plane crash

You must have thought about it at some point - you're on the Titanic - everything's normal - around you is the familiar world of people eating, drinking, talking, making plans, dressed to kill, music playing, society and somewhere down there - out of sight - the fathomless cold black water - until the unthinkable happens - until you find yourself at the mercy of a God who doesn't seem to care - a God who's apparently willing to let you down - horribly - handing you the short straw that everyone else gets to avoid - barring a few hundred people alongside you - and the water grows colder the lower the liner slips down to its newly designated point of equilibrium on the ocean floor - and you're already dead even though you're still hoping, praying everything will pass you by, that you're going to wake from this dream that's going so badly wrong - as you've done many times before. "I know I'm going to wake up" you tell yourself, and yet you know you're already dead, somewhere at the back of your head - and you hardly even care - it's all so mindnumbingly ordinary - and the water smells stronger down here as it draws nearer, then the final plunge - the mindbefuddlement of splashing around in blackness - still clothed in human form - and you recall images of fish on deck, flapping around - gasping for breath wide-eyed as you find yourself dragged down once, twice and finally never to resurface - the third time - and the ocean is my home - for here I remain - here I lie - here I find myself strangely at peace with what at first seemed horrendous beyond words until, that is, I awaken in another dream - aboard a plane - and suddenly I recall the life I've only just connected into - the years that I hadn't even known existed a moment before - the many times I've flown this route - the pre-flight safety instructions I conscientiously ignored - exits - life jackets, oxygen masks - seat belts - chair in the upright position, the unlikely event of landing on water - life vests - pull the toggle when outside the plane - piffle - planes don't crash - security scans - bombs on board - fat chance of that - unless they're being planted by the very security forces - black boxes - emergency signals - adopt the brace position - and here we are - once again - facing the unthinkable - our plane has been hijacked - apparently the pilot cannot control it - someone else is doing so remotely - without even having to step on board - and we're all going to die - it's obvious isn't it - by this stage I'm so into this dream I've forgotten Titanic - I'm enjoying the drama - if "enjoy" is the right word - and the emotions - the questions - the wondering why this should happen to me - and what my friends, my family are doing - how the rest of the world is getting on - living a normal day - as I stare into the abyss - knowing this is the end - and the plane lands somewhere - and...

I suppose that means you died?

Ah there you are.

It wasn't painful was it?

It never is.

You seem to be quite an expert at this. Bizarre the way you're always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Someone's gotta do it. Why not me?

But what do you get from all this high drama?

A glimpse - a snapshot right into the very heart of humanity.

What do you mean?

The perpetrators - the so called "evil ones" who organise these convenient accidents, these black swans, they're unable to do so without opening up a part of themselves they don't seem to know exists.

Their soul?

If you like.

Surely they've long since shut down their soul's involvement in their lives?

You'd think so, wouldn't you. Maybe soul's the wrong word. You see, at a deeper level we're all one.

So it's said.

And so when one part of the human organism tries to wipe out another - it creates a paradox.

You're telling me.

A mathematical improbability that's all but absurd... and yet it's there to be seen - to be felt - to be experienced - clear as day.

Seen by whom?

By me.

So you've seen into the soul of humanity? And what? How has that helped?

As I said - soul might not be the best word.

OK - whatever word you like - but I fail to see how this benefits you in any way.

We are One. Try holding your breath. See what happens.

I'll pass out if I hold it long enough.

But you never do. Your organism is stronger than you. You start breathing again before too long.

But I can always kill myself.

Can you?

Yes, of course I can.

And what?

Then I'll be dead.

From one slant - but not from the oneness that you be.

Er.

Look. I've been sunk, shot up, murdered, sacrificed, dismembered, poisoned, lynched, blown to smithereens more times than I care to remember - but I'm completely unscathed. All that happens in the waking dream. In reality - I and you cannot in anyway be effected by anyone or anything in this physicality - because no one has traction against you - we are all tendrils emanating from the same organism. Not one of us is able to cut ourself from that oneness - and if we were able to - the last thing we'd do would be to waste our time with mere tendrils - we'd move on to something else - something more meaningful - something more substantial.

You're saying we're not substantial?

Not when we try to be what we're not.

Er.

We're only substantial, beautiful, vast, full of meaning and consequence when we're attuned to that which truly is - to that which we truly are - it is - I am.

Which is...?

Correct. Which is

Er.

The isness, whatever that might be.

So you're content to be blown up and dismembered life after life...

Think of it as a computer simulation - then it doesn't seem to strange or meaningless.

A computer simulation?

Yes. Our simulation is truly powerful - to the point of what really feels like pain.

You're telling me - but why call it a simulation?

Because as soon as you come back into your oneness you see beyond any doubt that's what it is.

I don't see how you can be so sure of that.

No, you don't, but I do because I've spent a long time studying this by being blown up.

But how does that tell you anything?

Because the people who were killing me were doing so with one hand, but their deepest stillness - their immortal souls were saying something quite different.

Yes?

Yes.

What?

Not what.

No?

No.

No what?

Not what. Their deepest stillness, their immortal souls were absolutely peaceful - even while they appeared to be involved in heinous criminality - and at the same time that they were acting as murderers and assassins, they were telling me of a love beyond words - a love so deep, so powerful, so all embracing they could only express it and share it with me through what appeared to be cruelty, insanity, barbarity.

Only appeared?

Only appeared - once you are ready to hear what they were really saying while this was happening. You have never heard a tale of such beauty, a song of such ineffable love, or seen a vision of such oneness, wholeness and peace as what they were good enough to share with me. Judge not - we've heard said - and I never got it - never really accepted it until I stopped being their victim and started to experience what was being shared by these friends and magicians.

Friends?! Magicians?! Come on - that's outrageous.

Yes. Until you've seen what I saw - what I still see now; heard what I heard - and continue to hear; felt what I felt and even now feel. The ones we blame, fear and even hate - the ones who we call the enemy are no less of the One than you or I, and in some respects are more so, for they have chosen to enter the game on the dark side, and to bring the light that is, the love that is, the oneness to our attention through their very actions.

So they're serving humanity by killing us and trying to make our lives hell?

They are no more "they" than you and I are "we" or "us". Pointing the finger at them and saying "they" is tantamount to admitting you can't, don't or won't accept the oneness that is, the oneness that we be - in which case you are the one in hell - a hell of your own making - for you have chosen to see yourself as separate, as special, as more than everyone else. That is the only thing that gives them power over you. Your own conscious decision to play out the drama of self-exclusivity, and there's nothing fundamentally wrong with that - it just means that in your own way you're doing exactly the same as them. Deep in your stillness, deep in your heart, in your immortal soul you continue to be of the One - the isness of Be - and yet here, superficially, you've become a version, a what not, an ID - which technically makes you an IDiot.

What?!

Yes. It all boils down to what - an idiot assumes he can say what is what - because presumably he's the one who's above it all. Paradoxically, if it's true - if he is - then he'll not be bothered in the slightest by words such as "idiot" - because why would a god care if a mere mortal presumed to try to label him. Anyone who is truly able to say what is what - who is able to observe and understand the world - is by definition a god - and not of this element.

A god - why not God.

I would not presume to know the difference.

But you'd presume to call me an idiot!

In the same way I'd presume to call you a man. As long as you're working through the seemingly endless drama of identity and self-identification - then the term IDiot is technically correct and empowering because it enables us to establish the whole nomenclature.

Er.

Once we start calling a spade a spade - everything falls neatly into place and we can finally go beyond arguing over terms describing things. We can move on to isness - the isness of Be. So start with being an IDiot - no matter how well intentioned, intelligent or compassionate - and then you can stop fearing, hating or despising the perceived enemy - the evil ones who appear to rule your world. You can fall in love with them instead - for what they be as opposed to what they seem to be.

So I'm an IDiot and they get off scot free?

They are working with you - if only you'll stop insisting you're better than them.

But they're committing atrocities... acts of genocide.

And what?

And they have no morals - no humanity.

And so you judge them believing they should be as you are?

You yourself said we're all one.

True.

So they have to be human too.

As indeed they are, in their own way.

Then they should be working for humanity.

Which they are.

By trying to destroy it? By killing you countless times and countless others?

Yes. That's their role. Their love is big enough to carry them through the darkness they have taken on. How on Earth do you think we'd have activated the human drama if no one had been willing to play the villain? You think it just happened like that? That the darkness just exists of itself?

Er.

It had to be created to be experienced - and it could only be created if one group was willing to take the other side, to play the villain, while the other group agreed somewhat passively to play the victim - and both started to believe that this is all there is.

Well this is all we get to experience - and you seem to be saying it happens lifetime after lifetime.

Seems to - yes - because the story we're weaving has many strands. It's vast beyond belief - which is why it's so convincing - so seemingly real.

And yet you insist it isn't real - it's just a play.

Of course - because mathematically it amounts to nought - it collapses in on itself in an instant without oneness, without the isness of be, like a rainbow spanning all.

And we have to just take your word for it because you claim it's a "mathematical fact"?

What would that achieve? My word is but a word.

Then why are you bothering to tell me all this? Why do you insist you have the definitive answers?

Because I be Merry - and zero equals one.

Er.

So no thing is quite what it seems, and just when you think the end is nigh - the plane is about to crash - the boat to sink - I pop up and equal the seemingly hopeless incongruity - I play my flute and shepherd the dreamers back to their actuality.

Ah - so there you are - now you're claiming to be the one.

On the contrary. Cuckoo la la - I simply play the clown and in the brief interlude of comic relief - you suddenly, powerfully remember who you be and the broken bicycle folds into the wings of a butterfly that carries us back to the flower top where we agreed to convene at the appropriate moment outside the dichotomy of time and space. The only thing I can truly state is what is not, and the remainder is in the capable hands of Story - which has the uncanny knack of resolving itself when you least expect it.

Cuckoo la la

shouting out

Did I tell you that I care?

That was what I meant to do   

but somewhere along the way

forgot

You what? What did you...

forgot

Too much to do. I never caught up  

with myself. Distractions all around

A mind that never quite catches up 

till now

                                     deep breath

You care  
   

more than I can possibly say 
so instead of trying
instead
I quit     [O]                    

And my silence

let it shout from the sky

across the Earth      

hear its deafening unarticulated Word

I quit    [O]

lovingly so 

Perception is reality

You're wasting your time Merry. He's a scientist. He won't understand.

Don't be so sure Zie. Inside every scientist there's a human being. Watch this...

Merry continues his conversation with Steven, the scientist. While they're talking he starts shifting his field of conscious awareness into an unusual configuration. Steven realises something's going on...

Er, Merry. I don't know how to put this but...

Fire ahead Steven. I'm all ears.

You seem to be fading.

Ah that.

You're looking decidedly transparent.

Yes I would be.

You would be? What do you mean?

Well that's the usual side effect of shifting my frequency beyond the visual light spectrum.

Shifting your what?

My frequency. We are, after all, conscious beings, which means that ultimately we're just energy, and energy, as you know, far from being globular soup or paste actually pulsates.

Well yes, if you're talking about electrical energy or some other form - but that hardly applies to physical human beings.

Why not?

Because physical beings are dense energy in the form of matter.

Er Steven, my dear, that all depends on the frequency you're vibrating at. If you raise or lower it you can see light, sound or any other energy change form - even to the extent that they become massive and material.

Material light?

Well yes - isn't that what we are?

I hardly think so.

I've noticed... but that doesn't alter the fact, does it.

What fact?

That all is, in actual fact, just pulsating energy which is precisely what I'm now demonstrating.

Yes - but I wish you wouldn't. It's making me feel queasy.

That's because you're resisting it. You're trying to keep me in your sights as physical matter, rather than allowing your sights to shift to a more appropriate viewing level. Try relaxing. Unfocus your eyes somewhat. Hum a tune to yourself if that helps, or do a few oms if you like.

And what will that achieve.

Give it a go. Let's experiment.

Steven starts humming and om-ing. He even allows himself to prance around for a minute or two - the things he's willing to do in the name of science!

Well done Steven - that's smoothed your curve considerably.

Er - what curve are you referring to?

Oh - the curve that gathers and holds your conscious awareness in place. When it gets jaggedy it becomes brittle - when you're resisting - in denial of that which is, then it's all but futile to proceed. No that it's smoothed you'll be able to see more clearly what's going on.

My God Merry - you're invisible.

Kind of. Did you ever do those magic eye 3D images?

Yeah.

Let your focus shift slightly. Try a little emotional oscillation.

Emotional what?

Just imagine being sad... that's it... now imagine being angry... that's good... now imagine being disgusted... that's great... now imagine being afraid... now imagine being curious... ah ha... now excited... good... and now let yourself go from sad to happy... excellent. Emotional gymnastics!

Most of the resistance you've been experiencing tends to come from the emotional cortex - so giving it a work out helps to loosen the wires. Now what do you see? Take your time... relax... no pressure whatsoever - you know I'm here even if you can't see me.

Oh my God.

Merry says nothing.

No it can't be.

Merry remains silent.

I don't believe it.

Deep, sympathetic, supportive silence.

It must be a mistake... an optical illusion. It's obviously impossible.

Obviously.

I think I'm going to be ill.

Lie down Steven. Roll on your belly. Get yourself grounded. Everything's going to be fine.

Steven doesn't argue - but lies on his belly and rolls around, wearing himself out by snaking and gyrating energetically, till he pauses for breath.

Now look again. But let yourself glance at me for a mere glimpse. Then glance at something else. Don't fixate. It isn't polite to stare, you know.

In spite of himself Steven giggles - the absurdity of being told to be polite in a situation like this.

Manners matter - even when I appear not to.

I wish you wouldn't. You can't just float there - in suspended animation. It isn't...

Decent?

I... I didn't mean to say that - but yes - it isn't decent.

I wonder why not?

Because it violates the laws of nature.

Whose laws?

The laws.

Nonsense. How can I violate these laws and hold my place in the space time continuum?

Well - you've done something to create this illusion.

What illusion? Stand up if you don't believe what you're seeing. Put out your hand. Feel where I am.

Steven looks appalled. The idea of reaching out and touching Merry who's suspended horizontally in mid air makes him feel unwell again.

So you see the limitations of perception. As soon as I shift my frequency beyond the frequency range you've bound yourself to operate within - you go to pieces. You couldn't even see me till I directed you to, and seeing me you couldn't bear to accept what you're seeing.

Because it's unnatural - I tell you.

Nature doesn't stop being nature just because it's outside your box. Lighten up Steve. Time to see the funny side.

No sooner has Merry said this than Steven starts laughing hysterically... which seems to rebalance him even to the extent that he allows his hand to reach into the space below Merry.

You're really floating!

So it would appear.

You mean you're not?

I mean that appearances are always deceptive to a certain extent. In actual fact there's always some kind of reference point. Supposing I've bent space time in my locale - then it would appear I'm floating when I may in fact be standing horizontally.

And are you?

Are you?

Hum? The question triggers a shift in Steven's conscious awareness and all of a sudden he starts seeing things differently.

Ah - well done.

What do you mean?

You've matched my frequency.

But I'm not floating?

Not from your perspective but look at me...

You appear to be upright once again.

And now take a look at your shadow.

Steven glances around for his shadow but finds not a trace... 

Take it easy there...

Crash! Steven's panic when he realises his shadow is absent causes him to fall back down into his regular frequency alignment. He's lying on the ground rubbing his bashed nose, knees and elbows.

Sorry - I forgot to warn you.

The pain actually seems to help restore Steven to his senses again.

You mean I was actually floating alongside you? I...

Don't believe it? No one ever does. That's why we gather hard empirical evidence. Nothing like a few bruises to prove the argument...

And the next thing Steven knows - Merry is no longer in the room. Bang. He feels something like a guitar string twanging in his stomach. Painful to say the least.

the codes of creation

You can't just shut down the world economy like that! Who gave you the right? What the hell do you think you're playing at Zac?

Zac's composure was for a moment slightly dented, as he looks down at his feet and takes a deep breath, nice and slow, but then it seems to bounce back.

You're absolutely right Ty. I can't unless I did.

Don't go invoking the Prebta fallacy as if that's a save all.

Well I think you hit the nail on the head Ty when you asked who gave me the right to do so. Unless I had the right I couldn't have done it - or I wouldn't have - even if I could.

Now you're twisting into Alchetron causation. Quit fooling around. This isn't second grade metaphysics Zac.

Ok Ty. Let's just assume that I did what I was meant to do - I played my part.

Assume? You've got a nerve.

Well, is this meant to be a shouting match or a fact finding investigation. I always assumed the board of the Change was above...

You assumed. Who are you to make assumptions - still less to terminate a working model.

Precisely no one. I am, but a servant of the change - as are you.

And a low ranking one at that.

As if that matters.

So what have you to say for yourself? Quit grinning smugly at me and try to be a little more concerned. We invested billions of years in this project which you've just casually terminated.

Terminated? I merely collapsed a redundant waveform.

Which happened to be the world's economy.

Which was standing in the way of everything that Earth is meant to become - is now becoming.

You can't say that. You don't know.

Ty - I may be junior ranking but as a lord of the change you know as well as I do that this is no approximation. You're looking at an energy fact. Now, I admit it's embarrassing, annoying, even downright absurd that I was the one to flick the switch, but you have to realise that I was down there in the soup of 3D reality. I didn't have the faintest clue who I was or what I was doing.

That's absolutely no excuse and you know it.

Yes, I do, and I have no desire to make an excuse. I did what was right. It was entirely consistent with story.

Whose story?

Story. That's what we're about, isn't it. Generating story - the code of creation.

And we were doing amazingly well till you collapsed the bubble.

Precisely. It had become a bubble. It became self aware - and thus terminated itself. You know the protocols as well as I do.

Screw the protocols. How are we going to replace Earth. Where are we going to get that kind of live stream from now?

It looks Ty, like the tide has turned.

What?

The tables have reversed.

What do you...

Time for a bit of your own medicine. It looks like you're now a part of Story's code creation - and it ain't gonna be pretty. You and your lords of the change have gone far out on a limb - haven't you. You've been squeezing Earth and other like planets beyond the point of endurance in your desire for ever greater, uninterrupted code creation - even to the point of manipulating time lines and rebooting the whole...

Silence Zac. You have no right to make these claims.

Except that they're true.

Of which you have not a shred of evidence.

Except what I learnt in situ on Earth.

Which counts for nothing.

Until the event.

What event?

Until story reversed its flow.

What are you talking about.

And all the codes you've amassed - the huge power and wealth of creation - now it becomes a vortex that starts to spin on its own axis and those of you who have invested heavily in it are the first to go down.

You can't... you wouldn't dare. You're bound like all of us. Your oath of office...

Was terminated by the deceit and malfeasance of the time lords themselves.

Time lords. They were defeated aeons ago.

Wrong. They allowed themselves to be defeated and wormed their way into your conscious awareness. You, lords of the change became them. They became you. Only the time lords would have manipulated time to ensure a perpetual stream of code creation - like a farmer using chemicals on a field in violation of all natural law to ensure endless production of ever less natural organic material. You and your dark brothers became the very enemy you claimed to be fighting.

No, no, no...

And like them you meet your end.

From one of our own...

As bit players in the story you thought to control.

And you think you're safe - that the vortex will leave you unscathed?

No. I don't think... but I have chosen my way freely and I relish everything that it now brings to me... as I learnt on Earth - zero equals one - Zac starts flickering, dematerialising, melting the bonds from within it is Ty screams "Nooooooo" but cannot prevent Zac from finishing I am...

And suddenly they are not - while simultaneously the people on Earth and several other linked planets are looking at one another - in disbelief - as if waking from a waking dream - finally feeling the torsion field for what it truly is...

and the rest - as you know - is history, which can finally be told.

the witching hour

Welcome to the witching hour

when all the world

turns inside out

and round

Welcome to the space between

be                              tween

the gap                                

the pause that no one

knows is there

Well come to the underside of all you'll ever need to know

need to

no    

I invoke the isness of be

the blessed 

magi call      

madri gal

softly swirling all that is

infini              ty

stars planets nebulae

stars coalesce   

galaxies trip off the tongue

like bats off the roof of a cave at

dusk

a murmur of starlings clowns around

a cloud of twisting weaving

up and down

numberless as the night

concealed within its

fractal code

of motional poetry

 well met are we            here

at the gates

 of three        two

one

behold        

be        hold

it is    I am

moon

earth

Sun    

               

moon

earth

                    sun                       

"Flying is easy once you know how" - Dorothea says with a sunlight smile, "just feel the Force at work throughout!"

Dorothy... Dorothea...

What are you doing Merry?

Oh, hi Zie. "Dorothy, where are you?"

Who? Who are you looking for Merry? Who the hell's Dorothy?

Ah, there you are. Come on Zie. We're off.

Off? Where? What's going on?

Come on - I'll explain it all later.

Merry and Zie diappear through a fold in the fabric of space of time, vanishing from sight, leaving half a dozen casual observers head scratching... nonplussed. Still, strange things happen all the time, do they not, and the mind has the happy facility of ignoring, overlooking or conveniently forgetting anything that fails to make sense.

Where are we Merry? There shouldn't be a forest here... and certainly not one with trees like that.

Ah, welcome, dear Zie to the back-of-beyond.

But how did we get here? We've not gone anywhere.

True. 3 dimensionally we've gone nowhere at all, but that hasn't prevented us from crossing the vasts of space and time in the blink of an eye, thanks to the magiks of g-nomeportal.

? I thought that was just a website!

Thought - of course you thought, and what could have been more natural to think that while in your right mind, down in merry olde 3D, but here beyond zero point the facts have a habit of switching places with one another in order to conform with the magiks of Is, and thus the rules of physics no longer seem to apply. Think of it as a copy and paste exercise on your clunky computer, or zipping a file over the internet... Failing that - pretend it's all just a dream. Shouldn't be too hard, as we're much closer to what you'd think of as dreamland.

Dreamland? So this is really a dream?

In a manner of speaking yes, in another - no.

Then what?

Work it out for yourself. Investigate. Explore. Experiment. Discover. Learn. Reality will never be the same again - that I assure you.

But how?

How what?

How am I to investigate, explore, experiment, discover and learn?

However you like. You're free to do whatever you please. There really are no limits, bar your imagination and the law of Is.

Suddenly Zie has a kind of panic attack - like an acute sense of vertigo. Merry steps in, accompanied by a lady in a dark blue star spangled veil, and as suddenly as it came, the attack has passed - and the veiled lady vanished with it.

What was that? Where did it go?

Acclimatisation. You're still finding your feet. You'll be fine shortly. If it happens again just sit down on the ground and feel the Earth under-butt, or you could even roll over onto your belly and try wriggling and writhing like a worm. That'll definitely put you right in a matter of seconds.

Er... Ok. If you say so - but are you planning to leave me?

No, not today - but you'll be coming here on your own, now that you know how.

I will?

Yes, of course. Dorothea has seen to that.

She has? Er... who is she?

She's... actually, I'm embarrassed to say I don't really know.

You don't know?

No. Nobody does. Dorothea is Dorothy, or mathematically dot3... But does it really matter who she is? The main thing is you've now met her and if you call she'll come and help you cross the quantum stream.

You mean she's a kind of ferryman?

No Zie. I mean she is she. Why insist on trying to make her into something comprehensible. She's not a number to reduce to the lowest common denominator. She's mysterious and magical. She is mistress of all that lies beyond zero point. She is gatekeeper and guide, confidant and companion, if one you need, midwife of the quantum stream.

Oh. Then she's er... good, is she?

Good?

She's not er... evil or demonic?

Oh, that's what you mean! Merry erupts into tinkling laughter, which rings like a bell all around the chamber Merry and Zie now find themselves in.

Did I say something funny? Zie asks, somewhat awkwardly.

Oh, my apologies Zie. Nothing personal, you know - just the idea of Dorothy being demonic... and again Merry erupts in gay laughter.

A moment later Merry grows calm and strangely serious - almost absurdly so - causing Zie to giggle, somewhat nervously.

No, Zie. Here in Other, the great Beyond, there really is no good or bad dichotomy. To pass through the eye of the needle, the zero point, all that dualistic stuff needs must be left behind.

So only enlightened people can get through?

Oh no - we're not all saints or enlightened masters - we may have unresolved duality back in 3D but that's where we work through our personal issues, whereas here we have other business in hand.

You do? Like what?

That, dear Zie, is what you're here to learn. You've already had a few clues, but...

What?

It's really whatever you make of it. Bear in mind that beyond zero is the other side of 3D, so whatever you do here has an impact on what's happening, going to happen or has already happened in your life back there.

You mean I can even alter my past?

As I said - it's an equation - or a kind of geometration.

Not good Merry - you know how I feel about maths.

That's no problem. Look Zie, it was really my job just to make sure you got here safely. What you actually do with it's your own business, so, er... Zie adjusts his demeanour to one of great gravitas and solemnly proceeds: Welcome to Other...

Other?

or Story...

Story?

Dreamland...

How many names do you have for the place?

As many as there are places, you see, Zie, the difference between the back-of-beyond and 3D is that...

What?

Wait a moment - I'm trying to show you.

Dorothea appears alongside Merry and the two of them lead Zie through a number of different settings, positions, modalities, phases - each of which seems to stimulate or relate to a different part of his body, until he's left tingling all over... and completely bemused. His mind has, as it were, been turned completely inside out. It now feels as if the universe is inside and his reality is on different branches of the tree he's dimly aware of being.

Worlds within worlds - Zie is heard muttering to himself - a vacant, almost imbecilic expression on his face.

Worlds within worlds - he repeats.

That's right! - Merry echoes cheerfully, completely undisconcerted by Zie's obvious circumlocational mind of state... Worlds within worlds - or vice versa if you turn the objective around.

Oh? Zie snaps back, unexpectedly. I can do that?

Yes, of course. Whyever not?

I don't know... I never thought of it.

Beyond-Zero has no fixed reference point - it is I am. Remember?

Oh yes. It is I am. But what was that I've-no-idea-what all about Merry a moment ago? A kind of initiation?

Yes, you might say so. A kind of birth. You've now connected back into your dot dot dot not-what.

My what?

You know that no word can meaningfully describe what you've just experienced. In a sense it was rediscovering your body here in Other, or likewise I could turn that around and say that Other has reconnected with your youness. The relationship between the two is fluid and interchangeable to say the least.

Oh God... how am I meant to find my way through all this beyond sense and reason.

Story has a way of growing you into place - like a tree. The sense of what is and who I be unfolds as you make your way through Story. Bon voyage, dear Zie. May the Force be with you.

The Force?

Yes, the Force.

Oh - I thought that was a symbol of good as opposed to evil.

Thought, you thought, and well you might - but give yourself time and space to join the dots - and I assure you the gates of reason will fly of their hinges and turn into the white flapping wings of wonder and i-magination. In the meantime, I entrust you to Dorothea.

Zie and Merry are joined by Dorothy once again. Now she is as big as the sky and takes them up in her star spangled veil, lifting, transporting them through the allness of Is, until Zie is reconstituted, reborn in 3D with a somewhat shattered sense of continuity.

Ah - there you are Merry... he says, evidently unaware of all that has just passed. I thought you wanted to do some 4D training with me...

As I do, as I do. Now lean back and allow yourself to float into an Other.

An unexpected nudge from Merry and Zie is falling backwards, backwards, backwards - but somehow fails to connect with the ground...

Introducing the 4th dimension

No it's not, Merry - I tell you it's time.

Ok Zie.

What do you mean "OK"?

Ok. It's Ok.

But you think you know best. You think you're right. You think...

Zie, lighten up a moment. Does it really matter what I think? I'm just one of billions of people - all who are doing their own thinking.

Yes, but it's what you think that bothers me.

Hum.

What?

Merry takes a deep breath and sinks into a state of absolute inner stillness - literally in one breath.

How the hell do you do that Merry?

Merry looks at Zie with a strange detachment. Nothing matters - that's what the peaceful gaze conveys in a gentle, loving way.

Zie's anger and frustration is gone - just like that.

So where were we?

You were talking about the 4th dimension. I was freaking out, insisting it's time, based on what I've been taught all my life.

Yes.

It's bizarre. Why would I believe that time is the fourth spatial dimension?

Why not?

Because it's completely illogical.

True - but that's never stopped people from believing anything, has it?

No, but time's so obviously not a spatial dimension.

True.

I guess it's because we had to have an answer. We needed to say it was something - admitting we didn't know was unthinkable.

True - you had to say something, but why not the truth? Plenty of you guessed it.

The truth? Come on Merry! You know we can never say the truth when it threatens the existing paradigm.

Yes, until we're ready to let go.

And me? Am I ready? I was freaking out a moment ago. If you hadn't stepped in and grounded me I'd be screaming at you now, wouldn't I?

Oh, do you think so? Let's have a look, shall we? I'll put you back.

Merry takes a few sharp breaths and releases Zie back into the emotional state he was a moment or two before. In his anger and frustration Zie has no recollection of what has just passed.

You can't just say that zero is the 4th dimension. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Everyone knows that time is the fourth dimension.

True. Most people see time as the fourth dimension, don't they, but how logical is that Zie?

How logical?

Yes. I mean - think about it for half a moment if you would. Three spatial dimensions pointing horizontally, the x axis, vertically, the y axis, and then the z axis giving us depth.

Well? What other dimension could there possibly be if not time?

Well just because we aren't seeing it doesn't mean we have to co-opt time to be our 4th spatial dimension.

I don't see why not...

Well a dimension is like a sense - we have five senses, don't we.

Six if you believe in an extra, psychic sense.

True - the sixth sense is still considered a way of feeling, even if it's a bit different from the other five.

So what?

Well in what way can time be seen as spatial? Surely the fourth dimension of space, if it exists, has to be another direction?

I see what you're getting at. Logically it would have to be, but maybe time actually is a kind of space - moving, departing or decaying space.

I don't think it works Zie. Time can't be a spatial dimension in the same way speed can't be a colour, or laughter a sense.

Ok - I follow you Merry - but that doesn't help us to clear up the missing 4th dimension.

Well once we stop adhering to the time fallacy, it shouldn't be too hard to find the solution.

Not too hard? You've got to be kidding. If it were so easy to find the 4th dimension people would have done it long ago.

As I'm sure they did.

Then what is it?

Nought.

You're not still expecting me to believe that are you? How can nought be a dimension? It's just a point - the zero point where the three axes meet.

Precisely. It's just a point when viewed from a three dimensional mindset, but once you're ready to open up Nought - to embrace the zero point - it reveals an axis, it elongates into the missing 4th dimension - hidden in broad daylight.

But someone would have thought of that Merry.

How could they? No one could think of what the zero point represented until the right moment...

Which just happens to be now, you're saying.

Which just happens to be now.

So what? What's happened to change things.

A shift in consciousness.

Eh?

Around the year 2012. We focussed on the Mayan calendar - the 21st December 2012, but what's in a date?

I don't know. You tell me.

Presumably it's the point in time at which the three axes finally joined up.

So there you go - you're making it sound like time is the missing link - the 4th dimension.

No. Time is not a spatial dimension in any sense whatsoever... but if our consciousness finally reached the zero point at which the x, y and z axes meet on precisely 21st December, 2012 - that would explain why we mistakenly treated time as the missing link.

So what happened when the three axes met?

Well, firstly, they never really met. It's only our consciousness that brings them together. Our conscious awareness creates reality.

Er... Ok. What then?

Our conscious awareness came of age - let's suppose - on precisely 21st December, 2012 - or thereabouts... and from that point forth the 4th dimension has become readily accessible.

So you mean it was accessible before?

Yes. It was possible to burn through time - and arrive at the zero point in the past - but it was much more difficult. Now it's readily available. Fundamentally our conscious awareness has brought the 4th dimension into play.

And what, then, is it? I don't see people walking through walls? Space is just the same as it ever was.

I wouldn't be so sure of that Zie.

Well I've not noticed anything.

Look at the bigger picture. Look at how more and more people are becoming aware of a fundamental unity... how they are getting increasingly interested in the mind and consciousness.

Well? What's that got to do with the 4th spatial dimension?

Because the 4th dimension is not outwards. It's leading the other way.

Which way?

Well think about the zero point. You're looking at it. It represents the centre of your consciousness - the focal point of your vision. The "here I am" if you like, or x marks the spot.

Well?

Well - it either represents your centre of perception, or it represents x marks the spot - a "there it is" spot.

Well? What are you trying to say?

The 4th dimension connects the two.

What two Merry - for God's sake speak more clearly.

The it is and the I am.

The what? Jesus Christ, Merry!

x marks the spot - it is - and the centre of perception - here I am. Both are essential. You can't have one without the other - or not in 3 dimensional space.

I thought you just said it's 4 dimensional.

Yes - it is now, because we've entered the quantum age - and with that has come the realisation that you can't separate the observer from the equation - from what is under observation - neatly expressed as: it is - I am.

And that, you're saying, is the 4th dimension?

Yes.

Rubbish. Utter nonsense. You can't say it is-I am is a spatial dimension. Where's the space in that?

The zero point leads ever further, deeper back into the conscious awareness - and thus you - your very awareness becomes and/or reveals the 4th dimension... On the one hand you're looking out at space. On the other it collapses through the event horizon of your conscious awareness's zero point becoming the vacuum that informs all that is - ad infinitum.

To infinity?

Obviously. Like all the axes, the one leading into your conscious awareness extends to infinity, otherwise known as 0=1. Where else do you think the magical mysterious conscious awareness could emanate from?

But this turns everything on its head. It's like we're the infinite projecting down through the zero point into 3D space.

Yes, and vice versa. It has to be biologic - flowing "both" ways... but one step at a time.

And what's to stop there being a 5th dimension, or a 6th?

Nothing whatsoever. Once we've accepted the 4th dimension, then it's just a case of opening up the conscious awareness step by step, exploring the it is-I am - putting flesh on the zero point, making something of Nought - so to speak. We can start with the realisation that everything we're seeing out there in 3D space has to be encapsulated in the 4D axis, or perhaps it should be described as a spiral - emanating from within.

My God.

Exciting, isn't it!

Exciting?! It's positively insane, if only it were true.

Of course it's true - the zero point only looks like a point because we're looking straight down the barrel of the gun... er... axis. In other words, it is-I am, as soon as I'm aware there's an axis emanating from mind's eye, my perceiver's perspective - I no longer have a problem understanding why the mere act of observing affects the outcome of whatever is under observation...

Er...

We're always assuming the x, y and z axis are "out there", before us, an objective reality, but that's the classic optical illusion - isn't it? We have this huge gaping blind spot...

I er...

The toroidal field concealed within the i axis, which informs and feeds back through into everything we're able to see, hear, feel, taste, touch or experience, here in reality until, that is, we become acutely aware of this and start mediating the two... but let's leave that for another day. In the meantime, test it yourself.

How?

Meditation on the i axis... or the zero point.

By the i axis you mean a kind of line connecting the north and south pole of this toroidal field the conscious awareness sits astride.

Couldn't have put it better myself Zie!

No idea how I can meditate on a toroidal field I cannot see.

Ah - but you have to be able to feel it, don't you?

I... I don't know.

No need to know - just feel - feel the infinite i axis reaching back through every fibre of your I am - connecting with every fibre of the it is through your zero point, whatever that might be... your mind's eye perhaps.

Ok.

Or failing that - take a look at these simple optical illusions - they're about as clear an indication as you'll ever need of the biologic nature of perception in which the mind creates as much as the eye or I sees...