voices

I'm not a terribly superstitious guy. I don't really believe in ghosts - though I want to - or in aliens - though I want to there too. I might be tempted to believe if I had a little proof. But then I guess "proof" takes the "belief" out of belief. You don't really believe in something that is obvious.

"Hey, Michael, do you believe in this rock?" guy holds up a rock.

"What am I supposed to believe it will do?"

"Nothing. Just be a rock. Do you believe in it?"

"Do I believe that the rock is a rock?"

"I don't know. Just do you believe in it?"

"Do you mean, 'do I believe it can accomplish whatever it sets it's mind to?'"

"Do you believe in it?"

"I don't know. I guess so. I mean, I believe it's a rock. I don't believe it can save my soul or cure cancer. I don't know what I'm supposed to believe about the rock."


I might be tempted to believe in aliens or ghosts if I ever met anyone who believed. Actually, I know several very intelligent people who claim to have seen a ghost. I believe that they saw what they saw and so I believe in ghosts slightly more than aliens. But I've never known anyone who believed in aliens.

I mean yes, I believe there are aliens out there. But I don't believe they have visited the earth. And if they have they must be technologically advanced enough to avoid detection.

But I digress. I was talking about superstition and the fact that I'm not. Not much.

Now, my wife has this noise maker that she does not go to bed without. It makes different sounds that act as gray noise or white noise or whatever color noise it is, so that you can get to sleep. Mostly Rebecca likes the Babbling Brook noise.

If you ask me the Babbling Brook is not just a recording of water. I think it also has different sounds in the background thrown together in rhythmic intervals to simulate water noise. The power of suggestion does the rest.

If you sit and listen to the sounds of the Babbling Brook for an hour or so - which is not so hard to do when you can't sleep or you're reading a book in bed - all of the sounds that are mushed together with the water sounds by the noise maker start to separate and you can hear them for what they are. Usually what I hear is a light tapping of different pitch wood blocks, or the faint sound of a piano playing three or four notes in a row, along with the sound of plastic wrap being rustled. Sometimes I hear a guitar and wind sounds, or maybe wind chimes tinkling. There is nothing spectacular about the sounds or the melodies. They are just sounds in repeated rhythm that contribute to the feel of endless gallons of water flowing past stones or logs at some place in a brook.

Tonight, as I read my book, I became aware of a voice. At first I thought my neighbors must be outside talking. But it was almost 1 o'clock. Why on earth would they be out talking at 1 am? Then I realized that the same words were repeating over and over. I knew it must be the noise maker. And I am 90% convinced that it was only my imagination that created the words I was hearing. In truth what was probably happening was that different sounds had been crammed together by the noise maker and that when you caught the rhythm just right you could almost make out words. Perhaps a paper crumpling sound was crammed in with a siren in the distance and a goat bleeting at night. I knew it MUST be a aural illusion.

Still, after hearing

Get out of bed...
Get out of bed...
Get out of bed...
Get out of bed...
Get out of bed...
Get out of bed...
Get out of bed...
Get out of bed...
Get out of bed...

for thirty minutes I thought that it really couldn't hurt to get out of bed then come downstairs and get a drink of water. Perhaps get a little separation from the demons in the noise maker. And while I'm down here I might as well write about my neuroses.

Oh Yeah. I totally believe in demons.