Pay close attention: There are two forms of people- at least two forms of people, anyway. The two are known as the Open and the Closed. If you are reading this, then you are most certainly one of the Closed. Everyone who is Open would already be able to ascertain what this book is about by glancing at the binding. That is just part of being Open. Understand the Open have a greater range of sensory input then that of the Closed. In some matters, that is.

The Open have a consciousness that is in some ways more expansive than the Closed and in some ways much more restricted. The differences are severe; It would be easy for me to say it is unthinkable to be anything but Open.

Well, of course I'd say that... I am Open.

My name, the one you'd know if you met me in the DMV or over diner on a blind date, is William Ford. My name as recognized by myself or any other members of the Open is either Onus or Chad, depending on minute fluctuations in the earth's magnetic polarity. I began life, like everyone else alive began it, initially as a small massless glowing red globule of anti-light. My globule became ensnared into physical form by the unescapeable force of human dna. The 21st chromosome is like a thrashing machine that sucks in then mangles the red globule into a thousand pieces. The contents of the globule then reside in human form until the human form is no more. That much we have in common. We probably even brushed up against each other, before we were born, while roaming the Low Plains. So we're all the same, right? Wrong! You've never known any of this. Of course, I've known this all along.

You've never known these things. And you never could know that. That is why you are accurately described as Closed.

Who are the Open? A physiological perspective: Well, statistically, the Open are almost always colorblind and have limited taste sensations. Moreover, they have a slightly different brain morphology than the Closed. Apparently, the Corpus Collosum is never fully connected. Also, there is a small fissure at the base of the occipital lobe-Where? The more skeptical readers may inquire. Well, I am leaving out details for a reason.

You see, a secret report by a very prominent Open brain surgeon found that making precise incisions- 3 of them in fact- into a 'normal' brain found was sufficient to change someone from Closed to Open. The first thing the patient said, again according to this report, was "I see." The patient succumbed to infection within the hour, because the operation was performed in an empty New York City subway car with a Hotel Lindburg Complimentary travel sewing kit. But the doctor and patient had a lengthy, eye openning convesaition before the patient transferred back to globule form. The patient, who incidently was named Jamahl Johnson if you had seen him in the morgue, and was called Flizbit or Larry by the Open, described his new awareness as "An eternal trip to the dentist- Either constant pain, or constant anticipation of pain" He thanked the doctor for doing such a shoddy surgical job, since his imminent death would free him from the flesh shackles that caused his discomfort.

So I don't tell you the other two incisions to avoid you getting any funny ideas. Trust me, stay on your side of things. But, if you're browsing at the bookstore, buy this book anyway! I get $2 per copy.

So much for that. What does being Open entail? That is, what are you missing as a Closed? One thing- Being Open allows you to determine whether or not someone else is Open merely by being within a 25 foot distance from them. That's number one. Also, the Open can communicate rather efficiently by minute contractions of the iris. It is a very specific, very dense language, one inborn in all Opens- I can recite Genesis in a microsecond. And I just did, to the discomfort of the gentleman sitting across from me on the monorail. He's an Open, too. But we have to pretend don't know each other for the sake of the other Closed people on the monorail. What we do for you!

Also, time has an extremely different meaning to the Open. Time is still linear- that is it is moving progressively and in one direction. Unfortunately, the duration of each unit of time is percieved in accordance with the relative importance of the moment. There is a corrolation between how fast we see an event happen and how many times it will later be thought of or mentioned. With the advent of film and television, things have gotten much worse than they used to be- each time a clip of an occurance will be replayed on the news, the slower the event will happen. The more articles written about it, the slower it becomes still. We Opens can't see the future, but we have a fair warning for it by the speed of the moment. I once conversed with an Open who was in Daley Plaza when Kennedy was assassinated. He described it as the worst moment in his life- watching from his perch on the Grassy Knoll as the President's cranium exploded like a geranium budding in real time. He could only contort in horror as it happened- this of course made him look suspicious to all the Closed people there. He didn't do it, however- at least he told me he didn't.

Also, we see differently, we hear differently. There are a thousand visible spectra of light- to us anyway. Each of these wavelengths can be perceived as small fixed stars floating a few feet away in space, some are moving, some are immobile. Incidently, the red globules of those who aren't dead are visble during the day, while the deep blue globules of those who've already passed through life can be seen at night. Other Globes of varrying colors spin around, some resembling flurescent down comforters, some like transparent mile-long fire hydrants, others like a neon set of perky porn star hooters, ready for a close-up. Some speak, some don't, but all have some form of intellegence. I suppose it's like being on LSD for someone who is Closed, since people who are Open have never shown any effects of it's use.

There are other things, things you could not possibly understand, that it means to be Open- things of vary degree of importance. Someone who is Open cannot ask questions- they must phrase their inquiry in a special way. Rather than ask for a Kleenex, we will say, " I don't see any Kleenexs". A Closed person will thus discern our intent. Someone who is Open would already see minute changes in the nose's color, and would thus recognize the need for a tissue. Surely that is understandable. Also, the Open cannot see other people's eyes. The Open see the human face as a crescent moon, adorned by a thousand collinear buttons of varying shades. As a child, you associate your mother pointing to the big yellow button on her crescent moon with the word "Eye", the other features follow similarly. We would never know the difference if it weren't for paintings and photographs and moving pictures to compare our perception of reality with yours. It seems Closed people see the face as round with a series of different shapes- at least that's how they appear to us.

The best analogy I have is of a movie. You go to the movies and you see someone walk across the screen. Well, you know it's really just a bunch of static images that LOOK like they're moving since people can only visually comprehend less than 18 frames per second. Well, just imagine that once, every 1/19th of a second, the universe consisted of a million dancing shapes that melted into each other. The other 18/19ths- nothing unusual. That's the best I can do.

Do you understand? You can never really, but I think I've told you enough so that my story will make sense.

Fade in on a large gonad- stuffed with spices from a thousand lands. Welcome to my world.