Gideon McGee's Dream: Chapter Seven

“You didn’t have much to say,” Gideon said as he and Zacharaias sped away from the Land of the Gatekeeper and back through the door through which they entered.

“The visit wasn’t for me, Gideon. Millions of years ago a guide, much like myself, first introduced me to the Land of the Gatekeeper. Lessons once learned can be remembered at any time.”
“What lessons are those?”

“You speak of luck and of unfairness just as I did long ago. The lesson of the Gatekeeper is that as long as you believe luck and unfairness determines the course of your life, you will occasionally find lady luck on your shoulder and unfairness will follow you wherever you go. Your belief is your truth.”

As the galaxies sped by, Gideon reflected on his life and how Zack’s words seemed to penetrate his mind as easily as an arrow pierces a straw target. He tried to squeeze some meaning from what he heard. “If I believe everything that happens to me is fair and that luck plays no part in my destiny, then my life will be perfect?”

“Your life is already perfect, and always has been. You just stopped believing it at an earlier age than most. You came into this life for the experience of it and to explore physical reality. There is nothing you have to be. There is no holy path. There is no better. There is no worse. Everything you do, not what you think about what you do, but what you actually do, moves you along the path of your intent. My job in this journey we have undertaken is to try and show you how to do it with as little trauma and conflict as possible.

“For example,” Zack continued, “many teenagers turn to alcohol and drugs for a high. Wanting this ‘high’ is perfectly normal for humans, for unconsciously you all desire the vaguely remembered experience of the reality you find yourself in now. It is called freedom. Some of you call it heaven, but it is merely a state of being at peace, where no choice is the wrong choice.”

“I didn’t remember that experience,” Gideon said.

“With your brain you don’t remember, but within the deeper levels of who you are you remember everything. Do you remember that iceberg Dr. Spiro used as an example? The visible part is your thinking mind, but the bulk of the iceberg is below the surface, out of view. That part, the submerged part, remembers, and unconsciously your reason for using alcohol and drugs is to regain that spiritual ‘high,’ that sense of oneness with the cosmos where choices are made freely without the value judgments that are attached to beliefs.”

“Then why does everyone say drugs and alcohol is bad?” Gideon asked.
“Because as humans you have chosen to experience life in physical form. It is your choice. There are many others. But you have incorporated in your reality the belief system of duplicity. Duplicity says that some things are good and some things are bad; some things are better and some things are worse. These are beliefs. They are not absolute truths, but they are your truths. Everyones’ beliefs constitute their truth and therefore their reality. This is what your mother was getting at when she told you there are six billion worlds. You create within trauma and conflict because you hold your truth to be THE truth. It is only yours. Do you know the myth of the Phoenix, Gideon?” Zack asked.

“The only thing I know about the Phoenix,” Gideon replied, “is that a city in Arizona is named after it.”

“The Phoenix is a bird that appears in many world myths. It is a bird that burns itself on its own altar, and perpetually rises from its own ashes. It is one of the early models of the resurrection. Like the Phoenix, the contents of our unconscious perpetually attempt a resurrection through the light of consciousness. If we refuse to become conscious, to become awake, our unconscious will throw us into the fiery furnace in an attempt to resurrect itself. After all, there could never have been a Christian resurrection had there not been a crucifixion.”

“So you're saying that sometimes bad things happen to get us to move away from a place where we’re stuck?” Gideon asked.

“Yes. If we don’t pay attention to the more subtle signs the messages will get stronger. It is much like someone knocking gently on your door, knowing you are inside. If you don’t answer he will knock harder until he gets your attention. If you still don’t hear he will knock the door down fearing you may be incapacitated.”

“So, in a way the bad things that happen to us, or the bad that we do, really aren’t bad. Right?”

“There are many realities,” Zack replied. “In your reality you hold the belief that some things are good and some things are bad and you judge both. Try to remember, your judgment perpetuates that which you judge. Good and bad is relative, and a perfect example is to be found in the Diamond Galaxy where we will find the land of ‘What is Good? What is Bad’.”

“How do we get there?”
“Take my hand and think ‘fast’. I’ll do the navigating. If we were in one of your spaceships the journey would take fifteen trillion years, hardly a manageable time frame. This is why thought-travel will be the way you explore the Universes. Are you ready?”

“Ready,” Gideon replied. He held his breath as though he were about to jump into a river from a train bridge.
“Those specks of stars you see are about to streak, as a child’s fingers will streak a dewy window. Watch as they change color. I thought you might enjoy the light show so I’ve slowed down our speed.”

As Zacharaias and Gideon surpassed the speed of light the Universe became light, and the two began traveling back in time. The trillions upon trillions of nuclear infernos that each star represented turned into highways of colored light, a Universe full of rainbows, beginning and ending in infinity.
“Look ahead and to your left, Gideon,” Zack said. “Do you see it?”

Gideon looked as he was instructed and saw an immense black funnel in the middle of one of the red highways.

“What is it?” Gideon asked. “It looks like a tornado.”
“It is what your scientists call a Black Hole, some call it a frozen star. It is a star that has collapsed in on itself, and whose gravitational field is so strong no light can escape it and therefore time stands still.”

“Wow,” Gideon said, surprised that he understood what Zack was saying.
“Your scientists are on the verge of discovering that these Black Holes are actually doorways to different Universes.”

“Did you say Universes? Like more than one?” Gideon asked. “I thought you said Universes before, but I figured I misheard you.”

“They are infinite in number,” Zacharaias replied, as though the knowledge of infinite Universes was kids stuff.


Gideon let loose a high-pitched whistle, for to him this was headline news. As he and Zack grew closer to the Black Hole, Gideon noticed other journeyers. To his left he saw a young girl, no more than ten years old, holding hands with her guide, a woman of indeterminate age, and dressed in a robe much like Zack’s. The little girl was clothed in a hospital gown. Gideon saw the same silver thread attached to her that was attached to his body that lay light years away at the bottom of Round Pond. Her’s reached back as far as his eyes could see. He was reminded of his sister, Prudence, and how much he missed her, although he would never admit it. Gideon wondered if she had made it to the fire station yet.

Gideon turned to Zacharaias. “Is that little girl dead?” he asked.
“Not as long as the silver thread remains,” Zack lied. He knew that she too needed the silver thread as a reassurance. “The girl’s name is Tarla. She has Leukemia and is in the midst of a crisis. Her doctors are trying to revive her as I speak. Her home planet is Zontar.”

“But she's human!” Gideon shrieked. He didn’t know if he could stand many more surprises.

“Indeed,” Zack said. “Humans are the God-seed of many physical realities. It is through you that the Creator experiences her creations. As you create the creator creates and as the creator creates so too do you create. In totality the creator is all that is conscious, and all is conscious.”

“Am I going to remember all of this if I decide to stay alive?”
“You will remember, but not all at once. The lessons, or should I say reminders, you learn on this journey will become available to you as you need them.”

“It looks like everyone is getting sucked down a drain,” Gideon said, changing his attention back to the Black Hole. “How will we get back out? Everything is going into the funnel, but nothing is coming out.”

“Nothing ever escapes out of a Black Hole, with the exception of a particle or two of light,” Zacharaias explained. “But each Universe is connected to every other Universe by these Black Holes. They are like entrance and exit doors, worm holes so-to-speak, each opening in only one direction. To get back to this Universe we merely find the exit in that Universe that connects it to this Universe.”

“God has a lot of irons in the fire, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, she does, Gideon,” Zack said, wondering if Gideon caught the change in pronouns when he referred to God.

“Why do you keep calling God a ‘she’?” Gideon asked.
“Why do you keep calling God a ‘he’?” Zack asked in return.
“Because I was taught God is a man.”

“But it says in your Bible that you were created in the image of the Creator. Your interpretation, Gideon, would exclude half the human race from that image.”
“Yeah, but how can we or God be both male and female?” Gideon asked, sure Zack was playing with his mind.

“Your bodies can’t, but the energies within you can. Whether you know it or not, you learned much at Dr. Spiro’s office. Do you remember the picture hanging in the hallway of his home, the one that you referred to as two fishes eating each other’s tail?”

“Yes,” Gideon answered. “Susan called it the symbol of the Tao, the Way.”
“That’s correct, Gideon. Some refer to those two fishes of yours, the black and the white, as yin and yang, male and female.”

“And each fish has an eye the color of its opposite’s body,” Gideon joined in.
“Very good,” Zack said. “Each fish has its opposite’s energy located at its very center, and, in this way each human being carries both aspects of the Creator despite the sex of the carrier.”

“You're saying I’m part girl inside,” Gideon asked in disbelief. He looked around to see if anyone was within ear-shot.

“How could you ever fully represent the Creator if you weren’t? But it’s not really male/female, more than it is viewing the world through different perceptual lenses. Male and female are merely genders. There are actually three perceptual orientations through which you view the world. Each gender may have any of the three orientations. How could you ever become what you potentially could be if all aspects of the creator were not forever present within you? Male and female still have much to learn from each other and their gender is not as important as their perceptual orientation.”

“No one will ever believe this back home,” Gideon said.
“Many already do, but it will be some time before you remember this teaching if you decide to return to your body.”
“So... Jenny Bloom is part man, and I’m part woman?”
“Not exactly,” Zack replied. “She is female gender and you are male gender, but you both hold the same perceptual orientation.”

“Wild, Zack. Just wild. I don’t understand it all, but I’m beginning to realize that things aren’t what I thought them to be.”
“Your race is still a few generations away from understanding what their reality is all about and how it is changing, but, when you do, the gate to that paradise you think you lost will be refound.”
“Paradise isn’t in heaven?”

“The heavens are mostly empty space,” Zack answered, as they approached the outer rim of the Black Hole. “We’ve traveled billions of light years and through millions of galaxies. Have you seen a heaven? Paradise has always been right in front of your noses, but you were too attached to your unexamined beliefs to see it. For a focus of the soul to incarnate...”

“Incarnate?” Gideon asked.
“For a particular focus of the soul to be in a body, and therefore in space and time, it abides by certain rules of the particular reality it enters. Your reality is constructed by what you believe.”

“Why do you say a focus of the soul incarnates?” Gideon asked. “I always thought the soul was somewhere inside of us, like in our chest or something. You know, a little white spot in our chest.”

“The soul is no puny thing, Gideon. The body is a single focus of the soul, not the other way around. You are the totality of your soul, while at the same time a single focus of the soul. The soul is a little like a TV with an infinite number of stations. You are but one station.”

“You mean I’m like one spotlight of a beam that can generate many, many spotlights and that my soul is that beam?” Gideon asked.
“That’s a good way of looking at it. You’re beginning to get the idea. Come. It is time to enter the Land of What is Good? What is Bad?”

The center of the Black Hole, the door through which they were to pass, was vast. Gideon estimated its diameter to be equal to that of the Earth’s, but the bottom of the funnel, the part that opened to the other Universe, was just wide enough to accommodate two people. It reminded Gideon of a water whirlpool going down a dish drain, wide at the top, but very small at the bottom.

Gideon and Zacharaias entered the Black Hole directly behind the little girl, Tarla, and her guide. “Is it possible for me to talk to any of the other guides and their...” Gideon thought for a moment, his finger absently scratching his temple. “What are we called when we’re not in our bodies?” he asked.

“Yes, it is possible for you to speak with whomever you wish. For lack of a better word you are called a spirit when you are not in your body.”
Gideon looked at Tarla, who flashed a toothy smile in return. At ten her teeth were closer to their adult size than was the rest of her body. She was thin, and most of her blond hair was gone as a result of her chemotherapy. Gideon wanted to approach and, as though reading his mind, Tarla motioned him to join her.

“Hi,” she said. “Zondata tells me your name is Gideon, and you are from the planet Earth.”

“And you’re from Zontar. Zacharaias says your name is Tarla.”
“Yes,” the young girl said, wishing she had remembered to wear her head bandanna before drifting toward death.

“I don’t usually look like this. I’ve been sick.”
“I know,” Gideon said. “Zack told me. You’re very pretty, and your hair will grow back.”

“Thank you, you’re very kind,” Tarla said, a furrow creasing her brow. “Until I nearly died I didn’t know that there were Samans on other planets. Zondata, my guide, says we are everywhere, and that we are God’s seed in all physical realities.”

It took Gideon a moment to realize what Samans were. “We’re called humans on Earth, and I have a sister about your age. You remind me of her, except she wasn’t sick. She was a pain in the neck, but I guess I was a bigger pain. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“I have two brothers,” Tarla answered. “Zimec and Rondar. Both are older than me. Rondar is fourteen, and Zimec is eighteen. Rondar never liked me much until I got Leukemia. He was always complaining that life was unfair, that Zimec was better looking, that Zimec was smarter and stronger. Rondar complained about everything. He took his anger at the world, and his jealousy of Zimec, out on me. I think he was really angry at himself.”

“Sounds familiar,” Gideon said, guilt dripping from his voice like honey from a bear-clawed hive.

“Anyway, when I got Leukemia, Rondar began to change. It was almost as if I was supposed to get Leukemia just to wake up Rondar. It was my gift to him. At least that’s what Zondata says. She said I chose my illness for my own reasons, but that Rondar used my illness to learn how to love.”

“Have you decided to go back to your body yet?” Gideon asked, looking at her silver thread.

“Not yet. This is like a vacation. I feel so good in my spirit form, and I know if I go back to my body there will be more pain and suffering. Zondata is showing me things that will help me if I decide to return. She’s showing me how everything has meaning in relation to the intent I had upon entering the world.”

“I haven’t decided to go back either, but I’m beginning to get the feeling that there is much more for me to do back on Earth, and that the doing will be a lot easier.”

“Me too,” Tarla agreed, “and I really miss my parents. They’ve been wonderful and have learned a lot about themselves from my illness. Zondata says that sometimes our soul and other souls send out their focuses in a group so that we can help each other with our intent. My family and I have shared many lifetimes together. Zondata says I’m an old soul. An old soul is not really old, because all souls have always existed. An old soul, Zondata says, is one that has had many, many lives in physical reality. I’m glad we’re all different. It would be pretty dull if we were all the same.”

“I don’t know if I’m an old soul or not,” Gideon said. “But I sure don’t feel like one. I was a real complainer, and sounded much like your brother, Rondar. How did your illness change him?”

“Well, it’s hard to continue thinking life is unfair when you are healthy and strong, and your little sister is battling for her life with Leukemia. He couldn’t be the ‘poor me’ kid anymore, once I got Leukemia. It sort of stinks for me, but when you think about it, it was good for Rondar. I’m sort of glad I could do it for him.”

“It’s funny how a bad thing can have some good in it,” Gideon said, realizing for the first time what Simon meant about seeing manure as crap or fertilizer. It had always been his choice to see it either way. He became excited about his impending visit to the Land of What is Good? What is Bad?

Their descent through the Black Hole made the Cyclone at Six Flags park in Massachusetts seem as tame as an old house dog. They dropped as though sucked from below by an industrial-strength vacuum cleaner, while spinning around the circumference of the funnel with a centrifugal force so strong they couldn’t close their eyes. As the funnel’s circumference grew smaller their bodies began to stretch like so many pieces of salt-water taffy. When they finally reached the end they were spit out into the adjoining Universe like pieces of over-chewed bubble gum. They were scattered in all directions, millions of them.

Gideon was more impressed with the ride through the Black Hole, but wondered about the numbers of fellow travelers. “Why are there so many spirits going to the Diamond Universe?” Gideon asked Zack.

“No more are going to the Diamond Universe than to any other,” Zack replied. “Each Universe offers its own teachings, and each guide determines which Universe would be the most appropriate for each lesson. I have friends who chose the Land of What is Good? What is Bad? in your Universe rather than the Diamond Universe.”

“Why did you choose the Diamond Universe for me?” Gideon asked, noticing for the first time that some spirits had the silver thread attached and some didn’t.
“For the same reason you go to Burger King sometimes instead of McDonald’s; for a change of pace. You get the same beef, but the fixins’ are different. You’ll find the same lessons in the Diamond Universe as in any other, but the fixins’ are different.

“You better say good-bye to Tarla,” Zack said. “We’re going in different directions, and you won’t be seeing her again until you leave your body for good.”
Gideon took Tarla’s tiny hand and wished her luck. She motioned him to bend down, and she kissed him on his cheek, much like Prudence used to do when she was smaller. With no more than a thought she and Zondata were gone, off to a place that Tarla needed to be.