The Twelfth Insight: The Hour Of Decision Part 9

Suddenly, we could hear the roar of a helicopter flying toward us. When it was almost directly overhead, it tilted in our direction, and I could see several men in the back compartment. One of them was Peterson. He recognized me and did a double take, just as several more shots cut up the ground closer to us. Realizing what was happening, Peterson began motioning to the pilot, and the helicopter sped ahead and buzzed the Apocalyptics on the overhang. The firing stopped.

"Let's go!" Wil yelled, and we all ran until we came to the first red rocks of the next hill. Once there, we looked as the helicopter circled the extremists a few more times and then left.

"How did the chopper know we needed help?" Hira asked.

"They didn't know," I said. "They just happened to be flying by."

She gave me a puzzled look.

"It was a Synchronicity," I clarified. "We were protected."

THE GREAT COMMISSIONING.

After three hours of tough hiking, we made it to the first paved road. Earlier, we had waited a long time for Coleman, thinking he might try to get across to where we were. We even thought about going back to look for him in case he was hurt, but we found our way blocked by a host of police cars and Forest Service jeeps racing in a cloud of dust toward the mountain. We were all tired and shaken except for Wil, who was buoyant about what had happened.

"You know," he said, at one point, "all that happened was showing us exactly what we needed to see. I haven't seen a group of people spontaneously open up to an experience like that ever. The Doc.u.ment says we can't handle violent ideologies alone, that we need to have a Breakthrough and find our Protection, and that's exactly what happened."

I nodded, too fatigued to comment.

"There will be plenty of time to rest in Jerome," he added. "And I have a feeling Coleman is okay. We'll find him."

Jerome, I knew, was an old mining town west of Sedona, now favored by artists.

"Why there?" I asked.

He gave me a smile. "That's where the Hopis are waiting for us."

Without talking any more, we caught a ride with a rancher to the nearest pay phone where Wil called Wolf, and within about twenty minutes, he arrived in the same Mercedes. As we all piled in, he caught my eye and grinned at my dirty clothes.

"Have any visions?" he asked, snickering.

I nodded, then collapsed into the backseat. Wolf took us up to the hilly mining town and then past it about a mile to a small homestead. The house was adobe, covered by a new tin roof with solar panels built in. Across from it was a pole barn and corral, holding three well-groomed horses. A flock of chickens scattered as we drove up.

We were greeted by two other Native Americans, an older woman of about eighty and a teenage boy who looked fifteen. They quickly served us a huge meal of corn fritters, chicken, and guacamole with onions. In an hour we had showered, eaten, and sleepily erected our tents, barely saying anything. By sunset we had all turned in.

I slept without dreaming and didn't awaken until a ray of sunlight shone through the flap of the tent and hit my face. A chorus of birds sang in the small cottonwoods over my head. As I pulled on my boots and crawled out, I saw a fire and sat down beside it. For the first time, I noticed that the landscape sloped away from the house to an acre-size pond bordered by another very large cottonwood. Several crows cawed from a rocky area beyond.

Looking out at the landscape, I felt as though the past several days had been a dream, and I was back to my old self. I deeply needed the cup of coffee the young boy handed to me.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

"Tommy," he said in perfect English.

I nodded toward the older woman who was standing nearby. "Is she your grandmother?"

"Yes."

"What's her name?"

"Grandmother."

"That's her only name?"

He nodded.

Just then she called to him and he ran over to her and hung on to her neck, beaming back at me proudly.

I sweetened my coffee with some honey from a jar sitting in a basket near the fire and then sipped it slowly, not wanting to think about our experiences. I knew there would be plenty of time for that later. Right now, I wanted only to sit and appreciate the simple beauty of the place and feel the normalcy for a while. A crow suddenly flew over the corral and landed on a post nearby to stare at me. I shook my head and looked away.

"Up already?" Rachel abruptly asked from behind me. The timbre of her voice was slightly different from when we were on the mountain.

"Yeah," I responded, standing up. When our eyes met, I blushed for some reason and avoided her eyes again, as if we had just had a one-night stand or something.

She sat down on a burlap cus.h.i.+on near the fire and the boy served her coffee as well. Reaching into her sweater pocket, Rachel pulled out a dollar bill, which he at first refused to take, glancing at his grandmother. Rachel insisted and he smiled widely and stuffed it into his jeans.

As I watched Rachel, some of our experiences on the mountain forced their way back into my consciousness, at least intellectually. I knew I'd experienced what could only be called a Divine Connection, and real Protection, along with a deep interaction with Rachel and the others. But I knew, as well, that much more had occurred that I couldn't recall.

I remembered Wil saying it was a glimpse into what could be, one that we would have to work to regain. I still didn't know what that meant. After a moment, I let go of all the thoughts, suddenly feeling vulnerable, and began to consider leaving. My logic told me enough was enough. A group of extremists had just tried to kill us, and even though we had escaped, why tempt fate any longer?

Suddenly, Rachel slid her cus.h.i.+on closer to me and said, "All that occurred back there was important."

"Really," I replied, not sure I wanted to hear it.

She gave me an upbeat look. "The Doc.u.ment says that the opening to the G.o.d Connection happens much more frequently than most people think. It's also structured into the nature of the Universe and into how our minds work."

Her smile was beguiling, so I flowed with her train of thought and considered the work of Jung again, wis.h.i.+ng Coleman were here. The Swiss psychiatrist, I knew, had discovered more than the phenomenon of Synchronicity. He was also famous for his notion that our brains and minds were structured by archetypes.

He thought humans, for instance, were able to learn to walk without thinking about every individual muscle involved because the pattern of muscle coordination necessary for this activity was already built into the structure of our brains-contained in what he called preestablished archetypal pathways that were genetically pa.s.sed down.

To walk, we had only to see others walking and try it ourselves, which fired up the pattern of neural pathways that help us learn the activity quickly. Because these pathways are basically the same in everyone's brain, learning to walk feels exactly the same to all human beings.

Jung argued that spiritual development was structured in the same manner, in a latent pathway that was waiting for us to fire it up. And again, this experience feels identical for all of us.

"So much happened yesterday," I said finally. "It's hard to get a handle on it. And I can't seem to get back that feeling we had on the mountain."

She looked at me with excitement. "Yes, but the Fifth Integration says we don't have to remember it. We just have to keep on integrating the remaining steps and we'll rise back into it-you know, the Rise to Influence the Doc.u.ment talks about. The only part of the experience that we can keep now, as part of the Fifth Integration, is the sense of love and protection."

"That's what Wil said," I remarked, nodding for her to tell me more.

"The Fifth Integration is completing what the Fourth set up," she continued. "If we intend to hold the truth and stay in alignment in the face of the most dangerous ideological untruth, something opens in our brains to honor that. We know we can't face this kind of danger by ourselves merely with our own strength of ego. No one can. Yet that recognition fires up a pathway that's already there, and we experience a Breakthrough-one that gives us a Divine Connection, and the premonitions and Synchronicity necessary to be protected."

I nodded. The feeling of Protection was coming back to me. Until now, horrible things happened to people at random because we didn't have the consciousness necessary to hear the warnings that could steer us clear of such danger.

If the Doc.u.ment was correct, Protection seemed to be a natural part of our innate spiritual ability, growing, I supposed, out of the Law of Connection. With this thought, an image came to me of the future. Would humanity someday be so aware of our premonitions that we would all know, for instance, to leave a city for higher ground just before a tsunami or earthquake arrived, just as the animals do?

Rachel was staring at me.

"Next for us," she said, "is to begin to systematically recapture the experience we found on the mountain so that we can begin to live it every day. We're at the Sixth Integration. Remember the Prophecy found in Peru? We're going to discover a mission."

She turned a little, trying to look into my eyes again. I lingered just a bit longer in her gaze before turning away.

Suddenly, Wolf was pulling up to the house in his car, and we jumped to our feet to meet him. Surprisingly, he had Coleman with him, and another man in the backseat I couldn't see. We hurried to the car and finally caught sight of the man's face. It was Adjar.

Wil came out of the house, and Wolf told us he had found Coleman with the other scientists in Sedona. He, too, had escaped when the helicopter had distracted the extremists. As for Adjar, some of the other Hopis in town had spotted him at a medical clinic. Wolf said Adjar had been able to escape after being interrogated by the extremists.

"Unfortunately," Wolf added, "even though the police were well aware of the extremists' presence, none of them were caught."

"Did you hear that?" Hira responded. "That means they could be coming up here right now. We have to do something."

"What is the matter with you?" Adjar burst out. "Can't you just be at peace for a moment?"

"That, coming from you!" Hira screamed. "You people are the great destroyers of peace!"

Rachel immediately restrained Hira, and Grandmother led Adjar toward the house. For the first time, I saw that Adjar had a large cut on his forehead and was holding his arm.

Wil was looking hard at Wolf.

"Where is that place you told me about?" he asked.

"Down there by the pond," he said, nodding, "near the large tree. We call it the place of harmony."

"Good," Wil replied. "We're going to need a lot of that."

For most of the day we rested and ate our meals alone. Adjar never came out of the house, and Hira was mostly silent and reserved. After telling me briefly about his experience of being captured by the extremists, Coleman slept virtually the whole day. He seemed distracted, as though he was working on something and had to go through his process before telling me about it.

As for me, I was totally obsessed with the idea that our Breakthrough experience was built into each human brain. If this notion was true, then it might mean that all the Integrations were built into the structure of our brain as well, and hence were in some sense destined for all humanity. I busied myself reviewing the Fourth and Fifth parts of the Doc.u.ment, which corresponded exactly with what I had been told.

About dusk, I turned around and saw Adjar and Hira talking with Wil. At the beginning of the discussions both were raising their voices and turning their backs on each other. Toward the end, however, the two spoke together for a few minutes with no rancor. Eventually, all three walked down to the big cottonwood and joined Wolf, who was throwing wood on a large bonfire built in the center of a circle of logs. I knew Wil and Wolf were planning something. You could feel it. There was a palpable sense of expectation in the air.

I headed that way myself, and on the way I walked by Rachel's tent. She came out carrying a little journal and smiling at me, as though we'd set a specific time to get together.

"I wanted to make a few notes," she said, waving the book.

"Wil is getting us together for something," I commented.

She gave me a cryptic smile as though she already knew what it was but wasn't going to give it away.

As we approached, I noticed Coleman walking up as well, but he didn't look at us. I got the distinct feeling that he, like myself, was thinking deeply about our shared experience. By the time we reached the fire circle, it was almost dark, and everyone was there: Rachel and I were located on one side of the fire, with Adjar, Hira, and Coleman on the other side.

Wil was standing apart, as though he was going to address us, and Wolf positioned himself at one side of the fire, holding a long pole he'd been using to stoke the blaze. Grandmother was behind all of us, directly under the cottonwood, making extremely slow dancing moves with her feet. Tommy was by her side.

At this moment, Wolf took his stick and spread the fire out into a wider area, killing most of the flames and sending a whirlwind of tiny sparks into the air. Then Wil asked us to sit down in a circle across from each other on the six small logs surrounding the glowing coals.

Rachel tossed me a glance and made her way over to sit down opposite Coleman. And as it happened, Hira and Adjar sat directly across from each other. Too late, I realized I was the odd man out. I was about to comment when, to my surprise, Tommy walked up, and with a maturity beyond his years raised his eyebrows as if to ask my permission to sit across from me.

"Of course," I said.

For a long time, we just all looked at one another, the hot coals casting a red hue over our faces. It was completely dark now, and even though we were all less than twelve feet from the person across from us, in the low light it was hard to bring each other's faces into focus. It was almost as though we were being forced to just look at the person as a whole shape, with few cues from body language or facial expression to guide our reactions. Setting up the fire this way, I thought, must be a Hopi psychological device.

"I wanted to get you all together," Wil began, "because Wolf was able to find the Sixth Integration. I also know many of you have made arrangements to leave, so I wanted to talk to you before you did so.

"The Doc.u.ment says that once one has experienced the Breakthrough to a G.o.d Connection, then one has completed the Foundation of Spirituality, a plateau of stable consciousness from which we can proceed, if we want to, with the remaining Integrations-a journey it calls a Rise to Sacred Influence.

"The Doc.u.ment describes this rise as a systematic recapturing of the full Divine Connection, piece by piece, as we elevate our consciousness back to that higher state. It culminates with the discovery of the Twelfth level, and at this point we will be able to maintain this consciousness."

Wil paused here and looked out at us.

"However," he continued, "it says, very clearly, that all those around you during a time of Breakthrough are there for an important reason. They represent a group that can help you move more rapidly through the remaining Integrations. And according to the Doc.u.ment, they have another important purpose as well: together you can form what it calls a Template of Agreement, which serves the role of agreeing on the truth about each Integration and influencing others with the power of that agreement.

"These template groups are very important because, to the extent that they are made up of people representing different religious traditions, they act to counteract and resolve the dangerous polarization and hatred growing between religious extremists in the world."

Wil walked closer to us. "The templates have such an effect on the extremists because, as we proceed through the remaining Integrations and grow in influence, we will be beaming one central truth out to the world: that, in their essence, the religions are all pointing to the same experience of G.o.d Connection that most of us have now shared. It is this common experience, once recognized, that can serve to help reconcile the differences between religions and help them come to unity. Truth, remember, is contagious."

I couldn't see their expressions entirely, but I could feel the grimaces on Adjar's and Hira's faces, and maybe even Coleman's. The last thing many of us seemed to want, going into this gathering, was to hang around long enough to make it through today, much less long enough for some kind of unification to take place.

Wil was pausing again, knowing he had just dropped a bomb-sh.e.l.l on everyone. I looked over toward Wolf and swore I could feel him wink.

"Before you make your decisions in this regard," Wil went on, "I want to tell you what the Doc.u.ment says is at stake. As with earlier Integrations, enough people in the world must take these remaining steps in order for the Influence to become powerful enough to counteract the dangers that are rapidly growing out there. To not act is to send out another kind of contagion, one of giving up on the world."

That did it, I thought. Now all of us were in the same bind. We might want to flee and save ourselves, but if we did, the continued polarization might bring the world to destruction. In reality, the situation had been the same since the First Integration. None of us had any choice at all.

As we looked at one another in silence, I noticed Hira was fidgeting in her seat, as though she knew something that we didn't.

Finally, she shouted, "If this is all true, what are we doing just talking about it? Let's get going with this! They're still out there. We need to figure all this out!"

She looked at Rachel. "The whole time I heard you and Adjar discussing the Doc.u.ments and experiencing the elevations, I experienced them with you. But I didn't tell you something important and neither did Adjar. Anish and the rest of these people already have a plan to destroy the world. And they're going to do it!"

She looked directly at Adjar. "You know what I'm saying is true! Tell them!"

Adjar got up and looked away, and for a moment, I thought he was going to just walk into the darkness. Instead, he looked back at us and slowly sat down.

"That's right," he said. "They have a plan to force the end of time. The group we were with is composed of two extreme factions, one looking to the Muslim tradition of Allah, and those following the Western religions of G.o.d or Jehovah. Both factions believe that before the end times can come, certain historical events, outlined in scriptural Prophecy, must first take place.

"Each side also believes that when these events occur, their respective holy men will return to gather up the true believers, vanquish their enemies, and set up a completely spiritual world on Earth based on their particular doctrine.

"But their dominant belief is that it is their duty to bring about these prophetic events as soon as possible. They have suspended their hatred in order to cooperate with one another, at least for a while. They call themselves Apocalyptics, and they have one stated goal: to bring about this last war that will make all this happen- Armageddon."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Adjar was describing the same threat that Peterson had warned of, only this was worse: a coalition of Western and Arabic groups who were actively working together to end the world.

It all made sense now, the fact that the group had both Arabic and Western members, and that they were arguing among themselves so much. They had formed an uneasy truce to go out and start the last war, after which they would just let the best religion win, so to speak, with each side thinking their tradition would be the one to prevail.