A Dream Begins, Chapter 1

The intention of this novel is to convey the nature and techniques of advanced telepathy.

The journey is long.

From the Natural Telepaths own version of the Gospels, attributed to the Holy Spirit.

Now and then over a period of three years a brief, very brief, impression at first then a more solid mental image of a church or religious hall came to Darth and Helen. In time Darth associated this image Assemblies of God church, because with each such brief and often faint impression he was more strongly reminded of such a church or hall he once drove past. Among those on a spiritual journey, be it one man and woman as was the norm, or a small group, thoughts at a deep subconscious level flowed between the persons, in so doing coordinating the brain's ability to engage in a more complete Life in the Spirit telepathy.

Darth was not certain who the new Life in the Spirit group was. The images of the church gave him a tip, but sometimes his brain would then form the thought "Pentecostal Movement." Darth simply did not know anything about either of these two entities, the Assemblies of God or the Pentecostal Movement or whether these referred to much the same belief system.

When developing any new Faith Path for any group, the Natural Telepaths with their scientific skill in matters to do with telepathy, would only assist if a common interface was provided at a high "step" of spiritual enlightenment. A common interface to any major telepathy group and Life in the Spirit group (or Faith Path). For this reason when the visual imagery first formed strongly, it was Darth and Helen alone who imagined sitting in this Assemblies of God church. Soon a woman and man imagined being with them, and sat down on seats in the aisle. The woman in a dark brown suit, knee long dress, a white flower in her lap. The man in a white shirt and grey striped trousers.

Both had clearly attained "sufficient faith" to interact with the combined Life in the Spirit group that logically Darth and Helen were the head of.

Small "conversation" followed, this to coordinate the telepathy, then the man whom Darth decided to refer to as Preacher explained that he had understood the passage from the Natural Telepath's Gospels which spoke something like, "let the women explore paths of love, let the man reconcile flaws in such using faith."

The Preacher then pointed to the woman with him whose name they decided would be Josie among them, and to himself, and flowed very delicately to Helen, "I was thinking that I and Josie might qualify...and me and you."

Helen looked down, blushed, imagined a white flower in her lap (she in a dark red business suit, white shirt, knee long skirt) then stood and rather quickly walked to the back of this church. Stopped, turned, put a hand over her mouth looking at disbelief at the Preacher. Put simply, between two couples accepted as married in Life in the spirit, to "explore paths of love" actually meant something like wife swapping for a session. The consent had to come from the four persons concerned of course.

Another woman image managed to imagine herself in this church sitting near Josie. She wore a light shirt and a long skirt. She leant and whispered to Josie, "the way that woman looks, any man might desire such a thing...did our Preacher clearly understand what exploring the paths of love exactly meant?"

The Preacher, while not privileged to hear that private discussion, was intelligent enough to suspect what the two women might have been "suspicious" about. He leant a touch and shook the new woman's hand, introduced himself, and explained, "I was not thinking of sexual telepathy, but of a deep spirit to spirit connection, soul to soul."

Lisa-1, in an elegant or perhaps pretty might be better to describe her long yellow and green gown, imagined standing near Helen then walked to the Preacher and his two parishioners, sat down neatly on the floor, pointed to Darth, "his spirit is so refined, his soul so perfect, that either of your two friends might feel and see themselves as the Devil if they were to form such an intimate connection. Helen's", Lisa-1 pointed to Helen, "spirit is the Jewish spirit, and its history, to connect to that you would need to be Superman, able to evade a million souls crying and lamenting - in the Jewish spirit there is, it feels like it, a continuum from the past to the present, and somehow all Jews in some sense, it is how it feels, are part of her spirit. Wish to dance with death, Preacher?"

The Preacher leant down and said softly, "I do believe I have the faith..and a right in some way...to at least explain what I meant, and let this group feel through if it is warranted."

"I meant no offense", Lisa-1 smiled and tapped the man's knee, "I simply felt that you need to be warned if you are seriously interested in what you suggested."

Lana also imagined being in this setting, near Helen. She sensed what this was about and called Darth outside the main hall, to a smaller entry hall in which against the wall was a long wooden seat on which both sat down.

Seeing Lana's mental image, Josie could not help but turn to the woman next to her, "gees..our Preacher should have waited for a while...that one is a man killer."

In the hall Lana was sitting sideways to Darth, stroking his arm, flowing softly, "you and I explored the paths of love once...I hated it...so did you...but we both were compelled to believe it was the right thing to test...and I feel it was good for both of us. Why are you so cautious with Helen?"

"You have a beautiful spirit", Darth replied, "but Helen has a spirit devastated by World War II, a spirit that has many dim and grey images that can seriously trouble a person. If a very intimate telepathy link forms, such images might come to the Preacher."

Lana put her head down. She became deeply moved by what Darth had said, "you have a beautiful spirit". She gave him a look of a woman hopelessly in love then walked back to the main hall and stood to the right and two steps behind Helen. She flowed to Helen, "hate it when he says things like that and means them from the bottom of his heart...makes me want to love him, submit to him, do anything for him."

"Tell me about it", Helen gave her a glance - she too was aware of how deeply Darth could move her heart and soul.

Lisa-1 sitting beside the three pointed elegantly to the two women at the back, "his wives become his security...each now standing still, channeling through her the telepathy channels that might interfere with this interaction, that might confuse. Life in the Spirit is above telepathy channels as we know them, but to touch it, a man or woman or child must learn how to cope with ordinary telepathy noise. Helen and Lana are now blocking that noise, so this interaction remains strong, visual, flow of thoughts and male and female tones easy and smooth."

(at this point, the settings shifted to the Methodists Faith Path, being developed, and documented in Chapter 4 titled A New Police Group. At this point in time, the horizontal set of telepathy channels being developed is to allow an interface between any other Life in the Spirit or major telepathy group, hence the persons aware and party to this interaction could see the whole interaction between the team helping the methodists - this faintly, in ordinary life the Padre or Josie could go about their everyday business, but the faint background imagery in their minds was adequate to explain to them much about how it was all put together.)

Josie, in particular the second woman whom for the moment was called Josie-2, felt Lana was most trusted to help this particular trio to understand if there was a Life in the Spirit "movement" among their "charismatic christian" kind, or if they needed to work with the combined Life in the Spirit to develop their own, as Josie put it, "charismatic" version of a Faith Path.

Josie, or Josie-2, soon worked out how to use some personal (but relevant) memories to form such settings (i.e. mental imagery others were aware of, some aware very visually others faintly but adequately) and learnt to "lock will with Lana" (i.e. Lana silenced her thoughts, allowed another to determine the theme of the interaction) and soon Lana, the imagery "ideal" (but small) life like images (or perhaps "very high quality cartoon, 3-D, images, might be best to explain these).

"That's me", a woman standing near Lana pointed to herself, "I am the one recalling this memory."

"Are you an artist?", Lana turned to her, "if so, you can enhance the quality of this", Lana wore white ladies gloves and she lifted her arm and made a circle with it as if indicating she was referring to everything in this dream-like vision, "imagery by drawing it, focusing on it, just once even, when it is also in your mind."

"Are you a real Muslim?", the woman asked, "I somehow feel you are."

"Sure, I am", Lana replied and pointed to her right, as she did the woman saw a projection into her mind of an office like large room with Lana at a desk, and two women in white Islamic outfits sitting on leather seats in the room. "That's not a real building", Lana explained, "it is our Headquarters, a potent virtual reality effect, management groups use that setting. In that setting you need to learn to walk...to manipulate the image of self so ordinary life actions are present."

The woman, dressed neatly, perhaps "charismatic ally" might be an apt description, held on to a child who in her other hand held an ice-cream. The woman imagined the child small, picked her up, spun her above her head, and put her down. She pointed to the girl child, "my offering to you."

Lana put her hand on her chest, looked about as if hoping this was not what it suggested, then imagined the child smaller and spun her above her head (i.e. traditional action, a bind, a telepathic bind in modern tongue) and put her down. The girl was small but Lana sensed perhaps not that young. The girl wore a whitish dress, wide around the ankles, with a pattern of perhaps flowers. "I don't know if you are a real child, I do not know this without a doubt", Lana flowed ever so sweetly as she touched the child's light brown hair, "you could be the image of hope in your people...Lisa-1 will know if you are a real child and if you are, in the spirit you will become a Catholic."

The girl looked up at her "mother".

"That's all right", Josie-1 replied, "we need someone assisting us to improve our own Life in the Spirit which is probably not very large or organized. Catholics do believe in Jesus and his teachings."

Lana rose and explained to Josie-2. "My husband, Darth, has three wives...the wives have an agreement...if any one gives birth in the spirit to a child, each accepts the child as theirs also..if one is compelled to adopt, each also does this...except...the burden of being a mother is Helen's, she is so good at it while myself and Lisa-1 are slightly less competent, and because we already have so many telepathic, in truth they are "in the spirit" children, but, anyway, the point being, Helen might not want another. So, while I accept her, that is on the condition Helen will also accept or not object."

A quick exchange along telepathy channels between Lana and Darth, Lisa-1 and Helen. Helen hesitated about adopting yet another child, but then agreed but insisting Lana takes most of the "mothering" upon herself. Lisa-1's instinct suggested this was a real child, a happy eight or nine year old, and hence she used her will, forcing the child to sit in her imagination in a room which was an image of the house Lisa-1 shared in ordinary life with two other Catholic Apostolic Sisters. In that imagery the child, taking to this strong mental effect, practiced walking without being asked. Adults had to be explained how to manipulate the mental imagery but children tended to work this out on their own. Lisa-1 waited still while the girl practiced this, then she sat down on the sofa, clambering onto it, sitting still. Lisa-1 imagined sitting next to her, put her arm around her shoulder. To Lisa-1 surprise the child could silence her own thoughts and flow a crystal clear thought.

"Wow, you could be a natural psychic", Lisa-1 said, which is not bad, cause you are born into a community of Natural Telepaths but...you have one telepathic father and three telepathic mothers...myself, a celibate Catholic Sister..", Lisa-1 put her hand on her breast as she said "herself" but hesitated after flowing the term "celibate" thinking this would mean nothing to the girl, "and Lana, who is an Islamic Holy Woman in ordinary life, married to the Qua'ram", Lisa-1 hesitated again, thinking she was being too complicated for the child, "and Helen, an ordinary Jewish woman but in accordance with their accreditation system she is a Rabbi in their Life in the Spirit. Never mind if you don't understand, ask later."

The child put her hand over her mouth, conveying she was amused by something. When Lisa-1 inquired she leant and put her hand to Lisa-1's ear and whispered, "I know what celibate means."

Lisa-1 decided she did not know what to comment, and locked will with Helen, who took over the mental imagery. Helen imagining the girl in their number 1 telepathic house imagery and she holding the child above her head and spinning it. Helen put the little one down who looked up and brushed her dress down and flowed so effortlessly in a child-like flow, "mum...if dad is seeing this mental image, he could see my knickers when you spun me like that."

Helen put both her hands to her mouth, astonished. Then she imagined sitting on the sofa and the girl with her, "sugar!", Helen muttered, "you are a psychic at least, perhaps a Natural Telepath born late...but...never mind...choose a name for yourself."

The child sat like a child, now she rolled her eyes as she pondered on a name. "uhm, Nicole", she replied.

Helen smiled as she studied this child. Already, at age eight or nine, she had a determination and a "will" of her own. Helen embraced Nicole and said, "well...your telepathic father is in for a surprise or shock...you have a will of your own...that is a trait of a God love...you are special...all the small angels we find gather under his wings sooner or later. Can't wait to spend some time together...for now...you are safe, secure, comfortable in your head, that I sense...so I will not spend time with you just yet...all right? We will let this new Charismatic Movement group, I don't know its proper name, to dictate what they would like from this interaction.

The child nodded, indicating she did understand, and the setting faded and the setting of the inside of the Assembly of God church became the dominant setting.

Then a new image formed in the mind of those online. At first faint the image became stronger. A deep of sense of "nobility" accompanied the image. In the image in the distance two Wizard creatures as if walking along the beach with hands behind their back, walking rather quickly, exchanging a flow between them that was cute, fun, child-like but adult too.

Wizard-1: The Natural Telepaths have conquered the world. Only pockets of resistance remain.
Wizard-2: Pockets of resistance! What a statement...like 99.99999999999% of the world.
Wizard-1: A tiny pocket then..but...the Natural Telepaths are brutes in some way...we need to help them be more civilized...consider their retaliation techniques...(the Wizard imagined a machine gun in his hands and started blasting at anything remotely connected with the main target, then the machine gun faded)..like any person or group, they have a right to retaliation but in a measured way, what's the point of destroying all however remotely connected to the main target?