Murky Mind™

The Orb That Stills The Mind

**Listen to this article read by the author**

I had a sip of coffee left as I sat there in the corner of the cafe. I was thinking about something kind of basic, but something kind of captivating. I was thinking about how we just don’t know what’s about to happen next. What a condition!

I stared down into the coffee and tilted the mug a little toward me, and placed the last sip at the corner so I could see the bottom of the mug. Keeping my wrist still and using my finger pads, I turned the mug clockwise. moving the liquid around the bottom of the mug. We have control over some things, I thought, as the coffee bounced around the ceramic. Then I looked up to see what everyone else was doing.

The cafe was busy, but it was completely obstructed. Towering over me, like two feet away, was a random guy. He stood there looking down at me, casually, like what he was doing wasn’t super fucking weird and then without hesitating, he pulled the empty chair away from the other side of the table and sat down.

In one smooth gesture, he reached into his jacket, removed something I couldn’t quite make out and placed it down on the table between us. The rest of the cafe went on as if none of this was happening. He removed his hand and let what looked like a glass orb the size of a golf ball rest motionless between us.

Let me paint a picture of this guy so you’re not totally in the dark. He was clean cut, with long silky light brown hair and his face was sort of like Laird Hamilton in the way that you could tell he was old and been through a lot, but could be anywhere between like 40 and 70. Really tanned skin. Not leathery though. He was just a dark white guy. Could have been something like, I don't know, part Thai? Tough to say, but he had a magical quality about him. He wasn't like everyone else in the place. You could tell by the way he moved. He was content, at ease, but on a mission. All of his gestures were like some form of Tai Chi. Everything about him was just different. He wasn’t a coffee drinker, this guy, you could just tell. I’d be surprised if he even drank tea. This is green juice only kind of guy, but if he told me he was injecting some ancient plant extract up his anus, I wouldn’t put it past him.

So he pulled the chair, basically glided the thing away from the table, wordlessly sat across from me, laid out the orb and just looked at me like it was all scripted. Like he knew what was about to happen. Who am I to say he didn’t?

Inside the glass was what looked like muddy water, a swirling liquidy dark brown substance with a hint of red in it. I looked back up at him as if to ask, what now, and he goes, “This…is Murky Mind.”

Enter dramatic music

Consistency-wise, it was like seventy-five percent water and then the rest mud. So more loose than gelatinous, but not so loose that you’re seeing particles floating around. It was almost nebulous in it’s thickness. An orb of swirling muddy water. But the strange thing about it was that the mud was not settling. It wasn’t snow globe-like in that way. Instead, it continued to ooze around like it was being stirred by some invisible agitator.

“Okay,” I said, “Murky Mind. What is it?”

That’s when the waiter came over. “Can I get you guys anything?” Super nice guy. Short, maybe twenty three, blonde hair. Just a really happy fella. One of those guys you root for because they’re just so good. He hadn’t been over since he dropped the coffee off some twenty minutes before and he probably saw this guy sit down. So he came over.

“I’m good,” I replied, and then me and the nice waiter, we both look to our friend sitting at the other end of the table and the guy doesn’t budge. Continues to stare at me. Didn’t blink, didn’t smile. Nothing. It was so fucking weird.

“Ok,” the good waiter said. And he started walking away but then I thought maybe it would be nice to get a croissant. Could be a nice thing to share. Back of my mind I knew this guy wasn’t eating a croissant. I knew I’d be eating the whole thing.

“You know what? We’ll get a croissant.” The waiter smiled and nodded and walked away. I looked back down at the orb and then up to the guy. “What is it?”

“Pick it up,” he said. His voice was deep and butter smooth. Perfect frequency.

I reached across the table and as soon as my index finger touched the surface of the orb, it was as if the thing started reacting to my hand. Kind of like one of those lightning balls you’d see in the nineties where if you put your finger on the glass a stream of electricity would connect to it. By touching it, it was like I was activating something.

I picked it up fully and propped it up between all five of my fingers. The nebulous mud began swirling a little faster.

“If you can hold it still,” He began, ”It will reveal a jewel to you.”

So, now I'm intrigued. “How long I got to hold it for?” I said.

“Just don’t move.”

Not moving a muscle, I watched as the mud inside the orb slowly began to settle downward. Within maybe twenty seconds the liquid became clear water and the muddy substance that once filled the orb funneled down the bottom like sand in an hourglass literally to nowhere. I leaned over and watched the final particle of mud slip down a pin-sized hole that, too, disappeared with the final grain.

A miraculously crystal clear orb was now sitting in my hand.

“If you move,” he said, almost at a whisper, “it will start over. Don’t…move”

All the sudden I started smiling. I got chills. Whatever this thing was, whoever this guy was, I was in. Fully onboard. An earthquake could have hit, I wasn’t flinching.

I continued to hold it, watch it, and then something started happening in the water. To the water.

Words begin to fall apart here, but it was like individual water droplets began splitting in a wave-like fashion. It didn’t make any sense, but the water went inside…it, but from like ten places. It worm-holed. And as it was doing that, simultaneously, it was revealing another aspect. Or another aspect was emerging from the wormholing water, and the thing that was emerging was pitch black. After a few moments, I was suddenly now just holding a sphere of blackness.

It was the darkest thing I’d ever seen. It was more than black. It was sucking light in to it. Sucking me into it. Ominous is the word.

“Stay with it,” he said.

And then this very faint, wispy smoke type material or imagery appeared within and amongst the blackness. It was a relief to see something other than total darkness. Feathery snow on a mountain top being lifted by gusts of wind. We were about three minutes in, now.

A plate crashed in the background.

“Don't move a muscle.”

I didn't. I wouldn’t.

“Watch your breath,” he said. “Breathe into your hand. Your hand doesn't move. Breathing from your hand. Your heart doesn't move. Into your hand. Into your heart.”

As he said these words, the snowy smoke started to fill more and more of the orb. He looked at his watch. I wondered if it was almost over.

“Is it done?” I said.

“No,” he said firmly. “Stay. Keep watching. Keep watching.”

No, the orb exhibited a full on blizzardy whiteout. Strong gusts and thick particled whiteness. It looked so real. And was there something starting to come through?

“Got your croissant here,” I heard from above me. Fuck.

I could see the the nice guy waiter out of my peripheral. He laid the croissant down on the table. Neither of us made eye contact, but you could just tell he was smiling.

“Whudoya got there?” he said. Neither of us responded. The waiter got the hint and as he nervously backed away, the blizzard in the orb started to clear even more. I was anxious, nervous, tense. It was hard to stay still and the man knew it.

“Relax. Let the energy pass. Stay with it.”

So I did, and from the wispy smoke appeared something new.

It resembled a gem, but not like one I’d seen before. It wasn’t a gem that exists or could exist. It was about me. That's all I can say. It was a very personal gem, and it helped me know something I needed to know.

And I also knew that I had made it. I sat with it for another few moments, and then slowly moved for the first time and gently placed the orb back down on the table between us. As I lifted my hand away I watched each layer reconstitute inside the orb. The snowy smoke wisped in and disappeared to reveal the noir black. The water came wormholing back through, filling the orb, and then slowly, from the hourglass pinhole in the impossible bottom the muddy, murky nebula reemerged.

“Murky Mind,” he said.

I looked up at him for the first time since holding the orb.

“How does it work?”

There are sensors inside the orb that are responsible for the projection. They react to very sensitive movement. Different levels of movement will either encourage the clarity or reconstitute the mud. It reacts off of the electricity in your fingers. There's a signal being passed through you, which activates it. Should it remain still, still enough, where the projection can unfold, that's what it does. At the end, reading your blood pressure, heart rate, it sends a message that would be helpful for you.

“Here’s the check fellas! Hope you both have a great day!” Damn waiter startled me. I looked up at him and smiled.

Then, before I knew it, the guy grabbed the orb and walked away. Never even got his name.

I reached down and ripped the end of the croissant off. I brought it up to my face and looked at it like maybe it would start swirling. You never know what’s going to happen next. That’s what makes this whole thing so special.

⊚

Commentary

This was fiction, of course. Murky Mind doesn't exist. I don't have a prototype. Unfortunately the guy took the only one…but I’d really like to make one.

Stillness of the mind seems to be a great need for us right now. The idea of Murky Mind was born from the desire to encourage and train stillness amongst everyday life. It might be hard to just sit there and still the mind, but if we have encouragement, even if in the form of a reactive orb, it could be a useful tool. Murky Mind could have applications for people of any age and could help even the most agitated mind find some peace.

So, if you’re down to make this with me, uh, hit me up. Could be a hit!

Stilling the murky mind, one orb at a time.