I guess it was about 2 years ago.
I was walking around the city,
and I started seeing these crazy
fliers up on poles everywhere.
The first flier I think I kind
of half-read, and it just seemed
to be marketing for some sort of
invention.
I think it was the vital-orbit
was the first one I saw.
Didn't even pull one of the
little fliers yet.
It wasn't until I walked around
more and more and started
seeing some of the other fliers
that I really started wondering
what the heck this thing even
was.
I started grabbing some of the little tags and
calling the numbers and hearing the messages.
Thank you for calling
the Jejune Institute,
San Francisco headquarters.
We would like to invite you to
a Special Orientation session.
We are located at
580 California Street,
suite 1067.
For those dark horses with the
spirit to look up and see, a
recondite family awaits.
I kind of didn't know what to
think.
I at first thought, "Okay,
someone's making these crazy
advertisements for something
that's almost too impossible to
even exist.
And they seem to be urging me to
visit this physical place. "
Once I got to
580 California Street, I was
kind of intimidated a bit by
both the locale and the
building.
I realized this is downtown
financial district.
This is a high-rent district.
This is a place where you have
Bank of America.
I walked in and asked for the
Jejune Institute.
The security guard seemed to
know what the place was.
Asked for my I.D., had me sign
in, gave me a visitor badge, and
at that point directed me to the
elevators.
I get out and see this very
normal-looking lobby.
And I see the receptionist
there, who didn't really seem at
at all like anybody from the
website.
You know, I wasn't really seeing
the name of this company I was
looking for.
And the receptionist asked me if
she could help me.
I said, "Yeah, I'm here for the
Jejune institute. "
And she handed me a key.
And that seemed to be that.
On one side's a map.
On the other side, there's
instructions guiding me through
the floor I'm on to some
location.
So, I navigated the floor based
on the map and the instructions
and ended up at a room.
Greetings.
Welcome to
the Jejune Institute,
San Francisco induction center.
Please enter the room and close
the door behind you.
Now have a seat in the lounge
chair provided for you.
In a moment, our orientation
program will begin.
5... 4... 3... 2... And 1.
You now sit in a satellite induction
office of the Jejune Institute, located
in the deep forests of
San Francisco.
The room in which you are
currently located rests exactly
six floors beneath our global
headquarters.
The California Center is one of
many such stations spread
around the globe, in locations
such as Oslo, Seville, Algiers,
Bombay, Quebec, and Santiago.
But the origins of
the Jejune Institute are right
here.
It all began in 1962, when a
small group of academics came
together around a common
interest in the advancement of
socio-reengineering.
During the '60s, the society
was a closely knit forum for
experimental research
techniques, utilized to expand
interpersonal trust among
fellow human subjects.
During the 1970s, under the
leadership of luminary metaphysicist
Octavio Coleman, Esquire, the
institute gained a wide
influence and prestige for
which it is now known.
Along with contemporaries
Werner Erhard and Stewart Emery,
Coleman helped
spearhead the still-nascent
movement of personal growth and
self-help.
The work they did
collaboratively, amid the
breeding grounds of EST,
Echelon, and Dianetics helped
to spawn a thousand like-minded
prophets of pop psychology.
But what the Jejune Institute
is most celebrated for today
are the many advanced
technological products and
services they have brought to
the international marketplace.
These developments include
poliwater, a more condensed
form of water, with a higher
boiling point, a lower freezing
point, and astounding
regenerative properties upon
all organic compounds...
The vital-orbit human forcefield... a
hydrodynamic conductor based upon the
Tesla core, which acts as an
external ambassador to your
body...
And our foremost project, which
will utterly revolutionize the
way that human beings interact
both interpersonally and
socio-politically, Jejune's
algorithm... a small, mobile
device encasing a complex
mathematical code that will
instantly and permanently
reduce all human conflict,
violence, and heartbreak.
Patent pending.
I will admit that this was a
rather bizarre experience, and I
had no real clue that when I
went down there, this would be
what would be there.
And then, on the TV appears this
rather strange-looking old man,
who's calling himself
Octavio Coleman, Esquire.
You will begin to notice the
divine occurring all around you
in a thousand miniscule ways
constantly, all the time.
So, we will begin the induction
process.
At one point, he makes
mention of the desk sitting next
to the chair that I'm in and how
I really shouldn't open the
drawer that's there and take
what's inside.
And then, at that point, of
course, I had to open it and
look in the drawer.
And that's when I, for the very
first time, saw what would later
be referred to as the
induction card.
And it looked like a crazy
person designed it.
I started realizing it was
telling me how to navigate
myself out of this building and
to do so in a way that evaded
the security of the building.
So, I thought I'd give it a
shot.
You may suddenly begin to
notice small things around you
you had never before noticed.
And those minute details will
lead to other, more significant
observations and so on,
ad infinitum, until your entire
universe is transformed
forever.
What happened next is
in following the card, I end up
going on this very eccentric,
hour-long... I guess you would
say like a scavenger-hunt sort
of adventure.
There were lots of unanswered
questions... who's behind this?
Where is it leading?
What's the point?
And as it started to unfold,
more and more things kind of
came to light, especially things
like new terminology.
The word "nonchalance" was maybe
being used in ways that I hadn't
really seen it used before.
I guess I was afraid that at
some point I would be marketed to.
It'd be like, "Well, thank you
for going through this thing.
Buy Reese's peanut butter cups"
or something like that, you know?
But that never seemed to happen.
In fact, the more I pull on
threads, the more the lines were
really blurred between what I
viewed as the insanity I was
kind of experiencing and the
insanity of the real world.
In fact, I would say that a lot
of insanity you run into?
It's insanity, and you can set
it over here.
But the insanity that I was
getting exposed to so much
blurred the lines between real
insanity and perhaps fake
insanity that there was really
no distinction.
I think my eyes really were
opening up and seeing the world
in a different way.
I felt like
I felt before
when I was watching a movie, and
the movie ended, and I left the
movie theater.
And everything outside seems
better than it did before that.
Like, the colors are brighter,
or the world looks like a
different place.
And I wanted to keep feeling
that way,
instead of just
walking around going, "Well, I'm
going to my job.
Well, I have to go do laundry. "
Instead, I was walking around
and looking at stuff with a
different purpose.
Instead of just trying to get
from point "A" to point "B,"
I was looking for clues.
Towards the end of the
induction, on the card, you're
instructed to call the
detective.
And when you call the detective,
he drops a clue about
Cooper alley.
It turns out there's a shrine to
someone named Eva.
Says, "We miss you, Eva. "
Then, at that point, you're
instructed to go back to the
building, and you're given a key
to this wall of lockers.
There's a tiny, little peephole,
and inside there are these sort of
partial letters and numbers
and things like that.
And then, at the very end of the
cycle, it comes together, and
it's the same face that was in
the alley.
About the same time, I got a
text message saying, "Tune in to
Radio Nonchalance in
upper Dolores Park. "
I actually drove up here in my
car because I didn't have a
radio.
And I sat in my car for about a
half an hour listening to this
station.
Over the course of an hour,
there were strange news factoids.
There was an interview with the
proprietor of the world's
smallest postal service.
There was talk of strange
conspiracy.
There was a rant against
Octavio Coleman.
There was all sorts of fun
stuff.
It felt very much like listening
to someone like Art Bell on the
radio.
You can't tell if he's for real
or not.
And now cryptic radio brings
you the secret of Nonchalance.
What is Nonchalance?
And who are its hidden
followers?
This is your announcer,
Commander 14, broadcasting for
a limited time on this special
frequency.
Keep tuned for vital
information.
Follow along as we disclose a
world whose secret presence may
mean the difference between
enlightenment and total
incomprehension.
And just what do we mean by
nonchalance, anyway?
A casual way of sauntering down
the street?
A kind of cool, perhaps?
You like cartoons, don't you?
Of course you do.
Everyone likes cartoons.
Observe as our animated
protagonist stumbles blindly
out of bed, down the stairs,
and out the front door, onto a
busy street.
He easily but narrowly dodges
impending danger, seemingly
without effort or awareness.
Bricks from a construction site
almost but do not fall on him.
At the last minute, as he's
about to step into an open
manhole in the street, he's
miraculously spared the fall.
And after numerous similar
close calls, his unconscious
path is turned around in a
revolving door.
And in his own building, by
fortunate coincidence, he's
somehow returned to bed,
unharmed by the end of the
cartoon.
This ability, to be supported
and guarded by extraordinary
good luck, is called
"divine nonchalance. "
By definition, the nonchalant
is wonderfully scattered and
lacking in all external
direction.
The ride is fantastic, but the
destination remains uncertain.
You are listening to
Radio Nonchalance, dispatches
from Elsewhere.
Support for this program has
been provided by the
Elsewhere Public Works Agency.
Now back to our program.
Well, the EPWA's position on
the Jejune Institute is that
they were selling false
nonchalance.
And what they meant by that, as
best as I can tell, is that
that creative spark which drives
humanity cannot be marketed,
cannot be sold, cannot be given
to you in a bottle.
You either have those moments,
or you don't, and you can't
control it.
So, anybody who tells you
otherwise is selling you
something.
Attention!
This is Commander 14 of
cryptic radio.
Nonchalance is all around you.
Wake up!
It's later than you think.
The false prophets are even now
consolidating their forces, as
they draw up their plans
against us.
Beware especially the one the
world calls
"Octavio Coleman, Esquire," for
he is in the present era the
main opponent of Nonchalance
and a cynical and fiendishly
inspired devisor of false
nonchalance.
Founder of the Jejune Institute,
chief funder of the Algorithm, main
perpetrator of false
nonchalance, CIA operative and
informant, saboteur and
provocateur
Octavio Coleman, Esquire, is
the man who is behind all of
the monitoring, subversion, and
suppression of Nonchalance.
During the 1980s, Coleman
illegally obtained protected
patents and legal control over
a series of innovative
products.
Taking personal credit for
these discoveries, Coleman at
this time consolidated the
Jejune Institute as a
limited liability corporation.
Today, the institute commands
an unheard-of freedom
from governmental regulation or, for
that matter, any superior
authority.
This might have dire
consequences for all operating
nonchalance in this area.
Basically, what had happened
is I'd gone to the institute,
and I had gone through the first
phase and was amazed by it,
obviously, just like you should
be... amazed and confused.
And one day, about a week later,
I was on my lunch break from
work, and I walked down the
street to pick up a slice of
pizza.
And when I came back, there were
the Jejune Institute posters all
over the street where I just
was and on every sign and on
every window.
And so, there had obviously been
multiple agents in the area,
flier-ing everything.
And so, I got on my skateboard.
I started skateboarding around
and trying to find who was
putting up these posters.
And then I did see someone, and
I kind of approached him, and I
said... I asked him if he was
following his nonchalance.
So, he knew that obviously I
knew, and we started to talk.
And he told me to give him his
e-mail address, and then he
left.
They scheduled me to come down
and have an appointment with
them in the offices, and I
didn't know exactly what to
expect.
And they told me to dress
"nicely," which obviously for me
can mean all sorts of different
things.
They told me to show up early,
and I knew what was going to
happen, that there was going to
be a protest, that I would lead
it, and that it would end at the
Lipo Lounge.
And they gave me a couple of
these armbands.
I put some on.
They hand me a bullhorn and told
me, like, that they'd hoped I
memorized all the chants.
And I'd never... there was no
chance.
So, I said, "Yes, absolutely.
I know every chant.
All the chants I know.
I know every single chant. "
And they said, "Let's go. "
Hello! -Hi! Nice to meet you. -Hello!
Hold the signs up high in the
air.
I want to see them.
There's so much energy just
coming right through here.
There's a lot of energy.
You can feel it.
You can feel it.
Feel the energy.
Oh, my god, it feels so good!
Get up here!
Get up here, you guys.
Keep rocking and keep trucking!
I didn't know... when they said,
like, "oh, yeah, you'll lead
it," I didn't know, like, I was
physically going to be like,
"Oh, we're going this way now. "
So, I didn't know exactly where
we were going.
There was no route assignment
given to me, and I don't live in
Chinatown.
So, I don't know the best way
there.
So, we took the long route, and,
of course, if you were there,
you know what happened.
I led us right past the
Jejune Institute, and obviously
Octavio was waiting there for
us.
And then they gave me a
handshake,
and then I never
talked to any of them again
after that.
You know, every day I would go
to this children's amusement park.
It was like literally a rabbit
hole that you could fall down
into that led you to these
dioramas or the magic key that
you could put into a story box,
and then it suddenly would be
telling you a fairy tale.
It was filled with wonder and
filled with discovery, and I
wanted to know why is it
contained inside the gates of
this little park?
And then you go out onto the
street, and all you see is
walk/don't walk, no dogs, or
this way or do not enter and all
these rules and lines and
restrictions.
And I wanted to crack it, and I
wanted to open it up.
And I think it was this very
subconscious influence for me
that there should be this kind
of play infused into the
architecture of our real world.
People would totally willingly
accept that there was a
Coca-Cola or a McDonald's or a
Kool cigarette billboard right
outside their home or their
schools, but they would be upset
by the fact that somebody did a
piece of street art there.
And that seemed really
backwards, and I was writing
essays about this theory that I
called "threads," in which all
kinds of media could intertwine
with each other to tell us a
story.
And that's really the beginning
of what developed into
nonchalance.
I just graduated school with
my degree in sound arts, and I
was doing work with Oaklandish,
both doing sound for some of
their events and just selling
clothes to make ends meet.
I knew of Jeff.
I don't think that we had met in
a way that either of us would
remember, but he's been very
influential in kind of the
grassroots arts community in
Oakland for quite some time.
So, I knew of him, but it really
started... I saw a post on Craigslist.
Through someone at
Oaklandish, I heard that they
were building an automated room.
I did not know what the point of
the automated room was, beyond
create an interesting
environment for players or
participants to engage in on
some level.
I mean, initially I was hired
on, contract for a small part of
the job, and then, when Jeff
asked me to come on full-time as
the lead producer, I started
asking a couple more questions
and being a little nervous.
I guess you could say I
learned about the project in the
way a lot of players learned
about the project, as the more I
became involved, the more
questions I asked.
And when those questions got
answered, a story started to
emerge.
Words like "urban playground
movement" and "alternate-reality
game," and it was very opaque.
I would describe it as...
a game that you play by going
out into the city and doing things.
And as you do that, you become
part of a story that's
unfolding in the city, in the
real world.
What we're doing with
nonchalance is giving people a
mission and giving people
permission to become an agent
and to explore the space in a
different way, to go in and out
from public and private spaces
and to explore and just to
discover hidden things in their
environment.
And to play... ultimately, to
bring spontaneity and play into
our civic spaces.
Some people thought
it was an actual cult,
and they were afraid to go
to the induction center.
They thought, "Oh, these guys
are like scientologists. "
And for me the signals were out
there that this was some kind of
a game.
But I definitely, in the
beginning, had the intention of
people going, "What the fuck?!
Really?"
Or to give the notion that this
was totally, like, marginal
lunatic-fringe people putting up
these fliers.
And so, of course, it attracted
some of those types of people,
and we definitely got some
voice mails that were chilling.
I lived in San Francisco for
11 years and had to leave
because of gang-stalking
activities and being
surveillanced and monitored and
all the frequency manipulation,
and it's a really serious thing
to have done to somebody.
And if you seriously want to go
up against them, you need to get
it better together than kind of
these silly ramblings that
honestly don't really make any
sense.
Wow!
Like... Like... Like, literally,
I listen to these messages and
go cold because these people
were engaging with this.
This was their reality to them.
And for me it was this huge
fantasy.
And so there was this blurring
of the lines between a real
flier and real voice mails and
then the content, which to me
was absurd but to other people
maybe wasn't so absurd.
And Organeil's a great example
of that.
I saw a way to play that was
entirely new,
that would bring
together strangers under joyful
and hilarious circumstances.
I had realized that a place that
had previously been mundane
and sort of
enemy territory... I.E.,
the financial district... had
been "magicalized. "
And so, my hope was to help a
few people see that something
really magical and unexpected
could come out of this,
something really beautiful and,
you know, life-changing.
I created a web page about the
Jejune Institute and hid it
inside the Organeil material.
I saw people start showing up
suddenly, like, two or three of
them, which doesn't happen.
And these people were talking
about things that didn't make
any sense to me, that I didn't
understand.
They were clearly familiar with
this idea of an "ARG."
And them treating it like a game
offended me.
He definitely was so deep
into the experience that he
often spoke of it in such a way
that a person wasn't really
quite sure where they stood with
him, as far as where he drew the
line.
People would say,
"something-something game," and
Organeil would say, "You don't
understand.
This is not a game!
You're not taking this
seriously.
You clearly don't have the
vision.
This is not a game. "
He insisted that there was
more going on than just some
sort of game.
Whether or not... I don't know
what he suspected, but I think
we just disagreed on that point.
He thought that maybe this
was going to change the world or
be an opportunity for people to
really come together as an
organization that could uplift
the planet in some way.
And, you know, I don't think
there's any limits on the amount
of things you could do with this
kind of artwork.
But it was certainly beyond our
scope.
There was a certain point when I
was surprised to receive an
e-mail from him saying, "I am no
longer gonna have anything to do
with this and please erase any
evidence of my participation
with this.
And in my heart and mind, this
is already done. "
I was actually injured on a
couple of Jejune errands, twice.
Unfortunately, the second time
was the last time I was outside.
That was in July of 2009.
And I was so badly hurt that it
wasn't safe to transport me.
Jiggling would cause muscles in
my abdomen to tear.
I had never heard of anything
like that happening to any one
of our players and knew of no
situation or event in which
anything accidental had happened
at all.
And I kind of came to the
conclusion this was all
something that he had kind of
concocted in his mind.
I had no assistance
whatsoever.
I was kind of trapped here in my
house.
And I began to become really
concerned that, uh...
Well, to be quite frank and
terribly honest, in those
circumstances, I was somewhat
paranoid.
And I felt that with some
reason that my interaction with
the Jejune Institute was
possibly spiritually harmful in
some sense.
At first, you go in, and you're
kind of starry-eyed, and you
have the experience.
But once you start understanding
a little bit more of the "plot,"
you realize that the
Jejune Institute is the bad
guys.
And so, you've given your
personal information to the bad
guys!
And not knowing who's really
behind it or what really their
goals are, you know?
From the sinister nature of the
Jejune Institute, it is not
clear that you're involved with
something as beautiful as
Elsewhere.
And so I wanted to distance
myself from it at that point.
Commander 14 calling Eva Lucien.
Evalyn, we need you to come in.
Repeat... we need you to come in.
We have a chance of decoding
the encryption of the first six
phases of the algorithm.
But don't go to the safe house.
It's been compromised.
Coleman's got his goons there
now.
Use your key and follow the
signs.
We need you to come in.
You are listening to
Radio Nonchalance... dispatches
from Elsewhere.
Support for this program has
been provided by the
Elsewhere Public Works Agency.
Now back to our program.
Monday, I got to work, and I
had an e-mail sent to an e-mail
address I don't use a whole lot.
And it was from the
Elsewhere Public Works Agency
asking me to be at a certain
intersection by the pay phones...
it was 24th and Mission...
at noon.
So, eventually, I got a call on
my cellphone from Commander 14,
checking and saying that there was-
Jejune Institute was moving in
or something about the
green energy arcans.
I don't remember what he said.
The closure of a temporal
vacuole is imminent.
Repeat... imminent.
Without physical jamming to
offset transneural
interference, a negative
group-cascade sequence could be
initiated.
Do you see 24th Street?
Yeah.
Cross Mission and continue
down 24th.
I will be making contact at
that location in five minutes'
time.
When I say, "ornithopter," you
say, "jump suit. "
Ornithopter.
Jump suit.
Ornithopter.
Jump suit.
Okay. Now go. Hurry!
- Ornithopter.
- Jump suit.
- Ornithopter.
- Jump suit.
Now we can get this
transaction rolling.
The time is nigh.
Now listen quickly.
Dance.
You heard me. Dance.
I say dance!
Dance? Okay.
It is imperative that you now
dance.
I hope you dance.
This interacting cannot happen
without vigorous physical
jamming.
Now get off this phone and
dance, motherfucker!
We needed to stop the energy
attack by "rigorous physical
jamming," which is what we did.
So, I started dancing, and then
I started hearing music.
And this guy showed up with a
boom box.
And he started dancing with me.
And then a sasquatch showed up,
and he started dancing with us.
# Freestyle kickin'
in the house tonight #
# Move your body
from left to right #
# To all you freaks,
don't stop the rock #
# Freestyle kickin'
in the house tonight #
# Move your body
from left to right #
# To all you freaks,
don't stop the rock ##
And there was a moment that
the song ended, and we heard
what sounded like angels
singing, and the sasquatch gave
me the transcript, which that's
a very weird thing to say.
But that happened.
# Something's got a hold on me #
So, with the map there was a
CD of cult music that had a lot
of weird stuff from, like,
Jonestown and this group called
Yahawa, from the '70s and on.
But it also had a hidden track
on it, which had a little girl
named Eva and her mother taking
a walk toward the
Mission district.
# Something's
got a hold on me ##
This is archival binaural
field recording, designation
16-62-TC13.
Tape was engaged at
Chula Lane and Abbey Street
facing southwest.
Headphones or other stereo
personal-listening device should
be used during playback.
- Hi, Eva!
- Hi, mom!
Well, good day to you, Eva, my
dear.
And a pleasant afternoon to
you, madam.
How was school today?
Tedious, but I lost another
tooth at recess.
Really?
Shall we save it for the
tooth fairy?
No! He's scary!
You've seen the tooth fairy?
Of course.
And he's a man?
Yes.
So, do you have time for a
little walkabout today?
Uh-huh.
Where shall we go, then?
Elsewhere!
Again?
Yes.
Okay.
Let's start walking northeast
on Chula Lane.
Okay.
You can see the old cemetery
on our left.
Thousands of indians who died of
spanish diseases were buried
right here.
They're underneath us right now.
Oh.
Sometimes, if you listen, you
can hear them.
Oh.
Now go left, and we walk
along Dolores.
You can see the mission
San Francisco de Asis, founded
on October 9, 1776, by
father Francisco Paulo.
That's really the beginning of
the whole city.
Let's cross over to the median.
Oh, you mean by the palm
trees?
Yeah.
Okay.
I want to show you something.
We used to feed the fairies.
Well, what would you feed
them?
Berries, of course.
And are the fairies still there?
They come and go as they
please, Elsewhere and that.
I always get headaches when I
walk by these green boxes.
I know. Me too.
Let's walk faster.
And here we are at
Commander 14's house.
This is where he does the radio
show with Kai Epsilon.
Dad helps them out with the
transmitter.
And right next door is our
house.
Mm-hmm.
Let's play hopscotch.
That is a very peculiar
board.
This is a game of
interdimensional hopscotch.
It helps you practice how to get
to Elsewhere.
Let's turn right on Albion so
we can say hi to Mr. Books.
And here we are, our second
home, Adobe Books.
After you.
You need to look on the shelf
for the book on interdimensional
hopscotch.
It will tell you what you need
to do.
See you in Elsewhere.
Bye!
My name is Kelvin Williams, and
I guess I came into Adobe Books.
I had met the owner before.
You know, I'm a book person, a
librarian.
We all kind of move in the same
circles.
So, I was interested that this
book on interdimensional
hopscotch should be there, of
all places.
I struck up a conversation with
the owner,
who happened to be
there, and I just asked her.
"This is kind of odd that you
have this here.
I didn't know that you had these
kind of esoteric interests.
As one acquaintance to another,
do you have any materials that
might be connected to this?
Do you have any...
Can you point me any further?"
And she said, "Well, Kelvin,
I've got a box of materials that
would probably interest you in
the back of the store.
Some ephemera... handbills,
posters, and so on. "
But down in the bottom of the
box was this book, which turned
out to be the diary of
Eva Lucien, who was, it seemed
to me, a really extraordinary
person.
You know, she embodied a kind of
transcendence and ephemerality
of youth at the same time, and
that was really what caught me
about her.
I had noticed in Eva's diaries,
there was references to the
S.F. Savants, which was a B-boy
crew that I had maybe heard of
years and years ago.
But it turns out they still had
a Myspace page.
These people are relatively
accessible, and I was fortunate
enough to get in touch with
Delsqui, who suggested... he
didn't want to talk about it.
But he suggested I get in touch
with Beth and gave me an e-mail
address.
And so, she and I corresponded
by e-mail a little bit.
I think she could see that I
understand Eva as someone more
than just another teenager who
disappears or another hip figure
of the San Francisco scene of a
certain moment, but, rather, as
someone who had something more
to say.
And so, I eventually wore her down.
I kept asking her, "Do you have
documents?
Do you have information?
Do you have more about this
person?"
And it turns out she had.
- Eva?
- Yeah?
What are you...
Your... your hair!
Oh, no!
No-o, you... oh, my god!
It's okay.
Are you sure?
Yeah, it's time to go.
I feel like I'm losing my mind.
Look at these fucking pages.
Just read one.
I don't know.
It freaks me out to reflect on
it.
Makes me feel like I sound
crazy.
No. No, no.
You think I'm going crazy?
No.
"Up late, when I should be
sleeping, consumed with the
thought that the world is not as
it should be.
When I was younger, I believed
in a goodness, a kindness.
Yeah, it sounds sappy, but,
really, I feel like things were
a certain way, and now there's a
deep sadness of pain.
Was it always there, and I
couldn't access it?
Is this just a symptom of
growing older?
One becomes more aware of hurt?
Were my parents simply that good
at sheltering me?
Dad worked hard to raise me but
how he saw fit.
I admired him sometimes, but it
pissed me off, too.
He told me the world was safe,
or at least I thought I had a
safe place in it.
It's difficult to compute when
people just vanish.
How am I to maintain faith and
expectations when my mother's
fucking gone?"
I think Eva in herself
embodied a certain way of being
that suggested the potential for
the world to be transformed.
She was flirting on the edge of
some insights into how reality
works.
You know, she had got it, and
that became either an
inspiration or a threat,
depending on how you understand
it, to the institute and the
agency.
Wow. How many are there?
Enough.
You guys want to take them
tonight?
I was gonna save them.
Save them for what?
The weekend?
Why?
You want to drop out?
You don't have school tomorrow.
Hey, what y'all talking about
over here?
Nothing.
Oh, y'all tripping again?
No!
Eva, aren't you on probation?
It's not like we're fucking
doing acid.
It's not even really fair.
What shit?
Nothing.
# Freestyle kickin'
in the house tonight #
# Move your body
from left to right #
# To all you freaks,
don't stop the rock #
Whoo!
Yes!
# Freestyle kickin'
in the house tonight #
# Move your body
from left to right #
# To all you freaks,
don't stop the rock ##
# Yeah
Chloe... Get it together.
Chloe, how many beers...
# I feel emotion
Chloe, you're drunk.
I like it.
# Whaa
Eva, you okay?
What's going on, girl?
Fuckin' cops!
Dude, the cops are going!
Shit!
Let's go!
Eva, come on!
Eva!
You know, maybe there was
something more to the games of
nonchalance besides simply a fun
scavenger hunt.
Rather, than maybe whoever was
behind it was actually trying to
commemorate Eva in some way or
trying to share who she was with
people in San Francisco and
around the world, a kind of, I
don't know, maybe the whole
project, maybe the whole
experience was a kind of elegy
to Eva and what she represented.
You know, that's where the
"reconstructing Eva" project
came out of, because I wanted to
be able to say, "Well, look.
There's these people playing
these games, and there's a whole
wealth of information about what
they really mean. "
At the time, I was seeing a man
who was a police officer, and he
quickly learned about my
obsession with this particular
topic.
And I twisted his arm a little
bit, promised some favors if he
would help out and see if there
was anything in the police
department... archives, storage
rooms, whatever... that might
shed light on this.
Man, you were the last one to
see Eva,
and we need to know
exactly what happened that day.
On Sunday, the 16th, when and
where did you first see Eva?
We always meet at the garden.
And that's the place you
mentioned before, with the
bench and the parking meter.
Is this the spot where you said
Neil, a local vagrant, was
seen?
Uh, yeah.
So, did he ever talk to you?
No, but he talked to Eva.
And what did they say to each
other?
I have no idea.
Where did you see them
talking?
Up at Neil's little spot.
We call it the "Neil estate. "
Did you see Neil there the
night that Eva disappeared?
No, I didn't.
Did anyone else?
Well, I know that the others
might have seen him that night.
"Play to" did, I think.
Play to it is, then?
Yeah.
What else can you tell me
about this Neil character?
Did you see him on the evening
in question?
Yeah.
So, I seem to have heard that
you had some interaction with
him on that night yourself.
Am I right about that?
No, I never talked to him.
Tell me more about that
night.
Did you at any point in the
evening see Eva talk to Neil?
I don't think so.
But you did see him that
night.
Yeah, man.
He was hanging out around the
stone wall.
We seen the dude dipping around
that wall all the time.
Dipping around?
Yeah, you know, looking down,
poking around the crevices
between the rocks, looking back
up again.
Doing what?
Doing what he does.
Being a weirdo.
So, it was just yourself,
Eva, and Chloe around that
point.
Is anybody else there?
No one else, like, for
instance, this Neil character?
No.
So, what happened next?
The police were coming up the
hill, and we ran.
But... but when I went and
hid... when I got there, I was
hiding, and she was gone.
Chloe just kept running.
She just kept running.
And I thought she went home,
and I was, like, hiding and
whispering, "Eva, Eva. "
She didn't answer.
I was there forever, but then I
just figured she went home.
So, eventually, I went home,
too.
Did anything else happen on
your way home?
Did you see anyone?
Anything unusual?
No.
So, the obvious question was,
"What happened to her, and why
is she the point at which these
two organizations kind of
conflict or meet?"
Her father, Blair Lucien, as it
turns out, was a kind of, I
don't know,
scientist/mysticist/inventor.
And he had created this thing
called the Algorithm, which he
thought was going to be a very
powerful way of helping humanity
ascend to the next level.
And Blair Lucien's a real
person, and he had a real house,
in West Berkeley, in the '70s
and '80s.
And I did a little snooping
about his property records and
just about the construction of
the house and the neighborhood.
And it turns out this particular
house has a basement, a real
underground basement, which you
don't really find in the Bay
Area hardly at all.
Here I was, spending a lot of
time, trying to figure out who
Blair Lucien was, what's the
meaning of his special basement?
How do you interpret the fact
that the algorithm is clearly
with the Jejune Institute and
there's an artifact that makes
it work that is somewhere else?
That artifact being the crystal
oscillator.
By this point, I was really at a
place where I couldn't tell
where the game ended and
reality began.
I'm not proud of it, but I broke
into a family's house, went into
their basement.
And in their basement, as it
turned out, there was this door
that kind of led off somewhere.
And I didn't pick the lock.
I actually just kind of smashed
the door down.
And behind it was this tunnel.
There was a drop-off, and then
there was a tunnel full of
water.
And I went down there, and I
started following it.
I didn't really have a
flashlight.
I just used my cellphone light.
And I ended up getting lost.
I have a kind of sea of memories
and sounds and darkness that was
relieved by the players who
found me, to be honest.
I was asked to participate in
a rescue of Kelvin Williams.
He had gone missing for a long
time, and his website, his blog,
was taken over by the
Elsewhere Public Works Agency.
"Your mission is to find and
retrieve Kelvin Williams and,
if possible, recover the crystal
oscillator.
If Kelvin Williams has it in his
possession already, he'll know
what to do with it.
But, primarily, you need to
help him get out of the
underground.
You're here, and you need to get
over here and then find the
creek bed and follow it
downstream into the subterranean
labyrinth.
Be forewarned... shit gets weird
down there.
Go through the second open
portal to your right.
If you hit 850, you've gone too
far. "
Down here.
So, that's a map of
underground.
Yeah.
Holy fuck.
That was terrifying, yeah.
We were asked to go down into
these storm drains under the
streets of Berkeley to rescue
Kelvin.
And it was very early in the
springtime.
There was still quite a bit of
winter runoff in the pipes.
In order to get to the tunnels,
you had to go along this park,
go down into this river.
So, we were this deep in water.
Soaked all the way through right
from the beginning.
And then, when we got to the
tunnels, there was water rushing
past us.
So, several times during the
course of the afternoon, we had
to hold onto the sides of the
tunnel to keep from sliding down
into the water, to the runoff.
And it's these old brick tunnels
at some point.
So, there was weird sounds being
piped in from all these side
tunnels and strange
notations written in chalk on
all the walls.
And a lot of them said, like,
"Look behind you. "
So, we were constantly... I
think I was even bringing up the
rear most of the time.
So, I was constantly looking
behind me and trying not to slip
and trying not to hit my head,
because the tunnel was 5 foot
something or other.
So, I was crouched down the
whole time, incredibly
comfortable of hearing the
sounds of hooting of the Jejune
goons.
So, I imagined those black-clad
creatures coming up and just
grabbing me from behind the
whole time.
So, it was a game.
It's part of a game, but at that
time, at that moment, it really
didn't feel like a game anymore.
It was genuinely scary, yeah.
Holy shit.
That tunnel wasn't very fun.
Hi.
Hi.
How did... how did you find this
place?
The hollows had sent us.
Where did this tunnel come
from?
I came from the other way.
And there's a chamber and...
Get me out of here.
Somewhere back there...
Hidden?
...the tunnels go the other
way, and it was in a chamber.
Want to see it?
Yeah.
Hey.
Maybe we should wait till we
get out.
I don't know...
Whoa.
...what to make of it, but
that's it.
That's what they said.
It's in a crystal.
And without this, the
algorithm's useless.
I guess.
All right.
Let's form a little bodyguard
party around him and the
crystal.
Everyone understands what
somewhere is.
If I say "San Francisco," most
people know what I'm referring
to.
Or, at least, they think they
do.
They have an idea of here and an
idea of there.
In other words, "here" is the
place we are, and "there" is the
place we are not.
Elsewhere is a kind of magical
between.
A human being, someone like Eva,
with the right understanding,
can take the seed within them
and become a doorway to
Elsewhere.
I suspected that Eva's deep
capacities to use this seed to
transform our reality in ways
that we were unprepared for was
the reason why she was pursued
and also the reason why she
disappeared.
It was my suspicion that
somebody became aware of this
girl's capacity to introduce
unexpected novelty into
situations that seemed otherwise
frozen.
And I feel they were intent on
co-opting these abilities for
the sake of corporate, military,
or cultlike goals.
And thus, she had to arrange to
put herself in a position where
she would be inaccessible to
people who she would be
otherwise unable to evade and
that she remains, I think, in a
suspension, a kind of suspended
place, a place of suspended
time, identity, and location, a
place which we use the term
"elsewhere" to refer to.
So, as for... even before it
started,
I was really excited for it
because it actually took
place in Oakland
instead of
San Francisco, and I live in
Oakland.
And it's kind of like home turf
for me.
And when I found out it was at
the Chapel of the Chimes, I was
even more excited, because it's
this beautiful... it's like a
mausoleum.
It houses, you know,
probably like thousands and
thousands of people's ashes.
But all the urns are books.
So, you walk in, and it's like
trees and plants inside.
There's, like, little corridors
and little alcoves, and they
each have different names, like,
"Chapel of Spirituality. "
They all have these really
amazing names.
And it's also right next to the
Mountain View Cemetery, which
might be one of the oldest
cemeteries in Oakland, and it's
just really beautiful, and I've
always gone there to just hang
out or write or...
Be like "emo" or something by
the graveyard.
I don't know.
We had gotten assigned into
groups, and each of us got
mailed a postcard.
And the postcard gave us a
direction.
And then they gave us, like, a
line that we were supposed to
say at a certain point.
But it was all really vague, and
we weren't sure how it all tied
together.
The meeting spot was not at the
Chapel of the Chimes.
It was a couple blocks away.
And the whole group met up.
A lot of us had never met
before, and so, it was really
cool to, like, meet other people
that had been involved.
Or maybe I'd only, like, seen
them online.
Like, I had no idea.
There were, like, markings on
the ground, I think, that we
followed, and eventually we
ended up at the
Chapel of the Chimes.
Yeah, there it is... 4499,
Chapel of the Chimes.
Let's just find the compass.
Compass, compass, compass.
Oh, found it!
North... that way.
All right. Now what?
"Assemble, then take notes
and embark upon completion.
Enter under and thy coming in. "
"And thy coming in. "
Oh! Oh!
All right.
Now it says one of you has to die.
"And find the patience. "
"Patience court. "
"Patience court. "
The word "patience" is on this door.
And then "play. "
Play.
What could that mean?
I don't understand.
Patience...
Patience...
Patience.
You found me.
Welcome, my friends.
I know you were concerned about
me, but isn't it clear now that
I've been where I was always
meant to be?
And you...
You've traveled such a long way
to arrive here today.
You came together to make this
happen.
I am so moved.
I want to take this moment to
fully take it in, look around,
contemplate our surroundings
now... the stone and the tile,
the light through the stained
glass.
You've all arrived here for a
reason.
Each one of us played our part.
Now...
Are we ready to continue our
voyage?
Above the door, do you see
mason?
Retrieve the vase that is by
mason above the door.
Pair up with the person not
holding a blindfold who is
closest to your height.
Now...
Blindfold that person.
You've lost one of your senses,
and you'll need to replace
that...
with trust.
I was at the front of the
line, and we all had our
blindfolds on and had, like, no
idea what to expect.
And suddenly this, like, hand
just reaches out and grabs my
hand.
And it really just kind of took
my breath away.
And during the whole, when you
talk about the whole experience,
you know, we're trying to find
Eva and what happened to her, it
was, like, physically... well,
in my mind, it was, like,
physically Eva, like, leading
me, like, holding my hand.
And that's when I kind of... I
kind of lost it, and I was,
like, silently crying, like,
underneath my blindfold.
And the whole concept of
Elsewhere has just been really
special to me.
I always feel like this world is
missing something, like there's
some spark that I want it to
have.
That's what I feel like I'm
constantly searching for in my
everyday life, and um...
The concept of Elsewhere is,
like, that's... that's it.
Like, that's where I want to be.
That's where there's possibility
and imagination.
I'm sorry.
Um...
Well, long story short, I got
"Elsewhere" tattooed on myself
as kind of a little memento, but
I don't know why I'm crying!
Sorry!
Um...
Like, meaningless coincidences
really mean a lot to me, and I
just feel like there's
something, there's something out
there guiding that.
The feeling that I had that day
just kind of summed up
everything that I had done.
That feeling that you get when
you find a clue or something, or
you make the connection of what
you're supposed to do next...
that, like, split second of,
like, connection.
Like, that's when you're
elsewhere.
That's what's awesome.
Basically, a couple months
before the year was out, we had,
the company... Jeff... had come
to a decision that budget needed
to be severely cut for the new
year, and that was simply in the
months
to set up an ending to it,
'cause there was always an
intention to create an ending.
Jeff and I talked, and it
started small, in terms of,
"Well, we can't afford to.
We're gonna have to set an end
date, because we just can't
afford to keep running it. "
The wind down was beginning
in some way, shape, or form.
It became very real that this
was going to have an end date,
and that that end date was going
to become hard soon.
And it really was just a case
of the art was the most
important thing, and the
business of it got in the way.
It was right at that time
that I was approached by
Geordie Aitken, a
leadership-training person for
corporate team-building
exercises in Canada.
And he wanted to meet, and we
just got along.
It was, like, fast friends
instantly.
It was, what do they say, a
"bromance" from the beginning
and a beautiful one at that.
Not 'cause Jeff is beautiful
physically.
I mean... Not that he's not beautiful
physically, for sure, but what
I'm trying to say is, it has
nothing to do with physical
beauty.
We had this shared knowledge
of the history of the self-help
movement, and he had this
appreciation for my craft, and I
recognized in him this really
charismatic, compelling, and
very skilled and experienced
person in this realm.
I just do what I do.
I lead groups.
I'm used to resistant people and
cynics, and I'm comfortable
moving into fictional roles or
different persona in order to
facilitate an experience,
'cause sometimes... for instance, in
the ninja-training work I do, I
move into this sort of sensei
role, which requires a kind of
different slant on my normal
personality.
When people first entered the
induction center, it made them
nervous.
It freaked them out a little
bit because they didn't know
where the fiction was and where
the reality was.
And that was the tension that we
thought was really rich, was
really compelling.
And bringing a climactic
conclusion to the story through
opposition seemed almost, to
him, trite or too pat or maybe
too easy.
It was just too easy.
What happens when you get all
these people in the room, and
they're expecting it to be this
big science-fiction fantasy, and
you just hold a seminar...
All day...
All day long.
Well, there was so much
lead-up to the seminar.
We were to run a covert
operation at the prescreening,
at the hotel room.
We were supposed to look for
these little bio-force globes.
Everyone was told to steal...
It was called a bio-force
globe... from a bowl in the
room.
And it was supposed to be this
thing that operated the
vital-orbit forcefield that was
going to destroy the
Jejune Institute once and for all
and bring their "jejunery" to light.
You know, bringing this guy down
didn't seem like such an awful thing.
Like, you know, if we put an end
to a cult that's potentially
ruining people's lives, you
know, let's do that.
Hello.
Hello!
How may I help you?
I'm here for the
prescreening.
And your name, please?
Mark.
Mark Ellis?
Mm-hmm.
Plus one?
No.
Okay.
Do you have a twin?
No.
Oh.
Please have a seat...
...on the cushioned chair.
All right.
Now...
This is a very straightforward
process.
Mm-hmm.
I'm going to ask you a few
questions.
We're gonna take some readings.
And then I'm going to show you a
video.
How does that sound?
Sounds good.
All right.
The first thing we need to do is
get you wired in.
All right.
It's a completely painless,
noninvasive procedure.
Just lean your head forward.
Thank you.
Are you left- or right-handed?
I'm right-handed.
I need your left index
finger, please.
- Please put your attention here.
- Mm-hmm.
- What's your name? - Mark Ellis.
- Where were you born, Mark?
In Walnut Creek.
Where do you live now?
Martinez.
How long have you been
participating with the
institute?
For about two years.
Have you ever experienced a
lucid dream?
Yes.
Have you experienced a lucid
dream within the past year?
I think so, yeah.
Within the past six months?
Hmm... Maybe not.
Are you dreaming now?
I don't know.
Have you ever experienced
dj vu?
Yes.
Have you experienced dj vu
within the past year?
Yes.
Within the past six months?
Yes.
Past three months?
Maybe.
All right.
I'm going to show you a video.
There's no right or wrong way to
experience this video.
However, it is extremely
important that you give the
video your undivided attention.
Do you understand?
Yes.
Is that it? - I don't know. Is that it?
- I don't know. Is that it?
- That concludes our
prescreening process. - Thank you.
Enjoy your day.
Enjoy your weekend.
All right.
Thank you very much.
So, I did get one of these.
It looks like a flower bud...
pretty cool, though. Well, that's it.
I'm done.
Hello.
Hello.
Good to see you.
Your name again, please?
Mark.
Mark. Your last name?
Ellis.
Mark Ellis?
Did you dream last night?
Yes.
Excellent.
Are you ready for today's event?
Yes.
Perfect.
Welcome, Mark.
Thank you.
So, the day of the seminar, a
lot of us had our bio-force
globe things.
The EPWA was going to give us
the power to take down the
Jejune Institute.
We would all do jazz hands,
and Commander 14 would show up.
Maybe even Eva would show up.
And hooray, we're the triumphant
ones, you know?
Go get drunk. I don't know.
I see you.
I'm glad you're here.
I'm glad you're all here.
I'm here.
We're here.
Aren't we?
We are here.
I am Antoine, and welcome to
socio-reengineering 2011.
Welcome to
socio-reengineering 2011,
brought to you by
the Jejune Institute, LLC.
Thirty-two years ago, the very
first socio-reengineering
seminar took place at
Slide Ranch retreat center on
the dramatic coastline of
Marin County.
Once a decade, we have
continued on in the tradition
established at that first
monumental event.
Today, you are here to
participate in that legacy.
Of many beautiful things to
emerge from that historic weekend,
there was a particular
union established.
It was the romantic connection
between institute researchers
Ezra Logan and
Mrs. Toni Hapuis, which
continues to burn brightly to
this day.
From this cosmic spark, a child
was conceived that weekend by
the name of Antoine Logan, a
shining light in the movement.
Antoine became a young
protg of Octavio Coleman,
Esquire.
Spending his formative years
under his close tutelage,
today, we will have the
singular pleasure of
experiencing Antoine Logan in
all of his
vision, strength, and wisdom,
as established through his
careful application of the
Jejune method.
Feel your body.
Feel the gravity as it pulls you
to the ground.
We are material.
We are full of judgments.
Fall in love with what's
possible.
Synthesis allows us to plow
forward and to do the hard work
of really learning about each
other, which moves to a place we
call "high performance. "
The layers of our personality
are predictable.
We call it armor because when we
hold on to how we see things,
when we hold tight to our
habitual world view and
opinions, we become quite rigid.
Often, our character armor, that
habitual way of seeing and
operating, gets in the way of
becoming who we need to be.
The wisdom body speaks in these
sorts of games, you know?
He had us do these
deep-breathing exercises and
going, "mmm. "
And apparently... I wasn't there
to witness this... but
apparently we took a bathroom
break, and he was standing at
one of the urinals going, "mmm. "
There was a break, and after
he came back from the break,
they were setting out glasses of
hot water.
And we're like, "Oh, my god,
this is like when they're gonna
make drink the Kool-Aid.
Like, maybe this is... maybe
we've been, like, fooled all
along.
Maybe this is a cult, and we're
all about to die. "
Oh, some of you brought
something with you.
Take it out now.
Take it out.
It's okay.
It's okay.
He just kept on trying to get
us to put the balls in the
water.
He's like, "Put them in your
cup. "
And we're like, "No!"
'Cause inside, we're like,
"We're on the EPWA side. "
Like, we can't betray them, you
know?
But eventually people started
putting the tea in the water.
I put mine in and immediately
regretted it.
I was like, "God, I let them get
to me. "
The key in that moment was I
didn't resist their resistance.
My unflappability helped seduce
some of the weaker ones into
putting their orb into the tea.
And it helped provoke the more
strident participants into
greater and greater levels of
resistance, which became a
comedy in itself, to the point
where someone says, "Why should
we do it?"
And I say...
Because that's how we make tea.
And everyone got it, because the
laughter rippled through the
room.
And in that moment, even despite
themselves, everyone got the
comedy.
I don't know.
The absurdist truth cut through
the levels of reality, and
suddenly the game merged with
the present moment.
Alter egos merged with real
identities, and everyone had a
laugh.
Ahh!
Mmm.
# There's a party in the house,
and we'll be rocking tonight #
# So, bring your body
with you, baby,
and I'll make you feel right #
# It's a freaky celebration
of a natural kind #
# And the pleasure
you'll experience
will blow your mind ##
I participated in all of the
dancing and rolling around on
the floor and stuff.
There was a moment where we
had a video conference with a
dolphin, and everyone acted like
they knew what he was saying,
or at least everybody on the
Jejune Institute staff.
The seminar ended with all of
us getting under three big
parachutes and doing one of
those group exercises where you
bring the parachute up and let
it fall down and bring it up and
let it fall down.
And then you sort of get into
this womblike state, where
you're laying down.
And Carolee was right next to
me.
I felt very safe.
And right then, somebody from
the Jejune Institute either
moved a chair or just got a
little bit too close and kicked
me in the head, like, really
hard.
And that ended up being a pretty
good way of summing up my entire
experience at the
Jejune Institute.
And allow yourself to stretch
and to touch each other and to
touch the biofiber that's all
around you and reconnect to life
as you ought to live it!
And breathe deep of the
succulence of your life, this
transformed life, and make your
way beyond the perimeter of the
chute.
Ahh!
And join us.
Join our people.
So, do we still think that
this is just a game?
Let's talk about reality and
illusion.
Are you pretending to be here,
hmm?
I am not.
I am present, right here, right
now.
And I feel your presence, too,
all of you.
Perhaps this very moment is us
waking from the dream,
collectively awakening.
Aha!
That feels good, doesn't it?
Remember the day you walked into
the induction center?
I promised you two things.
One...
That you'd begin to notice the
divine occurring all around you
in a thousand miniscule ways.
And two...
For those dark horses with the
spirit to look up and see, a
recondite family awaits.
Look around you.
We are that family.
And this?
This is only the beginning.
Okay.
Lock the doors and release the
poisonous gas, please.
Huh?
Scared you, didn't I?
Well, guess what?
Yes. Thank you.
I get scared, too.
Even I didn't know what was
going to happen here today.
I acknowledge how far you all
have come, and I honor you.
Eva bless.
Thank you.
Carolee turns to me, and she
says, "We lost. We did it wrong.
We lost. We lost the game. "
And I felt so much like
Charlie Bucket, that there was
something that we had... over
the course of the day, we were
supposed to do something with
the coins maybe that we didn't
do.
I just... I felt like it was
stopped short, like this
wonderful arc had just gone
poof! And fallen into the
ground.
I'm kind of ashamed to admit it,
but I went into kind of a
monthlong, like, funk
afterwards, because I felt like
I had been duped.
If we had taken action, it
would be very real, very weird
action.
I don't think anybody wanted to
do that.
Everybody wanted to be
entertained.
So, it just felt like, "Man, the
book was good, but the ending
was weird. "
You know, that doesn't change
the fact that I really enjoyed
the story.
I think it's the Organeil
factor.
Nobody wanted to... who wants to
attack an old man?
You know?
He's an actor, you know?
I'm gonna take it that
seriously.
I think if you looked up
"jejune" in the dictionary, you
would find that it is... like, a
jejune endeavor is a pointless
endeavor that will never
actually get anywhere.
You know?
I think maybe what they really
missed was exactly what was kind
of fulfilled at the end.
I mean, there's a moment when
Wile Coyote runs off that cliff
and wheels his legs for a minute
and looks down before he falls
and has that pause midair,
suspended by nothing but his own
momentum, before he collapses.
And I'm not sure in this moment
whether I'm referring to Jeff or
to the players, but there was
that moment throughout that day.
I think maybe if you don't look
down, you'll never fall.
There was this sense that
people were expecting this final
event to play out in a
science-fiction and fantasy
realm in which there were
shootouts and chases and things.
And I think there was an element
of wanting to punish those
players who seemed to be missing
what the real story was, and
that was about Eva.
Back in the late 1980s, I was
a runaway.
I made my way eventually to
San Francisco.
And the Coit Tower seemed to me
like some kind of a spiritual
lightning rod or something.
So, I started hanging around
there.
To occupy myself, I began to
make little art projects...
animals or mosaics.
And eventually I started making
these little scenes in the
crevices in the stone walls.
One of them was this scene with
a camp, kind of a hobo train car
and some street kids gathering
together.
A few days later, I found that
someone else had added a new
scene, which was this beautiful
scene that was also kind of
spooky.
There were flowers and a tree
and a ship in the background
with some strange kind of
pilgrims there.
A couple of days after that, I
was starting a new one, and I
made this sort of room or stage
and left it mostly unfinished.
The next day, I hid nearby and
watched.
This girl came, and she added a
light and the letters "E" and
"W" down by the door.
Then, she put these birds in, as
if the light was lifting them
into the sky.
I think that's when I felt safe
enough, finally, to approach
her.
And we met that day and became
friends.
She asked me if I understood
about the light, about those
letters, about a place she
called "elsewhere," a way of
being and playing in the world
that somehow changed everything;
a game, sort of, but without any
rules, a way of being in the
world that was powerful and
enchanted.
I met Eva after a show at the
Stone on Broadway, and she ended
up crashing at my parents' house
for about a month in the garage.
And it was during those times
that she and I would meditate.
It was kind of a form of
meditation, and she would guide
me down these paths towards this
place called "elsewhere. "
And elsewhere was neither here
nor there,
and it was this
entire universe and this entire
tribe and with this imagined
history.
It was very intricate and
detailed and went back a long
way.
I think that, like every bit of
art or creativity that I produce
is in some way inspired by her.
It was during the time that I
was in treatment that she went
missing, and it wasn't totally
unusual, you know, for her to
skip out for a little while.
But then there began to be these
theories of either an abduction
or a suicide, and I don't think
it was suicide.
You know, there's the
algorithm, right, that
Blair Lucien came up with.
I think we got a glimpse, a
little glimpse, of the algorithm
in action in the sense that
there were moments where the
ordinary world was transformed
into something different,
something full of potential and
full of mystery in a way that we
don't usually experience.
I don't know if there is a
conclusion.
I don't know how it ended.
I never looked up on the message
boards or anything or really
necessarily asked anyone.
So, for me, it could still be
happening.
And I know they closed down the
building, but as far as I know,
the war is still being waged on
the street.
And that's fun.
It's fun that way.
I do miss the
Jejune Institute a lot, and I
still talk to people about it.
People... well, I have a dog,
and her name is Jejune.
Yeah, definitely this is
playful.
The experience is a lot of fun.
But I think the underlying
messages are real.
So, in that respect, is it a
game?
I don't really know.
If you don't have religion,
you don't have that built-in
explanation.
Finding something that tells you
there is all of this amazing
stuff happening, and you just
need to know how to find it...
it is a little bit like having
something to believe in.
Today, you've glimpsed into
the Elsewhere
and felt for a
moment what it's like to be
here.
And it's only a small taste of
what's to come.