We journey to Heaven. Nirvana. Paradise. Ataraxia. Whatever term you wish to call it.

Item #: SCP-264

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-264 is currently contained within Area-264, located within the Tian Shan mountain range. Its original containment chamber and constituent artifacts have been restored, and is to be inspected monthly for signs of damage to ensure the efficacy of its shielding talismans.

Pilgrims wishing to visit SCP-264 are to be registered and vetted at the outer gate of Area-264 before admittance. Personnel are not permitted within a 1 metre radius of SCP-264 itself, with the exception of testing and observation.

Description: SCP-264 is the preserved cadaver of a hominin1 woman, dated to around 12,000 years old. It constantly hovers a few centimetres above the ground in a cross-legged position. It possess a unique Humic and Akivic signature, with elevated Hume measurements within its surroundings confirming its purpose as a form of anchor.

The location of SCP-264 within the vicinity of mountains with religious significance induced a shielding effect that made its discovery impossible until the deployment of the first-generation ATMOS2 orbital network, permitting a higher-contrast analysis of the mountain range and ultimately leading to the identification of SCP-264 in 1982.

An expedition sent to the location of SCP-264 found the object contained within a stupa3 and accessible via rudimentary emblematic gesturomancy, which individuals become aware of simply by observing the stupa. Alongside SCP-264, the interior of the structure hosts a collection of religious artifacts and paraphernalia from various major and minor faiths, including Tengriism, Hypsistarian Judaism, Taiping Taoism, and Anglican Christianity. These objects are not inherently anomalous, but are understood to serve as Akivic amplifiers and/or condensers for SCP-264.

SCP-264 is currently inhabited by a community of extradimensional organisms, who are responsible for the construction and maintenance of artificial structures built and contained entirely within the cadaver. It is understood that these organisms, hereafter referred to as GoI-264, have been continuously inhabiting SCP-264 since its expiration sometime before the end of the Younger Dryas Period.4 The Akivic signature of SCP-264 is likely attributable to its reverence by GoI-264 and extant sects.

On multiple occasions, SCP-264 has been partially reanimated by GoI-264 via internal mechanisms, allowing speech and perception of its surroundings. In recorded cases, this is done to facilitate communication between GoI-264 and external parties, including Foundation personnel.

Addendum 264.01: First Contact Incident Log

LOG-264-001-940416

Area-264, Kyrgyzstan

«BEGIN LOG»

Drs. Carnarvon and Tanaka are within the stupa. Wires connected to equipment and detectors carefully weave between the many neatly arranged relics and artifacts. Both researchers are sitting in foldable steel chairs, exchanging pleasantries and workplace gossip while waiting for the machines to produce reports of energy signatures and emanant radiation. Unbeknownst to them, SCP-264 enters a state of partial reanimation and opens its eyes.

CARNARVON: …which is why I'd rather look after corpses. No need for sensitivity training if the subject is —

SCP-264: Salutations.

Dr. Carnarvon falls out of his chair.

SCP-264: Apologies, we did not mean to alarm you.

CARNARVON: It's still alive! It speaks!

TANAKA: Yes, but "we"?

SCP-264: Correct. We had to make sure we loaded the right lexicon before attempting communications, so do forgive us for eavesdropping a bit.

TANAKA: You've quite the vocabulary for a 12,000 year old corpse. What are you? Some sort of hivemind?

SCP-264: We understand your confusion, but we are not a gestalt intelligence. This was once a corpse, but it is now a vessel, and "we" are those who operate this vessel. Come closer, and you will see.

TANAKA: Thank you for the offer, but I think—

Dr. Carnarvon picks himself up and walks towards SCP-264 without hesitation. He begins studying it intently, prodding the skin of the cadaver with his pen.

CARNARVON: What am I looking for..?

TANAKA: Don't touch the object without gloves.

CARNARVON: Yes, yes, I remember protocol. I'm not going to—

Dr. Carnarvon spontaneously disappears, while SCP-264 goes limp. It straightens itself up within seconds, assuming the voice and mannerisms of Dr. Carnarvon.

SCP-264: Oh this is weird. Uh… Tanaka? Can you hear me?

TANAKA: Carnarvon? What happened to you?

SCP-264: I'm inside the object. It's a vessel of some sort, like a submarine but the eye sockets are large observation windows. I can see you.

TANAKA: How are you speaking through SCP-264?

SCP-264: There are people in here, Tanaka. They let me use what I can only assume are the voice controls. Oop, hang on a moment.

Dr. Carnarvon materializes back in the stupa. SCP-264 falls limp once more as it changes controllers.

CARNARVON: Incredible. There must be hundreds of people in the eye sockets alone.

SCP-264: We thought it would be more direct to show you what we are, with your own eyes.

TANAKA: Who are you people?

SCP-264: There is no direct translation for what we are in your tongue. The closest word available to us, is "pilgrims".

«END LOG»

Following this interaction, containment procedures were amended to include proximity limits to prevent unauthorized displacement of personnel into the interior of SCP-264. A formal interview was promptly organized following the previous incident, Drs. Carnarvon and Tanaka in attendance.

LOG-264-002-940416

Area-264, Kyrgyzstan

«BEGIN LOG»

TANAKA: We understand that you're not a hivemind, and that we're currently speaking to a specific individual amongst your organization. Could we get a name?

SCP-264: We have shed such appellations long ago. We are pilgrims, first and foremost. Anything else is irrelevant. Our sum is greater than our individual parts.

CARNARVON: We'd like to expand on what you mentioned previously when we asked what you were. Pilgrims of which faith?

SCP-264: Any faith. All faiths. Look around you. Within this stupa lie the objects of faith and devotion for billions living and dead. See that they centre around us.

SCP-264: This vessel is Jerusalem. Mecca. Yazd. Approximations of analogues within this world, to be sure, but it is as close as translation permits.

CARNARVON: A pilgrim necessitates a pilgrimage, so where to?

SCP-264: A simple answer, one that we have answered many times before. It is a word present in every world, that all the more affirms our sacred path. We journey to Heaven. Nirvana. Paradise. Ataraxia. Whatever term you wish to call it.

TANAKA: In what sense? There are several interpretations of heaven, depending on which faith you ask.

SCP-264: Misguided interpretations. They are ersatz heavens, facsimiles of derivatives of retellings. True Heaven lies beyond. We are united in faith across worlds, across realms, across planes of existence, all towards attaining the perfect end that which all life is promised.

CARNARVON: One moment. "Realms"? "Planes of existence?"

SCP-264: We thought you would have surmised from the start, that we are not of this plane. Every world is a branch on a tree, and our collective faith spans over forests.

CARNARVON: We'd prefer direct confirmation, rather than allusions. I take it your pilgrimage is hence a multidimensional affair, but why?

SCP-264: True Heaven lies beyond. It is beyond any single one of us. Consider the tale of the Tower of Babylon. It is old enough that most worlds have some version written down. In their naivety and arrogance, mankind attempted to build a tower to heaven, only to be struck down by wrathful deities. Humanity is punished in some form or another, but such is the cost for trifling with gods and their petty domains. True Heaven lies beyond gods.

SCP-264: It is a painful lesson, but a lesson nonetheless. It is how most worlds shed their dependence on gods. Science, logic, and reason dominate humanity thereafter, but as we have all come to understand, true Heaven lies beyond the skies. We understand that this world has also arrived at this conclusion. "The Earth was blue, but there was no God."

CARNARVON: (Coughs.) Yuri Gagarin didn't actually say that.

SCP-264: Gaga-who?

TANAKA: Not important. Please continue.

SCP-264: Ultimately, we had come to understand that true Heaven lay beyond worlds. Once we had mastered the art and science of tunnelling to other worlds, we arrived at a profound realization that many others experienced the same revelation. We were pilgrims emerging from a fog of ignorance and misplaced faith, only to find that there were others walking our path alongside us the entire time.

CARNARVON: Is there any evidence of this true heaven that you speak of actually existing?

Dr. Tanaka glares at Dr. Carnarvon for tactlessly introducing this question.

SCP-264: Worry not, this is frequently asked question. True Heaven can be likened to the peak of a mountain. A mountain must have a peak because it is a mountain, but we may only know which of its peaks is the highest when one scales it, and sees for themselves that there is nothing beyond. Heaven exists because it must, and for what other reason have all worlds invented a word for it?

TANAKA: Would you have known if you had found this true heaven?

SCP-264: That we would. You would feel it in your hearts as we do. It is an implicit understanding ingrained in the conscious mind. For this, we too have documentation. Medical records. Autopsies. On very rare occasions, individuals may attain a spontaneous visualization of true Heaven. It comes as a sensation of lucidity amidst the slumber of the young, old, or sick, during which they begin a process of displacement between realms. Our instruments record unique brain activity, and we know from psychic measurements that true Heaven is a realm of pure light, among other elaborations. We do not understand the underlying factors, and it may well be purely random chance, but from what remains, we have confirmed that these individuals have tunnelled to true Heaven.

CARNARVON: To summarize, your evidence that true heaven exists in some interdimensional space is comprised of philosophical conjectures and an alleged random displacement or tunnelling process?

SCP-264: It is a multiversal truth. It must exist because the concept exists. There is an innate awareness in all of us that there is something out there after the end. True Heaven is known to us because we have dug deep enough within ourselves to discover this truth. And so we set off on our pilgrimage across worlds, spiralling ever-upwards towards Heaven. Or downwards, depending on how the cultural fabric of your world was spun.

TANAKA: You mentioned a vessel. Are we to understand you refer to this woman's cadaver?

SCP-264: Correct. She was the first we met in this world, when we spoke to her through the cracks between this world and ours. She thought us spirits of the wild, offering herself as an anchor to this world. We accepted her sacrifice, and gave her the means to enter true Heaven.

CARNARVON: You killed her and turned her corpse into a vessel?

SCP-264: Harsh words, but not entirely untrue. The tunnelling process is a complex affair. It involves projections into the living mind, slowly eking out a foothold to connect consciousnesses. It was a connection, not a vessel. It was only after she had passed of natural causes, a cancer of the intestine, that we began conversion of the body's internal structure into the vessel it is presently.

TANAKA: Elaborate on the nature of this vessel. Why do you need it? Is it akin to a submarine, or a space station perhaps?

SCP-264: Indeed. It is insulation for spatio-temporal mismatches between realities. It is almost always a necessity. In some cases, it is more conducive to assume a low-visibility stature, such as this vessel, instead of a full-sized structure, which has historically raised problems with native populations in certain worlds. The apparatus we use to perform tunnelling is also contained within this vessel, connecting this world to where we arrived from, and where we intend to go next.

CARNARVON: In that case, how come you've remained here in this dimension since, what, the last Ice Age?

SCP-264: There are always more pilgrims that wish to ascend to true Heaven from lower worlds. We maintain this vessel as a bridge between worlds. We guide pilgrims to worlds beyond, as though our pace may differ, our destination is all the same. This vessel is a rung in a very long ladder. Millions ascend and descend every day, each and every one on their own journey to Heaven. A billion more worlds rest above and below this one. We of this vessel simply assist and facilitate this arduous task.

CARNARVON: For 12,000 years?

SCP-264: We rotate staff, of course. The pilgrimage cannot end before one arrives at Heaven. We cannot tie pilgrims to this vessel forever. The original owner of this vessel herself chose to embark on her own pilgrimage following her passing. We can only pray that she has arrived by now.

CARNARVON: You mean to tell us you've been "tunnelling", as you say, to heaven for 12,000 years and still don't have confirmation regarding its existence?

SCP-264: Time runs differently between worlds with fluctuations in every passing moment. This conversation has taken days to process for us within the vessel. Do not misunderstand our practices. True Heaven will be attained, no matter how long the journey may be.

TANAKA: Understood. We apologize if we've been coming off a bit abrasive in some of these inquiries. Regardless, this has been a most productive exchange, but we have a final question. What degree of influence do you exert over the inhabitants of this dimension? Given that you've probably hollowed out the cadaver to fit your equipment, it can't ambulate. Much less go around collecting religious artifacts.

SCP-264: We have encountered a million versions of you. Kingdoms and domains and organizations like yours. Some friendly, others hostile. We do not engage in proselytization specifically to avoid drawing the ire of these actors. Alas, revelations cannot be kept under lock and key forever. Conceptualizations of true Heaven can occur spontaneously without rhyme nor reason. You may call them heresies, anathema, haram, but the believers in this world are drawn here regardless. They understand that which lies beyond what the faiths of this world can promise them. They find this vessel of their own will and capabilities, and who are we to deny the faithful their passage to Heaven? Often, they will bring objects of their old faith here, to serve as mementos and tribute, but most importantly as a token of recognition that whatever they used to believe in is merely an abstraction of what truly is. Of what true Heaven is.

Dr. Carnarvon begins to open his mouth to speak, but has their leg kicked by Dr. Tanaka. He remains silent.

TANAKA: Alright. This concludes the interview. Thank you for your cooperation.

SCP-264: A few final words. Consider them when deliberating how your organization chooses to interact with us and this vessel moving forward. We are a rung in a very long ladder. A rung which upon sits a million worlds. To break this connection is to provoke the fury of every single one. This has happened before. Do not let this happen here.

TANAKA: Rest assured, we will communicate your concerns to our superiors.

«END LOG»

Addendum 264.02: Analysis of SCP-264 Supplementary Materials

In follow-up interviews, documents pertaining to evidence of "true heaven" were received and analysed by Foundation medical personnel. It was found that all medical records of "tunnelling to true heaven" were consistent with fatalities associated with SCP-3966. Based on current understanding of SCP-264's internal mechanisms and interdimensional displacement technology, it is highly unlikely that there is any further overlap between the two anomalies.

This information is not to be communicated to GoI-264.

Footnotes

1. Testing indicates a genetic admixture of human, neanderthal, and trace Denisovan DNA.

2. Autonomous Terrestrial Monitoring and Observation Satellite.

3. A Buddhist structure built to house objects of religious significance, or serve as a burial marker. SCP-264 predates Buddhism by several millennia.

4. The most recent geological period of cooling, preceding the Holocene period and ending with a consistent increase in global temperature.