015: AUDIO

[intheblanks]

Does anyone really believe the devil made them do it?

Then, why should we be comfortable applying that logic to curses?

Comments

[nohometown]

The curses take people's reason, alter their perceptions.

The results, however these effects are caused, are as if these people have been fed incredibly powerful psychoactive drugs against their will. I would hardly consider them to blame.

[He wasn't a victim of the recent curse (fortunately for everyone), but he thinks this is absurd.]

[intheblanks]

Do they? The most recent curse looked more like a lowering of people's inhibitions. I've observed that the majority draw on aspects of people's personalities, their histories. They're not random. That suggests something other than induced psychosis.

I'm not saying we're to blame. I'm saying it might be worth considering how much we're complicit.

[nohometown]

I can't say what it felt like, as I did not experience it, but they would not have acted that way ordinarily, I'm sure.

When one's worst traits are forced out by another's actions, how are they complicit? Their minds are being altered without their consent. We all have instincts and impulses we do not act on.

[intheblanks]

We all have impulses we haven't acted on yet.

Are you still working with Delacroix?

[nohometown]

Yes, and hopefully, we won't be subjected to unethical alterations that change that change that.

To an extent, though much of my research is independent. I consider us colleagues of a sort.

[intheblanks]

Alterations. Is that something you have experience of?

Could you pass something to her for me?

[nohometown]

In my world, yes. The curses may also be considered temporary alterations of a sort, though I know little of their true nature.

[He nods.] I can.

[intheblanks]

And you think it's unethical. So the alterations, in your world, they're carried out by someone you'd expect to have an ethical code. Scientists? Doctors?

I appreciate that. I'll send it to your device.

[Hi Sephiroth. It's an MP3 track of Viva Las Vegas]

[nohometown]

I do. Scientists, yes. Some are doctors.

Very well. [I'm sure he will be puzzled if he listens to it.] I'll send it along to her at the first opportunity.

[intheblanks]

And if you didn't have that experience, you might just write curses off as magic.

[nohometown]

Perhaps.

I'm familiar with magic in my world as well, where it is a documented, studied phenomenon, though some refuse to use the term "magic" to describe it, considering it instead a natural force as yet unexplained. Magic or science, the result is what matters, from a practical standpoint.

[intheblanks]

From a medical standpoint, we prefer to treat the cause before the effect. Bolting the stable gate saves time running after the horse.

[nohometown]

I appreciate your medical standpoint.

Yet in the years this phenomenon has been ongoing, as far as I can tell, no one has been able to determine a cause.

[intheblanks]

They believe they can't resist the curses. Questioning the veracity in that might be the first step.

[nohometown]

It is best to question everything.

Do you have any hypotheses as to how they might be resisted? It's unlikely to be a matter of sheer will. Are you intending to research the matter?

[intheblanks]

If it's suggestion, sheer will should be exactly what it took. The part at issue is being aware of it - most of us self-induce a hypnotic state several times a day without noticing.

Research would be the next step.

[nohometown]

I can see the sense in that, but what if it's more than suggestion? Some of these curses appear to have absolutely nothing to do with will. For instance, those involving physical transformations. I've experienced one of those myself.