Psykhe-Mental-Exercise

In Hugo's dream world, a mysterious golden scroll and an orb of formless golden substance appeared when the gigantic pyramid and the golden owl disappeared.

He first approached the scroll wanting to take a closer look at it.

[Is this the mystic-soul-art that the Immemorial Owl was supposed to transmit into my mind?] Hugo wondered.

He carefully observed the scroll, but its golden surface appeared to be entirely blank.

[Why is this scroll blank? Isn't it supposed to have some instructions on how to train my soul? Could the owl have been just a figment of my overactive imagination?] Hugo was confused.

[Weird!!…]

He finally extended his hand to touch the scroll…

"BAM"

At that instant, the scroll erupted into a golden glow that enveloped Hugo's core consciousness! Hugo felt like a hammer was pounding in his head threatening to shatter his existence.

[What happened? …Wasn't this supposed to be a mystic-soul-art… to help train my core consciousness?] Hugo was scared out of his wits.

It was at this time that a large amount of information exploded in his mind… …sending him out of his dream world.

Hugo woke up with a start as a wealth of information flooded his consciousness. Hugo was breathing like a fish taken out of water… gasping for breath as his brain unpacked the mental training exercise.

"Little Hugo! What is wrong? What has happened?" Tracy rushed over to the side of Hugo's bed and started checking his pulse and other vital signs.

"What is happening? Wasn't he just sleeping soundly? …Is it the full moon's effect or some kind of curse." Tracy was thinking aloud and on the verge of tears.

She cast a rank-2 healing spell that enveloped the baby Hugo with a light-green glow… And soon Hugo's breathing returned to normal.

"Thank Gaia and Phanes… little Hugo is okay…" Hugo heard his aunt mumbling other stuff, but he was too tired to make out the details. Very soon, he entered a deep sleep to heal his mind.

After a few hours of sleep…

Hugo reappeared in the formless gray world. This was his dream world.

The golden scroll had disappeared and only the formless golden orb of the mysterious substance remained, however, Hugo did not dare to casually touch it. His earlier experience had shaken him.

He could feel that a lot of information including instructions about training consciousness and soul had been transmitted directly to his mind.

Hugo was still lethargic due to the shock, he received when the information nearly drowned him.

[This technique of conveying information is highly advanced. How can such experiences and insights about soul training be added directly to my mind?]

[The mysteries of the cosmos are hard to fathom.] Hugo's scientific sense was overturned. He once again felt how small he was. In the face of the mysteries of the cosmos, he has been just a frog at the bottom of a well.

[Ignorance is bliss…] Hugo sighed.

[If I hadn't experienced reincarnation, I would still be taking science as the only truth of the universe. What a joke I was!] Hugo couldn't help but lament at his past ignorance.

[I now completely agree with that Owl - Little Bundi.]

[As the great philosopher - Socrates said, "True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing." I truly know nothing…]

[However, wasn't another famous quote of Socrates about the pursuit of knowledge?]

["…An unexamined life is not worth living." That should be it… And the love of wisdom - should be the purest and the most important pursuit above all else.]

[What do I lose by pursuing this knowledge?] Hugo started considering what should be his prime pursuit of this new life. He had always been someone who fervently sought knowledge, even in his previous life. Thus, this was a no brainer for him.

Others may ask him why he had such a seemingly nonsensical goal.

Are the essences of knowledge and wisdom edible? What is the use of hoarding and accumulating knowledge?

Such people could not begin to understand the dreams of a curious reincarnated soul like him.

["There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance." I am beginning to admire Socrates more and more. What great insight he had! What understanding!] Hugo sighed, gaining an epiphany.

[I would rather die trying to pursue knowledge than continue blissfully ignorant.] The young Hugo had now made a solid goal in this life. Years later, maybe he would come to realize how such a goal was the turning point of destiny.

"At least you are not so hopeless." Hugo seemed to have heard the ancient voice of the Owl - Little Bundi. He looked around, but the formless gray space was as silent as ever.

Hugo sighed, turning his attention to the mystic-soul-art.

"Psykhe-Mental-Exercise", Hugo mumbled.

[Psykhe! …Why is this name familiar? …Isn't that the Greek goddess of the soul and the wife of Cupid - god of desire and love…]

[Weird! …How can the myths of the Planet Earth cross over to this new world! …Do the Greek gods have influence and believers in this new world.] Hugo was thrown into confusion.

[Thinking about this is useless now. I will investigate it if there is a chance in the future.] Hugo sighed throwing these thoughts to the back of his mind.

He turned his attention towards the massive amount of information that had been added to his mind.

[ Visualization exercises to train your core consciousness or soul! What ingenious techniques to train one's mind.] Hugo was amazed.

He could now understand that the Psykhe-Mental-Exercise employed a set of visualization techniques to train the thought speed and mental capacity of a living entity. Hugo was perplexed that he hadn't thought of such exercises previously.

Entering deeper meditation was the first step in performing successful visualization to train one's soul and mental energy.

One could enter deeper meditation by opening a door to one's spiritual world. One could then enter the safe world of his consciousness where he could more easily concentrate on sensing the world mana or energy. He could then start using this energy to refine and train his soul.

[This state of entering the spiritual world seems to be what I am experiencing now! Was it the presence of the owl and the pyramid that helped me enter my spiritual world!?] Hugo wondered.

Entering deeper meditation as described in the Psykhe-Mental-Exercise was supposed to be the hardest step in training one's soul.

Most mystics in Gaia needed to first reach the realm of a peak mystic-wizard/witch before even attempting to enter such a state. That was why there was a limited number of mystic-kings/queens in Gaia.

[But there is also a breathing technique that needs to be trained simultaneously with the mental exercise! Why is this part of the mystic-soul-art?] Hugo mused while puzzled.

From the information integrated into his mind, the Psykhe-Mental-Exercise needed to be trained with a breathing exercise. This was necessary to attract the world energy or mana needed to refine his soul.

[No need to think about this, I will just practice the exercise. But can my baby-body undergo the exercise without difficulties?] Hugo was doubtful.

[Screw it… No risk, no gain… I will just do it.]

Hugo sat down in the formless gray world.

He took a moment to carefully recall all the important instructions and steps that were core to training the soul with the Psykhe-Mental-Exercise.

He then concentrated and started sensing the mysterious world energy or mana that should be almost everywhere in the world of Gaia.

After a few minutes, he was able to sense a lot of mysterious particles surrounding his physical body. In his mind's eye, Hugo could perceive that some of these particles were green, others were orange, yellow, red, and a lot more incomprehensible colors alien to his mind.

[Didn't the instructions imply that sensing the world's mana should also be quite hard!? Why does it feel almost effortless to me?] Although Hugo was in doubt, he once again threw such useless thoughts to the back of his mind.

Hugo then started training with the Psykhe-Visualization-Exercise without performing the breathing exercise as a form of practice.

He began to visualize a 'zero-dimensional-image' of a point, then transformed it into a 'one-dimensional-image' of a line, then a 'two-dimensional-image' of a plane which was a square, and then finally the 'three-dimensional-image' of a cube.

All these images appeared before him in the formless gray world.

This was the first stage of the visualization exercises in the 'Psykhe-Mental-Exercise'.

The whole process of transitioning a Zero-D image to 1-D, a 1-D image to 2-D, and finally a 2-D image to 3-D was done flawlessly and without a pause.

As he was a physicist and a mathematician in his previous life, he deeply understood the underlying principles of dimensions.

He understood that combining the two points which were Zero-D images could create a 1D image of a line… Combining two 1D images which were lines could create a 2D image of a square, …Combining two 2D images of a square would then simply result in a 3D image of a cube.

[According to the instructions, it seems that I will need to increase the speed of my visualizations and their respective transitions for a better effect. The more cycles of visualizations in a time-period, the better the effect.]

[Such simple elementary mathematical knowledge can be used as a way to train one's mind! What an ingenious application of elementary mathematics!] Hugo couldn't help but sigh in wonder once again.

To train his soul, Hugo needed to mentally visualize the shapes as clear as they can be. He needed to have a maximally coherent idea of the transitions before they could take effect.

This was also the knowledge that formed the basis of spell casting in Gaia.

If he faltered even a little bit on the details, he would send out mixed or incoherent signals to the surrounding mana. This would make it harder to visualize the sequence of dimensional images in his spiritual world.

This was in a way similar to the process of selecting goods to purchase from a catalog. If you sent in an incomprehensible order form or one with conflicting requests, you would get nothing back. Or perhaps worse, something you don't want!

And that would be either ineffective or worse - an injury to your consciousness when practicing the 'Psykhe-Mental-Exercise'.

[The first stage of the visualization-exercise won't be a problem for me. The challenge will be how to simultaneously practice both the visualization exercises and the breathing technique at the same time.]

For the Psykhe-Visualization-Exercise to be effective, one had to do both the visualization and the breathing technique at the same time.

This breathing exercise was the 'Fibonacci-Breathing-Sequence'.

[Isn't this breathing sequence eerily similar to the mathematical series of numbers, invented by that Italian from Pisa… Wasn't he called Fibonacci or Leonardo Pisano?]

Hugo was beginning to find more similarities between the knowledge systems and myth of Earth and this new world.

[Screw it… I am tired of making comparisons with the names of famous scholars and the so-called gods from my previous life. I will just practice and think about this later.] Hugo deliberated, once more concentrating on the breathing exercise.

While doing the visualization, Hugo needed to exercise a breathing pattern which was similar to the Fibonacci mathematical sequence of numbers.

As instructed in the information implanted into his mind, Hugo calmed his mind and started the Psykhe-Visualization-Exercise while simultaneously carrying out the Fibonacci-Breathing-Sequence.

He once more first sensed the world mana while carrying out the visualizations, and then started taking a few more inhales of breaths…

At first, Hugo inhaled once and maintained the breath for five seconds without exhaling…

Then he once more inhaled twice and maintained the breath for five seconds before exhaling once… that is for the first time during training with the breathing exercise.

Then he inhaled thrice and …exhaled twice…

…Inhaled five times and… exhaled thrice…

…And then he Inhaled eight times… and exhaled five-times…

Before he could finish this series of breathing patterns, he felt the euphoria that couldn't be matched by any other feelings from his previous life. It was like he was back within his mother's womb without worry or care for the circumstances around him.

The feeling was both surreal and ecstatic bringing a great wave of pleasure to his mind.

World mana started flooding his spiritual world, bringing comfort to his mind and soul. He could perceive that most of the particles in the mana had a red hue.

Unknown to him, the orb of golden amorphous substance that had been left by the owl and pyramid also started nourishing his core consciousness…

In the beginning, it had been just small sections of the substance, and then… The whole substance disintegrated and plunged into Hugo's actualized avatar and the surrounding formless gray world.

The process continued for a few minutes before stopping…

When Hugo awoke from his meditation, he was surprised by what he saw…