Eden

Ken Wisman

Description

EDEN
is two stories: one fictional, one fact.

The fiction: Calif
De'Alsace, a man devoted to the dissemination of life across the galaxy, has
taken a group of one hundred artists and scientists to a sterile world named Eden
for the purpose of bioengineering living works of art. Calif,
an Ankh idealist, has decreed that no weapons be brought and that the group
create a "paradise of peace where beauty...not the law of tooth and
claw...reigns." Unknown to the Eden
group, Calif was forced by a powerful
man to include an artist, Iamoendi, who has secretly been using drugs to
enhance his imaging abilities. Iamoendi, who is descended from Fundamentalist
factions that fought in the Religionist Wars, slowly goes insane. Believing
himself an instrument of god, Iamoendi turns against Project Eden. He obtains
the genome libraries (programmed instructions for bioengineering plants and
animals) for insects and arachnids. Subsequently, he creates an army of huge
insect warriors, and launches a secret attack against Project Eden.

Thirteen survive class=SpellE>Iamoendi's attack. Weaponless, they are forced to create
living weapons in defense. With the battle lines drawn, the war begins. The
survivors create a surprise defense of giganticized ant lions, trapdoor
spiders, and carnivorous plants. They defeat Iamoendi's army, but Iamoendi
escapes. Two more battles ensue in which Iamoendi's attacking monstrosities
become increasingly bizarre and surreal. More and more survivors die with each
battle leading to an ending both poignant and transcendent.

The fact: In the
spirit of Coleridge and Poe who used an opiate to enhance their poetic imagery,
in the spirit of Huxley whose use of peyote awakened his awareness to the
creative use of mind-altering substances, I have set down my own experiences
with altered states as they relate to my creation of EDEN.
My intent is to share my insights into the creative process as well as the
source and derivation of both the philosophy underlying EDEN
and the hallucinatory visions used in the telling of this story. It is a first
person account of how, after being accidentally introduced to a hallucinogen,
my subsequent use and experimentation became the stuff and substance of my
novel EDEN.

Sujets

• Horror
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 6
• EAN13: 9781414088891
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Iamoendi's attack. Weaponless, they are forced to createliving weapons in defense. With the battle lines drawn, the war begins. Thesurvivors create a surprise defense of giganticized ant lions, trapdoorspiders, and carnivorous plants. They defeat Iamoendi's army, but Iamoendiescapes. Two more battles ensue in which Iamoendi's attacking monstrositiesbecome increasingly bizarre and surreal. More and more survivors die with eachbattle leading to an ending both poignant and transcendent.The fact: In thespirit of Coleridge and Poe who used an opiate to enhance their poetic imagery,in the spirit of Huxley whose use of peyote awakened his awareness to thecreative use of mind-altering substances, I have set down my own experienceswith altered states as they relate to my creation of EDEN.My intent is to share my insights into the creative process as well as thesource and derivation of both the philosophy underlying EDENand the hallucinatory visions used in the telling of this story. It is a firstperson account of how, after being accidentally introduced to a hallucinogen,my subsequent use and experimentation became the stuff and substance of mynovel EDEN." />

EDEN
 
 
The Novel
 
 
by
 
Ken Wisman
 
 

 
AuthorHouse™
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.authorhouse.com
Phone: [phone]
 
 
 
© 2004 Ken Wisman. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse 07/23/2022
 
ISBN: 978-1-4184-2741-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4140-8889-1 (e)
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Dedication
 
For Joe Salerno , whose friendship, poetry of soul, and gentle council I miss.
 
I only wish, Joe, that I could have shared this work with you.
Acknowledgements
 
Many thanks to Ros Freese —friend, editor, and sounding board—who helped make this work just that much better.
 
My appreciation to Joe Morey , friend and supporter, who first published EDEN as a chapbook, when it had just gone from seed to sprout.
 
The creative process, so far as we are able to follow it at all, consists in the unconscious activation of an archetypal image and elaborating and shaping the image into the finished work. By giving it shape, the artist translates it into the language of the present and so makes it possible for us to find our way back to the deepest springs of life.
—Carl Jung
 
You ask me where I get my ideas. That I cannot tell you with certainty. They come unsummoned, directly, indirectly — I could seize them with my hands — out in the open air, in the woods, while walking, in the silence of the nights, at dawn, excited by moods which are translated by the poet into words, by me into tones that sound and roar and storm about me till I have set them down in notes.
— Ludwig Van Beethoven
 
In this dream he saw what no man had seen before. It appeared to him as the Eye of God. And this was possessed of a voice, in that it spoke to him:
 
“I am Nothingness. I can be united to something and only that something remains. I can be taken away in like manner. I am Void, yet, if something is multiplied or divided by Myself, only I shall remain.
 
In time, learned men will come to say that the Earth, itself, revolves upon Me. I am Emptiness. I will be worshipped as a secret symbol. My name will be whispered and uttered only in select company and darkened rooms.
 
I am Nothing, it is true, but I am also the steppingstone to the stars and the key to the secrets of the atom. I shall be called an Integer and described as Real. I am Rational. And, most importantly, I am Good.”
—The Book of Zero
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Author’s Notes
Book I: Innocence
Chapter 1
Journey to Eden
Chapter 2
Harmony on Eden
Chapter 3
The Glassy Strand
Author’s Notes
Book II: Experience
Chapter 4
Songs of Heaven and Hell
Chapter 5
The Heliocat and the Crystal Rain
Chapter 6
The Coral Fountain and the Poisonous Egg
Chapter 7
Flowermount, Delicatons, Crystal Dancers
Chapter 8
Attack
Chapter 9
Survival
Author’s Notes
Book III: Higher Innocence
Chapter 10
The First Battle
Chapter 11
The Second Battle
Chapter 12
The Third Battle
Chapter 13
Death and Transfiguration
Author’s Notes
The following speculative tracts contain a factual account and description of my hallucinogenic experiences from the years 1998, 1999, and 2000. Briefly, in that three-year time period, I went in search of Deity and wound up instead with a personal belief system—and a novel as a by-product.
 
My reasons for writing of my personal experiences are threefold:
 
1. I hope to inspire the responsible use of hallucinogens by creative artists and writers, especially those whose visionary powers may be fading with age. During each of my hallucinogenic experiences, I was flooded by images and ideas—some unique and beautiful and profound. And the most exciting thing was that this was happening when I was 51, an age when the creative powers are normally on the wane.
 
2. I hope to inspire serious and responsible exploration (clinical experiments, scientific study) of unconscious states as they relate to creativity.
 
3. I wish to contribute to the understanding of the creative process. In the speculative tracts that follow, I describe the images and ideas that filled me. By writing of them here and in conjunction with the fictional work, EDEN, I hope to provide an insight into how visions are weaved into a creative work and how fictional characters come to embody ideas.
 
The Impetus-to-Life: A Speculative Tract on God and Existence
Seven years ago, I had an extraordinary experience. It would not be an exaggeration on my part to say that it led to the most profound events of my life.
 
This is what happened...
 
In March of 1998, I was accidentally exposed to a powerful chemical substance that opened the door to my unconscious and brought me into the full potential of my imagination. Subsequently, I took the substance forty times over a period of two years with a variety of encounters with unconscious states. Some of these journeys were delusional. Some journeys were mystical, states described by Blake and Christ and Carl Jung. Still others took me to places that lie beyond my abilities to describe, as though I entered other dimensions, alien terrains that contained objects unknowable in this world, this reality we’ve created through tacit consensus.
 
Throughout my adult life, I have written fantasy and science fiction stories that originated within the imagination; with this chemical substance, I lived my imagination. And when each journey ended, my unconscious receded like an ebbing tide that scatters little gifts—coins or shells or driftwood on the sand. Washed up in my consciousness I would find a story idea, an original thought, an outlandish image. These treasures I gathered up and put into notebooks. Still other journeys left me with philosophical fragments, which I continue to assemble. It’s on the planes of philosophy and spirituality that I write here.
 
Soon after I began my experiments, I discovered a website devoted to the chemical substance and its use. Rather than being a secret, its effects were well known. The website reported that most who tried it never took it again since the substance lacks the recreational effects that, say, marijuana or opiates have. Moreover, the effects could as easily be disturbing as enjoyable. I could attest to this. Some of my journeys brought raw terror, bizarre images, pure nonsense—no pleasant highs or feelings of euphoria. For example, I experienced my death no less than a half dozen times. Worse, consensus reality sometimes lost its solidity—a disturbing occurrence if you wish for a tangible safe haven after a long night-sea journey. Be that as it may, a few serious users—people who viewed themselves, as I did, as explorers—had written up their experiences. Some spoke of mystic events and encounters with god and godlike entities. This awakened a desire in me to have a similar encounter, to find Deity within.
 
What happened to me is only one man’s experience. Each person journeying inward might bring back something different. That is how I offer it here: as just one man’s truth. And maybe that is what has been set for us all, to find and define our personal beliefs, as individuals, to discover what unique truth lies within.
 
In preparing myself for my spiritual search I made some conscious choices. I always listened to Classical music during each voyage and found that the pieces chosen affected my mood and by that the nature, tone, and makeup of the experience. By choosing religious music (Medieval chants, masses by Monteverdi, Handel choral works), I created a spiritual mood. But mostly I made a conscious entreaty to my inner self that the doors opened would be spiritual ones, like trying to program one’s dreams by creating images in the mind before sleep.
 
I experimented like this for weeks, and each night-sea journey washed me ashore on some interesting islands. The ocean to which my unconscious brought me was definitely of a spiritual nature. On one island, I experienced Agape and found myself returning there in subsequent journeys. Agape is the Greek word for love. But this is love in a special sense—not just sexual love or romantic love or parental love or the love of friendship but love of humanity—love of all who live in the world, love of the world and all the people in it.
 
This island called Agape was not what I was seeking, though the message of its presence came from a being mystically inspired 2000 years ago. I believe this to be Christ, the Mystic’s, message: within us all lies this island called Agape, and even if we never journey there it still lies inside. Perhaps when we have evolved far enough, it will be a place that we all come to; but mostly it lies hidden as a hope for all humanity.
 
Another island my journeys took me to has been described by many mystics. I believe it to lie on the same plane as Agape on a twin island that rises just a little beyond. Here I experienced the connectedness to a