by Stan Mason
‘You are not privileged to know of any details of your presence here,’ he told me with an element of fury in his voice. He turned to the Prosecuting Counsel without hesitation. ‘do you have any more witnesses?’
‘I do not,’ came the reply.
‘Very well,’ continued the judge looking at me again. ‘Do you have any witnesses?’
I was annoyed that my revelation had been whitewashed and that the case was allowed to continue. If I was correct, there was no force... no law... in the Courtroom. I had no case to answer. Yet the judge dismissed my claim and carried on as though nothing had changed.
‘I do,’ I replied shaking my head slowly in disgust. ‘I call Duke to the stand.’
Immediately, the team leader stood in the witness box prepared to answer my questions.
‘Tell them about the Great Chain of Being,’ I advanced.
He smiled before relating the story and then rattled on. ‘The evidence of the Great Chain of Being was a mess. It missed out a multitude of details to become a bland text with no true meaning. Jeremiah formed a team to revise the topic and his direction was magnificent. He broke down the areas of the subject, identifying the different aspect which affected human beings, fauna, flora and inanimate objects. Suffice it to say that the end result is a new direction for the Great Chain of Being which is being revised throughout the universe as I speak. Without Jeremiah, none of it would have happened. He ought to be commended for the work.’
The Prosecuting Counsel paused for a few moments and then waived his right to cross-examination releasing the witness without delay. All that was left was the summing up and I waited in trepidation for tirade of my opponent. However, surprisingly enough, he kept it short, identifying those facts which were condemning rather than in my favour. In due course, I got to my feet to render my version of events.
‘There are many reasons why I should be acquitted of this charge,’ I began. ‘Firstly, I do not believe we are in Heaven, as such, I consider that this is not a proper Court and does not have the ability to try me. It has no power... and therefore no legal capacity. Secondly, the fact that junior spirits ask questions should be encouraged rather than frowned upon. There must be many spirits with a high consciousness in the spirit world whose sole aim is to help the higher-ranking angels but they are suppressed, punished, and, as in my case, tried in Court for what are regarded as misdemeanours when they are not. A Seraph has no idea of the workings of Heaven. He or she does not know whether there is a Supreme Power, what is needed to gain promotion to a Cherub, and many other matters. How can the angelic hierarchy expect spirits to remain ignorant of all that might benefit them in the long run? I’m glad that I could have my day in Angelic Court to explain the frustration I feel having been denied the opportunity to learn more not only for myseelf but for other spirits like me. As you have are aware, my work on the Great Chain of Being was one of credit and I could do so much more if I was allowed to participate in another project on a similar basis. Therefore, I stake my claim for more clarity to be shown to spirits with a high consciousness like myself.’
I sat down wishing that I had said a lot more but I felt that I had done enough. It was now up to the judges to decide my fate... whether they considered me to be guilty or not.
The central judge paused to end the proceedings. ‘We have heard all the witnesses and the closing arguments,’ he said plainly. ‘We shall retire to consider the verdict.
All three judges stood up and disappeared in an instant from the Courtroom. In turn, I found myself sitting alone on a bench in a strange room. It was obvious I would have to wait there until they decided on the verdict. For some strange reason I had expected it to be given at the moment the case had ended but I was to be disappointed. However, in some ways it was a relief to have to wait for a while after the proceedings rather than find that a guilty verdict had been given right away. I was certain that they would be heavily influenced against me despite the attempt I had made to improve matters. My record in Heaven... or wherever I was... would be closely examined in chambers no doubt. They would know that I touched the arm of a human being when on Earth as an Accompanying Angel. It would all count against me. But how would they punish me this time if they did find me guilty?
I waited for what seemed to be an eternity and then the angel whom I had dismissed as my Defending Counsel appeared before me.
‘Do not fear,’ he said noting my surprise. ‘I come to you with the verdict from the judges of the Angelic Court.’
‘Guilty I presume,’ I cut in quickly, shielding myself from the bad news he was about to tell me.
‘No... not really,’ he responded with a wisp of a smile on his face. ‘The judges seem to be somewhat mesmerised by your arguments,’ he related calmly. ‘They find you guilty of breaking the rule relating to asking questions of a higher authority but they’re aware of the good work you did with the Great Chain of Being as well as returning to Earth as an Accompanying Angel and as a Correcting Angel. They had in mind the possibility of reincarnating you but they value your consciousness and put forward an option for you to work on a particular project.’
‘What kind of project?’ I asked, feeling a welter of relief flow through my spirit.
‘They want you to work on a scheme to reduce the number of religions followed on Earth in order to attempt to bring peace to the planet.’
I had to admit I was stunned at the prospect. Reduce the number of religions... bring peace to Earth? That was a task that would take a few millennium to achieve, to say the least.
‘If you don’t wish to participate in the project, you can be reincarnated again although you’ll be playing a wild card with regard to your sex, your parents, the location, the environment, as well as matters regarding health, wealth, and so on. What do you say?’
I was completely flabbergasted by his comments, needing time to get my mind into gear.
‘Wow!’ I exclaimed, ‘that’s some project to undertake. I don’t know whether I can do it.’
‘Well you won’t know until you get started,’ stated the Defence Counsel blandly.
‘All those religions!’ I spluttered. ‘How do I get people to stop believing... to discontinue what they’ve been taught by their parents... to dissociate them from the beliefs their ancestors passed down through the centuries? I think it’s a task a little too beyond me.’
‘Nonsense!’ he riposted, not caring for the result of my final decision. He had only come to deliver the suggestion and return with an answer.
I stood before him wondering which way to make up my mind and then my tongue ran away with me. ‘Very well,’ I told him without thinking the project through any further. ‘I’ll do it. You can tell the judges I’ll take on the challenge but I’d appreciate it if you also say that they shouldn’t count on any results in the short term. It’s definitely a very long-term project and could easily end in failure. All I can say is that I’ll do my best.’
‘That’s good enough,,’ he responded easily. ‘I’ll report your decision back to them right away.’
In that moment, he vanished from my sight and I was transported to a small room with ledges all around the walls. There was no furniture at all with the exception of a chair and a desk located in the centre. On the desk rested numerous scrolls of parchment and some pens. I walked around the perimeter of the small room looking at scrolls that had been placed on the ledges. They represented the dozens of different religions which were followed on Earth. My eyes ran along their titles... Sikhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, Bahai... the list went on and on. It was indeed a test of the highest standard for I had no idea where to start or how to plan the operation. And there was worse to come because most of the religions suffered from splinter factions dividing them. For example, in the Islam religion the Sunnis countered the Shi’ites. They mistrusted them
and even fought them, treating their causes almost as separate religions. In the Christian faith, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Protestants, Methodists Presbyterians, Lutherians, Congregationalists, Seventh Day Adventists and Pentacostalists all divided the same religion, fighting each other in passive ways. How on Earth was I supposed to narrow theme down if they couldn’t deal with the problem themselves. And then there were the Hindus who believed in a thousand Gods and the Buddhists who didn’t believe in any. The task, on the face of it, seemed impossible.
Suddenly, a notion came into mind of the time when I went to Earth as a Correcting Angel. I had been sent to save a man, by the name of Jethro Huntley, who would sire a son. His offspring would create a new religion to establish peace on Earth. The problem was the length of the period it would take for the child to be born and to mature into a man. But then time in Heaven... or wherever I happened to be... seemed to be irrelevant. It would mean that I had to return to Earth to ensure that the project was fulfilled. For that purpose I would need to approach the angelic hierarchy to ask for permission to do so.
I sat on the chair, placing my head down before me, clasping my hands as if in prayer and thought hard about my request. I insisted on returned to Earth and being able to be seen and heard by the people there. Remarkably enough, I heard a voice in my head which told me that I would be permitted to return in spirit form but that I would only be able to be seen or heard or use my power to influence to one person chosen by me in my quest. It was a veiled hint of non-interference generally and I had to admit that I was disappointed with the order. However at least it allowed me some degree of personal contact. The angelic hierarchy were willing to give me license to do as I wished in the knowledge that I was always on a leash ready to be pulled back fi things went wrong.
I had to admit that having plunged into the deep end, starting my researches, I was quite pleased at the prospect of spending time with the project. At first the task seemed impossible to crack and it was quite clear that I could no light at the end of the tunnel. I felt that fortune was not going to favour me, however there was no one to give orders and no need to report regularly to a higher authority. I was working on my own with no one looking over my shoulder.
I struggled to find a means of progression, reading all the scrolls of the different religions at length. My thoughts were in a turmoil as I sought to find a suitable plan but nothing came to mind. I pressed on regardless trying to fathom out the way ahead unsuccessfully. Then, when I was about to relinquish the task and change my decision about being reincarnated, the scales fell from my eyes. I stood staring at the ledge with a grimace on my face, suddenly realising that I was tackling the problem incorrectly. I had been told to reunite all the religions on Earth by the Defence Counsel but it was the wrong lead to follow. After studying all the faiths from Bahai to Zoroastrianism, I recognised that it had nothing to do with religion at all. It suddenly came to mind that the solution was entirely political. People could still follow their beliefs because world peace was an entity far beyond them... because it happened to be a cause that was strictly political! In that instant, the project became far more manageable. I didn’t need to arrange for anyone in the world to stop believing in their credo. They needed to be overcome by a moral sense of propriety to establish a new way of life never before known on the planet Earth. Human beings would need to stop their violent nature in order to find peace with their fellow man. Now that I had something to work with and I asked to be transported back to Earth without delay.
I landed there with a high degree of elation, delighted to be able to see the brightness of the sun once more, note the gradual darkness come as the day ended, and observe the stars shining across a cloudless sky at night. I could hear people talking, buskers singing, the sound of traffic, and music emanating from an entertainment centre... all joy to my spiritual ears. It was wonderful to be back in the world again to enjoy all those things that were absent in Heaven. In addition, even though I could walk through doors and walls, I knew that my body would reform into solidity whenever I wanted to be seen by the son of Jethro Huntley.
At the time I had no idea whether he had been born but a voice in my head told me that he was a young man of twenty-two years of age.
I went to the house where he lived with him parents to meet him. Without hesitation, I knew that he had spent three years at a university studying ancient history and had graduated with an Honour’s Degree. In fact, during the time he spent there, he had shown great leadership being appointed the head of the alumni and being greatly respected. It was a great advantage that he had all the qualities for the project in hand especially that of the gift of the gab. His ability to talk to groups of people cogently for long periods was quite remarkable. I knew without doubt that the talent would be extremely useful in the task ahead.
I could have entered the house by passing through the outer wall but, instead, I rang the doorbell. The call was answered by Mark Huntley’s father who stared in surprise at the fact that no one was visible. He went outside, looking up and down the street, before shrugging his shoulders aimlessly and going back inside. Doubling the money on the investment he had made in the musical show, Showtime Extravaganza, had changed him entirely. Instead of being a weak doleful miserable individual, being henpecked by his wife all the time, he had emerged like a pupa from its larva stage encouraged by the sudden wealth which fate had brought him. As an aficionado of software applications for computers, he started up a business on his own account which grew successfully month after month. In time, his products became taken by most of the major supermarkets and electronic stores to be sold en masse to the public. He was now quite affluent with a company worth well over three million pounds. No longer did his wife have any reason to disrespect him. It was a period in their lives where they were able to live in perfect harmony and in relative comfort with both of them enjoying extreme happiness.
I drifted upwards to Mark’s bedroom to find him in bed fast asleep. Having completed his studies at university, he regarded the present recess as a leisure period in his life before moving on to a serious career. However, he was at a loss to know what kind of vocation he wished to follow. In the years when he was reading on campus, he knew he would have to come to a decision at some time or another about his future but nothing came to mind that seemed to satisfy him. The solution appeared to elude him entirely. He had toyed with the idea of entering politics and then weighed up the thought of a profession in the church but neither one was attractive enough to sway him. Indeed, the time at university had ostensibly passed by so quickly that he had now arrived at a watershed with his family waiting with baited breath to hear what he intended to do with his life. His father had offered to take him into his software business, prepared to teach the young man everything he knew about electronics, but Mark Huntley was reluctant to commit himself and shortly told his father that he wasn’t prepared to join him. It seemed that I had arrived at just the right time with the exact project to occupy him in his future life.
I tried to nudge him to wake him up but my spirit form passed right through his body. Nonetheless, he must have felt something because he opened his eyes and turned towards me, recognising that I was in the room.
‘Who are you?’ he demanded wearily, rubbing his eyes to make certain that he wasn’t dreaming.
‘Do not fear, Mark,’ I explained, hoping to calm him. ‘I’m here to map out your future for you. You must understand that I come from an authority on a much higher level.’
‘What?’ he managed to say, believing he was experiencing a dream. ‘What do you mean... a higher authority?’
‘It’s not important for you to know that at present,’ I went on. ‘Just listen to me carefully. When you were at university, you considered world peace to be of greatest priority and you addressed your colleagues many times on the subject. Well I’m able to help you to offer a lifetime of service to the cause if you’ll allo
w me to do so.’
‘How did you get into my room?’ he enquired, disregarding all that I had told him.
‘Focus your mind on the main topic. Forget me and how I got here. Think of world peace. I have a plan which will establish your career in the future. You must concentrate on it.’
He blinked twice to ensure that he was awake and then climbed out of bed to dress himself. ‘I’ll ask you once more,’ he went on refusing to take his eyes off me. ‘How did you get in here? Did my father let you in?’
‘I want you to keep calm when I tell you this,’ I continued cautiously. ‘You’re the only person able to see and hear me. I’m invisible to everyone else.’
He was putting on his trousers when I exploded the bombshell and he stopped in his tracks. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked with an element of fear rising in his voice. ‘Why can’t anyone else see or hear you?’
‘Because that’s the way it is,’ I explained briefly. ‘I told you I’ve been sent by a higher authority.’
‘Are you saying you’re an angel?’ He was clearly astonished at having made the remark.
‘Well,’ I told him humbly. ‘I’m only a Seraph... the lowest rank of the angelic hierarchy... but, yes, I am an angel and I’ve come to help you.’
He paused to allow the situation to flow through his astute mind as he quickly reconciled the matter. ‘Is this for real?’ he enquired slowly.
‘It certainly is,’ I replied. ‘You are to be the founder of the new World Peace organisation and I’m here to help you succeed in the quest.’
At that moment it was possible to hear footsteps on the landing outside the room. There was a knock on the door and the voice of Mark’s father could be heard.
‘Are you okay, son? I can hear you talking to yourself,’ advanced Huntley senior hoping that everything was all right.
‘Did you hear two voices?’ asked the young man.
