HOW TO REAPPEAR

[1] Return home and turn on all the electrical appliances you own. Run the vacuum cleaner at full power, turn the radio and television on at full volume, turn the air conditioning on if you have it, run the washing machine, and, if you have one, set the alarm clock to go off.

[2] Sit for half an hour amidst this maddening cacophony.

[3] Allow the sound waves to sweep away any thoughts or impressions you may have. Contemplate the impossibility of focusing your attention on any one thought.

[4] Half an hour later, turn the electrical appliances off one after the other.

[5] Sit in the silence left behind by the aborted noise and try to relax. You will hear a vague drone, the sonic vacuum created by the halted churning of the atmosphere.

[6] You will slowly notice that your seif is rising to the surface of your consciousness in the form of cohesive lumps of forgotten moments, exactly like lumps of cheese rising to the surface of curdled milk. Your seif will begin to regain its unity that was nearly lost in the storm of external cacophony. The risen moments will float before you in silence. Some are fleeting moments from your past that you recognize; you are unsure of the source of others, but sense that they are part of you.