...And We Will Have Snow

Chapter 6-5: The Mask of God

Mankind has known philosophers and saints,
sages and prophets, since the dawn of time.
These men drink deeply from the well of awe,
submerge themselves in spiritual things,
and then proclaim they've seen the face of God.
Such men gain followers to their beliefs,
priesthoods who preach their God to other men,
and bid them bow to images they make.
Such images are many, none are true,
they are but masks of God, aspects at best.
If you would truly know the God of men,
turn from such idols and know that you see
a mask of God in every human face.

(Inspired by Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God)

They returned to the surface with the sea lions, and decided to re-enter the Shell from the top rather than swim down to a lower level. Ryan and Rosita, now in their human forms, climbed onto the little dock and walked from there to the top deck. The three drones levitated up to join them. This time they took the central elevator down, all the way to the lowest farm level.

Back in the lounge, Zeke invited the visitors to stay on at the Sea Shell as long as they cared to. They reminded him that they weren't really there, but decided to take him up on it. Sedna of course wanted to do more undersea recording for her World Dream. But Bear and Xayna, after watching Ryan and Rosita swim with the sea lions, decided to leave their drones with Sedna at the Shell and come in person.

So after "bedding down" their drones in an apartment at the Shell, Xayna resumed her normal activities on Haida Gwaii while Bear and Sedna explained their plan to the WBI crew on Coon Island. Bear would take the cabin cruiser to Haida Gwaii and pick up Xayna. The two of them would then motor down the coast and up through the Sea of Cortez to the Shell. Then they could both enjoy swimming with Ryan and Rosita in sea lion form when they weren't helping Sedna with her QAR recording.

Meanwhile Sedna planned to show Ryan, Rosita and Zeke how to operate a drone via the QAR link. She knew Ryan and Rosita would pick it up quickly, because the link to the Drone Dream was a lot like their shaman link to the sea lion dream. Zeke was more of a challenge. He had already been introduced to QAR via the World Dream, but she wanted to show him the shaman connection.

So over the next few days, after getting Ryan and Rosita comfortably ensconced in the Shell's QAR room recliners, Sedna showed them the Drone Dream and connected them up with the two drones Bear and Xayna had left behind. When they were ready, Sedna joined Zeke in the lounge to watch them take the drones out to sea for the first time.

"This is so amazing," he said. "It's hard to believe that such a thing is possible."

"You mean operating a drone? The way I'm doing right now? It's surprisingly easy. But it's what these body drones were designed for."

"Yes, of course, that is a marvel in itself. I'm still amazed to have you here, seeming so natural that I can forget you are not here at all. But the more amazing thing is that you flew here! And now Ryan and Rosita are flying under water! Add to that the marvel that they are recording the experience. I can't tell you how many hours I and others of the team here have spent piloting remote drones out there, or piloting manned submersibles. How frustrating when the manipulator arms do not cooperate and you want to open the hatch and go out there yourself. Or worse, when the electronics tether gets tangled and you have to release it and let the drone float back to the surface uncontrolled. Your undersea drones are a dream come true! But what is most amazing to me is that there is no tether! In fact that you yourself can roam here freely with no obvious radio link. How is that possible?"

Sedna was secretly thrilled. Zeke had spontaneously asked exactly the right question, one she had feared it could take hours to lead him up to. "Zeke, it's not as hard as you imagine. In fact it's entirely natural. 

"Look at it this way. People have always been special in their ability to manipulate their environment. A few other animals make and use tools of course, but we take it to an extreme of sophistication. Even with the most primitive implements, a flint knife, a stick of charcoal, people wield their tools as extensions of themselves, produce intense works of art in which the oneness of mind, hand and tool are evident. We invest ourselves in our tools, they become part of who we are.

"Riding a bicycle, driving a car, flying an airplane, these are all experiences in which the tool, the machine, becomes an extension of the operator. But even in the case of ancient everyday actions like cooking, sewing, tilling a field, operating a mill or a loom, the dexterity in doing them becomes second nature.

"Everyone knows this. But once you grant that the tool, the machine, operates as an extension of the body, the question becomes a more fundamental one: how do we operate the body? Where does the operator end, and the extension begin? How is that possible? It is a question more  fundamental and more ancient."

Sedna had read him right, and Zeke was with her. He gave an exaggerated nod of his head that indicated he agreed with her premise. Then he said, "Body, mind and spirit, the holy trinity, the Hindu AUM, the Word, the triple goddess, Raven, Eagle and their union, yes, these are all attempts to name the ultimate nature of Reality, familiar to all but revealed intellectually only to a few."

Sedna took it to the next level. "Now with QAR the ultimate nature of reality is becoming known more intimately, and may soon be revealed to all. Body is physical reality. With QAR the distinction between personal physical body awareness and the broader awareness of operating beyond the body has blurred, lost its edge. The razor separating physical existence from spiritual existence has been dulled. The Raven is ascendant, knowing death is an illusion."

Zeke again nodded his agreement, privately wondering that this person whose avatar appeared as a very young woman could be expressing such thoughts so casually. He reminded himself that it was she who had created the World Dream, the power of which was undeniable. He continued her thought. "Mind is the awareness of relationships. It overlays the physical reality of Now with spatial and temporal connections. It extends awareness from the local to the non-local. It reveals distance and separation to be illusion. This is the ascendance of Eagle."

He smiled broadly as he concluded, and Sedna matched his smile saying, "Spirit is the All, the Source of body and mind, the comprehension of ultimate reality as a blend, a superposition, of all apparent individual realities throughout time and space.

"But access to spirit is limited by awareness. Awareness is intimately sensual. The ability of mind to activate body creates feedback through the body senses, a resonance that reinforces local awareness. But in doing so it masks a broader awareness. It is the mask of god. Unmasked by QAR the presence of god-spirit everywhere is revealed. Individuals are finding resonances with the Q that had been hidden from their awareness, even though these resonances have been operating intimately through them all the while."

"Ah, now you are nearly quoting one of Drake's papers on the Q. Of course, he has been one of your mentors at WBI, has he not?"

"Yes. He, and Tengri, and my own mother and father, all of them understand these things very well. Their teaching made it easy for me to learn to fly the drone. And you will find it easy too."