Things
occur in life that are difficult to explain. Yet we make
every effort to do so.
Sometimes
we discover the answer, as you will see in . . .
The Flight Of The Dancing Minds
The weather was
quite chilly for the beginning of September. A brisk wind blew through the
trees surrounding a rather attractive town square, decorated with ornate
sculptures and beautiful marble benches. As I stood at the podium to address
the large group of townspeople gathered before me, I pulled my jacket collar up
around my neck for protection from the cold. I’d been invited to come to the
town of Ross Glen to assess the somewhat odd happenings of the past few months.
I adjusted the
podium microphone and began to speak to those assembled. “Good afternoon. My
name is Dr. Ryan Church. I have a Ph.D. in Paranormal Psychology and have spent
more than twenty years traveling the country to investigate the strange
occurrences reported to me. None, however, appear to be more unexplainable than
what has occurred here in Ross Glen.”
“Dr. Church, how
much have you been told about our situation?” a woman, who appeared to be a
reporter, inquired.
“Please hold your
questions until I’ve finished my briefing. Now, let me continue. I received an
invitation from Ross Glen Memorial Hospital’s Chief of Medicine, Dr. Ian
Whatley, to come to your town to help you make sense out of what has been
happening in your community. I’ve read the very comprehensive report he sent
me. In it, he provided a detailed description of the atypical behavior of some
of your children.”
“Dr. Church, from
the report you received, what are your thoughts about what is taking place
here? The town is concerned. We need answers. And we need them now!” the
reporter yelled.
“Be patient, I’ve
just arrived. Give me time to check the content of the report against what I’m
here to observe.”
“But, Dr. Church,
you must have some idea of what you’ll find.”
“Won’t you let me
complete what I have to say without interrupting?” Finally, silence. “After
reviewing the report, I agree what has occurred appears to fall out of the
range considered normal or expected behavior for children, ages six through
eleven. However, before jumping to conclusions, I will need to spend some time
speaking with your children and their teachers, who have noted the
extraordinary behaviors exhibited. I ask for your support in giving me the
chance to do a thorough study of the situation. Thank you.”
My chilled body
warmed by the positive reaction I received from the townspeople. They gave me
an enthusiastic round of applause. I felt energized.
But then the
tirade from the reporter continued. “Dr. Church, the town needs answers. When
will you know something?”
Without
responding, I left the podium. As I made my way through the crowd, I saw Dr.
Whatley. I walked toward him. He grasped my hand and smiled.
“Dr. Church, I am
very appreciative of your taking the time to join us to help make sense of what
has happened in our small town. Let’s go to my office, so we can talk in
private.”
Dr. Whatley escorted
me in the direction of the hospital, which fronted the north end of the town
square. We entered the building and took the elevator to the third floor,
exited, and walked toward his office. Entering, we approached his secretary.
“Good afternoon,
Dr. Whatley,” Sheree Grimes said, with a broad smile on her face. “And you must
be Dr. Church. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Why, thank you,”
I replied.
“Sheree, please
hold my calls,” Whatley instructed. He then ushered me into his office and
closed the door.
He moved to the
plush chair behind his desk and sat down. I took the liberty of sitting on the
couch that overlooked the town square and the beautiful grassy knoll beyond it.
As my eyes moved
across the square, I surveyed a large house sitting atop the knoll. Something
about it piqued my interest. However, I decided to wait before inquiring about
it. Instead, I turned toward Dr. Whatley and said, “Dr. Whatley, the report you
sent me was thorough, but left a lot of questions unanswered.”
“I know. That’s
why I’m glad you agreed to come here. By the way, please call me Ian. And may I
call you, Ryan?”
“Yes, please do so.”
With the
pleasantries concluded, Ian began to detail the situation, as he perceived it. “As
you are aware from my report, Ryan, eighteen children, all of average
intelligence, three each in grades one through six, have become proficient in a
particular subject area. Some show skills in mathematics, while others excel in
science, history, or literature at levels well beyond what they are studying in
their classrooms.”
I interrupted his
discourse. “Ian, do you have any idea why this is occurring?”
“No, I don’t,” he
replied. “After interviewing the children’s parents, it became clear that, although
supportive of their children, they didn’t have the ability to provide the level
of direction necessary for the youngsters to show subject area growth far
beyond that expected at their grade level.”
“Are there other
factors, such as tutors or teacher support that might account for what’s
happening?”
“None of the
children had tutors. And the teachers didn’t give them special attention.
“They did undergo testing
on a regular basis during the last three months since the discovery of their
extraordinary new abilities. At the end of this period, each child’s test
scores indicated growth at least three years beyond current grade level in a
particular subject area, showing positive changes of one grade level per
month.”
“Extraordinary,” I
blurted. “Did anything strange or different occur in the lives of these
children when this growth in intellectual behavior was first identified?”
Ian leaned back in
his chair and reflected on the question. “We really didn’t look at what you are
asking. However, now that you bring it up, one event did occur in the lives of
each of the eighteen children right before they began to show signs of
intellectual growth.”
“Okay, what
event?”
“Well, all of the
eighteen children visited Hillhouse. It didn’t seem important at the time,
since other children in past years had the same experience and no such
exceptional behavior came to light after the visit.”
“Hillhouse? What
exactly is Hillhouse?”
“It’s the large
house you were staring at beyond the town square on the grassy knoll.”
“So, what’s so
important about it?”
“Let me explain. About twenty years ago, the
United States government developed an elite brain trust. This group of
individuals included eighteen of the greatest minds in the areas of science,
mathematics, history, and literature. These men and women were brought together
from all over the country and housed in a special location in Washington, D.C.
This facility, secured and protected, prevented outsiders from getting to these
great minds and interfering with their work.”
“Very interesting.
But what does this have to do with what’s come to light about the children here
in Ross Glen? And how does it relate to Hillhouse?”
“I’ll get to how it relates to Hillhouse in a
minute. As to its relationship to the children, I’m not sure. That’s why we
never thought about it before this discussion. Let me continue.
“The mission of
this elite intellectual body was to serve as the then sitting president’s very
private executive cabinet. And their role would continue for all future
presidents, no matter what party was in office.”
“And this was
embraced by both parties?” I asked.
“Apparently so,”
Ian replied.
“Wow!”
“These men and
women received everything they needed to protect and enhance both body and
mind. Nobody beyond the President’s closest confidants knew of their
existence.”
“No one, Ian?” I
gasped.
“No one, and that,
in itself, became a major problem. Those in the know didn’t provide appropriate
oversight, especially during the transition period after an election of a new
president.
“These
extraordinary minds had to be kept bright and alert. Aging became their enemy.
Each of the eighteen was at least fifty-years-old, with the eldest being
fifty-six. So they all aged, physically and mentally, at much the same rate. To
protect their greatness, they received a special drug that had been shown to
heighten awareness, maintain alertness, and improve intelligence. However, the
urgency to protect these great minds led to the administration of the drug
without the luxury of testing it over the long haul. Therefore, nobody could
have anticipated the long-term effects it would have on these eighteen
individuals.
“As time went on,
the drug began to take control of the bodies of these elite men and women.
Since they weren’t being watched closely, nobody noticed the changes taking
place, and when they did, it was too late to do anything about it. These
exceptional people became unable to move, hear, see, or speak. They became
prisoners in their own bodies who couldn’t communicate with each other or the
world beyond. However, they were alive.
“Now it really
gets interesting. Tests performed on these great people indicated beyond a
doubt their level of intelligence had not diminished. However, it could no
longer be accessed. So, four years ago, those in power made the decision to
move them somewhere where they would be safe and secure—a place where they
could be studied to see if their brilliance could be tapped into again.
“A thorough
investigation into possible sites led to the selection of the then vacant
Hillhouse. They chose our town as the most desirable location because it is a
small, rural, peaceful community located less then one hundred miles from D.C.
Also, our townsfolk don’t ask many questions.”
“Well, then what
happened?”
“Nothing happened.
Those great minds remain there in Hillhouse in a state of nothingness. They do
think, as shown by the tests, but no one can decipher their thoughts. Their
minds appear to have a rhythm with no meaning. Their caregivers call what has
occurred, ‘The Flight of the Dancing Minds.’”
I leaned back on
the couch and contemplated what I’d heard. My mind wandered. I became lost in
deep thought trying to piece together each part of this complex puzzle. Then I
jerked into an upright position and shouted, “Bring me the children.”
“But why?”
questioned Ian.
“There has to be some connection between the
growth in intellectual capacity amongst the kids and the state of the minds,
and maybe bodies, of the Hillhouse geniuses.”
“But, how do you
know that?”
“I don’t. It’s
just a theory. But it’s the best lead we have at this time, and we must pursue
it.”
“Okay, Ryan. I’ll
support you in any way I can. Tell me what you need and what you want done.”
With Ian’s
assistance, early the following week, I scheduled a complete and thorough
examination of intellectual capacity for each of the eighteen children. In
addition, I had extensive discussions with their teachers. But few answers
emerged from these sessions. In thinking about how to proceed, I remembered
what Ian had said about the rhythm identified in the minds of the Hillhouse
residents. Might such a rhythm also be present in the minds of the young
children?
Later in the week
I phoned Ian. “Ian, you know the rhythm found in the minds of the Hillhouse
residents?”
“Yes, of course,” he responded.
“We need to answer
the question of whether or not there is a link between the children and the
residents of Hillhouse. Therefore, we must find out if such a rhythm also
presents itself in the minds of the young children. In order to assess this,
each child should be brought to Hillhouse and hooked up to the elaborate
equipment used to identify the brain patterns, the rhythms, of the residents.
Can you make this happen?”
“Consider it
done.”
The next week, I
met all eighteen children on the grounds of Hillhouse. Escorted by one parent,
each child entered a quite secret and guard-protected lab to be hooked up to
the complex technology needed to assess brain rhythms. I then charted the
rhythm of each youngster and compared them to those of the resident geniuses.
What I found
amazed me. The “Flight of the Dancing Minds” phenomenon appeared in each
youngster and each child’s rhythm corresponded to the rhythm found in one of
the resident geniuses of Hillhouse. In some way I couldn’t explain, a transfer
of information had occurred between a particular resident and a selected child.
Needing answers as
to why this happened, I reran the tests on the children and discovered that
some interesting changes had begun to take place. The rhythms in the minds of
the children had started to shift. “The Flight of the Dancing Minds” showed
signs of reversing direction. But as the information gained by the children,
during the past three months, had begun to leave their minds, something else
strange also was happening.
I struggled to
interpret this, but couldn’t come up with a scientific explanation for what I’d
observed. Along with the mental rhythms,
there seemed to be a secondary set of rhythms unlocked. These rhythms or
signals were physical in nature. It appeared the strength of the children’s
young bodies had been transmitted somewhere along with the mental rhythms.
Furthermore,
although this physical anomaly, in the form of energy, left the youngsters’
bodies, their own physical capacity didn’t diminish. I concluded that the
children produced an excess of energy that they sent out. But where did it go? I reflected.
I went back to
each child’s mental capacity chart and observed with great curiosity that,
although the higher-level information, indeed, had left the children, the
enhanced baseline intelligence of the youngsters had not been lowered. In fact,
their intelligence seemed to stabilize at the higher level and their ability
for future intellectual growth had increased.
As I gazed in
disbelief at the new test results, I wondered if the children had become an
informational “safe house” and maybe a means to communicate this information,
which the residents of Hillhouse could not do for themselves.
I called Ian and
explained my findings in detail. He was incredulous. “What do we do now,” he
asked. “More testing?”
“I’m not sure. I
think it now becomes a waiting game. We have to see how the changes in the
children progress and if concurrent changes happen in the residents of
Hillhouse. I’ll keep you posted.”
I hung up and
began to put all the information I’d gathered into perspective. I was certain a
connection between the children and the resident geniuses of Hillhouse existed.
The ringing of the phone interrupted my thoughts. “Hello. What? Are you sure?”
I hit the phone
“OFF” button and raced out of the office at Ross Glen. I proceeded down the
hall and out of the building. I ran across the town square and up the grassy
knoll and burst through the large, double-door front entrance of Hillhouse.
There to my
amazement, in the spacious living room area beyond the lobby, the eighteen
brilliant minds sat in a circle conversing, as if this had been a regular event
in their lives. Full of animation—their bodies and minds awakened—they seemed
engrossed in the discussion taking place. As
the doors closed behind me, one of the geniuses turned toward me and, with a
twinkle in his eye, whispered, “You have uncovered the mystery. Thank you. And
thank the children.”
I didn’t know what
to say, and it didn’t matter. But a connection had been made between the
children and these exceptional individuals, and “prison doors opened” to again allow,
“dancing minds to fly.”
Copyright © 2021
Alan Lowe. All rights reserved.
