In a seaside town there was once a strong storm. After the storm, the beach had eggs scattered all about its sands. They looked like large bird’s eggs. They had been washed up from the sea. Everyone was afraid of the eggs, so no one went to the beach. The next spring, the eggs hatched. A chattering mouth came out of each of the eggs. No one saw the chattering mouths except one man who had dared to come by the beach that day. He said to himself, "I would certainly like to learn what those chattering mouths have to say." He said to the chattering mouths, "What have you, then, to say?" They said, "We must find a heart and head to bury ourselves inside, and there find a place to speak." The man said, "I would certainly like to hear what you have to say, for I am wandering and wandering, seeking wisdom; and here you have hatched out of eggs washed up from the sea, so I expect that you must have some wisdom within you." The chattering mouths said, "We have wisdom, yes; but it comes through a confused filter, and the one who has us in his heart will be confused." "How’s this?" said the man. "Is there wisdom in madness?" The chattering mouths said, "No one can go mad but that he gives his consent, and centuries ago desired to go mad, in order to find wisdom; and no one can become wise but that he suffers madness or some other terrible thing; but suffering in this world is not a rare thing, and there are many who have found wisdom; but here we go chattering already, and we have yet to find a heart and head to bury ourselves in, so that we may chatter and speak." The man said, "Why, I have a heart, one that is a kind and hospitable place; and I have a head, one that is both sharp and humble." And thus the chattering mouths entered him, and buried themselves in his heart and head, and began to speak. Three years later the man was seen naked walking the streets saying, "They’re trying to kill the prophet," and other strange things. He was put into a state hospital, and he said to the chattering mouths, "Would that I had never let you into my heart and head, for here I am suffering and suffering." They said, "We merely shift your world, so that your world is constantly new to you, and you live in a different world from everyone else. To them, you are a madman who was found confused in the street. To you, they have locked you up because you are a prophet, a powerful and dangerous one, and they seek to kill you." The man said, "When, then, will I be wise?" The chattering mouths said, "And look—you are already wise. For your reality keeps shifting, so that you see what an illusion reality really is. Since reality shifts so much for you, you already are beginning to see that reality is a magic trick the mind plays upon itself. But the reality the world lives in—that does not shift so quickly, but evolves along with history—is just as much illusion as your madness, only it is a common illusion, and they do not see it, but are deceived." And the man realized his wisdom; but still he went on suffering and suffering, so that he said, "Certainly wisdom is only yeast of so much agony; certainly illusions are a pleasant thing, and a painful thing to lose." And he fell down and wept, and saw himself weeping from the outside.