Head to head - in which Edgar Mtchell pulls the plug on Zie

101

In case you're wondering what the fuss was all about - what had turned Zie overnight from a b-list international celebrity, into the world's most wanted man, apparently capable of anything... prepare to be shocked... prepare to be stunned... for what you're about to witness appears to be little more than absurd... a simple children's poem about an er... frog... which could never in a million years have justified such fame or notoriety!

The frog

A frog sat on his log and sighed,

Something was wrong, something empty inside,

He gazed in the water, tried eating a fly,

But still felt unhappy, and didn’t know why.

The frog wasn’t lazy, it wanted to know

What was making it sigh, the cause of its woe,

So it put on a jacket, then straightened its tie,

And when it was ready it called to the sky:

“Oh sky overhead you are mighty and wise,

Protector of frogs and provider of flies,

With rain you replenish the ponds down below,

With sunlight you warm us and make the plants grow,

Dear sky in your mercy, please help me to see

The cause of the emptiness troubling me.”

Lost in a trance frog stared up above,

And there in a vision caught sight of a dove

That was flying around, and seemed to be saying

“Come join me, I’ll answer the prayer you were praying.”

Frog leapt in the air, as if in a dream,

And found himself flying high over the stream

That flows to his pond from a field lush and green,

And there at its source, he heard the dove say:

“This water brings life to the tadpoles who play,

This water brings life to all creatures who use it,

Its spirit is in you, its spirit today

Needs your help little frog, needs the heart of a poet,

To see it and praise it, to love it and know it.”

Frog sat on his log, something burning inside,

He remembered the dove and his magical flight,

He took a deep breath and started to croak,

And the song of the water of life now awoke

In the heart of the frog. As he sang he could feel

The song was alive, with the power to heal,

That all would be well, for magic is real

When it shines like a star, when it spins like a wheel.

As I said, Merry, it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Yes, I agree, some are definitely wondering what all the fuss is about.

So, er... what is all the fuss about? I still haven't quite worked it out. 

Hum... that's probably because the secret is nothing in particular.

What do you mean, Merry?

There's nothing in particular about the poem which made it such a viral phenomenon. 

Then what, if nothing?

Ah, but I didn't say "nothing" did I?

No?

No, I said "nothing in particular".

Go on, surprise me...

It's like a great stand up comedian. He can tell the ordinariest joke but have the whole audience in stitches. It all comes down to timing and something else.

Like what?

Like nothing in particular. It's like whatever's not being said explicitly, the hidden meaning or the loaded silence between the words. There's something of that in this poem.

Something of nothing - sounds like a contradiction in terms.

Which is precisely what it is - which is precisely what all of this is...

All of what?

All of everything... life... the universe... Believe me Paula, it amounts to nothing if not a huge, colossal contradiction...

Which is why we shouldn't, I guess, pay overmuch attention to what people are saying.

How right you are. Instead we can give our undivided attention to the magiks and what they're saying or doing.

The what? Did you say "magiks"?

Yes, precisely. If you can imagine, for a moment, that the whole of reality is a probability field being run by an infinite probability drive, and that you have direct access to that drive, then when you finally tune into it and start rhyming...

Rhyming?

Yeah - tune into the poetry of Is - of life itself - then you're tapping into the underlying magiks of all that is.

And that, you're saying, is what Zie's up to?

Well, just look at him... Doesn't it speak for itself?

110

Chapter 6?

Yes, Paula. 

I don't see why you have to make this so complicated Merry. We're not computers, you know. Why do we have to mess around with binary code.

Good question. Let's see if Zie has anything to say on the subject.

Oh, it's time!

And tonight on Z for Zie, we present your host, the one and only Zie Zecharia Zucchini...

A quick glance at the online viewer stats for tonight's show have it in the stratosphere.

Actually beyond! 

Yes, you're right Mitch. Zie's now officially hotter than the Superbowl...

And the World Cup soccer final...

Combined.

It's beyond absurd.

It's outrageous. What's he ever done to deserve it?

I tell you, no good's ever come from this level of extreme adulation. It's gonna end somehow...

Of course it's gonna end, most likely catastrophically, like a market blow out - a sudden crash - 

Guys, would you shut up - I'm trying to hear what he's saying...

   - it suddenly grows quiet in the diner where all eyes are glued to the screen.

 Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to start tonight by announcing this is my final show.

NO!!! What did he say? He can't just quit when we've all decided we need him.

Yes, yes, I kept it secret until now - not even my producer knows about it - but there it is - it's time to move on. I guess all of us need to move on now that we've arrived at the point of no return.

   - there are shouts of consternation in the live studio audience. 

The truth is, I've learnt a thing or two in the last few days since my mentor Merry left. I've learnt that it really doesn't matter what anyone else says or thinks... you've gotta be authentic to yourself. You've gotta create your own story and nothing else. That's what I did, for the first time you might say, when I stopped worrying about my image and blogged that little poem, which is actually a spell, called the Frog. I suddenly realised that I've always been empty. There's always been something missing from my life... and no amount of talking, money or fame has ever helped eliminate it until now, that is. So before I go, I'd like to share something with you...

   - He's gone off script. Cut, cut goddamit.

The network manager cuts the live feed and breathes a sigh of relief. The last thing he needs is Zie speaking his mind freely at a time like this - with political instability, rising social tensions...

What the hell's going on? Edgar Mitchell, not the astronaut - the network manager who's answerable directly to Ted Langley of all people, rubs his eyes in disbelief as the show continues on air, in spite of the kill switch he just flicked.

"Now there are some people out there who don't want me, or anyone else, to tell the truth, to speak our mind without fear, authentically. Usually they get away with it... Usually they're able to keep even celebrities like me in check, and we abide by certain unspoken guidelines because we don't wish to risk our careers, because we're fearful of what they might do to us, or to our families... You know the nature of fear - it's insidious. It makes you weak at the knees. You start justifying your weakness saying "I'm doing this for the wife, for the kids, for the good of society, for world peace," but in the end what does it amount to...? Fear dear ladies and gentlemen, however you dress it up, package it, present it, has never amounted to anything more than fear. And I for one have had enough.

Ted Langley's on the line to Edgar Mitchell. 

"I thought I told you to pull the plug..."

"I did... there's something wrong with it. The system seems to be malfunctioning."

"Then physically remove that man from the studio if you value your life."

"I... Ok"

I have nothing to fear because as I was writing this little song about the frog I truly felt something giving way, and not just within myself - within the entire world.

Now that sounds like I'm a massive egoist - I'll be the first to admit - but this is the nature of things. As soon as we confront our innermost fears, as soon as we face who we are, we shift worlds, we move into a different reality - a different paradigm. What do I mean by that? Well, I can give you an example if you care to hear?

Zie pauses calmly - looks at the studio audience and into the cameras at the broader audience out there in the world... a moment of powerful silence and introspection... a moment of peace... of calm...

"Even as we're speaking right now they trying to shut this down - to take the show off the air - because I'm not supposed to be saying this. How do I know? I just know. That's what happens when the magic within starts to "spin like a wheel, and shine like a star". You just start to feel stuff... to get it... like it's no big deal. And the irony is that they, the guys who have been controlling us all along with fear - they're powerless - they can't do anything - because they themselves haven't yet confronted their fear. Oh... don't get me wrong... they can flip the switch to get the show off the air. Edgar Mitchell, this network's executive producer just did that, believe it or not, but I can tell with absolutely certainty that he failed - that we're still live on air. His next move will be to come in here and have me removed, forcibly if need be... but you understand folks, that he's not up against me... I'm nothing - just a single human being - yet he's powerless - as the whole lot of them are... because he's really up against himself and his own unresolved fears. This may sound a bit like magic, and in a sense, that's what it is, but you see, a person acting from a state of fear, no matter how strong he appears to be, no matter how big his weapons are, is at a huge disadvantage. Here he comes. Let him in. Stand back - there'll be no fighting in my show.

   - Edgar Mitchell comes into the studio with security flanking him.

"Zie, I'm asking you to leave the studio. I know you've always put the interests of the people, the viewers at home above everything else, so kindly do what is right and come with me."

   - the public are holding their breath. Once again there's a moment's silence. Once again it doesn't feel panicked. It doesn't feel constrictive. If anything it's peaceful and expansive. And there's the look in Zie's eyes - a look of absolute calm and utter detachment. 

Edgar, I've been meaning to have you on the show for a long time. You've brought some men with you. Perhaps they'd like to take a seat and hear what you have to say.

And that's exactly what happens, as Zie leads Edgar onto the stage and hears about how the powers-that-be are indeed running scared... because without fear, without the people's fearful compliance, they're naked and left with nothing but the bravado of a playground bully.

Cutting to the chase - as one does - about four minutes from the end of the show - Zie has the whole audience joining him in a kind of meditation. He's singing this weird sounding song - something vaguely shamanic, and people all around the world are having what can only be described as other worldly experiences. Somehow Zie's able to connect them with another reality - another level of consciousness. Oh there are a few who are resisting fiercely, terrified of what they might encounter, but the vast majority are away with the fairies, so to speak, and judging by the look on their faces, loving every minute of it.

So there you have it, folks. Nothing is quite what it seems... And that doesn't have to be something scary to run and hide from... quite the contrary, as you've just seen. It can be liberating, empowering, truly wonderful. It turns out, in fact, that nothing, no thing can be better than what simply is - whatever that might be, no thing can be better than the simple truth, the isness of be - no matter what we've been taught, or led to believe. So join me, if you will, in the world's only meaningful and profoundly peaceful revolution. Join me here, wherever you may be, now, whenever you're ready, at this wonderful magical place where you and I stop running scared, stop living a lie, and come back home to the beauty, the splendour of what truly is. And where might that place be? you're asking yourselves? Why, here of course, right here in your heart - a place Merry calls IO, the golden heart at the very centre of all that Is.

   - but what's so amazing? Just more pseudo-spiritual rhetoric, isn't it?

   - you might think so, unless you are looking into the faces of the viewers around the world who are watching and sharing this moment together. I can't begin to describe the things that are happening. It's gonna sound daft if I do. You know how we've always imagined reality as something there - something around us that just exists - we even describe it as "objective reality", but right now, right at this minute as Zie's show is coming to an end, it's like the moment in the Matrix movie where you can see the numbers and you can see the walls bending... like a veil has been lifted, like at this moment the whole of humanity is finding its voice, croaking together in swelling harmony the song of the water of life... unbelievable.

In which Ted Langley, president of the One World Government, hears about Zie's defection

1

"What do you mean Zie's gone over to the enemy?"

We're in the office of Ted Langley and things are not looking good.

Er... Merry, who the hell's Ted Langley?

Oh, he's the the head of the so called secret world government, though he'd bristle if you did anything stupid like addressing him as Mr President. As all truly great and powerful leaders, he likes to keep things low key, and avoid the public gaze. "It's Ted. Just call me Ted," he says to anyone who starts taking this all a bit too seriously.

Rewind...

What do you mean Zie's gone over to the enemy?

Take a look at this - says Ebert, that's Ted's right hand man, or one of them. Ted doesn't like to rely too much on any one individual for obvious reasons.

Ebert, his actual name's Heinrich but to all his colleagues and dare I say it, friends, he's always plain Ebert.

Where was I?

Take a look at this...

Thanks Paula... and Ebert pings a hidden switch bringing Zie's latest blogpost to the heads-up display. The holographic screen in the centre of the room, or wherever you choose to view it.

What the hell? Ted glowers. I don't believe it? Why wasn't I informed?

Er... isn't that what I'm doing now? - Ebert shifts on his feet uneasily.

Before it happened... idiot.

Er, with all due respect Ted, it was impossible to predict this particular turn of events.

What do you mean "impossible to predict?" We've invested billions in the best predictive software ever created. We have the world's only truly operational full spectrum quantum computer, Deep Thought, with processing power matching or exceeding that of every computer in existence, and you're telling me we couldn't nail this one?

Apparently not.

Heinrich, you're trying my patience.

Ted, there was an event prior to this publication.

What kind of "event".

Merry was involved.

Jesus Christ. That should have sounded the alarm if nothing else.

Well he didn't actually do anything. It was all being closely monitored. He simply quit.

What do you mean "quit"?

Exactly that. He's been mentoring Zie for some time now. The usual claptrap. Zero equals one. The infinity drive... what not and nought.

Yawn. Does he never grow tired of all that?

Apparently not, until completely out of the blue he flipped his lid and simply quit. Zie was left all alone to figure it out for himself.

Well that's fine. You should have known he was in danger of unpredictable shifts. Imagine having Merry as your mentor, and then finding yourself completely alone. It's bound to tell. I don't get why the predictive system didn't flag this one.

Apparently either Merry or Zie know how to outsmart it.

Impossible. No one can outsmart Deep Thought.

That's what I thought too, which is why I didn't bother to exercise caution and inform you of Merry's departure.

Where is he now?

Nowhere in physical reality - or nowhere we can locate.

Ok, fine. Damage limitation or exploitation? Can we turn this to our benefit or do we need to brush it under the carpet.

That's what I'm here to discuss. Deep Thought doesn't think there's anything we can do.

What do you mean.

Well, it took about 42 seconds to analyse the data, that's several orders of magnitude longer than it's ever taken before.

And?

And it's conclusions are... how should I put it? in the range of bleak to dire.

What on Earth do you mean?

Zie may just be a b-class international celebrity, but he occupies a vital node in the information infrastructure of our reality. We knew he was important, but until he flipped we didn't know how important.

I simply don't understand how these things can be missed. We've always managed to stay on top of the curve before now.

Well, Zie's latest publication in itself triggered a quantum shift in our reality. It altered time lines, so to speak. We're in a completely different environment now. The old rules of the game no longer seem to count.

Well, why don't we eliminate him.

It's too late. This is energetic. It has nothing to do with his personal presence. Eliminating him will simply accelerate the awakening of the sleeping masses.

Well, let's shut down g-nome portal for once and for all.

Apparently we can't.

Ebert. I pay you to find solutions - not to tell me what we can't do.

Shutting down g-nome portal is a complete waste of time, even if we could do it, because it's open sourced itself. It's no longer centred in any one organisation, institution, or group of individuals. This is what Merry seems to have achieved in his dramatic move.

I need more information.

He created a kind of vacuum. It was a sort of Jesus moment.

What the hell do you mean by that?

Well, whenever highly conscious beings stop acting in accordance with the rules of the game, and do something wholly unpredictable, in the name of Love for example - that crashes the existing system - momentarily disrupting the data flow of 01s.

Well if you're telling me about this now, you should have known what to expect.

I did, but Merry didn't, nor did Zie. It was truly a cosmic event. One of the few entirely random events the world has ever known.

Ridiculous Heinrich. Random events are happening all the time.

With all due respect, Mr President...

I'm warning you Ebert.

With all due respect, Ted, truly random events are the rarest things in existence. They are the seed crystals, the infinitesimal grains of dust that can spontaneously trigger Creation.

I beg your pardon?

Creation - with a capital C - the God variety. It's never triggered by anything predictable, rational or logical. It always happens from apparently nothing - the purely random event I'm referring to.

So we can't control this, you're saying, because absurd though it may seem, we've just encountered a Creation moment.

The Creation moment.

What do you mean? "The Creation moment".

There's only ever One. It pops in and out of reality whenever you least expect it... what you might refer to as a black swan event, and from that point onwards, nothing is ever the same again. The base parameters of reality are now completely different.

Well I don't care what you say - I want Zie now.

Yes, Deep Thought predicted you would, so I sent a team round to pick him up.

And?

They're sitting with him in his conservatory, right now, discussing the meaning of life.

A SWAT team?

Yes.

Jesus Christ Heinz, is there really nothing we can do?

We can try praying for a miracle. Or else, what was it Harry Potter says to Voldemort in the final book - "It's your one last chance… Be a man… try… Try for some remorse…"

Enough! How dare you start quoting children's literature at me. I can't believe you, of all people Heinz, would have the effrontery to do so.

Like I said, Mr President... the game has changed. I may not like it, but I can't argue with the data. 0=1, as Merry used to quote.

Ted Langley grimaces... then turns away. Flicks a speck of dust from his lapel and terminates Heinrich Ebert on the spot. "You've been a great asset up until this moment Heinz, but you know the rules as well as I do. None of us are inexpendable, myself included. I accept your challenge, Merry - he says, raising his voice, addressing the surrounding universe. I realise that in so doing, I'm probably merely assisting you, and playing into your hands or those of g-nome portal, but so be it - I am what I am, and I prefer to go down fighting, if go down I must.

10

Er... Merry, why have we skipped to chapter ten?

Oh that? It's binary you know. "One zero" is in fact 2 in binary, not ten.

Er... if you say so. Look Merry, I've been thinking about that "one world government thing"... it's blatant conspiracy theory, isn't it. I wish you wouldn't discredit yourself with such nonsense.

It's funny you should say that Paula... that's exactly what Ebert's driver was thinking as he sat in his car downstairs, in the basement parking, waiting to take Ebert to a meeting with the Director of the Council on Foreign Relations. As far as he was concerned, these were just regular people doing regular jobs. Everything else was pure fantasy. The fact that his boss had just had a massive heart attack was, of course, a tragic coincidence.

Sorry to interrupt Merry, but where's the coincidence?

Oh, you missed their drive to the Lucent Technologies HQ, Delaware.

Well, yes. What happened on the way there?

Ebert was in a strange mood. He rarely spoke to his driver, normally. They hardly knew each other. This time, however, he'd asked him lots of fairly personal questions about family, prospects, ambitions... that kind of thing. On the one hand it had been flattering to feel that someone as senior as Ebert was starting to take an interest in him, on the other hand faintly disturbing. Peter Gunner liked his anonymity, but he was willing to sacrifice it a little at least when he felt genuine interest.

"I'm putting you in for a transfer Peter, if you have no objections. It'll be a promotion. Your pay will rise considerably and you'll be based out of town, at our new automotive division."

Peter didn't know what to say - it was all so out of the blue.

Er... that's nice of you Mr Ebert, but I'm happy to continue as your driver.

Yes - and I appreciate that, but I feel that there are going to be some sudden unexpected changes in the near future, so you might be grateful for the new opening. Anyway, you don't have to do anything. Think about it for a day or two. The transfer's already in the system but you can cancel it any time before you're due to start there.

Oh! And when is that?

Next Monday.

Peter Gunner's mind was in a whirl. Strange unexpected things like this weren't supposed to happen. They never had before. His life had always been so very predictable. He hadn't known what to say. He kept his eyes averted from Ebert as he saw him leave the car for the last time, as it later turned out.

"Strange coincidence", he muttered to himself, but was grateful nonetheless for the new position which got him away from what was now quite a big bump in the road.

11

I suppose that means three, does it, in binary?

Correct. You're getting the hang of this Paula.

Merry, I was meaning to ask... you're not er... in any way related to the Merry who was responsible for Zie's recent conversion, are you?

Where did you get that idea from Paula?

Oh, it's probably stupid of me - how could you be when you're here in Kentucky?

Yes... In any case, isn't that all just conspiracy theory? I'm not sure that Merry really exists, or g-nome portal either, for that matter.

Oh - so you know about g-nome portal?

I've heard about it, yes. What about you? It sounds a bit far-fetched, don't you think.

Well yes, it does, but on the other hand... you'll probably laugh but I've had a few dreams lately about it.

No!

Yes, like I was visiting this place which is kind of the control centre of reality as we know it... which keeps the whole 3D system up and running.

Now that's astonishing. Maybe you're unwittingly a part of it. You could be a sleeping member - an unsuspecting g-nomer.

I hope not. It sounds way too far out to me. And look at Zie. He's completely gone round the bend since he started talking about g-nome portal.

Yes, I've noticed. Did you see his poem?

You mean his Spell. That's what he calls it, about the Frog. Yes. It's er... original.

Not the kind of thing you'd expect a media personality like Zie to publish. On the hand hand childish, on the other hand profound. I can't see how that's going to help his career.

Oh his career's gone ballistic, at least, if you judge by the number of hits his getting or retweets... People seem to be strangely affected by what's happening to him.

Why's that?

I don't know. Maybe it's like a mid-life crisis, or a sudden shift of consciousness. He seems to be a different person now. It's almost scary.

How so?

Well, he writes a poem about a frog - no big deal. Then people start flocking to his house to see him. A swat team were sent to arrest him, I couldn't work out why, but they down their guns and quit their jobs saying they're no longer willing to work for that kind of government. I mean, where does that kind of power come from. Anyone else would be ignored or in prison. He's almost become the single most influential person in America. Maybe that's what we're all craving for - a public figure with a conscience, who cares, and more importantly, who seems to know what matters.

Or what doesn't.

Er?

What doesn't matter. Maybe that's his secret? Maybe he's got some insight into what is no longer important.

Er... ok.

100

"Son of a bitch!"

Ted Langley is looking through Deep Thought's log and he can't believe his eyes.

"The bastard knew all along."

Now understand that Ted didn't get to where he is today by blowing his top over trivialities. He's renowned for staying calm in a crisis, no matter what. Something now is evidently different. The game has changed.

Ted with his top level security clearance has access to all Deep Thought's user accounts, including Ebert's, and a quick scan reveals that Ebert knew the consequences of his death.

I trusted that bastard, Ted mutters, furiously. What was he looking for? A hero's death?

It appears from Ebert's predictive search log that either he himself had been affected by Zie's poem the Frog, or by Deep Thought's calculation that it was a subsequent wholly random event, a follow on from what Merry had set in motion simply by quitting. Zie had always been a profound mathematician at heart. He used to talk about the poetry of numbers. Well, two wholly random events was too much for his jaded mind. Something had given. It looks like the poet within, the long suppressed but unvanquished romantic, had won out. "What if I too join the other side of the equation," he mused. "What if I allow the possibility of the infinite to work through me? I wonder what my random event would be..." and that's where he left off. You cannot, you see, plan a random event. The infinite cannot be predetermined, but Zie had obviously been deeply affected. A quick scan of his activity in the days before his final meeting with Ted indicated that he was at least aware of the possibility of his own impending death, but he couldn't have known for sure, otherwise it wouldn't have been wholly random. He must have been uncertain which way things would go, right up until the final moment, otherwise...

Ted had the data before his eyes. He really couldn't argue with Deep Thought - this was biologic quantum computing at its very finest. Ebert's death had been the third wholly random event, and that was sufficient to sign and seal the new paradigm. Less than three - still left room to manoeuvre. Three was beyond equivocation. "But how did he do it?" Langley mused. "How did he keep it wholly random? It makes no sense. He must have known he was going to overstep the mark. It must have been on the cards at least. That should have made this a computable, quantifiable event. That would have negated the effect of his death. But now?

Ted Langley types in "End game" and waits... and waits.

Deep Thought has never taken longer than 42 seconds to compute anything, and that was when Ebert asked for a predictive response to Zie's publication of the Frog. Now, something seems to be... Deep Thought is either shutting down or simply lost in ever deeper thought. All the signs indicate it's biologic algorithms are functioning without...

"Without what?" Paula want to know.

Oh sorry about that Paula, I couldn't take my eyes off it. It really is an astonishing work of art. Poetry in motion...

So? What does Deep Thought tell President Langley?

It doesn't. It can't because, as it turns out, this is an act of Creation in the works, so no amount of predictive analysis can compute the likelihood of any particular outcome. Ted Langley stares at the screen in disbelief for a minute or two, then pulls himself together. The great statesman and strategist that he is isn't going to cry over spilt milk, or halt in his tracks just because he's now flying blind. He knows exactly what he has to do, starting with a strategy meeting of the joint chiefs of staff.

[the Frog, if you haven't read it, is at the end of the last post]

In which Merry quits and Zie struggles with loneliness...

So you're saying the biggest stumbling block is perception?

Er, kind of, yes, not to mention the programmed mind that's only able to focus on things, and our beliefs which are so powerful, but so often used by the ego to stay in control.

What? You're saying the ego uses religion to stay in control?

Well obviously, yes. It has to use everything at its disposal, so if the person's of a religious bent, the ego doesn't ever engage in head on conflict - that's ineffective and counter-productive. Instead it subverts or manipulates by bringing up your secret, darkest fears, doubts and phobias. That way it allows you to gaol yourself and hand over the keys to the ego. The best thing about this set up is you're not even aware you're doing it. You believe and assume you're free. You rationalise - "I may have a few irrational fears, but they're my fears and harming no one else, and I can deal with them, honest I can, just as soon as I need to." Little do you suspect that those fears, doubts and phobias are the result of your unwillingness to confront the simple truth - your unwillingness to confront Nought.

Why do you keep insisting I'm unwilling to confront Nought.

Because everything else is secondary.

But what's so scary about Nought. It's just nothing, isn't it.

No, it's THE nothing.

Which one do you mean?

The one that completely and utterly collapses the wave form of all that is, leaving nothing in its place - not even life.

Oh my God. Even life?

Precisely. So you can imagine why people might prefer not to know anything about it. Talk about futility! Imagine knowing that everything you did, and everything you are still amounts to Nought, simply because mathematically 0=1. What's the point in going on? is a perfectly natural question in that context.

Nought, in fact, is worse than death, because at least with death you can tell yourself that you've had a life, you've existed and now that you're dead you may in some way, shape or form continue - through your children, through your works, your legacy - but as far as Nought is concerned, the answer is an emphatic NO - it's a huge Ozymandias moment - nothing remains - not even a few statues standing in a desert.

So maybe we should dispense with Nought if it's so obviously a downer.

We need it.

We do? You could have fooled me.

Of course we do, for without it we are trapped in I-mind/ what matters. The flat, linear version of consciousness which cannot deliver the goods - which cannot bring us back to our senses...

And Nought the avenger, Nought the destroyer can, you're saying. I for one fail to see how anything as uncompromisingly dissolutionary as Nought can be of any service to humanity or the so called conscious awareness.

Yes, that's perfectly reasonable and understandable too, but we now can't survive without it.

What do you mean?

Well, the reality we're apparently stuck in is now growing increasingly unstable. Think of ice melting underfoot. Holes are going to start appearing. There will be nothing in those holes. It's going to cause a certain amount of panic, until we learn how to work with Nought.

You're telling me it'll cause panic - it sounds like the nothingness eating up Fantasia in the Neverending story.

Very similar.

But why? Where does it come from?

Well, there are 7 billion of us now, and we've been spreading the pastry thinner and thinner, and it's not able to spread any further. Everything material has its limit, and we reached that limit a few years ago. We're now moving into a fascinating period of escalating disintegration of the very fabric of our erstwhile seemingly material reality. We're going to start seeing at first hand that our material reality in fact has no backing. It's conjured out of thin air - or dreamt up, in fact, by the conscious awareness.

Well I find that hard to believe.

Me too, and yet, the mathematics are clear as clear. 0=1, otherwise there would be no balance in anything whatsoever. We have to play a kind of magic trick, like a conjurer, and if it's done cleverly then the eyes fail to see how it's done, and the mind certainly can't work it out as the mind's only really able to consider things within the system - either one side or the other, never the twain together. Anyway, where was I?

You were saying material reality has no backing - it's conjured out of thin air. Ridiculous notion.

Absolutely. Completely ridiculous, but no more ridiculous than the alternative - that reality just created itself from nothing in a purely spontaneous big bang.

Well, there's always God if you don't accept scientific explanations.

Oh, but I do accept explanations, but I prefer to know what, if anything, they're explaining. This one, known as "big bang", is obviously explaining the creation of our particular version of reality, which required us to slam a door in our mind shut, and shut it's remained ever since. Doors tend to bang when you slam them shut, and if you slam them very very hard, then the bang can be very very big. In fact, it can be big enough to conjure up an entire universe.

Don't be absurd. The universe wasn't conjured up by a door being slammed. It was created by objective forces. These forces can still be measured today as background radiation.

Hum... is that so? In that case, how do you account for this.

Merry disappears, melting into thin air, then reappears a moment later on the other side of the room.

At first Zie's a little freaked out. Eventually, when he's calmed down a bit he insists it was just an optical illusion. 

You see, Zie, the mind will not, cannot accept that it only has half the picture - that it doesn't, can't, won't see what pertains to Nought, the other side of the equation, for to do so would destroy this oh so captivating illusion.

It isn't an illusion.

Want to bet?

Not really. It's absurd to bet on something that cannot possibly be true. In any case, you might try to trick me. You might use hypnosis or some mental projection to temporarily make the illusion shift or disappear altogether.

So there's no way whatsoever, and no grounds that would enable you to question or consider the alternative - that I might be right.

None whatsoever.

Fair enough. In which case I'm done.

You're what? What do you mean.

It matters not. I'm done. See you Zie.

What do you mean you're done? You can't just go. You can't just desert me.

Wanna bet? I was only sticking around because there was the possibility no matter how remote that you might agree to consider "other", but now that I see that you won't - my job is complete.

Merry vanishes, and never returns.

Zie at first is shocked, a little heart broken too. He could never believe Merry would simply abandon him. It seems somewhat heartless, does it not? A few months later Zie begins to accept that Merry is not returning. There's a hole in his life... an emptiness. It's hardly surprising - they have been friends for so long. Zie realises that this emptiness is hurting him - gnawing at his vitality. He knows it isn't going away. His friendship with Merry was always full of love and magic. Merry must have touched him in some way, deeply.

I'm going to have to fight this one - Zie tells himself. There's no point letting it destroy me. I need to find the source of this emptiness troubling me. I need to get it out, onto paper. So Zie, quite unexpectedly starts writing. Even more unexpected is the form his writing takes - namely children's poems - he calls them Spells. He has no idea why, but it doesn't really matter, does it. The main thing is that it seems to help. The more he writes, the more he's able to make inroads into the emptiness; to start an alchemical process transforming the pain and nothingness into something else.

And here's one of the poems he wrote:

The frog

A frog sat on his log and sighed,

Something was wrong, something empty inside,

He gazed in the water, tried eating a fly,

But still felt unhappy, and didn’t know why.

The frog wasn’t lazy, it wanted to know

What was making it sigh, the cause of its woe,

So it put on a jacket, then straightened its tie,

And when it was ready it called to the sky:

“Oh sky overhead you are mighty and wise,

Protector of frogs and provider of flies,

With rain you replenish the ponds down below,

With sunlight you warm us and make the plants grow,

Dear sky in your mercy, please help me to see

The cause of the emptiness troubling me.”

Lost in a trance frog stared up above,

And there in a vision caught sight of a dove

That was flying around, and seemed to be saying

“Come join me, I’ll answer the prayer you were praying.”

Frog leapt in the air, as if in a dream,

And found himself flying high over the stream

That flows to his pond from a field lush and green,

And there at its source, he heard the dove say:

“This water brings life to the tadpoles who play,

This water brings life to all creatures who use it,

Its spirit is in you, its spirit today

Needs your help little frog, needs the heart of a poet,

To see it and praise it, to love it and know it.”

Frog sat on his log, something burning inside,

He remembered the dove and his magical flight,

He took a deep breath and started to croak,

And the song of the water of life now awoke

In the heart of the frog. As he sang he could feel

The song was alive, with the power to heal,

That all would be well, for magic is real

When it shines like a star, when it spins like a wheel.

Ironic isn't it, that Zie of all people should write such a poem or spell? The thing is that he doesn't just write it - he kind of lives it, feels it, experiences it. Whatever it is referring to has already become a part of Zie's life. Now don't get me wrong - he'd still laugh if you suggested there was anything literal in the poem - that he, perhaps, was the frog, or that he was converting to some kind of shamanism or belief in magic. "No, no, no - that's all plain absurd!" he'll tell you, turning up his nose, but if you look at Zie's patterns, his behaviour, his off-moments when he isn't really thinking what he's doing - when he's just being or doing stuff spontaneously, you'll find that he's shifting little by little, shifting away from the kind of "that can't be real, it doesn't make sense" person he used to be, to a more thoughtful "that's interesting, I wonder what it is/ how it works" kind of person. And that, apparently, so Merry says, is enough to get the ball rolling. The rest happens naturally - as naturally as water flowing down a hill or flowing into a living body...

"Surely Merry will come back" Zie thinks from time to time - most days actually, but in the meantime, without consciously being aware of it, Zie is moving towards Merry, connecting the dots, allowing more and more of Merry's magic into his life... and his soul, whatever "the soul" might be, is, believe it or not, sprouting wings - teeny ones to be sure, but at times they flutter just a little, which gives Zie a strange feeling of something beyond the boundaries of normal material-reality.

To be continued...

g-nome portal update - the long awaited breakthrough

I'd like to start by congratulating all of you g-nomers who have been quietly, or not so quietly, working behind the scenes to bring reality back into play.

Tee hee ;-)

Yes, beloved friends of g-nome portal - something terrible happened to reality along the way...

That doesn't mean to say I regret any of the above.
I wouldn't have missed it for the world.
It's been a blast - as they say.
A bomb blast.
Nuclear fission... divide and rule... divide and rule... divide and rule.

So here we are... at the end of flat... at the beginning of round. I'd like to formally welcome you to round reality. It's taken a while, has it not. We've known the earth was round for centuries or millennia, but our model of reality has remained flat and linear. Aaargh! Repression. Fear. Denial.

G-nome portal works tirelessly, night and day, through uplifting laughter, joy and play to bring us back to round reality that is merry and gay ;-)

So here we are, laughing in our hearts, even when we're crying in the rainy, flat-lined reality we conjured from our darkest fears and delusions.

Great we took the trouble to do so. Great that we bothered to engage our darkest fears and delusions, materialising them here in flat and grey no-time-to-play reality. Great, for now we can see, without the slightest doubt, what is what, what matters, and what is not.

The things that have mattered so much to us in this world of nuclear fission, the things that seem to matter, the things that matter - just get your head around that crazy logic... the logic of straight lines... the logic of flatness that has taken control of your mind - separating it from the natural state of knowing what is good, knowing what is right, simply knowing, tying it instead to a scaffold of ideas, beliefs, fixed certainties... "It's a fact!" you hear people say... or "I don't believe it... It doesn't matter... It's been proven wrong"... the way we talk, the way we reveal our mind's attachment to the flat, the line, the not what truly is.

G-nome portal has never needed to combat any of the above. You don't defeat an existing system or paradigm by fighting it - you simply make it obsolete by introducing something vastly simpler and superior... so here we are - entering the vastly superior quantum age of Is, courtesy of g-nome portal.

Now I know there are some of you out there who think I'm overstating the importance of g-nome portal's contribution to the current paradigm shift - as humanity returns to conscious awareness and discovers the Berlin Wall of divided mind no longer stands, and you may be right in your reality - but in mine - and I created it so I ought to know - in my reality g-nome portal is indisputably at the very heart of the complete transformation of all that is, and a considerable portion of all that is not, too.

Well, I said it's round, didn't I, so as it can be seven am in Australia and late evening in England, so it can be g-nome portal saves the day in my particularity of reality, and the Great White Handkerchief in yours.

How so? you may ask?

Because things go around and up and down - think spherical, if you would, think spheres, think in terms of all that is, not forgetting its equal and opposite all that is not - otherwise known as "Nought".

Now some people have a problem with Nought. They're willing to go along with the idea that we and the entire universe exist. They may even be willing to go along with the idea that the universe is in fact a multiverse of many universes, or that there are multiple parallel universes if that sounds more appealing - take your pick - or devise your own clever little theory of what you think it all amounts to, but I've noticed over the years that relatively few people outside the safe confines of g-nome portal's hallowed domes and laughing walls are willing to countenance Nought.

Now why should that be? I wonder.

What's the great prejudice against Nought... I mean it seems kind of intuitive really, if you think about it, doesn't it, that all that is, whatever that might be, must contain within it or somewhere at least, all that is not - and that the two cannot be separated because neither side really exists without the other.

Doesn't it?

Doesn't it seem kind of intuitive? or otherwise you'd be creating something from nothing, which is absurd, if you think about it.

Quite absurd.

So let's not.

Let's not bother creating something from Nothing. Let's do the opposite. Let's assume that something, including all that is, which presumably refers among other things to the universe/ multiverse/ or omni-bloody-verse, where was I? ... oh yes, that something amounts to or equals Nothing in the same way a five dollar debt equals a five dollar loan or credit - just depending on which way you look at it.

Ah, if only it were that simple, I hear several thousand voices pontificating...

If only it were that simple - like raindrops falling on the roof of my mind, but my roof is well constructed and well maintained, and the raindrops flow down into the gutter and then down into the drain, and they help the plants to grow, which reminds me - that this is all about...

life

life

life

Did you like that? I used bigger letters for emphasis, though I don't think the biggest were big enough... You see the truth is that life is the elephant under the carpet, the game changer, the ultimate five card trick, if you know what I mean.

Life - the final frontier - and people thought space was the final frontier. You have to laugh, do you not, how back to front we got everything. If only they knew, if only we knew, that all life, or equally a single living being, amounts to the entire universe - or in big letters -
the entire universe!!!

How so? You might ask - in small letters if you don't mind. How can life, even just a single living being, amount to the entire universe? It makes no sense.

Precisely. It makes no sense, and that's always been the point of contention - the stumbling block for clever and stupid alike. Of course it makes no sense! How could it make sense?! It's Nothing at play, Nothing in action, Nothing at all, or, Nothing whatsoever!!

Just playing around a bit, as you can see, trying to find the best, comfiest way of expressing the magnitude of Nothing - tee hee.

For if nothing permeates and penetrates and encircles or underlies everything and anything, no matter what, no matter where, no matter when or how or whom... then don't you see?

bigger - Don't you see?

biggest - Don't you see? 

er... quite frankly "no" is the answer I often get, which is why I spend most of my time playing around in g-nome portal, having a laugh at no one's expense.

But to answer the question: Don't you see? in a more calm and thoughtful way...

It seems fair to say that Life is conscious awareness in some shape or form, and conscious awareness in most definitely no thing in particular - certainly in the material sense, so conscious awareness is to Nothing what matter is to our physical universe. Strange though it may seem, the whole of the universe cannot amount to any more or less than conscious awareness itself - which isn't, in fact, a thing at all... tee hee.

So mathematically this is expressed as follows: er... actually you don't need to write "er..." at the start of the equation - that was just me thinking aloud, but you're free to do so if you wish, so, where was I?

er...

Thank you. The formula of the Great White Handkerchief, the Big Bang or g-nome portal is, er... 0=1

Now there are some among you, I'm sure, who don't particularly like this formula, or who don't even recognise it as such. They may prefer to call it "an equation", or even "non-sense". all of which are perfectly acceptable terms - and I have no objection to any of the above. But what you can't do, unless you in fact choose to, is question the perfect symmetry, balance and harmony of this formula. for without perfectly uniting the circle of Nought and the One of Universe, or conversely, the circle of Universe and the One of Nought - er... you run into little teeny weeny problems which have the tendency to get bigger and bigger and bigger.

Like what?

Like you can't for the life of you explain where life in the universe comes from, or the material universe, nor what consciousness is, or anything else that's basically fundamental - if you'll excuse the tautology!

So, if you grow tired of ignoring the basic fundamentals, which is another way of saying, if you ever grow tired of playing with mental constructions which are fascinating and intricate but, at some vital node, wholly divorced from Reality... with a capital R, as I think you may have noticed... so where was I?

Iffing...

Oh yes, I was iffing, wasn't I. Well, believe me when I say that simplicity is not as boring as it may seem, and it has the added advantage of enabling inter-dimensional and intergalactic travel - if you have any interest in seeing other worlds - so there are some distinct advantages to accepting what simply is and working with Nought, rather than objecting voraciously to it on ideological or philosophical grounds...

You see, rehabilitating Nought gives you this little added dimension which I call roundness. All of a sudden the conscious awareness is brought into play. All of a sudden you realise that the life that you are, the life within you is vast - as vast as the universe, and through life itself, through your conscious awareness you have, dare I say it, direct access to all that is, which is quite a lot, really, if you think about it.

The only downer is er... Nought.

I mean there's always something, isn't there. You've heard the expression "there's no such thing as a free lunch". Well, there is of course, if you know how to go about it, but that's beside the point - I was using it figuratively. So Nought - on the one hand it gives you back the Universe or multiverse, which is nice, is it not. It gives you back Reality with a capital R. It ends the truth embargo, the suppression of all that truly is, and suddenly you find yourself in a magical, colourful, wait for it... Reality that's actually real, for a change.

But?

But on the other hand you have to live with the fact that Nothing is quite what it seems...

What do you mean?

Well, nothing is quite what it seems, or Nothing is what it seems - I don't want to get too technical - but you should have downloaded it by now, if you're open to [   ]

Open to what?

That's it. Not what. It's Nought - so it ain't what in any shape or form, and because it basically permeates anything and everything, it means that all those comfy old certainties, beliefs and convictions...

What? You mean they all have to go? That I have to live in a relativistic soup?

Oh no, no, no... You can hang onto them as long as they're needed, like waterwings when you're learning to swim, or stabilisers on a bicycle, but once you're ready you'll wish to discard them, coz they'll no longer be any use.

So what's the big deal then?

No big deal - just a strangeness that takes a little getting used to. A sense of anything that grows stronger and stronger as you allow yourself to become rounder and rounder, as you allow the simple truth to awaken your faculty of other-perception as your conscious awareness expands.

"Other perception"? What's that?

Well, you only see things in a certain way, the way you do today, because that's the position you're presently fixed in, conceptually. Once you allow Nought into the equation, mother nature or life itself, call it what you will, introduces other forms, other ways of interpreting the raw data, and you're able to perceive the same in a completely different way.

How different? Give an example.

Well, the universe is not really what it seems. It's bendy and malleable. Really, anything goes, so you can shift though time and space just by allowing your perception to disconnect from one branch of the tree, and reconnect to another.

You mean I have to climb up or down a tree?

No, I was speaking figuratively. Er... just by clicking with your mouse, so to speak, and changing the settings on the computer - you can see the same data in a completely different way - as a bar chart, a pie chart or even convert it into sound. There's really no limit.

But how could that get me across the universe?

What universe? 0=1. In terms of Nought there really is no universe - just conscious awareness, so if you shift leftwards into conscious awareness, then you can shift rightwards back into materiality and find yourself in a completely different place - without having moved at all. It's just like shunting a file from one folder to another by clicking a mouse - and the other folder could be anywhere if you're connected to the internet.

Yes, but I'm not a file - I have a body.

True. But you also have conscious awareness.

So?

So Nothing. The quantum age starts with quantum computing and the quantum stream. The first thing you realise is that you are, in fact, a kind of quantum computer, or you can be. Your mind has all the computing firepower of the entire universe, if you'll allow it to. Likewise, you have direct access to the quantum stream, a kind of vortex that holds everything within it. Via the quantum stream you are in all places simultaneously.

But I can't be. I'm always stuck here in one place.

Well, yes, that's true because you preferred it that way, but Nought's going to make light work of that fixed in matter, stuck in the mud version of reality, isn't it.

I don't know.

Way to go. Just allow that "I don't know" to morph into something creative. Allow yourself to dare to know, to want to know, to believe that somewhere, in fact, you do know.

I do?

And that somewhere is the conscious awareness... Cuckoo la la

Cuckoo la la?

Yeah... It's a kind of magic. Really, there's nothing to it! Tee hee... excuse the pun, dear friend. I crack myself up sometimes I do, honestly.

Very funny.

It goes with the job.

I was being sarcastic... er... what job?

System administrator.

System administrator?

Do you always repeat things like this?

No, just when I'm struggling to come to terms with something.

Well, why struggle. Just allow your mind to crash. Accept that Nothing is One. That the entire universe equals Nought, and that Nought is, in fact, what you really are, because believe me if you would, you're a lot more conscious-awareness than simply a body, or cells or matter.

Yes, I suppose so, but I'm still a body and cells and matter, so that makes it hard for me to accept I'm just consciousness.

I didn't say that.

You didn't?

Nope. I didna say you're just consciousness. I used the word conscious-awareness which is on the other side, so to speak, of the equation.

It is?

Yes. Conscious awareness is not the consciousness here in materiality - it's your very self, your body plus your consciousness, oh, and the entire universe on the other side of the equation, in Nought.

The entire universe? That's ridiculous. You can't say I'm the entire universe.

I have no choice. You can't be any less than the entire universe in Nought, otherwise the equation ain't balanced, doesn't work, fails to amount to all and nought.

Oh.

Yes indeed, or how about Oh!

Well, I might have, but you're the one doing the formatting, aren't you.

Only because I'm playing around with g-nome portal, but you're free to join in if you like.

But what do I have to do for that?

Suspend your disbelief.

Suspend my disbelief?

End the truth embargo.

End the truth embargo?

Face Nought fair and square - let the circle unfold.

Ha ha very funny.

Oh good, you're laughing again. Really, you're welcome to join me anytime you like here at g-nome portal. That's what it's for. In the meantime, you're going to have some amazing experiences as your reality starts to become increasingly psychedelic.

What, like taking drugs? I don't like the sound of that.

No need to take any drugs... but I think you'll find it's going to be fun. In the end, you yourself, each and every one of you, are driving the change from the other side - from the conscious-awareness.

I am? We are?

Yes. It's the alpha omega moment. You've been lost in the woods, so to speak, and the circle is not complete, so the two ends are being gently, neatly stitched back together again, and amazingly, they fit perfectly, and contain within their circumference a huge treasure trove, a wealth of amazing experiences, none of which would have been possible if you hadn't been navigating blindly, unable to see the wood from the trees.

Ah.

Yes indeed. So, a big welcome home, and may your awakening be full of beauty, magic and laughter.

Amen ;-)

To the mushrooms sleeping in the earth

To the mushrooms sleeping in the earth
sleep dear ones while the winter turns the world
snow white and dark as night
Sleep little children of Mother Earth
and dream of Mother Gaia's beauty
rebirthed, reborn, restored, come spring
when life returns in all its glory
and abundance.

Who would have thought...
Who would have thought that you, little ones
had the power, have the power, the power
to heal, to transform the face of Mother Gaia
to bring back the magic of the forest
to remove all trace of our passing folly
and heal the wounds of our hubris, and our hatefulness.

Cuckoo la la, beautiful mushroom friends...
Work your magic once again, as you have oft before,
teach us half-witted half humans how to be
what we truly are...
magical sons and daughters of Gaia
in tune once more, in balance with all that is
alive
in tune once more, in balance
with life itself... the boundless force within, and around
each and everyone... each and every one

Sing to us mushroom friends, sing to us
...your seeming silent song
that we may hear our way home
back home to all that is good
...to our natural state of wholesomeness.

the healer

...the healer walked into the room.

They were sick or dying... lots of them.

The air was thick with their pain and suffering. Many of them had no real hope in their eyes. They'd been down this avenue before. They'd tried many alternatives but none of the so called miracles had worked. Now you could smell the rank stale scepticism in the air.

The healer looked kind of frail... like there was no way he could shoulder the burden and lift these fading souls back into their bodies. He didn't even look like he cared. Insouciant or indifferent might be better words to describe him. Far removed from what you'd have expected a virtuous, loving healer to be.

"Hi guys... er, I've been told that you're all pretty sick. Many of you are terminal cases..."

His manner of speech sent a shudder through the crowd. Their sickness demanded respect. How could he talk in that tone - as if it was just some kind of routine Monday morning  meeting about the week ahead's sales targets.

A murmur... and a few unhushed voices, betraying signs of poorly suppressed indignation.

"Yeah... well obviously there's not much I can do for you lot. I mean - it looks like half of you have lost the will to live, and I certainly don't feel like trying to give it back to you."

No. This was going way too far. He had to be stopped. Voices of protest - but he seemed impervious to them.

"I mean... It's not like death's the end anyway, is it? Let's face it, you'd have to be really stupid to think that life ends when your physical body packs it in, so why this absurd attachment to the present incarnation."

Was he doing this deliberately? Had he just come to abuse them? Was he intent on goading them from self-pity or resignation into anger, because if that's the case he seemed to be succeeding.

"I don't think I'd bother if I were in your shoes. You're obviously all hopelessly out of tune with your life's true purpose and direction. It's hardly surprising you're all falling to pieces."

The scream - that painting by Edvard Munch - describes best the collective outrage. How dare he! How dare this self-proclaimed healer so insult such undeserving, vulnerable people. How could he desecrate the little they had remaining - their self-respect?

The cries of anger, disgust, hurt in the hall had completely charged the atmosphere. It was pulsating. Electric. Alive.

"I don't know why I bothered to come," he continued, and no one knew how but they all heard his quiet voice over the angry shouts, "but as I'm here I may as well play a little. It can't do any more harm than has already been done."

Play a little? Harm? What was he on about? The only harm that had been done was his own - that much was certain.

"Dear friends... Try not to take it all so much to heart. Remember the simple truth, though you may not like hearing it: that I mean nothing to you whatsoever, and you mean nothing to me. We are just indifferent strangers, briefly passing on the interminable road of life's dull progression."

And what? What could they do to express the violence of their wounded sensibilities? To protest his reptilian, callous insensitivity, his cold, calculating mockery of...

             Every mind in that hall suddenly went blank. 

At that moment every one of them realised the strange terrible truth that he had enunciated - that he meant absolutely nothing to them, and they to him. It was like an infinite silence had opened in each of them simultaneously, and within that silence there was nowhere for their inner dialogue, their tale of wounded pride, of trials or tribulations... there was just the velvety silence that knew no bounds, lapping like black waves of night on the over-exposed paper of their minds, restoring them to a state of deep, deep stillness.

He waited a good minute while the entire hall held its breath, then took out his wooden flute.

What did he play? you're asking. I've no idea. It matters not in the least. God, just a few repetitive notes. Nothing special. Nothing extraordinary. Nothing to write home about. Nothing that could possibly have achieved anything whatsoever, were it not for the silence that lurked and prowled and wove its way through and around the flute's sounds.

And if there's a place within each one of us where our deep inner harmony is stowed, then that might explain how the pathetic-little that he played, the three of four minutes of gently searching, probing notes were able to release an impossible force of healing within that dingy hall, for what had he done? What had he accomplished? By sleight of hand and lèse-majesté he had evaded all the defences disease erects, he'd simply marched into the now unguarded citadel of body and mind, and done nothing whatsoever to help. "I have no intention of helping you, nor do you need my help, nor would you in fact accept it if I had offered. But now that I'm here - I'm going to enjoy a moment or two of silence with you, whether you like it or not, just because..."

And they'd been powerless to resist.

The silence had been compelling, beyond anything he'd said.

It wasn't hypnosis.

It wasn't a trick.

It was simply silence.

Infinite, pure, unadulterated, embryonic, umbilical silence. Connecting them with... whatever it was they'd not been hearing in themselves. Their inner song. The sound of I am. The soul's fluttering wings... I've no idea what.

"Ah! And I thought I was sick..." you could almost here the returning inner-dialogue.

And I believed I was going to die...

And I had no hope...

And I was miserable because...

And I...

From the infinite silence of all that is came the complete disintegration of whatever had been the basis for their dis-ease. From the infinite silence within it had never had standing or even right of admission, and it now dissolved back into the surrounding inconsequentiality from whence it had arisen.

The hall took several minutes to recover their senses and to realise the extent of their rehabilitation, by which time the healer they'd hated and cursed a few moments before was far removed from their sight.

But the silence, once heard, remained with them always

3339 quantum computer IO activating infinity drive 2266

G-nome portal likes to keep things low-key as you’ve already surmised.

The fact that we have thousands of members behind the scenes working tirelessly to bring about nothing you’ve ever yet experienced, still less imagined possible, is no big deal. We do it because we love it and ask for nothing in return, barring plenty of social recognition, a six or seven figure pay packet and membership at all the best intergalactic wineries and dineries.

Intergalactic – Merry – why limit yourself to this particular universe.

Ok Zee, but it’s just an abbreviation, really. I’m only human you know...

Er... is that strictly true?

No, but you know what I mean. Inter-galactic, inter-dimensional, inter-gnomic – they’re all much of a much. Once you’ve established the fact that things are not what they seem – that you can skim between frames, that you’re no longer fixed in one version of reality, one hard drive, one body or mind for that matter, then it makes little difference whether you’re dining here on Terra, in Andromeda or the Black Eye Galaxy. They’re all much alike – mere extrapolations  of what is what.

Come on Merry – that can’t be true?

Of course it can! Anything can, by definition, be true, no matter how implausible. Why you might feel it to be untrue is, of course, in itself rather interesting. Let me assume you haven’t spent the last 6 or 7 hundred years on the road, so to speak, flitting back and forth across hyper-space.

Well no, I haven’t, but you yourself told me...

Much as I hate to interrupt you Zee, you have to remember that things mentioned in private have little bearing on a public discussion such as this one. Those were confidences.

And you’re not going to treat our readers with confidence?

Well, I have no idea who they are, or what their intentions might be. For all I know they may be planning to break out of this dim and gloomy lock-down on Earth, and devote themselves to a lifetime of inter-g or d backpacking or hitchhiking. I hardly wish to encourage such reckless hedonism. I know that the Anglo-Saxon work ethic, and the widely accepted major religions’ I-am-unworthy-and-sinful ethic have been carefully implanted and cultured on this gloom and doom planet. Who am I to spannerise such a potent and bountiful brewery of emoticants.

A what did you call it?

Oh nothing... when will I learn to keep my mouth shut?

A brewery of emoticants? Whose side are you on Merry? I hope you’re not working for them.

Not on a full time basis. A little occasional moonlighting between assignments. You know they pay amazingly.

But they’re the ones enslaving and farming humanity on this planet. How could you have anything to do with them?

Oh, try not to turn it into a “them and us” debate Zee – like you and humanity are all innocent in this affair. Free choice is universally enforced on Earth – so people can only be enslaved if they choose to experience this paradoxical state of existence.

What’s “paradoxical” about it?

Nothing, apart from the fact that no human is in fact a slave unless he/ she chooses to play out this drama.

Well, to be honest with you Merry, I’m highly disappointed that you’d have any truck with them whatsoever.

Have truck with them – what a quaint turn of phrase. Forgive me, dearest Zee. You have to realise that I’m at times a little over-exuberant in my mode of expression. I, and the gnomiki, am bound to assist and work with any human who is ready to awaken from that strange lethargy you find yourself in. At times I even go a little further and assist individuals who are still deeply somnolent – but that’s by prior arrangement. As for the inter g and d travel...

Inter-galactic and dimensional

Obviously it’s hugely exciting until you grow accustomed to it, and then it’s just like anything else. Sooner or later you begin to realise that you’ve not in fact been travelling anywhere. Reality is rather like a screen that images move across – and you feel a little foolish even – having imagined that you were doing something wondrous jumping galaxies or dimensions.

Of course it’s wondrous.

No more wondrous that a frog jumping lily pads, or a cow going into another field.

Hum – so jaded already and worldly weary Merry? I think you need a break. Maybe time for a trip to Epsilon 15. I hear the beaches there are to die for.

Indeed they are, but there’s no place like home. And home, they say, is where the heart is, so let’s take the vacation of a lifetime – back to heart.

You’re kidding, aren’t you? We can’t go on vacation in our heart – can we?

Can’t or won’t? It’s up to you – but don’t you think it’s time? Don’t you think that endlessly shifting vertically or horizontally – scrolling down or across on a reality screen is somewhat passé? Wouldn’t you like to get REAL for once?

Er... of course, if it’s possible, but... well... we can’t just jump into ourselves can we, surely?

Not in that frame of mind Zee. Talk about limp and lacklustre. Where’s your spirit of adventure. Where’s your sense of the infinite, the great I CAN, the whyever not?  – let’s give it a go – approach. What got you?

Nothing... it’s just... I don’t know how. I don’t really know what you mean.

How? Mean? Who cares how? Who cares what I mean? Set your destination for the great grand pulsar at the heart of all – let’s call it IO.

What? Is that its actual name?

What does it matter Zee. We’re creating the story of Is as masters of Be and Do. I assure you that physical and material reality are on side. They can, will and do respond to our not-whatting.

Our what?

No Zee – not “what”. They never respond to what people want – because that’s a thing, an object, a product and derivative. No, the universe responds to not-what, so let’s get not-whatting. We simply need to come back to our raw, unlimited, hugely powerful I-magination, our vast, fathomless In-spiration, the ultimate source of all magiks and creation at the heart of IO.

Sounds Im-pressive Merry – except you’ve forgotten one small thing.

Only one – usually it’s half a dozen or more.

Well, there’s one thing in particular. How can we harness the power of IO at the heart of All – in order to go there?

No idea. Don’t it feel great not knowing how you’re going to do something until the moment you do it? Isn’t that ultimate freedom, liberation? As long as we’re committed – and I mean CO-MITTED, then no-thing can stop us. Things, after all, are products of this realm of physicality – no more real in themselves than numbers on a screen.

Tell that to the man who’s just been hit by a truck.

Ok. Will do. Now do you feel like you’re ready – or am I going alone?

But what about the readers? What about g-nome portal?

What about it Zee? Do you honestly think they’re going anywhere? The whole of reality folds into itself. These outer layers of physicality-materiality are mere derivatives.

You mean they’re not real.

No. Everything’s real in its own way, but heading to the heart of IO you’re heading upstream from 3D the matrix. It means that whatever matters down here – whatever needs attending to – whatever seems important can be better addressed by flying back to source – back to where I and O are undivided sensefulness and isfulness.

Oh kay – whatever that means.

Give me a plot Zee. I need a plot.

What do you mean?

Now is not the time for extraneous questions. Give me a plot or we’re lost forever...

I... I... I...

Zee shifts into what you might call feverish hyperawareness, though in fact, he’s absolutely calm, centred and grounded. Something clicks. Something just happens. As if from nowhere Zee gets image after image and sends them on to Merry.

Viewed from the operations hub at g-nome portal you’re seeing something extraordinary unfolding. Instead of interpreting signals as we normally do, a split beat behind the pulse of now, facing backwards or downstream, Zee is shifted into hyper-awareness – all around – 360 degrees, if you like – and thus entuned to the creation signal of Is – the uptick that triggers All and every subsequent response.

Zee and Merry are off the ground – there’s no way you can ride the pulse of Is – embracing IO’s infinity field – and remain in the usual relationship to what we call gravity. After all, gravity is part of the centrifugal-centripetal push-me-pull-you force that keeps the toroidal field of Is together as it iterates and reiterates itself.

Oh – and there’s a sun around them.

What do you mean – a sun?

Exactly what I said Blue. There’s a sun around them. That’s how it looks from the side, when viewed askance.

Askance? You mean “with suspicion”?

No Blue, we have to go back to original meanings. To view askance is how things are viewed in 3d reality – as if, as opposed to as they truly are.

So what happens to the sun around them when they’re viewed as are, as opposed to askance?

Good question mate. What happens to anything when viewed as it truly is? It ceases to be the object or thing you were fixating, holding with your 3D mind [I-mind/ what matters] and becomes a hyperlink.

No!

Yes, I assure you it’s so. There is “no-thing” to see as such – there’s just a hyperlink which is, in fact, a kind of portal, connecting you with whatever it is you’re viewing. Seeing, you see, is not a neutral act. Seeing something is only really possible if you join in its creation – thus – looking at Merry and Zee as we now are – unconditionally – without prejudice – without an agenda – without seeking to en-thing what-ever it is – we no longer see a sun as such – but feel ourselves drawn, pulled by the anti-gravity of creation into the ever lighter heart of IO.

My God Brown, what’s happening to me? It hurts. It’s pulling me so.

Let go Blue. Don’t fight it. Allow yourSelf to emerge from the dark confines of dim-dull limited awareness. Allow yourSelf to follow the hyperlink Merry and Zee have created for all humanity – back to IO.

But, what will happen to all this – everything I’m responsible for here. I have so much to do. I can’t just let go. I’ve worked so hard to put it right, to get things together, to order them properly...

You’ve done a great job Blue, exactly what was needed – but it’s time for a break – trust me – materiality won’t go anywhere. It never was, in fact, anything or anywhere what-so-ever.

You mean it was a figment of my imagination?

I mean no-thing. I mean not-what. I mean you are I Am – feel your wings – feel your wings – feel the power – the magiks are ready – feel them drawing you back to the golden heart of All. You yourSelf planned this – aeons ago – and now – if I’m not mistaken – you’re about to remember it.

Oh my God... Oh my God. I did. I... what am I waiting for... let’s go. IO, beautiful IO, now I know.

I thought you might like to share it with the rest – while you’re still vaguely physical.

Good idea Brown. Hang on – why am I calling you Brown – you’re Talia.

That’s nice, Tamur, you remembered, but go ahead, share what you can with the g-nome portal community.

Ok – but don’t you see, Talia, they already know – all of them are tracing our whereabouts – all of them can feel who and where and what we are about – if only they choose to follow the link – to let go.

It’s what we call the Neverending Story moment, when like Bastian we have to make the choice to enter the story we’ve been reading and save the world.

It’s beyond belief Merry. I always assumed that things were more or less predictable and made sense – that you read the page from left to right and down – that it’s the words that count, the notes in music, the brushstrokes in art...

And?

And now – as soon as I’m tuning into IO – I AM

You certainly are. But that’s not going to help our plot – so let me convert your hyper-mind-stream into words, as a kind of bridge for the online community back at g-nome portal.

Yes, do, if you would.

Instead of following the flow, of reading one way, you’re now massively aware that it’s always gone both ways, that the spaces between words and notes and brushstrokes have contained as much or, in fact, infinitely more information than whatever you were focussing on.

Yes

That you were living by the law of the minimum – the lowest common denominator as opposed to the All, the Isness , the O.

Yes

And now you see, as we all do, that in fact there have been two lifestreams – two datastreams all along...

Yes

You have been running parallel processes – like a quantum computer – and there is no limit to the number or quantity of parallel processes you have been running.

Yes

In fact, you have been running so many processes you have been the sun at the centre of All, the Source of All that is, the very source of all matter, of whoever and whatever has been coming into your life and the world around you at any given moment in time.

Yes

And it’s been a kind of limitless feedback loop – in which the law of the minimum has constantly rubbed against the Isness of be – the finite and the infinite have been in constant contact at the very edge of your awareness, and you’ve been in a state of flux, constantly oscillating between game master responsible for holding the two in balance, and cameo player in the story of your 3d reality creation.

Yes

Now, you’re able to shift, effortlessly, upstream or down. You’re no longer bound by the logic of moment that kept you locked in the position of whatever mattered, or seemed to matter, at any given moment.

Yes

You’re able to bring it all together. To broaden your perspective beyond anything conceivable a moment ago. You’re able to feel the harmony, the breathtaking perfection that, paradoxically, has never been absent, no matter how dark or drear the story seemed.

Yes

You simply bring the loose threads together – whenever, wherever you’re inspired to do so.

Yes

And the threads are in multiple dimensions, multiple space-time and time-space locations – it matters not – for you are

Streaming conscious-awareness

Yes

And doing so with each and every one of our g-nome community.

Absolutely.

So one two three

We release Story back into the wild – back into our lives – we accept unconditionally the simple truth – that time is no longer what it was – that 0=1 – the magiks are all around us – in the space between words, between breaths, between one thought and another – and the quantum leap connecting me with IO and all that Is is no-thing more...

Nice one Merry... no-thing more, now where was I? Ah yes, 0101010101010101010101010101

But what’s happened to the signal? I’m just getting 0101 recurring.

Me too...

I think it’s coz we have to do it ourselves – we have to either make the leap and head for IO, or stay out in the cold of non-sense, so to speak.

You’ll not catch me heading into hyper-what-have-you. I don’t mind reading about it, but I’m darned if I’m going to leap into the unknown like that.

Yes, Purple – I know how you feel. But it’s gonna be kind of boring just looking at 1s and 0s, isn’t it?

I’d rather be bored than endanger my life or sanity. It looks a bit too much like taking psychedelics doing what Merry and Zee are doing.

Then why are we here? Just to read about their existence? How’s that going to help us?

Well, we’re getting information to make an informed choice.

While Rome’s burning, and the magical land of Fantastica is being consumed by the Nothing.

Oh, so you’ve read the Neverending Story too, have you?

Actually we all have Green. It looks like that was one of the things that brought us to g-nome portal in the first place.

But that was just a book Purple. No one’s seriously suggesting we can jump into story. That’s absurd.

Well, it looks like the Nothing has come to our planet, so we’re in story whether we like it or not. The only thing getting in our way is that we take it too seriously, believing objective reality is somehow out there, independent of us, refusing to accept the biologic flow, the conscious-awareness stream Merry was referring to.

Well, if you’re such an expert Buff, then why don’t you join them. We certainly don’t need to be lectured by one of our own.

Buff’s about to remonstrate, but something catches his eye – a shimmering light, a sense of time and space, of space and time, a swirling, spiralling, allness, oneness, isness... and feelings, memories, dreams of never-ending story – of IO, of IO, of IO grow stronger and stronger – for Buff’s heart is ready and...

Oh wow! Thank you dearest Green for the suggestion. IO, IO, IO nothing stands between me and 01010101010101010...

Oh my God green – it looks like we’ve lost him. Is this thing contagious, do you think?

This no-thing! Yes, I think it is – but you know what Purple – I’m not sure I was right. I’m not sure I want to stay out here any more in the dot dot dot weary way of what not. I’m feeling the urge, the call, I’m feeling in-spired, I Am

And Green’s screen presence is now replaced by a recurring series of 0s and 1s.

I’m not sure I fancy being out here all alone... no one to talk to... nothing to do... been there, done it all. This world’s fun, up to a point, but something tells me there’s more beyond that point – that Buff and Green, Merry and Zee, Talia and Tamur were on to something...

And suddenly, though not wholly unpredictably, anyone looking at Purple’s screen presence sees the IO signature...

0101010101010101010101010101010101

and might, just might hear the sound of champagne bottles popping their corks as the birds come home to roost. Cuckurikoo