SALONIKA MIRRORS

By Clement Masloff

Expelled from an Athens psychiatric hospital for his radically new methods, Athos Gavrion returns to Salonika, his native city, to open a clinic that uses self-hypnosis, electronic mirrors, and blue laser light. Aglaia Chryseis. a student of ancient Greek mythology, becomes interested in the new system and becomes an assistant to Athos.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: The Mulberry Books
• Release date: Jan 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781952864094

Clement Masloff

The author has been involved with science fiction and speculative literature since teaching himself to read in 1941-1942. He served in the Army as a linguist and translator in four Balkan Slavic languages. For several decades, he taught sociology in Ohio after graduating research in Russian social history. In his retirement years, he has been writing science fiction, a return to dreams of the early 1940s.

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Salonika Mirrors

Copyright © 2020 by Clement Masloff.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher and author, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. The author and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

ISBN: 978-1-952864-10-0 [Paperback Edition]

978-1-952864-09-4 [eBook Edition]

Printed and bound in The United States of America.

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Part I.

I.

Dr. Athos Gavrion left Athens on the maglev night train named the Macedonia Express. He was going back to the northern metropolis of his birth, Salonika, with a heavy mental burden of failure from his time in the Greek capital. Staying awake, he spent his time looking out the window of the compartment that he occupied alone, planning what he now pinned his hopes for the future on. The final sight before his eyes was that of sunrise over the pure, light blue waters of the Gulf of Thermaikos. Shining rays of glowing yellow. orange, and pink illuminated the city and its grand port as the maglev neared its destination.

I am now home, and this is where I have to change my Athens failure into turnabout and victory, Athos commandingly told himself.

Uncle Pavlos Arvos, brother of my late mother, promised to meet me at the maglev depot and take me to the downtown apartment he has already chosen and leased for me. He is a lawyer who knows how to get practical things done better than I ever have, Athos smiled to himself.

Morning was developing into a pleasant spring day as the tall, boney but strong young physician who had focused on psychiatry in Athens climbed down from the express train once it rested in the Salonika main rail station.

The dominant, brilliant whiteness of the city landscape glowed in the Aegean sunlight.

Seconds after reaching the waiting hall he caught sight of his short, heavy-set uncle. The two greeted each other and exchanged hearty hugs. Then the advocate said to his nephew We will get the luggage you brought with you, then take an amaxa cab to the apartment I found for you. As you wrote me that you wished, it is in the Ladadika section and not at all expensive. I do not understand why you would want to be located in a Bohemian area such as that has become, said the uncle with a chuckle.

It will not be expensive, that is for certain, smiled Athos. I plan to establish a personal, independence practice for myself there, on the western side of our port of Salonika. There should be many men and women in Ladadika who need the aid that I can provide to them.

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The apartment, on the top floor of a building near the Kapani open market, was furnished with old but serviceable furniture. The two men had their cabdriver help carry in the traveler’s luggage. Nephew and uncle then sat down in the living room to talk.

Are you going to start at once to build yourself a private practice here in the city? inquired the attorney.

Athos seemed to hesitate for a moment. "I want to take my time and move ahead slowly. Perhaps word has come to you from Athens concerning my troubles there with the authorities of the Medical Association. All the hospitals are closed to me as punishment for what was said to be my horrible offense. I was accused of practicing psychiatry without specialized license or training. The organized medical profession did not tolerate or accept that.

My enemies slandered and chased me out of Athens, Uncle.

You should be better off back here in Salonika, Athos. This city is where you truly belong.

The doctor gave a sigh of agreement. "Both father and mother, before I lost them, taught me to be sympathetic and generous to people who were suffering with internal pain. That is how I reacted to and treated the patients who came to me for medical relief, both in the hospital and outside, on my own.

I was willing to apply unconventional, experimental methods and procedures. That was what brought the cruel opposition and hatred I was made to suffer in Athens. Official psychiatric medicine was unable to allow me to attempt what I came to believe in. They called me a lunatic, a speculator and dreamer, a madman endangering the mental health of those I dared to treat with what were labelled my magical mirrors.

The pair fell silent in their separate thoughts, until the uncle excused himself and departed.

Call me if there is anything I can do for you, Athos, muttered the older man as he exited through the door.

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The following day, Dr. Gavrion visited a rental agency and spoke with an experienced representative about what he needed for his intended purposes.

I want an office space with extensive electrical current sources, because I plan to be using some complex, advanced electronic equipment, he explained. There should also be a room where a large group of people can meet. I foresee myself assembling a number of individuals for different medical purposes.

I think I know the vacant location that meets your purposes, sir, smiled the rental agent. It is here in Ladadika, in the area close to Aristotle University.

That sounds good, grinned Athos. I would like to inspect the place this afternoon.

Before night fell that day, Athos had signed a lease for the office that he sensed was the right one for him and his innovative instruments of psychiatric treatment.

II.

Hylas Chryseis considered himself the foremost, most farsighted industrial entrepreneur in Salonika and nearly no one in the city would contest his claim, least of all his competitors.

The short, heavy widower was educated in both chemistry and marine engineering, and he had taken enormous risks that resulted in making him the primary developer of underwater projects in the Gulf of Thermaikos and the northern Aegean Sea. Mining of minerals and submarine aquacultural crops were the main areas of his series of constructed underwater stations and protected colonies. A large number of divers, miners, and farm workers labored for him down below within his company’s polymer vitrified shells.

Hylas lived with his one daughter, Aglaia, in a roomy mansion he purchased and brought up to date on the hill of the Old Town, the Ano Poli, north of the downtown area.

She was as short as her father, with a light, delicate body. Her hair and eyes were dark brown, identical to her father’s. An advanced student at Aristotle University, she was a dedicated researcher of ancient Greek folklore and religion.

Her absorption in the past and what remained from it was total.

Her father regretted that she had little interest in practical matters connected to science and technology.

How is your research project concerning the pre-Greek Pelasgians and their folklore proceeding, Aglaia? he asked one morning as the two of them shared a breakfast on the mansion balcony overlooking the lower city, the harbor, and the gulf.

The ancient Pelasgians remain a clouded enigma, a deep mystery, Father, explained his daughter. "They inhabited the Aegean in prehistory, before the coming of our Hellenic ancestors from somewhere to the North. They were the original human beings of this entire region of both land and sea. It is not clear who this indigenous race was, since they completed vanished. Perhaps the Greek invaders absorbed or destroyed them.

"Their name came from this people’s legendary founder, a Pelagos. Only a few hints or traces of them remain in our own folklore. Our scholars have had to make guesses concerning the gods they had from a limited number of sources and references. It is possible that much that we inherited about the Olympian gods and their ancestors was learned or borrowed from their religion and culture.

"It has amazed me from the beginning of my studies that our ancient Greek mythology contains gods and goddesses that resemble those of the Middle East, but are not found in Indo-European traditions. Why is that so? I ask myself when I focus on Dionysus and Venus, as well as the Great Mother figure.

How did our early ancestors come to have such unusual deities in their pantheon?

"It could be due to the forgotten Pelasgian factor behind the Hellenic constellation of divine beings, thus it may have been that the early Greeks learned about certain gods and goddesses from them.

I wonder about such a possible connection.

Hylas made a sour facial expression. I can think of many more useful and practical subjects worthy of study, my dear. My personal interests lie in the possible technologies of the future of our country, not its prehistory or its ancient origins and roots.

Neither said any more, until Aglaia excused herself and left for a class at the University, one on the most ancient Greek religious sources and what impression they left in Greek literature.

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A week after his nephew leased an office, Pavlos Arvos paid a visit to see the place for himself.

Athos led his uncle through the large front entrance room, then the consultation chamber and an examination area that held a number of diagnostic and treatment apparatuses.

The uncle stepped before a large console sitting on a table, staring at the image on its mirror-like face.

What in the world is that? inquired the visitor with perplexity in his tone. I have never seen anything like that. My own reflection is clear and sharp right there on what I imagine would be clear, transparent glass or plastic of some kind.

Athos smiled with delight. "That is a mechanism that I myself designed and ordered made for my new practice. It is a treatment mechanism that I experimented with back there in Athens.

"Yes, that is a mirror that the patients will see looking back at them. It is an easy way of placing a patient in a mesmeric trance by simple auto-hypnotism. I teach him or her to stare intently into the image that they see before them. They quickly learn the knack of getting their minds to focus and transport themselves between consciousness and total unconsciousness of the mind, into the intermediate state where I can explore their true state of thought and emotions.

They willingly act and open up their personalities and inner secrets to me, declared the physician with a smile of satisfaction and success.

Does it work, then? asked Arvos. Do you learn what is bothering your patients?

"Yes, but there is much more than that involved. You see, Uncle, there is a specially produced laser lighting that is irradiated through the mirror, into the eyes and the mind of the individual looking into the face of the mirror. The radiation is invisible to the patient, and cannot be sensed or felt in any way at all.

"What is accomplished through this apparatus is a rebalancing of the amounts of melatonin and serotonin that are being created within the neuro-hormonal system of the particular brain under treatment.

These rays are my secret weapon against the disorders of my patients. Of course, I fully inform each and every one of them about what is happening to their own, individual minds.

"Are you drawing a clientele with such radical innovation, Athos? Do you have a sufficient number of patients to continue with?

I worry that our Salonika psychiatrists may try to impede or stymy you somehow.

Athos seemed to chuckle. "So far, I have only a small handful of patients. But next week I intend to give a public lecture at Aristotle University on the new methods I work with, and I will reveal the marvelous successes and victories that are proof that I know what I am doing.

There is a difficult, terrible battle ahead for me, Uncle. But I am absolutely certain that my new, inventive methods will turn out triumphant in the end.

I hope so, murmured Pavlos Arvos in almost a whisper.

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It was a warm May evening that Aglaia entered her father’s mansion library-study to inform him that she was leaving and might return at some late hour.

"There is a special presentation tonight by a practicing doctor, and he is going to discuss what modern psychiatry can learn from the ancient Asclepians, the followers of the god of medicine. I believe