Under ordinary circumstances I would be outraged at the indignity, but given the alternative, I can only view this as a mildly painful inoculation to ward off what might have been a much more serious malady. The first time I experienced the echo, it was so transient that I imagine most people would have dismissed the phenomenon as just a trick of the light or a blurring of the vision. Fortunately, unlike most people, I’m acutely aware of conditions in my immediate surroundings at all times. I’ve never understood how someone could believe that there is a distinct line of demarcation between their body and their physical location. After all, the body is just the immediate, portable environment that contains the essential us. If I cut my hair or bleed or even if I were to lose a limb, that wouldn’t diminish who I am. We don’t have absolute control over our own bodies, any more than we do over the rest of our environment. I wouldn’t be able to grow back that missing limb, and if someone should choose to stab me or if the police locked me up, they’d be demonstrating that at least in some respects they have as much control over my body as I do myself.
