The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure (9 page)

Suddenly the tropical foliage underneath the huge trees attracted my attention; I again looked at the unique form each plant exhibited. I also noticed the way each type of plant grew together with others of its own kind in what struck me as little communities. For instance, the tall banana tree-type plants were often encircled by small philodendrons who themselves were poised among even smaller fern-like plants. When I looked at these mini-environments, I was again struck by their uniqueness of outline and presence.

Less then ten feet away, a particular foliage plant caught my eye. I had often owned just this type as a house plant, a particular variegated form of philodendron. Dark green, its foliage branched out to about four feet in diameter. The shape of this plant seemed perfectly healthy and vibrant.

“Yeah, focus on that one, but loosely,” Sarah said.

As I did so, I played with the focus of my eyes. At one point I tried to focus on the space six inches to one side of each physical part of the plant. Gradually I began to pick up glimpses of light, then with a single adjustment of my focus, I could see a bubble of white light encircling the plant.

“I’m seeing something now,” I said.

“Look around some,” Sarah said.

I stepped back in shock. Around each plant within my vision was a field of whitish light, visible, yet totally transparent, so that none of the plant’s color or form was obscured. I realized that what I was seeing was an extension of each plant’s unique beauty. It was as though first I had seen the plants, then I had seen their uniqueness and presence, and then something had amplified in the pure beauty of their physical expression, at which time I had seen the energy fields.

“See if you can see this,” Sarah said. She sat down in front of me and faced the philodendron. A plume of the whitish light encircling her body erupted outward and engulfed the philodendron. The diameter of the plant’s energy field, in turn, broadened by several feet.

“Damn!” I exclaimed, which provoked laughter between the two friends. Soon I was laughing myself, conscious of the peculiarity of what was happening, but feeling absolutely no uneasiness at seeing, quite readily, phenomena I had totally doubted minutes earlier. I realized that the perception of the fields, rather than evoking a surrealistic sensation, actually made the things about me seem more solid and real than before.

Yet at the same time, everything around me seemed different. The only reference I had for the experience was perhaps a movie which enhanced the color of a forest in order to make it seem mystical and enchanted. The plants, the leaves, the sky now all stood out with a presence and a slight shimmer that suggested life there, and perhaps consciousness, beyond our ordinary assumption. After seeing this, there would be no way to take a forest for granted again.

I looked at Phil. “Sit down and put your energy on the philodendron,” I said. “I’d like to compare.”

Phil appeared perplexed. “I can’t do it,” he said. “I don’t know why.”

I looked at Sarah.

“Some people can and some can’t,” she said. “We haven’t figured it out. Marjorie has to screen her graduate students to see who can do it. A couple of psychologists are trying to correlate this ability with personality characteristics but so far no one knows.”

“Let me try it,” I said.

“Okay, go ahead,” Sarah replied.

I sat down again and faced the plant. Sarah and Phil stood at right angles to me.

“Okay, how do I begin?”

“Just focus your attention on the plant, as though to inflate it with your energy,” Sarah said.

I looked at the plant and imagined energy swelling up inside it, then after a few minutes I looked over at the two.

“Sorry,” Sarah said wryly, “you’re obviously not one of the chosen few.”

I shot a mock frown at Phil.

Angry voices from the path below interrupted our conversation. Through the trees we could see a group of men passing, talking harshly among themselves.

“Who are those people?” Phil asked, looking at Sarah.

“I don’t know,” she said. “More folks upset with what we’re doing, I guess.”

I looked back at the forest around us. Everything appeared ordinary again.

“Hey, I can’t see the energy fields anymore!”

“Some things bring you right down, don’t they?” Sarah remarked.

Phil smiled and patted my shoulder. “You can do it again anytime now. It’s just like riding a bicycle. All you have to do is see the beauty and then extend from there.”

I suddenly remembered to check the time. The sun was much higher in the sky and a light mid-morning breeze swayed the trees. My watch showed 7:50
A.M
.

“I guess I had better head back,” I said.

Sarah and Phil joined me. As we walked, I looked back at the wooded hillside. “That’s one beautiful place,” I said. “Too bad there aren’t more places like this in the States.”

“Once you see the energy fields in other areas,” Phil said, “you’ll realize just how dynamic this forest is. Look at these oaks. They are very rare in Peru, but they grow here at Viciente. A cut forest, especially one that’s been stripped of hardwoods in order to grow pines for profit, has a very low energy field. And a city, except for the people, has a different kind of energy altogether.”

I tried to focus on the plants along the path, but the act of walking disrupted my concentration.

“You’re sure I’ll see these fields again?” I said.

“Absolutely,” Sarah replied. “I’ve never heard of anyone failing to duplicate the experience once they’ve seen them initially. We had a research ophthalmologist come through here once and he got all excited after he learned to see the fields. Turned out he had been working with certain sight abnormalities, including forms of color blindness, and concluded that some people have what he called lazy receptors in their eyes. He had taught people how to see colors they’d never experienced before. According to him, seeing energy fields was just a matter of doing the same thing, of waking up other dormant receptors, something that everyone, theoretically, can do.”

“I wish I lived near a place like this,” I said.

“Don’t we all,” Phil replied, then looked around me at Sarah. “Is Dr. Hains still here?”

“Yes,” Sarah said. “He can’t leave.”

Phil looked at me. “Now there’s a guy whose doing some interesting research on what this energy can do for you.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I talked with him yesterday.”

“The last time I was here,” Phil continued, “he was telling me about a study he would like to conduct in which he would look at the physical effects of merely being near certain high energy environments, such as that forest back there. He would use the same measurements of organ efficiency and output to see the effect.”

“Well, I already know the effect,” Sarah said. “Whenever I drive into this estate, I begin to feel better. Everything is amplified. I seem stronger, I can think more clearly, and quickly. And the insights I have into all this and how it relates to my work in physics is amazing.”

“What are you working on?” I asked.

“Do you remember me telling you about the perplexing experiments in particle physics, during which these little bits of atoms appeared wherever the scientists expected them to be?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’ve tried to expand this idea a bit with some experiments of my own. Not to solve the problems those guys were working on in subatomic particles, but to explore questions I told you about before. To what extent does the physical universe as a whole—since it is made up of the same basic energy—respond to our expectations? To what extent do our expectations create all the things that happen to us?”

“The coincidences, you mean?”

“Yes, think of the events of your life. The old Newtonian idea is that everything happens by chance, that one can make good decisions and be prepared, but that every event has its own line of causation independent of our attitude.

“After the recent discoveries of modern physics, we may legitimately ask if the universe is more dynamic than that. Perhaps the universe runs mechanistically as a basic operation, but then also subtly responds to the mental energy we project out into it. I mean, why not? If we can make plants grow faster, maybe we can make certain events come faster—or slower, depending on how we think.”

“Does the Manuscript talk about any of this?”

Sarah smiled at me. “Of course, that’s where we’re getting these ideas.” She began to dig around in her pack as we walked, finally pulling out a folder.

“Here’s your copy,” she said.

I glanced at it briefly and placed it in my pocket. We were crossing the bridge and I hesitated a moment, observing the colors and forms of the plants around me. I altered my focus and immediately saw the energy fields around everything in my view. Both Sarah and Phil had wide fields which seemed to be tinted yellow green, though Sarah’s field occasionally flashed with a pinkish color.

Suddenly they both stopped and looked intently up the trail. Ahead about fifty feet, a man walked quickly toward us. A sensation of anxiety filled my stomach but I was determined to maintain my view of the energy. As he approached I recognized him; he was the taller of the scientists from the University of Peru who had asked for directions the day before. Around him I could detect a layer of red.

When he walked up to us he turned to Sarah and condescendingly said, “You’re a scientist, aren’t you?”

“That’s right,” Sarah replied.

“Then how can you tolerate this kind of science? I’ve seen these gardens and I can’t believe the sloppiness. You people haven’t controlled for anything. There could be many explanations for certain plants growing larger.”

“Controlling for everything is impossible, sir. We’re looking for general tendencies.”

I could detect an edge growing in Sarah’s voice.

“But postulating some newly visible energy that underlies the chemistry of living things—that’s absurd. You have no proof.”

“Proof is what we’re looking for.”

“But how can you postulate the existence of anything before you get some proof!”

The voices of both individuals sounded angry now, but I was only vaguely listening. What consumed my attention was the dynamics of their energy fields. When the discussion began, Phil and I had backed up a few feet, and Sarah and the taller man had squared off facing each other with a distance of about four feet between them. Immediately, both their energy fields had seemed to grow more dense and excited somehow, as though from an inner vibration. As the conversation progressed, their fields began to intermingle. When one of them made a point, his field would create a movement which seemed to suck at the other’s field with what appeared to be a kind of vacuum maneuver. But then as the other person made his rebuttal the energy would move back in his direction. In terms of the dynamics of energy fields, winning the point seemed to mean capturing part of the opponent’s field and pulling it into oneself.

“Besides,” Sarah was saying to the man, “we have observed the phenomena we’re trying to understand.”

The man gave Sarah a disdainful look. “Then you are insane as well as incompetent,” he said, and walked away.

“You’re a dinosaur,” Sarah shouted, which made Phil and me laugh. Sarah, however, was still tense.

“These people can make me angry,” Sarah said, as we resumed our walk along the path.

“Forget it,” Phil said. “These kinds of people come around sometimes.”

“But why so many?” Sarah asked. “And why right now?”

As we walked up to the lodge, I could see Wil at the jeep. The doors of the vehicle were open and gear was spread out on top of the hood. He saw me immediately and motioned for me to come over.

“Well, looks like I’m about to take off,” I said.

My comment broke a ten minute silence, which had begun when I had tried to explain what I had seen happen to Sarah’s energy during the argument. Evidently, I had not put it very well, because my comments had provoked only blank stares, and had cast us all into a long period of self-absorption.

“It’s been nice meeting you,” Sarah said, offering her hand.

Phil was looking toward the jeep. “Is that Wil James?” he asked. “Is he the guy you’re traveling with?”

“Yes,” I said. “Why?”

“I just wondered. I’ve seen him around. He knows the owner of this place and was one of the early group that first encouraged the research on energy fields here.”

“Come on up and meet him,” I said.

“No, I have to go,” he said. “I’ll see you around here later on. I know you won’t be able to stay away.”

“No doubt,” I said.

Sarah interjected that she too needed to go, and that I could contact her through the lodge. I delayed them for a few more minutes, expressing my thanks for the lessons.

Sarah’s expression grew serious. “Seeing the energy—grasping this new way of perceiving the physical world—grows through a kind of contagion. We don’t understand it, but when a person hangs out with others who see this energy, usually they begin to see it, too. So, go show it to someone else.”

I nodded and then hurried up to the jeep. Wil greeted me with a smile.

“Are you about ready?” I asked.

“Almost,” he said. “How did the morning go?”

“Interesting,” I said. “I’ve got a lot to talk to you about.”

“You’d better save it for now,” he said. “We need to get out of here. Things are looking unfriendly.”

I walked closer to him. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“Nothing too serious,” he said. “I’ll explain later. Get your stuff.”

I walked into the lodge and picked up the few items I had left in my room. Wil had told me earlier there would be no charge, courtesy of the owner, so I walked down to the desk and handed the clerk my key and walked back outside to the jeep.

Wil was under the hood, checking something, and he slammed it closed as I walked up.

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”

We drove out of the parking lot, then down the drive toward the main road. Several cars were leaving at the same time.

“So what’s happening?” I asked Wil.

“A group of local officials,” he replied, “along with some scientific types, have complained about the people associated with this conference center. They’re not alleging that anything illegal is going on. Just that some of the folks hanging around here may be what they call undesirable, not legitimate scientists. These officials could cause a lot of trouble, and that could effectively put the lodge out of business.”