Man Convinced He Will Die at Same Moment his Copy of Pink Floyd’s “P•u•l•s•e” Stops Blinking
San Francisco, CA – In what has become a debilitating phobia that is teetering on the brink of total breakdown, Pete Howell, a thirty three year old bartender from San Francisco has become convinced that he will die at the exact same moment his copy of Pink Floyd’s “P•u•l•s•e” stops blinking.
The album, which was released in 1995, is a double-live album from Pink Floyd, and its packaging included a blinking red LED light the side of its case. The LED’s pulse rate was set to the average pulse speed of a human being, and also synchs up with the heartbeat that can be heard at the beginning of “Dark Side of the Moon”. It’s this blinking LED light that Howell has become fixated with.
According to his friends, the whole situation started in 1997 after Howell and couple others each ingested a half ounce of psychedelic mushrooms. “He went pretty deep into his own soul.” his friend Dave Beech said. “So deep, in fact, that he believes that he and the album, which was blinking on a nearby shelf, became intertwined at such a profound level that once it stops blinking, his heart will also stop.”
His friends also said that at first, Pete had a sense of humor about the whole thing. According to another friend, Joe Mercer, “When he noticed it sitting on the shelf after work, or on the weekend, he’d joke about the day the batteries ran out and how he’d keel over at the same instant. But now, twelve years later, the idea is really starting to mess with his head. He’s become consumed by it. He quit going to work weeks ago and all he ever does is sit and stare at the CD wondering if each blink is going to be the last. It’s an awful way to live.”
Mercer and Beech have also tried numerous methods to try and fix the problem. “At first we thought if we just kept feeding him more mushrooms he’d make his peace with it. That definitely didn’t work. Then we tracked down a bunch of different testimonials from others who owned a blinking copy of ‘P•u•l•s•e’ and were just fine when the battery ran out, but Pete said there was no connection between them and their copies like there was between himself and his copy.”
The failed attempts have them debating drastic measures. “If he slips much further,” says Mercer, “I think we may just have to hold him down while someone removes the batteries and shows him it will be ok. But we’re not sure we want to do it on the outside chance he’s right.”
