“Learning is experience, everything else is just information.”
Albert Einstein
27
The morning was incredible. As usual, we watched as the birds came to the feeders—the catbirds doing more playing than eating. They were sitting on the covered swing and chasing each other around like a couple of kids. The smell of fresh air was a blanket to wrap it all in and reminded me that life is good, and everything was exactly as it should be.
Leyna, in a short pink nightgown and high-heeled slippers, read the paper while eating blueberry pancakes with local maple syrup. She sipped her fresh squeezed orange juice and looked over the front page at me as she bounced the foot of her crossed leg.
“Nice day, isn’t it, Sevi? This should be fun with Aysel.”
“For early October, this is an exception. A late Indian summer. I should think it —”
Aysel materialized in the seat I was about to take. I fell into her arms. She was dressed in black babydoll lingerie and black high heel sandals. I definitely didn’t have a frumpy great grandmother.
“Gotcha!” Aysel laughed and squeezed me. She rocked me around with her little body, and then kissed me hard on the lips again. I scrambled to my feet and took the other chair. Leyna gave Aysel the evil eye.
“Now, now, Leyna. Jealously is a lower emotion and gods cannot have that, so suck it up. I can do whatever I want with my great grandson,” Aysel said with deliberate intensity to Leyna, who backed off and looked like a corrected child.
Aysel poured herself an orange juice and relaxed in her chair, looking at Leyna, who had hidden behind her newspaper. She seemed to absorb information about Leyna as she studied her.
“Leyna, it’s good you went right back to reading after I made you jealous. It’s a sign of control to be able to slough off lower emotions.”
Leyna dropped the edge of the paper to look at Aysel and smiled. “Thanks, Aysel. I appreciate that. I’m only getting jealous because I’ve finally fallen in love with someone and you keep making passes at him. Not to mention you’re his great grandmother and it’s creepy.”
“Don’t worry about my passes and don’t be creeped out. Great grandmother is just a title. Someday, maybe I’ll fill you in on our lineage. Ours is not a normal family tree. Anyway, I doubt Sevi will catch any of my passes anyway. It’s good you’re reading the newspaper, too. As time goes on, living an immortal’s life becomes difficult. Most immortals tend to live outside of time, since it has so little meaning to them. Reading the paper is a way to stay connected.”
“I’ve always tried to stay up on things, one way or another.”
“That’s good for Sevi, too, since he isn’t a news-watching person, so you can keep him up to speed.”
“So, Aysel,” I said as I finished my French toast. “What do you have planned for us today?”
Leyna folded up the paper and went back to her breakfast while watching Aysel. Aysel was silent for a moment as she savored her grapefruit and the birds chattered.
Aysel swallowed and said, “Well, first I think we should somewhat reteach you two what you had learned to do from the wise man in the 1400s, plus the last gate. You were both very advanced. Now that she’s healed and can handle the powers, it’s time you both remember them.”
“You mean we already know and we just need to remember?” I asked.
“Every person on this earth has the capability to have the same powers you do. You learned to put aside your fears. You learned to change your paradigms of things like the way the world worked, what is right, and what is wrong. You learned that evil and good were just polarities of the same thing, like hot and cold, and both needed to exist in order for either to exist.
“You learned the world is multidimensional beyond the dimensions of time, length, width, and height. You practiced raising your energies through the various gates, achieving the sixth gate, which gave you many abilities.
“My intention is to reawaken that knowledge and complete all seven gates. Sevi, you have the download for the seventh already, so it will be easier for you. Leyna will be acquiring it as we go along.”
Leyna was eating her grapefruit and I watched her mouth relish the sweetness, her eyes closed. She licked her lips and spoke, looking intently at Aysel.
“Every person has the same capabilities? Everyone has access to this?”
“Yes, everyone. Unfortunately, all societies have a great way of imposing limiting paradigms on the population. This is done through belief systems, cultural norms, moralities, and so on.
“Societies use any number of control mechanisms to keep the general population in conformance and under control. Einstein said, ‘Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by the age of eighteen.’ He didn’t mean prejudices such as racism, but of the prejudices in our belief systems and paradigms.
“Here are some examples of what I’m talking about. What we think the world is and should be. What religion is right. What people are capable of. Whether there is life after death. Whether there has to be death or not. Whether or not some people can see the future or read minds. Whether we should get married and have children or be single. Whether homosexuality is right or not. These are all paradigms based on set beliefs and systems of thinking. The prejudices acquired by the age of eighteen.”
Leyna and I were absorbing Aysel’s teaching. “So, Aysel, we’ve been looking at things from our own narrow perspective. That’s why I kept thinking I was hallucinating.”
Aysel’s eyes lit up. “Bingo! Thank you, Sevi. Now you know why. Wayne Dyer, popular as a teacher of advanced living, said, ‘Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.’ It’s the same thing Einstein meant about prejudices. We view the world through our own lenses and blinders created by our paradigms.”
Aysel captured my interest. I never thought my assumed beliefs, or knowledge, could be wrong. “So, my world view is what limited my ability to believe in a new world view. My prejudices from how I thought the world was, messed me up.”
“I think you got it, Sevi. For example, we know scientifically there are eleven dimensions. How many people are aware of that and, if they were, would they be able to understand the implications, or change their paradigms to fit that model? Societal control would be lost if they did, but since most can’t, they can’t move forward. Societal control is safe.”
Aysel tapped her knuckle on the table. “We know this table isn’t solid, though it appears to be. There is literally more space in it than matter. People can’t grasp the implication of that either. E equals MC squared. Energy and matter are the same. Whom do you know who would even think about the implication? Yet, these are facts.”
Leyna was nodding as she squeezed the juice from the huge grapefruit into her bowl with her tiny hands. “But if they all have the capability and all knowledge is in the Akashic records, then why don’t they all know?”
“Because they can’t access the records due to their paradigms and fears, their lenses and blinders. The veil between worlds remains down, the door remains closed. Christ said, ‘Knock and the door shall be open.’ No one is knocking. They can’t see, or even believe, there is a door.”
Aysel poured herself some coffee. “Consequently, there are only a small portion who attain this level through multiple lives lived. Some, no matter how many lives they go through, will never get there, since they are too driven to conform to norms and beliefs, and end up like Leyna was, stuck repeating the same mistakes over and over.”
“So why are we so destined to take on this role of gods?” I asked. I sat back and enjoyed the rich, vibrant, aroma of the coffee in my cup as I raised it to my lips and waited for Aysel.
“Because of the advancements you made through your lives. In the 1400s, your souls were already very advanced. Then, you were given the wise man, wizard, who taught you as well. Leyna was actually fortunate her father was the jerk he was, because that is what caused Sevilen’s father to take her into your family, as
if she were another child of his. Both of you were then given the same instruction, and since you were ready and open, you learned. No paradigms got in the way. So, in a way, if it weren’t for Leyna’s dad, she would not be here today.”
I thought about it. “That sure sounds twisted, but the cause and effects do align.”
“Now, you’re both ready and primed to become what you were meant to be—what everyone is meant to be.”
Aysel gulped down her juice and stood up. Her babydoll revealed firm, pert breasts and shapely legs. I had to laugh. She wasn’t about to be judged. She didn’t care what others thought. Why should she? Not the usual grandma image, but a god.
Her tiny form stretched for the sky showing her tight belly. Hands on her hips, she looked down at herself.
“Oops. I never changed out of my entertaining clothes for breakfast. Sorry. I’m sure no one minded, though.” She looked at us with her head down and eyes up throwing a “you better not disagree” face with a big smile at us. “You’re right, Sevi, I wouldn’t care if you minded anyway.”
Aysel stood on her toes and lifted the other foot along her leg as if posing for a lingerie advertisement. “Abra cadabra cababa shabara.” She spun on her toe like a tornado and when she stopped, she was wearing black leather boots over skinny jeans and a long sleeve denim shirt. Her hair was in a bun on her head and she was all freshened up.
“Those words mean anything?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“Ab-so-lute-ly not. Just for the show of it, like all the rituals created over the years. Just something to make the humans feel they are doing something, and to engage the people watching. Totally unnecessary. I like to do it, though. Not everything has to be perfectly efficient, although you, Sevi, might like to have it that way.
“Now, want me to clean and dress you two, or would you like to do it yourselves today? I think you should. Leyna, do you like the way I’m dressed?”
“Yes, I think it’s cute, very sexy. But, as usual, not great grandmotherly at all, but I’ll drop that thought so I don’t get creeped out so much.”
“Damn it, Leyna! That is nothing more than a family title. A way to incarnate into human form to help Sevi and you become what you are meant to be. I am a god. I came here to bring you two forward, damn it!
“Who gives a second shit whether I’m Sevi’s great grandmother? That is just plain mundane thinking! I spent this earth incarnation to be here for Sevi and you and took on the title to do it. Sevi and I have no blood relationship, but I don’t want to tell you that whole story now either. So drop that paradigm of yours, treat me like any other soul on this earth, and drop that freaking image of me as a great grandmother. Do I look one hundred and six, or twenty-six?”
Leyna’s eyes were as wide as mine were. I never saw Aysel angry like this. Now I know why she hates me calling her Ninee.
Leyna looked at Aysel. “Uh, okay. Sorry, Aysel, I guess I do see your point. I was being mundane and using inapplicable paradigms here. The grandmother aspect means nothing. You are another soul who loves Sevi, who came to help us both. I get it.”
Leyna looked Aysel’s outfit up and down while Aysel cooled off. “I love the pants and boots. The whole outfit. You’re a gorgeous woman. Especially now that you got me straight on your true relationship to Sevi. The grandmother thing was just a vehicle to get you here for us. You’re a free soul. Thank you for helping me to see. And for spending a lifetime to help us.”
“You’re welcome, my dear. Sorry I blew up, but it had to be said. Now, know what I tell you to do will work. Don’t try, or go about it as if it might. Know it will work. First, imagine taking a nice hot bath and shower and your skin feeling squeaky clean. Imagine the feeling of brushing and flossing and whatever else your morning routine might include.”
Aysel observed Leyna as Leyna closed her eyes and imagined it. Leyna’s hair flew about her shoulders as if she were brushing it. The top of her nightgown lifted and it appeared that there were two hands beneath it caressing her breasts. Then Leyna’s eyes opened and she licked her lips.
“Wow, fresh brushed teeth and fresh washed. Incredible.”
“Very good, Leyna. Now look at my outfit and imagine yourself dressed the same. Don’t forget underwear so you don’t chafe.”
Leyna stood and studied Aysel as she turned around and displayed her full outfit. Leyna tried to spin on her toe, the way Aysel had, and ended up falling back into her chair.
“How did you do that spin?” Leyna said angrily, still in her nightgown, sprawled in the chair with her leg dangling over the arm.
“That was just for show, sweetie. You don’t need to spin. The way I did that wasn’t humanly possible, it was a bit like flying in place, and we haven’t gone over flying yet. Just imagine it all from where you’re sitting.”
Leyna looked up at Aysel, focusing on her clothes. She was bouncing her foot in the high heel slipper when she closed her eyes, and her foot was bouncing in a black leather boot with heels and the rest of Aysel’s outfit, when she opened her eyes. Her hair was in the same bun as well.
Leyna looked at herself. “Woo hoo! No wasting time getting dressed.” She stood up. “Oops.” She felt her bottom then closed her eyes. “Wow, I can even put underwear on when I already have my pants on. How efficient, huh, Sevi?”
“Nice job. Me next?”
“Yes, Sevi.” Aysel smiled.
I closed my eyes feeling the shower and the rest of the morning ritual and then imagined blue jeans, brown boots, and a white linen shirt. And, of course, underwear and socks.
“Nice job, Sevi, I wasn’t quite sure if you were going to look like us, or yourself.”
“Was I supposed to?”
“Only if you wanted. I personally like the female form better, but it’s up to you.”
“I’ll stay male, thank you.” I stood up.
Leyna turned to Aysel. “Where to, Sensei?”
Aysel took us each by the hand. “We’re going down to Bass Lake. I don’t feel like walking, though, so I’ll get us there.”
My skin crawled and we were there in a flash. We stood overlooking Bass Lake at the end where the boat launch was. The water wasn’t very deep and green slime covered it. Aysel grinned sheepishly as she changed into that of a Japanese Sensei—white flowing pants and wrap shirt with a black belt tied at the side.
“Okay, my students. Who will be the first to walk on water?” she said as she motioned to the slime covered lake.
Leyna was quick to speak. “No way! I’m not going to get all mucked up. Can’t you show us first?”
“Sure.” Aysel walked barefoot onto the slime as if it were solid. Her feet barely made a disturbance on the surface. She walked across to the other bank of the inlet to the lake.
“Come on over, guys. Just imagine it, and it happens.”
Leyna courageously shrugged her shoulders and started walking toward the water. She ended up walking right in and stood there in the muck.
We could hear Aysel from the other side laughing. “Come on. What kind of imagining was that? Imagine you’re walking on water, not in it. Try again.”
Leyna walked out; face red, boots and pants covered with guck. She turned, blinked, and strode ahead. Her first foot stayed on the surface, then her second. She kept going. Aysel cried out to her.
“Nice job! Now look out for—”
Leyna looked up and all of a sudden sank up to her breasts. She gasped and Aysel was bent over laughing. Leyna’s face was beet red.
“Aaahhh! Aysel! What are you trying to do to me?”
“I should have told you not to lose the image of what you were doing once you looked up. Don’t worry. Just put yourself back on top, walk back to the grass, and I’ll meet you there.”
Leyna floated up to the water’s surface and stood there covered in slime. She continued across and I took her hand as she approached the bank. Aysel was already there.
“Good job. You’ve walked on water. Wasn’t so hard now wa
s it?”
Leyna rolled her eyes. “Not hard at all. How come when I do it right, I feel as if, beneath my feet, there is an energy supporting me?”
“Oh, yes, that’s because it is. I should have told you that first and saved you from getting messy. If you felt and created that energy, you could control it, versus trying to continue to imagine the result. That’s a more direct method and much less likely to drop you in the drink. Sevi, why don’t you try? Draw energy through your feet from the earth and then walk out there.”
I imagined a force beneath me, flowing into me. It felt like an electric current of sorts. I could change the intensity of it as well. I used it on the grass to walk above the blades of grass and it worked. I continued to walk toward the water and was able to feel the resiliency of the water, but then I drew more energy through me and felt the water’s surface harden. I was then able to walk, and even run across the water, which I did, and came back to shore.
Aysel was there to greet me with a big smile on her face. “Nice job, Sevi. See, the knowledge is in you. A perfectly executed water walk. Now, Leyna, make it rain.”
Leyna stood there soaked to the bones and shrugged her shoulders. She closed her eyes, clenched her fists, and within seconds there was a downpour of rain in a circle barely extending beyond her hips. It washed the slime off her. She stopped it and opened her eyes.
Aysel snickered. “Leyna, dear, such a good effort. Very good amount of rain, but it seems you only gave yourself a shower. That’s okay.” She laughed again. “You needed it anyway. Next time I want you to feel the energy and direct it skyward through your hands to the clouds, and imagine it raining as far as you can see. Sevi, you try.”
I first imagined an umbrella, which Aysel did as well, and then made it float above me as I called the rains. A torrential downpour occurred as far as I could see; the rain shook the surface of the lake and bounced off the grass. Leyna was drenched again, and her eye makeup ran down her face. I stopped the rain.
“Good job, Sevi, perfect as a matter of fact.” Aysel floated up to me and kissed me on the lips. She landed on her feet and tossed the umbrella into the air where it disappeared. I did the same. “Leyna, why didn’t you cover yourself?”
Leyna was flaming red and fuming, but she retained her composure, speaking quietly and steadily. “I wanted to feel the rain and get a bit cleaner, of course. How the heck was I supposed to make an umbrella?”
“Oh, I thought you’d figure it out. I shouldn’t assume, should I? My bad. Feel the energy and use it to literally create an umbrella and feel the energy holding it above you. Try it.”
Leyna created an umbrella, let it float in the air, then tossed it and let it disappear.
“Very nice. Okay, throw a lightning bolt.” Aysel motioned with her arm as if to throw a baseball.
Leyna used the same motion. A basketball sized hole burst in the ground in front of her, sending mud and grass all over her body.
Aysel stood laughing. “I didn’t mean for you to copy my throw. You need to send it off from your fingertips. Feel the energy and then send it off. Sevi, show her what I mean.”
I pulled the energy and let it pass through me, as I aimed it through my index finger into the sky. A white, hot bolt flew upward from my fingertip at the speed of light and cracked in the sky. I could smell the ozone from it.
“That deserves a reward.” Aysel leapt into my arms, with her arm around my neck, and sucked my face with a deep kiss. She hopped off.
I looked at Leyna with her makeup running, her clothes and face covered in mud. Her jaw was clenched tight, as were her fists. Blue and white sparks were flicking off her knuckles.
Aysel corrected her again. “Careful, Leyna, don’t get frustrated now. You’re leaking lightening and you might hurt yourself if you’re not careful.”
Leyna wiped some mud off her face and took a deep breath, stopping the fire coming from her fingertips while her clothes steamed from the energy she had been pulling. She was literally steaming mad.
“That’s better, sweetie. Stay cool.” Aysel changed into a short denim miniskirt, low cut, tight tank top with no bra, and high heel brown boots. She took me by the hand and looked at Leyna.
“Okay, sweetie, follow us.”
We disappeared from Leyna and reassembled in the library at the mansion, on the couch, with Aysel pouring tea.
“Think she’ll find us?” Aysel said as she grinned and looked at me.
“What are you trying to do to her? She is getting very upset!”
“I’m testing her, of course. Jealousy, anger, ego, are all the things she had problems with before. I need to see she doesn’t have a reoccurrence of her old self.”
“She’s probably crying on the bank at the lake right now.”
Aysel waved her hands and showed what Leyna was doing before us in the air. She was kicking the dirt and throwing mud, but she wasn’t using her magic to make any problems. Then, as she finished having a tantrum, she sat on the mud in the grass and started to cry.
“I can’t take this, Aysel. I’m going to get her.”
“Whatever you want. I think she’s doing pretty well. She could be trying to blow me up by now. Maybe we’ve had enough training for today.”
“Yeah, I think so.” I took a cup of tea and went to Leyna’s side, put the cup under her nose, and stroked her head.
“Aysel was just testing you and you passed. She wanted to make sure you wouldn’t do the things you did before. It’s all over. Have some tea.”
Leyna took the cup and sipped from it while I imagined her cleaned, dried, and remade in a fresh summer mini dress and heels, on the couch in the library of the mansion, where Aysel sat next to me drinking her tea.
“There, that’s better now, isn’t it?”
Leyna looked up, surprised from the changes. “Why didn’t I think of that?” She threw a nasty glance at Aysel.
Aysel responded, smiling. “You were so upset, your smart side turned off, that’s all. You could have cleaned yourself up right when you first fell in the water. But, when the anger comes on, the brain shuts off, and you don’t think clearly. Sooo, the moral of the story is?”
“Don’t get angry, don’t get jealous, don’t have fear, and everything is doable.”
“Yes.” She reached across me and touched Leyna’s hand.
“Okay, Aysel, I was going to ask for an apology, but I guess I should thank you.”
“Darn right. You guys have fun the rest of the day. Tonight, after dinner, we’re going out for cocktails and dancing. Right now, I’m going to the Cayman Islands to see Mike and Auriel.”
Aysel changed to a thong bottom and string bikini top, high-heeled sandals, sunglasses and her hair in a ponytail. She left accompanied by the sound of steel drums as she faded from view.
“She’s too much. I don’t know about you, but I need a nap.” Leyna put her head on my shoulder and gave a big cat yawn. “Nappy time.”
We stretched out on the couch and I held her as she fell asleep in minutes. I listened to her snoring, the tick of the grandfather clock, and drifted off to sleep.
I dreamt we were in Prague at the top of the hill by the cathedral. There was a filthy red headed little boy smoking a cigar. I tried to figure out the scene, but it faded.