Outview (26 page)

“So what do I do?”

“It’ll be different when you teach other
people, but since you’re one of the seven, all you need to do is get yourself
in a slight meditative state and disengage your personality by feeling pure
love. Surround yourself in white light, and you will feel a moving sensation, kind
of like how it feels to fly in a dream. Soon that will be gone, and you will
just be at places and times.”

“But how do I choose the places and times?”

“That part takes considerable trial and
error. Initially, what your soul needs you to see will be your destinations,
but you can begin to control it by focusing on what you want in your
meditations.”

“So, why has my soul needed me to see a
hundred of my past deaths?”

“You tell me.”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do. But you can answer yourself
later. Are you ready to go?”

“I want to find Dustin.”

“I know.”

“Will I?”

“I don’t know. I hope so.”

37

I sat on a warm boulder near the trees,
closed my eyes, and let the sound of the waves take me into a deeper state. The
surf sounded like his name, “Dussss-tin, Dussss-tin.”

Suddenly, there he was, sitting on a wooden
chair inside the green house. His face was pale; dark circles under his eyes.
He was thin, wearing a blue sweatshirt and sweatpants that were a size too
large. “Dustin,” I heard myself yell. I was sure his expression changed. Was it
possible to communicate with him? “Dustin, can you hear me?” His lips moved
with my words. I repeated and his lips moved again, saying his own name. I
moved right in front of his face. He mouthed my words as I said them. “Nate is
coming to get me. Nate is coming to get me,” I said. I saw a look of
recognition on his face, and then a smile.

Then he said out loud, “Nate is coming to
get me.” He couldn’t see me, but he could somehow feel what I said.

Not knowing how much time remained, I moved
away from his room. I needed to know where he was--a locked door, an agent in
the next room, two more on the deck. Drifting away from the house with an
aerial view, I saw a highway and recognized the mountains. My God, he was just
outside Ashland! The roads were familiar. Looking around and seeing the green
house, I knew it would be easy to tell someone how to drive there. I had
command of the astral!

I glided back into his room. “Nate knows
where I am. Nate knows where I am. He’s coming.” He repeated my words. Then he
looked around the room trying to see a sense of me. “I’ll see you soon, brother,”
Dustin whispered.

Then I was back. Spencer was walking toward
me from the ocean.

“I found him,” I yelled. “Spencer, I saw
Dustin.”

He smiled.

“I know right where he is. Let’s go get
him.”

“Nate, I need you to listen to me now.” I
could tell I wasn’t going to like what he was about to say. He had that look my
dad used to get when he had to tell me we couldn’t free the tiger from the zoo
or paint our minivan yellow.

“No, Spencer. Don’t you dare tell me we
can’t go get him. If that’s what you’re going to say, I don’t care. Tanya will
take me tonight. I’m not waiting until tomorrow.”

“Listen to me, Nate. You aren’t ready for
that. If you go now or even tomorrow, you will die and so will Dustin.”

“You don’t know that. You said earlier the
future is changing all the time, so you can’t know that for sure. You don’t
know.”

He looked at me, his eyes trying to calm. I
wanted to turn away but could not.

“You just want to make sure I save the
world or something. You don’t care what happens to Dustin. You don’t want
anything getting in the way of
the
plan
.”

He shook his head.

I stared at him.

“Have I ever betrayed your trust?” he
asked.

“I’ve known you two days, Spencer.”

“Do you believe that?”

I closed my eyes, finally breaking his
gaze.

“Nate. If you can’t trust me, trust the
universe.”

“Damn it, Spencer. I just want my brother
safe.”

“I know.”

“When? When can we get him?”

“Soon.”

My face told him that was not an acceptable
answer.

“That’s all I know. Nate. We must trust the
universe.”

“Do we have more to go over?”

He nodded.

“I need a break.” I got off the boulder and
walked down the beach, ripping open a pack of almond M&M’s. If I had so
much power, why couldn’t I make a Coke machine materialize when I needed one?

I wasn’t much good for our remaining time.
I was too distracted by Dustin’s physical appearance and how close he was. My
mother could be there with the police in about fifteen minutes. But what would
the police do? Arrest him and turn him back over to Homeland Security. That
might be a little better than his current predicament but probably not. The
truth was I didn’t know what could happen or what to do. And I didn’t know
about trusting the universe. My dad probably trusted the universe; it didn’t
work out well for him. All I could do was trust Spencer.

He started explaining vortexes to me,
building on what I already learned from Rose. I knew they fell under Gogen. But
his normally simple explanations were not working on this topic. “Vortexes and
dimensional doorways are often located at sites considered sacred by indigenous
cultures around the world.  They’re almost always beautiful places. Even
unaware people will feel something at these spots: an increased optimism,
heightened energy, euphoria, some kind of awakening, healings. You get the
idea?”

I nodded.

“You’ll find large trees grown in a spiral,
boulders in strange configurations, anomalies of vegetation, geological
formations, or a marked absence of what is otherwise all around the area. There
are usually physical characteristics; they aren’t meant to be secret, but most
have been lost since no one is really looking.”

“Crater Lake? Mount Shasta?”

He nodded slightly, but his eyes held a
combination of wonder and awe. After a few seconds he continued. “And with your
increased awareness, you will find many of the less significant ones throughout
your travels. But remember . . . ” He paused and then whispered,  “Oh no.” A
rainbow appeared, seemed to liquefy and spill into the clouds. They immediately
blackened and it started raining heavily. It stopped as quickly as it had
started. I wouldn’t know until later, when it was too late, what he had seen.

“I was saying, even the less significant
ones are important. They will--”

“What just happened?” I interrupted. “Did
something bad happen to Dustin?”

“We need to stay focused. Dustin is fine.”

I exhaled.

“Now we have little time remaining, and
it’s crucial that you understand this.”

“Can’t you just give me a book to absorb?”

“There is no book written that comes close
to addressing the realities of this subject. If there were, we wouldn’t have
the troubles we do on this planet.”

“So, why don’t you just write one?”

“It would not be understood. Perhaps
you
will one day.”

“Are you seeing something in the future
that says I’m going to write about vortexes and other dimensions?”

“No, I am merely attempting to get back to
the topic we should be concentrating on.”

“Vortexes.”

“Yes. Every vortex is different, and two
people will react differently to the same one. But it is a charger, a
transformation tool and--”

“Can we switch to dimensional doorways?”

He looked at me exasperated for a moment,
but it quickly passed. “Dimensional doorways are located near every vortex.
They are found less often without a vortex, but those are nearly impossible for
anyone other than the most evolved.”

I was half-listening.

“Where the astral is accessed by your mind,
dimensional doorways are entered physically.”

“You mean I can walk right in?”

“Yes.”

“Where do they go?”

“Everywhere.”

“That’s a little vague.”

“Okay, it isn’t as though you come to a
heavy wooden door with a big brass knob, open it and find yourself anywhere you
want to be. Going on the astral is better for that type of need. Every
dimensional doorway is different, and they are almost completely invisible.”

“How do I find them then?”

“You’ll learn to feel them, but if you know
where one is, you can recognize it. The ones you know will appear like a
shimmering circle, kind of like the heat you see coming off the hood of a car
on a hot day.”

“There’s so much going on that people
aren’t aware of.”

“They used to be aware of everything. It
was something then. The unseen world is enormously deeper and much more
exciting than the human world, but when the two were combined it was a million
times more fascinating.”

“Are we trying to get back to that
combination?”

“In a way. But let’s stay on track here.
Dimensional doorways are a bit of a double-edged sword in this war. The access
they provide to power and knowledge is unmatched. If Lightyear gets--”

“Lightyear? You mean anyone can wander into
one of these things.”

“Yes.”

“Whoa! But you said they couldn’t use
powers for harm.”

“That’s not exactly what I said. Powers
diminish if they are used for harmful purposes. That’s why there’s almost no
true knowledge of our souls left, no connection, no access to our powers. They
diminished, were lost and then forgotten a long, long time ago. But dimensional
doorways are there. They are open and do not depend on individual powers. Perhaps
a great shift could close them or open them wider, but even a mass murderer
could stumble into one. They are not without defenses however. They’re
virtually invisible, generally located in remote places and, even then, an
entrance is not something you could normally accidently walk into. They’re in
odd spots that usually need to be climbed to. Many remain lost, even to the
most evolved.”

I kept seeing Dustin’s face. He would come
for
me
no matter what anyone said. I didn’t know what to do.

“I think we’ve done enough today.”

“But we just started on doorways.”

“Yes, and it’s a critical topic requiring
total concentration.”

“But--”

“You have considerable things to ponder and
practice.”

I knew his mind could not be changed. “How
and when will we meet again?”

“I’ll get word to you.”

“Thanks for the lessons.”

“You know all these things now, but they
take
practice
to be truly useful. Right now they can be more dangerous
than helpful.”

“I’ll be careful.” I started up the trail.

He shouted after me, “Don’t go near Dustin!
They want you to come for him. Dustin will be kept alive until you’re either in
their custody or dead.”

38

Tanya was waiting as I came out of the
woods. “I was about to call you.”

“I read your mind.”

“Really?”

“I’m joking.”

I didn’t want to talk about anything
spiritual; my brain was about to short circuit. For the two-and-a-half-hour
drive Tanya and I discussed music, movies, food, and anything I could think of
to keep my mind off the universe. Even so, my thoughts kept returning to Dustin,
and I continued to resist the urge to have her drive straight to him.

Red poppers and an unusually high number of
shapeshifting animals kept me on edge. At one point hundreds of crows flew out
in front of us. Even Tanya saw them. “That’s called a murder of crows,” she
said.

“I know. Not a good sign,” I thought of the
melting rainbow, black clouds, and instant storm earlier. Something was wrong.

When we got to Rose’s just after eight, she
was nowhere to be found. Her car was out front, but the house was unlocked and
empty.

“That’s odd,” Tanya said. “Wonder where she
is?”

“Maybe she’s out for a walk.”

“That would be a first,” Tanya was
concerned.

“Call her cell,” I suggested.

Tanya dialed the number, and we heard
Rose’s phone ring in the hall. “Now I’m really worried. Rose leaves her cell by
the door with her keys so she won’t forget to take it.”

We agreed to wait an hour before panicking,
but it was very strange. Rose knew we would be home in the evening and wanted
to hear everything. I used Vising to read the bushes, yard, and front door.
Unfortunately, I still couldn’t control the time I was seeing, so it was just a
random jumble of images, which could have been years before. Nothing unusual, but
I kept trying.