"buddy do you?" "I try not to you need help?" "Sure" "Would you like to tell us what the hell that was all about?" "I don't like good-byes" "John you know?" "huh?" "Eaten some of the food we so feverishly prepared?" "Harry" "But why are you moving so quickly?" "You only resigned a couple of days ago" "You got the history chair at Stanford" "I wish Roastie-toasties and beer We'd have done something a little more grandiose" "Candlelight dinner at Mcdonald's" "Strippers" "Taquitos are fine" "A'right too talking to a student Pfft" "Is George taking over for you?" "George or Trimbell Has the Dean made up his mind?" "He hasn't called" "My god!" "Wh-What is this? But I've never seen it before" "John?" "it's just a gift someone gave me it's a superb copy May I take a closer look?" "yeah it's the same stretcher as Van Gogh used there's writing on the back in french" "To my friend Jacque Borne" "Wonder who that was?" "I guess sherlock appraised? But I wouldn't really want money for it" "That does it" "Put that stuff in the kitchen" "John electricity's on" "Get comfortable while you can" "The furniture's going this afternoon" "It's been years since I sat on a floor" "Heh I can't remember her name it's good for the back" "Can we do yoga exercises?" "we can" "So you're leaving good old "We teach you"?" "you must admit" "John" "Is there a problem?" "No you know we wanna help but really" "There's no problem now I am curious" "Where are you going?" "Givin' up tenure And you don't know where you're going?" "Call it cabin fever" "I get itchy feet" "I've done this before you're too young to have done this before" "And he hasn't aged a day in ten years" "Every woman on the faculty" "Would give anything to have that secret" "Edith?" "Harry can you pull this?" "What the hell?" "What do you hunt?" "mostly" "Around big bear" "With a bow and arrow?" "Most people can't bag a deer" "With a rifle and a telescopic sight good eatin'" "The best wild game eats naturally it's beautiful" "Art" "Ah can I get an "a" for awesome?" "my gosh" "That was fun" "John" "You know Linda You had her last semester" "Hi Hey" "She's one of my victims now I'm taking her home" "She wanted to come by and say hello goodbye" "Is Art as tough as I hear?" "archaeology's tough" "Dr Jenkins is a fine teacher that's very politic" "It's very true Uh-huh pal" ""Shadows of the cave:" "parallels to early man"" "Author:" "M Jenkins" "Publish or perish" "I'd rather read" "Than write another one" "Thank you" "Hi this is Linda this is everybody" "Linda Hi" "So like we give a damn?" "We've already covered that" "John's got itchy feet" "John" "So there is a problem" "No" "I just like to move on now and then" "It's a personal thing not to pry" "I'm sorry I don't have more to offer you" "Is he ducking out on us again?" "I do have this" "Oh ho ho!" "Johnny Walker Green!" "Didn't even know they made it in green" "What do they pay you?" "Nothing is too good for my friends" "But I'm sorry-We are down to plastic cups now" "That's a sacrilege I'll tolerate" "I will do the honors come to papa" "cups" "There we go" "Step on in here" "There ya go one for the birthday boy-Excuse me Art?" "not for me" "I don't drink darling join the circle at least to long life and good fortune" "To our esteemed friend" "John Oldman" "May he find undeserved bliss" "Wherever he goes here" "Skael Na zdorovye" "John" "that's good" "Excuse me we're all sorry to see you go" "Truly What do we do for the rest of the afternoon?" "Anyone got a good topic?" "maybe?" "Heh" "What is that?" "It's a burin of a parrot beak" "Inclined chisel point probably early magdalenian" "May I see that?" "Sure" "that's what it is" "What's a burin?" "A burin is a flint tool To make spear and harpoon points So this is a very nice specimen what's a magdalenian? Without gettin' technical" "It's the final culture of the upper paleolithic" "Art?" "John?" "from a thrift shop-A quarter" "You lucky dog!" "I gotta go digging for this kind of stuff uh?" "Yeah" "Huh" "Maybe" "I'm glad you did this" "Did what?" "You mean come over?" "Maybe?" "Definitely thanks so are we" "So are we" "We couldn't let you just run off" "Thanks huh?" "Are you on america's most wanted?" "We won't turn you in out with it" "You're among friends" "Snoopy friends" "Forget it" "You are creating the mystery here you have something you'd like to say Say it!" "maybe I seven stop" "I think and I wonder how it'll pan out" "I wonder if I could ask you a silly question we're teachers" "We answer silly questions all the time" "Hey!" "What if a man from the upper paleolithic" "Survived until the present day?" "survived?" "Never died?" "Yes What would he be like?" "I know some guys" "You ever been to the ozarks?" "It's an interesting idea are you working on a science fiction story?" "Say I am What would he be like?" "Pretty tired He might be like any of us" "Dan A caveman?" "there's no anatomical difference a Cro-magnon and us we've grown taller" "What's the selective advantage of height?" "my dear tall and skinny" "Radiates heat more effectively in warmer climates we've all seen apish people" "That strain's still with us" "But he'd be a caveman he wouldn't" "John's hypothetical man" "Would have lived through 140 centuries roughly and changed with every one of them assuming normal intelligence we think men of the upper paleolithic" "Were as intelligent as we are" "They just didn't know as much" "John's man would have learned as the race learned His knowledge might be astonishing let me have a look at it" "I'm sure you'll make some anthropological boners" "It's a deal" "What would keep him alive?" "What does the biologist say?" "Cigarettes" "And ice cream" "I'll play I would say Especially in the vital organs the human body appears designed" "To live about 190 years" "Most of us just die of slow poisoning Something everybody else in history had done wrong and breathe the air? Those were pristine uh not fit to live in it could happen But the process falters eventually proves fatal to function" "Now if a quirk in his immune system then yeah" "He could duck decay that's a secret we'd all love to have" "Would you really want to do that?" "000 years? why not?" "Yeah What a chance to learn" "Is anyone hungry?" "it's possible right?" "another century's science right?" "Copernicus?" "Aristarchus long before that" "Right Only I'm not the adventurous type I still thought" "He might fall off an edge someplace" "John" "We just did But I don't get it" "There's nothing to get" "What are we talking about?" "We were just talking about a caveman" "Who survives until the present time Once I learned to learn" "Did you start the whiskey before we got here?" "Pretend it's science fiction" "Figure it out a very old Cro-magnon" "Living until the present" "Oh!" "What?" "000 years old you don't look a day over 900 okay" "I'll play your little game" "What do you want?" "What's the punch line?" "when people start" "I move on" "John" "I wanna read that story when you're done" "You want more?" "By all means This is great now" "So you think that you are a" "Cro-magnon" "I didn't learn it in school anthropological research 000 years straight go on So I'll make it brief I aged to about 35 what you see" "I ended up leading my group" "They saw me as magical" "I didn't even have to fight for it and they chased me away" "They thought that I was" "Stealing their lives away to stay young" "The prehistoric origin of the vampire myth" "That is good! I didn't know up from sideways" "How do you know the first thousand years?" "based on what" "I've learned in my memories But you have memories of that time?" "selective traumas" "They stick in the mind forever you still feel a twinge" "Go on So I got the hang of joining new groups I found" "I also got the idea of periodically moving on Following the weather and the game we hunted" "000 years were cold" "We learned it was warmer at lower elevations" "I assume" "What was the terrain like?" "Mountainous" "Vast plains to the west" "WestSomething you learned in school" "Towards the setting sun" "I suspect I saw the british isles" "From what is now the french coast" "Huge mountains on the other side of an enormous deep valley" "That was shadowed by the setting sun" "This is before they were separated as glaciers melted" "That happened?" "the end of the pleistocene what he says fits into any textbook" "And that's where I found it" "How can I have knowledgeable recall" "If I didn't have knowledge?" "It's all retrospective" "All I can do is integrate my recollections" "With modern findings you gonna hit me over the head with a club" "And drag me into the bedroom?" "You'd be more fun conscious" "John" "Let me get this straight" "We're not talking about reincarnation" "You're not saying that you remember dying" "And being born again and yada yada?" "One lifetime" "Some lifetime" "Wow" "Maybe there is something to this reincarnation thing" "You're supposed to come back you just managed" "To bypass all the other bodies what's the point?" "What about oceans?" "Didn't see them till much later" "So how would you know an ocean from a lake?" "Big waves Something else" "I can only surmise in retrospect" "Were you curious about where it all came from?" "We would look up at the sky and wonder" "There's gotta be some big guys up there" "What else made all this down here?" "At first I thought" "There was something wrong with me" "Maybe I was a bad guy for not dying" "Then I began to wonder if I was cursed" "Or perhaps blessed" "Then I thought maybe I had a mission" "Do you still think you do?" "God works in mysterious ways" "I think I just happened" "Wow" "Hello?" "ellie?" "What's wrong?" "Sandy?" "Coming" "Yeah?" "Do we have ellie's midterm here?" "sorry" "I picked it up with the periodicals" "Got it you're worried about your parents?" "Don'tDon't worry c+" "Take care of yourself" "Good kid" "What does pre-Med need with history?" "Got it" "Thank you guys please continue" "I thought we were done with that" "No!" "Let's go on with it" "It's interesting" "I think he's making a certain amount of sense" "Like hegel-Logic from absurd premises" "That Van Gogh?" "He gave it to me A pig farmer" "I like to work with my hands paint" "We talked about capturing nature in Art pissarro the nolde landscapes" "Not in Van Gogh's time though" "Yes" "I don't understand" "Why you can't remember where you're from" "Geography hasn't changed" "I learned that in" "Professor hensen's tepid lectures" "But you're right" "Where did you live when you were five years old?" "Little rock she took you to the market?" "Mm-hmm What direction was it?" "From your house" "I don't know" "How far?" "three blocks" "Were there any references" "That stuck in your mind?" "there was a gas station" "And a big field" "I was told I could never go there alone Would it be the same?" "No I'm sure it's all different and built up" "Thus the saying-"You can't go home again" "Because it isn't there anymore" "Picture it on my scale" "I migrated through an endless flat space" "Full of endless new things canyons" "My memory sees what I saw then Big macs under the eiffel tower And then think what I've had to unlearn" "And now you're moving on I move on and then just drop into it Even passed as my own son too?" "You're ben's son He was a good man" "Saves trouble with credentials and references" "I've been busted a few times 1862" "I won't forget that" "For faking a government application" "When'd you come to america? With some french immigrants moving on" "An answer for every question" "John" "Why're you doing this?" "A whim Maybe not such a good idea" "I Not what you thought I was We think you might have a problem" "A very serious problem" "I've got boxes to move" "I'll give you a hand an artifact" "To remind you of your early life?" "maybe?" "Thrift shop" "Really" "000 years would you still have this?" "What would cause you to keep it? Even if you didn't have" "The concept of beginnings?" "lost" "No" "I don't have artifacts" "Keep that" "Interesting" "You could have lied about that" "Don't talk about me while I'm gone" "Is he serious?" "I'm sorry to say he's how could he have concealed that for ten years?" "Least he doesn't appear to be dangerous" "What are you doing?" "Checkin' for a hidden mic" "Candid camera" "He's fabricating these wild stories" "I've never seen him acting like this it's crazy then" "you know" "I know" "Since my first week at the office" "And? But now you know what you'd be getting into" "Do you really think you're a caveman?" "Do you? Or don't you believe in that anymore?" "I've gotten over it too many times" "Fond of you certainly attracted to you" "That's it?" "I can work with that You and any children will age" "I won't" "And one day I'll leave" "You'll go back to your May-December romances" "The simple fact is" "That I can't give you forever" "How long's forever?" "Who ever really has it? And then my mom's next marriage lasted a whole three years?" "acts of god no one knows how long they have" "Or how little" "I love you" "Take whatever you can get" "Like ten years?" "Ah!" "Ha ha ha!" "Uhn!" "Oh" "Why did you do that?" "I wanted to see how fast you were Check your reflexes I am not in any way superman" "I'm a second-degree black belt" "Give it another thousand years" "I got it" "Jesus" "Harry" "Dan" "I still have questions" "John are we done with prehistory yet?" "Remember any of your original language?" "A little One thing hasn't changed much" "Did you ever do any cave Art?" "Do you know the rock Art at les eyzies?" "Mm-hmm" "It was the work of a man named giraud" "He did a pretty good job" "He would draw the animals" "That we hoped to find to eat Our chief stomped his teeth out" "Because his magic had failed him someone had to chew his food for him he got-I suspect And he was abandoned" "That's awful" "You have to know what to kill" "Is this why all your students" "Say your knowledge of history is so amazing?" "that's mostly based on study My solitary viewpoint" "Of a world I knew almost nothing about let's talk about" "What you say you do know about" "Historical times" "Don't encourage him" "Edith it got warmer" "A few thousand years" "I know you're guessing" "Art continue" "mammoths The game retreated northward You got the idea of growing food Raising animals rather than hunting them here?" "I bet I am fowling-Come on!" "this is out of any textbook" "Even yours" "You got most of it right" "Eventually I headed to the east" "I'd grown curious about the world Learning how to fit in when I wanted to" "East" "Towards the rising sun?" "Yes I thought it might be warmer there" "That's when I saw an ocean probably Learning languages as I went so different" "I finally realized that it was Then finally babylonian under hammurabi" "Great man" "And I sailed as a phoenician for a time moving on had been easier as a Hunter-Gatherer Tougher still in city states where authority was centralized" "Strangers were suspect" "It seemed as though I was always moving on" "I learned some new tricks" "Even faked my death a couple of times" "I continued east Luckily at the time of the Buddha" "Luckily" "Most extraordinary man I've ever known" "He taught me things" "I'd never thought about before" "You studied with the Buddha?" "Until he died" "He knew there was something different about me" "I never told him" "This is fascinating" "I almost wish it were true why are you telling us? tell everybody" "It would vanish in disbelief" "A story that goes around the room" "No credibility you wouldn't Others would be angry at a pointless joke" "Some of us are angry now" "ThisThis was a bad idea and I do not want" "To put you through anything" "Then why are you doing it?" "'Cause I wanted to say goodbye" "As yourself Whoever that self is" "Edith" "We're just grading his homework" "Dan" "That's fine Just enjoy it" "I think this whole thing is just a crock!" "but I'm gonna stay" "You know why?" "'Cause I wanna see what this is all about" "So do I What is this all about?" "who's just arrived will!" "Will!" "Art Hey" "John!" "I'm glad I caught you" "Someone mentioned that you were leaving told you that I've lost it" "Glad you're here Things are going in unexpected directions so I hear" "Hi" "Are you hungry?" "no" "Whiskey?" "Johnny walker green yes" "my dear Linda murphy" "Dr Gruber this lesson may be something" "I could not have imagined But these people are all very concerned for you" "I'm cutting out paper dinosaurs" "I really wish I'd been here from the beginning" "Me too" "Let me just say something right now" "There's absolutely no way in the whole world Just like there's no way for us to disprove it There's absolutely no way to disprove it or a nut Why don't we just go with it? Or we might jolt him back to reality" "Believing?" "Whose reality?" "So you're a caveman" "Yes Uh" "I think" "You don't know if you're a caveman or not?" "I'm sure about that then" "When did you first realize this? I had mine please continue" "I'm sure you must have more to say" "Would you like me to lie on the couch?" "As you wish" "I'm curious Have you ever been ill?" "as much as anyone" "Seriously ill?" "Sometimes" "Of what?" "Do you know?" "I can't tell you" "Maybe pneumonia once or twice SmallpoxI survived the black plague" "Bubonic?" "that's terrible" "More so than history describes" "And smallpox-But you're not scarred" "I don't scar that is not possible let's take John's story" "At face value and explore it from that perspective it's no stranger than the rest Suffer a few tests from" "Your friendly neighborhood biologist" "I'm leery of labs" "Afraid I might go in and stay for a thousand years" "While cigarette smoking men try to figure me out" "You don't think that I would betray you?" "Walls have ears" "Medical tests might be a way of proving what you say" "I don't wanna prove it And you don't care if we believe it or not?" "I guess I shouldn't have expected you to" "You're not as crazy as you think I am" "Amen" "I've always liked you dear" "Now that's changing" "Surely you don't believe this nonsense" "I think we should remain courteous to someone" "Edith" "Here you sitYou can't break his story" "All you can do is thumb your nose at it" "John?" "Are you laughing at us inside?" "I wish you didn't feel that way" "What you're saying It offends common sense quantum mechanics" "That's the way nature works" "But your story doesn't fit into nature as we know it" "Dan" "We know so little" "How many of you know" "Five geniuses in your field" "That you disagree with one you would like to strangle?" "Strangle them all" "It's bad enough we have to listen" "To Harry's idiotic jokes" "Edith" "I'll be as smart as you are You still wouldn't grow up guys Take it easy" "How often do we get to meet someone" "Who says he's a stone age man?" "once is enough" "Edith" "All right A guy with your mind" "You'd have studied a great deal including all of yours will" "That makes me feel a trifle lilliputian" "That's over the span of 170 years So I'm a little behind the times" "The same in other areas" "I can't keep up with the new stuff that comes along" "No one can" "Not even in their specialty" "So much for the myth all-knowing immortal" "John He can't be in advance of his times You learned it" "It took some time" "News traveled slowly" "Before communications were fancy screams from the church" "Ten doctorates" "John Did you teach them?" "Some" "You might have all done the same 000 years didn't make me a genius" "I just had time" "Time we can't measure it in a laboratory" "It's a subjective sense of becoming Becoming what we will be in another nanosecond Slice by slice" "Clocks measure time they measure themselves" "The objective referent of clock is another clock" "How very interesting What has it got to do with John?" "hehe might be a man" "Who lives outside of time as we know it well" "People do go around armed these days" "John You're immortal?" "Would you survive this?" "just old" "I might die" "And then you could wonder" "The rest of your incarcerated life what you shot may I?" "Preferable to a gun that was a bit much" "Ooh Books" "Doctorates you have grown and changed" "But there is always innate nature" "Wouldn't you be more comfortable" "Squatting in the backyard?" "will" "Look up at the stars" "Wonder" "And what did primitive man make of them?" "A great mystery" "There were gods up there then" "Shamans who knew about them told us" "They still do" "Have you ever wished it would end?" "No" "Fourteen thousand years disasters" "You've survived them all" "You're a very lucky man" "Come in" "John Oldman?" "Yes" "Charity now We're here to pick up the furniture" "It's all yours take this chair" "I'm gonna go drink in the corner uh you're donating it?" "Everything?" "I'll get more" "Do you always travel this light?" "It's the only way to move you" "You've talked a good deal" "About your extraordinary amount of living" "John?" "Do you fear death?" "Who wouldn't?" "How did primitive man regard death?" "we had the practical concept come apart" "Injuries we could understand" "If someone's insides were all over the ground" "Infections mysterious" "Aging the biggest mystery of all" "You realized you were different" "To find a way to synthesize" "My experience into a view of myself" "I thought everybody had" "Something wrong with them too but not me" "my dear" "You live simply but why leave a lot" "If you're always leaving?" "I have money" "John? months go by more quickly" "What does a day or a year" "Or a century mean to you?" "The birth-death cycle?" "Turbulence they're gone fall" "blown by the wind" "Do you ever get tired of it all?" "I get bored now and then" "They keep making the same stupid mistakes over and over" "Hey" "Then you see yourself" "As separate from the rest of humanity" "I didn't mean it that way" "But of course" "I am" "Are you comfortable knowing that you have lived" "John!" "Has died?" "I've regretted losing people often" "Have you ever felt guilt about that" "Something akin to survivor's guilt?" "In the strict psychological sense?" "I suppose I have" "Yeah" "But what can I do about it?" "Indeed ma'am" "I'm" "I'm gonna keep the couch" "Thanks no you've got a heart condition Don't grump about it will?" "Enough with the With the dying" "Harry" "I'm very curious to know his feelings" "Would you prefer I asked him about his father?" "I thought you always started with" "Tell me about your mother but prehistory was strongly patriarchal" "Surely you remember your father maybe no matter" "I can scarcely remember mine" "Do you feel a vacancy Something you wish could be filled an image?" "Not at this late date" "There must be someone Probably many" "That you valued intensely" "Loved" "You saw them age and die a wife" "Certainly you've had wives and children?" "I'd move on" "I had to move on" "Making him history's biggest bigamist" "Have you ever in your life thought" "It should have been me"?" "Maybe" "Art has told me" "That some of your early fellows" "Feared you were stealing their lives" "Have you thought that perhaps you were?" "Perhaps you are! A creature not quite human but the life force itself?" "will By some biological or psychic mechanism" "That we can only guess at" "I'm not saying you would do such a thing deliberately" "I'm not saying that you would even know how to would you?" "But would such a thing be fair?" "So you believe me now?" "I'm only exploring what you have said" "Whether I believe it or not is of no importance" "We will die you will live" "John?" "will you've gone too far" "John didn't ask to be what he is" "And we did not ask to hear about it Even perhaps a touch of hatred?" "John" "Can you imagine how we feel?" "I never thought of that While we most assuredly will no?" "Perhaps you are an expert" "Mr Oldman Have a good one" "Thank you You too" "John?" "Even an unknowing one" "Do you stand alive and tall" "In a graveyard that you helped to fill?" "That's going too far because your heart" "Cannot keep its treasures" "Is that what you're doing?" "Have you led a wrongful life?" "perhaps it is time to die" "now But I sure as hell don't like what you're doing" "Give me that gun or I'm gonna break your goddamn arm" "Dan" "John?" "A shot to the arm?" "Perhaps we could watch it heal" "A bullet in the head" "What exactly will happen?" "I have papers to correct It'll be preferable to this" "I leave you with it" "Jesus Christ" "What the hell was that all about?" "Where'd he get a gun?" "John" "Are you really so damn smart?" "It's not like will" "Mary passed away yesterday" "Who?" "His wife pancreatic cancer" "Will!" "I didn't know about mary" "I'm sorry I can see how this might have hit you permit me to be infantile by myself please" "Art?" "come on Something had to be done" "I have to say I agree" "And he's our friend He's our friend!" "You sure about that?" "Why are you being so hard on him?" "One of my favorite people has disappeared" "Can you get alzheimer's at 35?" "Maybe I'm trying to wake him up" "Maybe I'm too sad to cry" "What I said about myself hurt him" "He struck back expertly" "That stuff about stealing life forces?" "I've always wondered about the reasons" "right?" "Charades?" "No John?" "and it is just for you come here come on this one's for you" "Ready?" "Ooh!" "Uhn" "My first wedding?" "There you go" "and I bet at least one of us" "Is your direct descendent" "And I didn't even send a christmas card" "Christmas card?" "What about a birthday card?" "And don't even get me started on the candles with the blowing and the" "For years with the blowing all right I tried But I'd like to hear more" "Me too" "More" "You double-damn swear this isn't some cockamamie" "Science fiction story or you're pulling on us?" "Next question" "YouYouYou realize" "This is an invitation" "To men in white suits with happy pills" "Think about it" "A mechanism allowing survival" "For thousands of years?" "Run out of room even faster" "Then we'd have to go to mars as a colony as we'd have to" "I'd like that" "On a planet of another star" "I envy you" "Did you have a pet dinosaur?" "They were a little bit before my time" "At least something is From the magdalene to the Buddha to now And you could stay out of the books it's getting chilly come over here Join me" "John" "Could there be others like you" "Who escaped the aging process as you have?" "Representing something terrific" "We don't even know about biology" "We're learning all the time but how would he know?" "He doesn't wear an ID Badge saying "yabba dabba doo" "There was a man in the 1600s" "Where were you in 1292 aD?" "Where were you a year ago on this date? And I had a hunch that he was so I told him you said this was a first" "I forgot" "John?" "A touch of senility another place" "We talked for two days But we couldn't be sure But how do we know if the confirmation" "Was genuine or an echo? maybe he's playing a game on me a scholar of all we spoke about" "He said he was inclined with the same reservation that's interesting Even if we wanted to You couldn't be sure of that agreeing to keep in touch we didn't" "And 200 years later I thought I saw him" "In a train station in brussels" "Lost him in the crowd what a shame if it were true here's one for you" "What do you do in your spare time? I go down to a primitive tribe in new guinea And they have a huge statue of me" "It's a big party But I've already packed them up I'm sorry" "I won't make the obvious nasty crack about more unwashed cavemen bathing was the style" "Until the middle ages when the church told us So people were sewn" "Into their underwear in october" "And they popped out in april" "You said you just happened" "I don't believe that Why did god allow you to happen?" "That makes an interesting point" "John?" "I don't follow a known religion No" "Ever Like most people" "Some just never get over it" "Do you believe in god? I have no need of that hypothesis though" "He's everywhere We just can't see him too" "And creation it's hereI'm not so sure it was created" "What then?" "fields affecting fields" "What about the source of the field energies?" "Wouldn't that imply a prime mover? but that doesn't imply anything to me" "Back to the mystery But there's no answer except in religious terms it's answered" "Did you ever meet any person from our religious history?" "A biblical figure?" "In a way" "Who?" "We should skip this one no skipping Come on" "Next question come on!" "spit it out!" "Good lord!" "You were one of them!" "This is going in a direction that II didn't expect" "I hoped it wouldn't Wecall it a night" "Come on!" "You were someone in religious history?" "Yes" "In the bible?" "Yes" "Someone we know?" "How could we not know someone in the bible?" "I mean somebody important But it's mostly myth" "The entire bible is mostly myth and allegory" "With maybe some basis in historical events" "You were part of that history?" "Yes" "Moses And there are earlier versions Waters that were parted so followers" "Could be led to freedom" "And even receive laws" "On stone or wooden tablets" "One of the apostles" "They weren't really apostles" "They didn't do any real teaching" "Peter the fisherman learned a little more about fishing" "How do you know that?" "The mythical overlay is so enormous and not good so simple" "The new testament in 100 words or less You ready?" "I don't think I wanna hear this will you take me home?" "not right now I do want to hear this" "Edith You act like you believe him" "It's sacrilege" "How can it be sacrilege?" "He hasn't said anything yet" "The new new testament is sacrilege And all called revealed truth" "I mean a new new testament in 100 words" "I can give you the ten commandments in ten words don't" "Don't" "The commandments are just modern updates of more ancient laws" "Hammurabi's code right?" "I was raised on the torah on the Qur'an" "My oldest son is an atheist" "My youngest is a scientologist" "My daughter is studying hinduism But we practice live and let live" "Why don't you sit down" "What is your preferred version of the bible?" "of course the work of great scholars" "Modern is good hit us with the short form Thought about it for a while while he returned Became an etruscan" "Seeped into the roman empire" "He didn't like what they became" "A giant killing machine Why not pass the Buddha's teachings on in a modern form" "So he tried" "One dissident against rome?" "Rome won" "The rest is history sort of Lot of fairy tales mixed in" "I knew it" "He's saying he was Christ no That's the medal" "They pinned on Jesus to fulfill prophecy" "The crucifixion" "He blocked the pain as he had learned to do" "In tibet and india" "He also learned to slow his body processes" "Down to the point where they were undetectable" "They thought he was dead" "So his followers pulled him placed him in a cave his body normalized as he had trained it to But some devotees were standing watch" "Tried to explain" "They were ecstatic And I ascended to central europe" "To get away as far as possible" "John why are you doing this?" "Let me see your wrists" "I don't scar they tied me but nails and blood make better religious Art all the speculations about Jesus He was a blue-eyed Aryan with a golden beard he never existed at all" "Now he's a caveman" "The Christ figure goes all the way back to Krishna of course" "Hercules?" "Alcmene" "Zeus" "The only begotten" "The savior The greek?" "Soter Bringing gentle persuasion and divine wisdom joined his father on olympus" "A thousand years before gethsemane" "How can you compare pagan mythology to the true word?" "I'd say They threw away hebrew manuscripts" "And borrowed from pagan sources all over the place" "Do you realize how inconsiderately you're treating my feelings?" "About as inconsiderately as we're treating John's he doesn't believe what he's saying!" "Edith?" "Yes! But god has spoken through man" "To make his word clearer" "He couldn't get it right the first time?" "We're imperfect!" "He had to work to make us understand" "Edith?" "the philosophical teachings of Jesus" "Are buddhism with a hebrew accent A ruthless realism acknowledging here and now where it should be" "I am what I am becoming" "That's what the Buddha brought in" "And that's what I taught So we're screwed" "Heaven and hell were peddled Save our souls that we never lost in the first place" "I threw a clean pass they ran it out of the ballpark" "This is blasphemy" "It's horrible!" "Who else were you?" "jack the ripper?" "It's been said that Buddha and Jesus" "Would laugh or cry if they'd known" "What was done in their name He'd probably feel the same way And I think it's not what I had in mind" "But that's vatican flapdoodle" "It doesn't have a thing to do with god religions from exalting life to purging joy as a sin" "Rome does it as grand opera" "A simple path to goodness needs" "A supernatural roadmap" "Supernatural" "I mean Whether we believe in it or not" "000-year-old caveman And then I sat for a while" "I'm so ashamed" "And I'm freezing come inside of course" "You need help" "Everybody needs help some more than others I have always imagined both as entirely mythic" "But I would like to hear more" "May I lie on the couch for a moment?" "I'm not as young as I used to be" "Ohh!" "you were Jesus for better or for worse" "The jury is still out" "When did you begin to believe you were Jesus?" "When did you begin to believe you were a psychiatrist?" "Since I graduated harvard medical school" "I've had that feeling" "I sometimes dream about it" "Have you acted upon this belief? And then I taught" "Nothing unusual" "I met a caveman" "Who thought he was Jesus" "Do you find that unusual?" "Very I would stake my reputation So why does he persist in such a story?" "though" "Unless I imagined it all?" "Is that possible?" "I think you're as sane as he is" "I" "No" "Did you ever find it prudent to worship yourself" "Rather than be thought a heretic?" "That would be something christianity was considered heresy" "I had to pretend other faiths" "And what does Jesus have to say to those present" "Who find it difficult to believe in him? Without rigmarole" "Piety is not what the lessons bring to people" "It's the mistake they bring to the lessons" "it's getting to be night" "I still have stuff to carry" "And a long drive" "I'll help do you have a destination in mind?" "Never mind" "I won't ask" "Thank you" "Anyone mentally ill can imagine" "A fantastic background Even an entire life" "And sincerely believe it" "The man who thinks he is napoleon" "Does believe it" "His true identity has taken a backseat" "To his delusion and the need for it There is a grave disorder" "Organized brilliantly" "He's got an answer for everything Replaced by this fantasy" "He says he can't remember his father" "Precisely why?" "You said he was sane" "Did I?" "Do you think that perhaps our caveman" "Has a monkey on his back?" "Drugs?" "no" "I've done a lot of consulting work with narcotics strung out it isn't that" "I've looked for signsNone" "Could cavemen really talk?" "We think that language came into existence 000 years ago" "The structure of stone age culture" "Is evidence of the ability to communicate" "Verbally shut up" "Maybe it'd be easier if I were" "Crazy?" "No A brave attempt to teach buddhism in the west" "It's no wonder he failed" "We're not ready for it" "You're talking as if you believed him isn't it?" "anything is possible we have two simple choices" "We can get all bent out of shape Or we can simply relax and enjoy it But I don't have to make up my mind about anything" "But you think you do? So we couldn't stop him there" "There are experts on the bible" "Dream on thus the lost years of Jesus" "He didn't exist until John put on a hat But there are stories about the childhood of Jesus" "History hates a vacuum Fills the gaps" "It would have been easy" "To falsify a past back then credulity Time would do the rest" "Now you're talking as if you believed him look at the popular myths surrounding" "The Kennedy assassination in a few short years" "CIA" "That's a mystique that'll never go away" "It's always been a small step from a fallen leader to a god" "I don't think anybody will deify kennedy" "We're more sophisticated than that" "We are?" "We are" "you're finally fulfilling" "John" "What's that?" "Here you are again" "John" "I've had a fireplace" "I guess" "Helps me to feel secure" "There are predators out there" "One thing I didn't pack" "I thought I might need it" "Wouldn't sacre du printemps be more appropriate?" "What?" "You've got my friend" "WeWe don't know what to make of you" "Did you know voltaire was the first to suggest" "That the universe was created by a gigantic explosion?" "I think paul would agree" "And then goethe was the first to suggest" "That spiral nebulae were swirling masses of stars" "We now call them galaxies" "It's kind of funny how often new concepts of science" "Find their first tentative forms of expression in the arts" "So did beethoven do physics on the side?" "He spent most of his time lying on the floor" "In front of his legless piano" "Surrounded by orange peels and apple cores" "Now we're on the floor listening to beethoven" "Full circle um Or did you give it much thought?" "You can't get there with thought" "You have faith?" "In a lot of things" "Do you have faith in the future of the race?" "I've seen species come and go" "Depends on their balance with the environment" "We've made a mess of it If we use it well" "Christianity has been a worldwide belief 000 years" "How long did the egyptians worship isis" "Or the sumerians ishtar?" "sacred cows wandered freely" "As reincarnated souls they'll be barbecued" "And their souls will be in squirrels" "You weren't Jesus!" "Edith" "If it rains it won't" "How do you know that?" "I don't smell it" "Were you" "I guess a medicine man?" "I was a shaman a few times" "I revealed some truths to eat a little better" "You think that's all religion is about selling hope and survival?" "The old testament sells fear and guilt Put into my mouth by poets and philosophers" "That are much smarter than I am" "The message is never practiced" "Fairy tales build churches" "What about the name "Jesus"?" "Did you pull that out of a hat?" "I called myself John" "I almost always do" "Meaning "god is gracious" "My stay on earth was seen" "As divine proof of immortality" "That led to "god is salvation" "And it was a wonder to watch it all happen" "Then you didn't claim to be the son of god?" "Began as a schoolhouse and ended as a temple" "I said I had a master that was greater than myself" "I never said he was my father" "I wanted to teach what I learned I never raised the dead" "I never spoke of divine except in the sense" "Of human goodness on earth" "No wise men came from the east to worship at a manger" "I did do a little healing" "With some eastern medicine I'd learned" "That's it" "The three wise men began as a myth" "About the birth of the Buddha" "kissing my wife trapped by your story" "hoping for arevolution?" "I don't know" "uh more revelations for us?" "It's just like old times" "You weren't Jesus" "Quote the sermon on the mount" "Which one?" "New American Standard?" "Do you know them all?" "not even me" "I" "I did some teaching on a hill one day" "Not that many people stayed" "But you Who do you think I am?" "He gave them a choice" "I'm giving you one" "Were you?" "could you ever be sure?" "Turn that off" "Please" "This has gone far enough" "It's gone much too far" "These people are very upset But what you're saying is not true" "That leaves only one explanation" "The time has come when you must admit" "This is a hoax a lie" "John?" "If you don't drop this now-If you can" "I'll be convinced" "That you need a great deal of attention" "I can have you committed for observation" "You know that" "I ask you now" "I demand it" "That you tell these people the truth" "Give them closure" "John" "Please" "End of the line Everybody off" "What?" "!" "It was a story" "It was all a story" "Good god!" "Another fairy tale?" "All of it?" "But what" "What in the name of heaven And it's just a story!" "asinine idea?" "At least you're relieved I'm not a nut" "I'd prefer you were!" "You gave me the idea" "All of you" "Come again?" "Edith saw my fake Van Gogh" "You could have just told me" "You commented that I never age" "You gave me the book on early man you spotted the burin if stones could speak" "I knew it" "I ran it past you and I took it too far" "Too far?" "Check my reaction If I'd created future identities the analytical stretch" "You were playing my game!" "I was playing yours right?" "man One inside the other inside the other inside the other" "I feel like I'm in the last box" "You son of a bitch!" "How could you do this to us?" "I was worried about you But I couldn't resist seeing whether or not" "You could refute what I was saying" "I had the perfect audience Christian literalist a psychologist" "I've had enough of this" "I'm outta here You wanna come?" "Let's go" "John" "Are you gonna write the story?" "I'll send you copies okay?" "You are absolutely certifiable" "I don't know you!" "Dr Oldman isn't it?" "Old man?" "Did that help you with your story?" "Linda!" "Bye" "Art was half right" "Which half?" "at least I don't have to throw away half" "Of what I know about biology" "Which half? so full of possibilities" "doctor" "Maybe I will" "I'll interview you in the rubber room" "For further details my friend" "My ass" "I thought it sounded pretty good" "They believe you because they have to" "But the one thing that I know about you" "Is that you would never use people" "Or abuse their goodwill and intelligence" "Like they think you've just done to them" "Psych 101?" "one-on-one But I wanna know What's your real name?" "the sound was always John" "Why'd you cave to Gruber?" "What happened was enough" "JustJust needed to stop" "I shouldn't have expected it to work" "Fourteen thousand years old" "I bet that's a lot of women" "Are we counting?" "Maybe" "I'm taking Edith home" "Sandy?" "I'm gonna stay" "Are you sorry for some of those things you said?" "I'm sorry I said them" "Well John" "Oh!" "Well But we're all so thankful you're all right" "Even Art he just hates things he can't understand But I admit I got a kick out of" "Chasing my tail around your maypole even if that is all I caught" "Good luck to you" "Wish you the best Thank you" "Ready?" "good night" "Mm-hmm" "Mmm man" "Something about this" "John The more I'm no longer in that chinese box" "I sensespace as everybody keeps saying" "anything's possible no" "No No more words And I'm gonna watch star trek" "For a dose of sanity Wherever this may lead you" "You drop me a line sometime" "Let me know how you're making out" "I will" "Mm Mwah" "John Oldman" "What other pun names have you used?" "Lots John Savage" "Got really crazy about 60 years ago I was John Thomas Partee" "John T Partee Boston tea party" "I get it" "I know wait" "Boston?" "60 years ago?" "J-John Partee?" "You did not teach chemistry!" "I do not believe you!" "Your mother's name was Nola" "No Yeah" "No" "My mother!" "I reject this!" "My My My dog's name" "We had him before I was born" "Woofie woofie" "Gruber She remarried?" "She said you abandoned us" "I had to move on" "You know that I left enough" "I left enough I'm cold always cold" "Never could stand the cold you." "You had a beard you used to tug on it" "To see if it was real" "Agh!" "Will!" "God now!" "Will" "Will buddy" "Dr Oldman" "In case there are any questions" "I'll be back for the funeral" "Miss" "You never saw a grown child die" "No" "Subtitles ßy MühàmmáÐ Ü§mâñ"