The Teacher

The Teacher: Part I Unchained, Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

THE ORAL SURGEON INSISTED ON giving me anesthesia, the powerful fast-acting sedative Diprivan, so I didn't feel a thing. Counting backwards from 100, I only made it to 95. Although out cold, my new vibrant mind simply leapt to another plane of activity.

Without the normal confining pressure of consciousness keeping me trapped inside my body, and now knowing how to travel beyond the flesh, I decided to take a look around the medical facility.

I saw Holden in the waiting room patiently perusing a Sports Illustrated article about the upcoming Stanly Cup playoffs. I surprised him by invading his soul space. He reacted right away and we began communicating in the strange spirit language of wordless thoughts and pictures.

"Hey, what are you doing...are you all right?" a concerned Holden asked, as humans normally only left their bodies after dying.

"Yes, yes...just bored...let's do something while they're chopping away at me?" I suggested.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I don't know...what can we do?"

"It will be a little tricky, I'll have to pretend to have fallen asleep sitting in my chair here, but where would you like to go?" Holden asked with an up-for-anything twinkle in his mind's eye.

"How far can we travel...how long will it take to get there...how long can we stay?" I asked with the anticipation and excitement of a child about to ride a two-wheeler for the first time, but having no idea what it would actually take to keep from wiping out.

"Well, when we're in this dimension, real-world time slows way down. So, in the moment it takes to imagine a destination, we'll be there, we can stay as long as we like, and we can go anywhere in the world, and beyond, actually, but I haven't tried that yet, so pick somewhere on earth," Holden replied, continuing to impress and surprise me with everything he did and every thought he shared with me.

"Okay, let's go to Rome...I want to see for myself some of the celebrated art and architecture that centers around the Christian God I gave up. I need to know if anything still stirs me," I requested, not wanting to upset Holden, but feeling some guilt over turning my back on a faith that had meant so much.

"Sure, Rome it is...and I understand. It took me a while to let go of my past, so I know how you're feeling. Are you ready?"

"No...but let's go anyway!"

We were in spirit, so when I felt him holding on to me I knew it wasn't a physical sensation, yet I was confident we'd arrive together. In spirit all sense of time is gone. Existence proceeds from one event to the next without the need for a ticking clock. Traveling in spirit is like being caught up in the ethereal breeze of a lucid dream—one where you control how the dream unfolds, but in this case within an actual reality.

THE NEXT THING I KNEW WE were sitting on the great dome of St. Peter's Basilica in the heart of Rome looking over the expansive Piazza san Pietro, rimmed by a semicircle of magnificent curving colonnades. From where we were sitting, off in the distance we could see the Colosseum and Pantheon.

"Would you like to start your tour here?" Holden asked.

"Yes, let's go inside. I want to know every historical fact connected to St. Peter's. Didn't Jesus tell the Apostle Peter that he, Peter, would be the first leader of Christ's church on earth?"

"Well, that's one interpretation?" Holden replied.

"Okay...what do you mean?"

"Unfortunately, more contradictions—when Jesus was speaking about building his church, of course Christ was to be the foundation of the Christian Church, the rock of church doctrine...not Peter. When the pressure was on, just before Christ was crucified, that guy swore he ever knew Jesus. Peter knew his faith was flawed and that he would never have been picked by Jesus to lead the Church. Anyway, the organized church, as we know it with buildings and rituals and rules, didn't exist until way after Peter died."