Update 2

I realize the origins of this book might seem a bit obscure, so let me share part of the story behind it. It's not a tale of triumph, but it's the raw truth.

My childhood dream of filmmaking morphed into producing TV commercials. While that seemed like a reasonable career shift, it led me down a path of questionable choices. After a decade, the work lost its appeal. Drinking, already a part of the advertising culture, became a central part of my life. Then, the pandemic hit, and working from home exacerbated the problem. I nearly drank myself to death.

One night, about four years ago, I collapsed in my bathroom, vomiting blood profusely. It turned out the blood vessels in my esophagus had ruptured, a catastrophic result of prolonged heavy drinking. The doctors miraculously stopped the bleeding, but that was just the beginning. My body, now in the hospital, succumbed to a cascade of complications: sepsis, C-diff, and multiple infections. Any one of them could have been fatal.

Thirty-seven days later, I woke up in the ICU. I'd lost a hundred pounds. I had to relearn everything: eating, using the bathroom, walking, even thinking clearly. My family was kept at a distance due to COVID restrictions, and those who visited were unrecognizable in their PPE, like alien beings. It took weeks before I could speak again. Even after the tracheotomy, speech was a struggle. And I was still living my coma dream, unable to distinguish it from reality.

Over the past four years, I've tried to capture that experience through notes, drawings, a Minecraft world, and AI visualizations. It's remarkable that these tools emerged just as I needed them to make sense of what I saw. This book, 'The Orb,' is my most comprehensive attempt to share that inner world. The beach in the image was a key location in my dream, my entry point to the Orb and a sort of home base. The resort was nestled in the jungle behind the beach, and the underwater world of restoration (the plastic-looking underwater homes) was accessible by swimming out and turning downward to the right. I'll share more details about these images this week. They're fascinating to explore. Thank you again for your unwavering support!