Hello, and welcome to your weekly dose of the real world, where truth
is stranger than fiction and things are not always as they seem. This story
and job took us into the shadowy depths of the subconscious, into a maze
of memories, fears, and traumas and a minotaur. That's right, and
that's why they called on me. They call me the Ghost. I'm an
independent dark operative on the dark Web, taking on the mysterious and outrageous jobs
that no one else will or can. And this is one of our adventures.
Take a listen and enjoy. All right, guys, Here is the
request as I received it, dear Ghost. I am doctor Laura Corbyn,
a neuroscientist specializing in the study of dreams and sleep disorders. In my research,
I have encountered a deeply troubling phenomenon. People across the globe have been
experiencing oddly specific, shared patterns in their dreams. These dreams influence their actions
upon waking in ways they cannot comprehend or control. My preliminary investigations suggest the
presence of an unknown entity within the dreamscape. I fear this entity may have
malevolent intentions, and I'm unequipped to confront it. Your reputation precedes you,
and I believe you possess the unique skills necessary to help. I offer you
full access to my research and resources. Your compensation will commensurate with the task
at hand. Should you accept this challenge, please respond via this secure channel.
I eagerly await your response. Yours, sincerely, Doctor Laura Corbin.
So there we all were at the warehouse where we all were actually at the
time this request came in. I read it out loud what doctor Corbyn's request
was. This was something new in a way, a journey possibly into a
dreamscape, a job to confront an unseen puppetmaster. This was just too much.
I'm absolutely going to see doctor Corbyn, and I decide to take Rider
with me. If this job is going to deal with the human mind,
I want her there right at the forefront, with her deep understanding of the
human psyche and her excellent knowledge of the path to the afterlife. Is there
some connection now the Silverstein Institute. It's an advanced neuroscience research center, and
it's notable globally for its pioneering work and understanding of the human brain and its
very states, including sleep and dreams. It's located where all the other innovative
spirits live, San Francisco, California. They have state of the art facilities,
of course, research labs filled with high tech equipment for monitoring and analyzing
brain activities. Doctor Laura Corbin is one of the leading researchers at Silverstein.
It's a place where it really they want to get the most out of their
studies. They bring a lot of talents together, talented minds and disciplines like
you know, psychology, neurology, artificial intelligence, data science and things like
that, and the research helps influence fields like medicine, education, mental health,
and even AI. When we get there, Ryder and I are greeted
by doctor Corbin, an impressive woman. Her eyes are the kind that just
exuded intelligence. She led us through her research lab and to her office.
The lab was filled with state of the art equipment and monitors showing a consistent
flow of brainwave patterns and data. It was pretty fascinating to see. We
went through there pretty quickly, so we didn't see a whole lot, but
it still was neat to be there. Finally we get to her office and
this was no ordinary office. I mean, she had an array of advanced
neuro scientific equipment in there as well, and her walls were just filled with
different degrees and wards mixed together with abstract paintings. Like I said, this
was not a typical office, and it was really motivating and it was filled
with scientific energy. You just kind of wanted to know what they knew,
what were they studying. Anyway, She walked behind her desk and offered us
seats across from her. As she sat down, and so we settled in.
She let out a pretty deep sigh, folded her hands and put her
elbows on the desk, and then she looked at us, kind of leaning
in a bit with this grave expression on her face. She described how they
were studying a specific group of patients who had been experiencing a shared set of
symptoms. She said they were all having these intense lucid dreams and that they
were claiming that they had no control over them whatsoever. The way they described
it was kind of like something or someone was puppeteering their dreams, someone else
was in charge. Like in a way, a part of them felt a
bit foreign, like they were being something was being presented to them instead of
you know how dreams are like kind of conjures up all that mental junk that
we have. While each one of these people in her study said their dreams
they didn't feel natural at all. And then she pointed to a set of
brain scans that were displayed on a large screen, and she told us those
were unlike any patterns she'd ever seen before. She also said that, in
somewhat of an agreement with her patients, it did not appear to be a
naturally occurring phenomenon. She had that instinct and they had that feeling. She
pointed out the affected areas of the brain, as well as the uniformity among
the different individuals, suggesting that there was a single source for all of this
and that's what was leading her to a possible external influence. They've ruled out
several internal disorders, and they keep ending up in the same place that this
is something happening to these patients or being put up on them. And then
she started telling us how things were going beyond the activity in the brain.
She said that some of her patients were also starting to exhibit these strange behaviors
while awake, you know, doing strange things in their waking life, acting
out scenarios, or making decisions that didn't seem natural to them but did seem
in line or maybe influenced by the dreams they were having. Many of them
described it as their free will being overridden or taken over. Doctor Corbyn expressed
her fear that if this continues, the impact on these people's psychological well being
could be catastrophic. And if we can't stop it, who else could this
effect in the long term. So many questions, and you know, Ryder
and I are taking this all in and were really hit with a lot fast.
Doctor Corbyn isn't messing around here. She's at the end of her rope,
and she says that she has pretty much eliminated every logical explanation she can
think of. The stakes were hi, as she put it, and this
was something that could not be ignored. After we have heard enough of what
doctor Corbyn has to offer about all of this, I tell her that I
will take the job. An unknown mental disruption reaching into dreams and affecting behavior
is something that simply cannot be ignored. As she said, we also have
no idea how this is spreading or what it's actually doing, so it does
need to be figured out. I head back to the warehouse, but I
actually leave Writer behind with doctor Corbyn. Now I usually don't just leave people
behind like that, but because of the strangeness of what we're dealing with in
this particular situation, I do want her to start professional observation of these patients
so that she can start to gather data in a way that we would gather
it, so that we can be more prepared by the time I get the
team back there. She and I can also be in contact, of course,
while I'm traveling, and so it's only more beneficial for us and the
project if she gets started immediately. Doctor Corbyn thinks it's great, and so
I leave Rider with her and I head back to the warehouse to put more
of my team together for this job. Even though this appears to be a
mental and psychological situation, we don't know if or when it could get physical
or anything else, so I'm not swayed by that altogether. I'm going to
take Frankie and Jagger to join Rider and I on this job. Harley and
Scarlett will stay back for this one. When we get back to the Silverstein
Institute, we are directed to a conference room where a Rider has been working.
She's set up sort of a temporary base for our operations there. It's
no longer a simple conference room. I can tell you that she's really transformed
it basically to what it kind of looks like in our planning area back at
the warehouse, and she has it set up with different diagrams. There's data
sheets everywhere, and things all set up on this large central table. Writer
greets us all with a look that definitely shows she's been working hard at it,
but it also is a look of satisfaction. We get in and start
getting settled, excited to hear what she has to share. She starts to
brief us on what she has found so far and tells us that the dream
patterns she's recorded seem just as bizarre and inexplicable as doctor Corbin described. Everything
is unusual. So we actually take several hours going through Writer's findings, trying
to look for any patterns or clues that could help us maybe figure out the
source of all of this, and we pretty much spend the rest of the
day doing just that, and as night starts to unfold, that's when we
start to notice something peculiar. We all gather up and start to take a
look at it, but we came across a pattern in the brain scans that
seems oddly familiar to us. It's a very small detail, almost indiscernible,
but it's a blip that's been recurring in the dream data of all the affected
individuals. We dig in a little bit deeper and we can see that this
blip, as we're calling it, isn't really just a lip. It's actually
some kind of symbol, something that clearly does not correlate to any known brain
activity. Was very hard to pull that out of the data. We don't
know what this is, so we send this information back to Scarlett so she
can help us decipher it. Back at the warehouse at that point, the
day had been long. A lot has happened, We traveled a lot of
research. It was just our first dive into this project, so we're a
little bit brain drained. We decided to call it a nights that we can
get some good rest and start fresh in the morning. Doctor Corbyn set up
a hotel for us, so that's where we had for the night. The
next morning, we were all up early because well of course we were,
and we get our things ready. We get all cleaned up and head back
over to the institute. We were given these visitor research badges, so it's
easia for us, you know, to get in and head back to our
conference room. After we get settled a bit righter and Jagger they head off
to observe more patient interview. They were conducting more that day and we needed
that data. Just as they left, Doctor Corbyn walked in and she looked
maybe, I don't know, irritated or anxious. She tells Frankie and I
that while we were at our hotel for the night things were happening. Two
of the patients woke up from these very intense lucid dreams and they were so
terrified that Corbyann's team was unable to calm them down. When asked about what
happened, it was noted that these two had the same narrative as the others.
There was this eerie figure chasing them relentlessly through their dreams. And if
that's not bad enough or strange enough, there was more. Doctor Corbyn told
us that she showed them the symbol that we were able to pull out of
all of this, and that we discussed the day before. She wanted to
know if that symbol was anything that they were aware of or conscious of during
these experiences, and sure enough, they claimed that they did see that symbol
in their dreams. She then put her hands to her temples. You know,
she's rubbing them. For a quick second, she starts to tell us
more like this was draining her. You could tell now. Apparently after all
of that, Later, just as the sun was peeking over the horizon,
there was something else that occurred. There was another patient, a young woman
who was found wandering the institute's corridors, and when the aids tried to talk
to her, they found her disoriented. She was scratching the walls and talking
about how she had to escape. She was frantic. She had to be
sedated. That was actually the only way that any of her patients seemed to
really calm down. She was at her wits end, and you could see
it. So, I mean no kidding that a lot happened in the time
that we got some rust, But thank goodness we did, because we have
a lot of work to do at this point. After getting our data dump
from the previous night, we call on Jagger and Rider to come back and
join us, and then we all call on Scarlet back at the warehouse to
see what she's found out about this symbol. As always, Scarlet answered promptly
on the first ring. She and Harley had been painstakingly working to decipher the
symbol, and of course they cracked the mystery, tracing the origin of the
symbol back to Greek mythology. Of all things, she identified Scarlet as the
symbol as one from an ancient civilization, the Menoans, a people who existed
here on Earth for real many years ago and thrived on the island of Crete.
That symbol, she discovered, was the minotaur, tied to the legend
of the Great Labyrinth, and that part of all of this was where the
Greek mythology comes in. The Labyrinth, according to the myth, was an
intricate, confusing structure designed and built by the famed Artisipher Datalis for King Minus
of Crete Acnosis. Its purpose was to contain the Minotar, a creature eventually
defeated by the hero Theseus, as legend would have it, but not before
he inflicted evil on the innocent. But I'll get to that in a minute.
I mean, we're there taking this all in, and all we can
think of is, well, that's interesting, but what could any of that
have to do with these patients? And that leads me to the patients.
We get done with Scarlett and Harley and now the four of us are talking
and going over everything. So far we've been focused more on gathering up what
is going on, and now, as you can see, we're going to
have to start figuring out though why for sure, the why and so Like
I said, that brings me to the patients. Why are these patients in
particular being selected or that this is happening to I mean, why wouldn't it
happen just to anyone? But it's happening to them, So why them?
How are the patients, the symbol, and the Greek myth related? We
decided to start to look at some of what had been collected more closely.
We needed to look at those interviews that were conducted with these specific patients and
really combed through them. Their stories. While they all varied, all had
striking similarities. The labyrinth, the chasing figure, and the symbol. Let
me share with you just a few of the more notable interviews. Okay,
so patient one, I'll call him George. He was an engineer in his
mid forties. He described the figure as a shadowy beast with piercing eyes.
The labyrinth he navigated was twisting and winding amaze, with no discernible end.
He said the symbol was prominent throughout the labyrinth and he often saw it glowing
ominously on the walls. George admitted to being terrified of sleep. Now all
together, it was no longer peaceful. He looked at it with dread.
He said that now every single day he just dreaded the exhausting, fear inducing
dream that awaited him. Patient two was a young woman, I'll call her
Emily. She spoke of a similar creature and the labyrinth. She also mentioned
the symbol, and then she added on an interesting detail. Every time she
came across the symbol, she felt that same intense wave of dread. However,
there was more. Emily, who was studying art history, recognized the
symbol from her studies of ancient civilizations, and she too identified it as amn
known symbol, perfectly matching Scarlett's findings. Okay. Patient three an elderly gentleman
named let's call him William. He was initially hesitant really to discuss his experiences,
but eventually he did open up. He detailed a similar recurring dream and
made a chilling observation about the shadowy figure that really stood out because he was
not the only one who said this. He said, it's not just chasing
us, it's like it's hunting us. Now, that was interesting. He
described feeling as though he was being herded towards this symbol within the labyrinth.
The others William also reported an overwhelming sense of dread associated with the symbol and
everything else. That's just three examples, I mean, but hey, despite
their different backgrounds, okay, all the patients shared an inexplicable similar narrative riddled
with the same symbol and fear. Each account painted a horrifying picture of a
relentless pursuit in an inescapable labyrinth. All were led by a large, shadowy
figure and haunted by an ancient symbol. So, after we go over all
the interviews and what we know so far, we clearly still have questions we
didn't when we definitely don't have all of this figured out. And the big
piece that's missing here, why is the minotaur if it is messing with these
patients. We have a lot of great information, but the big picture it's
just not clicking in I closed myself into a separate, small office that I
borrow from doctor Corbyn's team. I get back with Scarlett and Harley. I
know that we are missing something, and while Frankie, Jagger and Rider they
start prepping us for dream travel. The three of us dig a bit deeper
into the mythology of all of this. In ancient Greek mythology, the Minotar
was a monstrous creature. Okay, and most of you know about this creature,
the half man, half bull, and like I said earlier, it
lived in the center of the labyrinth, an elaborate maze like construction designed by
that architect by the order of the king. But how did the minotaur even
come to be? Let's start there. Well, long story short. After
a sacrifice went wrong, Poseidon made the kings King Minos, his wife fall
in love with this bull. They get together and the rest is history.
Because their offspring of their union was the Minotar, an odd creature. The
Minotar was kept in the labyrinth and his primary role by the king was to
instill fear and serve as a symbol of Minos' power. They were using this
odd creature or the king was as a level of control and power to instill
fear in some so that he could show his great power off to everybody else.
Each year, according to the Smith, the Athenians were forced to send
seven young men and seven young women into the labyrinth as a tribute to this
king. This is what he wanted. These tributes were then left to wander
the labyrinth. They would never find an exit, and instead they would inevitably
encounter and be killed by the minotaur. What that tells me at that point,
but it clears up for me, is that the minotar then didn't have
personal motives here per se. He was a tool of punishment and fear back
in the day, reflecting the wrath of the gods and the authority of King
Minus. His existence was bound to the labyrinth, and his role was to
terrorize and kill those who were sent in to the maze. Okay, well,
who exactly got picked then to be sent into this maze? Good question?
Right? Will some say it was random? Is that's what? If
that's true? Is that what's happening here? That's what I want to know.
Are our patients random? Back then? When they made it to the
third round for sacrifices and Athenian hero named Theseus, he volunteers to go into
the labyrinth. But the surprise is that with the help of the king's daughter
he was able to kill the minotaur, so even she didn't like what was
going on in either way, this would end all sacrifices. And why I
need to know this is because I'm trying to find a connection here between what
happened back then to what's happening now. Are the minotaur victims and doctor Corbyn's
patients were related in some way? This is where I'm headed. We go
over all of that until I finally close out my video call with Scarlet and
Harley. All good, but I still need that missing link in all of
this to show itself. Now. I won't take you through all of the
hours of scouring all of the information again, but we know something has to
be there in the work that's been done so far. So let me tell
you about what we did figure out here. One. According to Greek mythology,
it's not clear how many other people escaped with theseus, so we have
to consider that there could be up to forty two people that were sacrificed fed
to the minotaur. Doctor Corbin had ten patients at the time of the request,
and at this point, now where we're at, she's up to twenty
seven. Would that patient total eventually be forty two? Are they connected?
Since Greek mythology has zero place in the institute, I feel as though there
has to be some connection between the victims and the minotar. But whatever that
could be, well, that's what we had to figure out. I mean,
our approach will be different from our doctor Corbin, who knows what we
could find, and that's exactly why she hired us to do this job.
Unlike the doctor and her team, we go way beyond science. There is
something there and we are going to find it. Number two, According to
what we know about the minotar that keeps chasing everyone around in their dreams,
it's supposed to be dead already, right. We had to go back and
talk to all the patients about their dreams. We wanted to know did they
ever see the minotar outside of their dreams, either as a real entity or
what they thought was real, or even just as an hallucination. All of
the answers were that they only saw the Minotar in their dreams. They also
all confirmed that once they found themselves in the labyrinth in their dreams, they
were there every time they went to sleep, unless they were sedated, which
of course they all wanted to be every night, but that wasn't possible with
the observations the doctor needed to do. Either way, all of the patients
were terrified in their sleep and while awake at this point because they were afraid
of falling asleep. Kind of makes you think of Freddy Krueger, doesn't it.
And okay, three, well, three was something something small. We
hear about it more and more with all the shows and documentaries out there,
memory loss or people say, you know, I've blocked all that out,
and sometimes you know it's in a joking way, but a lot of times
they are serious. Now, only nineteen of the twenty seven patients that are
there now reported having any blocked out time in their past in there and take
interviews and meetings and things. Nineteen. It's not everyone, but it is
a high number in proportion to our total here, and it did stand out
to us. Doctor Corbyn she noted it as well, but she also knew
that there were a lot of people out there who have experienced trauma. Oh
well, and good. But to her, no, that simply can't explain
a dream that these patients seem to share, and one that they share even
with people that don't have this in their past, because they do have a
mix in their patients. I can see why she overlooked it, or maybe
a better way to say it is it wouldn't be something for her to consider,
not in her field. All of these people were from different locations in
the world. They were in different places and their lives, They lived different
lives, new different people, all of that. One idea she was investigating
was the possibility of a shared hallucination triggered by a specific mental disorder, one
being a rare form of psychosis, kind of like folia pleasieux, also known
as a shared psychotic disorder or induced delusional disorder, where delusional beliefs are transmitted
from one person to another. Her only is she there, though, was
that they were not together when it all started. They weren't together till they
came to the institute. She had to consider this, much to her frustration.
She also considered that the pay are experiencing maybe sleep paralysis, and we've
all heard of that, you know, the state where a person is unable
to move or speak while falling asleep or upon waking. This state can be
accompanied by hallucinations, which could explain the consistent vision of the labyrinth. But
again, why are they all seeing it and interpreting it all the same way?
Around and round? Doctor Gorbin went, Now we at this point we
have other ideas. We're not really thinking that science is going to solve this,
and deep down I have to believe neither does doctor Corbyn, or she
wouldn't have called on me. We set up full on interviews again with everyone,
and we start with patient number one and we just move on down the
line as they arrived at the institute. In this round of interviews we are
focused on the lost memories and time, and then the why why do they
have these blacked out periods in their past? We keep digging and what we
found was that they all had blacked out times in their past. It wasn't
only the nineteen for some. It turns out it just wasn't something that made
sense to them to include according to the questioning they received. This would be
because the questioning wasn't exactly designed for that kind of answer, but might be
in the future. If anything, strange like this happens. You know,
we learn as we go people anyway, though, just because we know that,
it doesn't mean we've really solved anything, but we do have more than
we had. What if the patients, due to their trauma, were in
a vulnerable mental state that allowed them to be more open to influences. Why
them, though, Why these specific patients, Surely there's a lot of vulnerable
people out there. And why the Minotar? We could only guess if we
were to consider that the Minotar is the menace here, then that would make
the Minotar once again a target. But with that one could argue that the
minotaur was never really killed. It was supposed to have been killed by theseus.
Remember, the myth tells us that theseus killed the Minotar. But what
if this was only a physical death. The spirit of the Minotar could have
lingered trapped in the supernatural realm by the very labyrinth that was its prison in
life. Could it still be feeding on fear and terror, pulling these victims,
these patients, into its world and labyrinth with a need for more fear
to feed on. It's possible these patients are already mentally and emotionally sort of
stuck in their own labyrinths of trauma, weaving and guessing their way through their
own past, trying to find something they don't know, something they know they're
afraid of, but somehow feel the need to see or know to put their
full lives back together. I mean that in itself is tragic not to mention
what caused their trauma in the first place, And there were many different reasons
among them. No two stories were the same. Trauma can come in so
many ways. Although their individual stories were different, they did all say that
they were still afraid, or at least it would be safe to say that
they had fear living inside of them. I mean that is a better way
to say it. Because each of one of them, okay, had endured
something so terrifying in their past. Yet the full story, the complete,
unblurred picture, it remained unknown to them. They all had lost memories and
lost time, blocked out periods of nothingness in their lives. It made them
all sad and angry. Truth be told, they each had that fear inside
of them. Fear had just become something in their lives to live with.
They lived with it every single day. It would always be in the back
of their mind lurking because of that trauma. And even though they wanted to
maybe know what really happened, you know, the really bad they all did
say they really would be afraid to truly see what was behind that black curtain
in their mind. So they all were stuck. They were trapped, trapped
by this perpetual presence of it. They tried their damnedest to live normal lives.
A lot of them were doing a good job. But now this,
okay, so what does all of this tell us, shadow ups. It
tells us that our patients here all struggle with blocked out periods of their lives,
long periods of time. Sometimes our patients here are all seeing the minotar
and what does the minotar want? Fear of course, and then there's that
symbol. All right, so we have made a connection in a way.
But what does this all mean? Would this mean that all people that have
had horrific trauma in their past so much so that they've blocked out time,
they're all going to end up heading to doctor Corbyn's institute. Well that can't
be. But we're clearly onto something. But there's still more why these patients
we just kept asking it over and over again. Somehow this minotaur is present
in these victims, these patients. But why the minotaur? Is it literal?
Where does it exist? At the end of the day, we knew
what we had to do. We knew enough that it was time to go
in. Go in where you ask, well, go into one of these
dreams and check it out for ourselves. Going into dreams it's not the easiest
thing to do, as I'm sure you can figure out, we've done it.
But every situation is different and this one is unique as well. This
does not sound like an individual experience. Okay, now we have to remember
that because now by going in, we aren't exactly sure what we're going into.
You know, we're not following one person into their own mind. We're
going into this crazy shared space they all have. And while we're being monitored
those on the outside, they may not know exact actually where we are in
all of this, and it could complicate things when we try to get out
or if we need to get out, But we don't really have a choice.
If you've heard some of our jobs before, then you know that we
have a lot going on is far as tools and things that we use on
jobs. I have an entire dedicated team that is just on tech and auto
and things like that. You know, we're too busy to work on all
that stuff. Yet we are in constant need for new and up to date
technology and things. And one of the things that we've worked on over the
years is the Oneiro frame. It's not a big mystery by the name anyway.
The term oneiro is derived from the Greek word oneiros, meaning dream,
and frame represents the device's role in framing or guiding our dream exploration. So
maybe a funny name, but it still is perfect what we brought these headsets
along with other items that might be helpful because we've worked with dreams before as
you all know, and meshing with them, like I said, can be
difficult. But in this case, you know, we just have to do
it. And let me skip ahead a little bit and get right to that.
It will be me and Frankie going in. I have four of us
on location, right, but I need levels of backup here in case we
need to be pulled out. That would be a bit outside anything the scientists
you know at the Institute would be equipped to do. It's not even something
they could believe. The post research meeting that we did with doctor Corbyn it
was interesting, Thank goodness though, for her willingness to go outside the box.
Thank goodness for her. You know how a detective might use a psychic
as a last resort. You hear about it, something they're not really known
for using, and a lot of times are even judged for doing it.
But they will do it when they know they have exhausted everything else they know.
That's kind of what this was like. Doctor Corbyn had no choice but
to try something more. She called on me to try things and look into
things that she knows that neither her nor anyone there, any other scientists would
be willing to do. And I realized it's a hard thing to get your
head around for some people. But you know, at least she was willing
to ask for help in the first place. She did, and we were
there, and now we are about to dive into the unknown, into the
depths of human consciousness and cross over the bridge to a shared space, a
realm alive with the fear and loneliness of others. Even before crossing the threshold
into the dreamscape, we had this sort of chilling foreboding that just kind of
hung out there right in front of us. We knew this wasn't pretty.
It was kind of like we were about to jump off a cliff, but
we couldn't see what was below. Not really the greatest feeling. All we
could do is brace ourselves for the unseen nightmares we were about to face.
We were in this room. You can just go ahead and picture a sci
fi film here, because that's what it was really like. And picture a
room that's kind of dim and that was supposedly to keep us kind of calm.
But even so, we're in this sterile white room. Machines are humming,
We've got people walking all around, scientists, doctors. I can remember
that the air. The air smelled like, you know, cold metal and
just cleanliness, all topped off with you slight anxiety and maybe a little copper
on the tongue. That's for Frankie and I. In the center of the
room, there were these two large and pretty cool looking reclining chairs. They
were ergonomically designed for comfort and functionality, because you're gonna be sitting in those
chairs you might, as you know, you could be there for a while,
so why not be comfortable? And I'm glad they did it, it
was pretty nice. These would be the seats for the journey. You don't
want to be uncomfortable or trying to squirm around. They would be our physical
anchors to our actual reality. As our minds prepare for this voyage into the
depths of the dream world. They connect Frankie and I to a multitude of
devices. Not unlike you know a patient who might be at a high end
medical facility about to go into a procedure. Pads with sensors were put onto
our foreheads and temples, and these would be linked to our NIRO frames,
those advanced headsets that I told you about that are going to enable us to
delve into this dream world and interact across from our two chairs where Frankie and
I are. Is our patient who will be I guess you'd say, our
ride in. We have to get in with his pass But okay, let's
talk about this selected patient just for a second. We didn't choose this patient
at random. This individual, and I'll call him Alex, had reported some
of the most vivid and traumatic experiences with the Minotar entity. Alex's traumatic dream
experiences were ongoing. He's already survived an assault by the Minotar. But it's
the psychological wounds that are now so raw and hurt the most when he's awake.
None of the therapies or techniques that Doctor Corbyn has put on him have
worked. Neither from her team, no one has been able to stop the
intense nightmares and blackouts that Alex is experiencing. No matter what they do,
he just stays the same and his dreams intensify because it was so strong inside
of him. We could essentially still ride his wave, if you will,
while he was lightly sedated. The three of us have our U Niro frames
and they will act as a type of delicate digital bridge. I guess I'd
say between the three minds, our three minds and his subconscious is what we
need, so we have to be connected there. And then just like that,
with a nod from our tech team, we reclined in the chairs,
our bodies quickly going limp on the cool leather beneath us, and there we
were just waiting for the final command, the final signal that would launch us
into the maze of the Minotaur, and soon enough we were off the world
as we knew it before our eyes was there. But then it instantly rematerialized
in a swirl of different colors and sensations. Frankie and I found ourselves standing
at the entrance of this enormous stone labyrinth, just big ancient walls everywhere.
It was a bit cool and smelled earthy. You know, it looked and
smelled real. We started to take a few steps toward the labyrinth, eventually
making our way in. And what was weird is that as we walked our
footsteps they were echoing. We got into the labyrinth and we could hear each
step on the stone beneath our feet. Again, everything looked and felt real,
but yet it wasn't, and we need that. The deeper end we
went, the closer the walls seemed to get. It was as if everything
kind of was closing in on us. And it's worth noting and telling you
guys that, you know, when you're having one of your own dreams and
you're not really noticing a ton of the small details, you know, you're
not noticing certain things that you kind of take for granted, like you can
hear someone and see stuff and things like that. Well, Frankie and I,
we were both completely aware that there were no lights. There were no
candles, no burning flames, nothing, but it was lit on the inside.
It was as if there was this luminescence that was just emanating from the
very walls of the labyrinth. Everything had this pale glow to it or on
it, so we could see fine enough to navigate our way, but you
know, it was very dreamy. It was really the shadows though, that
got us the most. They were very deep and dark and kind of unsettling.
You definitely knew that you were in some kind of dream state or a
dream world. But like I said, the deeper and we got things kept
kind of changing. Everything got tighter and maybe a little smaller. If you
tried to look down a particular hallway, it just seemed to kind of disappear
into the darkness, like maybe it went on forever. You never saw the
end of anything. And this made it even more kind of tense, because
with every step you took, I mean, you weren't exactly sure where you
were going, not that we had any idea, but this didn't help.
Aside from our feet stomping on the ground, which actually got a little quieter
the deeper we got in, we heard this very distant scream and I mean,
this scream was a scream that came from the gut. We heard it
winding its way through the corridors and bouncing off the ancient walls all the way
until it got to us. We could definitely see how if you were not
prepared for any of this, you would be just terrified. Just that sound
alone would send ripples of a very powerful fear through you. Brankie and I
look at each other because we knew what it was. We were hearing the
cries of the patients. We kept moving forward, making our way, and
like I said, we were in one hallway or passageway. But then we
were seeing these shadows. What they were was we were passing by other people.
They were ducking off to the left or to the right as we were
going the patients, We were catching their shadows and kind of blurred images,
you know, they were a bit distorted, but they were there. The
patients running through the corridor, screaming in fear, trying to escape. You'd
see him dart out of one place and then dive into another. But those
screams and those cries, what we were hearing were the patients living out their
nightmares in this crazy shared dream. World or dream space that was being managed
or monitored by you know, the minotaur. Well, suddenly a figure stumbled
into our path. It's silhouette highlighted by the eerie glow of the labyrinth walls,
and it was a patient. He looked terrified, his eyes wide and
wild. You know, he didn't expect to run into us. His clothes
are torn and dirty, and he's mumbling incoherently, his gaze vacant, lost
in the depths of his own personal nightmare. Before we could reach out to
him or anything, he let out this bone chilling scream, and then he
darted back into the maze. Frankie and I tried to run after him.
Our hearts were just pounding in our chests. We went down so many dark
passageways, but we never did find him. Didn't stop hearing his cries though,
I mean the echoes of the patient's cries. They only grew louder and
more intent the longer we were there. The labyrinth was coming alive with their
fear. And then through the whispers of their terror, we heard it.
This deep, guttural roar sent a chill down our spines. The ground beneath
us started to tremble. The walls of the labyrinth were shaking. We knew
this had to be the force of the minotaur's rage. And then there were
more patient screams. They seemed to pierce us like knives. At this point,
it was just one after the other until they actually kind of started to
blend together, like a chorus of pure pain and fear. The shrieking and
sounds were just bouncing off the walls. It was all echoing in the labyrinth.
Frankie and I both stopped for a moment. It was a little overwhelming
in a way because we knew what it was. We knew what we were
hearing. There's a lot to take. We were hearing the patients and their
traumas being replayed over and over again. It was like some kind of grotesque,
never ending movie. Each scream, each sob whispered like a plea for
mercy, sent a shutter down my spine, and I could feel Frankie.
He was tensing up beside me. You know, Frankie, with the positions
he's held in the past, it is his instinct to go in and save
the victim and take care of the problem, and in this case he cannot
do that. So not only is his anger building, he's also getting anxious
and wanting to do something about what he's hearing. But we still need to
maintain ourselves. We get moving again, following the screams and the echoes,
all the while feeling the Oneiro frames. They're pulsating with the waves of the
psychic energy that's just radiating through the labyrinth. The floor continued to rumble under
our feet, and I could feel my own Niro frame hum against my temple.
You know, everything was getting more intense with the long you know,
the longer that we were in there, But that Onneiro frame hearing it was
actually kind of a comfort in that place, because it reminded me that I
did have a home where this and I came from a home free of anything
like what we were experiencing. All right, Well, suddenly those screams they
get drowned out by that guttural roar. It was a primal sound that just
rumbled through the labyrinth stones and right into our bones. That definitely was the
Minotar, And I mean he kept going for a little while. It was
sort of like it was having some kind of fit or tantrum. His rage
reminded me of a storm that was about ready to lash out at us,
break down our defenses. That's what it felt like, like it was coming
for us. Like the patient said, I wanted to hunt us down.
But and both Frankie and I were thinking this, Why hadn't he just found
us and tried to destroy us? But then it hit me, he's confused.
The Minotar is disoriented himself. He's not used to intruders in this realm,
especially once he can't dominate or terrify. I mean, we are not
like his victims. We are not there to cower. We are there to
confront him. I'm looking at Frankie and I see his grin. He gets
it. Also, if the Minotar is vulnerable at all, this is our
time to pounce in any way that we can. We turn down a dark
passageway and then quickly down another, just to buy a few more minutes before
the minotaur does find us. I need to reach out, and I know
it's a bit risky to try to go in or down into another level,
but both Frankie and I feel strongly that this is the only way I'm going
to have to go another level in and enter the minotaur's consciousness. I crouched
down in a dark corner and start to prepare myself while Frankie stands guard.
With a deep breath, I reach out with my mind, guided by the
oneiro frame. It's like stepping into a hurricane, you know, a whirlwind
of emotions and thoughts, just a mess of memories. I'm getting in the
Minotar's spirit, powerful and untamed as it was, and filled to the brim
and seeping into every crevice of this dreamscape. Was possible, I could get
there. I stay concentrated, images flashing before my eyes. I see a
bleak labyrinth, a glint of an axe. Then I slowly start to smell
fear and even sweat. Forty two victims, their terror relived over and over
feeding the Minotar. His psyche just bloated with their fear and pain. And
then I feel it, the pull against my will, against his. The
Minotar roars again, but it's different. This time. It's not rage.
It's definitely frustration, desperation. He knows that I know that, we know
I'm an intruder, a threat. I start pulling him towards me, making
him face us, face himself. Remember Frankie and I are not weak,
and we do not have misstime and blocked out memories in our lives. We
are not filled with fear or panic or trauma. These are the vulnerabilities that
he has been playing on, and so he did not expect us. He's
trying to fight us. His resistance is strong, but I keep going with
the Oneiro frame guiding me. I start to thread my consciousness kind of like
a needle with thread to the epicenter of the Minetar's mind, where his fury
lives. I am mentally melting with the Minotar in a way that makes me
not just someone on the edge of his perception, okay, someone for him
to see and maybe take. Oh No, I am entering his psyche.
I'm in there. And when I did finally reach that boiling center, I
didn't find what I expected to find, or I guess what fear led me
to believe. What's that saying, guys, you know you never judge a
book by its cover. Well, I can't say this is that exactly,
but what I found was surprising and not what it all appeared to be.
Deep within all those chaotic and whirling thoughts inside the Minotaur's brain, I discovered
truths that were as old as time. It was as if I had been
transported into this dream world and then transported again back in time. In the
Minotaar's mind, all I see for the Minotar are layers and layers of pain
and fear. I see this creature before me in the days of old,
once mortal and living, but then chosen for something awful, not unlike his
victims. Really, we see this Minotar as the total enemy. But now
with what I see before me, it's not the Minotar who is the true
enemy here. We can't forget. It was the king, driven by greed
and a hunger for power. And I say that so often, guys,
and in so many of my jobs. It's right there in front of us.
It's so obvious. Greed for power, greed in all things money.
It inevitably ends badly. I mean, basically, what I saw and felt
was a weight so heavy it was crushing me right there. It was layers,
and I was layers into this supernatural space now and traversing thoughts cross space
and time from our world into the dreamscape and labyrinth, and now even deeper
into the Minotar's mind, and while on the inside, I saw how he
had been fed sacrifices, and in turn, the Minotar survived off the pain
that he inflicted on those sacrifices. Now their mental scars, the ones his
victims carried, were now etched into the Minotaur's essence. They made grow,
They made him grow more monstrous over time with each and every sacrifice, and
that was his life's fate, it would turn out. I mean, can
you imagine, honestly, when I was on the inside of that mind,
the feelings I was having were so great I almost just felt like I was
falling to my knees. The feelings and pain that were oversaturated in the minotaur
where they were affecting me, they were strong, and so I can't even
imagine what it felt like to be him, compelled to do what he does,
which is to incite fear with his dominance and intimidation. This was a
need. He was moving like clockwork, his only known purpose. He was
like a madman now, but once he was also an innocent like the patients,
like all the victims. But then he was imprisoned and trained and conditioned
to have one and only one purpose. To spread what he knows, intimidate
and threat and embody fear. The minotaur is an enemy to us, sure
and our people. Yes, that was his purpose, but the Minotaar also
needed saving, not from us but himself. If we are actually to do
this job fully and correctly, then I know right at that time that this
cannot be ignored. This fear is what gives the Minotar his strength, his
immortality, but it's also his curse, trapping him in this endless cycle of
torment. The answer isn't to defeat him, but to free him. To
drain this energy and redirect it to give the Minotar piece will stop the torment.
He is passing on to others a great realization. But hey, I'm
still on the inside of this Minotaur's mind, and just as I'm about,
you know, ready to get out, I start to feel the Minotaur's fury
start to ripple against my own consciousness. He has become aware that I've actually
entered his mind and this will soon become a problem. I slowly pull back,
calmly, returning to my own consciousness. I feel a strange mix of
dread and hope. The hope is new, I mean kind of a haze,
and my skin is glistening while my body feels heavy. That was a
lot to take in and go through. But now we know at least one
of the missing pieces here. We can end this for the Minotar and all
the tormented souls caught in his wake. But how well I share my newfound
revelations with Frankie. At first, both Frankie and I, you know,
we're just kind of scrambling looking around. We're thinking, scratching our heads.
We keep seeing the dark shadows of patients running by. We're hearing their screams
and cries, and we are still hearing the rumbles of the Minotar, which
are closing in. By the way, this creature is so powerful and now
really angry. How could we over power it? Well, suddenly, out
of nowhere, Frankie just blurts out, it's bigger. I look at him,
you know, well, yeah, the Minotar is huge. But Frankie
keeps going, which just came to him was that the Minotar is bigger than
all of us right individually. Frankie said that he and I, for instance,
are two, and with the patients we are many. The idea being
that together we just might be able to collectively face the minotar. He was
really excited about this idea, like, you know, maybe he won the
lottery or something, but no, it was a great idea. We immediately
went into you know, how though, can we get the patients to come
to us? I mean, they're running around here, they're terrified. The
whole idea, an issue of them being in the labyrinth is fear. The
labyrinth itself was scary enough, but then you had the minotar. I mean,
the people couldn't find their way, they didn't have a chance, and
now their fear was so big they were never going to come to us.
But then something hit me again. Our onnyroframes. We have beacons on them
to help us find each other. Sounds we would only hear in our minds,
of course, but it was set up so that we would not lose
each other in a place like this. Well, what if we could adjust
the frequency and use the beacon to call the patients. While the oneiroframe was
developed as a tool to navigate dreamscapes, it has a variety of features that
make it highly adaptable and technology allowing it and us to interact with the neural
frequencies of the different users Frankies and mine, for instance, are set to
each others. Well, after we thought about it, we figured out that
in the shared dreamscape of the labyrinth, the patience individual frequencies would have been
forced to attune to a common dominant one they were too weak there. It
would be the frequency of the minotaur. This is how, of course,
it was able to latch onto them, keep them in its grip. The
process was now starting to make sense. Here we very quickly start to navigate
the interfaces of my own niroframe. We're going to leave Frankie's alone, leave
it as is. We access the core frequency settings and you know, I
won't get into all the techie stuff, but basically we adjusted the output frequency
of my onnyroframe, setting it to resonate at as similar frequency as the minotaurs
which we searched for and locked in on. We get it all set and
we activate the onnyro frame. It begins to emit its signal, cutting through
the fog of fear and isolation in this labyrinth. It's already and so then
all we can do is wait, and very slowly and timidly we see a
response starting from our signal. One by one, like moth's drawn to a
flame, the patients start to respond, converging to our location. I mean,
they're confused and they have no idea what they're even doing what they're doing,
of course, but they do come. And what was interesting was that
the more that arrived, the calmer they seemed to get as a group.
So something was working here. Their fear seemed to be at least slightly subsiding.
The closer they got to each other, the more of them that came
unfolding before us. Was the phenomenon that two are stronger than one, etc.
Etc. And that's how we found ourselves in that moment, standing there
amidst the lost patience, my own nyro frame beating and holding us all strong
and steady. Whatever patients were in the labyrinth at that time were now with
us. In that moment, we were together as one. We would hear
the rumblings and the stompings of the minotaur getting closer and closer. But the
good thing was instead of him hunting us down one by one and pouncing,
we were able to draw him in. We had some power now, well
at least some influence, and that in that moment only fueled the minotaur's rage.
We heard the minotar bellow, this roar of pure fury and pain that
echoed off the walls of the labyrinth. It kind of felt like it just
shook everything, and every time it slammed its foot down, a miniature earthquake
shook the very foundation. I took a step forward away from the group,
my hand firmly on my own Niro frame, and I turned back to look
at everyone. I tap a new command, and right before me, I
see it happen. This surge of energy pulsed outward, wrapping around each patient.
Now, for them, in that moment, it would feel like warmth
and safety, and each pulse, I hoped, would only strengthen their resolve,
hopefully calm them more, but also really help strengthen their will to break
free from this place. Me sending out that single signal I was trying to,
you know, kind of give them all a slap in the face,
like, hey, look around, we're all here together. And then sure
enough we start to hear the patients raise. Their voices. Started out as
a whisper, a murmur, but then gradually it swelled and grew louder and
louder until it echoed through the labyrinth back at the Mintar. They were building
their power and it was calling to the Minotar. You could hear the Minotar
falter though, its roar slowly turning into a whimper as the energy hit it.
As it started to show itself, it reared back. Its form started
to flicker, losing its stability. It roared again. This time you could
start to hear its agony and despair. We all looked up because something was
changing now. The Minotar was tall and imposing right, but that moment,
its monstrous form began to shrink. And not only that, its figure was
growing less solid. As the power of the group got stronger, the Minotar
was being drained of the fear it had built up within it, and it
had no way of replenishing it. Now that we were in control of those
patients, there was now a wall between it and its source. Now you
have to know that neither Frankie or I were looking at the Minotaur with any
sort of feeling of triumph here or satisfaction over it, because of what was
happening. I mean, we really were looking at the Minotar with a sense
of actually profound sorrow. I mean, think about it. For all its
monstrous deeds, it was a creature of circumstance, a spirit that deserved freedom
as much as the patients it dominated and tormented. I mean, really,
it too was a tormented victim, helpless and at the mercy of what had
been instilled in it. In its final moments, the Minotar turned to look
back. His eyes actually met mine. It was a little chilling, but
they were no longer burning with rage. Instead, I was looking at them,
you know, and they just looked tired. And then the Minotar blinked.
I swear I could see a sliver of gratitude. Probably couldn't even muster
up much more than that, if it was a thought other than intimidation and
rage. Not yet anyway. Then there was a last breath, a fading
bellow, and then the Minotaurd dissolved. Its form just scattered into tiny particles
of light that drifted away, disappearing into the darkness of the labyrinth, leaving
only the echo of its existence. And then boom, everything was over.
Just like that. The labyrinth was still dark, mysteriously lit with a slight
glow. We were still in a dreamscape. After all. There was a
silence that descended on us and the labyrinth. The entire group was still and
quiet. For the patients, their enemy was gone, although for them it
would take a very long time to actually realize this and get over now the
new trauma of this entire experience. The good news, though, was that
by them getting and going back to doctor Corbet, they'd be in good hands.
I won't go into every detail here, but suffice it to say we
were able to get the patients out one by one. It's kind of this
long and draining process, both for them and for us, but we were
able to do it, wake them up the right way, and hopefully close
that door. That crazy labyrinth is now just a hollow echo of what it
once was. The patients were free, although they had a lot of work
to do. The minotar was also free, and he was to say what
would happen there? Frankie and I and Rider and Jagger, We all watched
as doctor Corbyn took in her patience, now more ready and able for some
real help. It's always good, But in all of what was good,
there was also this bitter taste in your mouth of the truth. The Minotar,
for all its terror, was not the true villain of the story,
even though these patients and doctor Corbyn for that matter, might like to argue
that the Minotar was merely a symptom, a manifestation of a far more insidious
issue, the greed of a king who sought power at any cost, even
if it meant feeding his own subjects to a monster. It was a harsh
reminder of our own reality, guys. Unbridled ambition and pure greed can unleash
terror and pain, not unlike what we saw in this labyrinth, And for
those patients, at least this cycle would be broken. We could only wish
them the best of luck navigating the same in the real world. And I
don't know if you guys remember, but we were still looking for that one
missing piece, right Why these patients, these particular patients. Well, the
answer came after many more extensive interviews that we helped partaken with doctor Corbyn.
What we discovered is that each one of these particular patients had gone to a
museum exhibit in their town or city where they lived that had to do with
Greek mythology and the Manoans. Each of the patients went to see an exhibit
showcasing artifacts from the Manoan civilization, which was based in crete. This exhibit
included items like pottery and frescoes, jewelry other cultural artifacts. We could only
deduce that this exposure to the Manoan civilization, particularly to the myth of the
Minotar and the labyrinth, had triggered the trauma that manifested in their dreams as
the Minotar, and this in turn opened a door ador into each of them
for the Minotar to enter. So we locked onto them through these exhibits.
Knew they were vulnerable, and that was the way in Doctor Corbin would be
contacting those managing the exhibit, and anyone that checked into the exhibit that they
could track down was contacted just to check on things. The Minotar had now
been released as well. So in theory this all should stop. But you
never know in this world, right guys, this crazy universe of ours.
You know, it's funny because it's a real thing for each and every one
of us that walk this planet. We are human and we are subject to
becoming vulnerable when things hit us hard and if we're down things that are confusing
or maybe intimidating, become even more confusing and intimidating, and that's exactly what
those hunting down the greed and power they seek are looking for. Be aware
people, that's the lesson here, I suppose, think of along the power
of one and its effects ruppled down. In this case for centuries, the
power of a myth had come to life, and it's just a reminder that
anything is possible. Take that with you today, guys, and take care
in all that you do. I hope you enjoyed listening to the story today.
This job, like all of them, it's just a small piece of
everything. I have more jobs, of course, more stories to share,
so check back. Thank you for listening today. I always appreciate you taking
the time to be here with me. Until next time, and I will
talk to you all soon