Emails I've received about The New Sense from other people
To: sarasam78@hotmail.com
Subject: Lyrics
Sent: 12/30/02 03:55Sara,
I discoverred your blog last week and am greatly intrigued. Then quite by coincidence I was listening to the radio yesterday and heard this old song by Blondie called I’m Always Touched By Your Presence Dear. Here is part of the lyrics:
Was it destiny
I don't know yet
Was it just by chance? Could this be Kismet?
Something in my consciousness told me you'd appear
Now I'm always touched by your presence dear
When we play at cards you use an extra sense (it's really not cheating)
You can read my hand, I've got no defence
the last two lines are really freaky, when you think about B’s sense and the casino thing.Just thought you might like to know…
Dave
To: sarasam78@hotmail.com
Subject: The Old Sense?
Sent: 1/05/03 21:23Hi,
I came upon the site and have kept coming back to read it over the last couple of weeks. I have my suspicions that The New Sense is a work of fiction, but was reading the following article in the New York Times today and it made me think of its main theme: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/05/weekinreview/05WADE.html?todaysheadlines
The article is about how the US military is developing technology to recognise individuals by their odor.
Sometimes the old senses are the best!
Yours,
William Green
New York City
Subject: B
Sent: 1/7/03 14:00Dear Sara,
This is Sean, or Vlad, as you know me. I just found your website. We have people scouring the internet non-stop for subjects that are of interest to us. What a lot of effort you’re making on B-’s behalf!
I know this email is going to surprise you, but let me put your mind at rest: B- is perfectly safe at the Institute. It’s just that we’ve taken away his internet privileges, though of course he never had them in the first place. In fact we’re making great progress together.
You should be aware that there’s no point in hiding. I suspect that finding you and your baby wouldn’t be very difficult. And no, you haven’t given the game away on your site. I already knew you were pregnant. I’m really only interested in B., especially as there’s no way of knowing whether your child has what you call the New Sense for several years.
You should also be aware that B. is not all he seems to… B. The birth and adoption documents you copied and posted on the site (sneaky! Want to work for us?!) are in fact forgeries. What you know about B. isn’t the truth. Think about it - all you know about him is from those forged documents and what he’s told you. I’m not saying that he doesn’t have his sense - of course he does or he wouldn’t be here, but there’s a lot about him that you don’t know. You already remark on your site on the discrepancy between the age he originally told you he was and the age he should be according to those documents. There’s a clue there.
Look upon this letter as a friendly piece of advice: try to forget about B. He’s not treated you properly, has lied to you, and is doing just fine here. You don’t need to worry about your safety or that of the baby. In fact, I wish you luck with the pregnancy and birth.
Yours,
Sean
PS - Let me put your mind at rest about something else - I already knew that B- can detect what seems to be going on in the basement here. I didn’t find it out by reading his email on your site. But he doesn’t know the truth. Who does?
Sara replied (Jan 9th): You fucking bastard. I don’t want to have anything to do with you ever again. If it wasn’t for you, B- and me would be happy right now, so don’t try telling me that I shouldn’t worry and that everything is fine. And as far as the truth about B- is concerned, why the fuck should I believe you? Okay - I can’t be sure about what B-’s told me, but that’s the same for anyone at the beginning of a relationship. At least I know what a nice, generous, loving person he is (unlike you), which is all I really care about, not where he was born or what his real name is.
Leave me and my baby alone. If I ever see you again I will do my best to kill you. I mean it. What you’re doing is wrong, any way you look at it. B- is special for many reasons other than his sense. He’s only staying at the Institute to protect me and the baby, which shows how much he cares about me.
Fuck you.
To: sarasam78@hotmail.com
Subject: B
Sent: 1/17/03 08:15Dear Sara,
I’m a student in Toronto and discovered your site by clicking on one of your Blogger ads. I think I might have seen B.
I’ve been reading like crazy to catch up and it’s very interesting. The thing is, I think I might have seen B. At least, based upon the photo where you can see part of his face. I think he might be a guy who is a waiter in this café I visit often. He started working there a couple of months ago (which would make sense according to the timeline of when he stopped emailing you). There’s also something weird about the way he acts sometimes. Anyway, I’m going to try to find out more.
Yours truly,
Evan Willis
Sara replied: Dear Evan,Please do let me know what you find out. He has a mole just below his hairline at he right hand side of the back of his neck. That’s probably the best way to tell if it’s him. I’m not even sure that he knows he has that mole, so he’d be unlikely to cover it up.
To: sarasam78@hotmail.com
Subject: B
Sent: 1/18/03 23:31Dear Sara,
I’m sorry if I got your hopes up, but the waiter isn’t B. I just spent the evening there, and through all kinds of shenanigans, finally managed to get a good look at the back of his neck. No mole. Besides, a friend of mine thinks that he started at the café in October because she remembers his Halloween costume.
Sorry about that. I guess I got a bit too obsessed with your story over the last week or two. Good luck with finding him. I’ll stay tuned.
Evan
Sara replied:Dear Evan,
Okay - don’t worry - I wasn’t holding out too much hope.
Thanks anyway.
To: sarasam78@hotmail.com
Subject: B
Sent: 2/14/03 02:56Hey - I just thought of something - The word ‘imagine’ is an anagram of ‘I. Enigma.’ Jerry
To: sarasam78@hotmail.com
Subject: Good Luck
Sat, 01 Mar 2003 19:41:45 -0500I wish you luck with your new baby. Sing to her or him and smile alot. The very best time of my whole life was when my 2 children now 14 & 12 were small. Cherish every day with her/him when there little. Just remember above all children need LOVE in huge doses daily as much or more then they need food.
Be Well,
Glenn L. Klotz
Sara replied (March 2nd): Thank you, Glenn - that's sweet. I'm still waiting...the birth is supposed to be tomorrow.Sara
To: sarasam78@hotmail.com
Subject: Finally..
Tue, 4 Mar 2003 17:24:42 -0500hey there sara,
i discovered ur blog a few weeks back and boy, am i skeptical...
i was taking everything with a pinch of salt but i realize, even if this whole thing is real...or not, im still gonna wish her good luck on her delivery.
Hope u and the baby are safe and that B is by your side, which im guessing is not... just yet.btw, this whole blog thing would make a great book or some episodic magazine drama you know.. just a suggestion..
Take good care..
Liyana http://nayzee.blogspot.com ps: I still have not finished reading your whole blog...hahaa..
To: sarasam78@hotmail.com
Subject: B
Sat, 08 Mar 2003 12:58:03 -0800Sara, This is Stephanie, the ex-girlfriend of the guy you know as B. A friend told me about your site, and I’ve been reading it for a few days. I just wanted to let you know that B is who he says he is. In fact I’ve been trying to dig up an old newspaper clipping I have of a report on a high school football game where he was the quarterback. I’ll send it to you when I find it and scan it. Maybe you can add it to your Documents section. Bu the thing I wanted to tell you is that I’ve no idea what this Sense is you keep talking about. B never seemed to have any special powers when I knew him. I hope you and the baby are OK. You should be reassured, though - B is a good guy really. Take care, Stephanie
Sara replied (March 8th): Stephanie, thank you so much for writing. You don’t know what it means to me to have heard from someone who knows B. Please tell me anything you can about him and also about Sean.
To: sarasam78@hotmail.com
Subject: B
Thu, 13 Mar 2003 22:49:02 -0800Sara, Sorry it took me so long to reply, but I couldn’t find the article I was referring to until yesterday, and then I had to get it scanned. There’s a photo of B but you can’t see what he looks like because of the helmet. I still think it might be of interest to you and the readers of the site. I was also giving myself time to read the rest of the site. I found an interesting discrepancy. The guy I know as B was called Brad, and that’s who’s mentioned in the article. You saythat he called himself Brad, but when he showed you his adoption papers you saw that his real name was Ben Cohen. But why would he use Brad as a cover? That’s the name he was known as at school anyway. Why didn’t he call himself Ben, if that’s the name his parents gave him? As far as telling you things about him, I don’t know where to start. It’s like, you can say a small amount about someone or a huge amount, but in between is difficult. All I can really say is that he did often act strange, but no more so than most teenage boys. As for Sean, I don’t know who he’s talking about,which makes things even stranger, as Brad’s whole story about me invloves me going out with Sean before him. His parents were indeed doctors, but I think their practice is closed now. I’m not sure what happened to them. I don’t actually live in Vancouver any longer - I’m at college in T.O. Hope this helps. Take care, Stephanie.
Sara replied (March 13th): I really don’t understand this Ben/Brad thing. You mean that the guy I knew as Brad wasn’t using a fake name? So why does his adoption paper say Ben Cohen on it? I’m really confused, and my brain is suffering from post-baby lack-of-sleep.As for Sean, I just don’t get it. I’m very wary of emailing B now, so I don’t know what to do.
To: sarasam78@hotmail.com
Subject: B
Sun, 16 Mar 2003 15:11:49 -0800Sara,
I read Brad’s response to my emails and the football report. He’s lying. I don’t know why he’s doing this, Sara, and I can’t think of a way to prove it to you right now. He never seemed like a bad guy when I knew him, but he’s really not treating you right and I hope you can convince him to come back to you and the baby.
Good luck,
Stephanie
PS - Brad had a good point about the time zone on my email, but it always says -8000, no matter where I am when I send the message, because I was in Vancouver when I first got the Hotmail address, and that’s how my personal preferences were set up.
To: sarasam78@hotmail.com
Subject: Book of interest
Tue, 25 Mar 2003 22:03:03 -0600Dear Sara/B,
I have just finished reading a book called “Why We See What We Do: An Empirical Theory of Vision” by Dale Purves and R. Beau Lotto. You may find it interesting, as it proposes the theory that what we see is based upon statistical averages of what is important to humans as a species and what is significant for an individual as he or she develops, rather than us seeing an empirically ‘accurate’ representation of ‘reality’.
I believe that this corresponds with some of Pinker’s work which you refer to on your site, as well as, ultimately, giving some empirical evidence to support philosophies such as Professor Rorty’s. It doesn’t, however, mean that your friend B- perceives the world any more accurately than we do.
Yours,
Arthur Edelman
Chicago
To: sarasam78@hotmail.com
Subject: The mind and the soul
Sent: 4/21/03 16:02Hi,
I wrote to you back in January about an article in the New York Times. I noticed that you put my email online, including my suspicion that The New Sense is a work of fiction. I’ve been following your weblog ever since and I must say I’m still none the wiser. Good luck, either way.
I’m writing again because there is another article in the Times this weekend which relates to the subject matter of The New Sense. A neuroscientist called Antonio Damasio has done research and written a couple of books which seem to disprove Descartes’ mind-body split. I know that this is something which interests B, so I wanted to let you know about it. Here’s the link: http http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/19/arts/19EMOT.html?ex=1051878130&ei=1&en=2775e72135621f14
You may want to add Damasio’s 1994 book, Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, to your bibliography list.
Yours,
William Green
Sara replied (April 21st): Thanks, William. The article is interesting. I’ve now updated the bibliography too. I’ll try to find a copy of the book and read it while breastfeeding!
To: sarasam78@hotmail.com
Subject: lighter-than-air spacecraft
Sent: 7/09/03 10:15to both [the email was sent to someone else too, whose website appears to be here], saw your articles and websites and heartily agree...see our entry in the spacerace at www.newagespacers.org paul yumlu, president....have you seen lockheed's blackbudget gas-assisted superplane?
Sara replied (July 13th): That’s interesting, Paul, but the article you are referring to was written by my boyfriend. I don’t know where he is and to be honest with you had a hard time understanding what he was writing about. Good luck with your project.