The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision (12 page)

I had been walking through thick woods that grew right to the edge of the stream, but ahead the landscape opened up in a series
of gently rolling foothills covered with old-growth forest— three- and four-hundred-year-old trees. Through a break in the
limbs, I could see a large ridge rising toward the southeast, perhaps another mile away.

I spotted a small grassy knoll near the top of the first hill, which looked like a perfect place to spend the night. As I
approached, movement in the trees caught my eye. I slipped behind a large outcropping and looked. What was that? A deer? A
person? I waited for several minutes, then carefully moved away toward the north. As I inched along, I saw a large man a hundred
yards to the south of the knoll I had seen before, apparently setting up a camp himself. Staying very low to the ground and
moving with skill, he deftly raised a small tent and camouflaged it with branches. For an instant I thought it might be David,
but his movements were different, and he was too big. Then I lost sight of him.

After waiting for several more minutes I decided to move farther to the north until I was completely out of sight. I’d been
moving no more than five minutes when the man suddenly stepped out in front of me.

“Who are you?” he asked. I told him my name and decided to be open. “I’m trying to find a friend.”

“It’s dangerous out here,” he said. “I would recommend that you go back. This is all private property.”

“Why are
you
out here?” I asked.

He was silent, staring.

Then I remembered what David had told me. “Are you Curtis Webber?” I inquired.

He looked at me for a moment longer, then abruptly smiled. “You know David Lone Eagle!”

“I only talked to him briefly, but he told me you were out here, and to tell you he was coming into the valley and that he
would find you.”

Curtis nodded and looked toward his camp. “It’s getting late, and we need to get out of sight. Let’s go up to my tent. You
can spend the night up there.”

I followed him down a slope and up into the deep cover of the larger trees. While I pitched my tent, he fired up his camp
stove for coffee and opened a can of tuna. I contributed a package of bread Maya had given me.

“You mentioned that you were looking for someone,” Curtis said. “Who?”

Briefly I told him about Charlene’s disappearance and that David had seen her hiking into the valley; also that I thought
she had been seen coming in this direction. I didn’t talk about what had occurred in the other dimension, but I did mention
hearing the hum and seeing the vehicles.

“The hum,” he responded, “comes from an energy-generating device; someone’s experimenting with it here for some reason. I
can confirm that much. But I don’t know whether the experiment is being conducted by some secret government agency or a private
group. Most of the Forest Service agents seem to be unaware that it’s happening; but I don’t know about the administrators.”

“Have you gone to the media,” I asked, “or to the local authorities about this?”

“Not yet. The fact that not everyone hears the hum is a real problem.” He looked out at the valley. “If I just knew where
they were. Counting the private land and the National Forest, there are tens of thousands of acres where they might be. I
think they want to conduct the experiment and get out before anyone knows what happened. That is, if they can avoid a tragedy.”

“What do you mean?”

“They could totally ruin this place, make it into a twilight zone, another Bermuda Triangle where the laws of physics are
in
unpredictable flux.” He looked directly at me. “The things they know how to do are incredible. Most people have no idea of
the complexity of electromagnetic phenomena. In the latest super-string theories, for instance, one has to assume this radiation
emanates across nine dimensions just to make the math work. This device has the potential to disrupt these dimensions. It
could trigger massive earthquakes or even complete physical disintegration of certain areas.”

“How do you know all this?” I asked.

His face fell. “Because in the decade of the eighties I helped develop some of this technology. I was employed with a multinational
corporation I thought was named Deltech, although later, after I was fired, I found out that Deltech was a fictitious name.
You’ve heard of Nikola Tesla? Well, we expanded many of his theories and tied some of his discoveries to other technologies
that the company supplied. The funny thing is that this technology is composed of several dissimilar parts, but basically
it works this way. Imagine that the electromagnetic field of the Earth is a giant battery that can provide plenty of electrical
energy if you can tie into it in the correct way. For that you combine a room temperature, superconductive generator system
with a very complicated electronic feedback inhibitor, which mathematically enhances certain static output resonances. Then
you tie several of these in a series, amplifying and generating the charge, and when you get the calibrations exact, presto,
you have virtually free energy right out of the immediate space. You need a small amount of power to start, perhaps a single
photocell or a battery, but then it’s self-perpetuating. A device the size of a heat pump could power several houses, even
a small factory.

“However, there are two problems. First, calibrating these minigenerators is unbelievably complicated. We had access to
some of the largest computers in existence and couldn’t do it. Second, we discovered that when we tried to increase the total
output beyond this relatively small size by enlarging the mass displacement, the space around the generator became very unstable
and began to warp. We didn’t know it then, but we were tapping into the energy of another dimension, and strange things began
to happen. Once, we made the whole generator disappear, exactly like what happened in the Philadelphia Experiment.”

“Do you think they really made a ship disappear and show up again in a new location, in 1943?”

“Of course they did! There’s a lot of secret technology around, and they’re smart. In our case, they were able to shut our
team down in less than a month and fire all of us without a breach of security because each team was working on an isolated
part of the technology. Not that I wondered much about it then. I mostly bought the idea that the obstacles were just too
great to proceed, so I thought it was dead-end research—although I did hear that several of the old employees were hired again
by another company.”

He looked thoughtful for a moment, then continued. “I knew I wanted to do something else anyway. I’m a consultant now, working
with small technology firms, providing advice for improving their research efficiency and use of resources and disposal of
wastes, that sort of thing. And the more I work with them, the more I’m convinced the Insights are having an effect on the
economy. The way we do business is shifting. But I figured we had to work with traditional power sources for a long time.
I hadn’t thought about the energy experiments in years until I moved into this area. You can imagine how shocked I was to
walk into this valley and hear the same sound—this characteristic
hum—that I heard every day for years when we were working on the project.

“Someone has continued the research, and judging from the resonances, they’re much further along than we were. Afterward I
tried to contact the two people who could verify the sound and maybe go to the EPA or a congressional committee with me, but
I found out one had been deceased for ten years and the other, my best friend when I was at the corporation, was also dead.
He had a heart attack just yesterday.” His voice trailed off.

“Since then,” he went on, “I’ve been out here listening, trying to figure out why they’re in this valley. Ordinarily one would
expect this kind of experiment to be done in a laboratory somewhere. I mean, why not? Its energy source is space itself, and
that’s everywhere. But then it dawned on me. They must think they are very close to perfecting the calibrations, which means
they’re working on the amplification problem. I think they’re trying to tie into the energy vortexes in this valley in an
attempt to stabilize the process.”

A wave of anger crossed his face. “Which is crazy and totally unnecessary. If they really can find the calibrations, then
there’s no reason not to utilize the technology in small units. In fact, that’s the perfect way of using it. What they’re
trying now is insane. I know enough to see the dangers. I’m telling you, they could totally wreck this valley, or worse. If
they focus this thing on the interdimensional pathways, who knows what might happen?”

He stopped suddenly. “Do you know what I’m talking about? Have you heard of the Insights?”

I stared for a moment, then said, “Curtis, I have to tell you what I’ve been experiencing in this valley. You may find it
unbelievable.”

He nodded and then listened patiently as I described meeting Wil and exploring parts of the other dimension. When I came to
the Life Review, I asked, “This friend of yours who recently died? Was he named Williams?”

“That’s right. Dr. Williams. How did you know that?”

“We saw him reach the other dimension after his death. We watched as he experienced a Life Review.”

He appeared shaken. “That’s hard for me to believe. I know the Insights, at least intellectually, and I believe in the probable
existence of other dimensions, but as a scientist, the Ninth Insight stuff is much harder to take literally, the idea of being
able to communicate with people after death… You’re saying that Dr. Williams is still alive in the sense that his personality
is intact?”

“Yes, and he was thinking about you.”

He looked at me intently as I continued to tell him about Williams’ realization that Curtis and he were supposed to be involved
in resolving the Fear… and stopping this experiment.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “What did he mean when he talked about a growing
Fear?”

“I don’t know exactly. It has to do with a certain percentage of the population refusing to believe that a new spiritual awareness
is emerging. Instead, they think human civilization is degenerating. This is creating a polarization of opinion and belief.
Human culture can’t continue to evolve until the polarization is ended. I was hoping that you might remember something about
it.”

He looked at me blankly. “I don’t know anything about a polarization, but I
am
going to stop this experiment.” His face grew angry again and he looked away.

“Williams seemed to understand the process for stopping it,” I said.

“Well, we’ll never know now, will we?”

As he said that, I fleetingly saw again the image of Curtis and Williams talking on the grassy hilltop, surrounded by several
large trees.

Curtis served our food, still appearing upset, and we finished eating in silence. Later as I stretched out and leaned against
a small hickory, I glanced up the hill at the grassy knoll above us. Four or five huge oaks made almost a perfect semicircle
on its crest.

“Why didn’t you camp up on the hill?” I asked Curtis, pointing.

“I don’t know,” he said. “The idea came to me, but I guess I thought it was too exposed, or maybe too powerful. It’s called
Codder’s Knoll. Do you want to walk up there?”

I nodded and rose to my feet. A gray twilight was descending across the forest. Commenting on the beauty of the trees and
shrubs as we walked, Curtis led the way up the slope. At the top, in spite of the fading light, we could see almost a quarter
of a mile toward the north and east. In the latter direction a near full moon was rising above the tree line.

“Better sit down,” Curtis advised. “We don’t want to be seen.”

For a long while we sat in silence, admiring the view and feeling the energy. Curtis took a flashlight out of his pocket and
laid it on the ground beside him. I was mesmerized by the colors of the fall foliage.

Presently Curtis looked over at me and asked, “Do you smell something, smoke?”

I immediately looked out at the woods, suspecting a forest fire, and sniffed the air. “No, I don’t think so.” Something about
Curtis’ demeanor was shifting the mood, introducing a feeling of sadness or nostalgia. “What kind of smoke do you mean?”

“Cigar smoke.”

In the growing moonlight I could tell he was smiling reflectively, thinking about something. Then suddenly I began to smell
the smoke.

“What is that?” I asked, looking around again.

He caught my eye. “Dr. Williams smoked cigars that smelled just like that. I can’t believe he’s gone.”

As we talked, the smell subsided and I dismissed the whole experience, content to stare out at the sage and the large oaks
beside us. In that moment I realized that this was the very spot where Williams saw himself meeting with Curtis. It was to
take place right here!

Seconds later I observed a figure forming just beyond the trees.

“Do you see anything out there?” I quietly asked Curtis, pointing in that direction.

As soon as I spoke, the form disappeared.

Curtis was straining to see. “What? I don’t see anything.”

I didn’t respond. Somehow I had begun to intuitively receive knowledge, exactly as I had received it from the soul groups,
except the connection was more distant and garbled. I could sense something about the energy experiment, a confirmation of
Curtis’ suspicions; the experimenters were indeed attempting to focus in on the dimensional vortexes.

“I just remembered,” Curtis said abruptly. “One of the devices Dr. Williams was working on years ago was a remote focus, a
dish projection system. I bet that’s what they’re using to focus on the openings. But how do they know where the openings
are?”

Immediately I perceived an answer. Someone of a higher awareness pointed them out until they learned the spatial varianees
as they showed up on the remote focus computer. I had no idea what that meant.

“There’s only one way,” Curtis said. “They would have to find someone to point them out—someone who could sense these higher
energy locations. Then they could map out an energy profile of the site and focus precisely by scanning with a focus beam.
Probably the individual wouldn’t even know what they were doing.” He shook his head. “These people are vicious. There’s no
doubt about it. How could they do this?”