Chapter 66 A party invitation

Thursday 19th August

‘Ollie’s sorted out a place for the reunion,’ said Al to Joe as soon as Joe had answered his phone.

‘Who’s Ollie? … What reunion?’

‘You know, I told you about it when you were here ten days ago. Ollie Fenchurch was at the Diss unit when I got there. He was discharged a fortnight after I arrived – just before you came.’

‘Oh yea, you said he was going to book the whole of a newly opening hotel for a reunion.’

‘He’s done that now. How are you fixed from Friday the third of September to Sunday the fifth?’

‘I think it’ll be OK. I’ll have to check with Lauren, but she’s really keen on me doing stuff – and getting out from under her feet. How many are going?’

‘Ollie said around a hundred.’

‘Wow. Hey, wait a minute. That’s the weekend when Beth’s passing closest to the Earth, isn’t it? We’ll have to have a few extra bevvies on the Friday night in case the world ends on Saturday. Does Jenny mind you being away that weekend? On the news, they’re saying a lot of people are staying at home with their nearest and dearest in case something does happen.’

‘Jenny’s going to a comet-themed WI party on that Saturday. I think she might be planning to invite Lauren. Jenny and I both think all this apocalyptic stuff is a load of bollocks. It’s going to be a great night for partying though. Some people are expecting Jesus to turn up. Others are expecting aliens to arrive.’

‘Yea, it’s weird what people believe. Where’s the hotel?’

‘It’s called the Sandgate Beach Hotel. It’s apparently on the seafront near Folkestone.’

‘Opportunities for a late-night swim then.’

‘For some of the lads, you’re probably not kidding. I’ll suggest to Ollie that he gets the RNLI to park a couple of lifeboats nearby.’

Chapter 67 On board the Admiral Ushakov

Thursday 19th August

‘We have received direct orders from the Kremlin, Captain,’ said the second in command of the Russian battlecruiser, Admiral Ushakov, as he entered the captain’s quarters.

‘What’s their nature?’

‘The first order is not encrypted, Captain. We are to sail to Portsmouth in England and to dock there on the second of September.’

The captain appeared puzzled. ‘What’s our purpose?’

‘Our visit is to be described as a goodwill mission, Captain, to demonstrate peaceful international intentions when comet P/2015 Y1 makes its closest pass to the Earth.’

‘You said that was the first order.’

‘The second order is encrypted, Captain. We’ll receive the decryption key on the morning of the first of September, should that prove necessary.’

‘Should that prove necessary,’ repeated the Captain thoughtfully. ‘That’s a very unusual turn of phrase. I’ve only heard it used in nuclear simulation exercises when our orders would be a last resort instruction to launch a missile attack.’

Both men looked at each other with equally puzzled expressions on their faces.

‘Anyway,’ concluded the captain, ‘those are our orders. Please rearrange our schedule such that we arrive at Portsmouth as instructed.’

Chapter 68 The Bodhiisha Unit reunion

Thursday 19th August

Peter Rogers walked into the laboratory within the nuclear bunker at Shorncliffe Army Camp. He placed a bunch of keys on the desk in front of George Mackenzie. ‘Thanks for lending me your car this morning. I didn’t think I’d need to order a car today, and then I remembered I had to buy that birthday card for my sister and catch the post.’

‘No problem. Did you get the card sent?’

‘Yes, thanks.’

Peter looked around the lab. The technicians had completed the installation process and had left on the previous weekend. All the technology was now in place for the fourth of September. ‘What more do we have to complete, George, before Beth’s arrival?’

‘We just need to finish the phase two testing. We got the Teterodat shipment on Monday, and I started the phase two testing on Tuesday. For the SEI test, I included all the known and monitorable subjects, and I activated all the sub-ego imperatives that were implanted in phase one.’

‘What were the outcomes?’

‘As we’d intended, Ollie Fenchurch booked the Sandgate Beach Hotel for exactly one hundred and three of the subjects who were at Bodhiisha unit. All those who’ve accepted his invitation are those we’d randomly chosen to accept. The remainder, who declined, were all on the list we decided would turn it down. Every embedded sub-ego imperative was successful.’

‘Were there any glitches with the process?’

‘I interfaced with Starchild myself. Once the connection with the AI neural network had been made, the whole process was complete within a fraction of a second.’

‘That’s excellent. This means you’ve induced compliance in all one hundred and seventy-two subjects without a failure.’

‘That’s right. I want to run one more test that involves channelling to a large random group, but I don’t anticipate any problems. Now Starchild is functioning, it’s consistently one hundred percent successful. We can’t be certain it’ll work at the scale planned for the fourth of September, of course, but it looks very good so far.’

‘I must say, the plan’s gone remarkably well, George.’

‘It’s fortunate you were able to persuade the Prime Minister and the MOD that Paterson’s theory wasn’t just unrealistic science fiction.’

‘I think my involvement with Stargate tipped that. All these psychic phenomena had already been proven, and I could demonstrate indisputable evidence of that. It wasn’t a great leap of imagination for the PM and the MOD to accept that we, or rather Paterson, had worked out how to weaponise them in a reliable and targeted way. Which reminds me of something I’d always meant to ask you.’

‘What’s that, Peter?’

‘All the experiments at the unit could have been conducted equally well without building the Bodhiisha Temple in addition to the therapy unit. When you became operational lead for the project after Paterson died, why did you think the building of the temple was so critically important?’

‘In retrospect, I think I’d miscalculated. I imagined there’d be more unsuitable subjects who the monks would need to work with in conventional ways. Still, there’s no harm done. It all added to obscuring the true nature of the research. That’s the point of experiments, isn’t it? You can’t predict everything in advance.’

Peter Rogers paused briefly to think. It was a convincing lie. Peter might have believed George if he had not already known George’s true agenda. Peter’s concerns about George would not be a worry for much longer, however, now that George was no longer critical to the project. ‘Have you any plans for the weekend, George?’

‘No. I’ll just be staying at the flat in Folkestone. It’s much more restful than living on the base. What are you going to do?’

‘I’m going back to London. I’ve got a meeting with the Prime Minister tomorrow morning.’

‘Isn’t security a bigger issue for you in London? The Chinese took huge risks trying to kill you last Saturday.’

‘As you know, the Chinese and everyone else are now aware that we’ve got the Teterodat. All the major hostiles have been in contact through diplomatic channels. I gather they’re all asking for a summit to discuss Starchild, and they’re looking for guarantees that we won’t use her unilaterally. The fact the hostiles know about the Teterodat has hugely complicated the problem, but it means they won’t target individuals anymore. They all realise the project can’t be stopped or even delayed by individual assassinations. Even you, George, could be replaced at this stage. MI6 also seem to think the M25 attack was a local initiative and not directly ordered by Beijing.’

‘So negotiations might lead to Starchild not going ahead on the fourth of September?’

‘I don’t know what the Inner Circle’s thinking, so I won’t be able to answer that question until I’ve talked with the PM tomorrow.’

Chapter 69 Dharma talk

– Seeing God more clearly

Thursday 19th August

Shingetsu stood at the front of the meditation hall at the Bodhiisha Temple. A large screen which had been automatically lowered from the ceiling was now obscuring the raised platform.

‘Good afternoon everyone.’ Shingetsu looked around the crowded hall. ‘As you know, the dharma talks given in recent days by Sam Martin have become extremely popular. One only has to look at the numbers here this afternoon to confirm the interest in what she has had to say. Sam couldn’t be here in person today, but she has agreed to continue her series of talks from time to time using Zoom, and we are fortunate that she is able to deliver such a talk this afternoon.’

Shingetsu picked up a remote control from a small table and pressed a button. Sam’s face appeared on the screen.

‘Can you all hear me?’ asked Sam.

‘We can,’ Shingetsu replied. ‘Thank you for joining us today. I’ll put us on mute, Sam, but we can unmute later for any questions.’

‘OK, thanks,’ said Sam, confirming that she could hear Shingetsu. ‘Good afternoon, everybody. I’m sorry I can’t be with you in person today, but I’m pleased that this technology allows me to join you when I’m elsewhere. Before I left the temple on Monday, I looked through the replies to the survey I circulated to many of you. That survey was to ask if you wanted me to deliver talks on Zoom and, if so, to clarify the questions you would most like me to address. In my last talk, I touched upon our relationship to the Universal Consciousness, and this is the broad topic that many of you have wanted me to consider further. The question I would like to address today is therefore about how our finite minds can gain a deeper understanding of the Universal Awareness. Using a common religious metaphor, you might ask how we can see God more clearly?

‘Countless people have asked that question over countless generations, oblivious to the fact that the biggest barrier to answering it is built into the question itself. We or mankind is the subject, and God is the object which the subject is hoping to perceive. That subject-object dualism is such a familiar mindset in the everyday world that most people, at most times in history, have accepted it without question. Sadly, this viewpoint takes us into a blind ally from which it is impossible to ever see God clearly. Once we have constructed and chosen to dwell within a dualistic reality, infinity and eternity are forever invisible.

‘How then do we deconstruct our everyday reality? How do we step back from the all-pervasive and seemingly self-apparent notion that the world, indeed the whole universe, is made up of separate things?

‘Consciousness is primary. Everything we see around us exists within consciousness. From the perspective of the one Universal Consciousness, all of it is timeless and eternal.

‘Our human bodies and our brains arise within that consciousness, while still being part of it – like individual waves that form on the surface of an ocean while each remains part of that ocean.

‘I can take the ocean analogy a step further to illustrate the problem with dualistic assumptions. Imagine that someone on the beach perceives the waves as separate objects and decides to collect some and carry a box of them away from the seashore. You can visualise the problem that person will have. The task is not possible. You can’t lift a wave out of an ocean. It doesn’t make any sense to even try. The wave is an expression of the way the ocean behaves. It’s not a separate and divisible thing.

‘Our own body-minds and everything we see around us are waves on the deep ocean of the Universal Consciousness. The fact that most people can’t usually adopt a viewpoint that reveals this is about the limitations of our finite minds. If a wave on an ocean could perceive the surrounding waves, it too might think of those little perturbations of the ocean’s surface as being separate and individual objects. I like the ocean analogy as it ties in well with particle physics. I taught physics at Oxford some years ago, and as you go deeper into the nature of matter, you seem to encounter nothing but manifestations of waves and, finally, at the deepest level, nothing at all.

‘Don’t get frustrated with yourselves, by the way, for not being able to somehow unite with the Universal Consciousness. For one thing, remember that it’s the ego expressing frustration. Also, however, being one with everything is not an easy thing to do. We need our experiences of the world to navigate this world. Those experiences are in a sense real, even if the interpretations our brains make of those experiences lead to illusions.

‘I now want to return to the original question of how we can see past the limitations of our personal, finite waves and grasp more fully the nature and extent of the ocean. We are engrossed in watching a film on a screen. How can we see past the moving images to the screen on which they are playing out?

‘I would suggest you might focus your meditations on collapsing the space between your awareness and the Ultimate Awareness and removing the distance between your awareness and what you perceive as separate objects.

‘So, what do I mean by collapsing the space between your awareness and the Ultimate Awareness? Your sense of “I am” is the same sense of “I am” as experienced by the Universal Consciousness – as experienced by God. Your inability to see that is simply due to the limitations of your mind-body. You can quite legitimately say that you are God and meditate upon that.

‘What then do I mean by removing the distance between your awareness and what you perceive as separate objects? In your meditations, try to simply perceive whatever enters your consciousness. Do not think. Do not label. Do not categorise. Do not analyse. It’s the mental carving up of the whole that both makes it comprehensible but also obscures it. The effects of such exercises might not be immediately apparent, but one critical thing at least will have happened at the outset. You will have recognized that subject-object dualism, despite its uses, is not the sole way to perceive.

‘Thank you. Does anyone have any questions?’

Shingetsu unmuted the microphone and looked around the hall. A man raised his hand and Shingetsu passed the radio microphone to a nearby participant from whom it was passed, hand to hand, to the first questioner.

‘Hello, Sam, thank you for that very inspiring talk. It’s certainly put some things into perspective for me. I understand from the details on your webpage that you were once involved in the US Stargate Project. This was focused on accessing the Underlying Awareness to retrieve information in the material world for military purposes. I’ve read speculations on social media about more recent research in which more sophisticated attempts have been made to enhance such abilities – again for military purposes. Do you think it’s possible to use the Universal Awareness for such divisive, tribal ends?

Sam always paused for a long time before answering questions so that she could consider the best way to phrase a reply. She paused even longer in relation to this question to bring her thoughts away from the fact that this very point was at the centre of the Starchild issue. ‘That’s an extremely good question, and it’s more than academic in a world where research can make such things increasingly possible. The truthful answer is that I don’t know. Human beings have utilised very advanced discoveries for good and for evil. You only have to think about Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence. You can generate endless amounts of energy with technology built upon that. You can also destroy the world.

‘There is a difference, however, with the Universal Consciousness, in that you are talking about the basis of everything. I’d like to think that it’s not possible for Creation to turn God against itself. However many selfish and reckless egos try to misuse deep knowledge, I want to believe that things will work out well in the end.’

Chapter 70 God’s winds and tides

Friday 20th August

‘Thank you for coming this evening, Ernest.’

‘It’s no trouble, Robert. I recognise your concern. If you’ve had a premonition of your own death, then I am as disturbed as you.’

‘It’s interesting you should say that. Despite the insights we’ve both gained from our eastern travels, it’s still very easy to worry about this life as if it’s all there is … or all there ever will be.’

‘Very true, my friend, which I think brings us to how we can attempt to commune once again should the forces behind God’s winds and tides place us both on a more direct course to his harbour.’

‘The Cheshire Cheese.’

‘A very fine hostelry, but how can it help us?’

‘Since returning to England, we have both spent much time in that public house – more, perhaps, than in any other single location. Also, the name has more than one association: the pub itself and its surroundings; the county of Cheshire and, of course, cheese. Perhaps one of those attributes might weather the coming storm.’

‘As a short phrase to visualize on our deathbeds, I can think of no better.’ Ernest paused and looked solemnly at his friend. ‘Your premonition … do you have a sense of when?’

‘I’m sorry to relate … this very evening.’

A very bright light flooded Robert Watson’s apartment. Sam shielded her eyes as she opened them.

‘Sorry,’ said Sahadeva. ‘I thought I’d pull back the curtains. I didn’t mean to disturb your sleep.’

‘What time is it?’

‘Eleven in the morning. You’re needing a lot of sleep lately.’

Sam thought back to the previous evening and smiled at Sahadeva. ‘I seem to recall that you had something to do with me not getting a chance to sleep until two in the morning.’

‘Pleasant dreams?’

Sam’s mind instantly returned to her dream prior to waking. Without further comment, she pushed back the duvet, climbed out of bed and put on her dressing gown. She then walked into the lounge area of the bungalow.

Ben was again sitting with his laptop at the kitchen table.

‘Are you still trying to access that USB stick, Ben?’

‘I gave up yesterday evening. It can take longer than the age of the Universe to discover a random password by chance. I thought I could find better things to do.’

His brief glance at Sue, her almost imperceptible smile and her even less distinct turning away, as if in shyness, communicated a broader story to Sam.

‘Have you got the stick handy?’

Ben put his hand into his computer bag and then lifted the stick into the air.

‘Try Cheshire Cheese – Capitalise the Cs but leave a gap between the two words.’

Ben inserted the memory stick into a USB port. He then typed on the keyboard. ‘Bloody hell. How did you work that out? … Oops, pardon my French.’

Sam walked to where Ben was sitting, picking up a kitchen chair on the way. She put the chair down beside Ben and sat down. ‘Are you in?’

‘Yes.’ Ben turned to Sam. ‘How did you do that?’

Sam thought for a moment. There was nothing to be gained by not simply stating the facts. ‘I’ve been having dreams about two men in Victorian London,’ she explained in a matter-of-fact manner. ‘I’ve come to believe that one of them, Ernest Ball, was a previous incarnation of mine and the other was a close friend and colleague at that time. We seem to have been engaged in a project that he called the “Final Awakening”, although I haven’t retained a memory of what that means, and there’s nothing conclusive on the Internet. I’ve just woken from one of those dreams. It appeared that my friend, Robert Watson was his name, believed he was shortly to die. We both seemed to know something about the process of rebirth, and we were discussing how we might make contact once again in another life when circumstances were better set to achieve this “Final Awakening”, whatever that is. We’d spent a lot of time in a London pub called the Cheshire Cheese, which is still in Fleet Street today. We picked Chesire Cheese as a recognition code word. Asking you to try it in that form as a password seemed like a wild guess, but I had an intuition I might be onto something.’

There was silence in the room for several moments, which Sue finally broke. ‘Is George Mackenzie, Robert Watson?’

‘Based on what we can assume at present, that might be close to the truth. Awareness usually transmigrates after death, and it carries with it echoes of the subtle body that I talked to you about after the incident with the seagull. That doesn’t necessarily include a carry-over of memories unfortunately. I think it’s likely my awareness once inhabited the body of Ernest Ball, but I can’t retrieve his memories.’ Sam looked at Sue. ‘But to answer your question, I strongly suspect that the awareness of Robert Watson now inhabits the body of George Mackenzie.’ Sam looked at Ben. ‘What’s on the memory stick?’

Ben glanced back at the laptop screen. ‘There’s one unencrypted text file on the memory stick.’ He clicked a mouse button, and the printer came to life. ‘I’ll print four copies, and then we can each look at one.’

‘What sort of thing does it say?’ asked Sue, anxious to quickly gain a clue.

Ben stood up and walked to the printer. ‘The heading says “Glossary of Abbreviations”, and the whole thing’s only a few lines long.’ He picked up the prints and handed one to each of the others.

Glossary of Abbreviations

DOA – Dissociation of Awareness

RV – Remote Viewing

BWP – Brain Wave Profile.

HT – Hostile Transmigration.

TRW – Transmigration Return Window.

SEI – Sub-ego Imperative.

CMTSEI – Channelled Multi-target Sub-ego Imperatives.

Sam read down the list. ‘This is a very helpful message.’

‘It looks like a list of abbreviations,’ said Sue.

‘Most of the terms described here fit with the things that John Henson was talking to me about,’ said Sam. ‘It’s a clever communication because you could leave this sheet of paper on the bus and it wouldn’t reveal anything of significance to anyone. The password wasn’t to keep this file secret, it was about Robert sending a message to me.’

Sahadeva smiled. ‘You mean George.’

‘I guess I do.’ Sam looked again at the sheet of paper. ‘This document wouldn’t make any sense unless you knew what we know since I talked to John Henson. The only thing that didn’t come up in my discussion with him was this “transmigration return window” – the TRW. I’m guessing that relates to what I suspected after the incident with the seagull. There may be a limited period for which it’s possible for someone to maintain a hostile transmigration before it’s not possible to return to their original body. John Henson’s soul only returned after the black bear died.’

Sue looked puzzled. ‘If George was hoping you’d obtain that memory stick and deduce the password, why would he think that hiding it in a fake baked bean tin in a cupboard in an unremarkable flat in Folkestone would be the best way to get it to you?’

‘I think that’s another indicator that we’re being moved by God’s winds and tides, so to speak. George wouldn’t know who’d incarnated Ernest’s awareness. He may have simply assumed that if he put the memory stick anywhere associated with himself, then God, for want of a better term, would lead me to it. It also implies that, in this incarnation, he possesses a very deep understanding of the nature of reality.’

Sam paused and her tone of voice became more serious. ‘I wonder what George is playing at. The MOD and their allies obviously want to use the properties of consciousness to gain a military advantage. Either George is going along with that or he’s planning to subvert the military plan to his own ends.’

Sahadeva nodded. ‘The fact that he wants you involved might imply that he thinks you might support him in what he’s doing. I wonder if it was him who sent the original letter to me.’

‘I need to talk to George,’ said Sam. ‘It’s unfortunate I don’t have a private phone number for him. I can’t just call him at Shorncliffe because I need to be cautious for the sake of his own security. I think I’ll call at his flat tomorrow morning. Hopefully, he won’t be working on Saturday.’