Toward Enlightenment - Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO: Meeting With an Adjacent Being

Orlando was much farther away than I had imagined. It was tricking following just the right roads. And, I finally made it. The red-brick hospital building had four stories, not including the basement, with the windows trimmed above and below in white. To my young eyes, it was huge. I focused on my brother’s face and was quickly floating in the room above his bed. I later learned that brother Greg was in a coma at the time of my first visit.

My ability to see energy increased the more I flew. I could see the light coming from everything; animate and inanimate substances. That ability was not just relegated to when I was in my astral body. Over the months between my pistol-whipping and Greg’s accident, I learned to discern a person’s emotional state by the dominant hue radiating from their body. Floating above the hospital bed, I shifted my vision to include the energy radiating from his chakras. The different colors coming from his energy centers were all blending. Typically, the colors I detect coming from the seven core chakras are separate and very clear. They never blend. A deep heavy concern for Greg rippled through my astral form, and for a moment, I was floating over Greg and my physical body both at the exact moment. The feeling was unknown to me, confusing my mind. I headed for home.

“Carole, I was able to see Greg in his hospital bed. It feels like he’s asleep and can’t wake up.” Carole was sitting on her bed working on her scrapbook, the one she and her friends spent hours putting together. It was always interesting to eavesdrop when they got together in her room to talk about clothes and boys and the new music, as Mom called it.

“You know I don’t really believe all your flying stuff. Right?” Carole had that older sister tone in her voice.

“Yeah. It doesn’t matter if you do or not. I know what I’m doing is real.”

“Was it a big place?” She asked, not looking up from her project.

“Bigger than any building here, well, except the buildings up at Cape Canaveral.”

“How do you know how big the buildings are at Cape Canaveral? Danny is working there, and they don’t even let him see what’s what.”

“That’s because he’s a drunk, and they know he’d blab all over the place.”

“Maybe.”

“I fly up there and watch the trucks going in and out of the construction areas.”

“Flying,” she said in a disbelieving tone. “Are you going to go every night like you said?”

“Every night,” I returned, matching her tone.

The ability to project your awareness from your physical body through your etheric form to your astral body is something every human does as they drift off to sleep. The nights you cannot fall asleep are the nights when that natural process does not happen entirely. Once I started working with Eli, he explained that the blows to my head were responsible for flushing my body with kundalini energy resulting in my Ajna chakra fully opening. My third eye was wide open twenty-four seven. During one of my visits, I noticed that Greg had a silver cord moving upward through the ceiling. A similar cord was always present when I was flying. I quickly flew above the hospital building to see where it was going. At first, I hoped he’d be in his flying body. But his cord disappeared into what looked like a swirling cloud of energy. There were all kinds of colors and sounds. Try as hard as I could; I could not follow Greg’s cord into the cloud. Each night I would give it another try. Nothing.

One evening’s visit to Greg caught me entirely off guard. Aside from the swirling cloud, I had been pushing the limits on my flying adventures, going as high above Earth as possible and as far along Florida’s east coast as my courage would allow. This night would change everything for me – my first encounter with Eli.

As I came through the ceiling, it felt like I would suddenly fall asleep, like when I was getting trapped in the chinaberry tree in our backyard. There was also a different smell, like the gardenia aroma from Gramma’s flower garden. A man stood beside Greg’s bed. He was moving his hands back and forth over Greg’s body, and as his arms moved, light with a lot of different colors radiated from the tips of his fingers. I quickly moved toward the bed to see what the caregiver had in his hands.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” I asked in a defensive tone.

“It is a great deal like the light you observed in the swirly cloud, as you call it. Beautiful, is it not?” he asked in a smooth voice as he turned and smiled. “Thank you for watching over this little one,” he added, bowing. “This particular light is used for mending. The lights are indeed coming from my hands.” He held them up for me to see. “What I am ‘doing’ is assisting your brother’s recovery by encouraging his soul consciousness to rejoin the collaboration of his spirit and physical body. How are you today?” he asked politely.

He looked a lot like Mr. Linderman and acted like the preacher at the Baptist church. “OH MY GOD!” I yelled, covering my mouth with both hands. I suddenly realized the caregiver could see and was even “talking” to me. “I’M FALLING! I CAN’T SEE,” I yelled. The man’s face began to disappear, and then everything went black.

“Be at ease, dear fellow. Be at ease.” His words echoed in my head as he put his hands near my face. It sounded to me like when someone yelled into a fifty-gallon drum.

Suddenly I was floating in a blue sky above a field of tall grass. A little boy was on the ground below me, sitting as I did in the grass across the street from fifty-five Irwin. The little boy was straight and tall with his arms outstretched to fly. A bubble of purple and blue light glowed all around him. Happy feelings moved through him as I watched. But the little boy wasn’t happy; in fact, he looked furious and unhappy. Suddenly, two angels appeared on either side of him, bright angels with outstretched wings pulling on his arms, helping him up off the ground. It sounds funny, but somehow I knew the little boy wasn’t unhappy enough, that he needed to be unhappier before his body would let go of him and he could fly. I floated down toward his body. Standing in front of the little boy, I began to help the angels by pushing him backward and up. The young boy was stuck or something because he wasn’t budging.

I watched as the muscles of the boy’s face got tighter and tighter. I could feel the lad getting very upset as he sat there in his angered state. The purple and blue turned to a bright red, and just like that, the angels pulled him out. As soon as the boy was in the air, the angels vanished. I watched as the youngster floated skyward. The look on his face was the funniest thing he had ever seen—scared to death yet as happy as could be.

The dream subsided as I remembered Greg and the hospital. Through squinty eyes, I could see that the man had his hand over Greg’s forehead, and I watched as the caregiver whispered strange-sounding words. Wanting to know if the image was real, I reached out to touch him. The light coming from the man changed to a warm green and then to a soft pink, the kind Carole liked. His face was small like a little kid’s, with smooth skin and no spots like some grown-ups had. The top of his head was big and had waves of skin instead of hair.

A small, flat nose sat on the middle of his face, separating big, round eyes absent of eyebrows. When I looked directly into his eyes, I felt like I did when the small voice talks to me: like everything was okay. The man’s mouth was extremely small, and as he whispered, I could see colors on his breath. The hair on his chin was like the spider web out on the back porch when the sun shone through it, and where it touched his gold-colored shirt, it blended with the fabric and just disappeared. His pants were like the tights Carole wore, except they were blue and shined like the front bumper on the Buick. As the caregiver moved back, his voice changed, and I could clearly understand his words now. I was puzzled as to why I hadn’t noticed how different the man had looked when I first entered the room.

“We knew you would have a little difficulty at first, so we chose the identity of someone you could trust, like your adult friend, Mr. Linderman.” The man wasn’t moving his lips as he continued. “We wanted to appear as normal as possible.”

“I don’t want to be mean, Mister, but you do not look as normal as possible. And now you look SO different,” I whispered.

“Once I knew your range of response, I felt compelled to appear as I truly am.” The tiny mouth suddenly smiled from ear to ear. The air between us was so clear that I could even see little stars of light coming from his body. “Being is what I do best,” he added.

“Wha ...” was all I could manage.

“Easy does it. After having studied you for a while, we half expected your response to our initial meeting would go this way.” The man moved back to the bed. “And, I must, and will state that our initial encounter went much better than most such events.”

“Was I dreaming about the little boy just then?” I asked, moving upward away from the hospital bed. “I knew the little boy and the angels were beautiful, but…but I don’t understand. What do you mean you expected me to act this way?”

“You see, my flying friend, you were observed near the rocket base by a group of souls who first determined your need for instruction that then set you, us, on this course to our ‘face-to-face’ encounter.”

“I never saw anyone watching me!” I stated, drawing in a deep breath. “What group of souls were …”

“This is a group of soul travelers from a parallel reality who are simply observing the development of your culture’s space program, as it is so-called.” The caregiver continued moving his hands over Greg. “As for the dream, that is how I communicate. I allow you to witness events as I have. Your dream is a communication of my first experience of you. I wanted you to understand that you have never been alone, not even from the very first time you ‘flew,’ as you call it. The little boy in the ‘dream’ is you.”

“No, it isn’t. I don’t look like that.”

“You experienced, or more accurately, you were reading the thought impressions I had of you when first we met. The exact details of your face might indeed be slightly different, but I can assure you that what you just dreamed is my experience of you.”

“Other flyers? No one was ever watching me, or I would’ve seen them. How could someone be flying without me noticing?” I protested, not able to believe what he was hearing. “I’ve looked all over the place and I haven’t...”

“This will seem hard at first, and you will eventually comprehend all that I share with you. But for now, let me suggest that it will be just as difficult for us to explain about the ‘other flyers’ as it was for you to share with your best friends about being able to fly without using your physical body.”

“WOW! How’d you know about that?”

“It’s there,” the man instructed, pointing his exaggeratedly long finger at my forehead, “in your consciousness, your noggin as you refer to it.” The hair on the man’s face began to shine like tinfoil at Christmas. “And, I might add, your mind is not just in your head, although that is where you experience feelings becoming your thoughts. That is simply due to the four senses gathered between your chin and eyebrows. In reality, your mind, the blending of your eternal soul consciousness, evolving spirit awareness, and the intuitively and instinctually intelligent human body surrounds you like an envelope of pure observation. Your mind extends into everything. Everything in creation is Universal Mind. It is the one thing you have in common with all of creation. Everything is conscious and responds in each new moment to its mutable circumstances. In that sense alone, as a three-fold mind, you connected with everything.”

“Wow, other flyers.” Suddenly I felt excited again about flying. “I never saw them, and I have eagle eyes when I’m flying. Would you please describe how they look? What’re their names? Are they kids like me?”

“No, not like you, since they don’t have human bodies. They are, however, from the human experience―they have had human bodies in other timelines. There’s a group of seven that have been watching both you and the consciousness of those engineers developing the rocket program. It seems that you have been getting most of the attention lately.” The man smiled.

“Where do they live?”

“Within the upper astral and causal realms.” He pointed upward, watching me closely. “You were spotted as they were returning to the adjacent plane where they experience their source or ‘home’ as you would call it. They desired to appear to you then, but they saw a great deal of fear and anger within your consciousness and chose to wait for a more appropriate time.”

My thoughts squeezed around Eli’s words. “What’s an adjacent plane? Is it like an airplane?”

“No, indeed not! Not an airplane.” The caregiver laughed.

“Will I ever get to see them?”

“Indeed you will, especially now that you have expanded your consciousness to accept a greater view of your reality. That you can see me as I truly am, offers evidence that you have opened your vision to see beyond the illusion, the projection of Mr. Linderman I offered as a means to comfort you. The area within the human brain that allows this conscious expansion is a tiny gland between the two hemispheres of your brain,” he instructed, pointing to my forehead at the center spot just above my eyes. Eli could see by my expression that I was lost in my own thought process. He decided to continue his line of instruction. “This is what many call the third eye, which is extremely sensitive to more of the harmonic spectrum, and from now on, you will ‘see’ more clearly even while your full conscious awareness resides in your physical body.”

Afraid of the answer, I quietly asked, “When...when will I get to see them, the other flyers?” I stopped about a foot from Eli’s body. A warm breeze moved through the space between them. “You said my third eye. Do you mean that I might have three eyes? I don’t think my mom could…”

“You will meet the others in due time.” Eli went back to working with Greg. “As far as your third eye is concerned, it is very different from a physical eye. It can see all energy and adjacent realities that exist beyond time and space. In short, a fully functioning third eye can ‘sense’ even the most subtle energy waves—thoughts. A physical being that has this ability, the ability you are developing, can see the thoughts of others. Do you understand?”

Eli’s question stumbled across my mind. Finally, I managed a frail, “No.” The feeling I get when I don’t know the answer to a question the teacher asks swept over me. The lights in the room shifted from extremely bright to an opaque Hue.

“All things in their time.” Eli’s colors were changing again, swirling and blending like when I mixed oil paints. “You were able to see pictures of things and events while playing with your friends, correct?

“Yes.”

“The location of your lost shoe was pictured within your mind’s eye. Is that correct?”

“Yes,” I answered as the light in the room became bright again. “I was just thinking about my mom having a three-eyed monster for a kid. I’ve heard of monsters with one eye, but three. That would be ...”

“Let’s continue, shall we?” For a moment, it sounded like Eli was far away. “It is most difficult to see the third eye with physical sight. The molecular makeup of the human eye’s physical cells hardly allows the refraction of the more subtle light energy forms, such as those found at either end of the light spectrum. It is almost impossible for the average person to witness the third eye formation while looking out through the lens of their physical eyes.”

Eli’s hands stopped over Greg’s stomach and turned deep emerald green.

“Here then. You are presently out of your physical body, so witnessing the third eye should be relatively easy.” He moved down so that he and I were on the same level. “Watch closely,” he continued.

A light began to spread across his forehead, a little bit above where his eyebrows should have been. As the light grew darker, I could see a circle and then inside of that, another circle. The inside circle was dark like a pupil, and now on the outside of the bigger circle, there were flower petals spreading outward in rows—one, two, three, four, five, six rows. The dark circle in the center began to open up.

When I looked inside, it was like peering into the deepest part of the sinkhole near my house. I could see things, but I wasn’t sure what they were. I had the same spooky feeling as when I’d gotten “saved” in the tent at the Baptist Revival meeting, and all those people who put their hands on me and asked Jesus to take me into His arms. It had felt like Jesus was holding me, wrapping me in a cloth made of flowers. The space between Eli’s eyes began to look like an eye in the middle of a flower. I stared, not wanting to forget any of the details.

“How much can you see with that thing?” I asked, not sure if I wanted to know.

“As much as there is to ‘see,’” Eli replied, watching me through his flower eye. “Those beings who first witnessed you are eternal souls, like yourself. They are ‘Eternal Beings’ who appear as forms of light when not incarnated into human form. They have existed since the beginning of All That Is. You identify them as ‘other flyers,’ who you suppose will appear as you do. They can take any form they desire.”

Eli moved back over to the bed and began putting a bubble of yellow light around Greg’s head. “When you think of yourself as just human, you will only look for other human forms. Humans almost always only see what it is they are looking for—what they are anticipating seeing. Each individual’s dominant expectations govern the five human senses.” Eli’s mood changed, and then he added, “Although there is the notion of collective or consensual expectation governing social consciousness, you still individually experience what you expect to experience.” He turned and looked at me as if to ask a question, but most have thought better. He then continued, “If you repeatedly tell the average human that the sky is a particular shade of blue, they will only notice the sky on those days when the color matches their preconceived idea of blue sky. On other days, clouds might catch their eye, but not the sky. When you were looking for other ‘flyers,’ your ideas were indeed limited to human partners. As such, your expectations bound your sight to beings whose light energy pulsated at the frequency of the human experience. There are very few humans presently experiencing the astral and causal realms in a fully conscious state.” The light surrounding the bed shone as bright as the sun. “Not like you,” he continued. “Your desire to know beyond the limitations of time and space has afforded you this experience of “flying.” Your young playmates are locked into patterns of feelings and thoughts that keep them from knowing the finer details of All That Is. It is the survival training taught by your human guardians from generation to generation. That training becomes subconscious to your waking experiences.”

“I think the Buick Driver cutting my head open helped to make me fly.”

Eli looked at me with a bit of wonder. A rather large smile spread light across his face. “Your anger has given way. You can see beyond those injuries.”

“I hate him so much. It’s much more than anger. It’s like ...”

“Still,” Eli began thoughtfully, “in the greater knowing, his actions triggered a series of chemical processes within the pineal body. Interesting. When your conscious awareness is out of your physical body, other humans will find it difficult to see you. That is because they are not looking for beings outside of their ‘normal’ human experience. As I just stated, human expectations limit the five senses. And most humans are looking at surfaces. Most humans only look for other human beings that they use to validate their existence through the images of color, shape, and size, as well as style."

“Can I watch what you’re doing to my brother?” Eli’s talking was making me sleepy. “Boy, I bet Mom would think he’s a bigger motor mouth than I am,” I quietly thought to myself.

“Indeed! I do go on.” Eli stated, laughing at my thoughts of him. “One last thing: There are many who know of you and your willingness to awaken to a greater knowing state. One day they will show themselves to you. If that is to happen, much more must be done. First, we will try to answer all the questions you have been storing up, and that will, more than likely, cause even more questions.” He was laughing now. “Then, after the questions, when the time is just right, we will offer you instruction in many disciplines.”

I just wanted someone to fly with, and I didn’t care about what Eli was saying. “I know you heard me call you a bigger motor mouth than me.”

“Indeed I did.”

“How.”

“Later, My Friend.”

I mustered up a little more courage, “Can I teach my best friend to fly?”

“One day, you will be a teacher of all manner of things, but for now, we must tend to your little brother.” The light from his hands filled the whole room.

“How did you know I want to be a teacher?” I probed.

“Did I?” Eli asked back.

“I heard you. You just said I was going to be a teacher.”

“In due time, Young Master.” Eli moved his hands back and forth again, and Greg suddenly moaned as the caregiver touched his arms and legs.

“Everything looks so different when I’m flying like it’s shimmering. All the colors don’t look the same as when I’m in my real body. The grass is a different color, and our house is whiter and doesn’t have any shadows. Things even have little stars all over them, and it’s like I’m a ghost or something because no one can see me.” Words flew out of my mouth like quicksilver. “How come I got stuck in the chinaberry tree? Why can I fly real slow or be somewhere ‘presto’?”

“Answers are essential, no matter what reality you choose to play in. Questions are even more important, yet it is answers that can be questioned that teaches us,” he approached me and sat on the edge of the bed. “For the time that we are working together, I will treat you as a fully awakened being. Is that okay with you?”

“Is what okay?”

“I will always address you as an equal, as though there is no difference between our respective understandings. It is not important that you fully understand each series of concepts or each expressed idea. What is important is that we are in each other’s company, empathic within our union. As for helping you understand more completely, I will endeavor to use terms more suited to your present level of comprehension. Once you allow yourself to know, we can dismiss with our student/teacher relationship and exchange concepts at ever-expanding levels of knowing.” His third eye had almost wholly disappeared. His face was familiar, like someone I had met but hadn’t seen in a long time.

“I only ask one attitude change,” Eli stated flatly.

In an afraid-to-hear-the-answer tone, I asked, “What?”

“Stop using the phrase, ‘I don’t know.’ It hampers the greater intelligence of intuition by blocking the flow of life force energy through your mind.”

“Okay, Eli. I’ll try. But I don’t know things sometimes.”

“In those moments, you are simply not allowing yourself to know.”

I took Eli’s words in without forming a question in return. Not asking a question allowed my energy to shift suddenly. I got very still as my flying body began to expand.

“When you are ‘flying,’ as you call it, your conscious awareness is residing in your astral body and is disassociated with any input from your physical senses. Your expectations are not at play. The energy particles that make up your astral body are less attracted to each other than, let us say, the particles that make up your physical body. Loosely organized energy cells make up your etheric form and astral body—a non-matter matter of sorts. The radiant energy, the light generated by the physical body, etheric form, and astral body, in concert with the energy of the emotional field, mental body, and seven core energy centers, makes up what many ancient cultures call the ‘aura’ of the physical form. When you see small particles of light or stars in physical structures, you are witnessing the astral body of that particular person or thing.”

“In a greater sense, you exist in seven bodies simultaneously. The first four—the physical body, the etheric form, the astral body, and the causal form—directly influence your awareness experience of Earth. The mental and emotional bodies are a bridge between the physical universe and the realms of spirit. They are not considered bodies per se but rather energy environments, each with a given set of boundaries and influences. The remaining three—the mental body, celestial form, and Christ body—are concerned with the functions of unification and harmonic balance within all realities. The physical body is a dimensional construct; the etheric, astral, and causal forms are multidimensional expressions. The mental body, celestial form, and Christ body are extra-dimensional expressions. Each of these bodies and forms working in perfect balance with each other is important to a fully conscious, consensually linear life experience. Without these bodies and forms functioning in collaboration with your human spirit and its manifest physical form, you would not have intuitive intelligence. You could not have a human experience on planet Earth. Human bodies have become soul dependent.”

“As far as others not being able to see you, as was stated earlier, most all humans only witness what they want to experience. About your friend, the chinaberry tree—in traditions long ago forgotten, it was important for human beings to witness the world from every point of view, including plant and animal awareness. As young men moved from the age of innocence into adulthood, usually around thirteen years of age, they were required to demonstrate the transferring of their conscious awareness from their human form to animal forms, to plant forms, and back again.”

“Like when I felt the roots and the branches and leaves?”

“Yes, indeed,” Eli replied enthusiastically. “Allow me to proceed.”

“Yes, of course,” I answered.

“If for some reason, a young male child could not achieve this multidimensional state of mind, he was not allowed to continue in human form. If a male child could experience plant or animal awareness, even for a moment, it was decided that he would protect those forms of life. They would be an extension of the young male child’s consciousness and therefore safe from the exploitation of human male consciousness.”

“Oh,” I said politely. “I’m not sure what he’s saying, but I sure like the way he says it, and besides, I finally met another flyer,” I thought, watching the caregiver’s hands. “I was really hoping for someone my own age, but he’ll certainly do. After all, beggars can’t be choosers.”

Eli smiled and, without moving his lips, said, “Thoughts are just as loud as words here. I’m honored to have finally met you as well.”

“You really can hear my thoughts! I thought it was just a fluke when you heard my motor mouth thought.” Then I remembered that when I entered the room, Eli had answered my question about the lightning coming from his fingers even though I hadn’t said anything. More questions went screaming through my mind, and suddenly, all I wanted to do was go to sleep. I started feeling dizzy again. The color around me quickly changed from pink to green and then to purple as Eli moved toward me.

“We’d better save some questions for our next visit. We don’t want to turn your astral form into Jello by offering too much too soon.”

I quickly asked, “That could really happen? I’d be like Jello?”

“Easy. I was injecting a lighthearted moment,” Eli half apologized. “It would not serve either of us if you were to become overwhelmed. Please, if you would move your hands over your brother’s body, like this, while I am away, it would greatly help the work I’ve started this day,” Eli instructed, moving my attention away from the sudden dizziness.

He showed me how to hold my hands and think of them like radio speakers, just let the light come through them as the music comes through the radio. He then told me some words to say. I had to repeat them over and over until Eli said they sounded okay. The words made my astral body feel shivery. AS I continued to repeat them, I could begin to see lights coming from my fingertips. Tiny sparks at first, then a strange thing began to happen in my head. A new kind of buzzing began, and the lights in my hands started to glow brightly. I held them just above Greg’s body, with the palms turned slightly inward. The glow was almost as bright as Eli’s as I moved them back and forth. The heat coming from my hands was growing hot, nearly as hot as the toaster at home got. Fear overcame me at the memory of being burnt, and the colors changed from dark green to dark red.

“See how thoughts change your radiant energy, your chi?” Eli stated, smiling brightly. His little mouth had spread into a huge grin, and his eyes were so bright it was hard to look at them. “Chi, prana or life force energy, is within everything. It becomes active when eternal beings or their enjoined collaborating human spirits set the energy into motion through pure intention. Chi is a double edge sword—it creates and destroys.”

“It’s too hot. I can’t do this. It’s scaring me,” I shouted, pulling back my hands. The ball of light I’d made stayed above Greg’s chest as I pulled away.

“Relax. Allow the heat to be released; your fear has trapped it. Observe the ball of radiant energy you’ve created,” Eli said, motioning to me to look closely. “This is referred to as a duality. Chi, ki, prana, life force, no matter the label, by nature, is not bound by limits or laws. Doubt or fear disables clarity and diffuses intention. Confusion is contraction; clarity is expansion. Clear your mind of doubt and fear. Then you will stop attempting to limit and control the flow of chi. Human bodies are self-healing. Our exaggeration of the chi within your brother is aiding that natural process. Release limiting control and the chi brings balance; it heals; overly assert control and chi can be used to destroy through the imbalance of conflicting energies. If chi is quickly released, while at the same time contained within a conflicted thought, it will explode like a bomb.” Eli moved next to my hands. “Put your hands back into the light, this ball of chi.”

I could feel the muscles on my face tighten as the heat pushed through my hands.

“Try this.” The caregiver moved my palms until they were almost facing each other. “The concept that light generates heat is an old one indeed. The sensations of discomfort felt by heat impressed the instinctive mind with survival images. The instinctive aspect of the human mind is responsible for sorting out signals of duality, such as comfort or discomfort, cold or heat. It is in extreme cases of duality that life and death have their reality. Preservation of the physical body is the spirit’s priority.”

Eli examined my face as if his eyes were searching for something. “For human consciousness to evolve, it needed to learn the nature of duality to survive.” He smiled broadly and put his hands into the light. As he continued talking, the pain I was imagining dissolved away. “When soul consciousness first came to this planet, it used the life forms that were native to this system instead of creating new ones. You might ask yourself, ‘Why?’” The bumps above his eyes, where his eyebrows were supposed to be, moved upward, making wrinkles in his forehead. “Do you ask yourself why?”

“Huh?” The question shook me out of a daydream-like state.

“Often, it’s important for the teacher to ask the student ‘why’ at the appropriate time.” Eli paused, looking up in the air as if for an answer to his question. “Eternal souls carry within their etheric forms all the information needed to build the foundation of higher life forms. They carry this data as they transmigrate from star system to star system. The physical animal forms on Earth were less evolved than the eternal soul consciousness that was to collaborate with them. Because of this, eternal souls imprinted the primitive human types on Earth with millions of years of evolutionary data from other systems of life. Eternal souls imprinted this data within human DNA. To effectively collaborate with human spirits, collective soul consciousness lowered the vibration pattern of its communal radiant body. The sensual impressions of pain and pleasure on collective soul consciousness imprinted the 144,000 light cells of each soul body with a complete understanding of what behaviors were necessary to exist in this biological system. Random mutations of the twelve different human types began, and this world now has one of the highest forms of life it has ever experienced. Human: an eternal soul, collaborating with an evolving spirit form observing dimensional reality through an instinctually and intuitively intelligent sensory-dependent animal form is quite remarkable no matter what adjacent realm you are from.”

“I don’t think I can hold them here much longer,” I warned, inching my hands backward away from the increasing light.

“Willingness and knowing,” Eli replied, pulling my hands fully into the light. “In the greater reality, light is neither hot nor cold. It is merely the result of a system of atoms or molecules in different states of expansion or contraction. This particular form of light is the manifestation of the feeling of release or ‘joy’ as you call it.”

“Why does it hurt?”

“The non-matter matter atoms of your etheric form are not expanding at the same rate as the photon atoms of the surrounding light. As the expanding atoms generating the light collide with the contracted atoms of your etheric form, the density of your etheric form cannot adapt to the rate of expansion. A form of friction is the result. Does this feel better?” Eli reached over and held my hands.

“Yes, sir.” The light was still as bright as before, but the heat was going away. “Why did they stop hurting when you were talking?”

“Whether you realize this or not, your mind understands the concepts I am offering. That is why you felt less heat as I shared information with you. With your attention diverted, the atoms of your astral form began to vibrate at the same harmonics as the light. The heat only exists when you believe it does or, as you would say, are afraid that it does. It cannot be otherwise. I will demonstrate. Tell me you do not believe a word I am offering.”

“I don’t believe anything you’re saying.” The heat was back, only this time it was hotter. “HEY!” I quickly yanked my hands out of the ball of light.

“Forgive yourself for questioning my offering. Express that you believe me and put your hands back into the light.”

I closed my eyes. “I believe you!” I reached my hands out, searching for the heat. Nothing. I opened my eyes to see if the light was gone. Nope, my hands were right in the middle of it. As I watched the light, the pain returned. “The heat wasn’t there until I opened my eyes.” I was laughing. The more I laughed, the more the heat went away. Then it was just light.

“Remember, in this realm, your etheric form changes very quickly and is not subject to lasting damage. Pain only needs to be your experience here if you want it to be or are unaware that you have a choice. Until you have greater understanding, I would not try this with your ‘real’ body, as you call it.” Eli put his hands above mine. The light was so bright. It was hard to look at, like the welding torch at the service station. “Do you agree to help with this little one, your brother?”

“Yes, sir!” I exclaimed. “I’ve already been praying for him. God told me to.”

“Indeed,” Eli’s voice was skeptical, then he asked, “you have spoken with God?”

“His name is Illiyan,” I announced. “Mainly, he just tells me things to do, as a grown-up would.”

“How does God sound to you?”

“Small and far away.”

“I see,” Eli said, searching my face again. “Where does this voice seem to be coming from?”

“Inside my head.”

“From where inside? The back? The front?” Suddenly Eli had grown very interested.

I thought for a moment. “From just behind my right ear.”

“Excellent!” Eli smiled from ear to ear.

“You scared me. Why did you want to know about how God talks to me?”

“There are a great many voices in the universe that would desire to influence the innocence of a child. It was important to know of the origin of your God, Illiyan. How did you arrive at the name for Her?”

“Her?” I protested. “The voice is a girl?”

“Not a girl as would be in your terms, but a feminine aspect of dimensional reality. If the voice were external, coming from the outside, it would have been from a less-evolved consciousness. The fact that it originated from within you tells me it is from an expansive, radiant source. Hearing Her voice within your right ear tells me it is of the Goddess.” Eli paused. “You are an eternal being, an eternal soul. Like naturally attracts like; it cannot be otherwise. If the source of the voice seemed external or demanding, it would be deviant.”

“Oh,” I responded, a little relieved in knowing who was talking to me, even if it was a girl.

Eli and I talked for a bit longer, if you can call it that. I followed him up through the building into the sky above the hospital. There was something different about the way he was flying. As we said goodbye, Eli told me his soul name. He also told me about his home world. At that time, I could not fully understand. He told me he would answer more of my questions when he returned in two weeks to help Greg back into his physical body.

“Greg is coming back! I knew it. Where is he right now? Is he in that swirling cloud that my cord won’t allow me to go into?”

“All in due time. All in due time.”

I decided that as soon as I got home, I’d make a list of every question I’d had since the first day I started flying. I dropped down to see Greg once more before heading home. The nurses were turning Greg over again, and a man was putting a new bottle on the pole next to his bed. I was so excited that I wasn’t alone after all that I kept saying Eli’s name over and over again as I flew home.

It was late, probably 6:30 or 7:00 in the evening. Carole was leaving my room as I popped back into my physical body. “I’d better tell her what was going on in case working with Greg is going to take longer than usual each night. Besides, with all the cooking and cleaning she’s going to be doing, she doesn’t need to be worrying about me,” I thought as I struggled to my feet.

“Carole, I met one!” My voice was high, almost like a squeal. The excitement of meeting Eli felt funny as it raced through my physical body.

“Met one what?” She was busy putting the dishes away.

“Another flyer. His name is Eli, and he’s not a kid; he’s full-sized.”

“You know I still don’t believe you can fly.” Her words stung like when our stepfather slaps me. “I know you told me what I was doing at the park and all, but it seems funny that people can fly. And you can’t prove it because no one can see you.”

“What if I could teach you how?”

“I’m not getting mixed up in all this stuff. Besides, I don’t want people making fun of me like they do you and Mr. Neely. Besides, Gramma already thinks you’re a troubled child. I don’t want her thinking I am too.”

“Eli said that one day I would be a teacher and...”

“Gary, I don’t want to hear any more of your stories.” Her tone of voice sounded just like Mom’s. “You were supposed to be checking on Greg, not flying around with your invisible, flying friend, Eler.”

“It’s not Eler. It’s Eli. If you don’t believe me about flying, then how could I check on Greg, you idiot?” Anger moved through my stomach. The happiness I felt just moments before was now completely gone. “I believe she thinks I’m lying. I saw the look she had in her eyes the night I explained about my flying. I know she believes me. I can feel it.”

“Was he okay?”

“Eli says he’ll wake up in two weeks, and I get to watch.” I searched her face for any doubt. Her eyes were soft, and she was looking right at me. “I can tell you really believe me. I can feel it.”

“I can’t believe you. I’ve got to take care of the house and you kids.” Tears came into her eyes. She looked down. “And why should I believe you?” she asked, watching for my reaction. I sat perfectly still. My lack of response troubled her, “Besides, you never really help me with anything.”

Carole cried for a long time. Mickie stood faithfully by her side until she was through sobbing. I promised Carole I’d help her more, and she swore she’d stop hitting me with the broom and scratching me with her fingernails. But she didn’t promise she’d believe me about flying. “Maybe one day,” she had said.

“Carole, it’s, well... somehow I feel older tonight,” I started, watching her in the kitchen. “I think it’s because I met Eli.”

“Put the napkins in the holder on the table and sweep under the chairs.” Her tone was sounding more and more like their mother’s by the minute. “You’re too young to feel older.” Her voice began to shake. “I feel older with Mom gone all the time. We never see her anymore.”

“We see her in the morning when she gets us ready for school.”

“One hour in the morning isn’t a lot, you lunkhead. Did you already forget your promise to help me more without me having to ask?”

Shortly after I began to fly, I could feel her tears in my body. “Do you miss Mom, or are you more afraid of Danny because she’s not here to try and protect us?”

“Both,” she whispered.

“Yeah, me too,” I confessed as I started to help her with her work.

“Why are you helping me?”

“I feel like living my promise,” I smiled. My sister kept looking over at me as I finished putting the pans away. “I feel older, and the older you get, the more you help.”

“If meeting another flyer makes you do more without being asked, then I hope you meet a billion of ‘em.”

That night, I wrote in my diary about how Carole was glad to hear that Greg would be waking up. “I’m glad she didn’t ask what Eli looked like. Then she would have thought I was making it all up for sure. It would have been pretty hard to describe him with all the lights and sounds and feelings. Anyway, Carole said she’d cover for me with Danny, but only if I asked ahead of time. She’d tell our stepfather I was sick. He never likes to be around us kids when we’re sick.” I put my diary away and pulled the sheet over my head. The sound I’d heard at the cloud that day buzzed in my ears as I went to sleep.

The next morning, as I was putting on my socks and shoes, I kept noticing a glow around my hands. It would disappear if I looked right at it, but if I looked a little to the side, it would return. Mom yelled that my toast was ready and that I was running out of time. I grabbed my books and headed down the hall. Mickie barked and acted a little strange like she was afraid of me or something. I wondered if she could see the glow around my hands.

“Mom was acting a little weird back there too,” I thought, putting my books in line, then joining the gang of kids standing by the street sign. Carole was with her friend, Debbie, and as I pulled her over to the ditch to ask her if she had noticed Mom acting a little weird too, she jerked her arm from my hand, saying, “What the hell’s wrong with you?” I had never heard her swear before. My mouth hung open, which set her to laugh.

“Did you say anything to Mom about my flying stuff?”

Carole looked away for a moment then turned to face me, saying, “So what if I did?”

Instantly, my hands wanted to make fists. “Why would you do that? You know she worries about everything. Hell, she isn’t happy unless she’s worried about something or other. Jesus, Carole.”

“Serves you right,” she responded. “Making up stories about flying is lying.”

“I can prove it to you again.”

“You better leave me alone. And don’t spy on me with your flying stuff.”

Carole did tell me that two days prior, when I was flying, Mom had come home from work to get something and saw me sitting for a long time. She had asked Carole if she had seen me acting funny. Carole told her no. It was then that Mom had told Carole she was worried about me and asked if she would mind keeping an eye on me. The following day, when she and Mom were at the drugstore, Carole said she overheard Mom talking to Gamma on the store phone. Specifically, she had wanted to know if Grammy knew what to do about my strange behavior.

“Oh, great, that’s all I need—Gramma! Gramma makes mountains out of things smaller than molehills. Even Mom’s said that,” I thought as I walked back to stand in line near my books. Someone shouted, “Here comes the bus,” and everyone jumped into line for old bus 99.