It is as if each man were an atom in a molecule in

a fingernail of a giant being. Most men spend their lives trying to understand the

workings of the molecule they're born into and all they know for sure are the causeand-

effect workings of the atoms in it. A few brilliant men grasp the structure of the

entire fingernail. A few geniuses, like Einstein, may even see that they're all part of a

finger of some ¡sort—So space equals time, hmmmmmm ... All the while, however,

many men get an occasional glimpse of another fingernail from another finger

flashing by or even a whole finger or even the surface of the giant being's face and

they realize instinctively that this is a part of a pattern they're all involved in, although

they are totally powerless to explain it by cause and effect. And then—some visionary,

through some accident—

—accident, Mahavira?—

—through some quirk of metabolism, through some drug perhaps, has his doors of

perception opened for an instant and he almost sees—presque vu!—the entire being

and he knows for the first time that there is a whole . . . other pattern here .. .