Seven Point Eight

by Marie Harbon

“I second that,” I replied, “so ignorant!”

  ***

  Paul scheduled their next trip for four days time and just as Tahra thought they’d have time to discuss his recent revelation, they had some surprise visitors. In fact, she almost got caught out that morning, as she was still wandering about the farmhouse in her dressing gown. She opened the door to find Max standing there, along with Oscar and George. Her jaw wanted to drop and he looked puzzled to find her answering the door as if it were her home. Tahra felt relieved she’d showered, as the smell of sex on her body wouldn’t please him.

  “Is Paul there?” Max said, irritation clear in his voice.

  Tahra felt desperate to hide how startled she felt, so scurried away to find Paul.

  Quietly, under her breath she said, “Max’s here, at the door, did you know he was coming?”

  Mirroring her tone of voice he murmured, “No, not at all. This is a bit…uncomfortable.”

  He finished dressing, threw on a shirt and made his way to the front door. Tahra followed but hung around in the background.

  “This is a surprise,” Paul said.

  “Why is Tahra here and not in the designated guest rooms?” he asked, very directly.

  The annoyance in Max’s voice put Paul on the spot, and he racked his brains for a suitable response.

  “Well, I felt guilty about leaving her alone out there so I offered her one of the spare rooms here in the farmhouse. It’s easier to discuss the project.”

  Hopefully Max bought it. Both Paul and Tahra prayed he wouldn’t ask to see the room in which she’d supposedly slept. Max grunted a begrudged acceptance.

  “Are you going to leave me standing in the doorway?” he said, impatiently.

  Paul apologised and Max, Oscar, and George entered the farmhouse. They all sat around the large pine table in the kitchen. Paul made tea and Tahra kept her distance, hearing them in conversation for a while. As no one welcomed her over, she relaxed in the sitting room, reading one of her heavy and somewhat dry text books from university. It became harder to stay focused on the studying but the end of the course drew nearer, and it would only infuriate Max if she didn’t graduate. It suddenly occurred to her that she hadn’t written to her family in months, in fact, she’d barely thought about them. What would her father think about her activities, sleeping with a white man outside of marriage? She dismissed these concerns, being an adult living a few thousand miles from her parents now.

  Finally, Paul popped his head round the door and announced that Oscar and George had requested a journey in the machine, so they’d be staying for a while in the guest rooms. Then he added Max would oversee this test, making him a guest too. Worse still, he asked to sleep in the farmhouse, and Paul conceded they’d have to go along with it.

  No sex for a little while, then, she thought.

  They all dined together at the table: Paul at the head of the table and Max opposite Tahra, which created an awkward situation for her. Sometimes, he gave her a disconcerting stare and it made the atmosphere at the table weird. Paul didn’t seem to notice though, and Tahra wondered if she was just being over-sensitive.

  Afterwards, Paul showed Oscar and George the machine: how it operated, giving an explanation of how it worked in layman’s terms, and he showed them the inside of the machine. They all sat inside it, Max included, to get a feel for it before the trip the next day.

  Later, they took a ride out to a restaurant in the nearest town, which provided a relaxed evening’s entertainment. Tahra had to refuse alcohol as it affected her remote viewing capabilities, and she advised Oscar and George to abstain too. Paul and Max laughed together like old friends and fortunately for Tahra, this distracted him so he she didn’t have to suffer his intimidating stare.

  It felt strange to Tahra sleeping in one of the spare rooms, which they hurriedly made up as if she’d been staying there on a regular basis. Max opted for the room next door to Tahra, and it took her a while to fall sleep as she half expected him to come knocking on the door, although that didn’t happen. She encountered him in the morning coming out of the bathroom, hair wet, and semi naked and Tahra lowered her eyes, embarrassed by the feelings of arousal that tingled through her body. He brushed past her, watching her with a wily smile then he disappeared into his room. In her room, she paced the floor with irritation.

  Why wouldn’t he just go away?

  Why couldn’t her emotions behave themselves?

  Didn’t her body know she’d put her relationship with Max to bed?

  He persisted on soiling her innermost thoughts, creeping into that secret place in her heart and between her legs.

  His presence in the house made her want to repeatedly bathe herself.

  Tahra made sure she didn’t encounter him emerging from the bathroom again. However, the social atmosphere compensated for Max’s visit and before she knew it, the day of the next trip in the machine arrived. This time she had to tow Oscar and George, which offered a challenge to her psychic abilities. Could she achieve this, and where would they travel to in the machine?

  ***

  Oscar and George looked at me with apprehension as all three of us walked into the barn that housed the machine, ready for a mutual adventure. I had my own doubts too, concerning my ability to tow two consciousnesses, but I’d soon find out how difficult that would be.

  We climbed into the machine, the hatch closed and we all held hands, as it had become custom to do so. Max watched from the outside. The sound of ‘New World Symphony’ by Dvorak’ came over the speakers and we heard the field power up. At this point, I gave their hands a squeeze. The buzzing and tingling overtook my body and after my consciousness had moved from my body, I waited inside the machine for the two orbs of light belonging to Oscar and George. It wasn’t too long before I saw them, now came the hard part.

  I visualised a net that extended from my consciousness, scooping them up like little silvery fish, then I allowed the frequencies to take over me and draw us to the intended destination.

  A world came into focus, again very different to the ignorant city realm and identifiable as contrary to our own world. It had a similar appearance to the serpent realm, in that the colours were so luminous. I noted the deep indigo, violet, and blue hues in the environment and the substance, or fabric of this world seemed very fluid. It reminded me of liquid mercury with rainbow ripples, like when you drop motor oil into water. The sky of deepest indigo had the texture of suede and there appeared to be no light source, in fact, everything in this world seemed to be self illuminated.

  The foliage looked like that of the serpent world. I saw huge ferns that appeared to have some kind of inner light and, like the ignorant city world, seemed to be outlined in ink. However, there were no humans here, only some strange entities that looked like the Indian Gods and Goddesses of the Mahabharata. Female beings with multiple arms danced, and people with elephant heads watched. Maybe they’d had contact with humanity at some point in history.

  “It’s so beautiful,” Oscar commented, in his light orb form.

  “Concentrate on forming an image of yourself,” I directed them. “You can appear however you wish in the other realities.”

  Oscar materialised beside me as his usual self, but for a blue face and George chose to remain as an orb.

  Looking up, we watched a train of what appeared to be bubbles in the sky and inside them sat entities, drifting silently through the deep indigo sky. As the bubbles moved, we saw they created ripples in the fluid medium in which they propelled themselves. The bubbles converged on a point in the sky and disappeared into it, although it was impossible to tell where they were going.

  “I don’t know what to say, it’s… realer than real, so vivid,” Oscar said.

  “Are all the worlds so beautiful?” George asked.

  “Most of them, but this one is especially striking,” I replied.

  We began to explore a little more and move through the foliage. I noticed blue, purple, and pink reptilia
n creatures moving through the undergrowth. They had fluidity to them, as if liquid mercury ran through their veins and an iridescent outline traced around them. I spotted some quite large reptiles with pink pustules on them, and when I extended a warm greeting towards them, they pulsed, or cycled, through a range of colours from pale pink to darkest blue.

  “Look,” I said, “they seem to react to us. Try feeling happy when you see them.”

  Oscar and George followed my cue, and all three of us focused on positive emotions. In response, we elicited a colourful display that rivalled Bonfire Night fireworks, or a host of fireflies. Laughing, I spun around and took Oscar by his non-corporeal hand.

  “They love us!”

  George’s orb circled us as we danced, and Oscar stood still, brightly coloured iguanas scuttling around his feet.

  “Do you think we could communicate with them?” Oscar asked me.

  Looking around at the explosions of light, I replied, “I think we just did. We communicated with our emotions, and they responded.”

  He began to understand now, not all communication involved words. However, the harder we tried to induce further responses, the less feedback we received, and I concluded free flowing emotion brought greater dividends.

  Then the field powered down and the emotion realm faded from view, to be replaced by the interior of the machine. Paul opened the hatch, hopeful of results while I noticed Max perusing the situation, keeping his thoughts to himself.

  “Well, what happened?” Paul asked. “Let’s get over to the camera.”

  Oscar and George looked dazed, so I gave them a squeeze of my hand and led them over to the corner of the room designated for cine camera feedback.

  “I… think that experience has just changed my life,” Oscar said into the camera.

  None of us would be the same ever again.

  “I do believe we met Ganesh,” Oscar added. As Paul looked puzzled he added, “You know, the Indian God thing with an elephant head.”

  “More references to ancient Gods,” he pondered out loud.

  Max wandered over, arms still folded in some kind of display of authority.

  “So, is this project viable?” he asked, as only a businessman would.

  Paul looked satisfied and could barely contain his excitement.

  “Send the rest of The Institute’s residents over,” he responded, emphatically.

  ***

  Max took Oscar and George back to The Institute, leaving the farmhouse quiet once more. Paul sat at the pine table in the kitchen while Tahra took a bath upstairs. He used the opportunity to return to the literature concerning mankind’s encounters with supernatural beings, and he needed to read more essays on the subject to add to his notes. Tahra also wished to hear his revelations. A while later, she emerged with damp hair, wearing her dressing gown.

  “Sit down,” he said, excited. “I’ve got a story to tell you.”

  Needing little persuasion, she sat next to him on the sofa, nicely warmed by a roaring fire. As she began to finish drying her hair with a towel, he began.

  “I’ve been reading up on the history and culture of shamanism, and you’ll be amazed at what I’ve discovered. The basis of shamanism states there is a hypothetical otherworld that interpenetrates our own everyday world, and it can’t be seen by any normal means because it’s invisible.”

  “That’s what the therianthropes told us, in essence,” Tahra confirmed.

  “While we use the machine to access the invisible worlds, tribal shamans travelled to other realms by consuming sacred plants such as iboga and ayahuasca.”

  She made a valid point, after listening carefully.

  “But did they access the same worlds as we did in the machine? Is there any frame of reference?”

  “This is where it gets exciting,” he continued. “Typical ‘visionary experiences’ involved snakes or serpents, geometrical shapes, ladders, pulsing lights, entities with men’s bodies and crocodile heads… Sound familiar?”

  She really began to pay attention now.

  “What’s amazing is the remarkable consistency of these visions, not only among the shaman tribes but with our experiments.”

  Tahra countered, “Although we’ve encountered worlds and entities that these visionary experiences haven’t mentioned. Is the chemical journey as valid as the ones in the machine? Psychologists tend to see psychoactive substances as short term ‘model psychoses’.”

  “Maybe psychedelic substances are tools. Let me elucidate,” Paul said. “Since early history, the use of psychotropic plants has been well documented. The Eleusinian Mysteries of the Greeks were held for two thousand years, a practice that began in Eleusia in Greece but eventually it spread to Rome. Powerful personal experiences took place in the Hall of Initiation. On entry to the Hall, everyone was obliged to drink a special potion which induced visions and a feeling of oneness. Scholars believe the potion, named ‘kykeon’ was a concoction of barley and pennyroyal and it’s interesting to note that the parasitic fungus, ergot, grows on barley and that ergot was the substance from which LSD was synthesised”.

  “The initiation was believed to unite the worshippers with the Gods and included promises of divine power and rewards in the afterlife. It’s likely many of the rites centred around a re-enactment of the Demeter/Persephone myth, in which Demeter’s daughter was abducted to the Underworld, where her mother had to search for her. Along the way, she teaches the secrets of agriculture. Although rescued eventually, Persephone had to return to the Underworld for a season each year, during which no plants grew.”

  “Hmmm,” Tahra’s opinion on chemical tools to expand consciousness began to sway, “I can’t help but wonder if Persephone’s Underworld was another dimension of reality. Interesting how there’s reference to the sharing of knowledge and teaching, something both the serpents and therianthropes referred to. Are there any descriptions of this Underworld in the Eleusinian Mysteries?”

  “No. The practices were kept strictly secret, there’s very little information what these visions involved.”

  “Maybe these mysteries are part of the First Time that the therianthropes referred to,” Tahra pondered aloud.

  “There’s more,” Paul continued. “Further references to psychoactive brews are found in the Vedas, many of which are devoted to a potion called ‘soma’. It’s referred to as plant, drink, and God as one entity and the writers of the Vedas believed it bestowed divine qualities in the drinker. Listen to these quotes: ‘I am huge, huge! Flying in the clouds. Have I not drunk soma?’ Here’s another one I wrote down: ‘We have drunk the soma, we are become Immortals, we have arrived at the light, we have found the Gods’.”

  Tahra’s eyes began to open wider, in many ways.

  “I love the references to flying,” she commented. “They remind me of my own experiences in the early stages of the OOBE project.”

  “Exactly,” Paul reinforced. “But it gets better. Although there are no references to psychoactive brews being ingested, religious texts contain many visionary experiences and encounters with supernatural beings. Look at the seeds of Christianity: Moses saw a burning bush and accepted heavenly writings, St. Paul had a supernatural encounter on the road to Damascus and don’t forget that angels visited Mary, mother of Christ.”

  “Now that you come to mention it,” Tahra added, “the Prophet Muhammad had encounters with the Angel Gabriel, who gave him the text of the Qur’an.”

  “And the Angel Moroni presented the Book of Mormon on golden plates that vanished into thin air.”

  They reflected on the examples discussed. Paul drew the inevitable conclusion.

  “The basis of our religions seem to revolve around Shamanism. They have a common frame of reference, and therefore a common bond of spirituality. Even Buddhism, which has no God, revolves around a personal journey of enlightenment. It’s idiocy that religion causes wars, when its fundamental precepts come from the same place.”

  Tahra nodded, seeing the iron
y.

  “The wars are about the validity of the messenger,” she pointed out. “Each religion believes in one God, but they fight over whose God is true and whose teachings are right.”

  “We can blame the invention of monotheism for that,” Paul commented. “Until Akhenaten changed everything, Egyptian religion revolved around a whole pantheon of Gods, the full spectrum of extra-dimensional entities. They believed in the Otherworld, which they referred to as the Duat. If you look at Paganism, the ancient nature based spiritual beliefs pre-dating Christianity, it too reflected deities and spirits synchronous with a creator entity. We’ve lost our awareness of these supernatural entities in favour of an all powerful God who controls the world. It’s…sacrilegious,” he said, almost in disgust.

  Tahra concurred. “I agree, many of the world’s religions recognise the other dimensions in the most simplistic sense, although it’s reduced to a very monochromatic Heaven and Hell. I certainly haven’t encountered anything like Hell yet.”

  “I guess it boils down to people’s ability to see these other realms,” Paul pointed out. “It’s possible that a few individuals were able to see these worlds and beings without the use of psychoactive plants. It was certainly regarded as something natural and sacred, with great emphasis placed on these individuals as being special, gifted, or holy. “

  “It’s ironic that modern psychiatrists would see these same individuals as delusional or psychotic; mentally ill,” Tahra commented.

  Paul shook his head, communicating exasperation.

  “How many gifted people reside in mental institutions for accessing the other dimensions? It’ll make my dream of initiating the Second Time a real battle.”

  “Well, there must be hope,” Tahra said. “Aren’t there more modern anecdotes concerning contact with supernatural entities, that don’t involve insanity?”

  Paul nodded. “Yes, both Joan of Arc and Bernadette of Lourdes received visitations and encounters with a being referred to as ‘our lady’. However, Joan was burned at the stake, and wasn’t as lucky as Bernadette. Such visions aren’t always confined to lone experiences either”.