They walked off the patio and up the bank till they found a crude path that led down to the river. Brandon offered his hand to Dana and she refused it. No surprise there. There was probably a greater chance Reece had actually beamed across colorado and back than the ice between them would ever thaw. Yes, Brandon had blown it. Broken her heart. Betrayed her. Whatever you wanted to call it. He was wrong. But how long would he have to pay for that? Forever and three days most likely. Whatever. It was her issue, not his.
And then God arranged for her to be part of some prophecy one of Reece’s mystic pals spoke over him, which Brandon wasn’t sure he believed in, and boom—they’re in this Well Spring wackiness together.
Thank you, Lord, very exciting to be here with her.
But it was his issue. And he had a feeling God wouldn’t let it go. When they reached the river, Brandon said, “Upstream or downstream?”
“Up,” Marcus said. “It was the direction Reece walked this morning, yes?”
“Yep.”
“Do you believe Reece?” Marcus asked.
“That he really beamed back and forth like a ray of light?” Brandon tossed a stick into the water and watched it swirl downstream. “No. You?”
“We must take into consideration the physical evidence.”
“The paper,” Dana said.
“Yes.” The professor nodded.
“C’mon, are you serious? That paper isn’t evidence,” Brandon said.
“Why not?” Dana picked up a stick of her own and tossed it in the river.
“You know how long it would take to mock up a fake USA TODAY? For someone with even a sliver of graphics experience? A few hours.”
Dana grabbed another stick. “And the coffee?”
“Have any of us been in all of the seven smaller cabins? Have we been in even one of them? No, we haven’t. There’s probably an espresso machine in each of them.”
Dana shrugged. “Okay, let’s say he did mock up a fake paper and made your coffee in one of the cabins. Then the question becomes why?”
“How should I know? Probably the whole thing is a lesson to get us thinking outside our cloistered Americanized Christianity—bigger world out there, believe God for big miracles, to consider that people in third-world nations who aren’t all caught up in the westernized way of thinking are probably walking on water, doing healings every minute, and casting out demons, all that sort of thing.”
“That’s not him,” Dana said. “He wouldn’t play those kinds of games.”
“Not him?” Brandon raised his palms. “Didn’t we say he’s been different here than we ever saw him back home?”
Dana twirled her branch like a baton, then ran her fingers over its surface as she trekked up the riverbank. It looked like a snake and she gave it a funny look before tossing it into the river. As she did, a shiver ran down Brandon’s spine. Darkness seemed to swirl around the stick. Great. Apparently being around Reece had him seeing demons under every rock.
Dana stopped to watch the stick float away. “I think he believes every word he’s telling us. Maybe he’s crazy, but he’s not a liar.”
“I’m not convinced. I think he’s been setting this game up since we all agreed to come, and this is his move up from pawns to rooks,” Brandon said.
“My conclusion is the same as Dana’s,” Marcus said. “Reece’s personality teeters on the brink of eighty grit at times, but I do not believe he’s a fraud.”
“Eighty grit?” Brandon asked.
“His personality is sometimes like eighty-grit sandpaper.”
Brandon grinned. “Maybe that’s what we should call him. Everyone likes a good nickname.”
“Can we stay on topic?” Dana said.
Marcus poked a rock at his feet. “If he’s not playing games and not lying, we are left with a single alternative.”
“Come again, Professor?” Dana said.
Marcus bent down and picked up a small stone. “Over the years, Reece and I have discussed the fact that Einstein’s theory of relativity can be used to prove the possibility of time travel. For instance, wormholes are solutions of general relativity that allow for it. So what is the hindrance to Reece’s teleportation idea being possible as well? It would be a type of time travel.”
“Go on,” Dana said.
Marcus moved the stone in his hand from one side of his body to the other. “Since God isn’t limited by space and time, why couldn’t he create a wormhole to instantly transport an individual from one location to another?”
“That’s interesting and maybe we should look for a logical explanation.” Dana shrugged. “But ultimately I don’t think this is about science. It’s about faith. Let’s throw out the newspaper, say it’s a fake. Let’s say the coffee came from one of the cabins. There’s still the story in Acts about Philip making his trip. Did that happen? Or was that made up? Did Jesus instantly transport that boat four miles across the Sea of Galilee, or was that made up too?”
Brandon rubbed his face, picked up another stick, and broke it into three pieces. “I suppose I’d say those things truly happened.”
“So can they still happen today?”
“I don’t know.”
Dana glanced back and forth between Marcus and him. “I think at a certain point we have to decide if we’re in on this journey God has us on—crazy as it might seem—or we’re out.”
Marcus tossed his stone toward the river. “I’m in.”
“Me too.” Dana turned to Brandon. “And you?”
Brandon stared at Dana and the professor. Was he in? Probably. But probably wouldn’t cut it. With Reece or with God. Deep down he knew his resistance wasn’t as much about belief as it was about fear of facing the reason he broke up with Dana. But that song would probably be sung no matter what. And part of him wanted it to be sung. “I’m in.”
As they climbed back up the bank, Marcus asked, “Have you two been considering the prophecy?”
“Which part?” Dana asked.
“All of it, but in particular the part about going into the soul and marrow.”
“You have an idea what that means, don’t you?” Dana said.
The professor pushed his glasses up on his nose. “I do, and I believe it will cause Reece’s teleportation idea to look like a minor stretch of the imagination in comparison.”
EIGHTEEN
MONDAY EVENING AFTER DINNER, REECE SAT WITH THE three around the fire pit at the listening post trying to figure out how to best introduce the idea that would either make or break their time together at Well Spring. He’d prayed for their eyes to be open, for their ears to hear, but this would take spiritual contact lenses and hearing aids of great sensitivity. As it turned out, he didn’t need to come up with an intro. Marcus offered him one.
“I would like to further our discussion of the prophecy. Specifically the part about us going into the soul and marrow. You indicated we would chat about it.”
Reece shifted in his seat and stared into the fire. Here we go, Jesus. Grant me the right words.
“We’re going to enter into people’s souls and war for their hearts and set them free.”
“What?” Brandon cupped his hand around his ear. “Once more, please, for the hardly hearing?”
“I’m going to teach you how powerful intercessory prayer can be. I’m going to teach you not only how to war for a friend’s soul with the power of prayer but how to go inside.”
“Inside another person’s soul,” Dana said.
“Yes.” Reece poked the fire and sent a plume of red sparks into the darkening sky.
Dana stared at him as if he’d told them Santa Claus really did live at the North Pole with Rudolph and the Easter Bunny. Marcus looked amused but intrigued.
“Come again?” Dana said.
“Hello? Anybody home?” Brandon rapped his head with his knuckles. “We’re going to what?”
“Unless your ears gave out in the past thirty seconds, I think all of you heard me.”
�
��Check, please.” Brandon held up his hand and snapped his fingers. “Tell me what you want us to donate to your cause, and then we can all get in your car and get back to reality.”
Marcus folded his hands. “Assuming you are serious, and I think you are, what are the particulars surrounding the entrance into another’s soul?”
“Good question,” Brandon said. “I missed that sermon in church.”
“You’re going to find out.”
“Before I leap, or rather teleport myself to any conclusions, I want to make sure I’m hearing you clearly.” Dana steepled her fingers in front of her face. “Are you saying we’re going to sit with people and pray for their souls and hearts, or that we’re going to physically enter their souls?”
“Not physically enter. Spiritually.”
Dana fell back in her chair and blew out a long breath. “That’s pretty clear.”
Reece tapped his finger in the center of his outstretched palm. “Demons enter people’s souls, don’t they?”
None of them answered.
“It’s clear from the Gospels this happened with a high frequency. Go to any third-world country and they’ll tell you all about it happening today. Even most of the churches in America will admit it happens, even if begrudgingly. So if demons can do it as spiritual beings, why can’t we?”
“Because we’re human beings,” Dana said.
“No. As Pierre Teilhard de Chardin succinctly said, ‘We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.’”
“Next thing out of your mouth will be that astral projection is real,” Brandon said.
“Every spiritual idea we see floating around the world is a counterfeit of something God has already created. Satan can create nothing. He can only take and spin what God has created or keep us from seeing what God has given us.”
“I’m willing to listen, Reece, but this is beyond the pale and straight into the nether regions of the multiverse.” Marcus tapped his pen against his journal. “How exactly is this supposed to work?”
“Exactly? I don’t know. I don’t know how prayer works either. But I do know that our spirits can separate from our bodies.”
“How?”
“Because I’ve done it.”
Marcus scribbled something in his journal. “I would imagine those of a more conservative nature would want scriptural evidence to verify your claim.”
Reece grabbed his Bible off the patio next to his chair, flipped to the back, and pointed to the middle of the page. “Paul went to heaven and said he didn’t know if he was still in his body or not, which implies the ability to go places with his spirit his body didn’t.”
Pages whirred and Reece jabbed his finger again. “In Revelation John says he was ‘in the Spirit’ when he heard a voice like a trumpet behind him. Read the rest of the chapter. It doesn’t sound like he was there in body.”
He shut his Bible, his voice rising with passion. “Think to the time when you’ve been in deep, deep prayer for another. Time seems to vanish, you can feel your spirit in harmony with God’s Spirit, and all outside distractions melt away. You have a sense of how to pray. It’s like you’re touching that person’s heart, your spirit is touching theirs. Do you know what I’m saying? Have you had those times of intercession?”
Reece didn’t wait for an answer. “We all have. That’s what going into a soul is like. It’s taking that experience, but going further. Much further.”
Dana crossed her legs. “Have you done this type of teaching before? Have you really gone into souls yourself? Or are we an experiment?”
Reece poked at the coals in the heart of the fire. Yes, in a sense they were an experiment. After all these years they were a massive experiment of faith, of believing that what the Spirit had spoken to him through the prophecy, through Doug, was true. That it was time once again to go into the souls of others and fight to set them free.
“Did you hear me? Do you have experience doing it? Taught others how?”
Reece nodded. “A long, long time ago.”
“So are any of your trainees still around?”
“Yes. Three are.”
“How many did you start with?”
“Five.”
“What happened to the other two?”
What should he tell them? He had two alternatives. Stay silent. Tell the truth. And the first choice wasn’t an option. But revealing the fear pounding at the outer shell of his heart was not required.
“They died.”
“They what?” Brandon lurched forward.
“Are you kidding?” Dana said. “Because of something you did? Or didn’t do?”
Reece stood and the breath he’d been holding whooshed out like a slashed tire.
“You have to tell us what happened,” Dana said.
“I made a mistake. One I will never make again. One I won’t let you make.” Reece strode toward the cabin. “Sleep well. There’s much to be done tomorrow.”
Brandon turned to Marcus and Dana. They both had to be questioning Reece’s sanity after the speech he’d just given them. “Am I the only one who has Mexican jumping beans dancing in his brain? Who is asking how long till this guy takes a swan dive off the deep end and tries to melt our minds?”
Dana shrugged. “I think he’s just a bit dramatic.”
“A bit?” Brandon opened his eyes wide. “He’s talking about traveling into other people’s souls and that’s a little splash of drama? People died and that’s dramatic?”
“To Reece ‘die’ could mean a walking away from the faith. I doubt he means physical death,” Dana said.
Brandon kicked the pile of kindling that sat next to the fire pit. “The ‘people died’ thing is hyperbole? Hmm.”
“You’ve been pretty quiet, Professor,” Dana said. “Any thoughts on the subject?”
“Not with regard to people expiring.” Marcus leaned in. “But I have been considering the quantum mechanics that would make the entrance into a soul possible.”
“I’m still trying to get my head around the teleportation thing.” Brandon sat back and folded his arms.
“Fine. That first. Let’s see, how can I explain this?” Marcus glanced around the fire pit till his gaze rested on Brandon’s journal. “Might I appropriate that for a moment?”
Brandon handed Marcus the journal and he opened the pages. “If this were a story, the characters in it would start here”—he flipped to the front of Brandon’s journal, held it open, and pointed at the first page—“and end here.” He flipped through the journal till he came to the last page.
“They would move in a linear fashion from start to finish. They would not possess the ability to exist outside the pages, correct?
“But God is the author of the story. He exists outside the book. We are finite looking out. God is the infinite looking in. He can progress to the front, the middle, the end whenever he desires. There are no restrictions upon him. He can enter the characters’ lives wherever and whenever he wants to. As the author, when he’s composing the story, he can remove a character from one spot and insert him hundreds of pages later. To the characters it would seem miraculous, but to the author? Simple.”
“I want to know why Reece isn’t crazy saying we can go into another person’s soul,” Dana said.
Marcus rubbed his chin and Brandon knew exactly what he looked like when he lectured at U-Dub. “Would you subscribe to the belief that God is so far beyond our comprehension, we can’t even start to ascertain it?”
“Of course.”
Light seemed to fill the professor’s eyes and he rushed his words. “Think of, of . . . Calvin and Hobbes or Charlie Brown and Snoopy. They live in a two-dimensional world. They’re not free to explore the third dimension.
“If we entered into their world, what would it look like to them? Say we could extend our hand down into their universe. They would see a being appear out of nowhere, then vanish just as quickly when we pulled our hand out
.”
Marcus placed his hand on the pages of the journal. “Since they can’t comprehend the dimension we live in, our appearance would seem to be magic. Just as to us, exploring the fourth dimension and beyond would seem like magic.
“Now, what dimension do angels and demons live in? Certainly not on the physical plane. But we believe they exist. And they enter into our world from time to time.
“However, we are trapped in three dimensions just as Calvin and Hobbes are trapped in two dimensions. God created the dimensions, whether there are four or eleven or hundreds. And this is where he exists—outside all the dimensions. Ultimate freedom.”
Marcus squeezed his thumb and forefinger together and held them up. “The shortest possible distance between two objects is 1.6 x 10-35 meters. It’s called Planck length. Any shorter and it is not possible for quantum mechanics to distinguish between here and there. The shortest possible time we can record is 10-43 seconds.” Marcus snapped his fingers.
“It’s called Planck time. Any shorter and we can’t tell if the events happen simultaneously.
“Since God exists everywhere, he exists in those moments we can’t measure. He is outside of time, he’s outside of distance. He can transverse from one point in the universe to the other with no time having passed because he’s already there.”
Marcus looked toward the cliffs across the river and opened his arms. “If we can believe that, if we can grab hold of the faith to step into that . . .” The professor trailed off and held out his hands to them. “I believe there is a dimension . . . multiple dimensions of wonder and freedom that are far beyond our ability to fully fathom.
“And since our souls exist on a different metaphysical plane, I say God is powerful enough to transport us into this other dimension.”
Dana looked into the fire. “’No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined . . .’ ”
“Yes, Dana, yes! Through prayer, through faith and the power of the Spirit, we can go parsecs beyond our myopic vision. We are dealing with the infinite God, friends.”
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