The bell arrived in my Belgian apartment I had shared with Willy Van Luyten the first week after his death. When we were talking, suddenly we heard an electronic beep.

Below is a short excerpt describing some of my struggles with the unusual energy in my apartment after Willy’s death:

I was bewildered by the energy beginning to permeate the apartment Willy and I had shared—and felt the need to reach out to an old friend, though I had close female friends in a weekly “Inner Landscaping” course in self-development in Brussels and a “mystical Tai Chi” course in Leuven. But wanting someone with a longer view of me yet who wouldn’t laugh outright at the fact that since Willy’s death I had a nonphysical bell sounding in my apartment in response to thoughts—whom could I think of calling? Someone who took “weirdness” in stride?

Well, Hunter [Thompson].

Not that I told him right away about the bell or even about Willy, but I broached the topic of psychic experiences and he listened. At least, he didn’t dismiss them outright, but said he preferred the word “intuition.”

After numerous long calls January–April 1991, we found a window of opportunity to meet. It latched onto feelings never lost. We both felt the old tie that had never been broken stirred up.

However, Hunter did not know me as a mystic. He had only a clue or two about what was going on in my apartment, about which the reader will get more input coming right up. I did not know the extent of his increased drug use. It didn’t matter. We knew something more basic, which held on despite these important things that should have driven us apart. Would it when we met?

For more on the bell, click this link.