Hi, and welcome. If you're looking for a story, a dose of
the stranger than fiction side of the world we live in, then you've come
to the right place. I am contacted by none other than the Consequence Man,
remember him Bowman. He has discovered a dangerous portal, if you will,
that leads to a dangerous space called the menta Verse, and he calls
on me to help stop the process before it ingulfs all that we know.
They call me the Ghost. I'm a dark operative on the dark Web,
taking on those mysterious and outrageous jobs that no one else will or can.
This is one of my adventures. Today's story is a story about the power
of the mind. When a book that had been lost for centuries and for
good reason, resurfaces at an estate sale, it sparks a chain of events
that could change the course of human history. Welcome, my friends to the
menta Verse. Take a listen. So, okay, when I got this
request, I was actually given it in person. Bowman, who is the
Consequence Man, invited me to coffee. Now, if you don't know who
Bowman is, he's a very interesting guy. Smart you did well in his
studies, became successful at a very young age. But he also discovered that
he had a gift. It's not something he does all the time, and
in fact, he realized he can't even control it, but it did become
a big part of his life. He has the ability to see the consequences
of the actions of others by having even the slightest contact with an individual.
Bowman found that sometimes he would get a vision. It could be years worth
of information until the full point actually came through. All very unique and when
he described to me what happened, and this happens every time, kind of
he goes into this trance like state when he's explaining it all, going back
into his vision of what he saw. Well, we're in the back of
this coffee shop. You know how some have those little rooms, little areas
that you can sit in. Well, that's where we were. We're in
the back, and he's talking, you know, more like a whisper.
He leans in and tells me that during a quick downtown bus ride he got
a vision while sitting next to someone. And you should know that he's in
the same town we're in with the warehouse at that time, and that's where
this takes place. So I'm not going to give you that town, because
I don't really need a swarm of people hunting down the warehouse. But okay,
anyway, he's on this bus downtown. He gets a vision while sitting
next to someone, and in this vision, he sees a group of friends,
three of them, all looking through the old book. Then his vision
flashes to what looks like a ritual of some kind. They're there in a
circle, they're all wearing black robes, and they're chanting. And as he
watches these guys chanting in unison, the air around them starts to take on
this shimmer, and it gave Bowman a big sense of unease crept up his
spine. He realized that this ritual has the power to open a doorway into
what would be the menta verse, and he knows that it needs to be
stopped before it's too late. And now you might be thinking, you know
what the heck is the menta verse? Well, by now you all should
know about the metaverse, right, And I'm going to use that as an
example because the two do have some parallels, yet they're completely different. The
menta verse is sort of like a shared hallucination. I mean, that's pretty
much what it is. It's a world constructed entirely of the human mind versus
the metaverse, which is all done through technology. Okay, but same idea.
You're escaping into a different reality, one that you might prefer and that
you feel like you have some freedoms. It's a space where people can meet
and interact in a mental landscape. And I'm talking about the menta verse now,
and this is not bound to this place by physical laws that we have
in our world. It's a technique that has been used by mystics and shamans
and seers throughout our history to explore the depths of the mind and commune with
other beings, whether they were spirits or gods or even extraterrestrial entities. But
okay, so why would bowmen be bothered by this? Okay? Well,
that would be because the menta verse, or a menta verse, it's not
just a harmless playground for the curious. It's dangerous territory. It's a place
where the bound between imagination and reality can blur, and where the power of
suggestion can take hold. In the wrong hands, it can be used to
manipulate and control people, to spread false beliefs and even cause harm I've heard
of this, and I know all too well the risks of the menta verse.
It's certainly not something you're going to hear people talking about, and that's
with good reason. It's kind of been put to bed, and the people
back in the day probably hoped it never came back. I mean, the
mind holds a lot of power, and a lot of it is untouched,
or so we hear and learn over time. Right, they say we only
use a certain percentage of our brain, But that doesn't mean that people have
not, over time in our past tapped into the deepest parts of the brain.
And when they did, amazing things happened. It was all written down
in this crazy book that these guys happened to find rummaging through an estate sale,
you know, trying to find things for their apartments and houses. They're
young, you know, young business guys. They stumble on this book,
they find it interesting while in it it talked about the secrets of the menta
verse and how to access it. And you know, I have to say,
I've wondered if mister Zuckerberg himself, if he knows about the idea of
the menta verse, and if that's why he chose to do what he's doing
in tech. They're so similar. What tech does for the metaverse is what
the mind does for the menta verse. I mean, I guess we'll never
know, but there are people out there that do know exactly what I'm talking
about. I mean, the idea is great, a place where people can
connect on a mental level, talk and do different things, create spaces where
you can live and play. But if you don't keep what you're doing under
control, the temporary mentaverse space could start to fold over your own reality.
Even taking it over, one might start seeing strange and even terrifying things that
aren't really there, or hearing voices that aren't really speaking. They might start
to lose track of time or become completely disconnected from reality. In extreme cases,
they might even become trapped in the menta verse, unable to distinguish between
what is real and what is not. One might even get committed for seeming
insane in our world. But as the menta verse would grow stronger and gain
more power, it could start to pull other people into its reality, whether
they wanted to be there or not. Eventually it could take over everyone.
Now, the biggest problem with all of this well, aside from that is
that this thing can get out of control and people might not even realize it.
It could all be a big mistake. I mean, you know how
people play the Wuiji board, right, and you expect not a whole lot
to happen. People are having fun, it's a game. But then if
something does, it could become something a lot bigger than anyone anticipated. And
that's what this is like. It seems like a game and it's fun in
the beginning, but it could turn very okay. Well, Bowman got his
vision when he was sitting by this young man who we're going to call Ryan,
on the bus downtown. They were heading to their parking garage, or
so Bowman thought. They exchanged some small talk, but also their legs were
touching, and that's when he got his vision. He saw three young men,
Mason, Cole and Ryan, in a new world that had been taken
over. People walking around in a daze, completely immersed in something and very
distracted. Everything had become distorted and twisted, with the boundaries between our true
reality blurring to the point of being indistinguishable. Everything was more. The sky
was a sickly shade of green, and the ground was covered with writhing veins
that seemed to be alive. Buildings and structures appeared to be melting and shifting
like they were made of wax. And in the distance, Bowman could see
this dark, ominous presence looming as if waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting inhabitants
of this twisted world. And he said, that would be the force.
And the only place this force can live is in the menta verse. And
that's why he wanted to meet with me, because none of this can actually
happen. He does not want to see this take over our world. Bowman
did follow this guy afterwards. He saw that instead of this guy Ryan going
to his car, he went on to go to the bus station. He
got on bus forty two headed out to the suburbs. Now, Bowman took
a picture of the guy right before he boarded that bus. But that's all
he had. There's not a a lot to go on. And so the
meeting with me, I mean, we had to find this guy and something
had to be done. So when we're done talking, it's time to get
moving. Get moving finding this guy from the bus. Ryan Bowman stands up.
He grabs his bicycle bag from the chair and we just acknowledge that,
Yeah, we're going to be talking very soon. My team, my guys,
they love Bowman. It's a great partnership because you can imagine having visions
like he does and nowhere to turn. And it's not like he can go
to the authorities. Pretty much anybody, they'd think he's nuts. The first
thing that I did when I got back to the warehouse was filled the team
in with everyone up to speed. I take Frankie and Jagger and we check
out those afterwork buses see if we can find our guy. I mean,
we're a bit early for the rush, but it wasn't long before the eight
to five vers. You know, if they were being let loose, you
couldn't miss the guy's pretty distinct hair. His hair was a bit longer on
top, highlighted, you know, stuff like that. And so we spot
him and we go we're strangers to him, but he's gonna have to come
with us. So we did some very heavy persuading and we did get him
to come with us, if you can believe that. And I tell him
that we know about him, we know about miss friends Mason and Cole,
and I told him, hey, you know we're here to help you guys,
even though I was very sure he didn't think he needed any help.
I mean, why would he. So anyway, it took a little bit,
but you know, with our persuasions, we do get him to come.
Now back at the warehouse. Scarlett had already figured out where this guy
lived, so that's where we go. And when we get there, you
know, it's just a simple apartment that he rents. And we get there
and he leads the way, and inside he throws his bag down and goes
straight to the fridge and he grabs a beer. He pops the cap and
then he nervously just starts to drink it. I mean, he's taking these
big SIPs. He's just looking at us anxiously. I mean, you can
feel his anxiety. But what we know, though, is that this guy
is in the middle of something that he has no idea about. And let
me just tell you this, I mean, Bowman, he's pretty much never
wrong. I mean maybe in the early days when he was trying to figure
out what his gift even was, but the guy is good. We know
that these guys, these three young men, are in far enough that pretty
quick here their wills start to be issues if they haven't already started. It
took a while for Ryan to believe that we were who we said we were.
I mean, the guy was reluctant and understandably so. And in listening
to him talk, we realize that this guy believes that he has been gifted
something. He has some sort of supernatural power to do different things, a
gift that was his, and it's natural that he wouldn't want to give that
away, give it up, or have it challenged. But that's exactly what
we were doing. We scared him enough though, that he did agree to
take us along for one of his rides in one of his rituals, to
this place where he goes, we're going to do it the next Friday night.
He was motivated by proving us wrong. And again, you know,
I'm making this seem like it's going along really fast, and I always have
to remind you guys, just know that, you know, I don't waste
time with all this kind of stuff with you guys, because it just takes
up time and my story for you. But this did take a while.
It took a lot of pressure to get this guy to agree to anything,
so it was a challenge but we did get it done. So that next
Friday night, the session is going to happen at Cole's place. Apparently he
has everything set up in his basement. He runts a small downtown house and
we get there and again, I've only brought Frankie and Jagger along for this.
I didn't want to overwhelm the guy by introducing more people, and I
don't know if I need them quite yet. I do, however, have
Harley and Ryder in our suv parked out front, and of course Scarlett is
standing by it the way our house. Anyway, it's Friday night and we're
ready to go in with Ryan, Cole and Mason get through this ritual that
they're doing. So Ryan, you know, he let us down to the
basement where we see Cole and Mason and they're in black robes. Ryan's pretty
quiety motions us to come on over, and he puts on his black robe
and asks us to and then we're asked to kneel down in front of this
small round table that they have in the middle of the room. It's covered
in black cloth, has some candles on it and some burning incense. You
know, it kind of reminded me of young teenage girls, you know,
discovering witchcraft and deciding that it's something that they should do because it's giving them
a sense of something, even though they don't realize that they actually could get
something out of reciting actual spells and things like that. But you know,
they don't think of that. They're too excited. Also, like people that
do the Luiji word, right, it's all a game until it works,
much in the same way our curiosities as humans and our urge for satisfaction is
great until it all becomes too much and we are so easily distracted. If
you choose, okay to scroll on Facebook for hours, for example, it's
just a trick of the mind. You feel like you're connected, or you
feel like you learn something or know something. You know, you can check
that off, you got that done. It becomes a habit, and then
you have this constant need to fill it. Well, that's kind of what's
happening to these guys. They've discovered something and it's satisfying, so they want
to keep doing it. These guys are tapping into something that makes them feel
alive, and that's great, but what they don't know is it's also dangerous.
Because it's giving them a false sense of empowerment, which could lead to
very reckless actions and reactions, which is what Bowman saw. And make no
mistake, this power that they have to discovered, it's made other stops.
There's nothing we can do about that now, but we can try to stop
it here. This in fact, could end up being the last stop that
this meant to verse in. The power behind it needs to be in full
force, and that was Bowman's biggest fear. These three young men now feel
some kind of fear, okay, after we talk to Ryan, so much
so that they're willing to prove us wrong. Like I said, that's the
point of our pressure. We wanted to either rile them up or get them
to accept us. And so here's what we have. We're a threat to
them until they prove us wrong, which they're willing to try to do.
That's how we get in. That's how we got our invite to participate in
the first place. And you might not realize it, but we can be
pretty intimidating when we want to. I'm just nice to you guys because you're
my shadow ops. Now, Bowman wanted to be a part of this because
he was fearful of how far it had gotten. Okay, but he arrives
too. When he gets there, we all introduce him. Bowman and Ryan
greet each other. They remember sort of meeting on the bus. Bowman doesn't
need to say a whole lot. I mean, his presence is enough,
and I think the guys felt it. They acknowledged him very respectively, even
though they were a little confused. They just wanted to get this done,
probably so we could all go away and they could just keep doing what they're
doing. Well, we finished hammering out the details of what was going to
happen. We're going to keep this too. Frankie Jagger and I scarlets at
the warehouse. Rider and Harley they're going to stay in the basement at Cole's
just to watch out for anything or be available if we need to call on
them. Frankie Jagger and I get into our robes that they provided us the
room and Cole's basement. You know, it's getting sort of thick with anticipation,
right, I mean, we're all wondering what this is. They're nervous
to show us all of that. But Cole, Ryan and Mason, they're
grinning from ear to ear because they're excited. Okay, they're anxious, but
they're excited. They want to show us they're great find Ryan lit the candles.
Mason made sure the incests was good to go. We're ready for this
ritual to begin. The three guys they start to chant out of their book.
We could see the room begin to change. At least from our view,
you could visuals see the air get heavier, and you couldn't help but
notice the candles. They were flickering in the dim light. We're all holding
hands, and our grips between each other's strengthen as we feel the power building
coal. Mason and Ryan they closed their eyes, so we did the same,
allowing ourselves to be drawn into the energy of the room. The sounds
of the chants seemed to grow louder, and they were echoing in our ears.
And then finally we see this white ball of light form above. It
flashes and this jolt of energy goes right through us. All. It was
like being pulled in different directions at once. I mean, it wasn't exactly
pleasant. When I opened my eyes, though, I can see the three
guys across the table from me, Frankie Jagger and I were on one side
and there on the other side. Well, the three guys let go of
our hands and they start nodding and smiling and looking at us. They were
excited. They're asking us, can you see it? Can you feel it?
And we can. We see the big light, we can feel the
energy. We lower our hands as well, and we start to look around
and more things are different. We're somewhere else. We acknowledge that, we
definitely know things have changed. It was almost a little misty or foggy.
There was this shimmery light that was shining through everything. With that big ball
of light hovering above us. It was kind of like having a big flashlight
in your eyes. And so once you kind of looked around, that's when
you realized and looked beyond that, that, hey, we weren't in the
basement anymore, guys, things We were now in a giant green meadow.
We started to look around and all we could see was grass all around us,
trees in the distance. Looking back down at the table that was once
before us, we now just saw a stump and on it were the candles
in the incense, but there was no black cloth. We were no longer
inside at all. The three young men break away from us from our circle
and they start running out into this field, fanning out in three different directions.
One of them calls out to nobody for a football, and sure enough
one shows up in Mason's hands. He throws it to Coal, who throws
it to Ryan. I mean, they're just having a good old time,
but we know better. Bowman's visions are real. This just wasn't right.
The environment provided to these guys is exactly what they would be looking for as
an escape. You see, it's too perfect, as if they are being
which in this situation translates to ideally distracted, so that other things can happen,
other things like a reality takeover our reality. And if this can get
us all distracted, then it could just have its way, build on itself,
suck up our world and move on. This is red pill blue pill
guys, And I can tell you that, not knowing what to expect,
we weren't all the way ready for this. I mean, just in our
short time that we spent there, the menta Verse, it tried to get
us as well. For instance, I was just looking around, you know,
trying to take it all in when I hear Frankie behind me, and
he's saying, hey, what's that? Well, Jagger and I we turn
around to look at him, and we see Frankie and he's reaching in the
air, grabbing for something, and we look up and you see it's an
oversized goldfish. It's swimming away in the air above him, and he keeps
trying to grab it, but it keeps swimming away. I mean, Frankie
got so sucked in in a quick minute that he forgot that none of this
is actually real. It's all happening very well. Jagger goes over and tries
to help him, so he reaches up to get Frankie's arm to stop him
from reaching for this fish that really isn't there. But when he reaches up,
instead of grabbing Frankie's arm, a backpack forms in his grip. It's
like this older looking, dark green cloth backpack, and Jagger's surprised by it,
as we all are. But then there he goes he's getting sucked in.
He kneels down, opens up this backpack. You know, so,
as you can see, in this environment, one quick distraction can replace all
logic and sensibility, which of course is the goal. Now, now I
have Jagger reaching into this back pack and he starts pulling out this collection of
what looks like childhood toys and trinkets. His face is lighting up with excitement.
He's like a five year old. I mean, he was into it.
In two seconds. He went from being the strong man he is to
a small ball. I walk over to him. I'm shaking my head now
and telling him, hey, this isn't real. None of this is.
And for a moment, Jagger's confused, and Frankie's looking on now too,
and he's confused. I mean, they're both in a happy place. Why
am I disturbing it? Right while? I start talking to both of them,
and eventually they do come too, and as they step away from the
illusions, the illusions just dissolve because, of course, if we're not paying
attention to them, they have no purpose. Okay, well, I have
my guys back with me, which is great. But then we notice that
there's this sort of black smoke that's coming out of the very green and colorful
trees in the distance. We take it all in because everything around us has
a sense of positivity. It's very upbeaten happy, except for that leaking smoke.
It was time for us to get out of there so we can figure
out what we're going to do before it gets the best of us, you
know, the evil side of this. After we finally pull the guys from
their football, we all get huddled together around that stump with the candles and
the incense, and Ryan gets us out of Back in the basement, we
ditch our robes. Cole Mason and Ryan are talking a mile a minute.
I mean, they were very excited about what they had just shown us.
You know, they're big fine. We had to pop their bubble though,
and tell them that it really was not all that great, that none of
this was good at all. And while we're talking, we start to notice
things in the basement. I mean, even though Ryan assured us that there
was never an impact back home with any of this, he would have to
admit that there were some changes. Now the menta verse powers seemed to have
leaked into our world a bit. Have we upset the Force? Probably we
were new we were not all in, and the Force would know that.
We noticed a couple of lamps that looked like they almost started to melt.
And these changes were something that you might not notice, okay if you just
glanced, but we were looking for things, and we noticed it. Things
were definitely changing. The corners in the ceiling they were now softer, drooping
in just the slightest way, as were the pictures on the walls. If
this one on much longer, this room would turn into a Salvador Dolly painting.
We brought some of its power back with us. It hitched a ride
right back into our world. And we need to know that unlike us as
humans, this thing can just keep growing, expanding, getting strong. I
mean, we as people, right, we can only use up our resources
until they're gone, and then we're gone, okay, But something like this
can go on continuously and indefinitely as long as it continues to be fed.
Should this succeed, we would essentially become an energy farm. I mean,
there are millions of us for it to feed off of. And if we
were living in some altered existence where everything seemed great and we faced no issues
and instead were continuously entertained, which being entertained in this way, guys,
is really being detained, if you think about it, detained as an energy
source. Anyway, Bowman had been looking through this book that the boys had
found, and he stands up and he just slams it shut and sets it
down. He did compliment the three young men and their ability to be so
concentrated and pull off the collective thinking that brought them into the menta verse in
the first place, but he had a lot of warnings. It's a world
that exists within our own minds, he explained, a place where our thoughts
and desires can become reality, and should we do it together in a very
strong and collective meditative state, it becomes a place where we can see each
other, create what we want, and be whatever we want, which all
can sound wonderful, But like all great things, Bowmen can't stress enough that
it is all not without consequences. In this particular case, the menta verse
space has been corrupted. No doubt from some of the rituals that the boys
had been chanting to pull this thing off to begin with. It was not
their fault. Bowmen was clear on this. People are curious, and of
course they read the chance, wanting to see what it could bring. The
chance promised a new and happy place, of course, and it can provide
that, but it's not always the same. For these young men. It
did bring the menta verse, but it also brought an evil entity that would
now be in charge of that space should it survive. Any menta verse will
have its own rules, depending on how it was brought about and by whom
what minds created the mental space. If one isn't careful, this kind of
energy space can start to take over our real lives. Sure, you might
feel like you have superpowers at first, but that's just the hook. This
is dangerous. When someone enters the menta verse, their thoughts and desires can
start to effect. Their surroundings. Might be fun at first, it might
even cater to them, until eventually it becomes too difficult for the person to
know what is real and what is not, and then they become a true
victim. Bowman's last message to the boys was don't get sucked in, and
you won't lose your world. And with that, Bowman's part of this was
done, at least for now. That's why he came to us, and
it was our job now to take over and get this thing handled. We
thank him and we see him out. Ryan Mason and Cole, you know,
they were still pretty confused and they wanted to show us something great that
they had discovered. And now here we work, just shooting it all down.
That's how it seemed, and that's pretty much what we were doing.
We get back down to the basement to finish our discussion and Mason chimes in.
I mean, he's disturbed by everything that's happened. He says that,
hey, he wouldn't care what reality he was in if he liked it.
Being in there, he said, was better than being out here. He
had more freedoms, and he liked it. He was happy, and so
he really didn't care. I mean, if it can be great, then
really, why not? Well, in response, I blurred out one word,
complacency. I look straight at him and I tell him that we cannot
accept this, that to live in a reality such as this would not be
living or reality. I tell him that it's stripping his logic and he needs
to be careful. We need more time inside. I assure him that if
all is good and safe, then we have no problem with this. But
if Bowman is right, which he pretty much always is, then we have
a very big problem on our hands, and they need to help us fix
it since they created it. Frankie says a few things too, which I
won't mention here, but really we're putting these guys in their place, okay,
because no one owns a they don't own space and time. These guys
are messing with something way bigger than themselves and they need to learn that respect.
And I have a great example for you on this. Actually, you
know, after everything that we just did and everybody said their peace and the
warning from Bowman, as we're all leaving, we're in the street, all
go into our cars and we notice Ryan and Mason. They're walking towards Mason's
Nissan x Tera. No problem, but Mason realizes that he do and have
his keys while instead of going back into the house to get them, he
holds his hand out and he says loudly, keys And that's all it took.
All of a sudden he had keys in his hand. This was an
act of formation. He was able to form an object out of sheer willpower
and mental thought. Bowman saw this because he was still in his car.
I guess making a phone call or something, and he actually gets out of
his car and he starts walking to the house. We start walking toward the
Extera, and before we're even over there, Bowman comes out with Mason's keys.
Not only is the energy source reaching our reality. These young men are
taking from the menta Verse and using their powers here in our reality, and
that takes it even further. Not to mention the fact that now Mason has
created a duplicate object, and you know, we could go on about that
all day. I'll let you figure that out. We can't have duplicate objects,
which could lead to duplicate people and things running around. Bowman explains.
You know, this is not a power for them to use, and by
doing so, they're essentially providing an acceptance of it in our world, in
our reality. If we were to accept this form of power, then we
might as well put out invites for the menta verse, you know, just
come in and take over, come into our world. It's a temptation and
they were sucked in by it. And sure, I mean, who doesn't
want superpowers, But these aren't for real and they're not for anyone. They
would never last. It's just even the small changes in the home, which,
by the way, when we went back in, those changes were gone,
you know, the melting pictures and things. The power wasn't strong enough
to fully take hold. These were all small changes, but they were signed
signs that the menta verse was already starting to seep into our world and affect
our reality. We had to go back in and discuss this further because apparently
the point had not been made, And after digging in deeper, we get
these three guys to admit some other things, other things they have noticed in
our own reality. For instance, one of them was, you know,
Mason, he kept seeing his dad. Well, his dad died when he
was eight. I mean, he wasn't upset by seeing his dad though,
because his dad was friendly and it felt nice to see him. It's small
things like that that were happening to all three of them. It reminded me
of when someone sees a ghost, okay, of say their mother, and
they think it's good and the ghost is great and they want to see their
mother. But then really what's going on is behind all that is the devil
himself. You've seen that in movies. This is just like that, all
temptations of things that we would like to believe or see to get you in
just enough, just enough that you could forget yet what your own reality is.
And that's dangerous. Okay, Well, there's a lot going on with
this, so I'm going to fast forward. For our next expedition into the
menta verse, we will be taking Ryan with us, So I'm going to
go in with Frankie, Jagger and Ryan. Ryan seems to be the most
receptive to our thoughts and our skepticism, so we need him to see what
we see so that he can help translate it to Cole and Mason as their
friend. Plus, he's been in there more times and maybe he could be
actually helpful. So we gather up our supplies, we go through the entrance
ritual, and soon enough we're back inside the menta verse. Now this time
we are not met by a fun green meadow. Instead, it's dark and
moving fluid. Things appear to be shifting across the landscape and the ground which
isn't really ground. We all felt very unsteady under o our feet, sort
of like running through marshmallows in a dream, but not quite that bad.
It wasn't up to our knees anyway. This is where we have to start
practicing our mental control. Collectively, we envision ourselves with solid ground under our
feet, and collectively we were able to deal with that part pretty much,
which gave us hope for whatever was to come. Okay, well, what's
our goal here? Okay? Our goal is to locate and basically destroy the
main power source that is formed in this place. This force is simply stolen
power, forming its own unit. That power was stolen from others. It
doesn't belong to the force that collected at all, and it needs to be
broken. Armed with our supplies and our weapons, we form this line on
the inside and we start to walk forward. We know, as it is
presenting itself that we need to head over to the line of trees off in
the distance. But as we're going along, all of a sudden, the
landscape in front of us fills with weeds that are at least to our thighs.
They're long and black and sharp. We go a bit more than out
from the weeds come these shadowy figures. They seem to be made up of
more of that black smokelike stuff that we saw coming out of the green trees
before. We each were confronted by one of these guys. And now they're
just in our way. I mean, clearly they're meant to be a menace.
They start darting all around us, between our legs, leaping up to
our shoulders and circling around us in a dizzying blur. They even start to
whisper things like you're not going to make it go home. But we know
that these figures they don't have to be real, not if we don't want
them to. This is a game that we are in, a mental game,
very fitting for the mental verse. We stop everything, We start talking
to each other and trying to focus, giving it everything we've got. An
Eventually, those shadowy figures they dissolved. Frankie's lasted the longest. It was
like this force against a force on that one. It took so much focus
for Frankie that he was stiff, just standing there face to face with this
dark, smoky figure with these glowing yellow eyes, its body constantly moving,
smoldering. A tear ran down Frankie's cheek, that's how hard he was concentrating.
That was right before he was able to break this spell. I guess
you could call it. Took him a minute to get his energy back to
keep going. This was draining, guys. I can't stress that enough.
This sort of fighting, it was very draining. And there were more fun
creatures to come. I mean, for instance, Ryan had these giant spiders
that came up out of the ground fog, and they just started crawling all
over him. They had multiple legs and razor sharp exposed teeth. We all
raced over to where he was and tried to pull them off. But the
weird thing was that if you tried to grab one of these black, fuzzy,
mean little guys, I'd say they were the size of a fist,
like a good sized fist. But anyway, every time you try to grab
one and pull it off of Ryan, they would explode into two. They
would double with touch. It was crazy, and then they were crawling all
over you. I mean, we were scrambling as fast and furious as we
could to throw them into the fog darkness, but they kept multiplying. It
was an impossible task. We pull out our sonic disruptors as a way to
try to fight this. There are handheld gadgets that will admit these high pitched
sound waves that should disrupt the spider's ability to multiply or even move. However,
as we go to use them, we realize that they're not working as
expected. The spiders are completely unaffected, and our devices they start to malfunction.
They even start emitting this loud, screeching noise, not at all what
it's supposed to do, not to mention it's so loud and high pitched.
We can't do anything until we get rid of that. So now we have
that and the spiders, we shut down the disruptors, realizing that there's no
doubt that with everything we brought with us, this place is going to shut
it all down, break it, or make it impossible to use well.
In some stroke of inspiration, Frankie calls out for a purge gun, like
Mason did with the keys. And when Frankie did that, I mean,
we all looked at each other because, I mean, it's Frankie, but
what is he doing? While this crazy silver and black blower things suddenly materializes
in Frankie's hands. It kind of looked like a leaf blower, but it
was actually this specialized tool designed for use in extreme situations like combating large swarms
of insects and arachnids, not something we do every day. And you know,
of course only Frankie would know this, but hey, it worked.
He gets the thing going and starts to go for Ryan, who almost falls
over, but then he studies himself and sure enough Frankie's able to blow off
the spiders one by one. It's working, and he gets to all of
us and the spiders are done. As they fall, we notice that they
start to dissolve into the fog below as they fall. And this supports our
kind of belief that if you don't believe it, it can't exist. Kind
of thing right in here, And although it's not entirely true in a menta
verse, it does work to a point. It was a good call by
Frankie. What he did was think like the menta verse in order to beat
it, and that's exactly what we need to do. So in that moment,
we now know that to be in the menta verse means we need to
think like the menta verse. And that's it. This place, this menta
verse, it's a collective power that is being managed and hoarded by an evil
force that only wants to grow and spread in a way that fits it.
It's like a bad disease. The menta verse is a world of the mind,
and so we will use our minds against it. The first thing we
do is we need to agree that together we have more power. I mean,
we know this, but we need to make sure we think of it,
and that Ryan knows it. I mean he seems to. The spiders
definitely got to him, and I mean that's good, but I get it.
I mean, these spiders were fierce. My arms got scratched, my
face got scratched, Jagger's jacket got ripped. He had scratches on his hands.
I mean, we all got hurt somehow, and there wasn't much we
could do about it. When Ryan first got attacked, the spiders got him
good on one of his arms and it was a pretty deep gash. But
all we could do is tie him up and get ourselves reset. If we
can't use our weapons, what can we do now to move forward? Well,
before we have time to even think about it all, it starts to
rain, and I mean it's pouring. Of course, this is another move
against us, but we're not going to be stopped. We huddled together and
we're discussing how we need some good help in there and what can we come
up with, And we're doing all that. We're thinking about this, and
somehow, just by thinking together and being focused on this, help does arrive.
Even though it's not in the form we expect it, it is help.
Nonetheless, we hear this noise and it interrupts us and I look down,
but all I see are the weeds, so I start to move and
spread them apart, and then I see this little creature, and then there
were more of them. They're about the size of a small squirrel, and
they had the soft fur and these big eyes. I mean, they're not
like any other threats we've seen. They actually look friendly, but are they
They're kind of cute, you know. We start giggling at them, but
that doesn't last too long. They rise up out of the weeds, and
there were quite a few of them, and then in an instant they change.
They seem to smile at us and nod their heads, these little heads,
and then all of a sudden, their bodies change, almost like a
transformer or something. This metal covering comes out and covers their bodies. It's
like they were transforming into these little metal balls. They start darting around and
in front of us in the rain, and then they start to get together,
and then this bright, pulsating light starts to shoot out from the centers
of their bodies. And this is all new to us. Okay, we
don't know what they're doing or what they're trying to do with or for us,
or at us, while their light grows in intensity until it forms this
solid, flat sheet of energy that extends out in front of us. And
as the little creatures move the sheet up and down, the rain around us
dissolves and evaporates, leaving us standing in a dry patch. I mean,
the whole center of this field and up to the trees is now clear of
the rain, even though you can still see it happening all around us.
That was our power at work in the menta verse. And I absolutely do
not think that this is something the Force anticipated. I mean, maybe as
it took over, it would know about all of this and be ready for
it. But for now, all it seems to know is that if it
distracts the human, the human will follow. Well, yeah, we are
a little bit different. With our path cleared and our little helpers beside us,
we form a line once again, with Jagger on the end on the
left. Then it's Ryan, Frankie, and then me all the way to
the right. As we approach that distant tree line, the trees enclose us
in a looming wall on both sides. So we're entering and the trees are
kind of at a curve around us. I have trees to the right of
me, and Jagger has trees to the left. We walk ahead, and
as we get through the tree wall, things instantly change once again. The
weight of the menta verse is crushing its heavier than it was before, and
then our environment changes as well. All around us. We're no longer in
a forest, but instead we're in this vast, dark chamber with the only
lighting to be these large candle lit sconces on the walls. It was very
medieval. You can see the force itself looming before us. We see its
large and squirming mass of black tendrils and pulsing energy. It's definitely aware of
our presence, and it starts sending waves of psychic energy directly at us,
trying to overwhelm our minds so that we cannot think for ourselves. If that
were to happen, we would never know that we were in the menta verse.
We would never know if we got out of it, we wouldn't even
know who we were. That's what would happen. So we try to reconnect
and focus. But even though Ryan has been in the menta verse before,
as we walked deeper, into this creepy chamber. He starts to falter,
dumbles, and nearly falls. His face is pale and breathing is labored.
I look into his eyes and I see his fear and panic. This is
all too much for him, and he's starting to get overwhelmed. Jagger stops
and comes over, trying to calm him down, but it's clear that Ryan
is in the midst of a full blown melt down. The psychic energy waves
are hitting him hard and he's struggling to hold on. We all gather around
him, trying to shield him from the waves as best we can, but
it's not enough. Just then, our little helpers they gather around us and
they form a circle in the air all around us, so there's this sphere
of these guys around us. As a group, they start to emit their
bright, pulsating light, and at first we're not sure what they're doing,
but we soon realize that they're creating a protective shield around us. Of course,
they can't be as powerful as the force itself, but it is giving
us some temporary relief from the psychic energy that's hitting Ryan so hard. We
take a break and we focus all of our energies on Ryan, and this
isn't easy. I mean, each of us can also feel the power and
pressures of the menta verse all around us, even though some of it has
been lifted by this shield. Being in that situation, it's hard to keep
our own thoughts clear. But as a team, we do this collectively so
that we are more powerful. Together, we're able to steady Ryan and help
him regain his footing. However, now we are delayed, and every time
that we have to stop, it gives the force more time to prepare for
us. So we're up, We're ready. We keep going as we approach
because all right, now we're in this chamber, right we could see this
black force kind of leaking out of those trees. Well now it's in the
backside of this chamber, so it's all dark ahead of us, but we
can see it's sort of leaking out of that and we're approaching that forces entity
and the area around us. As we get closer, it starts to actually
ripple and warp, kind of like a heat haze. The ground beneath our
feet starts to tremble, and then we start to feel a chill. Everything
around us starts to get iced over, and you can hear the ice crackling
echoing in the background, a bit muffled by the sounds of the force.
I mean, the Force had its own sound, which was becoming clearer and
clearer as we got closer. It was like the sound of a thousand whispers,
all speaking in unison, creating this eerie and unsettling chorus. It's a
sound that seems to come from everywhere yet nowhere at the same time, and
it was sending shivers down our spines. We're getting chilled. We can see
our breath. It is a distraction. This would be the distraction of discomfort.
As we're feeling more pain, the Force started to expose itself more and
it out this deep and ominous rumbling. It was emanating from deep within its
dark and smoky form. It's the kind of sound that would make your blood
run cold, fills you with this unavoidable sense of dread. I mean we
all felt it, even our little helpers. They seemed to get affected as
we got closer to the force. Their bright pulsating lights started flickering and dimming.
This thing was serious. With every step, we could feel this palpable
pressure on our minds. It was like a heavy weight pressing down on us,
trying to crush us with its sheer force. We saw shapes and shadows
moving in the corners of our vision, but when we turned to look,
there was nothing there. Our minds were playing tricks on us. We hear
more eerie whispers that seemed to come from all around us, telling us to
turn back and give up or surrender to the menta verse. There was so
much and so many visions it was hard to resist. I mean Frankie,
Big Frankie. He ended up crawling on the ground at one point, trying
to work his way through the mist. Everything was cold, and when we
asked him what he was doing, he said he was finding the bullets on
the ground. This was a military vision put on him. I saw my
grandmother at one point talking to me from out of the corner of my eye,
and I only looked at her once, but then I refused to look
at her again because she was beckoning me, and I knew it was a
trick. This was a more personal vision, a very hard one to resist.
Ryan was talking to something or someone that wasn't there. And Jagger,
well, he was back with that dang backpack. We were all affected at
different times, taking turns, we would start to doubt ourselves, did we
have the strength to resist the pull of the menta verse or what was happening,
what was being presented to us, was that true and real? The
confusion was setting in. We were reaching that fine line, tired, brain
drained, and vulnerable to the pressures. But even though some of us were
literally crawling on our hands and knees, we did finally make it. As
hard as it was, we found ourselves standing before the pulsating mass of the
force. We know we have to fight it head on if we want to
destroy these energies, which it was a one and done, but it was
not. This creature was very large and intimidating, with its tendrils just writhing
and pulsing. I mean, this thing wouldn't stop looking down on us.
It was letting out these deep growls. I mean they were so loud and
deep, and it had this crazy echo to it in the chamber that you
actually felt it on the inside of your body, right up through your stomach.
The tensions building and our hearts are pounding as we prepare for battle,
because that's basically what we have to do. Well, we notice right then
that Ryan is missing. In just the seconds that we were getting ourselves situated,
the force took him hostage. We finally find him struggling within the creature's
grasp way off to the side. So now not only do we need to
fight this thing, we need to get Ryan free. Well, it would
appear that the menta verse knows what we're thinking pretty much at all times,
and it starts in on us. Now that we have seen that it has
Ryan, Jagger suddenly calls out for a sword, and with that he charges
forward. But as he swings it towards this creature, the creature effortlessly just
knocks him off to the side with one of his tendrils. We're stunned,
and Frankie and I start to position ourselves, pausing for just a second to
collectively think of our own approach. But then we get distracted. We're distracted
by Jagger and what he sees, because remember, we're all thinking together.
Jagger noticed that when he was thrown to the floor into the side his knife,
his sword scraped the chamber floor as he slid across it. At one
point in its scrape, this very large knife appears to have cut through the
floor. There was a slice with this bright yellow light coming out of it,
and right then it hit us. Of course, this is energy.
Energy can be broken by slicing through the very fabric that makes up this place.
By default, it should weaken it. Everything works together in a place
like this. It's not like you know, you break through a wall in
your home and the rest of it's okay. This is one giant living being.
You hit it somewhere, it's going to feel it everywhere. While all
at once, excitement ran through each and every one of us as we realized
what to do. The cold was getting to us. But Jagger gets to
his feet and he picks up his big knife and holds it high above his
head. Then in an instant, he puts all of his strength behind it,
focusing on a heavy swing, and he plunges that knife down into the
floor again. He slams it back into the wound he just made, and
he pulls it, extending the cut. And he does this over and over
again. As the fabric tore, we saw a blinding flash of light and
energy burst out of that cut, illuminating the chamber. And this one gets
a reaction. No longer interested in Ryan, the Force drops him. He
rushes over to us and we call for our own swords. Ryan's a little
shaken up from being held captive for a small moment, but he's pretty quick,
I have to say to get it together. He's shaken but unharmed,
okay, and he quickly joins in the fight. We now have a renewed
sense of energy and fight in us, which we need. We can realize
our true chances here. We charge at the Force, knives in hand,
and we start to slice through its tentacles, the ground, basically anything in
front of us. We feel the harsh cold subsiding, and as we work
we can see the creature is weakening with every strike, and the longer we
go, the weaker it gets. Its movements become more sluggish, and it
lets out another roar, but this time it comes out more as a screeching
sound that actually hurts our ears. The force is falling and we are winning.
The Force makes one last attempt. This dark and smoky beast comes out
in full form. This thing was tall and overbearing, big and constantly in
movement, dark smoke burning off it's every limb, part of its body.
It was a sight We're all lined up and standing in front of this thing.
But Frankie and Jagger they break away, going for what would be its
legs, slicing right through them, and this large figure. You can see
it's weakened to a point that it can no longer stand, and sure enough
it comes crashing down. There's no way to get out of the way,
all right. It starts falling and it's gonna fall on all of us.
All we can do is point our knives upward and close our eyes. I
mean, this thing was big. There was nowhere to run. You expected
to be hit by this large object, just hoping that you weren't squashed,
but realizing that you could be. It was one of those moments, guys.
We were in it and we couldn't change that. But thankfully what happened
was totally different. The Force was losing energy and form. It was like
we were hit with this big ball of smoke and wind. When it fell,
the Force had basically lost its force. And when it finally fell to
the ground, shuddering, it went silent, and then everything started to change.
The chamber around us started to warp and twist, the mist shifting and
fading. Everything was moving slow, then it had moved fast, then it
moved slow and then fast again. It was very strange, like it was
had a glitch, not like normal reality at all. The smoke from the
beast disappeared into the air, and our little helpers, well, they started
popping out of the twisty mist, and one by one they pop, then
they'd puff and go away into nothing. They just disappeared with the snout.
It's like they rose up and then the poof, they were gone. And
of course they would go. I mean, unfortunately, our collective energy was
not a total match for this place. These little guys, they couldn't stand
on their own and would be one of the first things to go. But
one by one, and little by little, the whole place started to go
down. Like that, it gets louder and messy, the ashes come back,
flying around everywhere. Any wet or rain or cold. It had all
stopped. All We could hear our rumblings in the distance, like buildings falling
or something. But we didn't stop. We kept going until we knew for
sure that the damage had been done. There's no actual door out of this
place, guy, So there we were with one final slice. We actually
jumped into the ground where our slice was. This slice was bright yellow with
its energy and light, and one by one we went through this tear in
the mentaverse fabric. The world around us in that place it dissolved into a
blur of colors and shapes as we went down, and we were thrown through
space and time until we finally emerged, panting and exhausted, back in Cole's
basement where we began. And you know, getting back to that basement was
almost as interesting as when this whole thing started. It's very hard to pull
someone from something that was so satisfying and empowering, like with these guys,
and it's not natural to pull yourself away from these things, but that's exactly
how we get manipulated. Unfortunately, Cole and Mason and Ryan, they really
needed to grasp what they had gotten involved in and what was going on.
And after everything we had been through, believe me, Ryan was more than
clear with his friends that they wouldn't be doing any more of that. After
we sat down and talked about everything, we were able to get them to
a place where they could just let go of this whole idea. Everything in
that room was back to normal. Nothing was melting or things like that,
and without this connection their powers would be gone as well. Could they live
with that? Well, Ryan, he even tried to re enact, you
know, calling out an object, but nothing appeared and nothing would. There
was no more power to lend to them. It was all coming from the
force and they had to accept this. They had been enticed to go in
and be a part of it, and not for their benefit, of course,
only for the benefit of the force. And they could see that now
this is a reality they would all have to live with if they want to
be safe and move on. That is, we all sat inside violence for
a moment after everything we had gone through. We talked about everything that happened.
I mean, it was an incredible experience, one that would definitely stay
with these three young men for the rest of their lives and stand out as
something truly unique. They discovered something that many people walking around our world today
will never know or see. They had seen the power that the menta verse
could have, the power of the mind, and they know now that they
could not take something like that lightly. Comparing this to technology and how this
could be as powerful and dangerous was a sobering thought for all of us,
but it is what it is, folks. We're moving forward. We have
no idea where it's all going to take us, where it all can take
us. The guys walked us out when it came time to leave. They
gave us the book to give to Bowman. I mean they didn't know what
else to do with it, and actually that would put it in pretty good
hands. I'd say we'd all and through something together. Definitely some things these
guys had never seen or experienced before, but it did humble them. And
I know I sort of mentioned Facebook earlier as an example, but you know,
after all of this, you kind of realize that this is all actually
quite parallel to things like social media and all the tech out there when you
think about it. I mean, social media also pulls you in and compels
you to stay, giving it more power over you. It's interesting how technology
and powers like this can have similar effects on us, pulling us into their
world and making us feel connected in some way, when really, if it
goes too far, it's just taking from us. It can be both powerful
and good and dangerous at the same time. I mean, hey, if
you're scrolling social media and you find yourself just scrolling through ads really or people
you don't know yet. You're doing this for minutes or hours, you might
want to ask yourself what's it doing for you? What's the pull? And
maybe we should look at hey, not what it's doing for you, but
what's it doing to you? Our world is changing pretty soon we won't have
to find something like the menta verse if we want to live in an always
cater to world with VR and AI. Who knows where this could end up.
If we are not careful, we can create a whole new underlying structure
or consciousness of a sort, kind of like an alternate dimension within our own.
And as all the technology gets better, do we have the confidence that
we will know the difference? And that's just tech? I mean, if
you think that's scary, just imagine what we could do if we really could
put one hundred percent of our brains together. Maybe there's a reason that as
a whole we haven't gotten there yet. Never know, this is our world,
world, and there is so much more to it and definitely more to
come. I hope you guys enjoyed this story in listening today. It's just
a small piece of everything. I have more jobs, more stories, so
make sure you check back in and thank you for listening today. Guys,
I always appreciate you taking the time to be here with me until next time,
and I will talk to you all soon