Still, enough of these dumbbell shapes turn up to make a worm think there’s something to it. This theory is also compatible with the theory of continuous creation, the supposition being that our world is some sort of living matter that extends itself at various points from its (supposed) surface by a thread or filament, and then grows a new solid volume on the end of it.
You asked me how worms differentiate each other, whether we have individuality and how we show it, how we communicate, etc. I’m not a scientist, but I’ll explain it as well as I can.
Every worm is born with a distinct and unique texture-pattern to his skin. And his skin is, of course, in continuous contact with the sides of his wormhole. The same basic figures, patterns, etc., occur over and over, but in ever-differing combinations, of greater or lesser aesthetic appeal. One worm can read another worm’s skin- pattern at varying distances, depending on various factors.
Skin-pattern is the basic texture of individuality. It impresses itself on the sides of the wormhole as one progresses, and can be read by others, until, in time, it fades out.
This much is innate, inborn. Beyond that, we have the ability to make conscious textural patterns on our wormskin, and hence impress them on the sides of the wormhole in order to communicate with others, or (using more energy) to leave records whose duration depends on the size and the speed of the worm leaving it.
I believe I have already told you that velocity and direction are among our areas of free will. Size increases with speed, as does time and communication-strength. Linear speed is the factor for growth, or volume extension, as we call it.
The faster we tunnel the bigger we grow and the more time we have. And this has its psychological counterpart in the sense of well-being. But greater speed also brings the greater possibility of entrapment and cancellation. We have various mathematical techniques to help us plot out the Speed/Danger ratio under various circumstances. Frankly, these are of dubious practical worth and very difficult to understand, and your average worm just bores along on his hunches.
Personally, I detest science. But I, like all of us, am forced into the mysterious area of physics, metaphysics, and mathematics in order to solve the daily problems with which we are continually beset. Even our dreams and fantasies involve intuitional probes into areas where physical laws and special properties might be manipulated to our advantage. And sometimes I have nightmares of constriction.
Sometimes, on a good day, I think to myself that there is no established limit to the speed a worm could attain under ideal circumstances, since speed begets further speed, and at a logarithmic rate. The limiting factors are dead wormholes, other worms, and the unknowable Surface.
Fantasies of continually increasing speed and size are common among us. One of our oldest legends is of the Primordial Worm in the Original World. This world was entirely solid, of course. One version of the legend is that the Primordial Worm tried to reach maximum velocity (which is permitted only to Godworm, if He exists), and that the Primordial Worm grew so large and fast and long that he consumed the entire world, and worm and world canceled simultaneously. That was the end of the first Age of Worms. Then the Godworm made the world all over again, but this time with two worms in it.
Another version of the Creation Legend says the Godworm saved the world by creating a second worm of opposite sex, with whom the Primordial Worm had to share the world, mate, and procreate/ die, thus giving birth to the present worm race.
Both versions of this particular legend agree that in the beginning there was nothing, and then came the solid world, then Primordial Worm, and then the Mother Worm. Other legends say that the first worm was the Mother Worm who mated with herself to give birth to our race.
In any event, the Second Age began (it is said) with two worms, and life was paradisaical because they had the entire world at their disposal, and lived long lives and designed brilliant patterns before they mated/canceled and initiated the process resulting in our present multiplicity.
However it came about, it must have been wonderful back in the old days when there were only a few worms and everyone had a chance to live a long life and express himself fully.
I am puzzled by your references to “gravity.” No such force exists in our world, or if it does, we are not aware of it and it plays no important part in our lives. All directions in our world involve equal expenditure of energy. I don’t understand why you make a differentiation between “up “ and “down.” Does it correspond to “in” and “out”? Does it have something to do with symmetry-hunger? For us it is meaningless.
We dream a time before exclusivity; a dream of innocence, of paradise, when worms coiled round and round each other in veritable contact, when there was no cancellation, only childlike sexuality and unlimited fulfillment; when all worms lived in the great worm tangle, procreated, died, were absorbed back into the tangle of life as nutrients, to blend with sunlight to give more life. That was the state of worm before the Fall.
I was very interested in your description of water, and it does correspond in some ways to what we call earth. We don’t have anything like it, unless “water” is the medium through which we move. But this seems unlikely—from what you tell me, a wormhole made in water would instantaneously be filled in again, which is not the case with us. Might some other “liquid” or “semi-liquid” have the requisite properties? I like the idea that the changes in our earth are due to changes in the viscosity of the medium through which we pass. But I think it’s just a nice idea. I’m pretty sure we’re worms, not fish.
Possession can occur (or is said to occur) when one’s short-term wormhole pattern coincides in sufficient degrees of similitude (the critical degree is unknown) with the wormhole pattern made by some worm now deceased. It would take a very large/fast worm to produce a pattern of sufficient power to continue for a distance after his death. Some evil worms have been said to possess this power, and their patterns are said to wait for someone to be ensnared by forming a similar pattern. The mystics say that the magical power of Resonance then takes place. The living worm’s pattern, via a quantum/gestalt repatterning, becomes similar in all degrees to the dead worm’s pattern. The living worm is forced to continue the dead worm’s pattern; this our definition of possession, since a worm is defined by the patterns he creates. If a worm makes a pattern that is not his own—not self-willed, not self-directed—then he is not the same worm, he is the former worm. A worm so possessed is said to “ride the fixed pattern,” usually to his quick destruction, since he is unable to use his intuition to guide him away from dangerous volumes.
I don’t know if any of this is true, but it would account for the inexplicable behavior that takes over a worm from time to time.
There are said to be worm magicians among us who deliberately seek Similitude with the former pattern of some great former spirit-worm, some supreme magus. The belief is that, done consciously and with proper safeguards, the worm-spirit will not destroy the magician but rather confer on him the power to foresee the patterns of others. At cost of his soul, of course. On the other hand, the really zealous believers in God, sometimes called white magicians, try to attain Holy Resonant Similitude with the Great Pattern of the Godworm, for the sake of bliss or Infinite Velocity Communion, as it is technically called. But there are many doctrinal disputes among the Godworm worshippers and I myself take little note of all that, being an artist above all else, while still trying to keep up an intelligent worm’s interest in the world around me.