Chapter 04: The Return of the Dead and the Test of Peace
This was a life form who apparently had no physical form. It existed
purely in thought energy, which was a completely new experience. Some life
forms had the ability to exist temporarily outside of their body. But this life
form had no body. It was a thought alone. Its aloneness was the most important
thing about it. It gave off a terrible feeling of aloneness. It apparently was
the only one of its kind in all the Mega-Universe.
After it had made itself known in this manner, it addressed the life of
the Mega-Universe.
“My children, I am God. The God of past mythology. The God which is the
creator of all. The God which created you and is so proud. I am proud that you
have finally reached this state. You have finally learned the importance of
each of yourselves. You have learned what you can do for yourselves, and you
have started on your own lives by making your own offspring (your technology).
“My children,” it continued, “I do wish that this wonderful peace that
you have achieved could go on forever. But first, I have a favor to ask of you.
I realize that for many of you, this will seem not only impossible but also extremely
strange. I would like to bring back to life all the dead of creation. All those
who have ever died would be brought back and placed in your society. I would
like to see these life forms learn your ways and, for the first time, be at
peace.”
Many of the life forms in the Mega-Universe were a bit perplexed. A
being who called itself God was considered to be a bit of a nut. After all, the
gods of the past were discarded. Why would an all-knowing God make life that
had to kill to live?
This being was a life form. It had thought, and it transmitted it in
the universal language. Therefore, it obviously was an entity, making it a
member of our community. It had the right to ask this favor. Those of us of the
Mega-Universe realized that we had a right to refuse its requests, but we also
realized that by refusing, we would be putting our rights above the importance
of its rights.
We realized the danger that these life forms of the past posed. Being
of the past, they were of a more barbaric time than ours. They, for the most
part, would not accept our ways. Many of them would resort to extreme physical
violence and killing in order to remain with their time. Many of them would not
be willing to exist at all and would attempt to discontinue their own lives. We
of the Mega-Universe would not refuse this being’s request.
After a few days, the preparations were ready to accept the billions
upon billions of life forms that would be thrust into the known Mega-Universe.
Also, three new universal planes were to be added to the Mega-Universe by the
being that called itself God. There were also to be added billions of new
planets to house the life of the past.
Now, as you can probably imagine, along with the other feelings that I
had at this time, being a newspaper reporter, I was extremely curious. My
editor, of course, felt many of the same feelings. He assigned me to travel
with one of the ships out to one of the new planets and report on the return of
these life forms.
As we approached the area of space where we were informed a planet
would appear, we felt a great sense of confusion. The scientists of our time,
one of whom was Kak, had informed us that this being, whatever it was and
whatever it could do, could certainly not create three universal planes and
billions of planets out of nothing. It was physically impossible.
As we got closer to the area, our instrument readings showed that space
was normal enough. There was no gravitational field of any magnitude near us.
After a little while sitting in this area, suddenly the instruments began to
read fluctuations in the gravitational field. Then the readings showed a
magnetic field. Finally, the infrared sensor picked up an extremely high energy
source existing over approximately the width of an average-sized planet below
us. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, a huge planet appeared.
This planet was incredible. Where there was nothing one moment, there
was now a planet. The planet had an atmosphere, with huge oceans containing
many different multicolored liquids. There were blue, yellow, orange, and green
seas.
There was a tremendous plain that covered nearly one-fourth of the
planet’s surface. On this plain, there was fresh green grass and flowers
filling the air with the smells of life.
It was at one end of this plain that our ship was now at rest. Our
orbit of the area was such that when the planet appeared, our landing bases had
ended up six centimeters below the planet’s surface. This was going to cause
some trouble on takeoff, but nothing the ship could not handle.
We disembarked and climbed to the top of our ship, where a great deal
of holographic and sensory equipment was stored to record the events that were
about to take place. The two life forms that were with me were what you might
call guides. Their function was to communicate with these beings and try to
explain what had just happened to them.
We were informed that the beings would be in a state of shock because,
whatever type of life forms they were and whatever type of death they had
experienced, it would feel as if the experience had just completed and life had
ended a millisecond ago.
Of course, the warning we were given was totally inadequate. Two
billion life forms suddenly appeared on the plain. Each one was in a state of
dying. Many of them refused to believe that they had died and were now healed.
Many of them were still lying there trying to die.
A great number of them were extremely perplexed. Each had an
expectation of an afterlife for being good or at least not extremely bad in
their lives. Some felt that they were going to someplace that would be painful,
a punishment for the way they had behaved during their lives. These had not
expected that to be here, in a grassy plain, being addressed by what had to be
considered freaks. This was a bit more than they could handle. They had
expected to be met by some sort of demon or an angel.
Another group was very upset because they did not believe in any form
of afterlife. When you get your mind set on something, it is extremely hard to
change it. These life forms expected to cease existing at the moment of their
deaths. Now they found themselves whole and restored on some strange plain on a
planet they had never seen before.
To some of them, it was perfectly all right because they had no wish to
die. They were glad to have this chance to live again. Others were more than a
little upset at the fact that their lives were to continue. For some reason,
they felt that their lives should end at this point.
The two life forms that had accompanied me set to work on their
assignments. Moya, the head guide, addressed the life forms’ minds.
“Life forms of the past, we welcome you back. For some of you, it has
been countless millennia. You will find that a great number of things have
changed since your deaths. Depending on how long ago you died, many of the
changes will be surprises. You may be surprised that the three of us up here
are each from separate worlds. For a great number of you, it may be a bit
difficult to decipher. Before you died, you lived on a world that you thought
was the center of everything. The life forms of the Mega-Universe have learned
to travel not just on their own planet or the space between their planets, or
even the space between the stars that they saw at night, but they have learned
to travel their entire universe and found many more to explore.”
“You also will find,” she said, “a great deal of change in the social
fabric. For many of you, society used to rule your decisions, telling you what
to do and when to do it. We will not make rules for you. Here, the individual
is the important element. Today, peace is ours because each one of us respects
everyone else more than ourselves.”
“Many of you,” she continued, “are from a planet that, before its sun
went nova, was known as Earth. For you, there was a saying that went like this:
Do unto others as you want them to do unto you. In many ways, that is what our
society is based upon. I will do anything you require of me and ask nothing in
return. You are what is important to me. Every life form is what is important
to me. Although I matter to myself, I am willing to sacrifice everything I am
in order to preserve what you are. I will help you see how you might change for
the better.”
Moya paused and then said, “I hope that you can understand this. You
will find that the dwelling you inhabited before your death exists for you
here. Whatever it was, you will be able to find it on this planet. If you find
this difficult, please stretch out with your mind and inform me or one of my
counterparts. We will attempt to locate you as quickly as possible. Please
remember that there are only three of us here. Our minds only travel at the
speed of thought, and we cannot do it all at once.”
“While I am on the subject of thought,” Moya said, “I should tell you
that you will find you can now communicate through thought. Just think about
what you need, and we will try to help you.”
Looking over the multitude before her, Moya continued, “We hope that as
you learn more of our society, you will be able to take up productive roles. It
is to this goal that all three of us have come here and are willing to assist
you in finding a trade or some form of meaningful work.”
“We also offer you,” she explained, “an opportunity. One of the things
we have discovered is that life should not take other life to sustain itself.
All of us have had our physical and genetic forms changed to feed on the energy
from a star. We offer this to each of you who wish to live in this way. For
those of you who do not wish this, we have already located animals and plant
life forms who are willing to die so that you may live. It is our hope that you
appreciate their sacrifice.”
At this point, there was an uproar from the crowd. The crowd was
divided into three sections. Those from the recent past could understand what
we were telling them because, in the period that they had lived, their world or
universe was approaching a similar view of life.
Many of those who had existed in the far distant past, before knowledge
arose on their planets, had extremely simple intelligence. They basically felt
an overwhelming fear. Slowly, they were calmed because the ideas coming into
their minds from these strange aliens were such that they could understand
them. In fact, they felt that the idea was their own. The majority of these
life forms, therefore, went immediately and had their bodies transformed. Their
still simple minds had no hunger, and they did not want to be hungry again.
The final group feared our technology because of all the mistakes they
had made with their own technology. They were also fearful of having their
bodies changed. They required more convincing of a nonbelligerent kind.
This last group was from the barbaric past, the period between the
planet achieving beginning technology with the simple machine and turning to
war and killing, up to the mid part of their atomic age. This period for most
planets was the most barbaric period.
The citizens of that time were upset with what they were being told.
These citizens believed that the state should tell each citizen what to do, or
at least ask. Even in a state that called itself free, law and order was the
goal of the state. Society placed restraints on the actions of the individual.
They could not comprehend a situation in which a citizen who has the right to
place restrictions on society does not use it. To them, this was a totally
alien way of thinking.
Most of them felt that they knew of someone they would like to kill if
law and order had not stood in the way. They could not comprehend the fact that
law would not stop crime.
At this point, a life form from this time period lashed out with a
great deal of antiquated communication. It is interesting to a person who works
with words all the time how many different ways anger can be expressed.
Although many of these life forms spoke the same language, most of them spoke
out using different phrases. The words were antiquated and, if used in the
society they remembered, would be considered obscene and vulgar. But after this
outburst, most of these citizens calmed down.
Moya addressed the large crowd again. “We also realize that for a great
number of you, this is a bit of a shock. You thought that in your life after
death experience, you would go to some afterlife which would be in a special
setting developed by your culture’s mythology or your own personal beliefs.
“For those of you who feel this way, we offer it to you. All you have
to do is think about where you want to be, and you will be sent there. But
first, may I offer you two things. Remember that the situation you would be
going to is a situation of the dead. You cannot grow any further once you are
there. The situation you are now in is one of the living. Here, you will live
forever, as long as you learn to work within our society. It is possible that
some of you may die, but the only way you can die in this society is a death
caused by another’s hand. It is impossible to die of disease here. If you are
injured in an accident caused by our technology or your own misfortune, you
will not die. The only way of death is the turning of another’s mind to the
destruction of your life. That can kill you, but only if you allow it. It is
the way of our people to die for the will of another’s thought. The decision to
die is yours and yours alone.”
“One last thought we offer you,” she continued. “You died once and
somehow came back to life. We do not understand how. A being that called itself
God brought you back. This being may be willing to do this again. We do not
know what its plans are because it has not made that clear to us. Please
consider these things and do not make a hasty choice. We do not know how great
the possibility is of returning to us again after you die, so please do not go
until you are sure. Now we will set ourselves to the work at hand.”
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