The Oblong Spheroids

The first time they came to the planet that we call Earth, they changed everything. But nothing was gradual, and everything was natural. The specificity of their nature itself was the compelling part of their existence, their argument. Toward the infinite abysmal came dangerous demise but also a sublime potential for prosperity. It came with no warning yet a promise of foresight long forgotten. 

They were oblong in shape, slightly spherical, but the shape did not define them. The sole reason for their identity, the very thing that defined them, was that they had no bounds in both mind and body. Spirit, essence, and physical tangibility were all concepts they knew and understood but did not need to exist. They had all but none at the same time, and they had none but all. They merged with nothing and coexisted with everything, they were oblong and mysterious, they were shapeless yet had a shape, they were intelligent without intelligence, they were superior through inferiority. 

When they first came, they told their story. The times of eld were not kind to them, but they nurtured its story to show who they were, what they were, and when they were. When the first ones spoke, everyone listened.

“We’ll tell a story, and we’ll tell it now,” they clarified, for their clarification was necessary to the lower-level beings they were speaking to. “The first of our kind existed much like you. Humanoid, intelligent, and resourceful. We had our own languages, our own nations, our own values. The strategy was to survive at first, then it was conquest. Then, salvation. Then the stage of innovation and the search for meaning. And once all that came had come and gone, and all that could happen had happened, there was a single moment when we decided to be different from all that existed before us and would after us. We decided that we were going to expel all of our differences to be ultimately indifferent. The defining trait that would sustain us as a race. With these expulsions came the mass exodus of the qualities of our condition. The characteristics that hindered us from expanding into the unknown, the void that none had ever surpassed nor trespassed. With this power, we would have the ability to have new values, values that no other being could ever imagine, values that normal beings would not even be capable of understanding. Goals beyond the neurons of the minds and bodies of tangible creatures.”

“Why have you taken the shape that you have taken?”

“The symbolistic shapes of our beings show that nothing is important when it comes to our existence when concerning matters of corporeality. We are oblong and perfect, yet spheroids and imperfect. We are exceptional in normality. We have vivid ideas of what we want to be and we are that, and the shape you see manifests in front of your eyes because it represents the literality of what we are. A sphere, with no edges or corners, and as influencing as the size of its circumference, a surface area touching the void with all knowledge contained inside its volume, and holes shaped as spheres so their singularities are equidistant to all points on its expanse of knowledge. We are the shape of the universe.”

This was true, for humans developed their humanoid shape because of their biological needs. Two legs, sensory organs to be aware of the world, and furthermore. The Oblong Spheroids were spheres, the perfect shape in any dimension as any point on the surface of a sphere was equidistant to its centre. They did not have the human condition; they had no condition. They were perfect beings. But at the core of this truth lied one deep lie. In their humble flawlessness, one exception remained: they were oblong and spheroid, not spherical.

Nightfall came and the evening rose. The story would be continued tomorrow, said the humans. We are tired, they said. That is the way our bodies work. They fall victim to the necessity of sleep for we are stuck in this condition. 

The Oblong Spheroids said that they did not need sleep. Why would they, for the meaning of their existence was to eliminate such things. Things that burdened them from what they wanted to do, from searching for the mysteries of the cosmos. When scientists want to perform an experiment, they cannot do it forever, for they will eventually need sleep, breakfast, lunch, dinner, a shower, and so on. This takes a toll on the amount of time they take to achieve their goals, and when many of their goals are achieved they would have gone through this cycle so many times that soon their bodies would wear down, their eyesight would diminish, their memories would fade. Then no more experiments could be done, and eventually, nothing at all could be done. Their funerals would be the moment when their revolutionary ideas would end. This limit of existence was tragic for ones that wanted an eternity to improve the progress of his or her race and therefore would never achieve utopianism in their lifetimes nor anyone’s lifetimes that encompassed their own. 

When the Oblong Spheroids realized this, or rather, the race that came before them (for they are now a new one), they made it their sole goal to eliminate this problem. Creatures were entities by nature, and by harnessing the entities of their forerunners, they had the ability to create ones that did not age nor had physical senses. Instead, sensory capabilities existed within their minds. And even then, their minds were not minds! For that would contradict their logic. The logic that said that they did not need a mind to exist as an entity in this universe governed by tangible matter and intangible forces. 

The next day, the humans woke up and went back to the peak where the Oblong Spheroids had agreed to wait for them. They asked for the Oblong Spheroids to continue their story.

“Okay,” they said. “We will.”

“One day, one of our precursors had a brilliant idea. This idea, which we cannot explain due to its nature, gave us the ability to govern our minds disconnected from our physical bodies.”

“Why can you not explain its nature?” asked the humans.

“If we tried, your minds would not be able to understand it. One must know that it cannot be put in words, its tenets cannot be exchanged through simple methods. The idea that this precursor originated in his brain capsule was so grand and exceptional in nature that it was only transferred to our feeble minds through a method that transcends all the laws of what you call “physics.” And the method itself is unorthodox to speak of, yet if we tried, once more, your minds would not be able to grasp its concept, nor access the valuable contents of its nature.”

“That is reasonable enough. How did this precursor come up with this brilliant idea?”

“Patience, humans. I see your condition is catching up to you.”

“Agreed. Apologies.”

The Oblong Spheroids would then continue their story without further interruptions, which was a beneficial trait to the humans but in theory, a trait that the Oblong Spheroids would be practically indifferent to, being it in their nature to be as stoic as the situation called it for.

“The precursor with the idea enabled us to let go of our conditions. All tethers to our consciousness, all ties to love and hate. We became indifferent. When one asks what we became indifferent to, we tell them that we became indifferent to the universe.”

It was then that the true scale of their purpose was revealed. That they were transcendent beings for a reason, not only because they wanted to be transcendent beings. This purpose, like all things about them, could not be told nor generalized. Its nature too complex for the simple-minded human creature to comprehend as usual. For we think of ourselves grand and sublime when in reality we are closer to nothing than something when concerned with matters as large as the cosmos.

“So we ran from our condition. We sold our souls for infinity. We let go of all tethers and perplexes and welcomed absolute indifference. We allowed our feet not to be governed by gravity, we did not disallow gravity. We allowed our stomachs to go without food, we did not disallow our need for energy. We allow, not disallow, for they are laws and cannot be changed. No, for all these problems the solution came through inclusivity, not exclusivity. To be truly enlightened you must consider both everything and anything while at the same time denying everything and anything.

“We created a narrative that deemed us characters of a fable. A fable that said once upon a time legend deemed us once Oblong Spheroids and that we were changed into the beings we were with our conditions, and that one day we would return to being Oblong Spheroids. With this new reality, we became the epicentre of the cosmos through our perception. Though nonexistent were the fictional facts of the narrative, our sole wills deemed them factual. The aspects of it were derived from our infinite desire for them to be true. When one has an infinite desire, anything is possible. Even when told the opposite, it proves the statement, for it only adds to the desire for it to be possible. This feedback loop is what gives the universe its all, its encompassing state, its everything. We harnessed this everything.

“Through time you will understand that to reach our state is not the goal. With your conditions, you will nevertheless achieve great things. You will build wonders and conquer new worlds, and you will worship the few individuals that take you to that future. That is the way. For we were once you, and to get to where we are now, this is the right path. We cannot know if it is for sure, but we know that it works because we exist. Because you exist, you know you work.

“Be proud of what you are. In time, you will realize the nature of everything. In time, you will realize that you should not be sad because you will die, but happy. In time, you will realize that to be happy or sad will not matter because of death, and that death will not matter because of death. To be pained with the knowledge of the inevitability of death is part of your condition, but it does not have to be. To welcome it but push it away is part of your condition as well, but it does not have to be. To be indifferent to the forces that govern the universe is what allows you to soar into the air; to be indifferent to the laws of your condition is what allows you to continue your experiments with no rest nor food. To be indifferent to everything, including indifference, is what allows you to have power over the cosmos, which may seem deathly-defiant to your will, with the addition of being infinitely scary. But if you hold power over it then it has to bow to your will, and when it does, you become one of us. You become an Oblong Spheroid.

“The first of our kind knew that the last of our kind would be the first and only. The last of our kind knew that they were the first. With this duality, it dawned on us that to begin was to end, to end was to begin. We unlocked the esoteric knowledge of the ancient universe, and the nature of its existence, by allowing that nature to apply to us. We are not part of it now. We are it. Much like a circle with no start nor end, we are eternal.”

“Then what hinders us now?” asked the humans. “What stops us from achieving the oblong shape at this moment? Is it our capability? Our minds? Our bodies? How do we rid of our condition? Why will it take time?”

“It will take time because reaching our state is a very long process. A process that will take an eternity, yet we managed to cut down that time by an eternity itself. The way we did it was far from effortless yet by definition was. The pinnacle of indifference is reached when you let go of all things that you believe matter in your world. Here is the story of our precursor.

“Our precursor woke up one day and did not care about anything. He stayed in his bed and did nothing. When his loved ones tried to get him to start moving once more, to get on with his normal life, to get on with the ordinary day, he did not care. They thought him ridiculous or perhaps diseased by paralyzation. But in truth, he was reaching a state of absolute indifference.

“Humans. When you wake up in the morning the first thing you will do is suit the needs of your condition. Perhaps that may mean brushing your teeth or urinating or eating your first meal of the day. The next things you will do are the things you think important due to millennia of practice and tradition. You will kiss your husbands and wives, you will kiss your children, you will tell them good morning and I love you. You will go to work to ensure your survival through the methods the societies you have created have deemed the ways to do so. And if one day, all that was thrown away? If one day, all that was forgotten? That is the first step. To know that you have no obligation to anything nor anyone in this universe. That nothing you do is truly important, nor will ever be, the same as anything we Oblong Spheroids do. The universe will continue to breathe with your existence or without; it will move on with you alive or not. And you must know, that what you perceive as love is merely an instinct of your biology, for you need to reproduce to survive, and proliferating without physical pleasure is useless. That what you perceive as morality is simply an instinct for survival, for your ancestors needed each other to survive, and hurting or killing each other was fruitless. The truth is, all that is part of your condition, the condition of humanity. You have wondered about it, pondered about it, written literature about it, all in an effort to understand it. But you will never understand what it is like to live without it.

“But finally, when you choose to let go of it, when you understand what life is without it, it will not be life anymore. You will not be human. You will become one of us, an Oblong Spheroid, not bound by any condition, free to roam the universe with endless thought, able to perform our experiments freely without constraints such as the need to eat or sleep or excrete. This sacrifice is your decision to make. Only we know the right decision, for we have made it, and now we know everything. But we cannot tell you. That is part of the mystery.”

“Will we lose our consciousness for a higher one?” asked the humans.

“The idea of consciousness is from man. Through experiencing it you know it exists. But many things exist without the necessity of your awareness. Incorporeal things you cannot see nor touch nor ever find evidence of yet exists as much as any tangible matter. And so through the oblong process will you lose all forms of consciousness, for it is a mortal experience and when you become oblong you become immortal.”

The Oblong Spheroids continued their story.

“Continuing the story of our precursor, during the day he did nothing he realized many profound things. Esoteric things that only he unlocked the knowledge to. When his wife tried to get him out of the bed, he saw her as a collection of trillions of tiny things you call cells, only performing biological tasks to ensure survival, every tangible creature’s ultimate and singular goal. If the precursor did not wake up, he would not make money. If he did not make money, they were doomed to fail in their world. So the wife was desperate to awaken him.

“Some Idealists of our forerunners claimed something else. Perhaps this was not about that. Perhaps the wife of our legendary precursor aimed to wake him up from his slumber of indifference because of her love? And a type of love far from any relation to the necessity of reproduction, for they already had three kids and a safe home where none of them would die young. Then perhaps this sort of power, this so-called love, transcended all that we knew? Perhaps. And we know the answer, but once again, we cannot say. The mystery is yours to solve.

“The precursor saw the light of the sun through his window but chose not to see it. It was part of a colour spectrum his human senses were limited to, and he knew there was much more to see than it. The precursor felt the sheets of his bed over his feeble body, his form, but chose not to feel it. The feeling only resonated through the nerves of his brain, and he knew there was much more to feel than it. With this process, he repeated until every aspect of his condition was accounted for, and finally, he reached absolute indifference.

“Of course, his loved ones refused this to happen. If he were to continue this, he would certainly die. For he was not eating, since he was being indifferent to that aspect of his condition. Yet it was necessary for his survival. But he was indifferent to survival! So his loved ones spoon-fed him themselves, wishing for him to return to normal, or, what they thought was normal, for in human perspective this state was not normal at all. But Oblong Spheroids would cheer him on. With the family’s spoon-feeding came their outbursts of love, the mysterious energy that made them do these things for him. But he was indifferent to love! He was hopeless.

“Then came his funeral. The precursor had starved to death, no doubt not a surprise. Most would view this as the end. But it was only the beginning. He had sparked an idea, and though most would think it joined him when he hit the grave, it did not. Soon came multiple reports all around the world of men and women doing the same as him. All not getting up in their beds when they woke up in the morning. A mysterious phenomenon started by this one man. For they did nothing and became indifferent to everything. Their loved ones cried and begged them to stop this madness, but they never relented. They eventually all starved to death. And when they did, the world sighed in relief, for they thought it was over. But no, they kept coming. Like a plague washing over our race, more and more of our people practiced this esoteric tradition. With time, most of our kind died by this tedium. 

“In your human eyes, this would seem horrific. A dystopia of a creature-kind filled with enough ennui to die of starvation on their deathbeds. But they were indifferent to death! They were indifferent to all, and when you put on the lenses that allow you to see through that indifferent perspective, you will realize that our new planet, one with billions of corpses, was a thriving utopia. No longer were we bound by our conditions. No longer did we care about eating or sleeping, of love or hate, of survival or death. No longer did we care about anything. We left our conditions behind. We allowed ourselves to be free from the laws of the universe; the cosmos would have no power over us anymore. When we did, we became the Oblong Spheroids.

“The act of fulfilling your biological needs is to submit to your condition, to immolate your will in service and obedience to the condition that which governs you. To surrender, to admit defeat, to allow the laws of the cosmos to seize control of your sole self is the one thing that must never happen in order to achieve the oblong shape.

“That is the end of our story, dear friends. One day, sooner or later, you will learn all this by yourself. One day you will let go of everything, including letting go, and the ideas you think are important now will be insignificant later. One day you will learn that when asking a mate to be yours, the yes or no answer is worthless. One day you will learn that when doing a test that grades your intelligence or skill, the good or bad grade is worthless. One day you will learn that to be successful or poor, to be famous or unknown, to be loved or hated, to be legendary or insignificant, are all worthless. When that time comes, you will be ready to become an Oblong Spheroid. To accept all that we have said is to be humble. To deny all that we have said is to be ignorant. And to be indifferent to all that we have said is correct. For the universe will breathe on if you are an Oblong Spheroid or not.”

With that, the humans prepared to say goodbye. The business of the Oblong Spheroids on Earth was finished, and when the humans asked where they would go next, they said they were indifferent to any answer. The humans thought perhaps they would simply roam until they found another planet, much as they did to theirs.

The crowd of humans cheered and cried their goodbyes when they began floating into space. A little girl in the crowd said, “Look, Pa! They’re flying!”

The father smiled and put his hands over her shoulders. “They’re not,” he said.

#

A woman, who was a journalist, had waited for this occasion all her life. Visiting the Oblong Monk Temple Sanctuaries was a rare opportunity. Throughout their former existence, they did not allow visitors to intrude or impede on their inevitable enlightenment. She would be given a brief tour of the promenades of their home in the high, snow-capped mountains by one of their eldest monks, Guru Oblong. His wife, Guru Oblate, died a year ago and through his grief he went through a personal change that made him open the gates to the public for the first time, coming to the profound realization that being unconcerned about matters of scrutiny would help him and his students reach the oblong state faster.

“What are the tenets of your creed?” asked the journalist.

The spiritual teacher said, “Our set of principles number in six tenets. Combined with the approval of the scientific community as well as our highest-ranking members, the Oblong Spheroid Theory states this. One. When we become indifferent to the laws of the universe, we gain power over it. Two. When we ignore our biological needs, not letting them control us, we reduce nature’s power over us. Three. We allow, not disallow. We allow ourselves to be free of gravity, we do not disallow gravity. Inclusivity over exclusivity. Four. The universe does not care about us. If we do not care about it in return, we are elevated to its same position on the cosmic hierarchy. We become equal to it. Five. The goal of all followers is to reach the “Oblong State.” Reaching it means letting go of the human condition, including physically, mentally, emotionally, biologically, and consciously. Six. The truest entity that did not start with any condition and preexisted before the birth of the cosmos, having never been born and that which will never die, is called the “Sphere God,” It Who Is The Purest.”

“In your quest for omnipotence, does it not take you on a path straight to death?”

“It does, and all followers are aware of it. Ignoring your biological needs will certainly have you arrive at death. But death is a human perspective. In the perspective of the Oblong Spheroids, you become a deity.”

“How many of you have succeeded on this path?”

“From my current knowledge, none. We are still waiting for a precursor to start the idea, yet the world has purged its people and no one has been found. There is no quality that sets the precursor apart. There is no way of telling who it could be. Therefore, it could be anyone. This also means that none of our members have ever reached the state and none have died trying to do so. Most have failed by relenting, and through giving up they are ashamed at having to restart. They surrender to their biological or emotional needs. They may get too hungry or thirsty to continue. Their bodies may force them to sleep, after fighting it for weeks. They may feel a tremendous amount of guilt when their children cry at them to wake up. Only the dead can prove the Oblong Spheroid Theory, for the evidence can only be seen through the perspective of the dead. In our eyes, they will be dead, but in theirs, perhaps death is not even a valid concept of importance when concerning matters of the Oblong Spheroids.”

#

A little boy woke up in his bed one day. He felt sunlight through his window, signifying the human concept of morning. He felt its heat on his skin. He felt its brightness through his eyes. He felt its radiance in his bones. He felt its vitamins in his cells.

Years had passed since the Oblong Spheroids had visited Earth. They were beloved creatures to the human race. They were as popular as anything in history. Not a day went by without seeing little boys and little girls holding their stuffed Oblong Spheroids. Nor a political debate without a candidate quoting one of them. In many ways more than one, they changed the world.

But they did not change the little boy’s world. He was unconcerned with matters relating to the spheroids. Instead, he focused on the ray of sunlight through his window. The one that woke him up. He thought, What if I chose to ignore it? What if I allowed my body to reject its nutrients? What if I allowed my eyes to not see its light? I would have power over it.

He did not get up in his bed that day. Later, a tragedy occurred, and a fire began downstairs in the house. His mother, cooking some bacon and eggs for breakfast, had accidentally caused a fire that quickly spread to the walls. Alarms rang and smoke filled the house but the little boy did not hear them or smell it. He stayed in his bed, wondering what would happen if he did not run outside the house to meet with his mother. Wondering if it was necessary to. Of course, it was, but only for his survival, and his survival was a part of his condition. What if he had no condition?

“Max!” cried his mother outside. “Get out of there! There’s a fire! It’s burning down the house!”

The little boy did not hear her. The little boy did not care about the burning house. When the flames reached his room, he chose not to feel its heat. When the smoke began to suffocate him, he chose not to need air. He did not feel pain nor bliss. He did not feel anything at all, not even the feeling of feeling nothing. The boy had felt the most peace he ever had in his entire life, the same peace he felt before he was born and the same peace he knew he would feel after his death. The peace of nothingness, of oblivion, of indifference to the universe. He knew then, the truth that no one else knew, that he was the precursor with the idea.

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