Abducted to Oz

  CHAPTER SEVEN:

  AN ALIEN PRESENCE

  After Graham had escaped from the castle, he thought about the Witchstanding there for a full half-hour and thinking how beautiful she wasgoing to be when she took the hat off and looked at herself in hermirror. He laughed out loud as he imagined how she would really lookwith that gooey mess all over her hair and face and clothes. But he knewthat once the reality dawned on her that the spell was a fake, that shewas just as ugly as ever, and that he had escaped, she would beabsolutely beside herself with rage. The boy's elation began to changeto fear as he considered the possible repercussions of his actions. Herehe was in a strange yellow land with no idea of where he was going orwhere to hide.

  He had been traveling through a wooded area which, for now, offered somemeasure of security, since he would be hidden from aerial surveillance,when he came upon a clearing. Actually, it was more than just aclearing; it was a perfectly round grassy clearing about fifty feet indiameter, and dome-shaped. As he studied the dome, it began to slowlyrise, exposing a round house with windows and doors and a grass-coveredroof. Graham stood perfectly still, waiting to see if anyone came out.When it was obvious that no one was coming, he cautiously walked towardthe house to see if he could see through the window. Suddenly, a loud,mechanical-sounding voice filled the air. "WARNING! YOU ARE APPROACHINGTOO CLOSE TO THE VEHICLE. PLEASE STEP BACK."

  At this point, Graham was more than a little confused. He knew that thissort of proximity alarm system was favored by some motor vehicle ownersback home. But the device seemed very out of place in Oz. Not to mentionthe fact that the sound was emanating from a house, not a car. At thatmoment, the round roof slowly started to spin and rose about four feetabove the house and hovered there. The outside walls receded back intothe ground to reveal a bright, shiny spaceship shimmering in thesunlight. A ramp unfolded to reveal two equally shimmering space beings.They descended (or rather, floated) down the ramp and stopped less thanthree feet from the boy. They were not very tall--about four feet inheight--and they were dressed in metallic-looking one-piece spacesuitsthat closely followed the contour of their slender bodies. They hadquite large heads, which were somewhat out of proportion to theiroverall physique. Their eyes were large and doe-shaped and were theblackest of black with no pupils visible. He sensed an intelligenceemanating from their eyes that was far in excess of ordinary people.Their skin was of a dull grayish hue; no color at all.

  Graham waited for them to speak (for some reason he was totallyunafraid). One of them raised his right hand in greeting. He spokewithout moving his lips. At least, Graham heard the words clearly insidehis head but could sense no outside sound.

  "Greetings, young friend. You stumbled upon our location, but it is ofno consequence. We know that you bear us no ill will."

  "Indeed not," replied Graham. "In fact, I am honored to make youracquaintance. I've always wanted to meet a space person."

  "Well," replied the other being, "you are a space person, too."

  "I am?" said Graham incredulously. "I'm afraid you're mistaken ... I amfrom earth."

  "And where, my little friend, do you think earth is? Is it not suspendedin space like all of the other planets? And does it not make a completerotation upon its axis every twenty-three hours, fifty-six minutes andfour point zero-nine seconds, and at a speed of a thousand miles perhour? And does it not orbit your sun every three hundred and sixty-fivedays and six hours and nine minutes and nine point five seconds, and ata speed of about twenty miles per second? And does it not revolve alongwith the moon, around a common center of gravity, and move with theentire solar system through your local star system at thirteen miles persecond? And does not your local star system move within the Milky Way atthe rate of two hundred miles per second, and does not the Milky Waydrift with respect to the remote external galaxies at the rate of onehundred miles per second and in all different directions, and does notyour galaxy itself make a complete rotation about an axis every twohundred million years? And does it not travel through space with over ahundred billion other suns of its galactic family, not to mention anuntold number of other planets?"

  Graham nodded meekly. "I knew our planet was in space. I just didn'tknow all the details."

  "Well," continued the being, "even if you mortals could travel at thespeed of light, it would still take you a hundred thousand years tocross your galaxy from edge to edge."

  The spaceman motioned toward the craft. "However, our ship could visitthe Andromeda galaxy, which is about two million one hundred thousandlight years from earth, and return before you could say _StephenHawking_. I'd say that is a little bit faster than the speed of light.We could not afford to waste two million years--actually, over fourmillion years round trip! We'd never get anything done."

  "Now, wait just a minute," said Graham. "You can't go faster than thespeed of light. They told us in school that would be against the laws ofphysics!"

  "We learned long ago," replied the spaceman, "that the laws of physicskept us very tightly bound until we found we could gain dominion overthose laws. You see, we earned that right over a long period of time.Dominion over physical law requires a certain knowledge of sciencebeyond the physical as well as a working knowledge of the spirituallaws. The two must work hand in hand. For example, your scientists areworking strictly from a physical perspective. They are totally unawarethat the atoms--the building blocks of matter--have a counterpart of ahigher frequency: one that falls outside of the realm of what you wouldterm physical. In any event, without that counterpart the physical worldas you know it could not exist.

  "Now, I want to demonstrate to you the practical aspects of ourknowledge. Our spaceship is vibrating at the atomic rate of thecollective atoms that comprise the material makeup of said ship. Now, aswe observe the ship, I am going to concentrate on this counterpart ofthe atom that your scientists might refer to as antimatter orantiparticle. These antiparticles are what we would call the pure stateof the atom. You might say they are the inner core of the atom. Youmight even say that they are the very soul of the atom, since theyfurnish the power that maintains the motion of the atom. In any event,this is the medium we work with. Incidentally, if you could observe themotion of this counterpart to the atom, you would see that it is inconstant motion as it conveys its power to the atom. It turnsincessantly upon its own axis, spinning like a top. It is constantlypulsating, gyrating, and, I might even say, dancing in a most beautifulmanner.... I might tell you at this point that the name we give to thiswonderful animating force, is, quite naturally, the anim. Now I am goingto concentrate on the atomic structure of our ship. I am going to raisethe rate of vibration, or frequency, of the individual atoms to thehigher rate of the anim state. As I do so, the ship will no longer bedetected by your eye-to-brain circuits. To your limited senses it willbe completely invisible to you. It is this little trick that plays havocwith the minds of your fellow mortals that occasionally catch a glimpseof our ships in your skies, only to see them disappear in an instant.Now, as I continue to concentrate, I am projecting the ship to a certaincoordinate: namely, a specific planetary member of the galaxy Andromeda.This is done at the speed of thought, which is instantaneous. There...."The starship vanished in less than a blink. "Now it's back again!" thespaceman announced. And, indeed, it truly was! "Well, what do youthink?"

  Of course, Graham was beside himself. He could not speak. "Wow!" he saideventually. "Wow!"

  "Naturally," continued the spaceman, "I had to lower the vibrationsagain to re-manifest it into your reality. But it is this manner oftransportation that enables us to come and go as we please and, in doingso, somewhat confuse your scientists and governmental authorities."

  Graham smiled.

  "Speaking of your scientists," added the other alien, "they wouldprobably be very interested to know that, long before the countlesssolar systems were brought into manifestation--in reference to the manyplanets, stars, gaseous bodies, and so forth--space was null and void ofall that is now in existence. The theater of
infinite space was empty.The actors had not yet made their appearance. Everything, every solitaryatom (and that includes the atoms that presently constitute your bodyand mine), were back in that great Core of Life. The Oneness. The Sourceof All. Some like to call this presence God. It is, however, a presencethat is very real, even to scientists who call themselves agnostics. Ifit were possible to become attuned to this presence, this Core of Life,you would be aware of pulsating with it. You would realize that you arereceiving a great force which enables you to move about in your physicalbody. This force is constantly nourishing every atom that is out therein space, every atom within the earth. It is the great unifying forcethat your scientists suspect must exist but have never quite been ableto get a handle on. However, they are getting closer to it with thediscovery of so-called dark matter. But to continue: the Core of Lifemay be pictured as a great sun, and yet this would not describe it, forit is larger than any sun could ever possibly be. And if we were to tryto measure it--and there would be no way to do this--we would find thatit would encircle not only one solar system, but many other solarsystems beyond. However, I am digressing from my story of the creationof the universe. Gradually or suddenly, depending on your viewpoint inthe great consciousness of time, the animatical forces from the Core ofLife caused the great expansion from the etheric state of matter,causing gross material to manifest through friction and be slushed offand begin to solidify. And when it did, the planets began to form. Firstone began to form over here, and then another one began to form overthere, and these in turn were followed by still others until gradually,within the great power that is concentrated at the point where theplanets were revolving, a great solar system came into manifestation.Then, after their birth, the planets were dormant for what may have beenmany millions of years while they were going through the coolingprocess. Then, gradually, over perhaps many million more years, thegerminal kingdom brought forth the different forms of matter, bacteria,et cetera. These in turn brought forth the various bodies, theanimalistic kingdom, and other forms of life that would be needed tohelp build and prepare the way and become an assisting force ineventually bringing forth the human expression. So you see, it was allcarefully orchestrated by that driving presence I mentioned. We are nowliving in the seventh group of planets. Yes, the universe as you know itexisted in six previous manifestations, returning each time to itsoriginal state. This seventh manifestation is the last. The time will comewhen there will be no physical planets, no physical remnants of thispresent universe. But not to worry, my little friend. You and I and,indeed, all expressions of what you might refer to as life will continueon, for life is eternal. It has always existed, and it always will exist.The physical expression is only a temporary condition. By the way, in ourhaste we forgot to introduce ourselves. My name is Agasha, and mybrother here is Araskus. Your world will, no doubt, be reading moreabout us. As a matter of fact, as we speak, I am receiving a telepathicmessage from a William Eisen who now resides in Oz. He reminds me thatwhile in America he brought forth some of my philosophy in writtendocuments entitled _Agasha: Master of Wisdom_ and _The AgashanDiscourses_. These works were written for adults, but older children whohave an advanced understanding may appreciate them, too. Mr. Eisen was apersonal friend of Mr. Evans, who at this moment is recording these veryevents as they occur."

  The two beings then shook hands with the boy and bid him farewell asthey returned to their ship. Moments later, the craft arose and tiltedin salute as it spun away beyond the horizon. Graham stood for thelongest time, staring at the spot where the spaceship had disappearedfrom sight. There were so many more questions he wanted to ask, and hewondered if he would ever again have the opportunity. One question hemeant to ask was that if it took two million, three hundred thousandsome years for light to reach Earth from the Andromeda galaxy, wouldthat mean that we would be observing it as it existed two point threemillion years ago? And that if it suddenly disappeared at this moment inour time, would we not know it for another two point three millionyears? That seemed like a very good question to ask, for it would meanthat when we look out into space, we are really looking back into time.Now that he thought of it, his science teacher had said that it takeseight minutes for light to reach us from the sun, so, if the sundisappeared three minutes ago, we would not know it for another fiveminutes. What a thought! Graham realized that not a solitary soul backhome would ever believe one word of his communication with the spacepeople, assuming, that is, that he would ever be foolish enough to tryto tell anyone. But the first thing he would try to do would be to findthe books Agasha had mentioned. He would do this the minute he gothome...

  HOME! OH MY GOSH! HOW LONG HAD HE BEEN GONE? AND HOW WAS HE GOING TO GETBACK? WHY, OH WHY HAD HE NOT TRIED TO HITCH A RIDE WITH THE SPACEPEOPLE?