Page 138 of The Secret of Secrets

Katherine leaned her head back against the headrest. “I’d say their concern lies with my experiments in precognition.”

Langdon recalled Katherine’s precognition tests—a subject’s brain reacting to an image before actually visually “seeing” it. The randomly selected image, as if by magic, appeared in the subject’s consciousness before the computer had even selected which image to show.

“To be honest,” he said, “I’m not sure I even understand your precognition experiment. If the brain registers the image before the computer has even chosen the image…then it’s as if your brain is making the choice…and then telling the computer which image to choose.”

“Consciousnesses creating reality. That is one possibility, yes.”

“Is that what you believe?”

“Not exactly. In my model, your brain is not making the choice…but rather receiving the choice.”

Langdon glanced over. “Receiving the choice…from where?”

“From the field of consciousness that surrounds you. Even though you feel like you’re actively making choices yourself, in fact, those choices have been made already and are streaming into your brain.”

“That’s where you lose me…If I’m only imagining I’m making my choices, then there’s no free will!”

“True. But maybe free will is overrated.”

“How can you possibly—”

Katherine leaned over toward the driver’s seat and kissed him on the lips. Then she sat back and smiled. “I have no idea where that decision came from…but does it really matter? Isn’t the illusion of free will enough?”

Langdon considered it a moment and placed a hand on her thigh. “I believe more research is required.”

She laughed. “Craving an out-of-body experience, Professor?”

“Actually, I think I’d prefer to stay in my body for that particular activity.”

“Don’t be so sure,” she said. “As it turns out, sex is very closely related to the noetic view of out-of-body experiences.”

Langdon groaned. “Does everything with you relate to work?”

“In this case, it does. As you know, during sexual climax, the mind experiences a blissful moment of oblivion in which the entire corporeal world evaporates. Climax is considered in every culture to be the most intensely pleasurable experience a person could have, a blank-slate detachment from oneself, a momentary abandonment of all concern, pain, and fear. Do you know what the French call it?”

“Oui,” he said. “La petite mort.”

“Yes—the little death. That’s because the self-detachment felt at orgasm is precisely the same feeling described by people who have had near-death experiences.”

“That’s morbidly fascinating.”

“It’s brain science, Robert. Of course, the problem with sexual climax is that it’s frustratingly fleeting. Within seconds of being ecstatically released from all things, your mind rushes back into your body, reconnecting with the physical realm and all its attendant pains, stresses, and guilts.” She smiled. “Which is another reason we want to do it over and over. The experience of climax overloads the nervous system…and releases the mind. Much like an epileptic seizure.”

Langdon had never associated orgasms with death or seizures, and he suspected the connection would forevermore resurface in his mind at the most inappropriate moments. Thanks a million.

“Actually…” Katherine said, cocking her head. “I just had a strange thought.”

You seem to have a lot of those…

“Gessner’s lab assistant,” she said, glancing over. “You said this young woman is an epileptic? And she spent time in an institution?”

“She did.”

Katherine’s brow furrowed. “Don’t you find it odd that the CIA would permit Gessner to hire an unskilled Russian mental patient? I mean I know Sasha only works in Crucifix Bastion in a menial capacity, but it seems like a security risk to have a Russian with brain problems so close to Gessner’s work…which I gather is critical somehow to Threshold.”

“I don’t see a risk,” Langdon countered. “Sasha seemed quite stable, and she’s certainly no fan of her home country. I think Gessner probably hired her out of compassion.”

Katherine laughed out loud. “Robert, you’re adorable. Naive but adorable. Brigita Gessner—no disrespect for the dead—was a self-serving egomaniac and a ruthless businesswoman. If she hired an uneducated Russian mental patient for her inner circle, it’s because Sasha has something Gessner needs.”