If you’d ask any of Rene’s neighbors to describe Rene you’d most likely get the same answer. 75-year-old Mr. Ross who was living right next to Rene would often say in his overly loud and elderly voice while smacking his lips:”Ahh, yes, Rene, that weird motherfucker.” Mr. Ross wasn’t very picky with words, but you probably understand the overall opinion about Rene – the weird motherfucker.
You see, Rene was all up in his thoughts, and when I say he was completely up there, I mean he was completely up there. He’d often walk the streets thinking about something and it didn’t matter if there were one or fifty naked people dancing Gangnam Style while screaming “RENE, WATCH THIS!” in front of him; he’d ignore them all.
One of the reasons why he was so deep in his thoughts was because Rene was worried. He was worried about all those big question things like “Is there life after death?”, “Is there God?”, “What’s the meaning of life?” and so on. You know, the questions that often ruin a dinner party if people start talking about them.
But one thing that interested him the most was the body/mind connection – the consciousness. Where is that damn thing?, What does it look like?, and Why does it have the ability to make me sad, depressed, lazy and so on?
He really wanted to find out so he created a machine. Yes, didn’t you know? Rene was also a scientist – the crazy type, something like Doc Brown from Back to the Future. One more reason why Mr. Ross thought Rene was a weird motherfucker – Mr. Ross didn’t like Back to the Future.
So yes, Rene created this weird machine that somehow enabled the mind to physically manifest itself. He has been working for years on the damn thing, but finally, this machine would give the answer he was longing for so much. He’d finally be able to see what his mind, consciousness, or even soul if you’d like to call it like that looks like.
And it was only fair to do so, Rene thought. He’d often think to himself: “If I already know all there is to know about my body and how everything looks like; isn’t it only fair to at least know how my mind looks like as well?”
The way the machine worked was like this. Rene will enter the machine, press the button and the machine will switch his mind and body, so his mind will take a physical form, while his body will be turned into a mental/spiritual form. Then Rene will take some time to observe how mind looks like and after his curiosity has been satisfied he’d go and turn everything back as it was.
Rene was entertaining himself with the thoughts on how his mind might look like. Will it be a huge blob of smoke with bright lights coming out of it or maybe it will be a huge black ball with an endless void inside of it? One way or another, Rene will finally be able to sleep well.
The day finally came. Rene ate his breakfast, well; he actually just went through it leaving a huge mess behind himself. Who cares about a breakfast when you have a mind/body switching machine in your basement? Yes, it was in his basement, what did you think where do crazy scientists keep their crazy scientific stuff? In the backyard?
Rene rushed into the basement and without even giving a second thought, he entered the machine, pressed the button, the screen said: “Replacement Commencing”, and then… Then the machine started working its magic. Weird sounds could be heard, lights could be seen, everything exactly the same as when you watch a movie with a similar plot.
Everything seemed to go perfectly until one point: BOOM!!! A large explosion happened and a huge pile of smoke filled the air. Out of it, you could see Rene coming out coughing and wiping the dust off his jacket. When he calmed down, he rushed towards the mirror to see what he, or better yet, what his mind looks like and to his disappointment, nothing changed. It was still good old Rene with his short black hair, a pointy nose, and a big frown on his face. He couldn’t be more disappointed, his machine didn’t work; instead, it simply broke down into pieces.
“I guess I’ll never find out how my mind looks like.” Rene thought as he was exiting his basement in a sad, hunched fashion.As he turned off the lights and exited his basement, a small light could be seen shining from where the machine used to be. It was the machine’s screen and it read: “Mind/Body Replacement 100% Successful “