“Essence touches on fascinating concepts like mind spirit, body connections while keeping the plot moving. A truly original book, something I am not able to say very often.”
Essence: Assault on The Mind
You are not alone.
In a dimension beyond space and time, minds can be seen. Neuroscientist, Karl Hoffman, has learned to do more than see; he can control. Using technology designed to help quadriplegics communicate, he created eTelepathy, the most popular app of the year. Once downloaded, it allows for ongoing paranormal influences from its creator. Having killed a colleague with this telepathic power, Hoffman now plans to use it to control millions more, including FBI agent John Rocco, who has no belief in the supernatural. As Rocco pursues his suspect from a warehouse in Brooklyn to the jungles of Nicaragua, his suspect likewise pursues him through the demons in his own mind.
Bringing in this perpetrator will be more challenging than Rocco could imagine. From string theory physics and hidden dimensions to premonitions and near-death experiences, he will need to understand the transcendent nature of his own mind in time to save the lives of his team members, and stop the imminent loss of free thought in millions.
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Awards
GLOBAL THRILLERS Book Awards 2017 SHORTLIST for Lab Lit and Global Thrillers
Dr. Karl Hoffman - Illustration by Rebecca Loomis
Character Profiles
John Rocco, FBI agent (Protagonist)
on Justice
We struggle to solve crimes in the name of justice. Yet from the get-go, we’ve already failed. There’s not a single case that I’ve worked over the years where I’ve gotten there in time. We’re always there after the fact, picking up the pieces–failures in the face of evil. Yes, we put away the perp and prevent his next crime, but what about his last crime? There’s no sentence that can bring back the dead. Where’s the justice then? So many victims…People say let it go and move on, but how, or better yet, why? Why let it go? It’s righteous anger, after all. Better to rage against injustice than to overlook it. It’s my anger that keeps me sane and focused. It may make me stubborn and bullheaded, but that too keeps me focused, keeps me alive. If it weren’t for my anger, the memory of all those victims would consume me.
Dr. Karl Hoffman, neuroscientist (Antagonist)
On Power
Did you know, glass is a liquid, a slowly moving liquid, not a solid? In the windows of old buildings, you can see waves in the glass. For years, that glass has been slowly streaming downhill with gravity, moving so slowly no one saw it move until decades passed and evidence could be seen that it had moved. Look at the glass in your own windows. Can you see it move, see the reality before your own eyes, or are you blind? I see what you do not, perceive what you cannot. Perception is power, and power is everything.
Clare Bristol, FBI agent
On Souls of the Dead
Souls of the dead are real. I’m certain of it. Dr. Lejour says that the soul is the essence of a person, the origin of their will. He says that, unlike animals, who are ordered by instinct, we are ordered by our own will–we choose our order–who and what we will be. That free will implies an independent existence, so when our soul’s connection with our brain is broken at death, there’s no reason to assume our soul’s existence should end. I think I’ve always known that. They say the memory area of the brain is near the olfactory area. That’s why memories can often be associated with aromas, like the smell of a home-cooked meal. I can remember the smell of my father’s coat so vividly: the times when he would come home, pick me up and spin me around. I’d hold on to his jacket, giggling, and all my troubles would disappear. I’d feel safe and happy wrapped up in the lovely wool smell of his coat. I think those memories are tied up with more than the sense of smell. There’s a reality there, a connection with the souls of the dead. I just know it.
Dr. Paul Lejour, vascular surgeon
on Telepathy
It is the nature of minds to interact. There is a natural order underlying all life, in which the minds of animals interact and are directed through instinct. All life forms demonstrate purposeful behavior, behavior that not only demonstrates understanding from a higher perspective, but also coordination. This coordination can be quite remarkable: the complex delegation of duties in an ant or bee hive, the precise migration of birds. What is that, but the interaction of those creatures’ minds? Our minds too interact, but not automatically through instinct. Because of our free will, how we direct our will determines if and with whom we will interact. But the capacity for that interaction is there. It is real and waiting for you to utilize it.