v0.32.009/29/2026

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The phenomenon bar

A Parisian street counter named ‘The phenomenon bar’, with a conspiracy theorist, a psychiatrist, a priest, and an imam inside a Haussmannian building.

I came up with an idea for a concept bar that could exist in Paris. After all, I was thinking there are already cereal bars, crumble bars, madeleine bars, edible raw cookie dough bars, etc. So I figured there could be a phenomenon bar.

That could be funny, right? Four co-founders with pretty different backgrounds who set out together in entrepreneurship with a new concept. A conspiracy theorist, a priest, an imam, and a psychiatrist. And if the business takes off, we can imagine them recruiting new members to join the team: a Buddhist monk, a rabbi, a cosmic Christ, etc.

Just a heads-up: I wasn't very patient while creating the images with AI. The successive images didn't do a very good job of respecting the setting, and by the end of this short story the counter is almost in the middle of the street. 🤣

The phenomenon bar with two speech bubbles

Honestly, if it existed, I think I’d go just to see what it looks like.

A dialogue scene at the phenomenon bar

I feel like we can group the ways humans interact with and interpret the phenomenon into 3 groups: conspiracy theories, religion/spirituality, and psychiatry. And then each of these groups has lots of toppings.

A top-down view of the phenomenon bar menu, with topping categories and their prices

Okay, I admit I didn't make an exhaustive list of all the toppings, but you get the idea. I think I could have added “spirituality” to the middle column. Honestly, I could have added to the left column the people who talk about parallel universes, the fifth dimension, cosmic stuff, etc. Basically, all that stuff that's way too complicated and that, honestly, seems to lead to… nothing.

The phenomenon bar employees react to the main character's question

Honestly, that's kind of how I see things: taking ideas/ingredients that I find interesting from all the toppings.

If I could, I would take targeted individuals: the fact that they manage to identify patterns in the interactions between people experiencing the phenomenon and other people, the fact that they are 100% convinced that it exists and is happening right now, the fact that they know antipsychotics aren't the solution, and the fact that, by coming together, we could make things change. Even though they are heading completely in the wrong direction, want to take the people experiencing the phenomenon to court, and hope for financial compensation.

From religions, I would take the fact that this is not new at all: religions talk to us about omniscience, omnipresence, peace, kindness, helping others, angels, demons, djinn, etc., who can communicate with humans through thought, through revelations, and so on. But then, paradoxically, and I’ll talk about this in another dedicated story, they also spread through violence, division, and the idea that one's own religion is better than everyone else's. From Christianity, I think Jesus could be a model for how to behave when people experiencing the phenomenon decide to interact with someone and we want to get better. From Islam, I would take the idea that Jesus was just one among many, and that it talks about the invisible world and djinn as something active. From Buddhism, the story of Yogi Milarepa and the demons shows that, in the end, demons do nothing once a person learns to control their emotions, etc. I'm not going to list all the pros and cons of religions and beliefs, but I think what matters is that ALL humans are just humans. There is no incarnate god.

And as for psychiatrists, honestly, I don't really know what we could take from them. For them, it's a 100% internal problem that can be solved with treatment. But paradoxically, it's supposed to be the best solution available today. But as I said elsewhere, I don't see how a medication could make it possible to stop hearing voices that contain information I sometimes didn't even know myself, or how a treatment could correct traumas, etc. Especially since these medications tend to cause a huge number of side effects. I even joined several Facebook groups dedicated to what people call “schizos,” out of curiosity. I read many very sad testimonies there, especially about the use of antipsychotics, which cause many side effects, and many people report having to combine several treatments that are supposed to create balance by counteracting one another's side effects.

The phenomenon bar employees reacting with surprise to the main character

I really feel like none of the existing solutions provides a genuine turnkey solution. The problem with all the current toppings is that they are all too negative about the phenomenon and/or the people experiencing it. And above all, they are all too complicated, with lots of completely irrelevant misinformation. That's why I thought the perfect topping would be a kind of Frankenstein topping made up of little pieces from all over the place.

A dialogue scene at the phenomenon bar
The phenomenon bar employees discreetly confer at the back of the room
The conspiracy theorist replies after consulting his colleagues at the back of the phenomenon bar
A new dialogue scene at the phenomenon bar, with three speech bubbles and one thought bubble

But on the other hand, if we take little pieces from all over the place, we also take on connotations, sometimes things that are too complicated, negative, etc. At least by starting from scratch, I feel like we can make something direct and to the point, K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, stupid). All we need to remember is that the people experiencing the phenomenon are good and decent, even though they like to challenge us and make us think otherwise, that we need to live and think positively, try to avoid negative thoughts as much as possible at every level and of every kind, and that we can draw inspiration from existing toppings while being careful about the words we use. I’ll probably change this story later; I’m not completely satisfied with how it’s written.

Posted on 09/27/2026