that we helped over the weekend) and we (Patty and I) would need to check the answers to see if they were basically correct. More work.

One interesting question came from Craig.  Someone has sent him a link to a blog for people in comas.  It described how we helped Lila reconnect to her family, and, as they put it, we help pull her out of a coma.  "Is this correct?"  Craig wrote.  We wrote back to him that the story was correct, that we had talked to her and because we could listen to her mindspeech, we found her son and daughter.  The hospital followed up, and the family was reunited.  What was not true is that we brought her out of a coma.  She was actually sleeping, and because she was nearly blind and could not speak because of the stroke, they thought she was in a coma.  But the post on the blog was essentially correct.  It almost sounded like someone had interviewed the son, or someone at the hospital.

Father John from the church called Mom on her cell phone.  He told her that there were people calling from other churches wanting to know if we can come help them with their family who were on traches or tubes or who were in comas.  He was not sure where this had come from, but there were a lot of calls to him.  Someone must have known about our work at the hospital, knew we were at that church, and that he was in charge of the hospital ministry.  It must be some blog somewhere, but no one so far had identified it.  He thought it might be that someone, a friend of someone at the hospital that we helped, had started sending out emails to all his friends and was actively searching out places to tell about what we did.  He was also getting calls about helping people with the blind.  He asked if we could teach a class of volunteers at the church how to help the blind.  We said that we were already organizing people in our classes who wanted to volunteer.  He should refer blind people to Mom or Susan Sanders.

Towards midnight we were all exhausted.  The phone had not stopped since early morning.  Now they were mostly crank type calls.  So at mindnight, Dad pulled the plug on the phone so it would register as disconnected.  Luckily we had an old house phone with its own answering machine, rather than a phone company phonemail box.  We would turn it on again tomorrow.

Just after midnight, Craig called on my cell phone and said thanks for all the email answers.  I told him what we had done with the phone, and he said that was OK.  He would look into getting us some kind of phone answering system, if this continued.  He said he and the volunteers were going to continue working all night because of the backlog.  He did ask me, "Does this really work?" and I answered "Yes.".  That was enough for tonight.

[Sunday]  We got up around 7 and checked the email.  There were still a lot of questions to answer, so we worked on questions until it was time for church.

We tried to quietly enter the church, but people must have been watching out for us.  We were besieged by people asking about friends who were blind or in hospital, or who knew people in the fire or search and rescue business.  Luckily we had anticipated this.  Patty had made up business cards for all of us, that had the MindMappers.Org on it.  No phone number, no details, just the website.  So we handed those out, and then enjoyed the service.  We were a little surprise to hear during the prayers and announcements that requests for help for blind people or help at the hospital should go to Father John, and he was working as fast as possible to respond.  Please be patient and pray for Father John and the ministries.

==== End Sept 20

[Living Room] Susan made arrangements for four blind people and five volunteers to come to our house so that I could help them match up.  I was the only one who had a fairly consistent method for determining who will be good at various blob tasks.  I wanted to help Susan come up with a method so she could manage blind volunteers on her own.  She also brought George over, at my request.

"First, I would like each of the volunteers to boost George so we can get an idea how well everyone is doing."  I asked.  George let them amplify the blob map in his mind and then he judged how well they had done on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the strongest.  Among the volunteers, the results were 3,2,4,3,4 so that everyone had some degree of experience in boosting.  I checked the blob maps of each volunteer and found that their skill roughly matched the detail and strength of their blob map. 

We assigned volunteers at random by writing numbers on pieces of paper, then letting the blind select them from a bowl.  We tested each volunteer/blind pair to see that they were able to boost enough.  I checked the blob maps of the blind people to see what level of natural skill they had.  I also checked George.  He was at a higher level than last week already.  Constant practice was making a difference.  One of the blind people had a very weak map, so I was glad that she was paired with one of the stronger volunteers.

The volunteer with a 2 rating from George I took aside.  He had a fairly weak blob map, so I was not surprised at his rating.  He was able to help the perso