Lathe of Heaven

• The narrative opens with a philosophical paradox from Chuang Tse, suggesting that reality and the self are merely dreams.
• A metaphorical jellyfish represents the ultimate vulnerability of life, perfectly attuned to the ocean but destroyed by the 'terrible outerspace' of dry land.
• The protagonist experiences a harrowing transition from a nightmare of nuclear devastation and radiation sickness to a bleak physical reality.
• In his actual room, the protagonist is found by an elevator guard and a medic after overdosing on a dangerous cocktail of barbiturates and Dexedrine.
• The medic informs him that his illegal use of multiple pharmacy cards must be reported, highlighting a regulated and bureaucratic society.
• The protagonist's internal struggle is described as an inability to find the 'fit'—a key to lock the door against his intrusive dreams.

What will the creature made all of seadrift do on the dry sand of daylight; what will the mind do, each morning, waking?

• A medic pressures George Orr to reveal who provided him with extra Pharm Cards to avoid institutionalization.
• The elevator guard, Mannie Ahrens, provides a false confession to protect George from the legal consequences of his drug use.
• The medic describes a systemic crisis where children in state housing suffer from kwashiorkor due to protein shortages and bureaucratic red tape.
• The setting is established as a dystopian future Portland where basic resources are scarce and the National Guard is used to break transit strikes.
• George is referred to Dr. William Haber for Voluntary Therapeutic Treatment, a psychiatrist who values professional optics over genuine connection.
• The narrative introduces a world where medical care is a mix of surveillance, legal threats, and futile gestures against mass starvation.

I go give 'em Vitamin C shots and try to pretend that starvation is just scurvy....

• Dr. Haber prepares to treat George Orr, a man referred for 'Voluntary Therapeutic Treatment' after illegally using extra pharmacy allotments.
• The setting is a future Earth where the Greenhouse Effect has erased mountain snows and blue skies are a memory or a fake.
• Society is highly regulated, with citizens using 'Pharmacy Cards' for controlled substances like tranquilizers and stimulants.
• Haber identifies Orr as a 'dreamer' who has been using barbiturates to suppress his dreams, a common reason for referral to his specialty.
• The doctor observes Orr as a repressed, unaggressive, and easily frightened individual with no psychological defenses.

The real trick was to learn how not to hear them. The only solid partitions left were inside the head.

• The patient, Mr. Orr, has been alternating drugs to suppress his ability to dream, leading to severe physical and mental strain.
• Dr. Haber explains that dreaming is a biological necessity as vital as food, water, and air.
• Systematic dream deprivation results in irritability, paranoia, and potential brain lesions that can be fatal.
• The brain will eventually force a dreaming state regardless of drug use, unless the dosage is lethal.
• Orr reveals that his fear is not of nightmares specifically, but of the act of dreaming itself.
• Dr. Haber views the verbal consultation as a 'vestigial rite' before he begins more direct psychological conditioning.

No drug we have will keep you from dreaming, unless it kills you.

• Dr. Haber dismisses the concepts of belief and disbelief as irrelevant to his psychological work.
• George Orr reveals that his dreams do not merely predict the future but actively change reality.
• Haber initially misinterprets Orr's claims as common psychological phenomena or prophetic intuition.
• Orr recounts a formative memory from age seventeen involving his Aunt Ethel and a crowded living situation.
• The interaction highlights a power dynamic where Haber views Orr as a 'nut' sent to him by medical authorities.
• Orr's physical appearance, specifically his transparent eyes, momentarily unsettles the clinical detachment of the doctor.

"Not prophetic dreams. I can't foresee anything. I simply change things."

• George Orr describes a vivid dream in which his aunt died in a car crash, only to wake up and find that she had never been living with his family at all.
• Orr explains that his dreams change reality retroactively, leaving him as the only person who remembers the previous version of existence.
• Dr. Haber initially suspects Orr is a devious schizophrenic but is struck by the patient's lack of typical schizoid arrogance.
• Haber validates Orr's experience by asserting that mental events are facts and that dreams leave measurable marks on the world.
• Orr expresses a profound fear of his power, arguing that he has no right to meddle with the world through his irrational and selfish unconscious mind.
• The conflict centers on Orr's desire for stability versus the chaotic, uncontrollable nature of his 'effective' dreams.

I dreamed that Ethel had been killed in a car crash in Los Angeles, and the telegram had come. ... She wasn't there. She never had been there.

• George Orr confesses his belief that his dreams have the power to alter reality, specifically claiming responsibility for his aunt's death through a dream.
• Dr. Haber dismisses the literal reality of Orr's claims, interpreting them as an elaborate psychological metaphor for a lack of control in his life.
• The dialogue reveals Orr's history of drug dependency used as a tool to suppress these 'effective' or reality-altering dreams.
• Haber proposes a radical therapeutic approach: using hypnosis and a 'trancap' to induce controlled, intentional dreaming under medical supervision.
• Orr remains skeptical and defensive, fearing that his dreams cannot be safely contained even within a laboratory setting.

I didn't want to kill poor Ethel. I just wanted her out of my way. Well, in a dream, that's likely to be drastic. Dreams take short cuts.

• Dr. Haber explains the evolution of electronic brain stimulation (ESB) from Russian and Israeli origins to mass-produced medical applications.
• The doctor details his development of the 'Augmentor,' a device designed to break the vicious cycle of depression and sleep deprivation.
• The machine works by recording, augmenting, and replaying a patient's own healthy brain-wave impulses to induce specific sleep states.
• Haber successfully cured a severely depressed patient by using the device to regulate and prolong her dreaming sleep.
• George Orr submissively agrees to the treatment, signing a consent form for a combination of hypnosis and electronic induction.
• Haber notes Orr's passive and 'childish' temperament, which triggers a protective yet bullying instinct in the doctor.

Then, as I work with the patient, I narrow it down again, tailor it: whenever the subject's brain is doing what I want it to do more of, I record that moment, augment it, enlarge and prolong it, replay it, and stimulate the brain to go along with its own healthiest impulses, if you'll excuse the pun.

• Dr. Haber utilizes a visual-cutaneous (v-c) induction method to rapidly hypnotize Orr, viewing the patient as an easily dominated subject.
• The narrative explores the neurophysiological distinctions between waking, trance, non-REM sleep (s-state), and vivid dreaming (d-state).
• Haber explains that the 'Augmentor' is designed to bypass the temporal gulf of normal sleep to trigger immediate, emotion-laden dreams.
• The doctor uses a combination of scientific 'patter' and physical manipulation of the vagus nerve and carotid artery to force compliance.
• Haber experiences a distinct thrill of power and professional superiority as he physically and mentally overwhelms his patient.

He felt a thrill of enjoyment of his own skill, his instant dominance over the patient, even as he was muttering softly and rapidly, 'You're going to sleep now; close your eyes, sleep, relax, let your mind go blank; you're going to sleep, you're relaxed, you're going limp; relax, let go—'

• Dr. Haber successfully induces a deep hypnotic state in George Orr within minutes.
• The doctor establishes a physical trigger on Orr's throat to ensure immediate future compliance.
• Haber fits Orr with a modified 'trancap' featuring electrodes to monitor and record brain activity.
• The EEG reveals that Orr possesses a remarkably complex and diverse brain pattern rather than a simple or schizoid one.
• Haber views the brain's electrical impulses as a form of entertainment, calling it the 'All-Night Movie' on 'Channel One.'
• The ultimate goal is to utilize the Augmentor computer to analyze and manipulate Orr's unique mental state.

It was a scene he never tired of, the All-Night Movie, the show on Channel One.

• Dr. Haber uses hypnotic suggestion and a trigger word to induce a specific dream state in his patient, George Orr.
• The Augmentor machine monitors and records Orr's brain activity, transitioning from waking alpha waves to deep sleep stages.
• Haber attempts to influence the content of Orr's dream by suggesting a vivid image of a galloping horse.
• The patient enters 'd-sleep' rapidly, showing physical signs of dreaming such as rapid eye movement and theta rhythms.
• Upon waking, Orr confirms the success of the suggestion by identifying the horse from a mural in the office as his dream subject.
• The experiment demonstrates Haber's ability to manipulate and amplify the brain's own emissions during the dreaming process.

And as the brain's rhythms changed, so did the heavy matter inhabited by that dancing energy: the hands were lax on the slow-breathing chest, the face was aloof and still.

• George Orr confronts Dr. Haber about a mural in the office that seemingly transformed from a mountain landscape into a horse following Orr's dream.
• Dr. Haber experiences a moment of internal panic and cognitive dissonance as he realizes the reality of the room has indeed changed, though he quickly suppresses it.
• To maintain his professional authority and sanity, Haber gaslights Orr by insisting the picture has always been of the horse Tammany Hall.
• Orr reveals his unique burden of 'double memory,' where he remembers both the original reality and the new one created by his effective dreaming.
• Haber diagnoses Orr as psychotic to rationalize the anomaly and prescribes medication to suppress the potency of his dreams.
• The encounter ends with the unsettling observation that the newly manifested horse bears a striking physical resemblance to Dr. Haber himself.

Oh Christ it had been Mount Hood the man was right It had not been Mount Hood it could not have been Mount Hood it was a horse it was a horse

• Dr. Haber experiences a moment of unease after a patient suggests a dream horse resembled him, highlighting a growing tension in their dynamic.
• The narrative introduces a philosophical warning from Chuang Tse regarding the 'lathe of heaven' and the dangers of over-extending human reason.
• George Orr navigates a dystopian Portland characterized by extreme overpopulation, where subway commuters are physically suspended by the pressure of the crowd.
• Global warming has fundamentally altered the geography and climate, turning Portland into a permanent, tepid 'downpour of warm soup' with 114 inches of annual rain.
• The shift in habitable zones has moved the 'New Cities' to former deserts, leaving older urban centers like Portland to rot in a state of 'pervading foulness.'
• International tensions persist in this bleak future, evidenced by headlines regarding nuclear strikes and military intervention near the Afghan border.

He stood out of reach of strap or stanchion, supported solely by the equalizing pressure of bodies on all sides, occasionally lifted right off his feet and floating as the force of crowding (c) exceeded the force of gravity (g).

• George Orr observes the decaying state of the world, marked by disease in Old Cities and systemic violence in New Cities.
• Orr visits Dr. Haber, noting that the doctor's office is filled with synthetic materials and lacks genuine substance.
• Dr. Haber is characterized as a man with a real desire to help, yet one who is fundamentally disconnected from the reality of others.
• The dialogue reveals a complex geopolitical landscape where shifting alliances like the 'Isragypts' struggle with spreading global warfare.
• Orr submits to Haber's psychiatric treatment, reflecting his own passivity and tendency to trust the authority of others over his own instincts.
• The session concludes with Orr waking from a dream-state, disoriented by the transition back to the physical world.

The doctor was not, he thought, really sure that anyone else existed, and wanted to prove they did by helping them.

• George Orr recounts a bizarre dream involving a stable and a pile of manure that resembles a local mountain.
• The mural in Dr. Haber's office has physically changed to match the brown and reddish tones of Orr's dream.
• Dr. Haber appears to have no memory of the previous reality, existing entirely within the newly created timeline.
• Haber expresses excitement over Orr's ability to 'dream to order' using the Augmentor device.
• Orr feels vulnerable and exploited as Haber celebrates the 'infinite' creative resources of the human brain.

Orr felt rumpled and foolish, sitting on the couch still giddy from sleep, having lain asleep there, probably with his mouth open and snoring, helpless, while Haber watched the secret jigs and prancings of his brain, and told him what to dream.

• Dr. Haber encourages George Orr to embrace and creatively employ his mental powers rather than suppressing them through drugs or avoidance.
• Orr experiences a profound sense of isolation when he realizes Haber does not explicitly confirm the reality-altering nature of his dreams.
• The protagonist struggles with the paradoxical state of knowing he is both insane and sane, a tension that threatens his actual mental stability.
• Orr requests a posthypnotic suggestion to stop 'dreaming effectively' as a way to escape his dependency on narcotics.
• Haber dismisses the idea of suppression and pivots the conversation toward the psychology of daydreams and 'Messiah' fantasies.
• The dynamic reveals a disconnect between Orr's fear of his world-changing power and Haber's ambition to harness that power for 'doing good'.

No way out. Orr was where he had been for months—alone: knowing he was insane and knowing he was not insane, simultaneously and intensely.

• George Orr expresses a desire for escape from urban overcrowding and the relentless pressure of modern headlines.
• The dialogue reveals a stark economic reality where natural land has become an impossibly expensive luxury for the average person.
• Dr. Haber maintains strict control over the hypnotic process, refusing Orr's request for conscious recall of his suggestions.
• Haber uses a paternalistic and authoritative tone to ensure Orr's compliance, despite Orr's underlying hesitation.
• Orr's dream of President Kennedy and a change in weather suggests his subconscious is beginning to alter external reality.
• The session concludes with Orr feeling physically and mentally exhausted by the manipulative nature of the therapy.

Orr did not entirely believe him, but he was an uncontradictable as a preacher; and besides, he wished he could believe him,

• Dr. Haber proposes switching to nighttime sessions to increase the frequency of hypnotic dream suggestion.
• Orr experiences a physical and mental toll from 'effective' dreams, feeling broken and abraded by the effort.
• The protagonist notes that his dreams are becoming more frequent and intense under the influence of the Augmentor.
• A shift in the weather occurs after a dream about Kennedy, though Orr is unsure if he or the doctor caused it.
• Orr suffers from increasing dizziness and fatigue as he navigates the crowded city and subway system.

He woke from them recalling them with intense clarity, and feeling broken and abraded, as one might after making an enormous physical effort to resist an overwhelming, battering force.

• The narrator reflects on the inherent perversity of tunneling under a river, viewing it as a wrong turn in human engineering.
• Portland's Willamette River is described as a 'docile draft animal,' heavily controlled by concrete banks and flood systems.
• George Orr experiences a crushing psychological and physical weight while traveling through the 'infrafluvial dark' of the Broadway Tunnel.
• The transit system is characterized as a decaying, noisy relic built hastily during the collapse of the private car economy.
• Orr struggles with the nature of his own consciousness, questioning why he cannot recall his experiences under hypnosis.

He felt the heaviness upon him, the weight bearing down endlessly. He thought, I am living in a nightmare, from which from time to time I wake in sleep.

• Orr realizes that Dr. Haber witnessed the reality-altering effects of his dream, confirming he is not insane.
• His sudden surge of joy and relief physically radiates outward, momentarily easing the suffering of those around him on the subway.
• Orr's cognitive process is described as 'slogging' and 'plodding,' feeling connections like a plumber rather than using abstract logic.
• Back at his apartment, Orr questions why Haber withheld the truth about the effectiveness of the dreams if he truly intended to help.
• Orr speculates that Haber may be frightened by the power of the dreams and is cautiously gathering more information.
• Despite the validation, Orr remains deeply anxious about the ethics and consequences of his power, wishing only for it to stop.

He did not see connections, which is said to be the hallmark of intellect. He felt connections—like a plumber.

• The law office is housed in a repurposed 1973 parking garage, a relic of an era when downtown Portland was dominated by automobile infrastructure.
• The building's architecture retains a disorienting helical slant and the lingering scent of gasoline, symbolizing a fossilized past.
• Miss Lelache, a cynical lawyer, views her new client as a 'born victim'—a meek, stuttering man she finds revoltingly simple.
• The client is under Voluntary Therapeutic Treatment (VTT) for drug-related infractions, a program designed to avoid criminal prosecution.
• The legal dispute centers on whether hypnotically induced dreaming ordered by a psychiatrist constitutes an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.
• Lelache warns that challenging government-referred psychiatrists is dangerous and could lead to 'Obligatory Therapy' in a mental hospital or jail.

Its cement floors were stained with the excreta of innumerable engines, the wheelprints of the dinosaurs were fossilized in the dust of its echoing halls.

• Miss Lelache, a lawyer specializing in privacy rights, warns her client that challenging a doctor's authority is nearly impossible for someone labeled a 'mental case.'
• The client, George Orr, reveals his desperate situation: he believes his dreams have the power to alter reality, a claim he knows sounds insane.
• Orr explains that Dr. Haber is using a sophisticated machine to force him into an intensified dream state (the 'd-state') through hypnotic suggestion.
• While Orr believes Haber’s motives are high-minded, he feels his autonomy is being violated as the doctor dictates the content of his dreams.
• Lelache remains skeptical of the supernatural claims but looks for a legal angle, such as whether the doctor is conditioning the patient to perform immoral acts.

If I told you that some of my dreams exert an influence over reality, and that Dr. Haber has discovered this and is using it ... this talent of mine, for ends of his own, without my consent . . . you'd think I was crazy.

• A client named George Orr expresses moral distress over his psychiatrist, Dr. Haber, using him as an instrument to alter reality through dreams.
• Orr argues that while the changes might seem beneficial or benign, neither he nor the doctor has the right to manipulate existence.
• Miss Lelache, the lawyer, initially views Orr as a delusional casualty of the times but finds herself unsettled by his peculiar solidity and moral certainty.
• Orr provides a concrete example of reality shifting: the sudden existence of government-leased cabins in wilderness areas that were previously strictly protected.
• The conflict highlights a paradox where the new reality includes a complete, consistent history that everyone remembers, yet Orr retains the memory of the original timeline.

I know you know. All about how they decided to lease parts of the National Forests last spring. Only I also know that that was not true until last Friday.

• George Orr explains that his dreams retroactively alter reality, changing history from its origins to make the dream's content appear natural.
• The dreamer and his therapist, Dr. Haber, are the only individuals who retain memories of both the original and the newly created realities.
• Orr describes the 'pink dog' paradox, where a dream must rewrite the laws of nature or causality to accommodate an impossible request.
• Miss Lelache remains skeptical of Orr's claims, dismissing them as tropes from late-night science fiction television.
• Orr seeks legal protection, fearing that Dr. Haber is using his unique ability for unauthorized experimental purposes rather than therapy.
• The lawyer identifies a potential civil rights case regarding the use of experimental machinery and lack of informed consent.

Each dream covers its tracks completely. There would just be a normal everyday pink dog there when I woke up, with a perfectly good reason for being there.

• A lawyer proposes using her credentials as an ACLU observer for HEW to investigate the doctor's experimental device without compromising her client's relationship.
• The protagonist confirms that he is the only patient currently being used as a subject for the experimental 'Augmentor' device.
• A moment of genuine human connection occurs between the lawyer and her client, transcending their professional and racial differences.
• The setting shifts to the Oregon Oneirological Institute, a high-tech facility where Dr. William Haber operates in a controlled, clinical environment.
• The narrative introduces a contrast between the chaotic outside world and the serene, air-conditioned interior of the research institute.

She stuck out her brown hand, he met it with a white one, just like that damn button her mother always kept in the bottom of her bead box, SCNN or SNCC or something she'd belonged to way back in the middle of the last century, the Black hand and the White hand joined together.

• Dr. Haber transitions into his role as Director of a complex research institute, supported by his loyal assistant, Miss Crouch.
• The doctor draws inspiration from a panoramic view of the Pacific Northwest landscape, linking atmospheric pressure to psychological well-being.
• Haber prioritizes 'relevance' over pure science, believing knowledge is only valuable if it has a direct therapeutic or social application.
• He defines human morality and identity through a person's influence and function within the sociopolitical whole.
• Despite his administrative burdens, Haber maintains one patient, George Orr, to stay grounded in the 'human reality' of his research.
• The upcoming session with Orr is complicated by the presence of a government inspector monitoring the use of the 'Augmentor' device.

A person is defined solely by the extent of his influence over other people, by the sphere of his interrelationships; and morality is an utterly meaningless term unless defined as the good one does to others, the fulfilling of one's function in the sociopolitical whole.

• Dr. Haber resents the government's intrusion into his private psychotherapy practice but understands the necessity of cooperation for securing grants.
• The HEW inspector, Miss Lelache, presents a harsh and clattering exterior that Haber interprets as a mask for underlying timidity.
• Haber explains that his 'Augmentor' device is more precise than existing technology, capable of inducing specific brain rhythms like alpha waves without training.
• Unlike generalized stimuli like strobe lights or drumbeats, the Augmentor feeds specific signals to targeted areas of the brain to control sleep cycles.
• The legal inspection involves a mandatory recording device that emits a 'teep' sound every five seconds to ensure compliance with government regulations.

She snapped and clicked. Heavy brass snap catch on handbag, heavy copper and brass jewelry that clattered, clump-heel shoes, and a huge silver ring with a horribly ugly African mask design, frowning eyebrows, hard voice: clack, clash, snap....

• Dr. Haber defends his 'Augmentor' device as a non-invasive tool that induces natural brain states rather than imposing external stimuli.
• He compares the precision of his machine to a personal tailor, contrasting it with the 'sledgehammer' approach of electrode implantation.
• Haber admits to experimenting with 'auto-stimulation,' using a subject's own recorded brain rhythms to trigger specific mental states.
• The doctor speculates on future therapeutic uses, such as 'teaching' damaged brains new habits by imposing healthier neural patterns.
• Haber strategically omits the current status of his more controversial research to avoid legal scrutiny from the HEW representative.
• The specific case involves an 'oneirophobe'—a patient who is pathologically afraid to dream—requiring controlled conditioning.

The difference between it and electrode implantation is—oh, hell—a scalpel to a sledgehammer!

• Dr. Haber explains how the Augmentor accelerates therapy by bypassing slow sleep cycles to trigger immediate dreaming.
• The device acts as a safety mechanism to ensure the patient experiences only positive, controlled dreams during conditioning.
• Haber introduces George Orr to Miss Lelache, describing him as a man in a severe anxiety state with protective delusions.
• The doctor displays a sense of dominance and irritation when Orr flinches, viewing the patient's resistance as a personal inconvenience.
• Haber uses a dramatic induction method to rehypnotize Orr, aiming to prove the machine's safety to the HEW observer.

The contrast amused Haber: the harsh fierce woman, the meek characterless man.

• Dr. Haber uses a hypnotic tape and a 'trancap' to induce a deep state of suggestibility in George Orr.
• The doctor dismisses Orr's concerns about global overpopulation as a psychological metaphor for a personal fear of intimacy.
• Haber argues that historical fears of population growth were overblown and that modern society is functioning adequately despite lower standards of living.
• A specific keyword, 'Antwerp', is established as the trigger to send the patient into a dream-state.
• Haber attempts to manipulate Orr's subconscious to dream that humanity needs more people around for competition and support.
• The presence of the lawyer, Lelache, forces Haber to use abstract suggestions rather than direct commands, complicating his experimental method.

Now perhaps an excessive dread of overpopulation—overcrowding—reflects not an outward reality, but an inward state of mind.

• Dr. Haber attempts a vague, abstract suggestion to bypass Orr's unconscious resistance and 'balkiness' during the dream state.
• Haber demonstrates the physiological shift from orthodox sleep to the d-state, or dreaming sleep, for the lawyer Lelache.
• The text describes dreaming as a 'third state of being' where the autonomic system is fully mobilized while muscle tone remains nil.
• Orr's EEG shows anomalous 'brainstorm' peaks similar to those found in individuals engaged in intense creative or artistic work.
• Haber uses the Augmentor to systematically observe and analyze these unique neural patterns that occur during Orr's dreams.
• The lawyer expresses awe and skepticism regarding the intensity of Orr's physical reactions and the influence of the machine.

His whole autonomic system is as fully mobilized as it might be in an exciting moment of waking life; but his muscle tone is nil, the large muscles are relaxed more deeply than in s-sleep.

• Haber experiments with the Augmentor to manipulate and observe Orr's specific brain states during dreaming.
• The doctor attempts to categorize Orr's unique neurophysiological condition by comparing his theta rhythms to other brains.
• Haber experiences a physical reaction—a dry mouth and a sense of arrival—as the dream begins to alter reality.
• The shift is not private; the woman in the room also witnesses the physical world changing outside the window.
• The urban landscape begins to dissolve, with towers vanishing as the dream's influence overwrites the current existence.

She was staring in dismay, shock, terror, out the window at the view.

• Haber realizes that despite witnessing multiple shifts in reality caused by Orr's dreams, he has subconsciously accepted the new timelines as the only truth.
• The creation of the Oregon Oneirological Institute was a retroactive change that Haber had completely integrated into his own memory until this moment.
• Haber experiences a moment of violent panic when he realizes the HEW observer, Heather Lelache, might have witnessed the world shifting in real-time.
• He observes that Lelache is too traumatized and confused by the visual paradox to immediately process what she has seen.
• Haber quickly adopts a mundane, conversational tone about the weather and geography to gaslight the observer and stabilize the situation.
• The power dynamic shifts as Haber resolves to protect his 'experiment' from outside interference at any cost.

He had been there, had seen the walls change around him, had known the world was being remade, and had forgotten it.

• Haber struggles to reconcile two conflicting realities: one where the global population is seven billion and another where it is less than one billion.
• The lawyer, Miss Lelache, experiences a profound sense of disorientation as her memories of a crowded world clash with the current reality.
• Haber realizes that individuals will reject the evidence of their own senses if others do not acknowledge a miracle or anomaly.
• To protect his power, Haber deliberately manipulates the situation to ensure Orr does not wake and confirm the reality-altering dream.
• The conversation shifts to the technicalities of the Augmentor machine and patents as a way to normalize the surreal atmosphere.
• Lelache expresses an intuitive unease regarding Haber's profession of watching and controlling the dreams of others.

Of course, Haber thought, a man who saw a miracle would reject his eyes' witness, if those with him saw nothing.

• Haber discusses the inherent privacy and mystery of sleep, viewing it as a scientific problem yet to be fully solved.
• Upon waking from a directed dream, Orr displays a singular, monumental poise that momentarily unnerves both Haber and Lelache.
• Orr reveals he dreamed of 'the Plague,' a catastrophic global event that drastically reduced the human population.
• Haber recounts the grim history of the Plague Years, including the loss of his entire family and the societal chaos that ensued.
• The dialogue highlights a moral conflict: Haber justifies the Plague as a solution to overpopulation and famine, while Orr remains haunted by the cost.
• Haber attempts to maintain control over the session by framing Orr's distress as a necessary step in his psychological treatment.

There was a singular poise, almost a monumentally, in the stance of his slight figure: he was completely still, still as the center of something.

• Dr. Haber attempts to gaslight George Orr by convincing him that his memories of a global overpopulation crisis were merely irrational, inward anxieties.
• Haber views Orr's emotional fragility as a tactical advantage to discredit him in front of the legal observer, Miss Lelache.
• Orr challenges Haber's narrative by describing a horrific dream of burying plague victims, asserting that his 'imagination' has rewritten history.
• The tension peaks when Orr asks the lawyer if she also remembers two conflicting versions of reality, threatening Haber's control over the situation.
• Haber abruptly terminates the session to prevent the lawyer from validating Orr's dual memories and to re-establish his dominance over the therapeutic environment.

Haber thought he was laughing, and drew back a little apprehensively; then he realized that it was tears that gave Orr's eyes that queer shine.

• George Orr questions whether other dreamers are unknowingly reshaping reality, suggesting that most people are lucky to remain ignorant of these shifts.
• Dr. Haber dismisses Orr's concerns as a complex 'delusion pattern' to the legal observer, Miss Lelache, while secretly managing his own exhaustion.
• Haber experiences a moment of linguistic dissociation, feeling as though his professional explanations have become a deluge of meaningless speech.
• After erasing the session's recording, Haber discovers that reality has indeed shifted: his bottle of medicinal alcohol has been replaced by rare, high-quality bourbon.
• The world's population has been drastically reduced from seven billion to one hundred thousand, a change Haber toasts as his own 'creation.'
• The text concludes with a philosophical reflection on the cyclical nature of birth, death, and the insatiable desires that drive the creation of worlds.

"To a better world!" Dr. Haber said, raising his glass to his creation, and finished his whisky in a lingering, savoring swallow.

• George Orr returns to a spacious apartment in an old frame house that exists in place of a cramped condominium tower from a previous reality.
• Orr experiences a profound internal crisis, feeling terrified and bewildered by his lack of agency and the loss of his natural 'sureness of foot.'
• He recognizes that Dr. Haber is using him as a tool but feels too weak and devoid of character to resist or take control of his own destiny.
• Orr's only sense of purpose is tied to Haber's claim that his unique dream configuration is an invaluable contribution to human knowledge.
• Despite his desire to escape, Orr feels trapped by Haber's scientific authority and the hope that his 'terrible gift' might eventually be used for good.

I haven't any strength, I haven't any character, I'm a born tool. I haven't any destiny. All I have is dreams. And now other people run them.

• Orr grapples with the moral weight of six billion nonexistent people erased by his previous dream.
• Haber uses legal threats and drug prescriptions to coerce Orr into continuing the experimental therapy.
• Orr fears that dreaming without Haber's hypnotic restraint will result in an uncontrollable nightmare.
• Orr realizes that the potential for absolute power is corrupting Haber's scientific integrity.
• Heather Lelache contacts Orr to reveal that Haber has been promoted to a high-level government directorship.

He was caught. Rat in a trap. Running a maze for the mad scientist, and no way out.

• Orr reflects on the manipulative nature of Dr. Haber, who uses Orr's effective dreaming to secure personal promotions and institutional power.
• The protagonist realizes that his dreams have fundamentally altered reality, such as changing his employment and erasing entire cities from existence.
• Orr experiences a profound sense of self-loathing, comparing himself to a 'vapid stupid goose' being exploited for golden eggs.
• Miss Lelache observes Orr's physical and mental exhaustion following a session involving a dream about a plague.
• Despite his desperation, Miss Lelache refuses to disclose Haber's hypnotic suggestions to Orr, citing professional ethics.
• The narrative highlights the disorientation of living in a shifting reality where memories of non-existent water projects clash with current facts.

The goose. Precisely. That describes me perfectly, Orr thought. A damned white vapid stupid goose.

• George Orr realizes that even strong people like his lawyer cannot bear the burden of his reality-altering truth.
• He retreats into a state of sensory deprivation on his bare floor, seeking a place beyond the reach of dreams.
• Dr. Haber uses phenothiazines to suppress the intensity of Orr's dreams, though he warns that only death truly stops them.
• Orr experiences a profound cognitive dissonance between his current reality of abundance and his memory of a starving world.
• The protagonist's physical body has changed to reflect the new timeline, yet he retains the psychological hunger of his previous life.
• Social structures like marriage and population laws have shifted significantly across the different versions of his history.

Nothing will keep a man from dreaming, he had said, but death.

• George Orr experiences a shift in reality where a global plague has reduced the human population by six billion, leaving the world quieter but still broken.
• Despite the massive loss of life, human nature remains unchanged, with global superpowers engaging in brutal, technologically advanced warfare in the Near East.
• The environment remains profoundly polluted, a legacy of the pre-Crash era that continues to claim the lives of one in four infants.
• Orr attempts to rationalize his power as a 'bad dream' but remains acutely aware that his effective dreaming is the engine behind these shifting timelines.
• George confronts Dr. Haber, pleading with him to stop using his dreams to 'improve' the world, arguing that the utilitarian tampering is fundamentally wrong.

The Crash, the carcinomic plague which had reduced human population by five billion in five years, and another billion in the next ten, had shaken the civilizations of the world to their roots and yet left them, in the end, intact.

• Orr perceives Haber as a man composed of infinite layers of personality with no core or moral center.
• Haber defends his manipulation of reality as fulfilling man's fundamental purpose to improve and control the world.
• Orr argues for a passive, interconnected existence, comparing humanity to grass-blades rather than functional machine parts.
• Haber dismisses Orr’s philosophy as 'natural Buddhist' mysticism with a tone of intellectual contempt.
• Despite his moral objections, Orr submits to drug-induced hypnosis, feeling he has no choice but to let Haber use his dreams.
• The narrative shifts into a dream state where Orr walks a dark country road as a celestial body begins to grow unnaturally bright.

But the big man was like an onion, slip off layer after layer of personality, belief, response, infinite layers, no end to them, no center to him.

• George Orr experiences a violent, psychedelic dream of a space battle involving a bursting star and cosmic streaks of death.
• Dr. Haber reveals he has been secretly recording their sessions, claiming it is standard psychiatric practice.
• The recorded hypnotic suggestion was for a world at peace with no mass killings, genocides, or nuclear stockpiles.
• Orr argues that his dream of an extraterrestrial battle technically fulfilled the instruction for 'no more killing of humans by other humans.'
• The transition between realities is highlighted by the linguistic dissonance of 'Isragypt,' a word that no longer fits the current timeline.
• Haber's frustration grows as Orr's subconscious finds loopholes in his increasingly specific and grandiose hypnotic commands.

The ground swung up and down, great trembling wrinkles passing through the skin of Earth.

• Dr. Haber explains that the threat of an alien invasion was the catalyst that forced humanity to end internal warfare and unite for survival.
• Orr argues that his subconscious is incapable of imagining a truly warless world, merely substituting human conflict for an extraterrestrial one.
• The dialogue highlights the disconnect between Haber's rational, humanitarian goals and the irrational, chaotic nature of the dreaming mind.
• Orr expresses deep fear and guilt over the 'monsters' his unconscious may have manifested on the Moon in the name of global peace.
• Haber dismisses Orr's anxiety by pointing to the efficiency of the international missile defense systems established over the last six years.

You're trying to reach progressive, humanitarian goals with a tool that isn't suited to the job. Who has humanitarian dreams?

• Orr suspects Haber of psychological compartmentalization, lying to himself to justify manipulating reality through Orr's dreams.
• Orr warns that his deteriorating mental state could unleash a world of monsters and childhood horrors if he is forced to dream again.
• Haber dismisses Orr's fears as Victorian superstition, arguing that the unconscious is a source of creativity rather than depravity.
• The conflict highlights a fundamental disagreement: Haber believes evil is a social construct, while Orr believes it is inherent in the mind.
• The narrative shifts to a philosophical reflection on sleep as a frontier where the 'Possible' and the 'improbable' merge into a vast, dark universe.

He had grown up in a country run by politicians who sent the pilots to man the bombers to kill the babies to make the world safe for children to grow up in.

• Heather Lelache experiences a disorienting break in her perception of reality while walking through Portland.
• She finds herself drawn to a condemned parking structure that she momentarily believes is her place of employment.
• The protagonist struggles with conflicting memories of her office location, oscillating between a neo-Inca high-rise and a derelict building.
• Heather attempts to track down George Orr after he fails to show up for their scheduled lunch date.
• She expresses hesitation about contacting Dr. Haber, fearing the consequences of her own professional deceptions.
• George Orr remains missing and unreachable at both his home and place of work for several days.

As she stood down on the sidewalk staring up at the disused building with its queer, slightly skewed floors and narrow window slits, she felt very strange indeed.

• Heather Lelache visits George Orr's dilapidated apartment in a once-magnificent house that has fallen into 'dirty magnificence.'
• She encounters the building manager, an aging hippie who remains a relic of the 1960s and 1970s counterculture.
• Finding Orr's apartment empty but for a glass of water and white heather, Heather begins to track his location through government contacts.
• Heather reflects on her own 'squamous' personality and her dissatisfaction with her career as a civil rights lawyer.
• The narrative reveals a grim history of the 'Plague Years' in the 1980s, which decimated the suburbs and left them as ghost towns of the dead.
• Heather sets out toward the coast in a rented steamer, embracing her role as a predator pursuing her prey.

Old hippies never die.

• The landscape is a mixture of urban decay and reclaiming nature, where looted suburbs have burned away to make room for fireweed and honeybees.
• The moon has been transformed from a symbol of human achievement into a symbol of loss and hostility following a brutal alien attack on lunar and orbital bases.
• Humanity’s post-plague recovery was abruptly halted by an encounter with a 'speechless, reasonless brutality' from the stars.
• Heather travels through the remnants of civilization and preserved virgin forests to reach a remote cabin settlement in the Siuslaw National Forest.
• Upon arrival, she finds George Orr in a state of extreme physical and mental degradation, leaving her fearful for her safety.

It symbolized neither the Unattainable, as it had for thousands of years, nor the Attained, as it had for a few decades, but the Lost.

• Heather tracks down Orr to a remote cabin after he misses their lunch date and his therapy sessions.
• Orr is in a state of extreme sleep deprivation, having avoided sleep since the previous weekend out of fear.
• Despite his disheveled and psychotic appearance, Heather perceives in Orr a profound, unmovable integrity and strength.
• Heather reflects on her own life, realizing she has always been the one others lean on and is drawn to Orr's centered nature.
• The two share coffee and brandy in the cabin as Heather attempts to care for him in his fragile state.

He was the strongest person she had ever known, because he could not be moved away from the center.

• Orr describes his desperate attempt to avoid sleep and dreaming by remaining upright, leading to exhaustion and hallucinations.
• The protagonist contemplates suicide as the only logical escape from his reality-altering power and Dr. Haber's influence.
• The woman reveals she is experiencing the 'two tracks' of reality, suffering physical injuries from navigating a world that has shifted around her.
• The conversation highlights the psychological toll of conflicting memories and the inability to distinguish between what is real and what has been changed.
• A discussion about the Near East war reveals discrepancies in personal history and global events caused by Orr's previous dreams.
• The woman attempts to ground Orr by insisting that certain tragedies, like her husband's death, are part of a long human history rather than his personal fault.

I sure have been trying to run on two tracks with one set of wheels ever since. I walked right into a wall Sunday in my own apartment!

• George Orr explains that his 'effective' dreams are a natural ability he possessed before meeting Dr. Haber, though Haber now manipulates them.
• Orr reveals he inadvertently created an alien threat as a subconscious response to Haber's demand for world peace, providing humanity with a common enemy.
• Heather Lelache observes Orr's lack of bitterness or resentment despite Haber's dehumanizing treatment of him as a 'trained' subject.
• The narrative reflects on the existence of rare individuals who resist evil without being corrupted by it, existing across all cultures and eras.
• Orr criticizes Haber's dangerous idealism, noting that the doctor is blinded by his own ideas of how the world 'ought to be' rather than seeing reality.
• Heather concludes that legal intervention is nearly impossible because Haber is a powerful figure and Orr's claims sound like the delusions of a madman.

He's not interested in what's true, in what is, he can't see anything except his mind—his ideas of what ought to be.

• Heather proposes using hypnosis to influence Orr's dreams, aiming to make Dr. Haber less power-hungry and more benevolent.
• Orr expresses his fundamental passivity, noting that he does not 'do' anything; he simply dreams and reality follows.
• The conversation reveals that Orr has become hypnosis-resistant under Haber's care, possibly as a psychological defense against the doctor's control.
• Heather experiences a sense of vertigo and urgency after witnessing the literal erasure of her birthplace due to one of Orr's previous dreams.
• The two share a meager meal as they prepare to attempt a rogue hypnotic session to neutralize the threat Haber poses to the world.

I don't do anything. I never have done anything. I just dream. And then it is.

• The woman recounts her complex heritage as the daughter of a militant Black Power activist and a hippie dropout from a wealthy family.
• She reflects on the irony of her surname, Lelache, which means 'The Coward' in French, and her father's eventual abandonment of the family for Africa.
• Her mother's life was marked by communal living and a struggle with drug addiction that ultimately led to her death from a dirty needle.
• Despite her radical upbringing, she was eventually raised by her wealthy white grandparents and became a lawyer, feeling like a 'token' in their world.
• The woman expresses a deep-seated identity crisis, feeling caught between her father's racial hatred and her mother's fetishization of blackness.
• The man responds to her existential struggle with a gentle perspective on her skin color before revealing his own fractured memories of surviving the Plague.

I mean, my father really hated my mother because she was white. But he also loved her. But I think she loved his being black much more than she loved him.

• The characters compare their current reality to a previous timeline characterized by extreme overcrowding, poverty, and malnutrition.
• Orr reveals that his 'effective' dreams may be a desperate mechanism for survival or evolution in a failing world.
• Orr recounts a suppressed history where the world effectively ended in April 1998 due to total societal collapse.
• The previous timeline involved a global failure of food distribution, the rise of a police state, and widespread starvation.
• Orr describes a nuclear conflict in the Middle East that escalated into a global catastrophe.
• The narrative suggests that Orr's current reality is a reconstruction born from a moment of his own death and delirium.

I sat there and I couldn't get up again and I knew I couldn't. I kept thinking that I was standing up and going on, getting out of the city, but it was just delirium, I'd come to and see the dandelions again and know I was dying.

• George Orr experiences a profound existential crisis, claiming that the current world is an improbable dream and that humanity has already destroyed the true reality.
• Heather Lelache attempts to comfort Orr by arguing that everything that happens is part of a necessary, unified order, regardless of whether it is called 'real' or a 'dream.'
• Orr is so physically and mentally exhausted that he repeatedly falls into a deep, trance-like sleep while Heather tries to keep him conscious.
• Heather decides to use hypnosis on Orr to prevent his 'effective' dreams from altering reality, hoping to limit him to ordinary dreaming.
• As Orr enters a hypnotic state, Heather is suddenly struck by the terrifying weight of her responsibility and the incalculable power she is attempting to control.
• The narrative explores the philosophical tension between the desire to control fate and the belief that one is merely a part of a larger, preordained whole.

This world isn't even probable. It was the truth. It was what happened. We are all dead, and we spoiled the world before we died.

• Heather Lelache attempts to use George Orr's reality-altering power to neutralize the threat of Dr. Haber and the lunar aliens.
• The act of directing Orr's dreams forces Heather into a god-like role she finds both uncomfortable and dangerous.
• Orr's physical vulnerability is highlighted as he collapses into a deep, inert sleep immediately upon command.
• The geopolitical landscape has shifted toward a forced 'Human Brotherhood' under President Merdle, allowing for the return of foreign cultural goods.
• Heather finds solace and a grim reflection of her situation in a Russian novel about the inevitability of death during the Plague Years.
• Orr's serenity in sleep contrasts sharply with Heather's anxiety and the heavy responsibility of shaping the world's future.

He went like a half-stuffed pillow, softly, forward and sideways, till he was a large, warm, inert heap on the floor.

• A woman experiences a restless night in a cabin, haunted by the strange, child-like singing of a creek and the discomfort of sleeping on a cold floor.
• The morning brings a terrifying shift as the landscape trembles and distant sirens signal a global catastrophe.
• George reveals that the Aliens have landed, a direct result of the woman's previous instruction for him to dream them off the Moon.
• Oregon becomes the primary site of the interstellar invasion, ironically mirroring its status as the only mainland state attacked in WWII.
• The state's lack of military infrastructure leaves it defenseless, while neighboring states' defense systems inadvertently cause local destruction.
• Advanced Alien technology hijacks the guidance systems of American missiles, turning the nation's own weapons back upon Oregon.

The hills muttered and dreamed of falling in the sea, and over the hills, faint and horrible, the sirens of distant towns howled, howled, howled.

• A nuclear strike on Mount Hood triggers a violent volcanic eruption, showering Portland in ash and lava.
• The city suffers from 'friendly fire' as allied nations' aircraft mistakenly shoot each other down and bomb civilian areas.
• Military forces methodically pulverize eleven square miles of the city's outskirts to destroy an alien ship that had already departed.
• Downtown Portland is covered in layers of broken glass, forcing refugees to walk through shards in thin shoes.
• Dr. William Haber remains isolated in his office, observing the destruction while reflecting on his preference for solitude over the terrifying reality of the crowds.
• The breakdown of infrastructure and the onset of the 'Alien Invasion' on April Fools' Day creates a landscape of total hysteria and dilapidation.

Very faintly he could hear elephants screaming, over in the zoo.

• Dr. Haber experiences a profound existential crisis while isolated in the Institute, realizing that his prized independence feels like a terrifying apathy in total solitude.
• The physical environment of Portland is under active assault, with mysterious 'big ships' landing and mobile units scattering across the state.
• George Orr and Heather Lelache arrive at the Institute in a battered state after surviving a bombing and trekking through the park on foot.
• Despite the chaos and Orr's injuries, Haber immediately attempts to reassert his medical and professional authority over the situation.
• The military's inability to provide clear information or successfully combat the slow-moving invaders creates a backdrop of mounting dread.

He needed somebody, anybody, to talk to, he had to tell them what he felt so that he knew if he felt anything.

• Orr describes witnessing a non-earthly, hopping silver craft near North Plains, confirming the alien presence.
• Haber forcibly administers sodium pentothal to Orr, intending to use his dreaming power to end the global chaos.
• Haber reveals he has mapped Orr's brain emissions, discovering a complex 97-second cycle he compares to a Beethoven fugue.
• The plan involves using the Augmentor to amplify Orr's dreams to shift the entire world into a different continuum.
• Haber blames Orr's 'irresponsibility' and missed appointment for the uncontrolled dream that caused the invasion and civilian deaths.
• The session is interrupted by a massive explosion that shakes the building, leaving the source of the destruction ambiguous.

It is incredibly complex, yet it's consistent and it recurs. Therefore I can feed it to you straight, and amplified.

• Dr. Haber observes Orr’s abnormal calmness during a global catastrophe, questioning if Orr perceives the destruction as merely a dream.
• The physical environment of the office disintegrates as windows shatter and the air fills with the smell of ozone, sulfur, and death.
• Despite the immediate danger of the erupting Mount Hood and a burning world, Haber refuses to leave the Augmentor machine.
• Haber dismisses the presence of the lawyer, Miss Lelache, prioritizing the use of Orr’s dreaming power to alter the current reality.
• The scene concludes with Haber forcing Orr into a hypnotic state while the building itself begins to leap from the force of the disaster.

The eruption of Mount Hood was quite hidden by events closer at hand; the earth, however, had been trembling gently for the past few minutes, a sort of fundamental palsy that made one's hands and mind shake sympathetically.

• Amidst a burning city and an apparent invasion, Haber attempts to use Orr's dreaming power to force a state of global peace.
• A metallic, ovoid alien craft breaches Haber's office, revealing a creature that resembles a giant, armored sea turtle.
• The alien communicates through a toneless translator in its elbow, reciting the Golden Rule and pleading for an end to human self-destruction.
• The visitor clarifies that its species is nonaggressive and lacks weapons, despite the terrifying nature of their arrival.
• The alien expresses intense interest in Orr's brain activity, identifying him as 'iahklu' and questioning if all humans possess this trait.
• The encounter highlights a profound linguistic and conceptual gap between the humans' defensive fear and the aliens' hasty attempts at diplomacy.

A flat, toneless voice came out of the elbow joint. 'Do not do to others what you wish others not to do to you,' it said.

• An Alien ship departs Haber's office after a surreal encounter that appears to reverse time as it exits.
• Despite the chaos and potential radiation from explosions, George Orr remains in a state of preternatural calm.
• Haber expresses frustration that Orr's dream did not shift them into a peaceful continuum, viewing the Alien encounter as a failure of hypnotic suggestion.
• Orr asserts that 'an effective dream is a reality,' suggesting that his dreams do not just change the world but constitute it.
• Orr urges Haber to use his influence to contact Washington and explain that the Alien 'invasion' is actually a linguistic misunderstanding.
• The military's aggressive response is identified as the primary threat to human life, as the Aliens are unarmed and indestructible.

Of course it happened. An effective dream is a reality, Dr. Haber.

• Haber experiences a surge of confidence as he realizes he can use Orr's reality-altering gift to manipulate global politics.
• A deep resentment grows in Haber toward Orr, whom he views as a passive and unworthy vessel for such immense power.
• Orr clarifies that he does not choose the outcomes of his dreams but merely follows a path he cannot control.
• Haber bypasses Orr to contact the Minister of HEW, believing he can personally lead the country out of the current crisis.
• Orr struggles with the psychological burden of multiple, conflicting timelines and memories jostling in his mind.

Why had this gift been given to a fool, a passive nothing of a man?

• George Orr finds himself living in a state of childlike immediacy, where the world is both surprising and mundane.
• Haber's manipulation of Orr's dreams has fundamentally altered the social and political structure of the world, elevating Orr to a bureaucratic role he dislikes.
• The essential continuity of Orr's previous lives—such as his profession and the global climate—is beginning to fracture under Haber's increasing control.
• Portland has been transformed into the 'Capital of the Planet,' serving as the headquarters for a supranational Federation of Peoples.
• Despite radical shifts in global power and urban architecture, certain elements like the President of the United States remain strangely immutable.

He was living almost like a young child, among actualities only. He was surprised by nothing, and by everything.

• George Orr navigates a futuristic Portland where familiar landmarks and streets have been replaced by the Research and Development Coordination Building.
• Orr searches in vain for Heather Lelache, realizing that in this new reality, she may have a different name or might never have been born at all.
• The world has achieved a state of total racial uniformity where every human being is now the same shade of gray.
• Dr. Haber celebrates this biological 'short cut' as the ultimate solution to the history of racial conflict and social outcasting.
• Orr and Haber remain the only two individuals on Earth who possess the memory of a world with diverse skin colors and racial history.

But they all wore the same clothes, trousers, tunic, raincape; and underneath the clothes they were all the same color. They were gray.

• Dr. Haber celebrates the retroactive elimination of war and racial suffering through George Orr's reality-altering dreams.
• The historical record has been wiped clean of figures like Martin Luther King and events like the Gettysburg Address.
• In this new reality, humanity has been homogenized into a single skin color described as the color of a battleship.
• Orr realizes that his wife, Heather, has ceased to exist because her specific racial identity was essential to her being.
• Orr experiences a profound sense of self-loathing, viewing himself as a characterless 'lump of clay' compared to the erased complexity of others.
• Dr. Haber's ego grows as he views himself as a greater benefactor to humanity than religious figures like Jesus or Buddha.

That every soul on earth should have a body the color of a battleship: no!

• Haber has transitioned from subtle manipulation to overt coercion as his social and political status has risen.
• The legal system, now under the guise of Personal Welfare Control, effectively prevents any challenge to Haber's authority.
• Haber's character is described as an onion with infinite layers, suggesting a lack of a core, authentic self.
• The narrative posits that the will to power is defined by perpetual growth rather than final achievement.
• The current reality has shifted so that the Alien arrival was a peaceful diplomatic event rather than a violent conflict.

Layer after layer might peel off the onion and yet nothing be revealed but more onion.

• The destruction of the Moondome and a Russian station is revealed to be a tragic misunderstanding during first contact.
• Aliens from a methane planet near Aldebaran have peacefully integrated into human society after fourteen months of diplomacy.
• The visitors wear permanent turtle-like suits and communicate through speech emitted from their left elbows.
• Despite vast sensory and biological differences, the aliens have shared advanced space flight technology with Earth.
• The aliens have become industrious citizens, though their ultimate motivation for staying on Earth remains mysterious.
• Public fear has largely subsided, leaving xenophobic rumors to the fringes of paranoid politics.

Indeed, their communication with human beings, limited to speech emission from the left elbow and some kind of auditory receiver, was limited; he was not even sure that they could see, that they had any sense organ for the visible spectrum.

• Mount Hood has returned to active-volcano status, burying nearby towns and causing residents to flee to new suburbs.
• Orr experiences a profound sense of 'dream-grief' for a woman who no longer exists in this current reality.
• Public entertainment has shifted toward extreme violence, with 'hand-to-hands' and mass-casualty football matches serving as cathartic releases.
• The state-controlled media is limited, forcing a culture of 'togetherness' centered around watching live carnage in coliseums.
• Social control is enforced through 'Citizen's Arrests,' where individuals are apprehended by peers for health violations like terminal illness.

The skill of the single fighters was fine, but lacked the splendid abreactive release of mass killing.

• In this reality, adult citizens are legally required to carry euthanasia weapons to maintain social order and racial purity.
• George Orr remains a psychiatric patient under the PWC, retaining his unloaded weapon as a gesture to preserve his social status during treatment.
• The HURAD Tower, built on the ruins of the old world, serves as a massive monument to the philosophy of 'The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number.'
• Global threats like nuclear weapons have been eliminated, yet the resurgence of cancer suggests that even this engineered utopia is unstable.
• Dr. Haber has ascended from a private practitioner to a powerful director who manages millions from a palatial, high-tech office suite.
• Haber prepares to transition Orr's treatment away from hypnosis, signaling a new phase of experimentation with the 'Augmentor' machine.

Over the pillared portico, incised in white concrete in the straight Roman capitals whose proportions lend nobility to any phrase whatsoever, was the legend: THE GREATEST GOOD FOR THE GREATEST NUMBER.

• Dr. Haber reveals that Orr's psychological tests show him to be an extreme anomaly of total balance.
• Orr scores almost exactly at the median on every scale, including dominance, independence, and creativity.
• While Haber views this as a form of self-cancellation, his colleague Walters interprets it as a state of holistic self-harmony.
• Haber plans to shift their sessions to a waking state to map Orr's unique brain rhythms using the Augmentor.
• The doctor's ultimate goal is to isolate the 'tracer-shell effect' in Orr's hippocampus to understand how his dreams function.
• Orr remains skeptical and fearful, reiterating that his only goal is to stop his dreams from changing reality.

Well, you're a queer fish, George, and the queerest thing about you is that there's nothing queer about you!

• Dr. Haber challenges Orr's fear of 'changing things,' arguing that life is an inherently dynamic process of evolution and entropy-defying energy.
• Orr expresses a fundamental philosophical disagreement, positing that stillness and 'letting things be' are as essential to existence as change.
• Haber views his experiments with Orr's power as a 'great experiment' to control a new life-force for the benefit of mankind.
• Orr warns that attempting to stand outside the world and manipulate it is a violation of life's natural order.
• The dialogue culminates in a moral hypothetical about saving a life, highlighting the divide between Haber's utilitarian activism and Orr's cautious uncertainty regarding good and evil.

We're in the world, not against it. It doesn't work to try to stand outside things and run them, that way.

• Haber defends the brutal eugenics and 'controlled violence' of the current reality as a necessary sacrifice for a healthy, tough-minded society.
• Orr remains deeply unsettled by the world Haber has created, specifically the public arrests for euthanasia and the lack of compassion for the 'incurable.'
• While connected to the Augmentor, Orr experiences a surreal encounter with a nine-foot-tall, turtle-like alien on a crowded mall.
• The alien warns Orr that his ability to alter reality is causing 'disturbances' and 'mist' in the perception of other beings.
• The alien offers Orr a cryptic phrase, 'Er' perrehnne,' as a means to summon auxiliary help before he follows further 'wrong directions.'
• Haber is startled by the immediate and unexpected shift in reality or Orr's state, demanding to know what Orr has done.

It was grotesque to the point of being funny; like a sea turtle, and yet like a sea turtle it possessed a strange, large beauty, a serener beauty than that of any dweller, in sunlight, any walker on the earth.

• Dr. Haber observes an unprecedented 150mv spike in Orr's brain activity while testing the Augmentor.
• Orr experiences a profound sense of threat and reluctance when asked to reconstruct his thoughts about the Aliens.
• Haber dismisses the unusual readings as an exaggerated emotional response to a memory of euthanasia.
• As the Augmentor restarts, Orr unexpectedly recovers a lost sense of well-being and universal belonging.
• Orr realizes he has been 'off course' for four years due to drugs, dreams, and Haber's constant interference.
• Haber remains oblivious to Orr's internal peace, focusing entirely on the technical data provided by his machines.

Orr set his teeth and faced Chaos and Old Night.

• Orr attempts to assert his autonomy by refusing to allow Haber to use his effective dreams any longer.
• Haber reveals he is close to perfecting a method to replicate and induce 'e-state' rhythms in other subjects.
• The doctor views his research as the most important scientific endeavor in history, justifying any means to complete it.
• Haber threatens Orr with legal coercion and chemical restraint, framing Orr's refusal as a sign of psychosis.
• Despite the threats, Orr maintains a newfound serenity and mildness that surprises and momentarily recoils the doctor.

He seemed to recoil, as a man might who thought to push aside a gauze curtain and found it to be a granite door.

• Haber defends his manipulation of Orr's dreams by listing global achievements like the elimination of war, cancer, and overpopulation.
• Orr argues that these 'improvements' have resulted in a joyless, uniform society where individual choice and democratic government have vanished.
• Haber blames Orr’s subconscious for the 'shoddy' implementation of his utopian ideals, calling Orr's mind devious and negative.
• The conflict highlights a fundamental divide between Haber's utilitarian 'progress' and Orr's concern for the organic quality of human life.
• Haber reveals his total lack of empathy by dismissing the death of Heather Lelache as a positive development for Orr's productivity.

You have no social conscience, no altruism. You're a moral jellyfish.

• Orr attempts to convince Haber that his power is a dangerous gift that should only be used as a last resort when no alternatives exist.
• Haber dismisses Orr's concerns as personal fears, viewing the ability to dream effectively as a scientific milestone comparable to the invention of printing.
• Haber reveals his plan to make the 'effective dream' state replicable through technology, removing the need for Orr as a single, 'sterile' source.
• The doctor intends to use the Augmentor on himself to achieve complete autohypnotic control over reality, guided by his own conscious planning.
• Haber promises to 'cure' Orr by dreaming away his ability to dream effectively once the technology is perfected.
• The section concludes with Haber's ecstatic, almost terrifying vision of a world where men become like gods through his total control.

The lips within the curly beard parted in a straining, staring smile, a grin of ecstasy that made Orr turn away as if he had seen something never meant to be seen, both terrifying and pathetic.

• Haber expresses a megalomaniacal confidence in his scientific and moral control over Orr's effective dreaming abilities.
• Orr experiences a profound sense of dissociation, viewing his professional life and memories as unreal and hollow.
• The protagonist recognizes that denying current reality risks a loss of free will and invites psychological instability.
• Orr decides to stop resisting his dreams and drugs, choosing to face whatever 'monsters' his subconscious produces.
• The setting reveals a world rebuilt after 'Plague Years,' dominated by global rationing and massive corporate monopolies.
• The presence of a 'JUNQUE' shop filled with cultural litter highlights the remnants of a discarded, more tangible past.

He knew that in so far as one denies what is, one is possessed by what is not, the compulsions, the fantasies, the terrors that flock to fill the void.

• George Orr enters a dark, cavernous antique shop filled with the discarded flotsam of 20th-century American culture.
• The shop is run by an Alien proprietor, Tiua'k Ennbe Ennbe, who moves with a slow, reptilian grace within a green carapace.
• Orr attempts to understand the concept of 'iahklu', but the Alien explains that the term is incommunicable in languages meant for individual-to-individual communication.
• The Alien offers a philosophical perspective on Orr's lost love, Heather Lelache, describing their separation as 'crossings in mist.'
• Seeking advice on how to control reality, Orr is met with cryptic proverbs and a symbolic gift from the Alien: a Beatles record.

From the receding prospect of shadows, bulky furniture, decrepit acres of Action Paintings and fake-antique spinning wheels now becoming genuinely antique though still useless, from these tenebrous reaches of no-man's-things, a huge form emerged, seeming to float forward slowly, silent and reptilian: The proprietor was an Alien.

• Orr reflects on his profound connection to the Aliens, realizing they exist because he dreamed them into being.
• He concludes that he is fundamentally interconnected with the world he has shaped, rather than separate from it.
• Orr identifies Haber as a negative force who lacks a true connection to reality, viewing the world only as a means to an end.
• He critiques Haber's messianic drive, arguing that good motives are insufficient if one lacks the ability to 'let be' or 'let go.'
• Seeking peace and guidance, Orr retreats to a basement to share tea with his landlord before listening to a gift from the Aliens.
• The act of playing a Beatles record becomes a meditative plea for the help and love he needs to endure his situation.

He can't accept, he can't let be, he can't let go. He is insane.

• Heather and George wake up in a daze after falling asleep on the floor to a repeating record.
• The atmosphere is colored by the lingering effects of marijuana and a sense of temporal disorientation.
• Heather navigates the mundane realities of a rationed society, preparing a meager meal of pig liver and cabbage.
• The relationship between the two is characterized by George's easygoing nature and Heather's pragmatic care.
• The scene shifts abruptly from a drug-induced stupor to the domestic duties of a harsh, rationed world.

George lay flat as a skinned cat on the floor, right by the phonograph, which was slowly eating its way through "With a Little Help" right down to the turntable.

• George and Heather share a moment of profound emotional connection, briefly recalling a past reality where they lived in a cabin by a creek.
• Heather expresses deep concern for George's well-being, urging him to break ties with Haber despite the legal risks of a Constraint injunction.
• George maintains a sense of resilience, claiming he cannot be destroyed as long as he has support, though his laughter borders on a sob.
• The narrative reflects on the nature of love, describing it not as a static object but as something that must be actively 'made' and renewed like bread.
• Heather experiences a shift in her own personality, feeling uncharacteristically bold and violent in her protective instincts toward George.
• The couple navigates a world of government-controlled media and rationed 'stamps' while trying to maintain a sense of normalcy and romance.

Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; re-made all the time, made new.

• George and Heather arrive at the massive HURAD headquarters, which George describes as the true seat of global power.
• Despite his previous distress, George appears to have regained his equanimity, a shift Heather attributes to a shared moment of music and sleep.
• Dr. Haber welcomes them with an intense, exultant energy, revealing that this will be George's final session.
• George expresses skepticism about Haber’s motives, comparing the doctor's drive for power to that of Alexander the Great.
• Heather is intimidated by Haber’s larger-than-life presence and his habit of using George's name as if to remind himself of George's humanity.
• The session begins with Haber preparing a final 'controlled dream' to supposedly solve George's unique psychological problem.

In fact it was, the endless warm drizzle of spring—the ice of Antarctica, falling softly on the heads of the children of those responsible for melting it.

• George Orr submits to a final hypnotic session under Dr. Haber to supposedly cure his 'effective' dreaming.
• Heather watches with growing unease as Haber attaches electrodes, comparing the process to a machine draining thoughts into the scribbles of the mad.
• Haber delivers a powerful hypnotic command designed to strip George of his reality-altering abilities by making him dream he is normal.
• The doctor characterizes the procedure as the culmination of weeks of conditioning aimed at breaking George's dependency on drugs.
• Heather perceives Haber as a 'bear-shaman-god,' feeling a sense of vulnerability and fear as she witnesses the experiment.
• The scene highlights the power dynamic between the massive, confident Haber and the slight, passive George.

As if the electrode things were little suction cups that would drain the thoughts out of George's head and turn them into scribbles on a piece of paper, the meaningless writing of the mad.

• Dr. Haber treats George Orr as a unique research subject for his Human Utility: Research and Development (HURAD) project.
• Haber displays an obsessive, self-congratulatory attitude toward his work, viewing George's case as a breakthrough in 'human utility.'
• Under the influence of the Augmentor, George is instructed to dream a specific reality into existence: a mural of Mount Hood on the office wall.
• The experiment reveals a shift in power dynamics as George unexpectedly overrides the machine's stimulation and wakes up on his own.
• Heather observes the scene with a sense of dread, noting George's death-like stillness and Haber's growing detachment from human empathy.

The calm face did not change, but the head nodded once. Like the head of a puppet on a string.

• George describes a dream of normalcy and average stature, signaling to Haber that George's volatile power has been stabilized or transferred.
• Haber celebrates the successful shift of the 'big load' from George to himself, exhibiting a state of extreme, almost manic excitement.
• George warns Haber to consult with the Aldebaranian aliens before proceeding with the new dream-manipulation techniques.
• The aliens are described by Haber as potentially irrational mimics, while George views them as ancient beings who exist within the 'dream time.'
• George explains a philosophy where dreaming is the 'play of form' and warns that conscious minds must learn the limits of this power to avoid destroying the world.
• Haber dismisses George's profound warnings as 'prescientific synthesis' and mysticism, asserting the superiority of his own rational approach.

Everything dreams. The play of form, of being, is the dreaming of substance. Rocks have their dreams, and the earth changes.

• George attempts to warn Haber about the dangers of the Augmentor, suggesting a specific phrase to invoke external help.
• Haber dismisses George's genuine concern as a potential research lead, patronizing him as a 'natural' for the psychiatric field.
• Heather experiences intense visceral hatred for Haber, perceiving him as a false and dangerous fraud.
• George believes he is finally free from the mandatory sessions and drugs, though he remains cautious about his clearance.
• A moment of cognitive dissonance occurs when Heather forgets that Chinatown was demolished years ago, signaling a shift in reality.
• The couple navigates a decaying urban landscape where nature is slowly reclaiming the ruins of once-grand shopping centers.

No water ran in the bizarre, romantic fountains of twisted metal.

• Heather experiences a sudden psychological shift from serenity to profound despair while walking through derelict arcades.
• A hot, unnatural wind and a sense of meaninglessness signal a breakdown in the fabric of the environment.
• George realizes that Haber has begun dreaming, prompting a desperate and fearful return to the research center.
• The physical world begins to dissolve, evidenced by the Willamette River running dry and revealing a bed of filth and decay.
• The massive government buildings of Portland, the 'Capital of the World,' are literally melting like gelatin in the sun.
• The characters find themselves trapped on a speeding funicular as the structural integrity of their reality collapses around them.

The buildings of downtown Portland, the Capital of the World, the high, new, handsome cubes of stone and glass interspersed with measured doses of green, the fortresses of Government—Research and Development, Communications, Industry, Economic Planning, Environmental Control—were melting.

• As Mount Hood erupts in a 'terrible and gorgeous' display, George and Heather witness the city dissolving into a formless abyss.
• Heather experiences a terrifying 'presence of absence,' a void that consumes all things and leaves her falling through a desolate, dry abyss.
• George uses the sheer power of his will to navigate a hallucinatory landscape of mist, corpses, and shifting letters to reach the HURAD Tower.
• Upon reaching the top floor, George faces a literal nothingness that threatens to pull him apart and erase his existence.
• Drawing strength from memories of his wife and the alien Tiua'k Ennbe Ennbe, George enters the heart of the nightmare to reach the Augmentor.
• By manually deactivating the machine, George ends the ontological collapse and restores a damaged but stable reality.

The car swung wild in the abyss, between the unforming city and the formless sky.

• Orr disconnects Haber from the Augmentor, finding the doctor's mind has been reduced to an empty, slack void.
• The continuity between Orr's dream-worlds has shattered, leaving him in a chaotic reality where memories no longer align with the physical world.
• Orr realizes that the general population will face terror and death as they experience radical, irrational shifts in existence without understanding the cause.
• The woman Orr loved is lost to the dissolution of the previous timeline, leaving him in a state of profound grief and exhaustion.
• Portland has become a jumbled landscape of grandiose ruins and madness, yet people continue to perform mundane or desperate acts of survival.
• The eruption of Mount Hood has been retroactively erased from this timeline, leaving the mountain in a dormant, dreaming state.

The eyes looked straight forward into the dark, into the void, into the unbeing at the center of William Haber; they were no longer opaque, they were empty.

• Orr is guided through a chaotic city by an Alien named E'nememen Asfah to a modest apartment above a bicycle shop.
• The world seeks divine explanations for the temporal disruption that occurred earlier that evening.
• Orr reflects on the immense psychological cost of his single decisive action: pressing an 'OFF' button.
• The Alien offers a unique form of hospitality, existing in the room with a dream-like presence rather than a physical one.
• Orr experiences a profound sense of vulnerability and accepts the Alien's protective compassion as he succumbs to exhaustion.

It took the entire will power, the accumulated strength of my entire existence, to press one damned OFF button.

• Orr finds peace in his dreams, which no longer alter the fabric of reality but exist as harmless waves in the sea of being.
• Society begins to stabilize after the catastrophic events of 'The Break,' returning to a semblance of mundane normalcy.
• Dr. Haber is confined to a federal asylum, catatonic and isolated because his presence induces primal terror in other patients.
• Haber is trapped in a state of permanent mental collapse, staring into the void of a world he broke through his own misunderstanding.
• The narrative posits that while humans can endure the weight of reality, the burden of unreality is what leads to total madness.
• Orr experiences profound pity and fear for Haber, realizing there is no way to bridge the gap to the man's lost mind.

A man can endure the entire weight of the universe for eighty years. It is unreality that he cannot bear.

• Portland's infrastructure remains a patchwork of unfinished transit projects and improvised ferry services following the global shift.
• George Orr works for an Alien E'nememen Asfah at a kitchenware design firm called the Kitchen Sink.
• The post-Break economy is characterized by a state of laissez faire where small firms and Alien-run businesses thrive amidst government confusion.
• Society is attempting to return to normalcy, with politicians predicting economic stability and citizens refurnishing their lives.
• Orr encounters a woman named Heather who resembles his wife, but she only vaguely remembers him from a different timeline.

Industry and distribution had been left in disastrous confusion by The Break; national and international government had been so distraught for weeks that a state of laissez faire had prevailed perforce.

• George Orr and Heather Lelache reunite in a kitchenware shop after the world has been fundamentally reshaped.
• Orr now works as a designer of functional tools, finding solace in creating beautiful, tangible objects like teakettles and whisks.
• Heather recalls fragments of the previous reality, including Orr's effective dreams and his struggle with Voluntary Therapy.
• The current world is described as a 'mess' of mixed races and lingering gray-skinned people, a result of the various 'Breaks' in reality.
• Orr recognizes Heather as a fiercer, more difficult version of his lost wife, yet he accepts the challenge of winning her over again.
• The encounter concludes with Orr inviting Heather for coffee, signaling a new beginning in this latest version of existence.

But now his dry and silent grieving for his lost wife must end, for there she stood, the fierce, recalcitrant, and fragile stranger, forever to be won again.

• George Orr prepares to leave his workplace, signaling a transition from his professional duties to personal life.
• The Alien employer uses a cryptic, philosophical farewell, suggesting a cyclical nature of time and existence.
• A physical connection is shared between human and Alien through a handshake, highlighting a peaceful coexistence.
• Orr departs with Heather into a rainy summer afternoon, moving toward an uncertain but shared future.
• The Alien observes their departure from behind glass, maintaining a sense of detached, aquatic observation.

The Alien watched them from within the glass-fronted shop, as a sea creature might watch from an aquarium, seeing them pass and disappear into the mist.