NewU Pt. 01

"Alright," I mumbled, starting to get a little annoyed with the way that this whole conversation was going down. "I'm all ears."

"Good," she mumbled, reaching into a satchel by her feet and retrieving a stack of paperwork, "good, good, good.... Alright..." she thrust a piece of paper into my hand. I blinked at it a few times, trying to work out what I was looking at; as far as I could tell, it was a graph with dozens of zig-zagging lines scrawled across it. I raised an eyebrow at her. "...These are the brainwaves of a normal, healthy human brain." She said, consciously trying to slow her speech. "This..." she pointed to one of the flatter lines, "... is what neuroscientist refer to as the theta wave, it is a throwback to our evolution, where primitive man communicated non-verbally. Body language, pheromones that kind of thing, it's almost completely dormant in modern humans."

She thrust another piece of paper into my hand. It looked the same, except all lines other than the theta wave had been removed. "The Theta wave, like all brain waves, is a mixture of millions of different neurons firing in sequence, it isn't just a single... thought. Think of it like music; all the instruments, the vocals, the harmonies, all of them combining together to form a single song."

"I think I'm following," I said, surprising myself to by realizing that was actually true.

"Right..." she continued, "this is where it gets risky. Back in the 50s, there was a spike in the number of people who claimed to be psychic or clairvoyant... the Americans -- in an experiment akin to MK ultra -- started testing groups of these people to see if there was any measurable truth to what they were saying and to see if it could be... used. Now, most of the subjects were frauds and were sent on their way, but a handful were telling the truth, and when the Americans looked at their brain waves, they noticed trace amounts of abnormal activity in their Theta waves. Tiny little bumps in that otherwise flat line." She gestured to the new piece of paper in my hand.

She handed me the third piece of paper, "This is your theta wave." I looked down at the sheet. The Zig-Zagged lines were massive, at least in comparison to the flat line she had shown me before. Nobody has ever seen anything like this. The most potent gift the American's ever encountered was a man who correctly told the testers which playing card they were holding over a thousand times in a row without a single mistake. He could tell how people were feeling, almost empathically so... nothing that the Americans could use -- he couldn't psychically gain access to classified information or anything -- but there was definite proof of what people now call ESP -- Extrasensory perception. The wave patterns on the print out are cumulative, so it's hard to visually measure the level of activity in a wave from a single glace. But to put things into perspective, that man's activity was the equivalent of a molehill on that flat line... yours would be three or four Mount Everest's stacked on top of each other!"

This information was not as hard to understand as I would have thought, but the consequences were more challenging to process. "Okay, so what does this mean."

Doc Harris took a deep breath as if searching for a way to answer the question. "There is a school of thought," she started, "that thinks that our current understanding of Theta waves is wrong; that our prehistoric ancestors didn't use them for non-verbal communication. That theory -- and this new interpretation -- both come from the fact that Theta waves are incredibly active all over the natural world; have you ever seen a flock of birds, flying, and changing direction at the exact same time, as if they are all operating with a single mind? or the insects and small animals whose reflexes are so fast that they border on precognition? ... they are all less developed than humans, so the thinking was that they are using the same neural systems that we used when we were less neurologically advanced. The new theory -- however -- postulates that these animals have actually been evolving for a much more extended time than humans and that these systems have developed over eons, systems which people don't really need or use, and so haven't developed in humans... yet. The new school of thought thinks that ESP, people with active Theta waves, are actually the next step in human evolution.

I stared silently at her for a few seconds.

"Somehow," she continued, "the magnetic waves from the MRI, coupled with the extreme voltage from the lightning strike, a couple of faulty circuit breakers and some extremely durable magnets, managed to create a field that activated a part of the brain which isn't normally evolved in most humans."

"So... Erm... what does this mean for me?" I asked eventually

Doc Harris sat back in her chair. "Honestly, I have no idea," she answered with a shrug. "There are theories, of course, but most of them are just wild speculation. But given the details I have gleaned from you, I could make a few educated guesses."

I gestured for her to continue.

"Well, for starters, you seem to be healing at a much faster rate than we would expect. I doubt anyone had taken any X-Rays of your internal organs or looked at your legs recently, but the break in your arm was pretty severe, yet it doesn't seem to be bothering you that much." I moved my arm, bracing myself for the dull throb that usually accompanied such movements, but there was little more than a twinge. "I bet -- when they eventually get you back into another MRI scanner -- they will find a miraculous rate of healing of the damage done to your brain and no physical signs of any additional damage done during the MRI accident. The ability to heal at an accelerated rate is one of the few abilities that most theorists agree on; most evolutionary traits are developed out of a necessity to survive, and an increased rate of healing injuries and illnesses would be a definite evolutionary benefit. The next step in that theory is the ability to control your own body..."

I furrowed my brow at her, "I can already do that," I replied, "We all can."

"Really?" she raised an eyebrow "can you lose weight or increase muscle mass at will? Can you directly control your own heart rate or metabolism? Can you make yourself taller or shorter with nothing more than a thought?"

"Err... no."

"Me neither. But there are scientists out there that believe that, with practice and concentration , you may be able to do all that and more. That man in America could feel other people's emotions, with practice, you may be able to go further and actually be able to read people's thoughts. Look, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of ideas and theories out there about what you may be capable of, either now or in the future, but only you will know what you become capable of.. if theses abilities manifest themselves at all."

"So, what do I do if these things do start happening?" I asked skeptically, "Do I come to see you?"

"No!" she blurted out much faster than I was comfortable with, "Absolutely not. Let's say you do develop the ability to read minds, how long do you think it will take for the military or the Police, or some shady government agency to pull you off the streets to see if they can use you? or cut you open to see if they can replicate the results? No, you cannot tell anyone about what I have said to you tonight, and you and I will never see each other again! I will destroy the results of your EEG and inform your doctors that the tests came back normal -- which aside from the Theta wave, they were. But under no circumstances are you to tell people of any new abilities you gain, or even what we have discussed tonight. Society is not ready for super humans and they will not take kindly to learning that one is in their midst, fear is a powerful and dangerous emotion, especially in a large group of people... you need to trust me on this."

"I'm getting the impression I should be thanking you."

"A doctor's first oath is to do no harm, that includes action or inaction; leaving you to go blindly into this would be the same as signing your death warrant -- or at least your internment as a guinea pig warrant - I couldn't live with myself if I let that happen."

"Thank you, Doctor," I said after a long silence between us.

"Be careful, Mister Roberts." She nodded as she collected her papers and stood to leave, "and good luck."

With that, she was gone.

Thanks for reading part 1 of NewU. Part 2 should be up soon. I look forward to hearing your opinions.