He paused and studied my face—Science is the frame, Claire, it’s not the whole picture and it’s because of that attitude, because of the worshipping of science to the exclusion of every other kind of human experience, that nobody else knows about what we’ve just experienced. There’s a reason this isn’t global news, and it’s because I don’t have a job or a platform or any credibility anymore, and that’s because I didn’t play by the rules of science. But if you must know right now, in this exact second, instead of just letting us process this with our bodies, the science, the all-important science behind this has to do with the caudate nucleus in our brain stems, okay, which controls various states of arousal. At 7.83 hertz frequency the caudate nucleus becomes hyper-stimulated. In brain scans, it just boom, ignites like a fireball.

It’s the most incredible thing to watch, actually, Jo said.

Most of us can only hit this frequency for a few moments during the peak of orgasm, Howard continued, without breaking eye contact with me. But what if we could train our brains to operate at this frequency every moment of the day?

Leslie said that sounded absolutely exhausting.

Oh no, quite the opposite, he replied.

Cumming twenty-four seven? I’d be wrung out. To which Shawn let out a single, percussive laugh.

Jo smiled, patiently—You won’t be cumming. You’ll be on another plateau of consciousness. A consciousness that continually activates the ninety percent of your brain that’s usually dormant.

It would still be stimulation overload, though, wouldn’t it? Leslie asked.

You think that but only because you’re used to sleepwalking, Howard said. We spend our lives mostly brain-dead when we could be awake.

Wouldn’t you prefer to be awake? Jo asked.

Of course, Leslie said, but …

But what?

It’s intimidating.

Shawn nodded—Terrifying.

Doesn’t that sound liberating? Jo asked. To be alive like that?

But to have something re-pattern the way you think, I don’t know, Shawn said. It just feels very major.

What about talking for the first time? Jo asked. Or walking, or swimming, or riding a bike. Or sex. But thank god you pushed yourself to do them.

I can’t swim actually, Shawn said, but yes, I take your point.

Have you reached this state? Leslie asked Jo. This—other plateau?

Maybe for a few moments, Jo replied, looking at Howard. But we’ve never been able to sustain it for very long.

But is it all in the brain? I asked. I mean my body . . . I felt the heat and pressure and the sound.

Howard gestured to me—You see?

What is that?

Science can’t explain it.

But I felt it.

So is it real?

Yes of course it is.