14/11/2023
IN THE BEGINNING
a short story by
Bob Neeley
As life developed on our planet, the structure of the flora and fauna became more complex. What started in the oceans as simple one-celled organisms mutated, adapting to the changing world around them. Amoebae transformed into multi-celled organisms which in turn grew tails, fins and then legs for locomotion. Eventually some of these animals left the sea to inhabit the land. Growing to immense proportions were the dinosaurs, who ruled the earth for a very long time. Although very successful, the dinosaurs were not God’s idea of the perfect life
form for the earth.
After many millions of years of experimenting, God created the mammal, which he found quite endearing. Then a problem developed; the dinosaurs kept eating the mammals. This was
unacceptable, so the dinosaurs had to go.
With the dinosaurs long dead and the mammals becoming increasingly more advanced, a strange thing happened. One of the souls, who comprised the collective intelligence known to us as God, discovered that he could visit earth and occupy the bodies of the creatures that lived here. On his adventures into the world of the beast, he experienced the sensations of the flesh. At first he was overwhelmed by the emotions and visual effects. The act of eating was an unbelievably satisfying function in itself. Although limited, compared to the freedom he knew as part of the
universal mind, habitation of the earthly body offered pleasures that before were unimaginable.
A directive was issued from the Center of the Mind that this behavior was not wise and could have serious consequences. The adventurous one did not listen; he continued to visit the planet, borrowing the bodies of many animals. He found the speed and power of the horse to be exhilarating, and the hunting prowess of the big cats was awesome. Of all the animals, he found the ape to be the most pleasurable. The ape’s sense of emotion, sophisticated family structure, and manual dexterity were by far the most satisfying to him.
As he made more trips, the visitor became familiar with the demands of the body. The urge to procreate was strong, but although curious, he did abstain from this act. He wasn’t
sure why, but it didn’t seem appropriate.
The visitor was starting to feel uncomfortable with the attraction he had for his trips to earth. He was coming increasingly more often and staying longer. Once in the ape’s body, he was
finding it more difficult to leave.
Between trips, one of the visitors friends started asking questions about his experiences on earth. “What is it like?” “Is it worth risking censure from the Center?” Then the inevitable,
“Will you take me with you?”
By this time, the visitor was so addicted to the sensations of the flesh that he was blinded to the dangers and could not heed the warnings from the Center. He foolishly welcomed his friend to accompany him on his next sojourn to earth. He shared all that he had learned. They borrowed bodies from countless animals. The friend also the ape’s body to be the most appealing, with one difference. While the visitor enjoyed the male body, his friend found that of
the female to be the most satisfying.
The Center issued more warnings, but the visitor and friend no longer heard. They were indulging in the flesh more and more. They lingered on earth for weeks at a time, with the weeks
stretching into months.
They weren’t sure how it happened, or when they lost control, but they had. They didn’t mean to, but the desires had been too strong. When they mated for that first time, it was incredible. Neither could believe the intense flood of sensations that accompanied the climax. Their efforts to reach those magnificent heights again led to repeated coupling, to the point that time was soon forgotten. When they could not remember the last time that either had returned to
the Mind, a new feeling overcame them.
This new feeling, guilt, was different; it was not pleasant. Neither the visitor or his friend had any concept of wrongness, but they were learning about it very quickly. They tried to flee from the terrible feeling, back to the Mind, where these emotions did not exist. They could not.
The more that they tried, the more it became apparent to them that they were trapped.
Not being able to leave at will left Earth’s newest inhabitants terrified. They were discovering a whole new world of emotions: fear, shame, regret, and worst of all, isolation. Their
pleas for help to their soul-mates in the Universal Mind were undoubtably the very first prayers.
Slowly the memories of where they were from and how they came to be slipped away from them. They grew more like the ones whose bodies they had stolen, being driven by emotion and the demands of survival. They did retain a superior intelligence which was passed to their
progeny, and also allowed them to dominate their peers.
God was disheartened that two of his souls had been reduced to such a lowly existence. This instigated the formulation of a new plan. One that would not only bring the two home, but would change the planet forever.
One day two angels were talking:
“Say, did you hear what happened?”
“I heard that there were going to be some major changes, but I don’t know what or why.”
“That malcontent Adam started it with his foolish trips to earth.”
“I heard about that. Wasn’t he interfering with the project?”
“Yes, he was actually entering the bodies of the beasts.”
“How dreadful. So he’s the reason for all of those directives from the Center?”
“Precisely. It’s even worse than it sounds. He allowed Eve to go with him and they stayed too long. Now they can’t return.”
“What do you mean, can’t return? Why doesn’t the Center just bring them home?”
“From what I hear, it’s more complicated than that. The Old Man flew into a rage and shouted,
‘If they like it so much there, they can just stay’. I think he feels that we’re all drifting away from him, that we don’t love him like we used to.”
“We’re not going to leave Adam and Eve there all alone, are we?”
“Some of the others from the Center came up with a plan. It’s pretty complicated, but the Old
Man gave his approval. The hard part will be finding enough volunteers to implement it.”
“What do you mean volunteers, and why is it going to be hard?”
“ The volunteers will be going to earth. In order for the plan to work it will take a lot of us and will take many years.”
“Now I am confused. Explain the plan from the beginning.”
“The Old Man decided that Adam and Eve could come home if their love for him is strong enough, but they can’t do it by themselves. They don’t even remember him, now.”
“So, we’ll go down and tell them about him and they can come home, right?”
“It’s not that easy. We will have to occupy bodies like them to communicate, but when we do we will forget about him, too.”
“I’m not sure that I understand this. If we forget about him, too, how will any of us ever get
home?”
“At first, we’ll be more like animals than we are now. After many thousands of years, our consciousness will rise through evolution and socialization.”
“How will that work? The life span of the body is too short. This plan doesn’t make sense to me.”
“There will be a process called reincarnation. One will live out his life in one body, and when it dies he will go to a place to rest and recover from the trauma and reflect upon what was learned. There will be guides there to help sort out what was done and what still needs to be accomplished. The guides will also offer advice as to which type of situation will best help the soul to advance. Then a time and place of rebirth will be chosen. It will probably take thousands of lifetimes for one soul to return home”
“Thousands of lifetimes? We’re just supposed to happily agree to this?”
“One of the souls at the Center confided in me that the Old Man was actually beaming after they told him about their plan. You know, the way he does when we do just what he expects us to do. Like it is all written down somewhere and he knows just what is going to happen.
I know that I’m going to volunteer. What Adam and Eve did might have been wrong, but
they are part of us, and we will not be whole without them.
Another thing that I thought of is, if the Old Man perked up like I heard, Adam might have done just what was expected of him. So, how about it? Will you go?” “When you put it like that, all I can say is when do we leave?”
The earth never been the same. Those early primates evolved into Homo sapiens, more commonly known as man. Our species dominates the planet, possessing amazing conceptual
abilities and tremendous powers to shape the world to fit our needs.
For all of our knowledge, we are destroying the earth at an alarming rate. We kill our own kind in savage ways, and because of greed we allow an unacceptably large number of our own to
live in poverty, suffer from curable diseases and die of starvation.
The Omnipotent One has made his presence known to us for countless ages, even sending messengers who were willing to die horribly to emphasize the importance of the gift of enlightenment. Most of us here on earth are aware of God and have some idea what he wants
from us but are unable to do that which will break the chains that hold us here.
We will not give up the pleasures of the flesh or lay aside the heavy mantle of emotions that binds us to our bodies. We go to church to pray to God to save us, but we do not take the necessary steps to save ourselves. At the rate we are going, Will the planet last long enough for us to complete our journey home?
