Virtually Real (4 page)

Chapter 6

Fast Forward

The real world

The environmental disaster created in the virtual world was a huge success from Eli’s point of view – even if it wasn’t from the point of view of the v-people. It also enraged Lucas that he had lost some of his control and mana by being over-ridden and outsmarted by Eli.

All the genetically corrupted lines of v-people and v-animals were deleted and only one family comprising an old couple and their three sons each with his own wife were spared to start again. Eli had decided to call him ‘Noah’ after the Biblical character who, as several traditions held, had been saved from the universal flood several thousand years before.

It was important to Eli that the lives and experiences of the v-people reflect the human condition as accurately as possible. Scientists had confirmed the existence of a world wide flood that had destroyed much life on the planet and that the life and ecology that followed was now essentially the same as experienced in modern times.

Eli also enjoyed the times of mutual communication that he had with Noah, who, although somewhat fond of drink was very just and not proud or arrogant. He talked often with Eli, and although he was only a creation of modern technology and human knowledge, Eli found a real liking for him. The replication was, as far as he was concerned, a success.

Although Noah was surrounded by the same luring temptations as everyone else, and although Eli’s way was more subtle and less appealing to Noah’s sensory perceptions, he still chose friendship with Eli just because of who he was, and because of the quality of inner peace that came with that communion and relationship. Also, for some reason, Noah had a very strong desire to live his life ‘rightly’, to treat people fairly and with compassion. These traits attracted Eli to Noah!

And so history passed. The v-people had all the experiences required compressed into one ten-thousandth of ‘normal’ time but they, themselves, were completely unaware of this.

During this stage three-way warfare developed. Lucas and his followers won the right from Eli to have nearly all control of operating the v-world because of the natural allegiance of the v-people to go their own way, and therefore be unwittingly under Lucas’ influence. In practice, they tended to follow the influences of Lucas and his followers rather than those of Eli.

Eli did, however reserve the right for him and his team to always be able to communicate with the v-people and also to over-rule any of Lucas’ influences. Although Eli was still in charge, for his own heart purposes he gave the rule of the v-earth to Lucas. Eli may have been king; but Lucas was prince of the v-world project!

Lucas for his part believed that he was smarter than Eli and concluded that he had won the right to rule the virtual world by his own shear genius anyway. Though it rankled his pride for there to be any influence of Eli at all in the project, he believed that in time he could have all v-people under his sway; even if it meant destroying the minority who sought to go with Eli!

The v-people themselves ‘knew’ right from wrong, good from evil and usually ‘chose’ to do right, yet it transpired that none were able to totally keep to their own ideals. There was always some appeal to their senses, intellect or ego that would finally persuade them to violate their consciences. And even their consciences became confused and distorted as the seductions of Lucas’ followers wove their deceptions into the very fabric of the v-people. In fact a popular ditty at the time became;

“Sin’s a pleasure; good’s a pain.

So let us never, go there again.”

A few did manage to do what they knew to be good, and taught others to follow their example. Lucas encouraged this as he would appear to those particular v-people in thoughts and visions as God in order to deceive them in continuing independence of Eli. These v-people became known as great and wise teachers, but their followers were rarely able to attain the same standards and became entrapped in feelings of condemnation.

One thing that did continue to change among the v-people was an increase in knowledge. Although there were some setbacks, inexorably the collective knowledge of the v-people kept increasing exponentially – even if their motives and much of their behaviour remained the same, or worse!

The real world

Eli called his team together. This time it excluded Lucas’ colleagues, though Lucas himself was allowed access to Eli from time to time.

“I have called you all here today to discuss what we can do to get more of the v-people to follow our values and live the way I had hoped from the beginning,” he began. “This is a way of right relationships, of proper submission to one another, of care for each others’ true welfare and of trust in me.

“It is absolutely important that the v-people are free to choose their own responses to their circumstances and life experiences. This is inviolate. Each of you on my team has that same freedom and all, except Lucas, has chosen to accept my leadership of the project and to co-operate in carrying out my requests. This is appreciated very much. But I do think that we need to intervene in a more obvious way in the virtual world we have created.”

“How do you propose to do that, Eli?” questioned Michael. “To intervene more directly could be seen as compromising the experiment.”

“The knowledge of who I am is almost lost, and the impressions I give these v-people are so crowded out by the more egotistically attractive alternatives – both good and bad – provided by Lucas and his team, that the v-people are no longer able to have any sense of my nature or who I really am. This, by itself means that there is a loss of free choice among the v-people. They are unwittingly enslaved to Lucas and his team.”

“We can see that Eli, but unless you get rid of Lucas and his mates altogether it is just going to continue,” cried a voice from the back.

“We’ve stuck with you, we’ve helped some v-people you especially sent to give the message to leave their old ways and turn to you, and all we’ve seen is defeat. Lucas gains more influence and seduces the v-people into greater corruption. This feeds his ego and power and we are made to look idiots. We faithfully do our part to keep the environment reliable for the v-people, we faithfully impart your teaching but inexorably the corruption grows. The laws of entropy seem to apply to the v-person character as much as to the physical world in which we live.

“What’s the use of continuing?” The lone voice had now become a chorus and Eli started to wonder if there would be rebellion in his own camp.

Eli started, “Do not lose sight of our objective. By their choices the v-people will affect the codes which define their personality and character. Those that make choices for me will have a sense of joy and fulfilment always – but not necessarily in the current environment. Those that continue to choose Lucas, even though he hides the fact of who he is from them, will establish in their codes a character that will always belong to Lucas and they will reap the consequences in their experiences in pain and sorrow in another environment. The two states will exist as long as we exist, for this project will continue for as long as we continue.

“It is my proposal to create a v-person with my own personality. He will have all the experiences that are common to v-people. He will be free to choose his decisions, but he will have my heart, my soul. He will be a son to me and he will know me and depend on me – yet he will be free to reject me. My heart will be his heart, my pain will be his pain and my joy will be his joy. He will live as a witness to me and of who I am. The v-people who trust him will be accepted by me, the v-people who reject him reject me.”

“What name will he have? You will be replicating what the Christians among us call Jesus, the Son of God. Will you call him Jesus too?” came the questions.

“Yes. Remember we have to replicate the human experience as closely as possible if we are to be able to predict the future from our present situation. The matter is decided. And finally, don’t judge by appearances, what may appear as defeat may not be. All of you who have kept loyal to me know that I have always honoured my word. Lucas has already lost and will have his punishment, but not yet, for my purposes have to be made complete.” Eli smiled and dismissed the meeting.

Chapter 7

The Son

The influence of Christianity had affected so much of the course of the world that the scientists with Eli determined that no virtual-reality modelling of the human race would be complete without a replication of that event. The team had already acknowledged and replicated great teachers such as Moses, Buddha, and Confucius, and would later send Mohamed. In fact every great historical leader or teacher had been, or was to be, replicated so that the virtual world would, as accurately as possible, reflect the actual events experienced by the human race.

Some of these had been arranged directly by Eli and some by Lucas, who with the authority permitted by Eli, was allowed to provide tests of character of the v-people. Lucas would often provide brilliant leaders and teachers who could draw huge crowds and exert great influence. These leaders and teachers would live apparently exemplary lives, radiate peace and impart pleasant and joyful emotions accompanied by seemingly great wisdom and truth. But behind it all lay Lucas’ scheme to have the v-people act on their own and independent of Eli, who to them was the ‘Unknown One’ now commonly called El amongst the English speaking v-population. What they did not know was that despite the belief that they were free agents and self-determining individuals, they were in fact steered by the subtle thoughts and feelings inserted by Lucas and his team. The sense of independence was, in part, itself a delusion. The actual individual freedom experienced by the v-people was only a freedom to choose a belief.

Once a belief system was chosen, then the thoughts, feelings and influences presented to the v-people would be filtered through it, with its subsequent outcomes and actions. Almost all v-people had come to have confused belief systems – now one thing, now another; representing a mixture of both Eli’s and Lucas’ influence.

The project team recognised that this had to be the case ever since Kvinoscivy’s ‘Relationship Theory’ in mathematics proved the totality of interdependence and solved the enigma of ‘free-will’ versus ‘pre-determination’ that had been debated for centuries.
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But none understood better than Eli himself.

The virtual world

The v-baby was born and his mother ‘knew’ that this was caused by one whom she understood to be El. She experienced the social stigmas of the time; being pregnant before wedlock, being forced to flee when the ruling powers sought to kill the child.

Because of the clear knowledge gained through Israeli and Christian Scriptures, the influences of both Eli and Lucas were able to accurately replicate the environment and experiences that the one known in the real world as Christ had endured. This v-child was known as Y’shua in the virtual world.

The child grew; and because of the intimate identity with, and sense of, Eli’s presence and communication, he came to call Eli his father. Having the same patterns of existence as all other v-people he also knew and strongly felt the influences of Lucas and his team, but in spite of the strong temptations and subtle mind games that Lucas tried, Y’shua kept his trust in and reliance upon Eli. It was as if the corruption that Lucas had built into the relationship codes of the entire race of v-people was somehow absent. Y’shua was like a fresh start – even although evil and selfishness surrounded him and continually tugged at his desires and senses.

As he grew he had no particular charisma or influential appearance and could be as easily loved as hated. Yet the v-people who heard him speak sensed something familiar – as if his words represented some of the more gentle, self-sacrificing and noble thoughts and feelings they themselves had experienced from time to time. Yet very few recognised that these impressions were the same as those imparted by El.

Thus it was that the replicated life of Jesus Christ was created by the project team.
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The real world

“I suppose you’re pleased with what you have done with your Y’shua now Eli,” said Lucas with a hint of sneer after the death of Y’shua by crucifixion in the v-world. “He kept with you and trusted you even when he was totally in my power and felt totally abandoned by you – you who are meant to care for these v-people!

“And why did you not tell me that my right to hold the lives of these v-people in my own real domain was not valid for any of them who seek you and follow the weak and pitiable instructions you give. Now we have v-people who believe that all your anger against their selfish behaviour and attitudes is appeased if they believe that this Y’shua suffered for them on their behalf. You’ve taken the Christian view point too seriously Eli and inserted too much bias into the experiment.

“Eli you’ve changed the rules. Some of these v-people have caught onto this, and now completely trust you because of your Y’shua and I find that I no longer have the influence over their lives I once had. This is not right; it is as if these v-people who believe are given a fresh start and something new is within them.

“Even when I put the best of my team onto an individual’s ‘case’ most do not give in, and if they do, I now find its usually only for a time – until they change their mind and return to the trust in you that gives them a fresh start all over.

“But I’ll show you Eli! These new v-people will get my closest attention from now on and I’ll show you that all v-people really belong to me and are under my power and influence.”

The hostility of Lucas toward Eli was now more open and venal, yet Eli continued to allow him access to his office and to continue in his authority to ‘rule’ in the v-world that had been created.

“Don’t think that you have got the better of me Lucas,” replied Eli. “Because I have given a way for the v-people to become free of your corrupting influences, they have a greater freedom of choice than before. They can believe that I care for them and therefore can trust me, or they can continue to believe all the false, self-centred thoughts and feelings and delusions of mind that you bombard them with day and night.

“It suits my purposes, Lucas, to allow you and your team to continue on the project, and when the time comes I will determine your outcome because I see that your own pride and wicked ways are becoming more entrenched. I had great hopes for you Lucas, but you have been deceived by your own brilliance.”

Eli’s team was silent during this exchange. They knew that Eli had an ultimate purpose in this experimental project that he had not yet shared. But they knew also that it was Eli’s aim to have those v-people that qualified to make a transition from the virtual world of the project into the real world in which they lived. For the most part the scientists and technicians on both Eli’s and Lucas’ teams were content to bring the v-history up to date so that predictions could be made for their own lives and circumstances.

Lucas was now more determined than ever to win back into his control those v-people who had started to believe in Eli and in the v-person Y’shua that had been programmed into the computer-controlled space-time- relationship patterns of the virtual world. He had most v-people under his influence and would therefore seek to cause so much corruption and confusion amongst the Y’shua followers that they would have no ability to influence the beliefs of other v-people.

Lucas called his team together.

“It may appear that we have been outsmarted by Eli on this one,” he began, “but I know that as we work together as a team we can keep control of all this virtual world and the power and wealth that it will bring us.

“Remember that each one of these wretched v-people who escapes us will have communication with Eli and his team. Eli actually listens to the miserable creations and will act on their requests, not always as they expect, but he does listen and does act. So we must do all we can to prevent them getting to hear about this Y’shua. But if they do, wear them down with accusations, doubts and disappointments so that they either give up or rendered ineffective by our opposition.

“We have the numbers, and we have the resources to keep this corrupted v-population as ours for our purposes.”

The venality of Lucas was becoming more apparent even to some of his followers, who by this time were part of Lucas’ team more out of fear than even the prospect of their own gain. The best they could hope for was to keep on side with Lucas even though he just kept increasing his demands and expectations of them.

“Will you list the actions you want and detail assignments to us?” called Nimmon who was Lucas’ second in command.

“I want you to exercise all your own imaginations in this and you have my permission to carry out every scheme that you think will work to either prevent these v-people believing in this Y’shua, or if they do, to destroy their influence and credibility. The basics will include:

• Infiltrating their meetings and causing some to speak words that sound correct, to them, but will carry a message that takes away their hope, or requires them to make greater sacrifices of self effort and less of their faith and trust.
  
• Cause things to happen that will appear miraculous to them, and then entice them to follow those v-people who are under your controlling influence.
  
• Lure some into thinking that the good influence they exert is due to their own abilities and that they are independent of Eli’s team.
  
• Incite some to lust for money, unusual sexual comforts, power and control and then expose their perversions so that their way will fall into disrepute.
  
• But the most subtle way will be to lead some into performing very ‘good’ works and devoting their time and energy into those things. Feed them thoughts of how good they are and how pleasing to Eli they will be, but keep them from actually communicating with Eli and submitting to him. They will believe that it is their own goodness and self effort that counts, but in reality (as far as we are concerned) we still have the control and Eli misses out.
  

“I’m sure you’re getting the picture by now anyway. And don’t stop your work on the remaining population as well!”

With that Lucas dismissed his team.