# Necronomicon Podcast: Beyond The Wall of Sleep

An episode of [Forbidden Knowledge News](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1470192028), 28 Aug 2026, 29 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74733408/necroooo2_sd_360p_medium_fr30_28082026.mp3

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## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Check out the brand new podcast on the Forbidden Knowledge Network,
[0:04] Speaker 1: Necronomicon Podcasts, H.P. Lovecraft and Other Tales of Terror, read
[0:11] Speaker 1: by Corey Hughes. Enjoy this full episode and get access
[0:15] Speaker 1: to every episode on our website and all podcast platforms.
[0:34] Speaker 2: Welcome to the Necronomicon Podcast, an exploration of the works
[0:41] Speaker 2: of H.P. Lovecraft and other tales of terror.
[1:01] Speaker 3: Beyond the Wall of Sleep by H.P. Lovecraft 1919. I
[1:08] Speaker 3: have an exposition of sleep come upon me. Shakespeare. I
[1:14] Speaker 3: have frequently wondered if the majority of mankind ever paused
[1:17] Speaker 3: to reflect upon the occasionally titanic significance of dreams and
[1:21] Speaker 3: of the obscure world to which they belong. Whilst the
[1:25] Speaker 3: greater number of our nocturnal visions are perhaps no more
[1:28] Speaker 3: than faint and fantastic reflections of our waking experiences, Freud,
[1:33] Speaker 3: to the contrary, with his puerile symbolism, there are still
[1:37] Speaker 3: a certain remainder whose immundane and ethereal character permits of
[1:42] Speaker 3: no ordinary interpretation, and whose vaguely exciting and disquieting effect
[1:48] Speaker 3: suggests possible minute glimpses into a sphere of mental existence
[1:52] Speaker 3: no less important than physical life, yet separated from that
[1:57] Speaker 3: life by an all-impassable barrier. From my experience, I cannot
[2:02] Speaker 3: doubt but that man, when lost to terrestrial consciousness, is
[2:06] Speaker 3: indeed sojourning in another and uncorporeal life of far different
[2:11] Speaker 3: nature from the life we know, and of which only
[2:14] Speaker 3: the slightest and most indistinct memories linger after waking. From
[2:20] Speaker 3: those blurred and fragmentary memories, we may infer much, yet
[2:24] Speaker 3: prove little. We may guess that in dreams, life, matter,
[2:28] Speaker 3: and vitality as the earth knows no such things, are
[2:33] Speaker 3: not necessarily constant, and that time and space do not
[2:36] Speaker 3: exist as our waking selves comprehend them. Sometimes I believe
[2:41] Speaker 3: that this less material life is our truer life, and
[2:45] Speaker 3: that our vain presence on the terequeous globe is itself
[2:50] Speaker 3: the secondary or merely virtual phenomenon. It was from a
[2:54] Speaker 3: youthful reverie filled with speculations of this sort that I
[2:58] Speaker 3: arose one afternoon in the winter of 1900-1901, when to
[3:02] Speaker 3: the state psychopathic institution in which I served as an
[3:05] Speaker 3: intern was brought the man whose case has ever since
[3:10] Speaker 3: haunted me so unceasingly. His name as given on the
[3:13] Speaker 3: records was Joe Slater, or Slatter, and his appearance was
[3:18] Speaker 3: that of the typical denizen of the Catskill Mountain region.
[3:22] Speaker 3: one of those strange repellent scions of a primitive colonial
[3:25] Speaker 3: peasant stock whose isolation for nearly three centuries in the
[3:29] Speaker 3: hilly fastness of the little traveled countryside has caused them
[3:33] Speaker 3: to sink to a kind of barbaric degeneracy, rather than
[3:37] Speaker 3: advance with their more fortunately placed brethren of the thickly
[3:41] Speaker 3: settled districts. Among these odd folk who correspond exactly to
[3:46] Speaker 3: the decadent element of white trash in the south, Law
[3:50] Speaker 3: and morals are non-existent, and their general mental status is
[3:54] Speaker 3: probably below that of any other section of the Native
[3:57] Speaker 3: American people. Joe Slater, who came to the institution in
[4:02] Speaker 3: the vigilant custody of four state policemen and who was
[4:05] Speaker 3: described as highly dangerous character, certainly presented no evidence of
[4:10] Speaker 3: his perilous disposition when first I beheld him. Though well
[4:14] Speaker 3: above the middle stature and of somewhat brawny frame, He
[4:18] Speaker 3: was given an absurd appearance of harmless stupidity by the pale,
[4:22] Speaker 3: sleepy blueness of his small, watery eyes, the scantness of
[4:27] Speaker 3: his neglected and never-shaven growth of yellow beard, and the
[4:31] Speaker 3: listless drooping of his heavy nether lip. His age was unknown,
[4:36] Speaker 3: since among his kind neither family records nor permanent family
[4:39] Speaker 3: ties exist, but from the baldness of his head in
[4:42] Speaker 3: front and from the decayed condition of his teeth, The
[4:46] Speaker 3: head surgeon wrote him down as a man about 40.
[4:50] Speaker 3: From the medical and court documents we learned all that
[4:53] Speaker 3: could be gathered of this case. This man, a vagabond,
[4:57] Speaker 3: a hunter, and a trapper, had always been strange in
[5:00] Speaker 3: the eyes of his primitive associates. He had habitually slept
[5:04] Speaker 3: at night beyond the ordinary time, and upon waking would
[5:07] Speaker 3: often talk of unknown things in a manner so bizarre
[5:11] Speaker 3: as to inspire fear even in the hearts of an
[5:14] Speaker 3: unimaginable crowd. populace not that his form of language was
[5:19] Speaker 3: at all unusual for he never spoke save in the
[5:22] Speaker 3: debased patois of his environment but the tone and tenor
[5:26] Speaker 3: of his utterances were of such mysterious wildness that none
[5:31] Speaker 3: might listen without apprehension he himself was generally as terrified
[5:36] Speaker 3: and baffled as his auditors and within an hour after
[5:39] Speaker 3: awakening would forget all that he had said or at
[5:42] Speaker 3: least all that had caused him to say what he
[5:44] Speaker 3: did relapsing into a bovine, half-amiable normality like that of
[5:50] Speaker 3: other hill dwellers. As Slater grew older, it appeared, his
[5:56] Speaker 3: matutinal aberrations had gradually increased in frequency and violence. Till
[6:01] Speaker 3: about a month before his arrival at the institution had occurred,
[6:04] Speaker 3: the shocking tragedy which caused his arrest by the authorities.
[6:08] Speaker 3: One day near noon, after a profound sleep begun in
[6:11] Speaker 3: a whiskey debauch at about five of the previous afternoons,
[6:16] Speaker 3: The man had roused himself most suddenly, with ululations so
[6:20] Speaker 3: horrible and unearthly that they brought several neighbors to his cabin,
[6:25] Speaker 3: a filthy sty where he dwelt with a family as
[6:28] Speaker 3: indescribable as himself. Rushing out into the snow, he had
[6:33] Speaker 3: flung his arms aloft and commenced a series of leaps
[6:36] Speaker 3: directly upward in the air, the while shouting his determination
[6:41] Speaker 3: to reach some big, big cabin with brightness in the
[6:44] Speaker 3: roof and walls and floor. and the loud queer music
[6:47] Speaker 3: far away. As two men of moderate size sought to
[6:51] Speaker 3: restrain him, he had struggled with maniacal force, fury, screaming
[6:56] Speaker 3: of his desire and need to find and kill a
[6:59] Speaker 3: certain thing that shines and shakes and laughs. At length,
[7:04] Speaker 3: after temporary felling one of his detainers with a sudden blow,
[7:08] Speaker 3: He had flung himself upon the other in a demonic
[7:10] Speaker 3: ecstasy of bloodthirstiness, shrieking fiendishly that he would jump high
[7:15] Speaker 3: in the air and burn his way through anything that
[7:17] Speaker 3: stopped him. Family and neighbors had now fled in panic,
[7:22] Speaker 3: and when the more courageous of them returned, Slater was gone,
[7:26] Speaker 3: leaving behind an unrecognizable pulp-like thing that had been a
[7:30] Speaker 3: living man but an hour before. None of the mountaineers
[7:34] Speaker 3: had dared to pursue him, and it is likely that
[7:37] Speaker 3: they would have welcomed his death from the cold. But
[7:40] Speaker 3: when several mornings later they heard his screams from a
[7:42] Speaker 3: distant ravine, they realized that he had somehow managed to survive,
[7:48] Speaker 3: and that his removal, in one way or another, would
[7:51] Speaker 3: be necessary. Then had followed an armed searching party whose purpose,
[7:56] Speaker 3: whatever it may have been originally, became that of a
[7:59] Speaker 3: sheriff's posse, after one of the seldom popular state troopers
[8:04] Speaker 3: had by accident observed then questioned, and finally joined the seekers.
[8:09] Speaker 3: On the third day, Slater was found unconscious in the
[8:13] Speaker 3: hollow of a tree and taken to the nearest gull,
[8:16] Speaker 3: where alienists from Albany examined him as soon as his
[8:20] Speaker 3: senses returned. To them he told a simple story. He had,
[8:24] Speaker 3: he said, gone to sleep one afternoon about sundown after
[8:27] Speaker 3: drinking too much liquor. He had awakened to find himself
[8:30] Speaker 3: standing bloody-handed in the snow before his cabin. The mangled
[8:34] Speaker 3: corpse of his neighbor, Peter Slater, at his feet. Horrified,
[8:39] Speaker 3: he had taken to the woods in a vague effort
[8:41] Speaker 3: to escape from the scene of what must have been
[8:43] Speaker 3: his crime. Beyond these things, he seemed to know nothing,
[8:48] Speaker 3: nor could the expert questioning of his interrogators bring out
[8:51] Speaker 3: a single additional fact. That night, Slater slept quietly, and
[8:56] Speaker 3: the next morning he wakened with no singular feature, save
[9:00] Speaker 3: a certain alteration of expression.
[9:03] Speaker 2: Dr.
[9:03] Speaker 3: Bernard, who had been watching the patient, thought he noticed
[9:07] Speaker 3: in the pale blue eyes a certain gleam of peculiar quality,
[9:11] Speaker 3: and in the flaccid lips an all but imperceptible tightening,
[9:15] Speaker 3: as if of intelligent determination. But when questioned, Slater relapsed
[9:20] Speaker 3: into the habitual vacancy of the mountaineer, and only reiterated
[9:24] Speaker 3: what he had said on the preceding day. On the
[9:27] Speaker 3: third morning occurred the first of the man's mental attacks.
[9:31] Speaker 3: After some show of uneasiness in his sleep, He burst
[9:34] Speaker 3: forth into a frenzy so powerful that the combined efforts
[9:37] Speaker 3: of four men were needed to bind him in a straitjacket.
[9:41] Speaker 3: The alienists listened with keen attention to his words, since
[9:44] Speaker 3: their curiosity had been aroused to a high pitch by
[9:48] Speaker 3: the suggestive, yet mostly conflicting and incoherent stories of his
[9:51] Speaker 3: family and neighbors. Slater writhed for upward of fifteen minutes,
[9:56] Speaker 3: babbling in his backwoods dialect of great edifices of light.
[10:00] Speaker 3: oceans of space, strange music, and shadowy mountains and valleys.
[10:06] Speaker 3: But most of all did he dwell upon some mysterious
[10:09] Speaker 3: blazing entity that shook and laughed and mocked him. This vast,
[10:13] Speaker 3: vague personality seemed to have done him a terrible wrong,
[10:17] Speaker 3: and to kill it In triumphant revenge was his paramount desire.
[10:22] Speaker 3: In order to reach it, he said, he would soar
[10:24] Speaker 3: through the abysses of emptiness, burning every obstacle that stood
[10:28] Speaker 3: in his way. Thus ran his discourse, until with the
[10:31] Speaker 3: greatest suddenness he ceased. The fire of madness died from
[10:36] Speaker 3: his eyes, and in dull wonder he looked at his
[10:38] Speaker 3: questioners and asked why he was bound.
[10:42] Speaker 2: Dr.
[10:43] Speaker 3: Bernard unbuckled the leather harness and did not restore it
[10:46] Speaker 3: till night. when he succeeded in persuading Slater to don
[10:50] Speaker 3: it of his own volition, for his own good. The
[10:53] Speaker 3: man had now admitted that he sometimes talked queerly, though
[10:57] Speaker 3: he knew not why. Within a week, two more attacks appeared,
[11:01] Speaker 3: but from them the doctors learned little. On the source
[11:05] Speaker 3: of Slater's visions, they speculated at length, for since he
[11:09] Speaker 3: could neither read nor write, and had apparently never heard
[11:12] Speaker 3: a legend or fairy tale, his gorgeous imagery was quite inexplicable.
[11:17] Speaker 3: That it could not come from any known myth or
[11:19] Speaker 3: romance was made especially clear by the fact that the
[11:22] Speaker 3: unfortunate lunatic expressed himself only in his simple manner. He
[11:27] Speaker 3: raved of things he did not understand and could not interpret,
[11:31] Speaker 3: things which he claimed to have experienced, but which he
[11:34] Speaker 3: could not have learned through any formal or connected narration.
[11:38] Speaker 3: The alienists soon agreed that abnormal dreams were the foundation
[11:41] Speaker 3: of the trouble, dreams whose vividness could for a time
[11:45] Speaker 3: completely dominate the waking mind of this basically inferior man.
[11:51] Speaker 3: With due formality, Slater was tried for murder, acquitted on
[11:54] Speaker 3: the ground of insanity, and committed to the institution wherein
[11:58] Speaker 3: I held so humble a post. I have said that
[12:01] Speaker 3: I am a constant speculator concerning dream life, and from
[12:05] Speaker 3: this you may judge the eagerness with which I applied
[12:08] Speaker 3: myself to the study of the new patient as soon
[12:11] Speaker 3: as I had fully ascertained the facts of the case.
[12:14] Speaker 3: He seemed to sense a certain friendliness in me, born
[12:17] Speaker 3: no doubt of the interest I could not conceal, and
[12:20] Speaker 3: the gentle manner in which I questioned him. Not that
[12:24] Speaker 3: he ever recognized me during his attacks, when I hung
[12:27] Speaker 3: breathlessly upon his chaotic but cosmic word pictures, but he
[12:31] Speaker 3: knew me in his quiet hours, when he would sit
[12:33] Speaker 3: by his barred window weaving baskets of straw and willow,
[12:37] Speaker 3: and perhaps pining for the mountain freedom he could never
[12:40] Speaker 3: enjoy again. His family never called to see him Probably
[12:45] Speaker 3: it had found another temporary head after the manner of
[12:49] Speaker 3: decadent mountain folk. By degrees I commenced to feel an
[12:53] Speaker 3: overwhelming wonder at the mad and fantastic conceptions of Joe Slater.
[12:58] Speaker 3: The man himself was pitiably inferior in mentality and language alike.
[13:03] Speaker 3: But his glowing titanic visions, though described in a barbarous
[13:06] Speaker 3: and disjointed jargon, were assuredly things which only a superior
[13:11] Speaker 3: or even exceptional brain could conceive. How I often asked myself,
[13:16] Speaker 3: could this stolid imagination of a Catskill degenerate conjure up
[13:19] Speaker 3: sights whose very possession argued a lurking spark of genius?
[13:24] Speaker 3: How could any backwoods dullard have gained so much as
[13:27] Speaker 3: an idea of those glittering realms, of supernal radiance and
[13:32] Speaker 3: space about which Slater ranted in his furious delirium? More
[13:37] Speaker 3: and more I inclined to the belief that in the
[13:39] Speaker 3: pitiful personality who cringed before me lay the disordered nucleus
[13:44] Speaker 3: of of something beyond my comprehension. Something infinitely beyond the
[13:48] Speaker 3: comprehension of my more experienced but less imaginative medical and
[13:52] Speaker 3: scientific colleagues. And yet I could extract nothing definite from
[13:57] Speaker 3: the man. The sum of all my investigation was that
[14:00] Speaker 3: in a kind of semi-uncorporeal dream life, Slater wandered or
[14:04] Speaker 3: floated through resplendent and prodigious valleys, meadows, gardens, cities, and
[14:10] Speaker 3: palaces of light in a region unbounded and unknown to man.
[14:14] Speaker 3: There he was, no peasant or degenerate, but a creature
[14:18] Speaker 3: of importance and vivid life, moving proudly and dominantly, and
[14:22] Speaker 3: checked only by a certain deadly enemy, who seemed to
[14:26] Speaker 3: be a being of visible yet ethereal structure, and who
[14:29] Speaker 3: did not appear to be of human shape, since Slater
[14:33] Speaker 3: never referred to it as a man, or as ought
[14:36] Speaker 3: save a thing. This thing had done Slater some hideous
[14:39] Speaker 3: but unnamed wrong, which if the maniac, if a maniac
[14:43] Speaker 3: he were, yearned to avenge. From the manner in which
[14:48] Speaker 3: Slater alluded to their dealings, I judged that he and
[14:51] Speaker 3: the luminous thing had met on equal terms, that in
[14:54] Speaker 3: his dream existence the man was himself a luminous thing
[14:57] Speaker 3: of the same race as his enemy. This impression was
[15:00] Speaker 3: sustained by his frequent references to flying through space and
[15:04] Speaker 3: burning all that impeded his progress. Yet these conceptions were
[15:08] Speaker 3: formulated in rustic words, wholly inadequate to convey them. A
[15:13] Speaker 3: circumstance which drove me to the conclusion that if a
[15:17] Speaker 3: true dream world indeed existed, oral language was not its
[15:20] Speaker 3: medium for the transmission of thought. Could it be that
[15:23] Speaker 3: the dream soul inhabiting this inferior body was desperately struggling
[15:27] Speaker 3: to speak things which the simple and halting tongue of
[15:30] Speaker 3: dullness could not utter? Could it be that I was
[15:35] Speaker 3: face to face with intellectual emanations which would explain the
[15:39] Speaker 3: mystery if I could but learn to discover and read them?
[15:42] Speaker 3: I did not tell the older physicians of these things,
[15:45] Speaker 3: for middle age is skeptical, cynical, and disinclined to accept
[15:50] Speaker 3: new ideas. Besides, the head of the institution had but
[15:54] Speaker 3: lately warned me in his paternal way that I was overworking,
[15:58] Speaker 3: that my mind needed a rest. It had long been
[16:02] Speaker 3: my belief that human thought consists basically of atomic or
[16:04] Speaker 3: molecular motion, convertible into either waves of radiant energy like heat, light,
[16:09] Speaker 3: and electricity. This belief had early led me to contemplate
[16:14] Speaker 3: the possibility of telepathy or mental communication by means of
[16:18] Speaker 3: suitable apparatus, and I had in my college days prepared
[16:22] Speaker 3: a set of transmitting and receiving instruments somewhat similar to
[16:25] Speaker 3: the cumbrous devices employed in wireless telegraphy at the crude
[16:31] Speaker 3: pre-radio period. These I had tested with a fellow student,
[16:35] Speaker 3: but achieving no result, had soon packed them away with
[16:38] Speaker 3: other scientific odds and ends for possible future use. Now
[16:43] Speaker 3: in my intense desire to probe into the dream life
[16:45] Speaker 3: of Joe Slater, I sought these instruments again and spent
[16:49] Speaker 3: several days in repairing them for action. When they were
[16:53] Speaker 3: complete once more, I missed no opportunity for their trial.
[16:56] Speaker 3: At each outburst of Slater's violence, I would fit the
[16:59] Speaker 3: transmitter to his forehead and the receiver to my own,
[17:03] Speaker 3: constantly making delicate adjustments for various hypothetical wavelengths of intellectual energy.
[17:09] Speaker 3: I had but little notion of how he thought impressions would,
[17:13] Speaker 3: if successfully conveyed, arouse an intelligent response in my brain,
[17:17] Speaker 3: but I felt certain that I could detect and interpret them. Accordingly,
[17:22] Speaker 3: I continued my experiments, though informing no one of their nature.
[17:27] Speaker 3: It was on the 21st of February, 1901, that the
[17:30] Speaker 3: thing finally occurred. As I look back across the years,
[17:34] Speaker 3: I realize how unreal it seems, and sometimes half wonder
[17:39] Speaker 3: if old Dr. Fenton was not right when he charged
[17:42] Speaker 3: it all to my excited imagination. I recall that he
[17:45] Speaker 3: listened with great kindness and patience when I told him,
[17:48] Speaker 3: but afterward gave me a nerve powdered and arranged for
[17:51] Speaker 3: the half-year's vacation on which I departed the next week.
[17:55] Speaker 3: That fateful night I was wildly agitated and perturbed, for
[17:59] Speaker 3: despite the excellent care he had received, Joe Slater was
[18:02] Speaker 3: unmistakably dying. Perhaps it was his mountain freedom that he missed,
[18:07] Speaker 3: or perhaps the turmoil in his brain had grown too
[18:10] Speaker 3: acute for his rather sluggish physique. But at all events,
[18:14] Speaker 3: the flame of vitality flickered low in the decadent body.
[18:19] Speaker 3: He was drowsy near the end, and as darkness fell,
[18:23] Speaker 3: he dropped off into a troubled sleep. I did not
[18:26] Speaker 3: strap on the straitjacket as was customary when he slept,
[18:29] Speaker 3: since I saw that he was too feeble to be dangerous,
[18:32] Speaker 3: even if he woke in mental disorder once more before
[18:35] Speaker 3: passing away. But I did place upon his head and
[18:38] Speaker 3: mine the two ends of my cosmic radio, hoping against
[18:42] Speaker 3: hope for a first and last message from the dream
[18:46] Speaker 3: world in the brief time remaining. In the cell with
[18:49] Speaker 3: us was one nurse, a mediocre fellow who did not
[18:52] Speaker 3: understand the purpose of the apparatus or think to inquire
[18:56] Speaker 3: into my course. As the hours wore on, I saw
[18:59] Speaker 3: his head droop awkwardly in sleep, but I did not
[19:02] Speaker 3: disturb him. I myself, lulled by the rhythmical breathing of
[19:06] Speaker 3: the healthy and dying man, must have nodded a little later.
[19:10] Speaker 3: The sound of weird lyric melody was what aroused me. Chords, vibrations,
[19:15] Speaker 3: and harmonic ecstasies echoed passionately on every hand, while on
[19:20] Speaker 3: my ravaged sight burst the stupendous spectacle of ultimate beauty. Walls, columns,
[19:27] Speaker 3: and architraves of living fire blazed engulfingly around me. and
[19:32] Speaker 3: the spot where I seemed to float in the air,
[19:34] Speaker 3: extending upward to an infinitely high vaulted dome of indescribable splendor.
[19:39] Speaker 3: Blending with this display of palatial magnificence, or rather supplanting
[19:44] Speaker 3: it at times in kaleidoscopic rotation, were glimpses of wide
[19:48] Speaker 3: plains and graceful valleys. high mountains and inviting grottos, covered
[19:53] Speaker 3: with every lovely attribute of scenery which my delighted eye
[19:56] Speaker 3: could conceive, yet formed wholly of some glowing ethereal plastic entity,
[20:01] Speaker 3: which in consistency partook as much of spirit as of matter.
[20:06] Speaker 3: As I gazed, I perceived that my own brain held
[20:08] Speaker 3: the key to these enchanting metamorphoses, for each vista which
[20:12] Speaker 3: appeared to me was the one changing my mind most
[20:16] Speaker 3: wished to behold. Amidst this Elysian realm I dwelt not
[20:20] Speaker 3: as a stranger, for each sight and sound was familiar
[20:23] Speaker 3: to me, just as it had been for uncounted eons
[20:26] Speaker 3: of eternity before, and would be for like eternities to come.
[20:31] Speaker 3: Then the resplendent aura of my brother of light drew
[20:34] Speaker 3: near and held colloquy with me, soul to soul, with
[20:38] Speaker 3: silent and perfect interchange of thought. The hour was one
[20:42] Speaker 3: of approaching triumph, for was not my fellow being escaping
[20:46] Speaker 3: at last from a degrading periodic bondage, escaping forever and
[20:50] Speaker 3: preparing to follow the accursed oppressor even unto the uttermost
[20:54] Speaker 3: fields of ether, that upon it might be wrought a
[20:57] Speaker 3: flaming cosmic vengeance which would shake the spheres. We floated
[21:02] Speaker 3: thus for a little time, when I perceived a slight
[21:05] Speaker 3: blurring and fading of the objects around us, as though
[21:08] Speaker 3: some force were recalling me to earth, where I least
[21:11] Speaker 3: wished to go. The form near me seemed to feel
[21:14] Speaker 3: a change also, for it gradually brought its discourse toward
[21:18] Speaker 3: a conclusion, and itself prepared to quit the scene, fading
[21:23] Speaker 3: from my sight at a rate somewhat less rapid than
[21:26] Speaker 3: that of the other objects. A few more thoughts were
[21:29] Speaker 3: exchanged and I knew that the luminous one and I
[21:32] Speaker 3: were being recalled to bondage, though for my brother of
[21:35] Speaker 3: light it would be the last time. The sorry planet-shell
[21:39] Speaker 3: being well nigh spent, in less than an hour my
[21:42] Speaker 3: fellow would be free to pursue the oppressor along the
[21:45] Speaker 3: Milky Way and past the hither stars to the very
[21:48] Speaker 3: confines of infinity. A well-defined shock separates my final impression
[21:54] Speaker 3: of the fading scene of light from my sudden and
[21:56] Speaker 3: somewhat shamefaced awakening and straightening up in my chair as
[22:00] Speaker 3: I saw the dying figure on the couch move hesitantly.
[22:04] Speaker 3: Joe Slater was indeed awaking, though probably for the last time.
[22:08] Speaker 3: As I looked more closely, I saw that in the
[22:11] Speaker 3: sallow cheeks shone spots of color which had never been present.
[22:16] Speaker 3: The lips, too, seemed unusual, being tightly compressed, as if
[22:20] Speaker 3: by the force of a stronger character than had been Slater's.
[22:24] Speaker 3: The whole face finally began to grow tense, and the
[22:27] Speaker 3: head turned restlessly with closed eyes. I did not arouse
[22:31] Speaker 3: the sleeping nurse, but readjusted the slightly disarranged headbands of
[22:35] Speaker 3: my telepathic radio, intent to catch any parting messages the
[22:39] Speaker 3: dreamer might have to deliver. All at once the head
[22:42] Speaker 3: turned sharply in my direction and the eyes fell open,
[22:46] Speaker 3: causing me to stare in blank amazement at what I beheld.
[22:49] Speaker 3: The man who had been Joe Slater, the Catskill decadent,
[22:53] Speaker 3: was now gazing at me with a pair of luminous,
[22:55] Speaker 3: expanded eyes, whose blue seemed subtly to have deepened. Neither
[23:01] Speaker 3: mania nor degeneracy was visible in that gaze, and I
[23:04] Speaker 3: felt beyond a doubt that I was viewing a face
[23:07] Speaker 3: behind which lay an active mind of high order. At
[23:11] Speaker 3: this juncture, my brain became aware of a steady external
[23:14] Speaker 3: influence operating upon it. I closed my eyes to concentrate
[23:18] Speaker 3: my thoughts more profoundly and was rewarded by positive knowledge
[23:23] Speaker 3: that my long-sought mental message had come at last. Each
[23:27] Speaker 3: transmitted idea formed rapidly in my mind, and though no
[23:30] Speaker 3: actual language was employed, my habitual association of conception and
[23:34] Speaker 3: expression was so great that I seemed to be receiving
[23:37] Speaker 3: the message in ordinary English. Joe Slater is dead, came
[23:42] Speaker 3: the soul-petrifying voice or agency from beyond the veil of sleep.
[23:47] Speaker 3: My opened eyes sought the couch of pain in curious horror,
[23:52] Speaker 3: but the blue eyes were still calmly gazing. and the
[23:55] Speaker 3: countenance was still intelligently animated. He is better dead, for
[24:00] Speaker 3: he was unfit to bear the active intellect of cosmic entity.
[24:04] Speaker 3: His gross body could not undergo the needed adjustments between
[24:07] Speaker 3: ethereal life and planet life. He was too much of
[24:11] Speaker 3: an animal, too little of a man, yet it is
[24:14] Speaker 3: through his deficiency that you have come to discover me,
[24:18] Speaker 3: for the cosmic and planet souls rightly should never meet.
[24:22] Speaker 3: He has been my torment forever, and diurnal prison for
[24:27] Speaker 3: 42 of your terrestrial years. I am an entity like
[24:30] Speaker 3: that which you yourself become in the freedom of dreamless sleep.
[24:35] Speaker 3: I am your brother of light and have floated with
[24:37] Speaker 3: you in the effulgent valleys. It has not permitted me
[24:42] Speaker 3: to tell your waking earth self of your real self,
[24:45] Speaker 3: but we are all roamers of vast spaces and travelers
[24:48] Speaker 3: in many ages. Next year I may be dwelling in
[24:51] Speaker 3: the dark Egypt, which you call ancient, or in the
[24:55] Speaker 3: cruel empire of San Chan, which is to come three
[24:58] Speaker 3: thousand years hence. You and I have drifted into the
[25:02] Speaker 3: worlds that reel about the red Arcturus, and dwelt in
[25:05] Speaker 3: the bodies of the insect philosophers that crawl proudly over
[25:09] Speaker 3: the fourth moon of Jupiter. How little does the earth-self
[25:13] Speaker 3: know of life in its extent. How little, indeed, ought
[25:17] Speaker 3: it to know for its own tranquillity. Of the oppressor
[25:20] Speaker 3: I cannot speak. You on earth have unwittingly felt its
[25:24] Speaker 3: distant presence. You who without knowing idly gave to its
[25:27] Speaker 3: blinking beacon the name of Algol, the demon star. It
[25:32] Speaker 3: is to meet and conquer the oppressor that I have
[25:34] Speaker 3: vainly striven for eons, held back by bodily encumbrances. Tonight
[25:39] Speaker 3: I go as a nemesis bearing just and blazingly cataclysmic vengeance.
[25:44] Speaker 3: Watch me in the sky close to the demon star.
[25:47] Speaker 3: I cannot speak longer. for the body of Joe Slater
[25:50] Speaker 3: grows cold and rigid, and the coarse brains are ceasing
[25:53] Speaker 3: to vibrate as I wish. You have been my friend
[25:56] Speaker 3: in the cosmos. You have been my only friend on
[25:59] Speaker 3: this planet, the only soul to sense and seek for
[26:02] Speaker 3: me within the repellent form which lies on this couch.
[26:07] Speaker 3: We shall meet again, perhaps in the shining mists of
[26:10] Speaker 3: Orion's sword, perhaps on a bleak plateau in prehistoric Asia,
[26:15] Speaker 3: perhaps in unremembered dreams tonight, perhaps in some other form
[26:19] Speaker 3: and eon hence, when the solar system shall have been
[26:22] Speaker 3: swept away. At this point the thought waves abruptly ceased,
[26:27] Speaker 3: and the pale eyes of the dreamer, or can I
[26:29] Speaker 3: say dead man, commenced to glaze fiscally. In a half
[26:34] Speaker 3: stupor I crossed over to the couch and felt of
[26:36] Speaker 3: his wrist, but found it cold, stiff, and pulseless. The
[26:40] Speaker 3: sallow cheeks paled again, and the thick lips fell open,
[26:44] Speaker 3: disclosing the repulsively rotten fangs. of the degenerate Joe Slater.
[26:50] Speaker 3: I shivered, pulled a blanket over the hideous face, and
[26:53] Speaker 3: awakened the nurse. Then I left the cell and went
[26:56] Speaker 3: silently to my room. I had an insistent and unaccountable
[27:00] Speaker 3: craving for a sleep whose dreams I should not remember.
[27:05] Speaker 3: The climax? What plain tale of science can boast of
[27:09] Speaker 3: such a rhetorical effect? I have merely set down certain
[27:13] Speaker 3: things appealing to me as facts, allowing you to construe
[27:16] Speaker 3: them as you will. As I've already admitted, my superior
[27:19] Speaker 3: old Dr. Fenton denies the reality of everything I have relayed.
[27:24] Speaker 3: He vows that I was broken down with nervous strain
[27:26] Speaker 3: and badly in need of the long vacation on full
[27:28] Speaker 3: pay which he so generously gave me. He assures me
[27:32] Speaker 3: on his professional honor that Joe Slater was but a
[27:35] Speaker 3: low-grade paranoiac whose fantastic notions must have come from the
[27:40] Speaker 3: crude hereditary folktales which circulate in even the most decadent
[27:44] Speaker 3: of communities. All this he tells me yet I cannot
[27:48] Speaker 3: forget what I saw in the sky on the night
[27:50] Speaker 3: after Slater died. Lest you think me a biased witness,
[27:54] Speaker 3: another's pen must add this final testimony, which may perhaps
[27:59] Speaker 3: supply the climax that you expect. I will quote the
[28:02] Speaker 3: following account of the star Nova Persei verbatim from the
[28:06] Speaker 3: pages of that eminent astronomical authority, Professor Garrett P. Service.
[28:13] Speaker 3: On February 22, 1901, a marvelous new star was discovered,
[28:17] Speaker 3: by Dr. Anderson of Edinburgh, not very far from Algol.
[28:22] Speaker 3: No star had been visible at that point before. Within
[28:25] Speaker 3: 24 hours, the stranger had become so bright that it
[28:28] Speaker 3: outshone Capella. In a week or two, it had visibly faded,
[28:33] Speaker 3: and in the course of a few months, it was
[28:35] Speaker 3: hardly discernible with the naked eye. Oh, my God.

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