The Counsellor's Professor

**The Counsellor's Professor** (unofficial name) is a character that was alluded to several times in the audio-fiction series, *The Sounds of Nightmares*. He was The Counsellor's former professor and the first known person in the real world to propose the idea of The Nowhere.

## Biography

### Past

Many years before the story's events took place, the Counsellor's Professor proposed the idea that dreams came from a semi tangible place outside the mind, a place that was the essence of consciousness. His students were never quite able to understand his propositions, and they were never able to be proven. Upon releasing papers specifying his belief in the existence of another world, his career and reputation was ultimately ruined. After studying under this professor, the Counsellor held on to a copy of the papers written by his professor, which were revisited in the story.

### *The Theater of the Mind*

The Counsellor first mentioned his old professor in *The Theater of the Mind*, where he caught himself entertaining ideas of a metaphysical explanation for Noone's nightmares, muttering incredulously to himself that he sounds like his professor, whose ideas were always believed to be absurd and illogical. However, after his interviews with Noone, his professor's ideas were all he could think about. He mentioned these theories to Noone and spoke about both his and his colleague's struggle to understand what the professor was proposing.

After his third interview with Noone, the Counsellor found the copy of his professor's writings that he kept. He relented that he hopes and dreads his professor's words hold some truth. He read them aloud, telling how his old professor had attempted to convince those of his field that humankind is known for being wrong about many things and will eventually discover errors in former discoveries before finding the truth, and if those of the scientific field learned over time to question the universe and figure out there was no center to the universe, after years of multiple disproven beliefs, then it would only be a matter of time before they all questioned reality itself and came to the realization that their world may not be the only world, let alone the superior one.

### *A Deluge of the Inevitable*

In *A Deluge of the Inevitable*, the Counsellor once again brought up his professor when discussing how to access the Nowhere. He read a section in one of his professor's papers explaining the requisites necessary in order to enter the other world he believed existed. The first being gateways that he believed were hidden within their world, and secondly is a means to open these doors. His professor detailed how he believed the keys that are necessary to open the gateways to the other world were primarily cut out of fear. The Counsellor relented that he has a hard time understanding what his professor was trying to say, wondering if he simply lacks his professor's superior knowledge or madness.

Near the end of the chapter, the Counsellor once again pondered over his professor's words and concludes he was only partly right. Based on what he was able to gather about the Ferryman and the nightmarish nature of the Nowhere, he concluded that fear is an essential requirement to open the door to it, but had determined that the doors to the other world are not hidden within their world like his professor believed, but rather, within their minds.

## Trivia

* Although not much is known about the Counsellor's Professor, the Counsellor implies that he was mad. It is unknown if this is true or if this was a conclusion drawn based on the absurdity of his claims.

## References

1. ↑ An official source that states the name hasn't been found yet.

Noone • The Counsellor • The Candleman • The Workers • The Prisoners • The Tall Woman • The Child with Gooey Hair • Cici • The Bathers • Jester • The Merchants • The Shopping Mall • **The Counsellor's Professor** • The Performing Children (Rusty) • The Man in the Purple Suit • The Carnival People • The Dummy • Nomes • The Naughty Kids • The Balloon-Headed Man • The Puppet
Animals • Children • Unidentified Characters