Author: Don Nigroni

I was in awe of my uncle since I was a child. He was handsome, athletic, funny and brilliant. Even as he aged and his dark hair showed signs of gray, he still emanated a larger-than-life presence. Unlike Uncle Jim, I was awkward and shy.

My uncle was an eminent research neurosurgeon and worked at a prestigious medical center. He was wealthy and lived in a mansion with a spacious lawn. I stocked shelves and wrote adventure stories.

Nonetheless, my uncle had something to prove. He thought minds and ideas existed just like bodies and objects. He was convinced that it was a mere chance of indeterminism that led us to believe otherwise. So, he devised a psychophysical method to flip perception so that we’d perceive the physical as we now see the mental and vice versa. And, last year, I was his guinea pig!

He not only inserted wires into my brain but also had a psychic enter into my mind. At a signal, a switch was flipped, and the psychic did her thing. Ideas immediately seemed vivid and durable while objects presented themselves as indistinct and fleeting.

I only learned after the event that my uncle, though sure he could find a method to reverse the procedure, hadn’t actually yet found a way. Nonetheless, in less than two months I was able, with lots of help from my guilt-ridden uncle, to navigate the world pretty much like an ordinary human being.

And I’ve learned that a material lapse can be just as dangerous as a mental lapse. I didn’t intentionally push my uncle down the stairs last week. He just briefly slipped out of my center of attention.

Now I’m doomed to my unusual existence for the rest of my life. If truth be told, I really didn’t believe my uncle could have reversed the outcome. Nonetheless, I miss him. He was the only person who fully understood me.