"Hey, Paul. How are you?"
"Oh, I'm doing just fine."
"Good, good."
"And yourself? How's school?"
"School's going okay. Less than a month until the semester ends. I'm tired, but doing good."
"That's good to hear. How much longer are they keeping you at the hospital?"
"Well, this isn't, like, 'for sure', or anything, but, my boss told me that there has been some talk of budget cuts from the people upstairs, and that usually means that they clear out all the temps. I haven't heard anything specific, yet, but. . "
"Well, we only have eight people over there now, which isn't much at all. Two people got let go just yesterday. They came in and told them to get their time-sheets signed and not to come in today. Luckily we found them other positions real quick, but it was just good timing."
"Yeah, they probably won't keep me after Christmas, but I think I need to find something else anyway."
"Oh yeah, why's that?"
"Well, ever since classes started I had to cut back to only twenty hours a week. I'm doing alright, but it's been kinda tight. I need to get a night job--like waitering or bartending or something--so that I can work more than just twenty hours a week."
"Sounds like you need to get a sugar-daddy--take care of you."
"Uh. ."
"Or a sugar-momma, I guess."
"Heh. Green is green right? It don't matter none."
"HAHAAAhAHA!! Yes, well, you could maybe work at one of these hotels. I have a friend, who's my age, that was a night manager. He liked it alright, but sometimes the porters didn't show up and he had to, you know, one of these tour buses comes in at one a.m., and if there aren't any porters, then he has to go out and unload all the luggage himself, and then go back around the desk to check everyone in. He didn't have to do it often, but one time it was all cold and rainy and he had to unload the luggage and he caught pneumonia."
"S'that so?"
"Oh yeah. Course it didn't happen often--that the porters wouldn't show up--but every once in a while."
"Well, heh, I'm a healthy, young lad. I'm sure I could handle it. I ain't proud."
"Oh, you presume that pride increases with age?"
"Doesn't it?"
"Oh, no. Only remorse and regret."
"Oh god."
Both men laugh heartily.
"Hooo. .. well, I'll see you next week, then, Paul."
"Okay, Erik, take care."

"According to the psychological literature that Lewis-Williams surveyed, there are three stages of hallucination, each one deeper and more complex. In the first stage, the subject sees geometric forms, such as grids, zigzags, dots, spirals, and curves. These images, six forms in all, are shimmering, incandescent, mercurial--and powerful. They are called entoptic ('within vision') images, because they are produced by the basic neural architecture of the brain. 'Because they derive from the human nervous system, all people who enter certain altered states of consciousness, no matter what their cultural background, are liable to perceive them,' Lewis-Williams pointed out in a 1986 article in Current Anthropology. In the second stage of trance, people begin to see these images as real objects. Curves may be construed as hills in a landscape, chevrons as weapons, and so on. The nature of what the indidividual sees depends on the individual's cultural experience and concerns. San shamans frequently manipulate series of curves into images of honeycombs, since bees are a symbol of supernatural power that these people harness when entering a trance.
The passage from the second to the third stage of the hallucination is often accompanied by a sensation of traversing a vortex or rotating tunnel, and full-blown images--some commonplace, some extraordinary--may be seen. One type of important image during this stage is of human/animal chimera, or therianthropes, as they are called. These creatures are common in shamanistic San art. They are also an intriguing component of Upper Paleolithic art."

- from The Origin of Humankind by Richard Leakey