Taken from the notion of quantum physics that everything is split up into sub-atomic particles so tiny that in theory we are all interlinked, immersed within a sea of energy. This growing theory is taken forward to the everyday in fictional texts such as Ballard's short story collection Myths of the Near Future. In the story with the book's namesake, the country is suffering from a sickness that is induced by overexposure to UV light which ultimately cause humans to vibrate at a different frequency, in effect merging with the surrounding energy. We are never quite sure however if this sickness is universal or just the protagonists 'enlightened' state.

Likewise in News from the Sun, after space-travel has become the norm, the residents of the Sunshine Strip and surrounding desert start to suffer from time sickness where individuals loose consciousness. This creates lapses of lost time that progressively gain in length and number, leading eventually to a full time 'fuge' where everything appears much more colourful, numerous and surreal; perhaps taking the characters back into time (or another dimension) to when the desert was plentiful.