Ainsley Komper [Komper - Hypersubjects

Ainsley Komper

Hypersubjects

Amazon Kindle 2019

Copyright 2019 by Ainsley Komper.

All rights reserved.

This book may not be reproduced in part or in its entirety, nor stored in a retrieval system, nor transmitted in any form or by electronic, mechanical or other means without the written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer who may cite brief passages in a review.

Table of Contents

LARK

It was difficult for him to turn his back on something like binaural stimulation. After his first dose, he was completely hooked. His addictive personality makes him borderline obsessive, almost insanely attached to the object of his affection. These can include tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, MDMA, gambling, sex parties, etc. But somehow, in a peculiar way, he had the ability to stop at some point, look at himself and feel disgusted by the whole situation. It was in that moment of realisation that he could finally have a sense of the bigger picture, feel ashamed about himself, and run. However, the cycles repeated over and over with all their phases, including a new direction for his so-called career, a detox, new friends, and new diets, only to be found with another addiction filling that void. Some friends have pointed out the cyclic pattern, but there he was again and again. It was also difficult for him to be admitted to supporting groups due to the specific nature of each one of them and how little he identified with all of those addictions. Also, he feared therapy. Revealing a big part of himself to a complete stranger was not something he felt comfortable with. Besides, it had never worked in the past as it always led to misunderstandings like when he detailed his condition a few years ago.

How he perceived life was different from the rest of the world but there was no way that a child could have known what was actually normal if he had no other point of view besides his own. After accidentally talking to a couple of kids about the subject, he started to realise that what was happening inside his head was not ordinary, so he checked with the school counsellor. The session did not go well, so he learnt to hide it from everyone else, including his family. The counsellor told him it was all a product of his imagination, a need to escape the absence of a father figure and siblings. Years passed by until he stumbled upon an article which described what he actually was: A synesthete. It was not a big deal but still rare enough not to be mainstream and only affecting a considerably small portion of homo sapiens. Synesthesia is not a disease but a condition which has several varieties. His was named Sound to Colour and it seems that many of his kind are artists, musicians and creators. He had never thought to become one of them but felt honoured to be part of such a kind, so he started to register in online groups and forums related to the subject. Sound to Colour Synesthesia generates automatic responses on his brain from certain sounds. These responses are translated into visual impressions like splashes of single or multiple colours in different shapes. Some of them appear like a general filter to his field of vision, similar to when wearing red or blue tinted sunglasses. Others were halos, faded semi-patterns and visual manifestations of the like. What is more, they were sometimes not even colours themselves but sensations on his mind related to them. It can be difficult for a synesthete to describe their inner visual reactions. For him, they flowed so naturally that he never thought about analysing them, besides, it was not like he lived in a continuous multicolor splashed rainbow. On the contrary, they were more subtle and sometimes he wondered whether they were real colours or just mental impressions of them, but it did not matter as our vision is, in fact, a series of mental impressions of light bouncing from objects to our eyes, except, in his case, his eardrum played a small part as well. Checking what was happening in all of those synesthesia groups on a monthly basis and buying the odd book about it became a habit for him, but he had never felt the need to talk openly with the people around him, until that particular day. He received an email invitation to take part in a two-day study involving only sound-related synesthetes. The trial covered travelling expenses, some meal vouchers and a small fee for the inconvenience. There was something about the whole experience that made him not only feel special and unique, but curious because he never had the chance to meet others like him. He didnt hesitate and decided to go with it. However, the experience was an entire disappointment because he did not have contact with fellow synesthetes and it was basically a lot of filling in forms, questionnaires and surveys. After a one-hour interview, he had to complete a load of paperwork and the second day started with some tests where he described the colour shades corresponding to certain sounds and, in the afternoon more paperwork.

Months later, he met her at a party. After having a couple of drinks, he was texting a friend outside to get directions for the next gathering where they would all be trying a new type of pill. It was too new to be illegal and the rumours about a softer comedown and a longer period of euphoria made it look very promising, if not intriguing. But then it seemed she was expecting him to be there. In a very direct manner, she told him she was not very good at this and that she knew he was on a search, only that he was looking in the wrong places.

Im not supposed to tell you how I found you, but it is easy to figure that out. There is something different that I want you to try, not only for yourself but for a greater cause. You could stay here. Tomorrow, you are going to wake up lazy, knackered, not only physically but emotionally. Maybe youll call in sick before starting a new zombie week at work until the next weekend or until you try something silly on Thursday, if you make it sober until then. Tuesday is a safer bet.

He thought she was selling something, and as a matter of fact, she was and he had no idea of the price he was about to pay. Lark was almost sure this was about a different drug, perhaps with a bit of sex in the mix. Whatever it involved, she made him curious enough to follow her. Her place was not tidy or particularly clean, which did not give him much confidence. Slowly, she forgot her seductive manners and became more matter-of-fact.

This might not work but I am almost 100 percent sure it will. Before he could reply, she interrupted bluntly, I have tested it with more than 20 subjects and it always works, just in different ways.

After several computers were on, she took the biggest set of headphones he had ever seen. They were almost like a helmet and he recognised them as headphones because of the wire and the jack plugged into a console.

Are you a DJ or something?

I love it when people ask that. She said with a smile and gently pushed him onto a sofa while placing the headphones on him. They were more than noise cancelling, almost like creating a weird compressed airspace around his ears. She spoke to him through a microphone plugged into the console as well.

I know weve just met but please trust me on this one. What you are about to hear is not music, it is not hypnotherapy or anything like that. I am going to play a binaural track, which means that you are going to listen to different frequencies in every ear. Due to your condition, this will have a different effect than in normal people. Whatever you feel, please do not remove the headphones.

She played the track without waiting for his consent. At that moment, he understood why she knew about him being a Synesthete. Unless she was a heck of a hacker and traced him through the online forums, it was because of the short study that she found him. The music or whatever was playing slowly took over all of his questions about her as it became louder, more annoying and perhaps aggressive. He was not sure but it started to block his thoughts about anything. With his eyes closed, he tried without success to follow a pattern or a structure in order to make the experience more bearable. It was a series of high pitched notes, crashes, scratches, electric violins, something resembling breaking glass mixed with a mad guitar and an ongoing car crash taking place in the background. Then it stopped, abruptly, and all was peaceful. He did not notice at what time the lights went off. It was pitch black. Did he fall asleep? Lazily, he removed the big headphones and before he could call her, he noticed a strange glow in his hand, in his whole body actually, like a faint silver emanating from random points all over himself.