There is no template to go by, as this has never been asked of anyone before. I am left to wonder if we aren’t under some sort of government scrutiny for the first time in our existence.  For this task, I am certainly unclear as to the amount of information I’m expected to impart.

For the general public, I can only say this:

Applicant A-  Artistic efforts continue, and the text for his/her work seems to explain far less than the shape of the text. The manner of display is unusual, but certainly will change the way people view words.

Applicant B- Has not completed the first phase, yet states that the methodology will surpass the result. I am sure this is why the first phase has yet to be presented.

Applicant C- Fundamentally, work appears to be congruent with our primary mission, yet, there is a resonance with similar actions only found in subcontinental indigenous populations. World passion in this.

There is all that I can say, without breaching the contract of my employment, and as vague as it might be, it states far more than I would expect I could say. My hope is that whomever expects to understand this, does, and whomever it is supposed to be directed towards has the information that is needed.

For the future, my protest will be stated louder- mayhaps this will curb all future expectations of the same task.

DS

For these reasons Richet is a hero to any doctor.  Yet as does happen with many a sane man, an idea of insanity crept in. It wasn’t that the good doctor was mindless, or that he was losing his grasp on reality. It is a matter of wonder- he wondered what made the human mind tick. But, his research, unlike that done with his left mind, was frought with meetings with those who claimed to be “mediums”, “ghost talkers”, and the like. He wrote in a French journa of parapsychology about his work with these people: “Absurd and unsatisfactory though they were, it seems to me very difficult to attribute the phenomena produced to deception, conscious or unconscious, or to a series of deceptions. Nevertheless, conclusive and indisputable proof that there was no fraud on Eusapia’s part, or illusion on our part, is wanting: we must therefore renew our efforts to obtain such proof.” It is my belief he was looking for answers all men seek- what is it that is beyond us, the human psyche, the world after the world.  But it was more than that. Richet believed in ghosts.

He sat with those who spoke with the dead. He believed in ectoplasmic phenomena. He believed in the idea that there were things out there that were a bit more Crowley than Einstein. With all of his scientific knowledge, his fascination with the mind and it’s twists brought him to study Multiple Personality Disorders. Again, this work was far ahead of its time, long before those who filmed movies of the same nature. He thought of Jeckyl/Hyde as a plausible explanation of those who were faced with histories of trauma. Richet gave more credibility to this than many of his peers because of his work as a scientist.

Had Einstein given up mathematics to study the use of Bubble Gum in finding secret codes then I’m sure we’d have far more written about crypto-gumology.  Richet wrote a book called “Our Sixth Sense”. And, as you would surmise, the piece was a compilation of essays and studies he completed with the years spent talking to the famous mediums of his day.  He questioned the way we respond to the ethereal world, the personalities we take on, and the concept that there are no definites- only questions. In this statement I am in agreement. The idea of spirits isn’t on my agenda. Yet the biographies on this man focus on his renaissance existence as almost  the true model of all men.

I was unfamiliar with his work in aviation. But just as DaVinci had done, in his sketches hundreds of years before, Richet discovered concepts of flight that hadn’t been developed. He was instrumental in ensuring there were entire fleets of planes. The man wrote poetry, music, plays, and if he was alive today, I am sure he would be a one-man television network – or even perhaps an entire media outlet. With all of his greatness, a little bit of lunacy only makes sense. In his own work, he demonstrated that each of us have a capacity of taking on personalities that become our life’s work, or many personalities that become our momentary obsessions.

I am sure that if he were alive today, some medical ‘expert’ would have him on ritalin, prozac, and probably quelching his entire life’s work simply for his fanciful notions. I may not agree with all he worked on, but I do admire that he took on the mysteries of man, and the mysteries of medicine, and the mysteries of culture with the same aplomb. In this, I am gratefully giving an award in his name. He wasn’t afraid of trying to understand. His birth was a full 105 years before my own. And his death was exactly 20 years before my birth.  Yet, he is relevant today as he was during his most active years. The woman receiving this award is the third to ever be nominated.

Her work in numbers has changed the way we read books. She has written symphonies based on the principle of sound being the truest form of mathematics. Music and Math, always bound together by the idea that some have inate talent, while  others seem to flounder at the words. Yet, our Mirandi, one of the first women who ever breached the world of Quantum physics has sold millions of recordings based on the studies of  aural appreciation via negative space and resonance of astral debris. She made the galaxy a composers playground. As she taught her students the concepts of string theories, she was sitting with quartets discussing string theories. (yes that is a joke)

Tonight I bring you, Dr. Maola Mirandi, this year’s Richet Award Recipient.

Dear. Dr. Skelter,

We hope your years within the Foundation have been worry free, and enjoyable. Because of recent events we have been commissioned to assist this organization in its ongoing purposeful missions, under a better and more secure manner.  The enclosed thumb drive contains updated passwords, and security protocols you will be mandated to follow in order to access your servers and laboratories.

You are now scheduled to attend a security session, with our Unit Director. You will meet with the UD, at 13:00 hours, in the main cafeteria, in the Manor proper. Be prepared to stay for a session of approximately three hours. You will receive your new security badge, and your retina scans are now mandated for entry into Foundation properties. Your ocular information will be examined and recorded at the meeting.

From today’s date, you will be expected to hand in copies of your current projects weekly for comparison to the information stored in our databases. Audits will ensure that the work of the Foundation is being adhered to during your stay here.  We assure you that your work is still under Foundation directives, and nothing will be altered. For your voluntary compliance in the new security procedures, the Foundation will supply you with an honorarium of an additional $210,000 per anum, to be paid in quarterly installments. Those who fail to comply will be subject to the Foundation Rule 13.4 which demands that staff who fail to follow Foundation Regulations will be placed in the Manor Dormitory and work will be supervised directly by a member of the Board’s choosing. We assure you that compliance will be of little change to your weekly schedule, and in a short time, you will hardly notice the work of the Unit on a daily basis.

Respectfully,

The Director of the Meeker Cyber Crimes Unit

I have not been subject to any form of security other than a badge for entry into the gates, labs, and occassional events here at the Foundation. I’m a bit overwhelmed by the events in New York, but I had no expectation that it would so greatly affect our projects within walls thousands of miles away. My emails now have a “Scanned by MCCU” watermark on each. I am impressed at the lack of spam I’m now subject to.

Perhaps this is just a moment of panic from the Board, and this “crimes unit” will be temporary. The meeting begins in a few minutes, so I must sign off the diary for now. Things are certainly different in the world. Very, very different. Financially, I am not sure if the reward is worth all of this, but I’m not complaining!

Potter starts with his skills as a psychologist. He hands out tests to us to fill out, as if we weren’t clearly being used as test subjects. O’Brien was having a field day rewriting the questions, and I think he may discover a new form of study- Ridiculforum. But, as a member of this organization, I’m supposed to attend at least one lecture a quarter. At least. This was certainly that. Fortunately Stanford boys were kindly offering to buy dinner afterwards, so I had something to look forward to besides erasing notes from this evaluation service meeting.

At least we were amused by the chat. He said he was giving two lectures- one to the professionals so we could be trained in the study of “personality tests”. Isn’t the military using these, calling them ASVAB, and giving them to every person in a recruiters office? I thought so. Didn’t Fromme cover this decades ago? NEW study. Then, we were given the sales pitch. I wondered how long it would take. This guy wants us to promote his work on the internet. If Gosling weren’t a worthy professor, then I wouldn’t bother. But, for him, I will at least open my mind to the idea that silly little tests- judged by individuals- can give at least a general idea of what goes on in the psyche of a warrior or a child molester. I will have to, or I may lose that portion of the grant.

This job has downsides after all. Watching lectures about the popularity of films.. not part of the world I like to evaluate.

I haven’t met the Butler yet, but by her tone I surmised that he is her husband, or at least her handler. I didn’t even know one was here. There are so many assistants, I just took it for granted that these are the people who have done the mundane chores of shopping, laundry, and housekeeping. I don’t know if the Butler is a person, or a robot. I don’t know if it’s a project that was left behind by another recipient. My driver told me that this person has the eyes of a snake and the smile of a small child. I can’t decipher the intent – is my driver attempting to scare, warn, or amuse me?

This will be my mission for the week when the supervisors are preoccupied. I must learn about this Butler person. I must find out if I’m being poisoned. My sister may have the way to get herself into the building. She may be the only connection I get to the outside world for the  next 25 months. There has to be a room that contains files that will tell me more about my co-workers. Now- to find a way to get word to her about my suspicions.

The lack of sleep has me a bit paranoid, I think. If there is a real subculture, it must be less obvious to me. I just am not sure. I can’t really tell what is the methods of this organization, or if I’m being debriefed of my reality and into theirs. After my probationary period, I get to stay outside of the silo. I don’t know what that means exactly. I am guessing it will mean I live in the Manor proper, rather in this military relic on the wayward side of the hill. In my first 12 days, I have more orientations than I do time to simply rest. If Helga gets to read my diary she may be able to separate the delusions of an overworked professional from the actualities that deserve looking into. She has a way of discovering the objective side of things.

I hear footsteps and must stop writing now. I’ll encrypt my files on this journals so the spambots and inside security team won’t use it against me later. I must sign off.