The Secret of the Ancient Alchemist (11 page)

“
That’s
amazing. A universe may be alive and kicking in us and we don’t
know it. That’s quite a force.”

“
There’s
a realm in us, Olsen, a realm that strengthens the
mind.”

A strong wind
blew through a thicket of tall trees, past the gothic structures of
the Divinity School.

“
We have
to find out if the realm is really in us, Tom, now that we know it
exists. I’m sure a whole lot more had been said in the
past.”

“
Where
would the ancient text be? I recall an ancient poem called
The
Thunder
. The author
spoke about a perfect mind that came from incomprehensible
silence.”

“
We must
find that ancient text. A full explanation of everything might be
in it.”

Hopping into a
taxi, Hart was sombre as the car headed to the airport. Olsen was
upbeat.

“
I’ve
said over and over our limited technology won’t let us find things.
We don’t even know if the Milky Way has water, that’s how far
behind we really are. I’m sure Bentley can help us find that
ancient text.”

“
The
archaeologist?”

“
Yes,
call him. He knows lots about ancient books.”

Chapter 27

Hart looked at
the fading landscape from the window of his Southwest flight on his
way back to New York. He reclined his seat and shut his eyes hoping
to catch sleep but he couldn’t. Finding the ancient text
preoccupied him. He wondered if he ever would.

Hart had so
many thoughts going through his mind that he struggled to contain
them all. He knew he had to be careful about bold remarks. Olsen
had warned him many times but it was difficult to be quiet about
Man’s journey, particularly, his journey to perfection.

Olsen’s
revelation of the deity,
Inti
,
having a perfect mind and poem’s reference to it weren’t isolated
ones. He had read of it too in Hindu philosophy.

Five thousand
years ago, the Hindu God Krishna had made an appearance as an
avatar. His teachings of a perfect Yogi fascinated him. A perfect
Yogi could be smaller than an atom, larger than a mountain. He
could achieve any material effect such as creating a planet, and
travel anywhere in the universe.

To achieve such
a state, a person had to access super-consciousness within. Lord
Krishna indicated the perfect state was the highest form of life
available to a human. Muni, a devotee, took years to achieve this
state, a feat that only could have been accomplished in the golden
era of Satya Yuga because it was a time when humans lived long. No
one could achieve it in the dark time of Kali Yuga. The form of
yoga prescribed is called Astanga Yoga of which there are eight
stages. But, was there a state beyond a perfect state? Lord Krishna
said there was. There was direct dictation, direct commands from
God.

Hart also
recalled Vedantic teachings proclaiming that matter, mind, and God
were all one and the same. If only he could find proof of the realm
within, he thought again. It would give credence to the notion of
human perfection.

He stared at
the stratus clouds that stretched for miles in the fading sunset to
ease his mind.

Two hours
later, he was outside J.F.K.Airport hopping a cab to his Alpine,
New Jersey, home. An hour more, and, with his workbag in hand, he
began walking to his door.

“
You’re
Dr. Thomas Hart, aren’t you?” a passer-by approached.

Hart looked at
the attractive woman with a Venus De Milo body that matched her
good looks. She held her hand out.

“
I’m
Laurie.”

“
How do
you know me?” he asked deeply puzzled.

“
You’re
on all the media channels. Don’t you watch TV?”

“
I’m
afraid I don’t.”

“
PBS
reran your discussion of the Inca date. Can Olsen really find
it?”

“
Yes, he
can.”

“
Oh!
Great! I was fascinated by your talk of dimensions too. Are you
looking for God?”

Hart laughed
aloud. His response attracted others and the sidewalk was soon
filled with people.

“
God, you
say?” He blurted out much to the woman’s annoyance. “I’m quite sure
that’s what I heard.”

“
Yes,
that’s what I said.” The woman stood firm.

“
Hey,
give us an answer,” the crowd shouted.

A man of his
own thoughts, it never occurred to Hart that people paid attention
to anything he might have said. As he summed up the situation,
searing eyes rested on him in the late evening air. Unaccustomed to
public displays, he wanted to bolt away but didn’t. Hart moved
forward and placed an arm around the woman. He spoke gently.

“
I’m
certainly not looking for God in the sky, my lady. I’m looking for
a supernatural presence in creation. Our path is to achieve
perfection, to become a god. Our minds can get us
there.”

“
Are you
crazy? Can you prove that?”

“
I can
and I’m not crazy. Imagine being able to skip through time, to meet
people from the past and future.”

“
So,
where’s hell?”

“
You’re
looking at it.”

“
Whad’you
mean?”

“
Evil
surrounds us. It enters our mind and locks us in hate. ”

With a wave of
clapping from the crowd, he moved on. He opened the door to his
high security condo and headed to the shower.

It was now 9.50
PM. according to the clock on his bed stand. Half an hour later, he
skipped down to his living room and picked up the phone, dialling a
number. It was Arthur Bentley’s. He straightened up as he heard the
voice on the line.

“
Hello,
Tom. It’s a real pleasure to hear from you,” Bentley
said.

“
How
ar’you?”

“
I
couldn’t be better. As you know, Olsen’s about to crack the date.
At the moment, I’m preparing for the
State of the Earth Conference
in Paris. Thanks for letting me
take your place and arranging my stay.”

“
The
world needs to know about the new age. I do hope everything goes
well. Most won’t embrace it.”

“
I intend
to get on that podium and talk about it. The Q’ero still support
their ancestral claim that the earth will witness a new
dawn.”

Bentley was
referring to an indigenous Peruvian clan. The Q’ero had lived for
years in isolation. Their ancestors had survived the Spanish
invasion by fleeing to safe ground fourteen thousand feet in the
Andes. They were discovered in 1949.

“
Their
mindsets intrigue me. What can you tell me about them, Dr.
Bentley?”

“
There’re
many things we can learn from them. What will interest you is the
ritual of Mosoq Karpay. It’s tribal power, power that allows one to
become luminous or an Inca.”

“
Luminous?”

“
It’s a
connection to a timeless world.”

“
Care to
elaborate?”

“
Mosoq
Karpay is similar to a cosmic phone call. A response comes from the
dead.”

“
The
dead?” Hart needed to be sure.

“
Yes,
from ancestors who answer from the beyond. The Q’ero speak a lot of
holes of time, portals, where one steps through to connect to the
future.”

“
Who can
render this power?”

“
Shamans.”

The information
excited Hart.

“
Is there
any text that substantiates this?” he asked

“
None
that I know of.”

He sighed.

“
What’re
looking for, Tom?”

Hart seemed
deeply disturbed, Bentley thought.

“
What I’m
looking for is something down to earth, yet,
supernatural.

“
Down to
earth but supernatural?”

“
Yes. I’m
looking for a portal to a realm.”

“
There’s
an ancient text that may interest you.”

“
Which?”

“
The
Gospel of Judas.”

“
What
about it?”

“
It says
that the true human is the inner human.”

“
Inner?”
He’d heard the word too often, along with
Kingdom within.
If only it had said
more.

“
The
gospel was put together by Gnostics. Judas, it seems, was a nice
guy. The Gospel is counted among the many hidden ones.”

“
I
believe that the kingdom referred to in scripture is nature. Nature
gives rise to a realm that’s in us. I need a text that’ll explain
our connection to it, something like a portal. Any other gospel you
can point me to?”

“
Hmmm,”
Bentley took a brief moment to think. Soon he spoke. “I believe in
the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, a gap was mentioned.”

“
A
gap?”

“
Check it
out. It may lie somewhere between the spirit and soul, I’m not
sure. The gospel is also called the Berlin Codex. It was purchased
by a German in 1896. It’s a fourth or fifth century Coptic text.
Many pages are missing.”

“
Where
was it found?”

“
It was
found at a Christian burial site in Akhmim, Egypt.”

“
Thanks,
thanks a lot, Dr. Bentley.”

Hart hung up
and headed to bed.

Chapter 28

It was dead
quiet when he awoke at 4.30AM and made a cup of coffee. The
calmness of the hour gave him a chance to reflect. For some
inexplicable reason his mind drifted to Jude Cavalle. He never saw
her again and he was grateful for that. But, there were times when
he wished he was a normal twenty-five year old, dating women and
being part of all the fun that life offered.

He couldn’t
remember when last he sat on a beach. Of course, Hart never danced.
All that was far from his own reality. He remembered Jude asking
him if he didn’t get bored. He hadn’t a reply for her, and, neither
his parents who bombarded him with questions about his personal
life and why he didn’t have one. But, that was how life was for
Hart and it didn’t look like it would change soon. He wasn’t a
social retard as most believed. He was simply too consumed by his
mission to find a supernatural presence on earth. His personal life
would have to wait.

The sun had
started coming up when he walked out his door. By 10.30AM, he was
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, skipping across the campus of
Harvard’s Divinity School. Walking at a pace, he thought of the
questions he would to pose to Carlon Leidman, Professor of Divinity
and Head of CSWR, the Center for the Study of World Religions.

Ten minutes
later, he faced the man in his office on the second floor.

“
What’re
you looking for, Dr. Hart?” Leidman was curious of Hart. He knew
about his work on dimensions and of his declaration that matter was
supernatural. It was with much intrigue that he waited for Hart to
speak.

“
Professor Leidman, first I want to thank you for taking the
time to see me.”

Hart liked
Leidman. The sixty something year old was not just cerebral but
warm and engaging.

“
Can we
begin with the Gospel of Mary Magdalene if you don’t mind,
Professor.”

“
You’re
asking me about a hidden gospel?” Leidman’s eyes squinted behind
his glasses, which he wore low on his nose. His porcelain white
face threw tiny beads of sweat.

“
Yes. Is
there something wrong with that?”

“
Not at
all. The gospel is a fifth century Coptic text. The original
manuscript was written in Greek. It’s apocryphal, not considered
divine but useful.”

“
Where
was it found?”

“
In
Akhmim, Egypt, unearthed from a niche in an old mud wall. But, let
me get to the contents.”

“
Please
do.”

“
The
gospel relates to a time after the resurrection of Christ. Mary
Magdalene was approached by the disciples, demanding the secrets
Christ had shared with her. It was accepted among them that he
loved her most.”

“
Secrets?
What secrets?” Hart pounced.

“
I’m not
sure what they were, Dr. Hart.”

“
You’re
not?”

Hart was
restless, Leidman thought. There was a look of urgency in his eyes.
His response didn’t surprise him. A respected man of Theology, most
believed he was a walking library. He coughed slightly.

“
Listen,
Hart, I think I know what you’re after.”

Hart
frowned.
How
could you, Leidman?

For a moment,
the two locked eyes. As they stared, Hart felt a current telling
him Liedman had the information that he was looking for. Leidman
had that portal to an inner realm.

He recollected
himself. “Let’s continue, Professor.”

“
Magdalene spoke to the disciples about a vision she had
had. She said she had asked Christ about it, specifically whether
it came from the spirit or the soul, to which he had
replied:
Where the mind is there lies the treasure
.”

Hart jumped.
“What’s your opinion on that?”