Once Joanne arrived with Eliza to Pathway’s Melrose Campus through a series of what looked like white donut-shaped portals, Yesha met with her and they went through the initial Pathway member training with a variety of options given to proceed further. Seeing, visiting, and experiencing all the T.O. had to offer was always amazing, yet likewise so was the Pathway Melrose Campus. Joanne saw a relation between the two grow increasingly as the night continued. She was impressed with every detail. After initial training and a feedback session with delegates, it was time for the big decision, the same decision anyone else had to make who had been given the tour through the Melrose Campus.
“Do I become fully read-in or do I walk away?” Joanne thought to herself. Dazzled by both Yesha and Eliza, she thought, “why not, there comes a time in life where we have to dare ourselves to do something odd, embrace it, enjoy it, and see what comes of it,” and then she agreed to be read-in and to go on the Virtual Universe journey.
“Link, 1, 2, 3, 5 minutes, 20 years,” coached Yesha.
Joanne followed her every step as many had done before her, and as she finished speaking those words she instantaneously felt every nerve, every synapse, and every cell in her body feel as though it were twisting and contorting, and then like that, a certain sense of euphoria set in. Looking around Joanne felt invigorated and the sweet sense of youth she could recall feeling several years before resurfaced. She then saw a statue of an angel before her, and it was looking down toward the pond, where a little waterfall just below the angel provided aerated water for the coy fish and frogs. This was without question in Joanne’s mind, a beautiful and peaceful place. As she turned around and captured her surroundings, she began to understand so much more than she ever thought possible. She knew somehow that she was at Eliza’s estate, and then she saw both Eliza and Yesha. Both of these ladies were beautiful and magnificent in real life, and here they were all the more magnificent; it was as if they came from a dream or from heaven itself.
Realizing that they were neurologically connected, she began to understand every bit of their story, or at least every bit of the stories they felt she was prepared to understand, and then she shared some of her stories with them. As was the nature of the Virtual Universe, whenever they talked, it was mind-to-mind. Thus, they conversed for a while about each other’s experiences and ideas. At one point, something became very clear to Joanne, and she shared something with Eliza and Yesha that would have typically resided in the compartmentalized area of her mind.
Joanne, Eliza, and Yesha chatted and shared various experiences of their life’s stories, and Joanne was particularly impressed with both of their abilities to listen. She shared with Eliza and Yesha, how, before more than a decade of musical experience working from the grassroots to international stardom, she had been like so many US and worldwide citizens. She had attended public school, worked hard for excellent academic achievement, and was raised with a kind older brother by a loving mother and father. She had received A’s through high school and had been inspired by someone she had deemed a darling of a role-model.
Her brother, Thomas, was just a year and a half older, was two years ahead of her in school, had good grades, was a charming individual with an equally charming persona, and was in his senior year while she was a sophomore in high school. She looked up to him, his artsy charm, his kind, gentle, and sweet demeanor with angelic ways of being there for anyone who seemed alone or down and out.
Joanne’s brother, Thomas, was a boy who would never hurt a soul, and he was always there smiling, laughing with people rather than at them. Just as any young individual would, he had crushes on people in his school, but culled his urges and was very respectful to others no matter what might come along in life. Struggle as he may, he seemed to control his personal affection toward the young men he went to school with, ever since he had been in kindergarten. Tragedy fell when it was discovered that he was in love with one of his peers, the high school quarterback. He had always talked about him over the dinner table at home with harmony in every wake, but at school, he had always kept it private. Things were a bit more socially conservative where she and her brother were growing up and it seemed that respect for the individual and who they loved was not given to anyone outside the norm of ‘boy meets girl.’ More so, it appeared as though it was deemed offensive to accept people for who they were, especially if they were “different.”
One day over spring break he had got it into his head that he would come clean and write a letter to this young man, and one of his peers, to let the torture of not sharing his love for him burden him any longer. Of course, he was cool about it, he didn’t intend to push his will on anyone, and had confided in his parents and younger sister as to what to do, yet in the end he simply wanted to let this young man, who he’d been attending school with since kindergarten, know how down to earth he seemed, how much he appreciated how he stood up against others’ bullies, and how much he inspired him through the years. He also wanted to be honest and let him know how much he loved him in a romantic way, so he wrote a letter and on the first day back from spring break, he slipped it into his locker in the locker room. Two days later while on his way home from school, it was understood that a group of hooded schoolmates wearing masks mercilessly ended his life. When news of this reached others, it was as if time stood still.
Joanne was shocked. The whole town was shocked. Her parents were torn apart. Thomas had a full-ride scholarship to his favorite school, he had always been kind to all, and no one knew anything other than the fact that he had been an artistic, charismatic, and even sentimental young man. He wasn’t socially awkward in the least; he was clean-cut, kind, and even handsome. He didn’t seem to have any enemies whatsoever and there didn’t seem to be anyone Joanne knew who would dare do something that horrible to someone else, much less her sweet, gentle brother.
The Sheriff and his investigation teams were hot on the trail of those who had engaged in the murderous act, but when the letter he wrote to the quarterback was discovered, the investigation all of a sudden went cold and the search ceased. The story seemed as though it was buried, but looking back, it had actually grown cold. It was a quiet and conservative area of town after all, and certain realities were unfortunately looked at as a sin and condemned, if something bad happened to a sinner, well, that was God’s will. It was a place where suddenly, people forgot in a large way to use that inner core of kindness, respect, dignity, and compassion.
To Joanne, the sense of empathy and compassion seemed to dissipate to nothing when it was discovered that perhaps he was “different,” or a sinner, and not for anything else than how he had identified himself, a struggle he’d coped with well, ever since he could remember. Everyone who was close to him or the family and many of those he had rescued from loneliness, including the quarterback he’d had a crush on, attended his funeral; many also approached her and told her how much he did for them and how much they missed him. They also noted that they never knew he was gay, but that they had hoped this tragedy might raise awareness toward inclusion and compassion.
However, the parents of the other children in her brother’s class grew distant, blamed his misfortune on the results of his “personal choices” and were almost foreboding, as if in quiet rebuke and condemnation. Their eyes looked upon her and her parents as if to say something disdainful and unrepeatable. As such, the town in large part seemed to care less about the murder and saw it more as an incident to learn from, to forget about, and to bury. To the town, the case was closed. Still, no matter what Joanne knew there had to be closure. Vindication and justice were crying out, and there had to have been at least three people involved, ganging up on her brother, so, she took up sleuthing and followed all of the stories and leads that had developed.
Everyone told her to leave the case alone, and after a year of searching and many dead-ends, her parents finally convinced her that someday, those who had done this would be filled with anguish and find no recourse for what they h
ad done. They told her that it was ours to forgive; hopefully, justice would prevail in the end, and no one else would live in similar danger. For now, it was a time for healing, understanding, cooling down our frustrations, and even integrating with the suspected perpetrators. At a minimum, one could treat them as friends, until as they matured, in time, they could grow a solid sense of remorse for their actions. When that happened, perhaps there would be justice as they led more noble lives. It was far from fair, but she and her parents chose to be strong; they took her brother’s kindness and made it part of them.
Joanne, from that point on, immersed herself in her studies more than before and began to find increased comfort in music. As time went by, she turned to a life of playing the piano, writing lyrics of depth, and singing to comfort her spirits, sometimes her fashion tastes were more Goth-like, and at other times it was more schoolgirl-like or just jeans and a T-shirt. Joanne played by her own rules, and being a social pariah suited her just fine.
Joanne loved her brother dearly and could never imagine who the murderer could have been or why they did what they did. But she let that pain and her defiance of it guide her in her passions and compassion.
Losing herself in her art and music, everything else began to flow—the major chords, the minor chords, the dissonance, the residual harmonies, the beauty of the heaven-like electronic music pads, the arpeggios, their highs and lows, the gentle rhythms, the throbbing bass at all the right times, and the resonance. Joanne’s first song was written and released as a single just before she graduated from high school. Now, many years later, at the age of twenty-nine, here she was, having sat with Eliza on a chance meeting, and now going on amazing and enlightening journeys in the Virtual Universe with Eliza and Yesha—each of them knowing in full who each other was, both the light and dark sides they were willing to share and learn from, because their minds were linked, and they each felt an instant, unforgettable, savory, sweet tasting and flowing connection with each other.
Prior to meeting Eliza and Yesha, Joanne had already written four albums. Each album was a major hit. Yesha was the President of Pathway and Eliza was a US senator. Now that they had shared so many layers of wisdom, there was a new clarity that filled her mind. Now that Joanne had learned so much, she felt that she could do so much more.
She explained to Eliza and Yesha how she had developed an interesting professional cycle that worked for her in her own way. First, she would write for a year, then she would go on tour the following year, and finally, in the third year, she would focus on higher education and family. Not too long before meeting Eliza, she had begun her Ph.D. at Harvard, but online and in three areas of study, quantum computing, music, and psychology—it worked well with her vibe of sophisticated music. Now, neuroscience seemed to beckon her attention as well.
She fluctuated between that interest while communicating love and loss to the masses, in the hopes of imbuing more kindness, understanding, and compassion into society as a whole. While she knew her songs were a hit in the US and throughout the world, Eliza and Yesha were able to see that Joanne wanted to write something even more profound, more substantive, and more meaningful in terms of actual and possible change than any of her previous four albums, as appreciated as they were. They could see that Joanne had never been in it for the money, that merely came because she had touched the hearts of many, and they reciprocated by monetary means—through buying her albums, buying fan shirts, posters, etc, and most of all, by purchasing tickets to her concerts. For Joanne, all of this was merely a means to get around from place to place, to donate to charities, and while she lived comfortably, she was much more into music to share a beautiful message with the masses, to reach out in the spirit of love, of kindness, and of compassion.
“I’ve listened to your music over the last twelve years as it played on the radio, and I knew there was something deep to what you were singing. I could feel the loss you had felt. What you do is amazing, Joanne.” Yesha connected mind-to-mind, and Joanne could feel the loss of Yesha’s and Eliza’s dear friends, Charles and Eugene, from so many years ago, during 9/11. She could also feel Eliza’s rage which had turned into the fire of productivity and resolve.
Eliza continued, “Each of us has been through loss, suffering, and many have been through much worse. Here we have the opportunity to have a shared experience, mind-to-mind, but we also have another shared experience where we’ve lost such wonderful people in our lives due to hate and the unfortunate influence of a toxic and unhealthy environment. Uncontrolled chaos, Joanne, will show itself in the worst of ways. This is why you’ll hear me from time-to-time talk about controlled chaos, where we can direct our energies toward constructive, helpful, and healing behavior, intentions, projects, and actions. I know you have an amazing mind, I see you, your beautiful self in every way, and I have every bit of confidence that you have so much potential still begging to surface. There are a lot of ideas I’ve shared with Yesha, James, and everyone in Pathway who has been fully read-in, and while we have done so much and have the ability to help humanity to go so much further than before, every single person in the world who ever was, is, or ever will be, will have potential to improve systems, identify challenges to overcome, and raise the quality of life. For you, it is your talents in music and entertainment that moves the mind to ponder in a healthy way. You have untold potential, as do the rest of us, and sadly so did many who we have lost.”
They continued their discussion for hours as Eliza and Yesha took Joanne on their own and first journey through to the core of the Earth, the Moon, and every spheroid in the solar system. They took her to see all of the shields, the tech cities, and spaceports, the terraforming of every moon in the solar system with varying degrees of gravity for a variety of reasons, up to and including thrills and entertainment. They talked for a while, and Eliza finally revealed to Joanne by opening her mind up more fully to her and allowing her to see that it was she who had purchased the T.O. and had built the campus. To which, Joanne responded.
“Wow, Eliza, I never knew it was you who purchased that beautiful restaurant and the sixteen square blocks of immaculate infrastructure behind it. How did you manage to keep that under wraps?”
Eliza answered, “To put it into concise words, it was difficult, but there are a lot of things that we have done, but we didn’t reveal them to the public because we did not want to draw too much attention to ourselves. We wanted to help people and not make them lose their jobs, or turn the economy upside down, or dismantle industries. We weren’t ready yet for full-blown publicity. We have tried in every step of our journey in Pathway to prepare society in increments before releasing something new. In part, this is because, as I suggested, we do not want to reduce the quality of life of anyone by tearing down the very structures that provide them the means for living, for learning, and for giving back through innovation and talent. We hadn’t released too much at once, because we wanted to make sure that with every breakthrough we had safety and security mechanisms in place as well as ways to reverse any potential catastrophic backfires.”
Joanne then responded, “Thank you for everything you do and have done. It’s amazing; every person who goes to the T.O. has their account paid in full, by you, I’ve seen people gather their life’s savings to go there. Many have gone there because they’ve heard it was so beautiful, so amazing, and so breath-taking, and with life so dull and tedious this was their last-ditch effort at finding a reason to hold on, their last big and glorious opportunity and attempt to enjoy life before they slept amongst the flowers and the roots of the trees forever. Instead, they were reignited, reawakened, found love in life again, and they returned home to find that their savings had not been squandered away. Instead, they found they could reinvest the resultant growth of money into chasing a beautiful dream of hope, of ingenuity, of kindness, and of love. In many cases they’ve confided in me as they shared their stories, without saying anything to anyone else, a few of my fans privately texted me to tell me th
ey loved the T.O. too, and that their parents had gone there to find that their retirement had somehow multiplied. The tech cities, the shields around Earth, all the spheroids within our solar system, you have both done so much. There’s even a small planet orbiting around the Sun gathering all of the heavy material essentially prolonging the life of our star by trillions of years or longer based on the planned mining and maintenance, both of which will, in turn, provide the resources necessary to improve the quality of life. You have done so much for so many people, Eliza and Yesha, and yet so many have no idea.” Joanne was filled with emotion and with a tear falling down her cheek, she felt like hugging Eliza and Yesha as a form of gratitude and approval, and as she did, Eliza and Yesha opened their arms and they shared in an embrace. What a beautiful moment that lasted for as long as was possible, it was like a warm blanket wrapped around someone on a cold winter’s night.
Following the embrace, Yesha came clean, “Please know, Joanne, that Eliza deserves the credit. She was the visionary, she was the great mind, perhaps the greatest mind behind all of this. I merely provided moral support, weighed in whenever she asked, and together we’ve built all you’ve seen. But, please remember, the greatest gratitude goes to Eliza.”
Joanne looked at Eliza, and she glowed, blushed, and smiled with a tear in her eye. “Yesha, I could not have done any of this without you or anyone we know. Thank you, too.”
Joanne felt that pure bond of genuine and innocent love between the two as she finished her journey through Pathway’s history and combed the histories of each person in Pathway. She also met James, Amber, Erin, Vesha, Najem, and Jasmine. They welcomed her too with open arms and an inspiring sense of connection that was unique and special. Once she had gone through some of the most mind-expanding journeys shared by each one of the more than two-billion people who were fully read-in to Pathway, she finished completing several PhDs, and then when she was ready, Joanne, Eliza, and Yesha returned to the real world. When Joanne came to, she felt more alive and invigorated than she had ever felt before. Twenty years was a long time, even in the Virtual Universe. Yet, in truth, she had only been in there for five minutes.
Further than Before- Pathway to the Stars Page 63