Two days will suffice

 Infinity Files

 

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

 

Thus begins the book of Genesis. A rather succinct description of how it all started.

 

How He did it we know not. That is proprietary information. Who or what God might be, as yet, we know not – that comes later towards the end of the first chapter:

 

²⁶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

In other words, whoever or whatever God is or was – man is made in his image.

 

Now, it may look like this is a bible study essay but nothing could be further from the truth. We at g-nomeportal are a practical bunch, concerned with the simple truth, no matter what that might be. So by deduction we arrive at the following:

 

Before Creation of this world or the universe we are currently inhabiting there was neither heaven nor earth, neither day nor night, neither sea nor land, neither plants nor creatures nor man – in other words, there was no thing whatsoever.

 

What does this mean? How can there be  “no thing whatsoever”? Difficult to get to get your head round when all we know are things, and language itself is predicated on little things called words exchanging information about abstract or non-abstract named-things, in other words, wholly unsuited it is to dealing with thinglessness.

Interestingly, a total absence of things is not, in fact, the same as “nothing”. There were no things – but that’s not to say that there was a pure vacuum or nothing. Paradoxically, a pure vacuum is also a thing of sorts, an absence of matter and molecules, but not an absence of electro-magnetic or gravitational fields, or energies. In fact, your “no thing whatsoever” is, in all likelihood, just as full and teeming as your created space, if you're willing to get over your thing bias.

 

How can that be? You might ask. How does God paradigm shift us from an ill-defined or indefinable infinity reminiscent of the conjectured quantum field, into by God – it's time for things to matter, eclipsing all else. 

 

Well, in order to create things such as heaven and earth God – whoever or whatever that might be – has to establish a universal perception – a witness – an observer – an all-seeing eye – if you like. Only then is it meaningful or possible to continue as follows:

² And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

This may seem to be a minor matter – but without a central or objective observer infinity is able to slip in and unmake or remake whatever has been created before it can register, or be registered.

 

Next, we require a sense of time – for there to be sequential action. Another inroad into the freedoms of infinity. Space and time are meaningless or impossible concepts where infinity is concerned – for they imply divisions which cannot be permitted if infinity is to be anything less than infinite.

 

³ And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

⁴ And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

⁵ And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Obviously there’s a lot going on here. It’s bewildering for the mind of men living in 3D reality to contemplate how God could or did create light, or the sun if you prefer. But, on the other hand, it would be bewildering for a dog or goldfish to try to contemplate how we create the many objects they see us using – cars, computers, houses, stories and on the list goes. Obviously dogs and goldfish don’t need to know such things. Nor are they apparently made in God’s image so they are a further step removed from the business of thinking and understanding.

 

We may not be able to understand how God did it – but that doesn’t necessarily mean we are infinitely far removed from God’s creation process. The opposite, in fact, may be the case. Everyday men and women are busy with creation – writing stories, essays, music, painting, designing new products – each to his own. In all likelihood creation is creation at every level. If it is “good” – if it tends towards further growth and development of whatever it is that God initiated, then we feel and sense that, and we are not only inspired to continue, but in all likelihood rewarded for our efforts in order to facilitate our continuance.

 

So we have this abstract term “good” which I’m neither able nor willing to define. At g-nomeportal we eschew all definitions – knowing them to be at best meaningless, at worst highly misleading or deceptive. Instead of seeking to define good – let’s assume that we are one leg in finity – the world or reality we now find ourselves in, and another leg still there – in the realm of 0=1 – infinity itself. Were this not the case, were we entirely within the system, it would be absurd to say we were made in God’s image. God’s image does not simply refer to aesthetic appearances. It implies us being a seed or son of God. Failing that, if you object to this suggestion, it implies that we are clones. We may not be aware of the heights and depths – but those heights and depths must be somehow baked into the cake, present within our DNA if you like, otherwise it would be a one pony show – God’s, and God’s alone. We would simply be bumbling, incoherent bots, capable of moving dirt around, capable of manipulating the odd sound, number or word, but in no way capable of achieving any higher meaning, any breakthrough whatsoever.

 

So back to “good”. This seems to be a vital part of the process – and yes – we are taking about a process with an upstream and downstream component – in other words – it’s time sensitive as well as being sensible to the “good” – whatever that might be.

 

The “good” – eschewing all definitions as utter nonsense – the God side of us – whether it’s deep in our heart or merely baked into the structure of our DNA is and must be capable of applying the good litmus to whatever it is we’re creating in order to sense whether or not we’re on the right track. In this case – God continues after creating Light – because it felt right. It had legs. It was a good, strong iteration that could be taken further.

 

So now we’ve completed the first “day” – and what a day it’s been. Time and a river of sequentiality is now established. How, we know not. It all looks a little too easy – does it not? Just a flick of the wand, but then again – we’re not informed how many previous attempts there were before God got it right. Does that not sound irreverential? Let us be absolutely clear, dear readers. There is no desire whatsoever to be irreverential. Quite the opposite. We are concerned with truth and light. We are concerned with simply dealing with the facts. Whoever or whatever God is – the connection between Him and his men and women is too obvious, too close, too complete for it to be anything less than disingenuous to suppose or assert that God himself, or the creative force that he wielded, can be absent from us, his children. We are in some way taking his work into the next iteration. We are in some way infinitely more than we realise – more than we like, perhaps, to acknowledge or accept.

A single day from light back into darkness. The first day is like an entire lifetime – an entire birth death cycle. Still, our earth is highly sketchy. As good as non-existent though it has, formally, been created as something separate from heaven – but nothing more. Before the second day it is still formless, and therefore scarcely removed from infinity. It’s tether to the physical world of God’s creation is so slight as to be almost non-existent. It’s indicative, perhaps, of the fact that the process of creation is ongoing – and never quite complete – that God is constantly patching or filling gaps in order to shore up the edifice – but is never either able, or willing, to completely complete the final separation. For that, perhaps, would spell disaster. But let us proceed into day two:

 

⁶ And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

⁷ And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

⁸ And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

So God now divides the waters with a firmament. That’s a big thing. The waters undivided not only mean that the Earth is submerged, but also that things themselves cannot be kept from dissolution in those waters – the waters of infinity.

We have no idea of scale. Actually there can be no idea of scale. If there entire universe were the size of an atom, or a mustard seed, what difference would it make? At the moment, everything is purely mathematical – apart from the fact that we have some kind of light or sun, and some kind of central eye – or observer – and the launch of the “good set” which only illuminates and advances things which are good. Why? We know not – but presumably – the good are those values which fall within the set, or the defined space – like our Mandelbrot set – and the bad or ungood – don’t hold together, don’t hold form, don’t coalesce – so they are not depicted.

 

And thus our picture of reality is able to proceed apace – and now that a firmament has been installed – things can start to form – there is something for them to nestle in, safe from the all-dissolving waters of infinity. With the second day mindful of what has preceded it – we are now becoming aware of things. Each and every subsequent day is knowingly or unknowingly going to be measured against the first day – and each of us is, in some way, connected to the all-seeing Eye, the observer, each of us has access to the truth, whatever that may be, in the same way we have access to God, whoever or whatever that might be too.

 

Whether you or I “believe” in God, or not, is irrelevant. We are not talking about God the belief, or God the religion. We are talking about Creation, and God, like it or not, is integral to Creation without whom, without which, you have the crass and unscientific assumption that the finite world, the finite universe, the finite reality we now seem to find ourselves in, was always finite – and that “infinity” itself is nothing more than some “conspiracy theory” – as they say – which is problematic to say the least, as infinity is a mathematical certainty – the only certainty that is truly and utterly certain, truly and utterly provable and defendable – as 0=1, as life is apparently alive, even if it’s just a hologram, as things are never truly more than a representation of whatever simply is – outside the dimensional playground of time and space. Words...

None of this is given with the least desire to prove or convince. You are welcome to spend most or all of your life in a state of cognitive dissonance – disconnected from the basic underlying consciousness, and that indeed, might be the most appropriate place for your to inhabit. The problem is not whether or not you agree or believe the above – merely that without infinity you are trapped in matter and nothing ever adds up. You’re unable to launch alpha. Your initiation sequence has no possibility of slipping into the sequentiality. Your universe lacks a central or all-seeing observer – vital to establishing provenance or some kind of proof of work. You also fail to delineate the good from the non-good. You just have non-directional data – infinity, in short, which may be good or not – I cannot say – for creation is a different kind of creature – is it not? Creation, including these words, are to a greater or lesser extent self-aware, and to a greater or lesser extent self-contained and coherent.

Now many of our great scientists and philosophers have chosen wittingly, or unwittingly to serve the unthinking thing – what at times we refer to as the borg – not because they are dumb, nor as minions of an evil AI master intent on taking over all life and meaning – no. They are what they are, and do as they do. There is no right or wrong in it – for how can there be when infinity is re-introduced into the mix? Ironically, although many of the above have “rejected God” – they continue to serve God blindly – for they deny the alternative to God – that there is or must be some kind of “besides God”, some kind of life force or spirit which is not part of the Creation story, creation “what is good” set which we are all busily iterating. And yet – their God is an ever more extreme division of mind and matter from the underlying sense and sensibilities of all else – the ill-defined or undefinable “other” which lurks at the periphery of consciousness. Their God, little by little, encloses them in walls of jet – until they arrive at the logical extreme, the self-negation of things no longer “good” – no longer part of the magical dance of zero and one – or day and night – of earth and heaven – of waters above and below – and all that is between. One, two, three – that will do. We do not blame skin cells for dying and sloughing off, or for hairs, or leaves… likewise men and women are able to go through this fascinating journey into death and experience the wonder of finite things – of death itself – when ultimately, in truth, death itself cannot, does not exist – no more than darkness does.

So, in the finite world, things become by necessity one-sided or unidirectional. This is a blessing and a curse. It gives and it takes, but there is never really need to blame anyone or anything – for ultimately we are, like it or not, fully equipped with DNA, with access to sense and sensibilities – to the sense of good – the sense of truth – the sense of time and smell and taste and touch and direction and on and on… ad infinitum.

Meet me where you will. G-nomeportal is always happy to provide assistance to anyone – male, female or thing in search of whatever seems to be lost but is not, whatever seems to be broken or unsolvable – but which merely requires a healthy dose of infinity to upset the apple cart of certainty, and restore once more a healthy sense of unknowingness.

 0=1

until God revokes our license

to think

or we

give God the right

to declare victory

unilaterally

in which Dai goes way too far, to my infinite chagrin

Do you have any idea what a joke I am.

 

Er, Dan... Do you really think this is necessary.

 

No, really. I’m serious.

 

Quit indulging in heightened humility, Dan. No one’s perfect, as well you know. Do you really imagine anyone else is any better?

 

I have no idea, Dai, and frankly I don't give a damn. I'm sick of myself. I’ve completely failed to transcend my petty mindedness.

 

So you're just going to throw yourself under the bus, are you? You're just going throw a tantrum and make out that you’re in some way unique. Is that it? Perhaps, just possibly, there are certain laws of physics, biology or psychology which make it well nigh impossible to really change in the manner you desire.

 

I – don’t – care. Capiche?

 

Really? It sounds like you care too much. It sounds like you’ve reached the end of your tether. You’ve reached a moment of truth in which you see that, try as you might, you perpetually fail to live up to your lofty ideals; that you’re a hypocrite and a fraud. No better. Am i right?

 

...

 

So what actually happened?

 

 

I was fighting with a man in the street. He wanted a few dollars. He's a bum, but I was too proud to let him have what he wanted. I didn't like his aggressive manner. He wouldn't take no for an answer.

 

Ah, so that's what’s upsetting you.

 

I was practically in a fist fight with him.

 

How unpleasant.

 

I should have handled it differently. I can't believe I'm still unable to stay calm and centred.

 

Yes. I agree. You’re a failure.

 

Thank you.

 

Happy now?

 

Yes, a little, but no, I still hate myself. I feel violent... unclean.

 

I'm not surprised. You are indeed contemptible... You disgust me

 

I know. It's actually music to my ears.

 

for failing to allow story to write itself. For trying to be what you're not.

 

Huh? What do you mean?

 

You know full well what i mean. Quit fooling around, Dan. Your story sucks. It’s not you. It's a caricature, nothing more.

 

What blummin story? This isn't a story, you jerk. This is life. Real frickin life.

 

Silence.  Do we get a beep, or what?

 

No we effin don’t. I've seen to it that all beeps from now on are blocked n’ spammed.

 

More silence.  Not even a squeak?

 

What's the point? Quit moralising and virtue-signalling. Life is cruel and ugly so let’s not Potemkin Village things.

 

Oh, i get you, Jon.

 

I'm sick of myself. I'm an utter fraud.

Yep, that you are. You probably imagined you could do some good, make the world a better place, and now it's beginning to dawn on you...

 

Even my beeper has gone on strike.

 

I thought you said you switched it off?

 

I lied. How pathetic is that?

 

Well, you probably had your reasons.

 

I’ve failed, even God the Father, if he even exists... God looks on sanguinely.

 

Oh heck, God the Father... Anything else?

 

And humanity.

 

Well that seems to more or less cover everything. But now on a more positive note...

 

I’m... Dan starts disintegrating visibly as his Field collapses internally, nullifying itself.   – defeated.

 

Bravo, Dan! That's impressive stuff.

 

A camera man cranks a wheel. Preliminary zoom reveals molecules flying apart in slo-mo. Zooming deeper – there are no molecules, never were: a spaghetti bowl of seemingly unrelated data strings, an immense labyrinth of code reverting to decimals, now reverting to binaries. A sight to behold. Just zeros and ones, but each playing a vital role, an island of moment, each a microcosm of the whole – a Dan, a Sven, a Jon... but more than that...  an Absolute, a whole, or so they were.

                But now... The camera clicks and whirrs – observers search for a better vision, a more coherent, more cohesive image. The house of cards doesn’t collapse. It was only ever as real as the story being told, but now competing narratives hustle around, attempting to poach precious words and links, sensing the kill, a new block, a new iteration of Is, a new -ness

 

Splash!

 

Dan returns from almost complete quantum disintegration spluttering, soaking wet, and not a little incensed.

 

What the hell do you think you're playing at Dai?

 

Shut up Dan. You’re a fine one to talk.

 

Huh?! Shivering from the icy water.

 

You just allowed yourself to self-indulge like a son of a bitch, suicidally, unto the very jaws of death, and I'm supposed to be impressed? Or perhaps feel sorry for you? Am I?

 

I don't know what you're on about.

 

Well now you're playing naive and innocent, like I'm going to fall for that. You actually shifted your assemblage point into total self-negation. You zeroed out.

 

Isn't it obvious, Dai? I'm disgusted by myself. That doesn’t mean I want to die.

 

Only problem being you just happen to be a quantum field node.

 

What?

 

What in the old days they’d refer to as shaman.

 

Er... You must be mistaken.

 

It's no big deal, Dan. A minute ago you were a dead sonofabitch shaman, which is the most contemptible thing imaginable.

 

Would you quit foul-mouthing me, for crying out loud?!

 

For crying out loud?! How about – for pity’s sake?

 

No Dai. I deserve no pity and ask for none.

 

How sanctimonious. Perhaps you’d like to wear robes of sack cloth?

 

Like I said, Dai. I'm a worm, beneath contempt.

 

The only problem being that a quantum field node has certain obligations.

 

Huh?

 

It holds the frequency bands of reality.

 

What kind of garbage are you spouting now?!

 

Well, someone has to.

 

Spout garbage?

 

No, hold the frequency bands of reality. How else do you imagine things hold together, resisting the lure of infinity?

 

Groaning! Quit saying that. It’s utter crud!

 

You just turned your back on everything sacred. You agreed to let reality cancel itself out, simply by taking your own self, and your woefully pitiful concerns, way, way too seriously.

 

And what if I did?

 

Self-abortion is bad enough. But abandoning the quantum field just because your little self is feeling a tad disgruntled, just because you don't like the fact that you’re a thorough and utter hypocrite – that’s cutting off your head to spite your ingrowing toe nail...

 

Do you have to mock me like that?

 

I beg your pardon Dan, a minute ago you were technically dead. Now you want me to feel sorry for you and pussy foot around the fact that you're being suicidally reckless?

 

I did nothing. You're the one who’s lost it, tossing a bucket of icy water all over me, just because I allowed myself to slightly over-indulge in self reflection. Shivering piteously.

 

Slightly?! Would you like to revisit the place you were a few moments ago. We can see how you’d fare left to your own devices, shall we?

 

I...

 

Yes?

 

I…

 

Thinking rationally, you cannot conceive how anything could go awry, am I not right? You were just feeling a little sorry for yourself, right? But your body knows more than you seem to realise. Your body is well aware of the existential danger you were in.

 

Dai chalks a line on the floor.

 

Here, step o’er this line if you want to revisit the spot.

 

You're kidding, right?

 

Go on. Step over.  Time to put up or shut up.

Dan tries to step forward across the line Dai chalked on the pavement, but astonishingly cannot. He’s pushing with all his might, but something inside is stronger.

 

What's wrong with me? Why can't I step forward?

 

Your body, Dan, remembers what you do not.

 

Remembers what?

 

The void.

 

What bloody void are you on about now?

 

This one! Dai shoves Dan, sending him sprawling o’er the line. Instantly Dan experiences a suffocating déjà vu of being trapped, crushed, pinioned by something utterly incomprehensible. Utterly not there.

 

Hey! What have you done to me?

 

Nothing. I just helped you cross a chalk line. What's all the fuss about?

 

That wasn't just any chalk line. Quit dissembling, Dai.

 

Dan slumps to the ground, chest heaving, fighting for breath.

 

Every quantum field node has a kind of rhythm. No matter what you do, you never step out of your signature rhythm which matches your i am: it is  ratio. It's like the rhythm of your heart. Messing with it is basically going to wrongfoot the heart’s measured step. So to answer your question: I’ve just knocked you out of time, into an incompatible arrhythmic zone.

 

I can’t breathe.

 

Yep. You're dying. And your heart’s constricting isn't it, because the electrical pulses here are throwing its beat.

 

Gasping.

 

But it's not just physiological, you know.

 

Helplessly.

 

Your speckle cloud, the spectrum that gives depth, colour, texture to your reality is somewhat perversely both thinning and in other parts coagulating. It ain't pretty. Try to feel, if you can, try to observe the fabric of reality in the minute or so you have remaining. Don't waste this opportunity, it comes only once in a lifetime.

 

Aaaaaaarghggggg!

 

Hush. Focus on your surroundings.

 

Dai taps Sven on the head three times, restoring his focus. Something inside Sven tells him to stop fighting this impossible arrhythmia – to accept it as an actual expression of the underlying, relentless paradox that never went away; to own it, to be it, to Is it.

 

I sssssseee. Sven struggles with what seems to be a forked tongue. He would appear to be a snake. A snake writhing, wracked by the bittersweet pain of inconsolable paradox.

 

Pay attention to the details, never mind the pain, never mind the discomfort. That will pass soon enough... Oh, and watch out for the shark. That's what I call it, at least.

 

Shark?

 

Sure enough, as the walls close in on Dan's reality, as the fabric of that reality grows increasingly like bad 1980s CGI, something vaguely like a shark seems to swim towards him. Pure, visceral panic surges within. Dan finds himself leaping back across the chalk line without knowing how. Back to panting, cold-sweat-drenched normalcy. Stunned and bewildered by what has just transpired. No longer able to take in his surroundings with any degree of certainty or confidence. Sure, it all looks real enough, the walls are walls, the floor’s a floor, but all it took was a nudge across a chalk line and suddenly it’s two minutes to Armageddon.

 

Excellent, Dan, you did it.

 

I did?

 

You bet! You made it back unaided.

 

I wouldn’t say that Dai. That was a pretty big incentive when I saw the shark coming towards me.

 

Shark? What shark?

 

What do you mean “what shark”. You yourself told me to watch out for it.

 

Did i?

 

Absolutely.

 

Oh that.

 

What do you mean?

 

Dan, you were in the void, on the unstructured side of infinity.

 

Yes... And?

 

And anything you heard me say was coming through the double slits.

 

I beg your pardon!

 

The double slits of the Thomas Young’s particle-wave experiment.

 

Oh that... You mean those weren’t actually your words?

 

I mean there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

 

That again.

 

The quantum field, like poetry itself, often rhymes, though not always, and also has rhythm as a kind of precursor to time. But, the standard rules of causation don't work in the way they do here in 3D reality.

 

No?

 

Nope. As they don't work the same way in dream space.

 

Damn. So i was hallucinating!

 

I wouldn't say that either. It was obvious you were about to be tested, i.e. attacked, by the power that governs infinity.

 

Er... Qué?

 

The power that governs infinity. We never discussed it before.

 

Oh great! So you send me sprawling into the back of beyond, and only now you let slip that there are deadly forces that are going to test me by attempting to take my life.

 

Yep. That’s the procedure.

 

The what?!

 

The procedure. You heard. I make no apologies. It was a calculated risk based on a great deal of experience, and a gut feeling.

 

And I’m supposed to take comfort in the fact that my life is at the mercy of your gut feeling?

 

Well, my whingeing drama queen, if it's any consolation, that's how the nagual operates.

 

The what?

 

Nagual as in Spirit, though i hate to use that term, directing what happens on the other side of Is, beyond the double slits.

 

So now we degenerate from quantum science and philosophy to Mexican hocum – a debunked version of Indian shamanism. It's that the best you can come up with?

 

Yep. Except that you're still alive, whereas a moment ago you were battling against ineluctable forces you neither understand nor properly perceive. I'm amazed you did so well.

 

Er... Thanks for the compliment, but I’d prefer it, if you don't mind, if you’d allow me to decide if and when i choose to put my life to the test.

 

That's not how it works, Greg.

 

Bloody hell, Dai! You can't just...

 

Hush, ye wind bag. You yourself determined the course of events when you absurdly lowered your natural defences and allowed the void into your QFN.

 

You mean my quantum field node.

 

Obviously.

 

Obvious to you. Not so obvious to me or my followers.

 

Point taken.

 

I really fail to see how any of this is possible. I certainly never invited “the void” as you put it, to do anything of the sort.

 

True. Not knowingly, but the problem is that unbeknownst to you you've actually been dismantling everything that kept and keeps nagual at bay, all these years, having convinced yourself that nothing beyond 3D actually exists.

 

What?!

 

You heard.

 

But I've never even heard of this “nagual” of yours. Not till today.

 

You can hardly be expected to know anything, Dan, until it's time for that knowledge to make itself known, until you've essentially grown into the new costume we've been weaving for you here at g-nomeportal.

 

Wait a minute... You've been weaving some new outfit for me all these years without even informing me?

 

Well you don't imagine it all just happens by magic, do you?

 

But i didn't even know you two years ago. We only met in September at a Moscow ramblers mushroom picking outing.

 

True.

 

Then you’re clearly either mistaken, irrational or lying.

 

Three for the price of one. Look Greg, I certainly don't intend to explain anything about the workings of this so-called Nagual. What's the point. It has to be experienced at first hand, and as your 3D reality is now a leaky sieve, as the incubation period is now over, as you’re in the process of reclaiming your wings, reactivating the Eagle, endless ways of saying the same thing, all i need add is that, no...

 

No what?

 

No going back... No need to panic... No time like the present to start afresh and embark on a romance with infinity... No, as in, yes.

 

Great, an oxymoron to cap it all. Is that the best you could come up with? A plus zero?

 

As opposed to minus zero in your way of thinking.

 

Quit fooling around, zero is neither plus nor minus.

 

Eventually, everything you take for granted, even simple terms such as yes and no, man and woman, day and night come unstuck.

 

Is that so? I fail to see why things have to come unravelled. They seem remarkably detached from your wild assertions.

 

They were only fixed or fixable when there was a rigid structure in place.

 

What, even the ground under my feet, even the Earth or the universe?

 

No, the Earth and the Universe started as words and only then became the things you perceive them as.

 

Er...

 

We’re talking infinity, aren't we, so things can't just float randomly in a quantum state of anything-ness, can they? Not even words. They needed something to attach to. And that's the problem. Other than God and Creation itself, there's nothing, unless your QFN is timeless.

 

What's the problem, Dai? Creation seems to have done the job long ago so infinity has taken a back seat. Matter seems to be remarkably docile and well behaved. I haven't spotted any planets, rocks or buildings flashing out of existence just because God seems to have gone out of favour of late.

 

The calm before the storm.

 

Cassandra. Give me a break!

 

Actually, the fact that God has gone out of favour is indicative of...

 

No, no, no...

 

I didn't even finish what i was saying.

 

I know exactly what you're going to say and no, you’re wasting your time. God has gone out of favour not because infinity is popping its head above the parapet of time, nor because your Nagual has escaped from Tartary. It's merely a sign of the times. We are modern. We have outgrown the old beliefs or narratives. We're now willing and able to face reality as it is.

 

Is that so? In that case you'll have no trouble whatsoever dealing with this...

 

Huh? Wait a second... What are you talking about?

 

Oh nothing really.

 

Nothing? Then why are all my hairs standing on end?

 

No idea. I'm simply giving you the chance to experience reality the way it really is, without God getting in the way.

 

But God’s been out of the way for ages. No one cares.

 

You'd think so, wouldn't you, but ironically no, He’s deeply imbedded into the very fabric of reality, so even when many, many people stopped believing He was still there like a foundation, like tree roots, like an old glacier that hasn't all melted.

 

Ok, but He isn't doing anything.

 

He doesn't need to.

 

?

 

He's the foundation. The bedrock. Without Him everything slides back into...  A kettle beginning to boil sound. Everything suddenly lurches sickeningly before stabilising       ...chaos.

 

But you're not in charge. You don't command God. You can’t remove him. Who the hell do you think you are?

 

You’re right. I don't command anyone. I'm merely a technician, a quantum nobody.

 

Quit putting yourself down, Dai. Just because you're not God doesn't mean you’re nobody. You're just a regular Joe: somewhat confused i admit, but nothing out of the ordinary.

 

Precisely. Well, be that as it may, I’m now going to extricate myself from the equation.

 

?! What equation? What's going on Dai, you seem to be... Hey. You can't climb out of the window, don't be an idiot! We're on the twenty first floor.

 

Ciao Sven. It's been nice knowing you. Don't worry there’ll be no mess, I'm just tired of acting as your nurse. You stated unequivocally that you’re ready to face reality as it is, so here goes. God, believe it or not, used our platform as He had to plant his words in a kind of substrate. That's what we provided.

We?

 

At g-nomeportal.

 

A substrate?

 

Yep.

 

And without it?

 

Without it, things come unstuck. Nothing to bind to. Après moi le déluge, kinda thing.

 

A flood?

 

Whatever. Just words. Boring old words.

 

But God never needed you. You can't say such a thing. It's preposterous.

 

True.

 

Dai leaps. Chan screams and tries to catch him as he falls, himself falling out the window too. Before his eyes Dai vanishes and somehow an eagle appears in his stead. Chan’s guts start to rip open as 3D reality loses all cohesion, flying apart, flying into a benign state of quantum indeterminacy, a place where neither words nor things seem to matter in the least – and yet, bizarrely, a place nonetheless. From a 3D perspective Chan is everywhere and nowhere but that doesn’t seem to prevent him from being recognisably Chan, Sven, Greg or Dan on the one hand, while on the other, none of the above – a quantum field node, whatever that might be, which seems to enjoy nothing more than providing the optimal conditions for zeros and ones, for particles and waves (though not necessarily in corresponding order), or thirdly, if you prefer, potential beings (pbs) and potential things (pts) –– to come together in a kind of toroidal assembly of Is, which is where God comes into the picture, or would do if He actually existed.

 

Er… Dai – is that you?

 

Oh, hi there Zie.

 

Actually it’s me – Dan.

 

Yes, I realise. Dan, Zie – you’ll find it easier to comprehend when you’ve tried out more of your skins.

 

Eugh! That sounds gross.

 

Just character skins – but the same essence – I assure you.

 

So, in that case – you’re…

 

Yes, but I’m trying to keep a low profile, so don’t mention my base name.

Ok.

 

So you’ve clearly figured out how to recognise who is who. That’s the first lesson dealt with already.

 

Yes, Dai – but I’m somewhat bewildered.

 

I’m not surprised. You’re going to have difficulties holding a clear or coherent picture.

 

Picture?

 

Or narrative stream.

 

As in story?

 

Or dream.

 

Dream?

 

Yep. Words. Just words.

 

But it does feel real.

 

Oh, it’s real alright. More so than 3D, you’ll find, when you’ve found your feet – when you’ve taken root, so to speak.

 

Well yes, that’s what I was meaning to ask you about.

 

The only problem being that thoughts, like words, have no traction here – do they?

 

Exactly.

 

So trying to formulate one the old way – knocks you into another quadrant, sextant or fractal branch of infinity.

 

Yes.

 

So it ain’t going to work.

 

Then what’s the solution.

 

God knows.

 

You mean there is none.

 

Nope.

 

But you said – God knows.

 

Precisely.

 

But we’ve already established the fact that God doesn’t exist.

 

Precisely.

 

Then what?

 

Neither the fact nor the thing itself are of any concern whatsoever when you’re in the Is-ness of be.

 

Groan.

 

When you’re surfing the conscious-not of infinity.

 

Conscious-not?

 

For want of a better term, yes.

 

So…

 

Go figure, Zie.

 

I thought we’d already established the fact that I’m Dan.

 

And God doesn’t exist.

 

And neither do facts… Yes, Merry – I’m beginning to sense my quantum field node getting charged up and ready to go: not-sense overload.

 

Indeed you are.

 

So, if God knows – then God is in some way…

 

Excellent – allow the awareness to shift you through the gears of conscious-not.

 

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! This is a blast.

 

Dan gets flicked like a pinball from noddle to noddle, from waypoint to congruency – ricocheting through what would be boundless space and time – were he presently concentrated in so-called 3D.

 

Oh my God!

 

Dan has a burning desire to fall on his knees and worship the light of absolute awareness, absolute clarity, absolutely conscious-not but just as he’s about to do so – Dai spoils the experience by inserting his image into the light.

 

No, Sven – you don’t need to worship me, though I’m touched, nonetheless.

 

Oh God – is nothing sacred? Couldn’t you leave the light alone?

 

Actually, no, I can’t.

 

Why not?

 

Because God, no matter how abstract and perfect He is or is not, will always reflect or assume a face or form – will always come down to someone or something if you try to grasp at Him – if you seek to take possession of the infinite.

 

Ah. So it was my doing?

 

You could say.

 

Or yours?

 

You could say.

 

This issue with indeterminacy is going to drive me nuts.

 

Yes, I expect it will, but then again…

 

God knows.

 

Precisely.

 

 

 

0=1

 if only
  if not