Part of the Casswiki article series Books
Operators and Things: The Inner Life of a Schizophrenic is a 1958 memoir by Barbara O’Brien, a unique work in its depiction of schizophrenia as experienced from the inside out.
The author starts off describing one morning when she woke up to find herself being surrounded by “Operators” who were pulling the strings of power as “according to a secret plan”, and by “Things”, whom are considered to be the “puppets” manipulated and controlled by the Operators. As one reads along the book, one would discover that the author herself is a “Thing” and spending six months traveling around and following the orders of the Operators.
The book is written with two main parts. The first section delves into her experiences with the “Operators”. In the second part, an analysis of her condition, the author explores a variety of theories for the causes of the onset as well as her cure of schizophrenia.
Regarding on the nature of the “Operators”, the author gives a good summary from the end of the book’s appendix:[1]
A certain percentage of the population have minds so constructed that they can influence the mentality of others and dominate them. These individuals are known as “operators” and refer to the rest of the population as “things”. Upon these things they establish liens, chattels, and charters and so retain options over them.
Primarily, an operator is concerned with making points. He does this usually by engaging in draws with other operators. In a draw, a group of operators are concerned with influencing the actions and thoughts of the thing. A selection of subjects is drawn up, one is chosen and each operator in turn enters and influences the thinking of the thing upon that subject. The operator who has had the greatest influence upon the thing and motivated its actions and thinking to the greatest extent wins the draw which means winning the points each operator has put up to enter the draw. When draws are questioned by operators, an authority given the authority judiciates it.
In FOTCM discourse, the Operators are identified with [cryptogeographic beings](Cryptogeographic being) as Laura Knight-Jadczyk described in one of her The Wave chapters: “The Cryptogeographic Being”. The Operators’ mode of existence is service to self, and they have “super-human” abilities, yet they do not considered to be inhibiting 4th density. They seem to invisibly inhabit our plane of existence (3rd density) and are superimposed over what we would usually perceive as normal people.
Further readings
- Cassiopaea Forum: “Operators and Things: The Inner Life of a Schizophrenic” by Barbara O’Brien
- The Wave Chapter 52: The Cryptogeographic Being
See also
References
- ↑ O’Brien, Barbara. Operators and Things: The Inner Life of a Schizophrenic, p. 165-6. Cambridge: Arlington Books, 1958.