TUNERS

Copyright 2010 by Berj / KI3U


[ The scene is a lower middle-class neighborhood street in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in the year 1999, late afternoon in October. The weather is mild. About midway down this street from the main artery it connects to, in the front yard of a typical early 1900's duplex, a man in his 50's, rather ordinary in appearance except for the pipe he is smoking, is leisurely raking leaves. A new but otherwise nondescript gray car pulls up and stops, and two athletic men in their 40's, dressed in gray suits, and otherwise quite ordinary in appearance, get out and walk over to the pipe smoker. ]


Good afternoon Sir, are you Mr. Thor Krohnchahck?

It's pronounced "toor", but yes, I am he. And who are you fellas?

Yes Toor, sorry. Ah, my name is Roger Tandiman, and this is my partner Mr. Gary Whiteson. We're with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Uh-hmm.

May we talk?

Sure. What's up?


[ Whiteson produces a small pad and a pen so that he can take notes. ]


Mr. Krohnchahck, your name has come up during an investigation into a recent serious breach of government security. Let me assure you right at the beginning that we are not here because of any evidence whatsoever linking you with any wrongdoing. The reason we are here is that in pursuing this investigation we have developed profiles of the types of people who may have similar special knowledge skills to the actual criminals we are after, and you have been identified as one of a handful of people with these knowledge skills. And by interviewing you we hope to learn more about skills such as you possess, and maybe get a break in tracking down who we are really after.

Well, sounds interesting. Just which knowledge skills am I supposed to have which are so relevant here?

Back in late 1972 you and some of your friends conducted an extended experiment in mind reading, which lasted several months, isn't that right?

So you guys know about that. That was ages ago. Only a few people ever knew about that back then. And by now you'd think that it was all but forgotten. How did you find out about that?

One of your co-experimenters joined the Bureau. During the present investigation he mentioned your experiment. Apparently he was very impressed back then with the results you had achieved.

Dickins, right? Jake Dickins.

Well, I really am not at liberty to disclose that, but off the record, yes, it's Agent Dickins.

Good ol' Dicky - can't say I'm surprised he went in with you guys. He always liked crime shows on TV you know. How's he doing these days?

Oh he's fine. Just fine. Mr. Krohnchahck, according to Agent Dickins your small private group started out as a weekly seance just for curiosity, and nothing much happened for several weeks until one night you started taking notes. And then at the end of that seance it was discovered that you had written down comments by your fellow sitters, but before they had actually spoken those exact comments that evening. That is correct, is it?

Yes, that's what we figured out after going over my notes and discussing the entire evening. We were really surprised as you can imagine.

Right, and so you all decided from then on to focus your seances on mind reading?

Yes that's right.

And eventually a stage was reached where you Mr. Krohnchahck, could read any person's mind, at will. And this was witnessed repeatedly by members of your group, as well as by others. Is that correct?

Yes.

And then what happened next?

Well I'm sure Dicky already told you. The gang got nervous around me because I could read their thoughts, could read them exactly like they were thinking them. Just read their minds at will. And they got scared and just stopped hanging around with me. And that was the end of our seance group. And I lost some friends. That wasn't any fun.

I'm sure. Now what happened to your mind reading ability after this?

It seemed to just get stronger and easier. It got to where I didn't need to be in the presence of someone to read their mind - they could be anywhere, and I just had to think about them and tune into their mind, and I'd hear their thoughts in my mind, you know like listening to a radio broadcast. And then I could do this with people I didn't know and who I'd never met. I'd see someone on TV and I'd tune into their mind. I checked myself by reading politician's minds - you know how they're always lying, and how often enough some of their lies get outed. So that was how I started my checks on reading the minds of people I didn't know and had never met. If I could tune into somebody, anybody, I could read their mind. The amazing thing is that I found out I could not only read their present thoughts, but their past thoughts too. So it was like I could browse their minds, their memories, like they were a library.

Agent Dickins told us that he suspected you had reached this stage at the time your seance group broke up.

Yeah, well, of course I knew they suspected it because I could read their minds thinking it.

OK, so how did it go from there?

Well after a while I got increasingly uncomfortable with this ability. For one thing, people started to look like machines to me, like robots or androids. And it was like I was just reading the computer program which was running their machine-minds. It was a bit scary because I was starting to feel like I was the only real human and everyone else was just a machine.

It went even further than that, didn't it?

Yeah. It did. I could read not only what they were thinking, but what they were going to think.

How far out into the future?

Any time into the future as far as I could tell. It didn't matter. I just tuned in. If I could get interested in tuning in, then I could read what someone was going to think whenever.

Agent Dickins said that he saw you a couple of years after your seance group broke up, and you seemed to be back to your old self. Did you lose your mind reading ability?

I got rid of it on purpose.

Why?

Because it got to the point where I could not tell anymore if I was just reading the thoughts of free minds, or if I was actually causing those minds to think the thoughts I was reading. I got frightened - it was like I was all alone and everybody else was just a predictable machine, even the people closest to me. I wanted human contact back. So I tried to get out of the mind reading.

Tried to get out of it? You mean you couldn't just drop it. Say like it's difficult to drop a habit?

Yes something like that. I had to work hard to shed it - really will it out of me. It took a good six months for it to finally go away. I was very relieved. It was like coming back into the populated world from total isolation.


[  Krohnchahck, staring down at the ground, takes a deep breath. It is evident he has relived a difficult experience. He begins tamping his pipe, preparing a new bowl. ]


Guess this lighter is outa fuel. You fellas have a light by any chance?

Eh, no. Perhaps we can continue talking inside Mr. Krohnchahck?

Heh. I figured you'd try to get a peek inside my apartment. Well why not, I've got nothing to hide. C'mon.


[ Agents Tandiman and Whiteson follow Krohnchahck as he leads them into his small apartment. Krohnchahck leaves them in his living room while he goes off into another room to service his pipe. What the two agents see in the living room is entirely consistent with what they've already read in the extensive background check on Krohnchahck prepared for them by the Bureau.  Krohnchahck they know, is employed as a short order cook in a diner. His background shows him consistently indifferent to accumulating money. So far as is known he has no steady female companion. His apartment is, except for books everywhere throughout, quite plain and spartan. There is no television set to be seen, but there are several radios. On a plain desk are a computer, and an antique but apparently functional telephone. Off in one corner is a homebuilt amateur radio station. On the station's operating table next to the plain brass straight telegraph key lies a sheet of paper bearing in penciled handwriting a strange script. After eying this paper Tandiman and Whiteson exchange glances, signaling to one another that, as expected from their background briefing, Krohnchahck is studying the world's most mysterious manuscript, the so-called Voynich Manuscript. Evidently Krohnchahck has been discussing the Voynich script with one of his amateur radio contacts. Krohnchahck re-enters the room with his pipe lit and issuing forth a generous puff of smoke. ]


See anything you didn't expect from your background briefing fellas?

No. Not yet anyway.

Well have a seat guys. Get you some coffee or something?

Thanks. No, thanks. Now, Mr. Krohnchahck, have you experimented with mind reading at all since back in 72' and 73' ?

Well, what do you mean experiment?

Have you had any mind reading experiences since then. Experiences either accidental or intentional?


[  Krohnchahck's body language changes noticeably. Before this point he has projected a fairly neutral and passive aspect, but now his aura is suddenly more authoritative. Tandiman and Whiteson instantly sense a power of some sort radiating from Krohnchahck. ]


Well Bob, you're asking me a question which is much, much more complicated than the simple answer you are expecting I think. There is no simple yes or no answer here.

How so? Please explain.

OK. You asked for it. What happened back in '72 and '73 wasn't just mind reading. If you think about it you can see that it couldn't be if I was reading thoughts which were in the future.

How far into the future? How far into the future did you read thoughts?

Well for now lets just say very far. To get to the point though, it became clear to me that my most advanced future mind readings were experiences which were indistinguishable from time travel. And, once you've traveled into the future, the time from takeoff to the time of landing in the future become merged in a way. So that when you get back to your takeoff time, the future, the future to the original landing point, is still with you, still with you all the time. So in other words, when I experimented with that back in '72 and '73, the experiment never ended. And that's why when you ask me if I've experimented with mind reading since back then, the answer, the truthful answer, is not a simple yes or no. For me the ordinary serial reality and the parallel reality are simultaneous now. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Eh, yes, I think so. You say you are, right now, living in some sort of merged time, which goes back to 1972, and forward to some point which you'd rather not disclose right now - is that correct?

Yes, that's about it. Except back then I also traveled back in time, before '72. The merged time I experience today spans both before and after 1972.

What about those time travel paradoxes?

Don't worry about those.

What?

Don't worry about that. It's simple and complicated at the same time. You get what you pay for, so to speak.

I really don't understand Mr. Krohnchahck, can you .....

No. Not now anyway. Lets get to the reason you fellows are here. There's an underground data center not far from Harrisburg that not even the President can get into all that easily, and its been, shall we say, visited, visited a number of times, recently as far as you know, by someone, someone completely unknown. About all your people have been able to conclude is that this intruder seems to have the ability to read your minds, and avoid your best efforts to set a trap. Isn't that right? Isn't that why you're here to see me?

How did you know about that?

I knew about it in '73 Gary. Back then by chance I read the mind of your intruder, read the intruder's mind in the future, the future which is now.

What do you know about this intruder?

Not much. I haven't really been interested. Back in '73 when I read him I was already working on shedding myself of the tuning power.

The tuning power - you mean this ability you had to tune into minds, to tune into some other time?

Yeah.

Please tell us what little you do know about the intruder - anything at all to help us. Mr. Krohnchahck this is of the absolute utmost national security.

Bob, you're going to first have to understand that for entities like your intruder, national security is simply too trivial to be concerned with. There's nothing, absolutely nothing you have down there in that hole which the intruder cares about.

What do you mean? Then why is he here, coming and going like, like some sort of ghost?

I didn't say your intruder is a he. It could be a she. I'm not sure. But lets say he's a he for now. He doesn't give a damn about your secrets and the other stuff you've got down there. He's visiting the Earth there.

He's what?

He's visiting the Earth there - the ground there, the ground, the dirt that was there long before the government built that underground complex.

What do you mean visiting the dirt? What for?

It should have been obvious to you guys why - didn't you notice the pattern of spots where your sensors detected his presence? It's the geology there he's interested in. You guys are so worried about your secrets that you didn't notice that all he's doing is what any good geologist would do if he had a particular interest in that particular location.

He's doing geology you're saying?

That's what I picked up from him back in '73. Geology is his bag - turns him on - makes him happy. And he's been there on and off studying his geology for a very long time, obviously from well before the government built that place. He's not in the slightest interested in the government's installation.

What kind of entity is this intruder if he appears to us like a ghost?

Not sure. Except that he's got what I had in '72 at least as well developed. Probably even much better. He can travel in time, read minds, tune in to what he wants to tune into. He's a Tuner.

A Tuner! Has he, do you think he's tuned in to our minds?

Yes he has.

Does he know we are having this conversation right now?

Yes, he knew back in '73 when I was reading him that this conversation would take place.

Did you and he read each other's minds? Did you communicate? Telepathically, or time-telepathically or something?

Yes we did.

Well?

Well what?

What did you talk about?

Nothing. We just exchanged acknowledgement that this was going to happen - that you guys would show up here in 1999, and here we are. I think I bumped into him because I happened to be working with my minerals collection at the time. Of course implicit in our exchange was acknowledging each other as Tuners.

Acknowledge each other as Tuners? Is that some sort of special thing?

Well it's something like two radio operators in contact - at the very minimum you exchange call-signs. And maybe some other stuff, you know, like locations and a signal report.

Call-signs? Tuners have call-signs?

Sure.

What's your call-sign? What's his call-sign?

Can't tell you Bob, sorry. It's not at all because I don't want to, and I have no reason to not tell you. I can't tell you because the call-signs of Tuners can only be perceived via tuning. There's simply no way you can perceive it any other way. It's like if you're stone-deaf, you can't hear me say my name in my own voice.

Is there any way, any way at all, to get some idea of the call-sign of a Tuner? Say visually with some sort of diagram?

Well yes, but only Tuners can make sense of it.

Please, what is it?


[  Krohnchahck gets up and walks over to the operating table of his amateur radio station, picks  up the sheet of paper with his handwritten notes, and brings it back to the two agents. ]


You recognize this Bob?

The Voynich Manuscript! The damn Voynich text! You saying that this Voynich text expresses Tuner communication?

Yes. That it does.

Is there a Tuner call-sign on this paper?

No, just some experimental stuff I'm working on.

What kind of experimental stuff?

Poetry actually. I like exchanging poetry with other poet Tuners. Needless to say Tuners can have very  different tastes in poetry from non-Tuners.

Can you write a Tuner call-sign for me so we can see what it looks like?

I could, but it wouldn't help you. You see there is practically an infinite number of ways to write a Tuner call-sign in Voynichese. I told you that to perceive a Tuner call-sign you have to be a Tuner.

Well then just show us one of the infinite examples.

OK, pick any Voynich word here on this paper - it can be a Tuner call-sign.

I don't get it.

Bob, the Voynich script is a work of art which Tuners have used. But to non-Tuners like you it makes no sense because it's merely a shadow of the Tuner communications. The mind of a Tuner exists in the total context of space and time, infinitely backward and infinitely forward, and everywhere across the cosmos. And so, in what you non-Tuners experience as the serial reality, it is the sequence which determines just exactly what a particular  Voynich word, or for that matter any script's word, means. To understand and communicate Tunerese, you must experience not just the serial reality, but also the parallel reality. In fact you must experience the serial and parallel realities simultaneously.

Mr. Krohnchahck, you said you had worked hard to shed yourself of tuning. But I get the impression that you still are a Tuner.

Well yes, once a Tuner, always a Tuner. But it's a lot like amateur radio - once started, you are forever a radio amateur, but you might not be practicing the art continuously. Go for years without even a station set up. Then maybe set up a station and operate for a while, and then go off the air again.

When did you last tune in? Was it this poetry?

Yes it was. I sent it to a poetry group of Tuners I network with. Earlier this afternoon actually.

And how did you send it to your poetry Tuner network?

Just sat down at my radio station over there and did some tuning.

You mean transmitted on an amateur radio frequency some Morse code equivalents of that Voynich text there, that poetry?

Yes in a sense, but not on amateur radio frequencies exactly. In fact I never powered up the transmitter, although I could have just as well.

Well then how did you radiate your poetry?

Again Bob, it is, in your perception of reality, the sequencing of what I did as I sat there at the operating table. In total context. Every tiniest movement of my body, every subtle thought I executed in the proper and conscious execution - those accomplished the transmission. Its just exactly how I turned the tuning dials of the radios, how I adjusted myself in my chair, how I breathed, how I manipulated the telegraph key - everything down to the minutest subtle detail generated by my being as it is immersed in space and time, and in your perception of things seen as the shadow of the sequencing - that's how I tuned myself in to the network, established contact, and sent my poetry. You must understand that in our cosmos absolutely everything, everything from the subtlest emotions to the grandest physical phenomena, proceeds via resonance. Everything in our universe proceeds by resonance, and nothing proceeds without resonance. When you see a mathematical equation you are seeing a statement of resonance between the variables in that equation. And tuning means resonating.

OK. Is there a distinction among Tuners - are there good and evil Tuners?

Yes indeed. There are Tuner wars even.

Does any of this impact our national security?

I don't think so. I mean other than give you guys some fits over mysteries like the geology intruder, and the Voynich Manuscript. Mostly though Tuners are playing on a far greater playing field than our present earthly one. Your concerns are mere fleeting shadows in the world of the Tuners.

Are Tuners immortal?

Their call-signs are. That's the complete answer Bob. You'll have to think about it to get more out of that statement.


[ A period of silence ensues. Tandiman and Whiteson are reading Whiteson's notes, which run a dozen pages through his small pad.  Krohnchahck sits quietly puffing on his pipe, looking past the two agents through a window to the outside. Several minutes go by before Tandiman speaks again. ]


Mr. Krohnchahck ..... I have to report on all this to my superiors. At this point I'm not sure how to do that. The thing is that you could be classified as sensitive depending on what Gary and I report back, and there's no telling what that could lead to. I really need .....

I'm not at all worried about what anything will lead to Bob. Don't worry.

You know the future here?

Yes.


[ Tandiman and Whiteson are buckling their seatbelts in their car. ]


Bob, look at the log.

Yeah, why?

It says we got here at 4:42 PM. It's now 6:07. That's almost an hour and a half we were in there with Krohnchahck. But I don't remember us doing much of anything or talking about much of anything, except the Voynich Manuscript. And all I've got here for notes is these three lines of Voynich text, and "Krohnchahck preoccupied with VMS; says to tune back in anytime". Is that all that went on in there for all that time - we just talked about the Voynich?

I, I think so. Weird. You're right - all I can remember is him going on about the Voynich, and something about we ought to study it more often, tune into it or something. I can't remember, but I think he might have said that all that stuff back in '72 which Jake told us about was now old history for him.

Hey! Wasn't there three lines of Voynich text on that pad? There's only two I see there now.

Man that's strange! I could swear I just saw three lines a second ago.

We haven't had anything at all to eat since before noon. Maybe that's it. Lets get out of here and get some food!

***