Life to Life: Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective (20 page)

Check out this description, from Ezekiel:
"As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a
great cloud, with brightness round about it, and fire flashing
forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were
gleaming bronze."

Ezekiel was a priest, a learned man. In
those days, the priesthood represented an educated elite. These
guys were like professors of today. Yet Ezekiel for all his
sophistication had no model to fall back on in trying to describe
what he saw. How would a North American Indian witch doctor who'd
never been exposed to civilized technology—not even a pickup truck
or a jeep—describe a phantom jet thundering through the skies?

"And from the midst of it
came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their
appearance: they had the form of men, but each had four faces
[designs?], and each of them had four wings. Their legs were
straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a
calf's foot; and they sparkled like burnished bronze."

From the midst of the fire? These "living
creatures" seem to be an attempt to convert something technological
into something natural (or supernatural), the only way Ezekiel had
to relate the phenomenon.

"...and their wings were
spread out above; each creature had two wings, each of which
touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. And
each went straight forward; wherever the spirit would go, they
went, without turning as they went."

He's talking about components of the whole,
I think. "The spirit" is the whole. Try to describe a helicopter to
someone who has never seen or heard of one.

"In the midst of the
living creatures there was something that looked like burning coals
of fire, like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures;
and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
And the living creatures darted to and fro, like a flash of
lightning."

Try describing beacons and whirling lights
to someone who has never heard of electricity.

"Now as I looked at the
living creatures, I saw a wheel upon the earth beside the living
creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance
of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the
gleaming of a chrysolite [a gemstone]; and the four had the same
likeness, their construction being as it were a wheel within a
wheel."

Or like a turbine?

"When they went, they went in any of their
four directions without turning as they went. The four wheels had
rims and they had spokes; and their rims were full of eyes round
about. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside
them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels
rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, and the wheels rose
along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the
wheels."

Without turning as they went, eh?

"Over the heads of the living creatures
there was the likeness of a firmament [blue sky], shining like
crystal, spread out about their heads."

Okay. Tell the kid about glass domes before
he's ever seen a window pane.

"And under the firmament their wings were
stretched out straight, one toward another; and each creature had
two wings covering its body. And when they went, I heard the sound
of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the thunder of
the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of a host; when they
stood still, they let down their wings."

Ever been in a football stadium with the
home team in a goal line stand, fourth and inches? Talk about
tumult and "the sound of a host"...

Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, has
just described to you his "visions of God" in the land of the
Chaldeans by the river Chebar..."and the hand of the Lord was upon
him there."

Shall we take him literally?

Why not. Ezekiel was not the first or only
biblical figure to describe the Lord in such terms.

In Exodus 13, when Moses
and the Israelites were withdrawing from Egypt, it is written:
"And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead
them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them
light, that they might travel by day and by night; the pillar of
cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from
before the people."

Later, in the wilderness,
Exodus 19: "On the morning of the third day there were thunders and
lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud
trumpet blast, so that all the people who were in the camp
trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet
God; and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. And
Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord descended upon
it in fire; and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln,
and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And as the sound of the
trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him
in thunder. And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, to the top of
the mountain; and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain,
and Moses went up. And the Lord said to Moses, "Go down and warn
the people, lest they break through to the Lord to gaze and many of
them perish."

Moses spent a lot of time
going up and down Mount Sinai, which would seem very time-consuming
except for an earlier clue in Exodus 19:3: "And Moses went up to
God, and the Lord called him out of the mountain, saying, 'Thus you
shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: you
have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on
eagles' wings and brought you to myself*..."

So how literal can you
get? These guys were not talking about dreams or wraiths or
apparitions. They were describing real-world events in space and
time, in the only words available to them. The Lord was usually
described as a mind-boggling force, rather than as an individual,
and there were always angels around for the personal
interchanges.

Thus, in Genesis 18: "And the Lord appeared
to him [Abraham] by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his
tent in the heat of the day."

Very real world. Picture old Abraham sitting
there, trying to get a little respite from the heat, when this
thing appears from nowhere.

"He lifted up his eyes and looked, and
behold, three men stood in front of him."

Three
men
. Where the hell did they come
from? And where is the Lord at this moment?

"When he saw them, he ran from the tent door
to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, 'My lord,
if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant.
Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest
yourselves under the tree, while I fetch a morsel of bread, that
you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since
you have come to your servant.'"

Ghosts don't need food and drink, do they.
And why would father Abraham grovel before these guys that way
unless he'd recognized them as angels from the Lord—or whatever you
prefer to call their vehicle. Never mind; in the ensuing
conversation, it is obvious that Abraham has revised his
identification; there are now "the Lord" and "two men."

"They said to him, 'Where
is Sarah your wife?' And he said, 'She is in the tent.'
He
said [my italics], 'I
will surely return to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife shall
have a son.' And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.
Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to
be with Sarah after the manner of women. So Sarah laughed to
herself, saying, 'After I have grown old, and my husband is old,
shall I have pleasure?' The Lord said to Abraham, 'Why did Sarah
laugh, and say, 'Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?'
Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will
return to you, in the spring, and Sarah shall have a son.' But
Sarah denied, saying, 'I did not laugh'; for she was afraid. He
said, 'No, but you did laugh.'"

The Lord sounds charmingly human there,
doesn't he.

The angel Gabriel does, too, in Luke, and
advanced years is still no bar to fertility: "In the days of Herod,
king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division
of Abijah; and he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her
name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God,
walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord
blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren,
and both were advanced in years.

"Now while he was serving
as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to
the custom of the priesthood, it fell to him by lot to enter the
temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the
people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there
appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of
the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him,
and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, 'Do not be
afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife
Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name
John.'

"And Zechariah said to the angel, 'How shall
I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in
years.'

"And the angel answered him, 'I am Gabriel,
who stand in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak to you,
and to bring you this good news.'"

Gabriel is going to be a busy angel, though.
In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, he is dispatched by
God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, "...to a virgin bethrothed
to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the
virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, 'Hail, O
favored one, the Lord is with you!'

"But she was greatly troubled at the saying,
and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be.
And the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have
found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb
and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.'"

According to scripture, this is how we got
John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ...and the real world has not
been the same since.

Was Mary really a virgin?

Why not.

The first test-tube baby
to arrive via
our
medical science did not appear until 1978. But it sounds like
our angels have been using the technique for a very long time. And
I would imagine that their methods, even way back when, would make
our present state of the art seem primitive indeed.

Did Maizey McCall have a miracle baby?

Why not.

I believe what we are calling it now,
present state of the art, is surrogate motherhood. And not
miraculous at all.

Chapter Twenty-Five: A Trail of Debris

Susan Alvarez was flat too pretty to be an
assistant D.A. Soft and bouncy raven hair framed a flawless oval
face and luminous eyes, tempting lips, a sometimes teasing smile.
With all that, a very sharp mind. She shook my hand and escorted me
into her office, sat me down, and went straight for the
jugular.

She asked me, in a soft melodious voice,
"What exactly does a psychic consultant do, Mr. Ford?"

I decided without even having to ponder it
that I would be entirely up-front with this young lady; no games,
no cutesy. So I replied, very soberly, "Depends on the case. If
it's a missing person, I can sometimes pick up a trail if I can
visit the last known whereabouts of the subject. Or if it's—"

"What do you mean by 'pick up a trail'? What
kind of trail?"

I thought about that for a moment, then
asked her, "Know how a bloodhound works?"

She thought about my question for a moment
before replying, "I'm not sure. Why don't you tell me."

So I told her, in my own inimitable style.
"Everything that is, smells. Even atoms smell. I smell. You smell.
Each in our own unique way. Has to do with body chemistry. Has also
to do with vibrational characteristics. An odor is a vibration.
The animal brain possesses certain receptors that are stimulated by
that particular kind of vibration. When those receptors are
stimulated, the brain perceives odor. Okay, so far?"

She smiled faintly and said, "Fascinating.
Please continue.

"Certain animal brains have developed
particular sensitivity to those vibrations. Some animals are more
sensitive to odors than to any other sense perception. A bloodhound
is particularly sensitive and has highly discriminating odor
receptors."

I was finished there, but she said,
"Yes?"

So I took it all the way.
"What a bloodhound follows is not an odor that lingers in the air,
like perfume left behind in a room by a woman. If you've ever
watched them work, the hounds are working the ground, not the air.
They are following a
trail
along the earth. It is a trail of debris. If they
were tracking you, it would be a trail of your debris."

"What do you mean?"

"All of us are shedding
matter constantly. Dead cells, bacteria. Falls off of us in a fine
cloud, all the time. And as we move, it leaves a trail. That's what
the hounds follow."

She shivered and said, "Ask a simple
question..."

I frowned and asked, "What was the
question?"

"I asked what you do."

"Okay. I used the hounds
as an example of olfactory sensitivity. But some brains, including
some human brains, have a sensitivity to certain other vibrational
characteristics that does not involve sensory receptors. Nobody in
science has yet been able to explain exactly how this peculiar
sensitivity works—or where the vibrations come from—but no serious
scholar disputes the fact that it does work. And that is how I
work."