The Institute Page #7

amazing names.

And it's also right next to the

Mountain View Cemetery, which

might be one of the oldest

cemeteries in Oakland, and it's

just really beautiful, and I've

always gone there to just hang

out or write or...

Be like "emo" or something by

the graveyard.

I don't know.

We had gotten assigned into

groups, and each of us got

mailed a postcard.

And the postcard gave us a

direction.

And then they gave us, like, a

line that we were supposed to

say at a certain point.

But it was all really vague, and

we weren't sure how it all tied

together.

The meeting spot was not at the

Chapel of the Chimes.

It was a couple blocks away.

And the whole group met up.

A lot of us had never met

before, and so, it was really

cool to, like, meet other people

that had been involved.

Or maybe I'd only, like, seen

them online.

Like, I had no idea.

There were, like, markings on

the ground, I think, that we

followed, and eventually we

ended up at the

Chapel of the Chimes.

Yeah, there it is... 4499,

Chapel of the Chimes.

Let's just find the compass.

Compass, compass, compass.

Oh, found it!

North... that way.

All right. Now what?

"Assemble, then take notes

and embark upon completion.

Enter under and thy coming in. "

"And thy coming in. "

Oh! Oh!

All right.

Now it says one of you has to die.

"And find the patience. "

"Patience court. "

"Patience court. "

The word "patience" is on this door.

And then "play. "

Play.

What could that mean?

I don't understand.

Patience...

Patience...

Patience.

You found me.

Welcome, my friends.

I know you were concerned about

me, but isn't it clear now that

I've been where I was always

meant to be?

And you...

You've traveled such a long way

to arrive here today.

You came together to make this

happen.

I am so moved.

I want to take this moment to

fully take it in, look around,

contemplate our surroundings

now... the stone and the tile,

the light through the stained

glass.

You've all arrived here for a

reason.

Each one of us played our part.

Now...

Are we ready to continue our

voyage?

Above the door, do you see

mason?

Retrieve the vase that is by

mason above the door.

Pair up with the person not

holding a blindfold who is

closest to your height.

Now...

Blindfold that person.

You've lost one of your senses,

and you'll need to replace

that...

with trust.

I was at the front of the

line, and we all had our

blindfolds on and had, like, no

idea what to expect.

And suddenly this, like, hand

just reaches out and grabs my

hand.

And it really just kind of took

my breath away.

And during the whole, when you

talk about the whole experience,

you know, we're trying to find

Eva and what happened to her, it

was, like, physically... well,

in my mind, it was, like,

physically Eva, like, leading

me, like, holding my hand.

And that's when I kind of... I

kind of lost it, and I was,

like, silently crying, like,

underneath my blindfold.

And the whole concept of

Elsewhere has just been really

special to me.

I always feel like this world is

missing something, like there's

some spark that I want it to

have.

That's what I feel like I'm

constantly searching for in my

everyday life, and um...

The concept of Elsewhere is,

like, that's... that's it.

Like, that's where I want to be.

That's where there's possibility

and imagination.

I'm sorry.

Um...

Well, long story short, I got

"Elsewhere" tattooed on myself

as kind of a little memento, but

I don't know why I'm crying!

Sorry!

Um...

Like, meaningless coincidences

really mean a lot to me, and I

just feel like there's

something, there's something out

there guiding that.

The feeling that I had that day

just kind of summed up

everything that I had done.

That feeling that you get when

you find a clue or something, or

you make the connection of what

you're supposed to do next...

that, like, split second of,

like, connection.

Like, that's when you're

elsewhere.

That's what's awesome.

Basically, a couple months

before the year was out, we had,

the company... Jeff... had come

to a decision that budget needed

to be severely cut for the new

year, and that was simply in the

months

to set up an ending to it,

'cause there was always an

intention to create an ending.

Jeff and I talked, and it

started small, in terms of,

"Well, we can't afford to.

We're gonna have to set an end

date, because we just can't

afford to keep running it. "

The wind down was beginning

in some way, shape, or form.

It became very real that this

was going to have an end date,

and that that end date was going

to become hard soon.

And it really was just a case

of the art was the most

important thing, and the

business of it got in the way.

It was right at that time

that I was approached by

Geordie Aitken, a

leadership-training person for

corporate team-building

exercises in Canada.

And he wanted to meet, and we

just got along.

It was, like, fast friends

instantly.

It was, what do they say, a

"bromance" from the beginning

and a beautiful one at that.

Not 'cause Jeff is beautiful

physically.

I mean... Not that he's not beautiful

physically, for sure, but what

I'm trying to say is, it has

nothing to do with physical

beauty.

We had this shared knowledge

of the history of the self-help

movement, and he had this

appreciation for my craft, and I

recognized in him this really

charismatic, compelling, and

very skilled and experienced

person in this realm.

I just do what I do.

I lead groups.

I'm used to resistant people and

cynics, and I'm comfortable

moving into fictional roles or

different persona in order to

facilitate an experience,

'cause sometimes... for instance, in

the ninja-training work I do, I

move into this sort of sensei

role, which requires a kind of

different slant on my normal

personality.

When people first entered the

induction center, it made them

nervous.

It freaked them out a little

bit because they didn't know

where the fiction was and where

the reality was.

And that was the tension that we

thought was really rich, was

really compelling.

And bringing a climactic

conclusion to the story through

opposition seemed almost, to

him, trite or too pat or maybe

too easy.

It was just too easy.

What happens when you get all

these people in the room, and

they're expecting it to be this

big science-fiction fantasy, and

you just hold a seminar...

All day...

All day long.

Well, there was so much

lead-up to the seminar.

We were to run a covert

operation at the prescreening,

at the hotel room.

We were supposed to look for

these little bio-force globes.

Everyone was told to steal...

It was called a bio-force

globe... from a bowl in the

room.

And it was supposed to be this

thing that operated the

vital-orbit forcefield that was

going to destroy the

Jejune Institute once and for all

and bring their "jejunery" to light.

You know, bringing this guy down

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