This is a true story; believe what you will. Shortly after quitting school, I rediscovered the joys of reading. The crap they forced us to read in school held no interest for me. So I wandered the aisles of the old library, selecting books whose titles piqued my interest, and would spend hours in their reading area devouring their contents.

One day, I happened upon a book whose title I cannot recall. It talked about a storehouse in the cosmos where every thought ever thought, and every word ever spoken was stored. All one needed was the key to tap into it. I checked the book out and spent hours in the partially finished room in my parents' basement doing as the pages instructed.

There was no crack of thunder or sudden rush of knowledge, but I did feel calm that I had never felt and was not so stressed. I kept the book long after its due date and cheerfully paid the late fees. I planned to take the book out again and come up with a story that I had lost the book and would pay whatever the library needed.

I was going to do it right there and then, but I noticed I didn't have much time to get to work. So I departed, leaving the book there. I returned to the library three days later but could not find the book. I checked the shelves above and below where I found it, but nothing.

I located the head librarian and asked if any books had been taken to the basement storage, where all the older books are eventually taken. I was informed that no books had been taken away. I waited a week and checked the shelves again, on the chance that someone else had checked it out, but nothing. She asked me the name and author, neither of which I could recall, but I did describe the book cover. She asked about the subject matter, and I told her. She could not recall a book like that.

In the years that followed, I checked that shelf every time I visited the library. I never found it again.

Did it work, you ask? There were too many instances where I knew a subject that I had never studied. I had numerous ESP experiences where I had none before, and I still have them. It also taught me the importance of writing things down; it served me well when I became a cop.

As I said at the start of this tale, read into this what you will.