The Rozabal Line Part 4

On initiation night, he had been taken by Stephen Elliot to a special room which had a question written in German on its walls: 'Wer war der thor, wer weiser, bettler oder kaiser? Ob arm, ob reich, im tode gleich.'

Translated, the German sentence meant: 'Who was the fool, who the wise man, beggar or king? Whether poor or rich, all's the same in death.'

The origins of that particular riddle were very old indeed. They could be traced back to 1776.

In 1776, the Bavarian Illuminati had come into being at the University of Ingolstadt in Germany. The Latin word Illuminati meant 'the enlightened ones'.

These were people for whom the illuminating light came, not from an authoritative source such as the Church, but from elevated spiritual consciousness. The secret society would have elaborate initiation rituals. The initiate would be shown a skeleton, at the feet of which would be a crown and sword. The initiate would then be asked whether the skeleton was that of a king, n.o.bleman or beggar. Unable to answer, the initiate would be told that it was unimportant . . . the only thing of importance was the character of being a man.

At the end of the day, all humans were merely skull and bones.

Terry Acton had realised he had a 'spiritual gift' after the death of his wife, Susan.

Terry and Susan had been university sweethearts at Yale. She had been working as a waitress in Romano's, the pizza hangout for Yallies and he had tried the most ridiculous pick-up lines on her each day till she agreed to go out with him. They got married during his final year at Yale. Stephen Elliot, who had initiated Terry into Skull & Bones, had been his best man.

While Stephen had introduced Terry to Skull & Bones, Terry returned the favour by introducing Stephen to Alissa Kaetzel. Alissa returned home after completing her M.Phil from Oxford and had dropped in to meet Terry in New Haven. She had ended up staying on for two weeks after meeting Stephen Elliot.

The two couples were on a vacation in the Pocono Mountains when Terry's car swerved off a wet road. Stephen and Alissa survived along with Terry, but Susan did not.

Stephen and Alissa had been arguing about whether a woman or AfricanAmerican could ever become President of the United States. Terry had been totally absorbed in the rather heated discussion and had not noticed the sharp bend in the road a few yards ahead.

Terry's life came to a standstill. He mourned the loss of Susan. He mourned the loss of the children they had planned together but did not have.

America was no longer attractive. It reminded him too much of Susan. Terry took the first available flight back to London. He did not bother to inform anyone of his decision, except for his close friend and confidant Stephen Elliot.

London, UK, 1996 Lonely and miserable in London, Terry was left with no alternative but to fill the vacuum. He began to fill it with a bottle of Bell's whisky each day.

He realised he needed discipline in life. So, he disciplined himself into walking into the Star Tavern pub at 11:30 sharp each morning.

Terry was sitting at his usual table in the Star Tavern when a young lady walked into the pub and started going up to each table and hurriedly asking the men, 'Excuse me. Is your name Terry?' After several failed attempts she finally reached Terry's table.

'Excuse me. Is your name Terry?' she enquired. Terry continued to stare at the gla.s.s in his hand and nodded his a.s.sent without looking up.

'I have a message for you from Susan,' she said.

Terry's hand dropped the gla.s.s and the whisky and ice spilled on the table. 'Who the f.u.c.k are you?' he demanded in a sudden fit of rage.

'Please listen to me. I'm not a crank. I know that Susan's dead. I work next door at the Spiritualist a.s.sociation. I'm a psychic medium,' she pleaded.

'f.u.c.k you! You sick, perverted b.i.t.c.h! b.u.g.g.e.r off.'

Terry was furious. The mere mention of Susan had reopened raw, unhealed wounds.

The woman was equally determined and stood her ground. 'Listen, you pathetic drunk, I have no inclination to carry on a conversation with you. I do, however, suggest that you let Sabrina and Jonathan go to summer camp.'

With those words, the woman did an about-turn and stormed out of the pub.

Terry's jaw dropped and his throat went dry. Since the day that Susan and Terry had started planning for children they had zeroed in on two names, Sabrina and Jonathan, for their yet-to-be-born children. Susan used to joke that she would pack the children off to camp each summer so as to get some respite from motherhood, much to the consternation of Terry, who could not bear the thought of his kids ever being away from him.

No one else had ever shared this private conversation between husband and wife.

The Spiritualist a.s.sociation of Great Britain, or the SAGB, sat inside a charming Victorian building in southwest London. The ninety-two-year lease had been purchased by the a.s.sociation in 1955 for the unbelievably low price of 24,500.

The building housed several independent rooms that were bare except for two chairs facing one another in each room. One of these chairs would be used by the visitor, and the other would be occupied by any of the several psychic mediums who worked there. Each room had a gla.s.s skylight to allow energy to flow in and out of the room. The SAGB offered one-on-one sittings with psychics for spiritual healing, psychic workshops as well as regression sessions.

Terry Acton had come to the SAGB looking for the woman who had approached him in the pub. He was unable to recall her name. Actually, he was quite sure he had not even given her a chance to introduce herself.

Luckily, the SAGB lobby had a bulletin board with the names and photos of all the psychic mediums working there and he recognised her picture on it. The photo was obviously one of her at a younger age, but it was unmistakably her. Martha Sinclair.

He had gone up to the reception and hesitated. The elderly receptionist looked up and said, 'Yes? May I help you, sir?'

'Yeah. I uh . . . was wondering whether Martha Sinclair would be available for a psychic session today?' he asked.

'You're in luck. She is presently in a session that should be over in around fifteen minutes. Shall I book you for a sitting? The cost of a thirty-minute private appointment is 30,' the receptionist had added helpfully. Terry had thought about it only for a moment and then quickly sh.e.l.led out the thirty pounds for the sitting with Martha.

'Could you please wait in room number six? She'll be with you shortly.'

Terry had never imagined he would be at the SAGB waiting for a psychic sitting. This was so unlike him. In a short while, Martha walked in. He had not known that this one sitting would change his life forever.

He had expected her to be mad at him for the way he had behaved at the pub. Instead, she was gentle, warm, friendly and genuinely concerned for him. By being so nice, she ended up making him feel even guiltier about his obnoxious att.i.tude at the pub.

'Please don't be sorry,' she said to him. 'It's important to let go of your guilt. Life puts us in situations so that we can learn from them. Once we have learned, it's time to throw away the guilt and move on,' she said.

She continued. 'Everyone is endowed with psychic gifts. These gifts could be empathy, prophecy, cognition or vision. Each of us has some of these in lesser or greater quant.i.ties. They are the various ways in which psychic perception is possible. As you open yourself to these offerings, spiritual energy becomes your teacher and you become more acutely aware of your sixth sense.'

She then lowered her voice and said, 'During the past few weeks, I have been feeling the presence of a spirit which is not completely at peace. A few days ago, when I was meditating, I heard a female voice telling me that her name was Susan and that I should give a message to her husband, Terry, who was at the pub just next door,' she said. Martha paused to look into Terry's eyes for disbelief-she found none.

'She wanted me to tell you she is happy. She is in a place where she is in the midst of happiness and love. She wants you to understand that our lives on earth are merely illusions. Each life is nothing but a change of clothes. Bodies die and decay, what remains unchanged is the soul; that is eternal,' she concluded.

Terry's eyes had turned moist. He started feeling the healing touch of a soothing balm on his tired and aching spirit. Her gentle voice was comforting him, like a mother's lullaby.

Martha continued, 'She knew you would not believe me and that's why she gave me the children's names. She said you have a clean and pure heart and that you can easily help others by looking inside yourself and discovering your spiritual self.'

Martha only stopped when she saw Terry looking up at the skylight in the room, sobbing and laughing alternately, as he felt the warmth of Susan's spirit enveloping him.

Being a student of psychology, Terry had some basic understanding of the past-life therapy pioneered by Dr Brian Weiss. However, he was quite unprepared for the regression Martha put him through a few days later.

In 1980, Dr Brian Weiss, head of the Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai Medical Center, in Miami Beach, had started the treatment of a patient, Catherine. Catherine was a twenty-seven-year-old woman, completely overwhelmed by moods of depression, anxieties and phobias. Weiss had used hypnosis to help bring to the surface forgotten or repressed incidents, traumas and memories from her infancy and childhood.

Catherine had not only remembered incidents from her childhood, but also successfully provided detailed descriptions from several of her eighty-six previous lives.

Catherine's phobias had eventually been eliminated because the process of recollecting her past lives had made her realise the reason for these phobias in her present life. Past-life therapy had now become a medical term.

Martha wanted to heal Terry's wounds by using past-life therapy on him.

Martha said, 'Past-life therapy is a great way to heal old wounds or to understand the cause of certain ailments or developments in our present lives. For you to be able to heal anyone else, Terry, it is first necessary to heal yourself. I am going to try to make you understand how the entire process works by making you the subject. Fine?'

Terry had nodded his a.s.sent.

'Okay, let's just start by getting you comfortable, physically comfortable. Settle back in your chair and begin to relax . . . that's right . . . just . . . relax.' The voice was soothing but firm.

Terry actually began to let go and concentrate on Martha's voice. 'Look up now, and observe the skylight. You can see a little green dot on the skylight. A green dot is simply what it is. Its shape is round and its colour is green. The shape and colour are really quite irrelevant. All that I want you to do is to completely focus your concentration on that spot for a while as you continue to listen to my voice.'

Martha continued, 'A peaceful, easy feeling is settling over you like a comfortable quilt. Relax. Allow yourself to drift. As you focus on the dot, something will begin to happen. The dot may move. It may change shape. It may change colour. As you notice these transformations, you will also begin to feel changes within yourself. Your eyes are tired. They're fed up of focusing on the dot. Your eyes and your eyelids want to close. That's fine.'

She continued in the same soothing voice, 'Now drift deeper with every breath you take. Feel your body getting heavier and sinking further. You're comfortable and relaxed, but you're heavy and sinking. Deeper. Deeper. Okay, now I want you to allow your mind to drift back in time . . . drift back to this morning . . . drift back to last night . . . drift back to university . . . to your high-school days . . . drift back to your infancy . . . drift back beyond your infancy . . . that's right.' Martha now began to probe with gentle questions.

'Where are you now?'

'I'm on a farm somewhere in northern India.'

'Who are you?'

'I'm a landlord. I own lots of land in the area.'

'So you're a farmer?'

'No. I only own the land. I rent it out to landless farmers who till the land and share the produce.'

'Where do you live?'

'I have a palatial house which is on the banks of a beautiful river. It has a very nice outdoor veranda where I sit and smoke a hookah.'

'What is a hookah?'

'It's a big copper pipe. My servants fill it with tobacco, saffron, cardamom, hot coals and water. I sit and smoke it all day long while gazing at the river.'

'Do you have many servants?'

'Yes. One's importance is determined by the number of servants one has and the head of cattle one owns.'

'Are you married?'

'Yes. My wife is very beautiful. We got married when we were children.'

'So you fell in love with her?'

'No. Our marriage was arranged by our families. I had to marry her because my father insisted. I was lucky that I eventually fell in love with her. I would do anything for her. I wors.h.i.+p her . . . I am hopelessly devoted to her.'

'Do you have children?'

'Three. A daughter and two sons.'

'Do you love them?'

'Yes, but I had to give my daughter away in marriage when she was just thirteen.'

'Why?'

'Because child marriage is the norm. I love her and want her to be happy-but she's just a child! She misses me terribly.'

'What about your sons? Do you love them?'

'Yes. But the eldest one is reckless. I get very angry with him. I sometimes have to beat him to knock some sense into his head.'

'How does that make him feel?'

'I think he resents me.'

'How old are you?'

'I am quite old. I do not know my exact age because no one noted the date or time when I was born. Unfortunately, I am quite ill.'

'Why?'

'The tobacco has given me a terrible cough. It never goes. And I am hopelessly addicted to the hookah. I cannot stop smoking.'

'Do you think this could be the reason for your asthma and breathing disorders in your present life as Terry?'

'Yes. Probably.'

'Why are you addicted?'

'I have been under a great deal of pressure. My youngest son is a teacher and has written a book questioning the caste system of the Hindu religion. Many Brahmins and priests have turned against him.'

'What is this caste that you talk about?'

'Hindus believe that your position in society is determined by birth. Many people are treated unfairly due to this. Untouch-ability is a direct consequence of this system.'

'You must be very proud of your son for having written about the problem.'

'No. I dissuaded him from doing it. Why rake up contro-versies? Let sleeping dogs lie. He is very upset with me.'

'Do you see any familiar faces from your present life?'

'Yes.'

'Who?'

'My mother, in my present life as Terry . . . she was my wife in my previous life.'

'Anyone else?'

'My father in my present life . . . he was my eldest son in my previous life-the one I used to hit quite often.'

'Any other faces that look familiar?'

'Susan. My wife in my present life.'