In a future where one phrase can heal any pain, there exists a meditation unlike any other: Solosis. It’s a practice that forms an empathetic bond between two souls, unlocking unparalleled healing power. But its secrets are fiercely guarded by Sasha Sumzer, a mysterious meditation teacher with a darker agenda.
Sasha is determined to bring down Axiom, the social media giant that has reshaped society with its revolutionary Glow Domes—devices that have replaced smartphones and altered daily life forever. While Glow Domes captivate the masses, Sasha believes the human mind is the final frontier for true liberation.
As an unsuspecting group of individuals stumbles upon Sasha's teachings, they become entangled in a dangerous game that forces them to question whether Solosis is a tool for healing or a weapon for control. To discover the truth, they must confront their deepest fears and decide what they’re willing to sacrifice to save the nation's collective consciousness.
In this gripping thriller, the battle for the mind has begun—and the line between healing and manipulation is dangerously thin.
In a future where one phrase can heal any pain, there exists a meditation unlike any other: Solosis. It’s a practice that forms an empathetic bond between two souls, unlocking unparalleled healing power. But its secrets are fiercely guarded by Sasha Sumzer, a mysterious meditation teacher with a darker agenda.
Sasha is determined to bring down Axiom, the social media giant that has reshaped society with its revolutionary Glow Domes—devices that have replaced smartphones and altered daily life forever. While Glow Domes captivate the masses, Sasha believes the human mind is the final frontier for true liberation.
As an unsuspecting group of individuals stumbles upon Sasha's teachings, they become entangled in a dangerous game that forces them to question whether Solosis is a tool for healing or a weapon for control. To discover the truth, they must confront their deepest fears and decide what they’re willing to sacrifice to save the nation's collective consciousness.
In this gripping thriller, the battle for the mind has begun—and the line between healing and manipulation is dangerously thin.
Sasha Sumzer grinned.
Before him, a bell tower slenderly rose into the sky. Sasha had memorized dozens of bell towers in America. He had visited each one personally. This bell tower, the one in front of him, was connected to a post office.
Sasha crossed the street and entered the post office. Inside, there were two lines. Sasha patiently waited in one. A few people gave him stares, curious stares.
He wore linen pants, a white t-shirt, and rose-gold sunglasses. By his side, he carried a black briefcase. And, more unusual than anything, he seemed genuinely happy in a generally unhappy time.
“Next!” a clerk called.
Sasha stepped forward.
“Hello, I’d like to speak to your manager, please.”
The clerk rolled his eyes and yelled over his shoulder, “Hey boss!”
The manager came out and stepped up to the counter. Exhaustedly, he said, “Can I help you?”
Sasha opened his briefcase. Rows of cash glinted with minted iridescence.
“I would like to buy this property.”
“You want to buy the post office?”
“Well, I don’t really care about the post office. But it’s connected to the bell tower. It’s all one building, one property. If I want control of the bell tower, I must buy the whole property.”
“What do you want with the bell tower?”
“You’re not using it, are you?”
“No …”
“Of course you’re not!” Sasha laughed. “Every bell tower in America has been decommissioned for the last fifty years.” Sasha leaned in and lowered his voice. “That’s why I’ve been buying all of them—the tallest bell towers in the country.”
“You want to own every bell tower? Why?”
“I’m going to ring in a new era—one of healing, one of great understanding.”
A woman in the other line started raising her voice. She sounded worried, scared.
“Please, I need this package shipped overnight. You must ship it overnight.”
The clerk replied to the woman: “I can’t guarantee overnight, mam. Not without a surcharge. It might get there by morning. It might not. It’s a fifty/fifty chance without a surcharge.”
The woman started to cry. “I can’t afford a surcharge. Please, is there anything you can do?”
“Mam, I’m sorry …”
“Please! Just help me!” The woman grew angry, desperate.
A young man behind her blinked his right eye twice. Both of his eyes lit up with glowing white rings. He started recording the woman. He filmed her shaky head, her rising voice.
Sasha took notice. He stepped over to the other line. He put his hand on the man’s shoulder and spoke in a low voice: “Why are you recording her?”
“Huh?”
“Why are you recording her? She’s clearly distressed. She’s clearly upset. Is that your initial reaction when someone is upset? To record them?”
The young man stepped back, releasing himself from Sasha’s hand.
Sasha continued: “You were going to skezz her, weren’t you? You were going to share the worst part of her day with the whole world.”
The young man blinked twice. The glowing rings disappeared from his eyes. He looked at Sasha and said, “Who are you, dude?”
Sasha took off his sunglasses. His rust-red irises arrested the room.
“My name is Sasha Sumzer. I’m a meditation teacher.”
“What happened to your eyes?”
Sasha turned away from the young man. He walked back to his briefcase on the counter. He took out a wad of bills, peeled one off, and handed it to the clerk in front of the woman.
“Please make sure this woman gets her package delivered overnight.” Sasha turned back to the manager. “As I was saying, I’m offering twice the value of this entire property, plus a little extra for your troubles.” Sasha smiled. “You can keep the post office. I just want the bell tower. I want full ownership of the bell tower and all its operations. If that sounds like a deal, I suggest you call a real estate agent and start digging around for a property deed.”
•
Forty minutes later, Sasha had made his offer on the tallest bell tower in Albuquerque, New Mexico. When he was done, he stepped outside and pulled a piece of paper from his pocket, a to-do list. He crossed off one item and read the next: Visit little brother.
Sasha opened an app on his phone and ordered a car to pick him up. When the car arrived, Sasha got inside.
The driver said, “You going to the community college?”
“Yes. Thank you very much.”
The car rolled along for several minutes. When Sasha looked in the rearview mirror, he noticed a solid, white circle in the driver’s right eye. They passed a billboard. It read: Don’t Glow and Drive!
Sasha coughed. “Excuse me, sir. I think it’s illegal to glow and drive.”
“I was using it for directions.”
“But … it’s a straight shot from here to the community college.”
“Alright, you got me.” The driver blinked his left eye twice. The glowing, white circle dimmed and disappeared. “Sorry, I just get bored sometimes.”
“I hear ya,” Sasha said.
“You’re not gonna report me, are you?”
“No, that’s okay. We all need friendly reminders.”
“What’s your deal anyway? What do you do?”
“I’m a meditation teacher.”
“So like, eat granola. Watch your thoughts pass by like clouds. That type of thing?”
“That’s a fluffy idea of meditation. Real meditation, true meditation—it’s terrifying.”
“Terrifying?”
“It can also be violent. That’s when you know you’re really meditating.”
“You’re not like … a serial killer, are you?”
Sasha didn’t answer. He simply smiled.
The driver nodded.
“So, what are you doing at the community college today?”
“I’m visiting my younger brother. He’s a professor there.”
“Do you guys get along?”
“We haven’t spoken in years.”
“You trying to make amends?”
“We’ll see. I have some exciting news I want to share with him.”
“Exciting news, huh?”
“This morning, I bought the tallest bell tower in Albuquerque.”
“A bell tower? Shit. I don’t think I’ve ever heard one.”
“Every bell tower in America has been decommissioned for the last fifty years. Do you know why?”
The driver shrugged. “’Cause you can see the time on your phone. Or through your Domes. No need for bell towers.”
“Exactly. No need. But what if we still used them, the bell towers—not to signify time, but to signify empathy.”
There was a pause. “I think you might be the weirdest customer I’ve had today, man.”
Sasha laughed. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“How old were you when you got Glow Domes?”
“Seventeen.”
“Do you like them, enjoy them?”
“They’re entertaining. Sometimes.”
“Other times?”
“Other times, I feel like they’re frying my brain.”
“Do you intend to keep them? For your whole life?”
“Probably. Glow Domes are the new smartphones. They connect the whole world. Life is shitty with them, but impossible without them.”
“I’m curious: When you die, will you have your Glow Domes removed from your eyes?”
“What?”
“When you die, will you have your Glow Domes removed? Or will you be buried with them forever on your eyes?”
The driver blew out a contemplative sigh. “You know what, I’ve never really thought about it, but now that you’re asking, I’m gonna have my Domes ripped out before they bury me.”
Sasha smiled with satisfaction. “And why is that?”
“I don’t know. I came into this world as flesh and bones. I want to leave as flesh and bones. I’m not bringing Glow Domes to the afterlife.”
“So in your heaven, there are no smartphones? No Glow Domes?”
“Fuck no!” The driver laughed. “My heaven isn’t going to have any technology.”
“How so?”
“In my heaven, I’m gonna be naked. Picking berries. Living off the land. Full hunter-gatherer type shit. I’m going to live in a lush, green paradise, kind of like Earth before we fucked it into oblivion. That’s my heaven. How ’bout you Mr. Meditation Teacher? What’s your heaven like?”
“Heaven for me … is bells. Just the ringing and ringing of bells. Everywhere. All across the land. For everyone to hear. A celebration. A turning point. A new era.”
“That sounds pretty. I mean, I think it sounds pretty. Like I said, I’ve never heard a bell.”
“One day … one day soon, my friend.”
The driver looked at Sasha through the rearview mirror.
“Hey man, can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“You got any meditations for sleep? Like to fall asleep?”
“Do you have trouble sleeping?”
“Every night,” he said. “Every night, I stay up late scrolling through my Domes. I sit there blinking my right eye hundreds of times, scrolling through stupid shit. Probably look like a cracked-out goblin in my own bed. It’s bad, man. Sometimes I go hard. I blink and I scroll until my right eyelid cramps up. That’s when it’s time for bed. But by that point, my mind is so anxious, I can’t sleep worth shit. So I’m asking: You got any meditations for sleep?”
“Hmm.” Sasha thought for a moment. “I have a simple exercise.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Once you lie down in your bed, think about your toes. Then wiggle your toes.”
“Toes. Got it.”
“Then think about your knees. Wiggle your knees.”
“Knees. Done.”
“Wiggle your hips.”
“Hips.”
“Wiggle your shoulders.”
“Shoulders.”
“Wiggle your fingers.”
“Fingers.”
“Then wiggle your head.”
“That it?”
“Then go back to your toes and do it all again.”
“Alright, let me see if I got this. Wiggle toes. Wiggle knees. Wiggle hips. Wiggle shoulders. Wiggle fingers. Wiggle head. Then do it all again?”
“Yup. And keep doing it. Over and over. Until your mind is in your body.”
“Huh,” said the driver. “And this works? It helps people fall asleep?”
“More often than not, yes, it works.”
“Interesting.” The driver scratched his head.
“Something wrong?”
“Just wasn’t what I expected.”
“Did you think I was gonna tell you to eat a bowl of granola?”
“Ha!” The driver laughed. “Are you gonna bill me for that sleep meditation?”
“Free of charge.” Sasha cleared his throat. “But my other meditations—my most powerful ones—those come with a price.”
“You got a temple or something? A place where people come to you?”
“I own a meditation shop here in town, on the west side of Albuquerque.”
“A shop? No temple? No church? But a shop?”
“My shop has no religious or spiritual affiliations.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means: No chakras. No crystals. None of that fluffy stuff.” Sasha looked out the window. “Your mind is an engine. It’s a piece of machinery. It should have its own shop—a place for regular, practical upkeep.”
The driver nodded. “I get it. It’s like a gym for your brain. Stay all mentally fit and shit.” The driver chuckled. “I could use that, man. Glow Domes are like candy for your brain. And my brain is fat as fuck!”
Sasha let out a big-bellied laugh.
“I’m serious!” said the driver. “My memory is fucked. I glitch out all the time.”
“Glitch out?”
“Yeah, like, I’ll be at the grocery store, trying to decide on ice cream, right? And then suddenly, I’ll forget what I’m doing. I’ll forget where I am, who I am. And then I gotta do this weird exercise where I try to remember my mom and dad’s first names, like if they’re real, then I must be real, and this grocery store must be real. And then I choose chocolate ice cream.” The driver shook his head. “It’s bad, man. I see it everywhere.”
“You see people forgetting and remembering that they’re human?”
“Yeah. You know it when you see it. It’s like … if a robot could catch rabies, and you saw the moment the rabies got to the robot’s brain—that’s what people look like when they glitch out in public. That’s what happens when people go five seconds without using their Glow Domes.” The driver grunted. “We’re addicted, man. Straight up addicted.”
“What do you intend to do about it?”
“About what?”
“This addicted world we live in—what do you intend to do about it?”
“Me? I’m thirty years old, man. I got another fifty to go, and then I’m peacing the fuck out of this planet. I’m going to my afterlife, my heaven, my nakedness and berries.” The driver sipped from his mug. “Why? What are you going to do Mr. Meditation Teacher?”
“I don’t believe in an afterlife. If I want my heaven, I must create it—here on Earth, in this lifetime.”
The car stopped. “Well, here’s the community college.”
“Thank you,” Sasha said. He opened the door.
“Wait, wait. Hold up.”
“Yes?”
“You said your brother works here—at the community college?”
“Yes …”
“But you own a meditation shop on the other side of town?”
“Correct.”
“So you all are brothers. You live in the same town. But you haven’t spoken in years?”
“Correct.”
“Some drama about to go down?”
“Something is going down this year. Something big.”
Bell Tower by Raphael Pond is a meditation on meditation. It is a dystopian philosophical horror, dealing with the rapid degeneration of human connections and by extension, society.
In this dystopian future Glow Domes are as widely used as smart phones are in our present. They are technological eye implants, turning humans into Glowers. The masses have been deliniated into Scrolling Centers where they lounge about and scroll through various kinds of news. Work has been reduced to scrolling through social media and news. In this social hierarchy EmLights are at the very top. They are glowers who have become famous. Next are Glowers and finally there are Low Lights who dont have Glow Domes. Glowers will do anything, no matter how reprehensible, to become EmLighters. In this world of disconnect and superficiality, Sasha and Hugo, the Sumzer brothers, try to bring about a revolution.
Most of the novel revolves around assembling the right team, heist style, to foil a fulcrum event in the plot. The way this is accomplished is quite fascinating. However, the plot itself was quite predictable, even though it was fast paced. Sasha was the mastermind behind the disruptive climax, propelled by abject hate for his father. Sasha, in his madness, is almost reminiscent of Dr. Frankenstein. The side characters, though fascinating, didn't feel fleshed out. They were more like type characters created to propel the plot instead of the plot being constructed around the characters.
The language is colloquial. Which works for most of the book. But ever so often, the descriptions go into rhyming prose. Which stands out like a delapidated skeletal structure of an otherwise well constructed sprawling mansion. The over use of profanity is possibly a mark of the author's youth.
Themes of technology robbing humanity of community, human connection, creativity, imagination and the ability to build bonds dominate the novel. This novel is also a metaphysical exercise on the nature and conditions of morality.
As ambitious as this endeavour was, the novel would have benefitted from better editing and generally tighter language. The characters were quite evidently type characters, not fleshed out with care. Such a brilliant idea. Leaves the reader craving for more care taken in its execution.