The Secret of Secrets (Robert Langdon, #6)

by Dan Brown

“Robert,” she whispered. “They’ve built a death lab.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Langdon said. “Take your classified binder back. We’ll sign NDAs. We’ve seen some of your facility, but we understood almost nothing.” Finch chuckled. “Bright people playing dumb? That’s never very convincing, Professor. Allow me to enlighten you.”

But the world’s most gifted minds cannot come close to achieving what can be achieved in the altered state that accompanies death.” This is exactly what Katherine wrote about…Langdon realized, recalling

Stargate conspiracy documentaries on television. One particularly alarming film was called Third Eye Spies, and although the agency gave it the standard brush-off response, Judd recalled being surprised how many of the film’s conspiratorial claims were accurate…including the suspicion that Stargate’s public failure had been a carefully stage-managed illusion.

They have no proof…but they’re not wrong.

The age-old argument, Nagel thought. Someone is going to do it, so it had better be us. The most dangerous and ethically questionable scientific endeavor in history—building an atomic bomb—had been launched on a similar justification.

“If we locate Sasha,” Katherine added, “we’ll take her somewhere safe, and the ambassador will have all the leverage she needs to protect you.” “I hope you’re right,” Kerble said. “Court-martials have a way of ruining a weekend.”

“I don’t think that gag is for sex,” she said. “I think it’s for protecting the teeth and tongue during an epileptic seizure.”

As he eyed the skullcap, however, he noticed something glinting in the light—a tiny fiber stuck on the rubber cap. The strand was so small that had it not been luminescing, Langdon would never have noticed it. That can’t be what it looks like… He reached down and carefully plucked the item off the cap, holding it up to the light. There was no doubt what he was looking at, but what Langdon could not fathom was what it was doing here. This makes no sense at all. Then he felt an unexpected dread. Unless… Langdon’s classes on symbolism often included an adage: A shift in perspective will often reveal a hidden truth. This idea, in many ways, had defined Langdon’s career. His ability to view a puzzle from an unexpected angle had repeatedly enabled him to glimpse truths that others had missed.

Wait, is Sasha the Golem???

“I found this in the bathroom,” he said, holding up something tiny, pinched between his thumb and index finger. “It was stuck on the inside of his dirty skullcap.” Katherine saw what Langdon was holding. If he was correct, then everything they had believed about the golem figure was dead wrong.

The eyes staring back at him were bloodshot and weary…a face scarred by a violent past. He knew this was not a pretty face, and yet it was the face he had been given.

He had inhabitted her body through non-local consciousness.

Despite Sasha’s bodily presence in the room, she heard nothing. The Golěm had locked her away in a sleeplike void where she was blissfully unaware of all things, including even herself.

Although they shared this physical form, The Golěm had established his dominance long ago, always in control, carefully filtering what Sasha witnessed, remembered, understood.

This was a genuinely good twist, and it explains so much.

The Golěm would never forget that horrifying moment in the Russian psychiatric hospital, when Sasha’s soul, unable to endure another moment of suffering, had called out to the universe in desperate need of help. The moment of my birth…

Could this explain DID?

The phenomenon goes by the clinical term ‘dissociative identity disorder’—although most of us know it more commonly as ‘split personality disorder’—a psychological phenomenon that presents as multiple distinct personalities inhabiting a single body.”

Oooo, I'm on a roll!

“I wonder,” she ventured, “if Threshold chose epileptics as test subjects because of their natural predisposition to out-of-body experiences…or because epileptics provided Brigita the perfect cover to do brain surgery without raising suspicion.”

Before modern psychiatric care, many of those exhibiting a split personality were taken to the only psychiatric professionals available—priests. The Church frequently diagnosed them with “demonic possession” and prescribed a common treatment plan: “exorcism.” To this day, the Rite of Exorcism was still performed regularly on individuals with mental disorders,

Perhaps an exorcist is not trying to coax a demon out of a body…but rather trying to retune the body’s receiver to block the unwanted station.

conspiracy theorists suffered a kind of cognitive pareidolia, seeing suspicious patterns where no patterns existed…hallucinating order out of chaos.

“And not to be grim,” she added, “considering the sensitive nature of this project…her chip might also be equipped with remote destruct capability. It’s a common protocol for advanced technologies in the field,

“You think Sasha’s brain chip can be remotely…destroyed?

“I am not suggesting Sasha return to Threshold as it was. I will tolerate zero further testing on Sasha Vesna. Period. She will return as the program’s most valuable and cherished asset, to be treated as such, and to live well. Sasha is a triumph—she represents the program’s greatest victory to date, and her presence offers an invaluable research opportunity.

I will stress to the director that Threshold’s experimentation on this woman’s brain most likely exacerbated her mental condition, if not caused it altogether. In other words, I will make him understand that Sasha’s mental well-being is the agency’s ultimate moral responsibility. In the end, Director Judd will be highly motivated to ensure Sasha’s overall health—especially knowing I will be watching with my finger on a trigger.”

will be an on-site, personal advocate for Sasha Vesna—her living conditions, her safety, and her mental well-being. I will do the same for those who will participate in the program in the future.”

“Having oversight will give me something crucial as well—the opportunity to redeem myself and the terrible mistakes I’ve made.”

I think this is a great way to make up for what happened under her watch.