(cont.) "I didn't even see the ocean until I was in my twenties, but when I did, I knew I couldn't ever leave."
"It's horrible that we're killing so many of the beautiful things that live in it."
"But that's what we do, right? We can't stop. We're addicts."
"And as any addict can tell you, eventually you're going to have to stop or you're going to die."
"I bet I know what the ocean wants to happen. (Laughs.)"
"But there are other creatures in the ocean who aren't so docile, who aren't waiting to die."
"I don't know where they live, I just know they've been coming ashore."
"If you know where to look, you'll see the signs. Very faint, but there."
"They're like human footprints but not as heavy."
"They come out of the sea and then they go back."
"Eventually they're going to stay, though. I really believe that."
"How do I know? I don't. If you want pictures or videos, I don't have them. Like I said, it's what I believe."
"But I saw them once, too, so I believe in my eyes."
"It was after I moved here. I was probably in my early 30s because I was working at a bar and when I got out I used to go to the beach. This one night I fell asleep in the dunes and was woken up by some rustling and the sound of voices."
"There was a group of them walking by."
"They looked like people but they were glowing."
"They didn't have any clothes on, which is how I knew they came out of the water."
"It hurt my eyes to keep looking at them, but I couldn't stop, either."
"They were like shadows come to life, if shadows were made of light."
"I could hear them talking, but I couldn't understand any of the words."
"It just sounded very old. It was like being in an ancient forest or in the desert. You don't need a scientist to tell you that these parts of the earth are much older than we are or ever will be. We're interlopers compared to a lot of things."
"And these beings -- whatever or whoever they were -- came from this time. They were old, maybe immortal. I sat there for a few hours until they came back and gathered on the edge of the shore. The sun had turned the horizon red and they disappeared into the mists."
Pictures of the Atlantic Ocean taken in July, 2016. Text excerpted from The #Gods Project: A Training Manual (Section 2, "Interviews with the Institutionalized.")