"How do you know that?" a woman yelled. "Now you're getting away from facts. You're slipping into surmise."
"That isn't all he's slipping into!" a man shouted.
Hermann waited for the laughter to subside.
"Sister, I can prove to you that the resurrection is not something worked directly by God. It was and is performed by people like us. They may not be Terrestrials. They undoubtedly are superior in wisdom and science. But they look much like us. And some of us have talked face to face with them!"
Uproar. Not because the crowd had not heard this before, though not in just these terms. The unbelievers just wanted to have some fun, to relieve tension.
Hermann took a drink of water and by the time he'd put the cup down, he had comparative silence.
"This world and these resurrections, if not made with human hands, have been brought about by hands that are human in appearance. There are two men who can testify to this. For all I know, there may be many others. One of these is an Englishman named Richard Francis Burton. He was not unknown on Earth during his time, in fact, he was famous. He lived from 1821 to 1890, and he was an explorer, anthropologist, innovator, author, and linguist extraordinaire. Perhaps some of you have heard of him? If so, please raise your hands.
"Ah, I count at least forty, among them your consul, Samuel Clemens."
Clemens did not seem to like what he was hearing. He was scowling and chewing frantically on the end of his cigar.
Göring proceeded to recount his experiences with Burton, stressing what Burton had told him. The crowd was caught; there was scarcely a sound. This was something new, something no Chancer missionary had ever spoken of.
"Burton called this mysterious being the Ethical. Now, according to Burton, the Ethical who talked to him did not agree with his fellows. Apparently, there is dissension even among beings whom we could account as gods. Dispute or discord in Olympus, if I may draw such a parallel. Though I do not think that the so-called Ethicals are gods, angels, or demons. They are human beings like us but advanced to a higher ethical plane. What their disagreement is, I frankly do not know. Perhaps it is about the means used to achieve a goal.
"But! The goal is the same! Have no doubt of that. And what is that goal? First, let me tell you of the other witness.
"Again, to be frank . . ."
"I thought you were Hermann!" a man shouted.
"Call me Meier," Göring said, but he did not pause to explain the joke.'
"About a year after Resurrection Day, he, the witness, was sitting in a hut on a ledge on a very high foothill in a land far to the north of here. He has a natal name, Jacques Gillot, but we of the Church usually refer to him as La Viro, The Man, in English. We also call him La Fondinto, the Founder. He had been a very religious man on Earth during all his long life. But now his faith was smashed, totally discredited. He was bewildered, very troubled.
"This man had always tried to lead a virtuous life according to the teachings of his church, which spoke for God. He did not think that he was a good man. After all, Jesus Himself had said that no man was good, including Himself.
"But, relatively speaking, Jacques Gillot was good. He was not perfect; he had lied but only so he would not hurt another's feelings, never to escape the consequences of his own deeds. He had never said anything behind a person's back he wouldn't say to his face. He had never been unfaithful to his wife. He had given his wife and children an intense interest and love without spoiling them. He had never turned a person away from his table because of social position, political preference, race, or religion. He had been unjust a number of times, but that was from hastiness and ignorance, and he had always apologized and determined to repair these faults. He had been robbed and betrayed but had left vengeance up to God. However, he wouldn't let anyone walk over him without a fight.
"And he had died with his sins forgiven and the rites administered.
"So what was he doing here, rubbing elbows with politicians, back-stabbers, child-beaters, dishonest businessmen, unethical lawyers, rapacious doctors, adulterers, rapists, thieves, murderers, torturers, terrorists, hypocrites, cheaters, word-breakers, parasites, the mean, the grasping, the vicious, the unfeeling?
"As he sat in that hut just below the mountain, as the rain beat and the wind howled and the lightning exploded and the thunder boomed like the footsteps of an angry god, he pondered on the seeming injustice. And he reluctantly came to this conclusion. In the eyes of Someone, capital S, he was not much better than those others.
"It didn't make him feel any better to reflect that everybody else was in his state. When a man's sinking in a boat, knowing that everybody else aboard is going to drown doesn't bring much joy.
"But, what could he do about it? He didn't even know what he was supposed to do.
"At this moment, as he stared into the small fire, he heard a knock on the door. He stood up and seized his spear. Then, as now, evil men roamed, looking for easy prey. He had nothing worth stealing, but there were men who liked to kill for the twisted pleasure it gave them.
"He called out in his native tongue, 'Who is it?'
"'No one you know,' a man said. He spoke in Quebecan French but with a foreign accent. 'No one who means you harm either. You won't need that spear.'
"This astonished La Viro. The door and windows were closed. No one could see within.
"He unbarred the door. A lightning flash glowed behind the stranger, revealing a cloaked and hooded man of medium stature. La Viro stepped back; the stranger entered; La Viro closed the door. The man threw back his hood. Now the fire showed a white man with red hair, blue eyes, and handsome features. Under the cloak he wore a tight-fitting seamless suit of silvery material. From a silver cord around his neck hung a gold helix.
"The clothes were enough to tell La Viro that this was no Riverdweller. The man looked like an angel and might be one. After all, the Bible said that angels looked just like men. At least, that was what the priests had told him. The angels who had visited the daughters of men in the days of the patriarchs, the angels who rescued Lot, and the angel who wrestled with Jacob, passed for men.
"But the Bible and the priests who had read it to him had been wrong about many things.
"Looking at the stranger, La Viro was in awe. At the same time, he felt delighted. Why would an angel honor him, of all people, with a visit?
"Then he realized that Satan was also an angel, that the demons were all fallen angels.
"Which was he?
"Or was he neither? After all, La Viro, despite his lack of formal education and his humble station, was not unintelligent. It seemed to him that a third alternative existed. At that, he felt easier though still far from comfortable.
"After asking permission, the stranger sat down. La Viro hesitated, then he, too, sat down on a chair. They looked at each other for a moment. The stranger church-steepled his fingers and frowned as if trying to think how best to start. This was strange, since he knew what he wanted and should have had time to prepare for this visit.
"La Viro offered him a drink of alcohol. The stranger said he would take tea instead. La Viro busied himself with pouring the powder into the water and stirring it. The stranger was silent until he thanked La Viro for the tea. After taking a sip, he said, 'Jacques Gillot, who I am and where I come from and why I am here would take all night and all day if I told all in detail.
'"What little I can tell you will be the truth – in a form which you can understand at this stage. I am one of a group which has prepared this planet for you whom we resurrected. There are other planets re-formed for other Terrestrials, but that is not at present your concern. Some are being used now. Some are waiting to be used.
"'This world is for those who need a second chance. What is the second chance? What was the first chance? By now you must have accepted the fact that your religion, in fact, none of the Earthly religions, truly knew what the afterlife would be. All made guesses and then established these as articles of faith. Though, in a
sense, some were near the mark, if you accept their revelations as symbolic.'
"And then the visitor said that his kind called themselves the Ethicals, though they had other names for themselves. They were on a higher plane of ethical development than most Earth-lings. Notice that he said most. This indicates that there have been some of us who have achieved the same level as the Ethicals.
"The visitor said that his people were not the first Ethicals, not by any means. The first were an ancient species, nonhumans, who originated on a planet older than Earth.
"These were individuals who had deliberately retarded themselves, kept themselves in the flesh, as it were, instead of Going On. And when they saw that there was one species, also nonhuman, which was capable of carrying on The Work, they showed this species how to do it. And they passed on.
"The visitor called this species the Ancients. Yet, in comparison with those who had been their mentors, they were very young.
"Now, this is what the visitor said the Ethicals had learned from the Ancients. The Creator, God, the One Spirit, call it what you will, forms all. It is the universe; the universe is it. But its body is formed of two essences. One is matter; the other, for lack of a better word, is nonmatter.
"We all know what matter is. Philosophers and scientists have tried to define it exactly but have failed. Yet everyone knows what matter is. We directly experience it.
"But what about this nonmatter? What is it?"
20
"A vacuum!" a wag shouted. "the inside of your head!"
Clemens stood up and bellowed, "Quiet, there! Let the man speak his piece." And then with a grin, "Even if he makes no sense!"
"Thank you, Mr. Clemens," Göring said. "A perfect vacuum is the absolute absence of matter. A learned man once told me that there is no such thing as a perfect vacuum. It does not exist except as a concept. Even a vacuum is matter.
"Nonmatter is what the old religions of Earth spoke of as the soul. But the definitions of the soul were always vague, very abstract. The peoples of ancient and classical times, and their unliterate ancestors, thought of it as a shadowy thing, a ghostly entity reflecting palely the matter to which it had been attached before death.
"Later, more sophisticated peoples thought of it as an invisible entity, also attached to the body. But it could be re-fleshed after death, given a new and immortal body. Some Oriental religions thought of it as something which would be reabsorbed into the Godhead after numerous trials on Earth, after a good karma had been achieved.
"All these had some truth in them; they saw parts of the total truth.
"But we are not concerned with such philosophical probings. What we need are facts. The fact is that every living creature, from the simplest to the most complex, has its non-matter twin. Even an amoeba has its nonmatter twin.
"But I don't want to get into confusing issues or too much detail. Not at this time.
"The visitor said, 'Nonmatter is indestructible. That means that your body on Earth had its indestructible nonmatter twin.'
"At this point, La Viro, who had said nothing before, interrupted.
"'How many twins does a living creature have? I mean, a man changes in appearance. He gets older, he loses an eye or a leg. He gets a diseased liver. Is this nonmatter image like a series of photographs made of a man? If so, how often is the photograph made? Every second, once a month? What happens to the old photographs, the old images?'
"The visitor smiled, and he said, 'The image, as you call it, is indestructible. But it records the changes in the physical body it's attached to.'
"'Then what happens?' La Viro said. 'Wouldn't images of the rotting corpse be produced?'
"As I told you," Göring said, "La Viro was illiterate and he had never been to a big city. But he was not stupid.
"'No,' the visitor said. 'Forget for the moment about all matter and nonmatter except that composing humankind. The rest is irrelevant for our purposes. First, though, let's give this entity which you call a soul another name. Soul has too many incorrect meanings for humans, too many verbal reverberations, too many contradictory definitions.
"Speak the word soul, and unbelievers will automatically become deaf to what follows. Those who believe in souls will always hear you through the mental constructs which they formed on Earth. Let us call this nonmatter twin the . . . ah . . . ka. That is an old Egyptian word for one of the several souls in their religion. Except for the Egyptians, it will have no special connotation or denotation. And they can adapt to it.'
"From which," Göring said, "we know that the visitor knows something about Terrestrial history. Also, he could speak Canadian French, which means that he had studied much to prepare himself for this interview. Just as that Ethical who talked to Burton had learned English.
"'Now,' the visitor said, 'we have the ka. As far as we know, it forms at the moment of conception, the union of sperm and egg. The ka changes in correspondence with the change in the body.
"'The difference in the body and the ka at the moment of the body's death is this. During life, the body projects an aura. This is invisible to the naked eye – except in the case of a favored few – and floats above the head of the living person. It can be detected through an instrument. Seen through this device, the aura seems to be a globe of many colors and hues, whirling, swelling, contracting, shifting colors, extending arms, collapsing them. A wild and wonderful thing the beauty of which has to be seen to be appreciated. We call it the wathan.
"'A person loses the wathan or ka at the moment of death, which is when the body is beyond revivification. Where does the ka go? As seen through our device, let's call it a kascope, it usually drifts off at once, carried by what etheric wind we don't know. Sometimes it remains attached to a locality, why we can't guess. But eventually it cuts loose and drifts off.
'"The universe is filled with these, yet they can never increase enough to occupy all of space. They can intersect, pass through each other, an unlimited number can occupy the same space.
"'We assume that the ka is unconscious though it contains the intelligence and memory of the dead person. So the ka wanders through eternity and infinity, a vessel for the mental potentiality of the living person. A frozen soul, if you will.
'"When a dead person's body is duplicated, the ka reattaches itself to that body. No matter how far away it might be from the body in spatial terms, it flashes back at the first second of life of that duplicated body. There is an affinity between the two that knows no bounds. But when the reunion takes place, the ka has no memory of the interval between the moment of death of the first body and the first moment of consciousness of the second or duplicate body.
'"However, some have said that it is possible that the ka is fully conscious during its bodiless periods. Evidence for this theory was lent by a certain phenomenon of afterlife which was well documented, I understand, in the 1970's. As I remember the accounts a significant number of men and women who were legally dead were revivified. They testified that while dead they had experienced out- of- body flights, had watched relatives grieve and had been yanked back into life. Whether or not the ka does have a memory during these times, we are concerned only with its incarnations, its enfleshed states.'
"La Viro was both stunned and ecstatic. But he interrupted again, it seeming to be a human function, a built-in compulsion, to interrupt."
Göring paused, then said, "As I know only too well."
There was some laughter.
'"Pardon me,' La Viro said. 'How do you make this duplicate body?'
"He looked down at his own body and thought of how it had been dust and now was whole again.
" 'We have instruments which can detect and scan the ka,' the visitor said. 'These can determine the nature of and location of each nonmatter molecule. From then on, it is a matter of energy-matter conversion.'
"'Can you duplicate any ka at any stage?' La Viro said. 'I mean, what if a man died at eighty? Could you duplicate his ka at the age of twenty?'
"'No. The ka of the eighty- year- old is the only one existing. Then, while the mind is unconscious, the body made from the records is regenerated to the twenty- year- old state. All defects are corrected. A recording of that body is made and destroyed. For the first resurrection on the surface of this planet, another energy-matter conversion is made. During this process, the bodies are unconscious.'
"'What if you made two duplicates?' La Viro asked. 'At the same time? To which would the ka be attached?'
'"Presumably, to the first that was revivified,' the visitor said. 'No matter how synchronized the new resurrections, there would still be at least a microsecond difference. Our machines cannot cut it so close that there is an absolutely simultaneous revivifying. Besides, that experiment would not be done. It would be evil. Unethical.'
"'Yes,' La Viro said, 'but what if it were done?'
"The body without a ka would develop its own, I suppose. And though the second body is the duplicate of the first in the beginning, it would soon become another person. Its different environment, different experiences, would differentiate it from the first. In time, though it would always look like the first, it would become another person."
"But we are getting into minutiae. The important thing is this. Most disembodied kas go forever without consciousness.
"At least, we hope so. It would be hell to be imprisoned in an intangible body, without control of it, without communication with others, yet aware of it all. The inevitable result would be the torments of the damned. It is too horrible to contemplate.
"'Anyway, nobody who's been resurrected remembers the interval between death and the second life.'
"And so," Göring said, "La Viro was told that out of the billions who died on Earth, only a minute fraction was not part of that wandering horde of kas. A few went out. Disappeared. The visitor did not know where and why. The Ancients had only told the Ethicals that these few had gone on. They had united with the Creator or were at least keeping company with It.