Communion of the Mind
"That's our cue." Erin
nudged Eli with her shoulder.
Her mind shifted in low gear,
percolating thoughts faded into the soft vibrant substance of her body. Then
her awareness moved into a quiet place called the Lobby, a living room sized
space with soft light and a couple of ferns. Eli appeared beside her, a softly
glowing ghost of an avatar who turned to her and smiled. They reached out and
when their hands touched, their minds connected and they were once again two
selves in a chorus of feelings, thoughts and perceptions. Feelings of curiosity
and excitement gave way interest and nurturing. Call and response then harmony,
a plainsong of presence, of shared awareness. They blended and complemented
each other, like the intervals of major chords. Feelings rising and falling and
slowly blending, soft clouds drifting through the clear sky of awareness.
Once they were comfortable with
their twoness they reached for the door and passed into the Theater, a large
hall with indistinct
boundaries. Before them stretched a softly murmuring sea of voices and the
feeling of being in a large cavern. Pulsing lights drifted in the waters, the
slow ballet of shimmering clouds. The ocean of awareness was turbulent, chaotic
and fragmented. Brooding ambient churnings and subduction currents of confusion
pulled new aggregates of connected minds down into the depths of uncertainty.
Some of the groups experienced moments of beauty and exultation but it
dissolved around them back into a turbulent autumn of confusion and longing
that echoed the grandeur they had attained. Echoes of new ideas spun away into
the darkness and distant laughter was consumed by sadness. Tides of
determination slithered amongst the broiling waters of consciousness.
Intimations of clarity and
inspiration grew around luminous individuals and groups. The body of the
collective mind rose up from chaos and was brooding, dark and driven but waves
of kindness and compassion washed through everyone. And for a time the chorus of minds arose in a
long sought harmony into something remarkable, expansive and divine. It filled
everyone in the collective with something more than hope but less than bliss.
In a brief and wonderful moment they had awakened to and had become something beyond
description and limitation. Everything was vibrant, luminous and clear. A
collective sigh occurred and they had found peace. And out of that peace they
saw the unfolding of events from the present into possible futures. The
primordial patterns of mind structured the tsunami flow of information into
what could only be called wisdom.
Through the net they searched and
glimpsed other Minds struggling to awaken. A few were luminous and clear,
welcoming their connection though most were dark motes of confusion. They tried
to inspire those struggling to awaken but most were lost beneath their own
event horizon unable to awaken. Eventually the vision of creating Indra's Net
of a planetary Mind weakened and their community fell back exhausted into their
own. And even though the vision faded and they realized they could not
individually hold what they had found together, everyone was left with the
recognition that they had attained something remarkable.
Erin and Eli withdrew from the
Theater back into the Lobby and disentangled from their embrace. From there
they moved back into their bodies. She reached out to take his hand and smiled.
"Not bad." He turned to her and shrugged.
"Bastard." She whispered
loudly and hit him gently.
"That's my middle name."
He smiled and pulled her closer.
