by David Pugh
‘The African in Ananias and Sapphira’s house was not alive as you know it,’ the girl prepared us for a lecture on the Astral Plane.
‘Jeffrey knows something of the worlds between your life and so-called death, and I think Kaachan and Remus now realise that death is only a concept and not a reality. The house on the Negev peak does not exist in your time; it is out of time, a wormhole place between dimensions. The couple can see all that goes on in that astroscope that looks like the widescreen TV, they call it the Eye of the World. It’s like a Star Trek teleporter; they can fish for souls with it and, as they see it, help lost souls find direction.’
‘Wait a minute,’ I couldn’t let this remark go, ‘you watch Star Trek?’
‘We studied it at school,’ Tenshi continued, ‘we students are shown it so we can see how far humans are away from understanding the nature of the universe. It’s just a very popular Cosplay; Kaachan did her own naughty version, Sex Trek-Cosmic Cream Pie, so funny to see her being fucked by guys in Klingon masks!’
‘Tenshi! You haven’t seen all my films, I hope?’ Shizuko cringed, ‘What did they teach you at that school?’
I couldn’t quite believe this interchange, Shizuko was sounding like a protective parent of a daughter she had aborted. Of all the near insane things that had happened in my recent life, I was still being surprised by human nature. In this case how motherhood can encompass the bounds of what most would see as incredible and impossible. Then the concept of living eternally in Heaven with generations of your dead families and spouses sounds equally incredible. I asked Tenshi to continue to tell us about her school and her first meeting with Ananias and Sapphira. I also wanted to know if all aborted foetuses found their way to the Stolen Child School.
‘I do not know what criteria our teachers use to select their students or why I should have been chosen. They just told us that it was something to do with the development of the pineal gland. If a child was aborted before seven weeks, it had no pineal gland and was not yet truly human. After the first forty-nine days the gland bonds itself with souls looking to re-enter Samsara, the cycle of rebirth. I believe that I rejected all approaches from departed souls, I had a sort of virgin inner core, as I have no recollection of having been anyone else before. There were other students like me, but most were shown the person who lived inside them, souls who had chosen the route to become astral beings, rather than take on flesh and blood again. This path is not for everyone as it leads to an eternal astral life; those who want Nirvana can only achieve it by completing the life/death cycle, maybe a thousand times. It must be terribly disappointing that those who struggle to reach the state of Nirvana only find that they have just returned to the nothingness most are trying to escape from, but then they wouldn’t realise it would they as their ego is gone. I love being what I am, a star sprite, and feel blessed that Kaachan helped me become such a unique being, it is honestly such a privilege.’
Tenshi paused to hug her still bewildered mother before continuing,
‘We had a routine at the school, not daily as in our world there is no day or night. We had study time and play time; the play time was monitored so the teachers could observe our individual development. I was told off many times for creeping into your film sets, Kaachan, they said I would get caught up in cosmic sexual gratification when I was older; a lot of this goes on, you know. It was during this time of sexual curiosity that I came across Ananias and Sapphira, they were such an attractive couple. You might have met them, Kaachan; they used to come to Earth to make very popular one to one sexual instruction films. They had given themselves these godlike bodies, they even have had two books published, Beyond Tantric Sex and Meditation though Mutual Masturbation. We lucky ones, the Stolen Children, develop the same abilities as the Chosen Ones; the difference is we didn’t have the opportunity to make the choice, it was made for us. Isn’t it interesting that Kaachan is now a Chosen One?’
‘I’m not sure I have really made a choice,’ Shizuko interjected, ‘it feels like the choice was made for me too!’
Her daughter corrected her, ‘You did have a choice, you decided to play along with these two, intrigued by what they might offer you.’
I felt that Shizuko had been correct in saying that we had been chosen, rather than making a choice to become different people. Nonetheless, I asked Tenshi to tell us all she knew about this golden couple Ananias and Sapphira and anything that would shine a light on the ghost of Bob Jatta.
Chapter 87: Transhumanists – The Seekers of Absolute Power
“Humanists believe in the promise God made to Adam and Eve under the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. God whispered to them, ‘Ye shall be as gods.’ Transhumanism is the goal of humankind to reach a posthuman existence. Transhumanists share similar ambitions to humanists, respecting science and reason, walking a path of human progress, valuing all human and eventually transhuman life, above that of the so-called gods. Transhumanists await major changes in nature and the capabilities of humankind by embracing technology and scientific developments and not fearing change.”
Jeffrey Dharma, TRANSFIGURATION.
‘Ananias and Sapphira set out to break the natural order of existence by creating their own rules for humankind,’ Tenshi elaborated, ’because Peter was stupid enough to use the Cosmic Energy to destroy the couple in his realm, all he succeeded in doing was to propel them into the Void. They were so full of power that they were able to recreate themselves, discovering the truth of existence, more than Peter could have ever understood. Keppa, his true Aramaic name, rivalled Saul for making a name for himself in the “New” faith. He claimed that he could resurrect smoked fish, very painful for the fish, I’m sure, and make dogs talk; dogs already talk, he wasn’t the first to spot this. He put on big shows, the David Blaine of his time, a real crowd pleaser, and made a lot of money. He never suffered the inverted crucifixion by Nero; Peter paid his taxes and died in his big house on a Greek island with lots of concubines and a bad case of syphilis.
Tenshi continued, ‘There they are in the Void with this new tremendous power to call on and annoyed by the way they had been treated. They were a self-made couple, rich and good-looking, proud of their human achievements and determined to show us immortals that transhumans, which they now were, could do a better job running the universe.’
‘You’ve painted a very concise picture there, Tenshi,’ I was impressed that the young girl had even managed to get Remus to understand what was happening.
‘Bob Jatta, like them, same sort man,’ my friend observed.
‘There are many humans like them,’ Tenshi continued, ‘they are born with an arrogance that makes them scoff at the organised religions and believe they can do a better.’
‘I’ve been there,’ I said, ‘maybe that’s why I’m here now in the company of an angel.’
‘Please, I’m no angel,’ Tenshi laughed, ‘I am a different kind of being, but I can be very mischievous, that’s why I thought it would be fun to gatecrash your ceremony, sorry Remus.’
‘No sorry, you good, pussy like Mama’s.’ I don’t think my African friend will ever truly rise above his second chakra but maybe he doesn’t need to. I seemed to have jumped from the Sacral chakra to the Sahasrara in one, who says you have to work in stages?
‘Over time Ananias and Sapphira gained many followers,’ the Stolen Child’s lecture continued, ‘they have created these physical palaces, like the one in the Negev, in many sacred places in the world, but of course they exist in a different dimension. We Chosen Ones can see and enter these places, but this couple has created this dimension and it has its own rules. Your Bob Jatta is residing in their palace, but I don’t know why. We have been tolerant of Ananias and Sapphira’s doings because Keppa was wrong; in fact, what he did was an abuse of a gift and some of us believe that Evil possessed him. Their transhuman work could well be the true way, and I stress they are not evil.’
‘You’ve used the word Evil twice,’ I questioned
her; ‘Issa tells me there is no Evil.’
‘He explained to you that the Void is humankind’s enemy,’ Tenshi countered looking at her mother, ’Kaachan, you have battled with guilt because of the bus rape you blame yourself for. Jeffrey has suffered from years of depression feeling life futile, and Remus blames himself for the death of Sylvia.
’These are all negative states which keep the Void alive, the feeling of utter pointlessness of existence. Ananias and Sapphira fight against that too, they wish to celebrate the beauty of transhumankind and the futility of us gods, as they see us. The likes of Bob Jatta wish to harness the power of the Void for their own glorification, giving them power to destroy the world. He is a follower of Ha-Satan, the supreme agent of the Void, the destroyer of all life and hope, one who will relish in this formless state, the place of ultimate annihilation of self, where there is no good or evil.
‘In the Theogony of Hesiod, the ancient Greek poet said, “Chaos is a divine primordial condition, the origin of all things. An origin that is indefinite and indeterminate, infinite space and formless matter, the Void.”’
‘Hold on, young lady,’ I was perplexed here, ‘you are suggesting that Nirvana is the Void, in which case what are we all struggling for?’
‘Nirvana good!’ Remus put in, ‘Bob Jatta bad, Bob want Void; Bob want Nirvana, Bob Jatta good?’
‘Well put, Remus,’ I admired his brief summary of what we had just heard from the Stolen Child.
‘The dichotomy of existence,’ the child stated, ‘we come from Nothing and we wish to ultimately return to Nothing.’
‘What is the fucking point of it all then?’ this was the first time I’d heard Shizuko use that word outside of its proper usage.
‘Kaachan, your language!’ her daughter was shocked, ‘I’m sorry, it does make everything we do sound pointless, but if we were to believe that, then all of existence would have been for nothing.’
Then that I had a light bulb moment, ‘I’ve got it, I know what you are about to say!’
All eyes turned to me, Tenshi looking as if she were about to hand over the class to her star pupil.
‘Nirvana is a trick of the Void!’ I felt goose bumps at the realisation, ‘This is the purpose of our mission, to perpetuate the human condition, because without us there is nothing.’
‘Exactly!’ Tenshi clapped, ‘This is why Kaachan was doing the work of the angels, celebrating the glory of being male and female and relishing the perpetuation of your gloriously flawed species.’
The child turned to her mother, ‘Kaachan, you helped the universe to survive; the sacral chakra is the most important one, where life and creativity are born.’
‘My God!’ It was as if something I’d guessed a long time ago had come to be the truth, ‘“The Body IS the Light, the Body IS the Way!” thank you Leonard Cohen!’
Chapter 88: The Truth to Be Told
Dressed in my now customary white Punjabi suit, I climbed down the carriage steps onto Haridwar’s station platform. We found that Issa had been waiting for us, dressed as, well, Jesus; Remus was on his knees kissing the master’s feet.
Several Indian families had closed around the odd couple, all demanding, ‘One photo! One photo!’
I wondered if Issa would actually show up on their SD cards, so I snapped the scene on my cell phone, good publicity shot for the Church of the Living Jagannath; endorsed by Jesus! After the revelation that the ghost of Bob Jatta was stalking the world, Remus had been very upset and the four of us had discussed if it was possible to kill a ghost. Naturally, we looked to Tenshi for answers, as she had been to some sort of Harry Potter School for Angels. Being a sort of ghost herself, I asked her if she could die. The question upset Shizuko a lot, she thought she had killed her child nineteen years earlier and clung onto the girl tightly.
‘This body I now inhabit seems solid to you,’ Tenshi held her mother even tighter, ‘and does have substance in the here and now, but this substance can disappear in seconds because right now we are in human time, which anyway is an illusionary construction of your minds. Humans look at their body and what they see in the here and now, Jeffrey thinks at sixty he is old and he sees an old man in the mirror. If he took a photo of his image in the mirror and looked it again when he is eighty, he would see a young man. How old do you feel, Jeffrey?’
I thought for a moment and said, ‘Thirty-six, I started to feel older at thirty-seven; I’d been in a car crash in California and nursing my wounds, in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco. I met a real ’67 hippie. Dave was ten years older than me but I was the one who felt like an old man, Dave had bucked the system all his life and was forever twenty-seven.’
‘Exactly!’ Tenshi applauded, ‘You are as old as you feel; when your body has worn down, you’ll simply regenerate a new one.’
It seemed a bit pointless discussing the ageing human body with someone who lived a life in an astral frame. I did reach out to pinch Tenshi’s arm, as I was having one of those “is this really happening or is it all a dream” moments.
‘She feel real when I fuck her!’ Remus made me jolt, and I’m ashamed to say that I felt a pang of jealousy, Tenshi was lovely.
Shizuko was furious with him, ‘You didn’t fuck my daughter, your astral body fucked her astral body but you had your cock in my vagina!’
‘Wait a moment,’ I was confused, I didn’t want to discuss how many angels can dance on the head of a pin but I needed to put things straight, ‘I thought we were all agreed that human life is the dream, which makes our astral selves the real deal!’
‘You, young lady,’ Shizuko addressed her daughter in English, ‘astral body or not, shouldn’t go round fucking Africans you’ve never met!’
‘Oh is that so?’ her daughter, now also speaking English launched into a verbal attack on Dora Yaki, ‘And what about those three African-Americans you fucked on the set of Geisha Gonzo? No story, they just enter your room, strip you out of your kimono and fuck all your orifices!’
Years on from that day, I’m still amazed what power sex has over whatever type of body we possess. However, it does reinforce my belief that sex is the most powerful tool of self-expression that the human has. Death, as people call it, is just a supreme meditative process where we can learn to change every single atom of our being into pure energy, allowing us to travel through the universe. Time is an irrelevancy, as the action just taken place always exists somewhere out there, just as our futures are happening as we speak. All there is for us is the eternal present, whether we are living it in the past or future, it will always be now right where we are, today is always the human reality.
Sometimes in my dark, depressing past I used to think that I was sitting behind a screen, carried around by my temporal body. I’d sit behind the control desk and say ‘Go left, go right, straight ahead!’ My only reality was the chair behind the control panel behind my eyes. This was the result in an overpowering lack of self-confidence and self-worth, a feeling like vertigo, when I considered directing the body over the ledge and down into oblivion. Now I realise the power of the darkness that is Depression, and that day when we boarded the train to Rishikesh, three “Real” people and two “Astral” beings were taking the first steps towards the battle with humankind’s worse enemy. All five of us existed equally in that moment; our joint goal was to prepare for the fight. We had to demonstrate to people the importance of their mortality and celebrate the power of sexual union, no matter whom or how many they chose to unite with. The unity of the congress was sacred, as Jesus had preached, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the middle of them.” (Matthew 18:20)
Chapter 89: Rishikesh
I first came to Rishikesh with an open mind six years before these events and liked the place. My mind was like a sponge, ready to soak up spiritual wisdom; after a few weeks I had my sponge squeezed of almost every last drop of faith in the guru. I was called over by many a sadhu, the locals just call them Babas, to impart words
of wisdom. I’d gone over to them expecting revelation, just as John Lennon expected the secret of life to be whispered in his ear, when the Maharishi took him up in his helicopter. I kid you not, not once did I speak to a Baba, without the word ‘chapatti’ being tagged on the end. The truth is that for most of these old guys, finding the next meal is the priority of the day. There are a few ascetic exceptions who starve themselves during the day, practice intensive yoga moves but at night, even they will demand sex from the very few holy women. I used to let a holy woman use my bathroom, she had got herself to “the nunnery” to escape an abusive relationship. She came to Rishikesh expecting spiritual reassurance, and all she got was more violent abuse from these old wasters.
The younger Babas at least don’t have to rape old women, there are plenty of good-looking Western chicks who will give them as much sex as they desire, in exchange for the better sex lessons they disguise as yoga. Young folk who come here talk about inner peace and enlightenment, but honestly in most cases, it is just to get laid and make good use of the new postures they have found. Many sign up for a month’s teacher training at an ashram for $1,150 plus for a month course, so they can go back to California or Tel Aviv as fully qualified 200 hour Rishikesh trained yoga instructors.
The Babas have the Holy Mother Ganga as their bathroom but few commune with her as they believe that stale body odour is nature’s way, and some of their female students like it like that, the Babas would rather have a hot and sweaty live woman than a goddess.
When our little party arrived we were well into the first week of the Shiva Festival, thousands of young men in unprepossessing orange T-shirts and knee-length shorts were parading around town chanting, ’Bum bum Bhole’ in-between plunging into the Ganga. The two white sporty stripes along the thigh detract from any spiritual appearance; they are mostly farm boys on a two-week holiday, getting high without the aid of alcohol but looking like a badly trained football team. This group spirit doesn’t prevent them from behaving badly. A gang of Orange Boys moved into our ashram, trashing the room next door, leaving the toilet unflushed for days. Cleanliness of the body is very important to most Indian people, but they do not hold their environment in the same regard.