HEAVEN AND HELL ON EARTH Laura Rather

516 S. Morningstar Dr. Anaheim, CA 92808 678-906-8159 [email protected] Draft 3 shortened

Cast of Characters

Fictional Characters NARRATOR, male or female, age unimportant, dressed as a court jester, fast talking and highly excitable. DIRECTOR, male or female, age unimportant, dressed all in black, dramatic and pompous. CAST, male and female, all ages, all races, dressed as appropriate for each period. They will play humanity as a group and individuals can assume the nonfictional roles that only appear in one scene. Lines can be done in unison, or with individuals taking a line or stanza each. ANGELS, genderless beings of light, so however that can be done. Lines can be done in unison, or with individuals taking a line or stanza each.

Nonfictional Characters GOD JESUS, male in his 30s. HOLY SPIRIT, genderless and ageless ADAM, male in his 20s or 30s EVE, female in her 20s or 30s PLATO, male in his 60s SOCRATES, male in his late 60s GLAUCON, male in his late 60s ARISTOTLE, male in his 20s RUMI, male in his 40s GANDHI, male in his 40s PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN, male in his 50s or 60s MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., male in his 30s DEEPAK CHOPRAH, male in his 60s OPRAH WINFREY, female in her 50s or 60s ECKHART TOLLE, male in his 50s HELEN SCHUCMAN, female in her 50s WILLIAM THETFORD, male in his 40s MARIANNE WILLIAMSON, female in her 40s or 50s

This is a play within a play. The setting is Heaven, and the play being performed in Heaven on a “set stage” takes place over the entire history of mankind. The actual stage surrounding the set stage is Heaven and the props do not change. The set stage uses minimal props to reflect the era for each scene. ACT I

SCENE I

At RISE: (NARRATOR in heaven with ANGELS in the background on a set stage which is in the middle of the actual stage doing the things (s)he describes. This can provide cues to the lines since this monologue is relatively long.)

NARRATOR Imagine if you will, we are all in heaven, where you want to be, if you aren’t a heathen. Yes, this is the place you want to be in, and if you want to leave you are not seeing reason. There’s joy all the time, no matter the season. So here in heaven we all exist, in a life so fully blissed, where no one dies and no one is missed, everyone does just as they wish, life is eternal, and does consist, only of things that bring love, joy and passion, there’s no need for work or action, we already live in God’s great mansion, and pursue only that which brings satisfaction. So, of course, there is lots of art, endeavors that are close to the heart, everyone plays a part, play anything, except a harp, there’s been plenty of those right from the start.

(Angels with harps respond, insulted.) ANGELS Hey!

NARRATOR But, play anything else, or go with song. Imagine how you’ll thrill the throng, you can’t go wrong, we’ll sing along, and there’s never, ever, ever a gong (Winks) Or, if you prefer to paint, from me you will get no complaint, in fact, I’ll be your patron saint, the highest highs you will attain, 2 you have everything to gain, for anyone who has a brain and aspires to visually entertain will certainly find this off the chain.

(Angels with easels and brushes respond.) ANGELS Yes, we have ascertained that being a painter totally reigns.

NARRATOR Writers, I can take or leave them, running off at the mouth ad nauseam.

(Angels writing, insulted.) ANGELS Hey!

NARRATOR But, there are those who like to read, this is a point I will concede, though you won’t catch me with a screed. I understand there is a need so to this I do accede, and will include it as a deed of a nature that is artistic, though I risk sounding sophistic. Then there is the art of dance. how else can you get the chance to transfix a crowd from the very first glance and put us in a joyful trance, filling our hearts with sweet romance as around the stage you prance? (Angels dancing take a bow.) And, of course, there is the play, should you decide to go that way, but please do keep it light and gay, otherwise you may go astray from heaven and the pearly gates, because, in pretending, you might betray the tenants that in heaven hold sway, that love, joy, and peace are the way. Anything else and you may fall prey to the delusion of your fictional gateway, stuck there among all manner of sins, and this is where our play begins. 3

A play within a play, so meta, don’t tell me you could have done it betta. You’ve heard the story of man’s fall from grace, what if I told you this wasn’t the case? Heaven exists, and it is the place our story unfolds of the human race, as a concept used to make some space between God and his sons, a hiding place. Keep in mind, it is a fabrication. The important point is there is no separation, no spot of imperfection on God’s creation, no illusion of sin to form the foundation of hiding from God, which was the causation of this play’s inexplicable negation of the love and perfection of our situation, necessitating the search for salvation, imagining that eternal damnation must be the penalty for … but I digress that never happened, nonetheless, take this as a cautionary tale and don’t mess with perfection, love, and God’s kindness. Let’s start with our beings divine. As you know, God’s light they shine, but bitten by the acting bug the stage did on their heartstrings tug, clouding their minds just like a drug. They fell under a director’s spell and, as you may guess, it does not go well. I’ll stop and let the play itself tell the tale of our troop of acting angels.

(DIRECTOR speaking to CAST from the set stage. Angels are on the actual stage surrounding the set stage, but not paying attention.)

DIRECTOR Hello my angelic actors, behold your magnificent benefactor, me. You have been chosen by the master, me again. (Cast laughs.) All right, contain your laughter, I’ll let you know when I’m being funny, which is almost never since I’m no sunny ingénue. I tell you true, 4 but I’m sure you knew. However, if greatness you pursue this is the right venue, the wringer I’ll put you through just to help you break through, please give my genius its due. This play that I’ve conceived is something to be achieved, it must be seen to be believed, I know it will be well received. We have a fictional world to portray, one that is made out of clay, different from Heaven in every way. It will change with every performance, an exercise of nonconformance so your discomfort is of most importance in eliciting the right discordance. Your character you must become, I mean all of you, not just some. To my demands you will succumb, you will all be under my thumb, so commit yourself to be undone, for that’s the glory of the play, to lose yourself when you portray another, when you throw away your own identity for the sake, for the love, of the art you make.

CAST To be sure, this sounds exciting and though we are up for trying the challenge that you are supplying, there can be no denying that we find it terrifying.

DIRECTOR Your full commitment I demand. You’ll enter into my dreamland and temptation you must withstand to return to your life at hand. It will exist for you no more, until I finally open the door. Only then can you return, until then your only concern is from me your lines to learn, and my approval earn. 5

For those of you who are weak of heart, do now refuse your part, go on, get out, depart! For the rest of you, it’s time to start to go about creating art

CAST None of us will run and hide, as a group we did decide to trust in you to be our guide, so that we can be glorified, all our talents magnified. We will do as you have specified, though as we said, we’re terrified, not sure you are beatified, but our minds will be occupied even if we are mystified, perhaps we should be certified, but to your wishes we are tied. DIRECTOR This play is not all sweetness and light, but I ask you, put your fears aside. God’s perfection is magnified by the contrast when we collide with darkness, the contrast amplified as we expose another side, and though it seems like suicide, I tell you we are justified and that our goal is purified because our success won’t be denied, our ambition will be satisfied.

CAST Well, we are just starry-eyed neophytes, with you allied and, if we may confide, longing to be glorified, our talents deemed bona fide, we’ll scale any mountainside in order to be ratified.

DIRECTOR (Speaking to the audience.) I only need them to believe and this world of mine they will conceive. I know it seems that I deceive 6 them with the illusion they will perceive, their reality created by their beliefs, but my influence will increase until heaven they no longer see, their whole world will come from me, a tribute to my vanity. Justifying my existence, guaranteeing my persistence, I doubt they’ll put up much resistance, I think this play can go the distance, take on a life of its own as my directorial skills I hone, a puppet master, all alone no longer now that I have these drones, these clones, these fools with microphones, these naive unknowns who leave the life they’ve known with their demonic chaperone. NARRATOR (To audience.) It breaks my heart to hear his plan, I think this play is a sham leading my poor innocent lambs through this strange hologram. This is nothing but a scam!

DIRECTOR For now, I must appear innocent, even more, preferably heaven sent, until I am as omnipotent as God, and their predicament is that they won’t see their imprisonment, the source of every single torment, is something they could walk away from, is really nothing but a delusion, stemming from the great confusion I’ve created with my illusion, requiring our joint collusion to maintain reality’s occlusion, leading to the conclusion that the illusion is real, that’s how they will feel with me at the wheel, they are under my heel, before me they’ll kneel. 7 this is my ideal. (Conspiratorially) I have let you in on my reversal of fact already, in the very first act, you are an accessory after the fact. I see you’re uneasy with this contract as you avoid my eye contact but nothing you do will counteract, they will continue to reenact the misery that they attract with their beliefs, however inexact.

NARRATOR I see the web the director does weave and if he gets this cast to conceive then the lies he tells they will believe, at which point they will perceive this play as real, and be his willing accomplices in an event so chilling, even if they are unwitting, they’ll believe the punishment is fitting those who from God have strayed and then the image of heaven will fade, leaving them much dismayed.

DIRECTOR Once I cast my directorial spell, in each mind I will dwell and they will do just as I tell, thinking it comes from themselves. Thus I can use their energy to create the world they’ll see, this is much less work for me since the universe will mirror back the thoughts I give them of attack, making their world out of whack. I have a knack don’t give me flack I won’t backtrack and no payback will make me crack. I’m a maniac, you say, that may be true but I know just what I do. (To Cast.) Let everyone know of our grand endeavor 8 and that you’ll need to stay in character. Tell them not to interfere as long as our play does appear, they can simply watch and cheer. (Director exits and Cast moves off the set stage to address Angels on the periphery.)

CAST I got the role!

ANGELS You got the role! CAST The scene I stole,

ANGELS Well, that’s the goal

CAST I did the whole scene to perfection.

ANGELS And how was your diction?

CAST Flawless, and my conviction, performing the valediction, a masterpiece, my audition, exquisite, and my ambition, may I say with your permission?

ANGELS You may speak without restriction.

CAST Is the extreme method actor mission. Full immersion in the director’s position. Method will be my apposition, a unanimous decision I predict, by intermission, and the price of your admission will be worth anything for my rendition, of the pitiful human condition.

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ANGELS The what?

CAST Ah yes, here’s the exposition, of the play, a composition about beings of forgetful disposition, who to heaven lose admission, and their road to perdition, which is filled with contrition.

ANGELS Well that is fiction!

CAST Of course, and I see your suspicion that this exhibition from God lacks commission, but, as you know, full permission of free will is his position.

ANGELS And yet, I have a premonition, that you and your coalition should heed my admonition not to cede your own volition, to this director, this apparition, you, who lack in erudition, who, by your own admission, will make your own mythology, smacking of idolatry, in the name of methodology. I call this garbology, I don’t care what knowledge he claims to have of cosmology, or any other ology, he owes you an apology for manipulation by theology.

CAST I know how you feel. You worry, but I appeal to your appreciation for my zeal. Understand that my ordeal is in the name of art, so I must live my part. 10

ANGELS Child, you are my heart, and, though I know you are smart, if your true self you depart the life you know may fall apart.

CAST Come, let’s celebrate, I know that this is my fate.

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SCENE II

At RISE: (Cast is returning to the set stage, carrying costumes, clay, and paint to make the earth. Angels are on the periphery as usual, some watching, others doing their own thing.)

NARRATOR Here is where the magic is made, the process displayed, the tricks of the trade in the grand charade. The props of the play our angels manifest, with their thoughts I confess, and, as you might have guessed, they do so at the behest of the director, their zest put to the test by a being obsessed. So they find themselves dressed in costumes bizarre that take the light of a star and contain the rays till they are invisible, as if they were disguisable, an act so despisable it should be indictable should not be permissible its author an imbecile… (He takes a breath to calm himself.) But, I’ve gone off on a tirade, this hand has been played, my job’s to relay, so I return to the play. The costumes are bodies, built on a belief system so shoddy they break down and decay in unpleasant ways, designed to betray, and to evoke dismay. The director downplays his unending foul play as he leads them astray to their entrée into this strange day. 12

CAST (To Director.) These costumes are odd, we can see that their flawed. Who could applaud this frightening façade?

DIRECTOR It’s apparent this squad has the backbone of a fraud. So you can only look like God? Your impertinence I’ve outlawed.

CAST But the work is slipshod, to communicate through this bod leaves us under awed.

DIRECTOR You whine, but I will prod you from the mediocrity you plod and lift you to higher heights, you’ll be dazzled by the lights.

CAST How can these bodies contain a thought? Which we are

DIRECTOR (Interrupting) You’ll think you’re not.

CAST Interesting plot, but one that’s fraught with problems, we see a lot. Through these eyes we cannot see Heaven’s reality. How can that be?

DIRECTOR These eyes are limited in what they can see to less than one% of light’s frequencies. All the rest will disappear when this costume you do wear, giving you a limited sphere 13 of what you see and what you hear. It’s a tool to aid in your career. What you perceive through this veneer will be so real you’ll be sincere, a brilliant performance I’ll engineer. I am truly a pioneer.

CAST It will be hard for us to be natural and carefree with our connection absentee to God, and everybody, this is not hyperbole, could cause us to disagree although brothers are we.

DIRECTOR That is the point I tell you for the play to ring true and I need the whole crew immersed through and through. we’ve a performance to do and an audience to woo.

CAST And this earth we’re to live in, this Garden of Eden, something’s not quite right, half the time there’s no light.

DIRECTOR We’ll call that night. It might give you a fright, but if you stop bemoaning your plight you just might find a way to delight the audience each night so I say set your sights higher, pull your tights, tighter, and get it right.

CAST Well, if you promise it will be nice…

DIRECTOR Don’t make me tell you twice. 14

Now, let’s go over some terms you won’t understand based on your existence so grand, held as you are in God’s loving hands, living in the glorious land that caters to your every demand, spoiled children of this wonderland. The building block is separation, this is the very foundation of the human situation, the loss of relation with God, the cessation of life’s inspiration. You’ll learn a new station with this incarnation.

CAST Feels like incarceration to us, your exploitation, your repeated exhortation to leave God, in our estimation is an abomination.

DIRECTOR Hold your indignation or you risk my irritation, it’s required for the creation of guilt, as a sensation that strengthens your affiliation to the body, and frustration as with your brothers all relations becomes the source of much vexation

CAST How will we hide our natural elation of all our minds in aggregation which is our normal station?

DIRECTOR Now that you are separate from each other, no longer are all one as brothers, we have the concept of a stranger and the idea of danger, creating the ability for anger, a notion that will anchor this play, for you will hanker to express the rage 15 you see on this page, wars you will wage in violence engage.

CAST This sounds an outrage!

DIRECTOR Oh it’s just on stage. (Winks at audience.) Another one I should mention is resource contention, which will cause great dissension.

CAST That is quite a pretension.

DIRECTOR Disbelief in suspension, please, but use that tension you feel, that apprehension, to take you to another dimension where there is no extension. Please pay attention, there is no ascension, just competition. and your inevitable progression into depression, (Aside to audience.) at my suggestion.

CAST This is a whole new construct, but we’ll do as you instruct, if we don’t self-destruct as we learn our new conduct which our view of heaven will obstruct.

DIRECTOR (To audience.) I have them just where I want them, puppets under my thumb, my great work has begun, this is going to be fun! They’ll use their angelic energy to build this world of sensory 16 experience that I will cleverly suggest to them in reverie, and unaware that they are making it, that we are just faking it, they will be mistaking it for reality, and hating it, but forsaking it unwilling, believing it is real and heaven too surreal to their fear I will appeal, another new way to feel that I will reveal.

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ACT II

SCENE I

At RISE: (ADAM and EVE in the Garden of Eden, Director and Narrator looking on. Angels are on the periphery as usual, some watching, others doing their own thing.)

DIRECTOR Look at this world we have created, though its merits hotly debated by the cast, as they had stated, but their minds have been vacated, thoughts of guilt now instated, memory of heaven eliminated, so they should be quite agitated by the confusion I have cultivated.

ADAM Strange these feelings of guilt and shame, though I remember nothing but my name. Adam, just the sound my guilt inflames, as if for something I’m to blame, I feel the need to reframe, assign the guilt to this grand dame. and by projection, however lame, ensure that I will win this game, and Eve, who though she might disclaim, will find she can’t refute my claim.

EVE I’ve no idea how I became the villain, my honor you defame, my innocence I would proclaim, except that innocence is down the drain since guilt did raise its insidious head, and because of this we will be dead. So, living with perpetual dread, fear of the ground on which we tread, fear of the God whom we trusted, fear that someone did embed, causing me, like Adam, to project this guilt, I feel I must protect the secret sin that I suspect 18 is mine, though nothing I recollect. I can still feel the effect of guilt, but I can’t connect, my thoughts, once clear, are hazy, I feel that I am going crazy.

ADAM Blame the serpent, he looks shady, so that you can stay my lady, tied to me by guilt of sin.

EVE Well that’s an auspicious way to begin

ADAM It will keep us bound together.

EVE That’s the only path to forever? It seems a perilous endeavor.

ADAM Do you have a way more clever? Any idea whatsoever to ensure our bonds don’t ever sever so that alone we will be never?

EVE I think we could debate whether being alone might not be better than to this lame relationship fetter, where guilt is what keeps us together. Where is the love I faintly remember connected to all souls in splendor where no fear could ever enter? Now fear is what keeps us tethered, feeling we must be a debtor, a slave to a love letter that never comes, so treasonous oh why has God abandoned us?

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(GOD’s booming voice is heard.) GOD I’m here for God’s sake what’s the fuss? Your play is just superfluous concepts of nothing you discuss. I’m with you and am always thus. DIRECTOR My Lord, I’m afraid I must explain, they cannot hear you while they remain in costume, for it does constrain their consciousness in a little brain.

GOD However I can hear them complain, and it sounds like they are in much pain, which is impossible in my domain, for my unending love and grace keeps them safe in any place.

DIRECTOR Of course they’re safe, they are just acting. My apologies if it is distracting, and though my demands may seem exacting it’s their choice. I’m abstracting, but, if by chance they need extracting you’re then one they’ll be contacting.

GOD I will send the Holy Spirit, if they call out he will hear it, restore the bridge from my mind to theirs without meddling in their affairs.

(HOLY SPIRIT appears, suspended off the ground somehow.) HOLY SPIRIT I’m here to serve this unfortunate cast. I’m sure their delusion cannot last, that God would abandon and leave them downcast, this leaves me aghast, God’s love is steadfast, His support unsurpassed, no one outcast. Even a theater enthusiast could not enjoy an error so vast, to see a cast so harassed 20 with guilt from a past that doesn’t exist it strictly consists of illusion, I insist. My help they can enlist when they want to untwist this lie and desist their God to resist. DIRECTOR (To audience.) That is an unfortunate turn, I need for them only to learn from me, they must never discern the Holy Spirit and his sweet concern or the ease with which they can return to Heaven, for which they will yearn forever, if I can get them to spurn God’s love, for false images stern, hiding the fact that they don’t have to earn Heaven, they have it, though they fear they will burn in hell, a fiction I won’t overturn. The illusion of sin I’ve perpetuated, the belief that God’s love is terminated upon which this world was fabricated must be eternally cultivated to keep this cast separated, and to my masterpiece dedicated. This is what I’ve orchestrated and, as I anticipated, to my plot they are obligated. Listen, and I will be corroborated.

ADAM God abandoned us for the sin we committed, although it may have been unwitted, against the world we now are pitted, to the crime the punishment fitted.

EVE To me it feels counterfeited, like the whole thing has been scripted, and, although we have submitted I feel that we could be acquitted.

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ADAM It won’t be permitted, our guilt we’ve admitted.

EVE I think we’ve been outwitted. Doesn’t it seem unseemly that a child of God so queenly is treated so meanly, debased so extremely, denied love obscenely, and it’s done routinely till we think it’s deserved?

ADAM From what I’ve observed this whole place is absurd, but if we would preserve ourselves, show some nerve, lean into the curve. Don’t be the one to swerve.

EVE I feel I’m meant for something more than taking scraps off the floor, you can show me the door my sweet paramour if you fear an uproar, or you can ignore my call for valor, but my love, I implore, innocence restore and give love evermore.

HOLY SPIRIT Adam hear her plea, for love will set you free, not the love for what you see with your eyes that do not see, but with your soul and with your heart, where from God you never part.

ADAM I love you in your sin, I love you in your skin.

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EVE But my beauty is within.

HOLY SPIRIT They can’t hear me through the din of their imaginary sin, but I’ll be here when they begin the journey to within, for I know that this skin can’t keep their light forever in.

ADAM There is a way to make up for God’s love lost now this invisible line we have crossed, a way to fill that hole at any cost, bringing warmth that will our hearts defrost, though these frail bodies it will exhaust.

EVE Well, there is nothing of which I am aware that makes up for God’s love or even a prayer of a semblance, so please won’t you share your idea for something that can compare?

ADAM We’ll beget children for whom we can care. To start, I see a pair of humans like us, so do not despair.

EVE How do we do make them, out of thin air?

ADAM No, I think that you just need to bear them from your body..

EVE (Interrupting) That sounds a nightmare.

ADAM Come now, be fair. You’ve got the womb so what other option?

EVE Well, I would say let’s consider adoption. 23

NARRATOR In the end as you know Adam did persuade, he was successful in his serenade, and it wasn’t long before she displayed signs of the new life they had made, and the further she got the more she would trade places with Adam, she was rightly afraid.

EVE (In labor.) Who thought up this torture? It hurts to the bone!

ADAM It is a way for your worth to be shown. Or God is punishing you for the seeds you’ve sown, original sin, a way for you to atone.

EVE Like I did that alone. There’s no way God would condone this unbearable pain that makes me moan. What kind of monster have you enthroned? Where once was the loving God we’d known now sits a god with a heart of stone. We’ve created this idol on our own, who rules with evil undertone and all God’s angels now have flown, making us feel all alone.

ADAM You’re not alone, I am here.

EVE And yet, you do not appear to suffer, which does not endear. I think I saw you drink a beer.

ADAM I needed something, a fortifier, you look at me like I’m chopped liver, and this is my first child to deliver. I want to feel I’m not here in vain.

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EVE Perhaps not, but I’d like to ascertain why I’m the only one in pain. Can the answer be so arcane? Well I tell you, it’s profane, inhumane, lying in my own bloodstain, you might as well open a vein. I won’t be doing this again, from all romance I’ll abstain.

ADAM But if God does will it, as I maintain…

EVE (Interrupting) Come closer so I can crush your brain.

ADAM Really, I’m feeling lots of stress!

EVE Poor dear, your little heart I bless. I don’t, get me out of this mess!

ADAM I think it would help if you just press down a bit, there’s some progress now, breathe deeply while I finesse. There, a beautiful child I profess! I’ll take it from here while you convalesce and when you wake up you’ll hate me less.

DIRECTOR This is more perfect than I even conceived, the tortures I’ve created are believed to be the work of God, and they are much aggrieved, they will hide from him and grow closer to me, and believing God could unleash such pain they will begin to do the same, probably even in his name. Imagine my eventual fame if the Sons of God I claim.

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NARRATOR Let me say it goes downhill from here in this world that is so queer, where love has been replaced by fear, and joy exchanged for a tear. Immediately does death appear, bother killed by murderous plot in a fit of rage because he thought his sacrifice rejected, and the onslaught of violence steeped in rot, as if a sacrifice is what God sought! To us it is clear that this is not the God we know, nor what he wrought. Someone’s manipulative work I spot, and if I could allot a moment to stirring the pot (Looks at angels who are shaking their heads.) Ahem, I have been instructed that I cannot. Our cast remains in the dark that this nightmare on which they embark, though it’s no walk in the park, is nothing more than a lark, perpetuated by that shark, and if they would only hark to the Holy Spirit, his remark can guide them to the holy spark. Let’s listen in as he waits with patience for the human mind to make his acquaintance, all he needs for the conveyance of their minds to God’s is the abeyance of the belief this world is their true home and that God would leave them all alone.

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SCENE II

At RISE: (Narrator in front or on side of the set stage, on which PLATO, SOCRATES, GLAUCON, and ARISTOTLE are grouped together on another part of the set stage in unheard discussion. Angels on the periphery are all paying attention now.)

NARRATOR In the 4th century BC some bright spots of light we see, glimpses of insight that could set men free, that could break the chains of humanity, return them to sanity, end this profanity, this inhumanity, this tribute to vanity that has the tenacity, if not the veracity, in fact it’s mendacity, fantasy, rascality… (Takes a deep breath to calm down.) Where were we? Oh yes, in the 4th century BC a philosopher did decree a different type of reality, recognizing that what men see is full of incongruity. If one would observe the irony of spirits full of anxiety about the harm they believe that their costumes could receive, thinking they themselves are aggrieved and lacking in security. They are unable to see that they imbue this quality on nothing more important than a cloak, the crux of this entire joke, the sick director’s masterstroke as he perpetuates this hoax. Acting as ego he does coax men to turn on other folks and their paranoia stokes until they start having strokes and… 27

(Sighs) I’ve gone of course again, where was I? Oh yes, Plato is the guy who does philosophize that man has gone awry by trusting the body’s eyes, and realized what does underlie this world men think they quantify, that reality is not seen with the eye. The Angels watching from the side hope that this does signify progress that could reunify our cast with them and satisfy the only requirement to purify, for everyone to see the light.

ANGELS We hear there’s been a breakthrough! Platonism does construe the physical world as untrue, maybe his unorthodox view will strike a chord with this crew and remind them of the home they knew, as a thought of God before they withdrew into these bodies and this play they do.

PLATO I will use as a character my dear Socrates, though he’s been taken away from me, to illustrate that the world we see has little bearing on reality, merely mimicking a quality, since that which changes cannot be real, though many disagree I’ll follow this line of enquiry with an example for the bourgeoisie.

SOCRATES Imagine this, Glaucon my dear, a cave of dark atmosphere where prisoners since birth appear to be held captive many a year, chained so their entire sphere of vision is the wall they face, nothing else inside this place they see, not themselves or another face, 28 only shadows provide their knowledge base.

GLAUCON This is a disturbing case to hear of prisoners so debased.

SOCRATES Outside this cave there is a fire behind a wall which we require to illustrate what does transpire. The shadows coming from the fire are of objects partial, not entire, because the wall does conspire to hide all but puppets held up higher, and if these puppet shadows are all they see to inform their understanding of reality and the echoes of voices, absentee all context, what would they believe?

GLAUCON I suppose it would have to appear that the shadows make the noises they hear.

SOCRATES And knowing not of fire my dear, how would shadows then appear?

GLAUCON Twould be as truth, although unclear, their limitations so severe.

SOCRATES And what if a prisoner is released one year? The light would cause his eyes to tear, reality would look so queer, strange noises would give him fear as from the cave he does peer. And what if he is told that this is real, not the shadows where he did kneel, would he embrace this big reveal, would he find it does appeal, or would he run back to the conceal which, though his truth did steal, is the basis of his beliefs, unreal but appearing true in his zeal to defend his false ideal? 29

GLAUCON I suppose that he would turn and run, escape the tormenting sun, to his beliefs, though they’ve undone the truth, to him they do not stun as much as looking at the sun.

SOCRATES If however he is forced out he may at first scream and shout in pain at the brightness all about, he may resist at first and pout, but as his vision will adjust, his eyes lose their unsightly crust, he may eventually start to trust that what he is seeing thus is in fact real, and all he discussed with other prisoners in their hushed cave with vision limited has now been exhibited as false and falsely attributed, would he want this knowledge distributed?

GLAUCON Of course he would want to share the truth with all the prisoners there. The inside of a cave does not compare to the truth, sunlight, and fresh air.

SOCRATES He returns to the cave, but keep in mind, leaving the sun he appears blind and the prisoners there are sure to find they blame this on the world behind and as he tries to unbind, to force them to the world, maligned by fear, they choose to remain confined, and worse, they do repay his kind attempts with violence unrefined.

(Socrates and Glaucon bow to Cast, who clap as they exit the stage.)

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PLATO I hope that my analogy helps your mind to be free. The idea is all that you need, the truth, all else is pageantry, fantasy, shadows, not reality, ideas are real, literally, more real than the world you see, more important than personality made up for your vanity. Ideas are eternal and unchanging, that which changes is only feigning and you should be disdaining this illusion or you’ll be chaining yourself to a world decaying.

DIRECTOR (Whispering to Cast as their egos.) To try to understand this ideology is about as fun as proctology. Maybe you should stick with a methodology that celebrates your biology?

CAST (To Plato.) We don’t get your logicality, though we accede the topicality. Please forgive our banality when we say our physicality is ingrained in our mentality and we’re attached to our carnality, not offended by brutality as much as your morality. We’ve accepted our mortality, to us it is normality we believe it’s our totality, whereas your analogy diverges from rationality, though you get points for originality your argument for universality of form vs. physicality discomforts us substantially. We embrace our individuality vs. the generality. 31

PLATO But nothing that is real decays, all else illusion overlaid, a façade dressed up in brocade your earthly senses to persuade. Your beliefs have been mislaid and you will end up as a slave, part of this mad escapade, a participant in the masquerade. Ignore you now the serenade of ignorance, be a renegade for truth’s upgrade, dodge the fusillade of ignorant arguments that pervade, let me dissuade you from this crusade which would degrade your spirit to an early grave, your mind betrayed by fear, unless you remain unafraid to venture forth undismayed and learn in the realm unmanifest, here is where you will be blessed with knowledge that you would possess of truth and joy and happiness. Just be aware that your success may lead to your arrest as Socrates will attest.

ARISTOTLE (To Plato.) I will have to disagree, I am an objective devotee, substance is important to me, that and individuality. When I see it I will believe, positivism is the key. Knowledge is from study and learning, not from the ether to which you are turning. Answer me this question burning, why are you so undiscerning? Your principles I am overturning.

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DIRECTOR Finally a man whose learning of my lessons does some churning and to the physical world returning. He is my approval earning.

HOLY SPIRIT Though they still listen to the director installed like a debt collector as the ego, he does hector and drive them from their true protector, I remain as the connector between them and God, their benefactor, and one by one I find defectors who would finally see the specter bringing truth, the sweetest nectar, their innate lie detector through which the conscientious objector hidden in each of them will render them as ready for surrender to the love of God so tender. Until then I do not lecture I merely wait till they remember who they are at their center, Son of God, now and forever.

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SCENE III

At RISE: (Biblical times, just before the birth of Jesus. Angels and JESUS on the periphery are watching Cast engaged in violence with concern.)

ANGELS I wonder if we should interfere in this history of a world so weird where everyone does revere the anger that they hold so dear, the right to be mad, the right to fear more protected than the right to cheer, the right to joy, to love sincere. Looking through a dingy veneer makes everything unclear and life austere. We see a world where madness reigns, mankind imprisoned as if in chains, mounting interminable campaigns of war designed to inflict pain and death as weapons down will rain like a storm, a hurricane of violence, often in God’s name a travesty, a crying shame, competing, as if a brother’s gain is another’s loss. Who can explain how this twisted world became real for this poor cast of actors? It appears they need a benefactor someone to shake them from this stupor or they’ll continue to kill each other not knowing that they kill a brother, they kill themselves as if another not knowing that we are together, are one in God now and forever. We’ll send them help, what do you say? Jesus, will you join the fray? From there you can lead the way back, as they have gone astray.

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JESUS Of course, if that is our Father’s will I will descend into this swill, don the costume that makes them ill, a state of shabby dishabille, to bring them back into the fold so they remember God’s arms hold them safe and sound from heat and cold and in his love he does enfold to end their fear so uncontrolled, if only they can be so bold to open their eyes and see what is real, let go of the fear they feel, worship our Father with the zeal now reserved for the weak appeal, the great conceal, of separation from unity, although done with impunity, they all have the opportunity to rejoin heaven’s community, from guilt they have immunity if only they will choose unity. (Jesus walks up onto the stage, shedding his light and donning the human costume.)

JESUS God’s will be done.

CAST Well what if we don’t think that’s fun?

JESUS What is it you consider fun?

CAST Wrestling? Yes, that is a good one, you can play or watch out in the sun. Sword fighting, boxing, with those you can stun the crowd, and your opponent if you have him outdone, if you’re not coordinated we’re sure to shun but don’t worry about it, perhaps you can run? If you’re bored you can catch the odd crucifixion.

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JESUS Fun? You know nothing of fun! To you fun is saying you’ve won, being able to see your brother outdone, the way to feel good is to beat someone, literally or figuratively, all in good “fun.” (Makes air quotes with fingers.) It is hard for me to see the attraction to the sources of your distraction. Watching men die gives satisfaction? You’ll understand my reaction, this path to joy I find confusing for it is your brother you are abusing, if one has to lose, all, are losing. I do not mean to be accusing but perhaps you could improve your choosing, maybe even lay off the boozing and the bruising, to join in, start refusing since there’s no excusing the bloodthirst you find amusing.

CAST We must find something to distract us from the many things that attack us, predators that track us, half the time we live in blackness. No one before has ever asked us, but look what happened to John the Baptist, we do not want to end up headless, we live in hunger since we are breadless, half of us are even bedless, it would be nice if this God fed us instead of sending plagues to upset us, you can see why we’d be restless.

JESUS You have fallen into the director’s trap giving God a really bad rap, God sends no plagues your ass to chap, he feeds you feasts, not this scrap, this unappealing crap, this slap in the face of nourishment. Let me offer this encouragement, there is nothing you have conceived of here 36 that to God’s will can ever compare, nothing that you’re trying to snare can equate to what God wants to share. If you knew what you’re missing you could not bear to be watching death games from that chair, or work day and night to stay off welfare, to make sure your family has meals that are square and that your kids have something to wear. If you knew God’s plans you wouldn’t care about the things you think save you from despair, the things of this world would no longer ensnare your mind, in fact you would dare to see the truth, to become aware of Heaven, a place so fair, this illusion soon would tear and you would then declare that love, once so rare, is now everywhere.

CAST We would love to be at this pinnacle of beauty and joy, this festival of peace and love so epical where everyone’s behavior is ethical, but please forgive us for being skeptical, it sounds a mythical spectacle, not to say that you aren’t credible, but we find this fare inedible, unless somehow it is testable, but we’ve seen nothing evidential, our beliefs remain conventional, our resistance is impregnable.

JESUS Yet your misery is preventable because your beliefs are nonsensical. That the truth is not perceptible is the result of your unquenchable thirst for guilt, indefensible, making your minds inaccessible to God whose love is irrepressible. Though your choice is incomprehensible, because it will keep you in this plight until you do invite the spirit and the light to guide you from the night 37 and return to you your sight so you will again delight in the wonder of God’s might.

CAST God may have a loving hand but we can’t see His kingdom grand, see anything but this parched land, a barren desert full of sand, no God is seen from where we stand. Don’t be too quick to reprimand, we’d like to see the promised land rather than hear of it secondhand we really want to understand.

JESUS Be ye more like the newborn child, no knowledge has he yet compiled, no understanding, still he smiled not fearing a world so wild, trusting all is reconciled with his belief that life is mild, with joy and love, he is beguiled. Is his every need not attended to? His slightest cry is the cue for doting parents to hold and coo, feed him when his hunger grew, dress him if his skin looked blue, a blanket, a hat, a sock, a shoe all without him having a clue how everything he needs comes through. He wouldn’t understand it if he knew, so I urge you to eschew making such a big to-do over understanding what you will view, your apprehension is undue.

CAST We don’t think you can compare us to a child, it isn’t fair, a baby has parents taking care. In fact, there is the case, though rare, where the parents are not even there or unfit to give good care.

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JESUS Do you think that God is less attentive to a child he’s blessed than any human in this mess under the kind of stress parenting brings, do confess you feel distress on occasion, though you profess to your great parental success. In any case you are as secure as a babe in arms, I assure, more so since God’s love is pure for any ill he is the cure.

CAST How then do we begin to leave behind this world of sin? As you know we have been doing this since who knows when. You say to look within, well, that’s a scary place to begin, we think we’re going to need some gin to go deep inside this skin, filled as we are with chagrin where the guilt has been built in.

JESUS Let’s start at the beginning, when you first thought you were sinning. It was the separation of yourselves from all creation, the individuation that was undertaken at the director’s dictation that led to your damnation, self-perceived, with your privation from the source of all elation. Then it stands that your salvation lies in reunification with your brothers, in summation, it is your emancipation to heed this revelation.

CAST Could you repeat the revelation?

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JESUS

You all are one and your vocation is to halt all accusation, leave the past and allegation of grievance and aggravation, leave any agitation or imagined altercation. A complete alteration as your thoughts of vexation will be replaced by admiration as you give your approbation of your brothers’ commutation from enemy, a fabrication you’ll reject, no hesitation as you heal this fragmentation. Release all your indignation based on this information that you are one, no isolation will stop this integration. Then you’ll have the revocation of this fictional situation.

CAST How then do we start to see that we are not apart, how do we find it in our heart? In truth it doesn’t seem so smart, we’ve done so much just to compart, we’ve raised it to the finest art so that we may each play a part.

JESUS Once you see that no one is a stranger, healing the illusion of danger, then you can release your anger. Forgiveness is what you need for in your purpose to succeed, release the anger that you breed, forgive anyone when they plead or plead not, regardless of the deed. Forgive yourself before you bleed, give up the guilt that makes you cede your happiness your shame to feed. Forgiveness is now your creed, with this you will plant the seed 40 so your heart can be freed. Forgive everything and everyone, knowing no bad deeds were ever done, your life will definitely be more fun. The power you feel in anger is illusion your body undergoing a profusion of physical symptoms that cause confusion. Forgiveness is all that it takes, a small act when you consider the stakes, powerful enough to put on the brakes and prevent all the bad decisions you make.

CAST Bad decisions?

JESUS Hmm, let me count the ways man has used anger, thinking it pays more to punish than to praise. There’s war, for one, with cities to raze, there’s punishment that lasts for days, there’s individual battle about which essays are written, lavishing praise upon the nobility of killing this way. There’s the grievance you harbor against your peer and you do the same against someone dear, the imagined slight that brings a tear, the vengeful response as you sneer, the savage sports at which you cheer, thinking that a crime severe warrants punishment that arouses fear, I can go on if you have all year.

CAST How then do we ourselves forgive for having a nature so combative?

JESUS Yes, that is the hardest part, yet it is essential to make the start, once you begin we can reach your heart and you will realize you’ve been playing a part, that this world is not real and you can depart any time you like, this play we will thwart.

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CAST We will follow you to the Kingdom!

JESUS The Kingdom of God is not a place, no location to which you can race, no barrier to entry where you make your case to get inside some pearly gates. It is, in fact, your home base, where you find a state of grace, where love is seen in every face, and there is nothing you need chase. The kingdom of God is within, where it has always been, where you are, and were, without sin. This is where you begin to find your way back again.

CAST It’s hard to feel God through our existential attitude, and, at the risk of sounding a little crude, mainly it feels that we’ve been royally screwed and hell is the place that we must conclude exists within us when we’re in this mood. We’re trying to follow since we’re tired of this feud and we truly appreciate that you’re a patient dude, but could you elaborate on that platitude? We find it’s not that simple, or else we have misconstrued.

JESUS It is that simple, but I will review. Heaven on earth, and hell, you know them both so well, though you forgot heaven in a spell. You created this tale you tell, turning heaven into hell, the imposter that you sell awaiting the bombshell, your death knell as a ticket to heaven, insincere since heaven is already here hidden only by your fear, by the guilt that you hold so dear, the grievances that appear real although they’re mere fiction, 42 created to feed your addiction to the drama and the friction the goal being on others the infliction of your guilt, your wish for crucifixion.. Share instead your inner light, unknown to you it shines so bright, erasing all that gives you fright, illuminating the darkest night. No longer will you need to fight, no longer will you need to wait for the kingdom of heaven at some gate, there is nothing that can negate the taking of your rightful place, full of joy and God’s loving grace. All that is needed is that you are willing, God’s strength will do the fulfilling to bring you from this world so chilling

CAST What more can we do to show we’re willing, that God’s crops we would be tilling, that this is the goal that we find thrilling?

JESUS Know this, God is within you, and you in turn are in him too, and, if this much is true, of your brothers it is too, and whatever to them you do is therefore what to God you do. Accordingly, follow these tenants to avoid paying the penance of missing Heaven’s entrance. First, your brothers judge ye not, and, if you think you ought, heed again what I have taught before in this web you’re caught, for your brother is a thought of God, as are you, and the upshot is that your differences are naught and perceiving them is fraught, hiding the light you sought, hidden by this play’s cruel plot. So judge ye not, and forgive for that is what it means to live the unconditional love God gives. 43

CAST Judge not!

JESUS Second, rid yourself of fear for, though it does appear real, this world of tears is merely a false frontier that seems to cohere but is dark and unclear with the goal insincere to keep you far, although you’re near, from the kingdom o so dear.

CAST No fear!

JESUS Third, guilt must be eradicated. Once this illusion is deflated, that it’s only a play demonstrated, that no evil deed was consummated, no being has been desecrated, and this role that you have animated, the actions you have simulated, that your director orchestrated, will have been obviated, from your mind evaporated, you are from your dream emancipated.

CAST No guilt!

(Some of the Cast dressed as the Temple guards grab Jesus and drag him off the stage. The rest of the Cast follows – everyone is off stage but you hear chants of “King of the Jews” and Joseph of Arimathea appears carrying Jesus’ body and buries him. The Cast gathers around the tomb.)

CAST Master, why you did leave us amid a heinous fuss? This we did not discuss. Why would God allow it thus? Allowing man so treasonous to end too soon your holy life 44 for now God’s son is crucified. Without you who will be our guide? Could it be what is implied is that your death is justified, even specified, your blood required to provide payment? For our sins you’ve died and although we are mortified that our guilt so horrified the Lord he sent you to our side to die so we would be purified, we’ll yell it from the mountainside, by all will it be testified.

JESUS (Just off the set stage in Heaven speaking to God and Angels.) Well, this is not doing any good, unwittingly creating a falsehood. How do they think that God would, how do they imagine that God could conceive of this gruesome settlement? I must say this sentiment shocks me, it is resonant, in fact, is, so old testament. I thought they had better comprehension of how things work in this dimension, that our Father through extension shows only love as I’ve made mention over and over, no one paid attention. Now they are back to their flawed perception and cast upon God’s sweet perfection the darkness of their own deception.

DIRECTOR I submit that my expert direction is responsible for this progression. Did he think a few years of lessons would be enough for full rejection of my masterful projection? Forgive my condescension of his incomprehension.

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JESUS I suppose upon reflection, for their own protection I should dispel this strange pretention. I’ll return to their dimension to arrange for their redemption and show our Father’s gentle attention by my miraculous ascension.

DIRECTOR Argh, just when I thought I could coast this Jesus and the Holy Ghost could take away all that I boast. Well, I’m not satisfied with almost, I control the innermost minds of my human host and though I share it with the Ghost I am more devious than most, willing to take the dark road and fear is a potent load through which they cannot decode the gentle whispers of the Ghost all I need is to amplify their fear, in fact I’ll terrify them of God, I’ll horrify with tales of rage and when they cry my dominance that will signify, I’ll know their mind I occupy.

(Jesus arising from the tomb) JESUS You didn’t get it.

HOLY SPIRIT They didn’t get it.

DIRECTOR (Gleefully.) They didn’t get it!

CAST We didn’t get it, we wanted to and yet it eluded us, and we let it. To our perception we did submit believing that God would permit 46 his son’s sacrifice to acquit us of crimes we think we commit, still craving punishment to befit our delusions as we see fit. We still see this world we built because we’re addicted to the guilt and, although it makes us wilt, we will plunge to the hilt this knife that we did gild.

JESUS I became the symbol of your sin and the guilt you feel within required my death to save your skin. That’s not salvation, you have been tricked by the director with his spin, telling you lies with a grin, spinning a tale oh so grim. And though the story line is thin you have let him win, you’re at the mercy of his whim.

CAST But Lord, you died for our sins.

JESUS Would I offer you this body, a costume built to be shoddy, requiring decorations gaudy? Or would I teach that we are one, that together we are the Son? Our communication of the nature of salvation is the body’s only justification. No one dies, death is a negation of God’s truth, and the temptation to think that your body is you is keeping you in this zoo. No one else can die for you and if they could the point is moot, death does not sin undo, the only sin that you can do is to believe this world is true and this belief you can undo. The Holy Spirit will walk you through the steps, if heaven you would pursue. 47

HOLY SPIRIT Love is mightier than the sword, and this you can record, God is love, and he’s our Lord. When you become one instead of a horde you will come to this accord and your vision will be restored when you cut guilt’s binding cord. You claim that God you do adore, yet you fear him even more, believe that he is keeping score. Lose this belief I implore, the only thing he has in store for you is love forevermore, so please do not deplore or judge your brothers anymore, or with them go to war in God’s name, for I assure this is something he abhors. I cannot underscore this enough so don’t ignore my messages you can explore for the ways to exit this stage door.

JESUS It appears they still do not hear you, more immersed than we even knew into this world that makes them blue and keeps them from their birth anew into their life that’s real and true. We will, of course, someday break through, God’s will cannot be misconstrued, so I’ll leave you here with this motley crew as I will bid them my adieu. CAST Who were you talking to?

JESUS The Holy Spirit, that is who is in your mind accompanying you as you get ready to pass through this illusion that you drew, that you make with your belief As long as you buy into this world you see you prevent yourself from being free, but think about it and you will agree 48 it makes no sense, and this is key, our Father is not absentee, he deserts us not, actually, although we accuse in our hypocrisy, and close our eyes to the degree that we see not his loving reality. Our Father’s will is almighty. Do you think he wills this world you see where dangers appear from which you flee? My child, this could never be. God keeps you safe from any harm, you’re held quite gently in his arms, there is never cause for alarm, all you need is to disarm.

CAST If this world is not true why do we feel that this is the only thing that’s real?

JESUS Right now you are lost in a dream and no matter how real it may seem, real enough to make you scream, you will awaken to bright sunbeams and the director’s cruel regime you will happily deem merely a crazy scheme, and forget as if it had never been for such as the way of forgetting a dream. That is why God’s will be done is not said with any resignation, God’s will is for everyone, all who exist under the sun to freely join together as one, all of us are the favorite Son.

CAST Why does God not order us to wake? Why does He not our bodies take?

JESUS Because this is your choice to make. Make it soon I urge, for your sake, before much more torture you take, accumulating more heartache, 49 more headache, more bites from the snake who’s world that is fake you’ve refused to forsake. Once you see the façade you’ll let go of the fraud and share peace, not this flawed hatred you laud and you will be awed in the presence of God. The Holy Spirit is your guide, to find him go inside, you will never be denied God’s grace when you’ve applied the principles I’ve specified. (Jesus ascends with Holy Spirit.)

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SCENE IV

At RISE: (Middle Ages-ish, Cast engaged in holy wars as Narrator gets us up to speed, Angels on the periphery.)

NARRATOR The Middle Ages now approaching, and though they’ve gotten lots of coaching mankind is still choking on a world that’s decomposing and on Heaven’s turf encroaching. Christians have been persecuted much, the Roman Empire did such, Diocletion with his heavy touch seeking Christian ruination. Constantine seemed their salvation, religious tolerance and liberation he did decree unto his nation, but he introduced a new mutation, emperor of the church coronation, where ruling powers receive dispensation to enforce affirmation, to deliver condemnation and to mete out castigation. Payment was an inundation of wealth that led to jubilation, and accompanying approbation of the techniques whose application against Christians had been the allegation, against others now employed and sanctioned.

ANGELS Christ’s message has been lost, no one knows the true cost. Christian leaders have been bought, Constantine a saint is thought, The Great they call him, we think not. The militarization of God’s word is many things, start with absurd. In the name of God an army gird? The message that Christianity averred of peace above all else, unheard as violence became the church’s preferred method of expanding, guilt transferred to those whose religious beliefs diverged. God’s approval was never conferred 51 on crusades taken with purpose blurred, in the name of God passions stirred, actions spurred, all manner of sins incurred, lies told to the herd of heroism, it was even inferred heaven would be secured when participation was assured. Same with the Inquisitions, these unholy missions, God’s name invoked in the commission of crimes with the permission from leaders whose positions had deteriorated in condition as a result of blind ambition.

NARRATOR (Interrupting) From persecuted to persecutor through temptation of power and wealth, in abdication of Christ’s fervent ministration of nonviolence, that no immolation on behalf of God is ever sanctioned. When I called this a mutation I understated, it is a ruination, an abomination, creating severe stagnation of progress, an abnegation of a peaceful foundation, a complete decimation, I see no justification for this deformation infecting the congregation with spiritual starvation. In case it is lost in translation the point of my narration is… (Sighs and calms himself down.) Once again I’ve gone off script. The angels look a little miffed, they like to say I’m prone to drift, that my direction I may shift. What can I say? I’m full of passion, this enthusiasm you cannot ration, all I ask is for compassion, you will admit that, in my fashion, 52

I elevate the call to action. But Angels, please, do proceed, of course to you I will concede the floor, you have your case to plead to those who don’t live by the creed that sin does not exist, indeed, have forgotten that to be freed they’ve only to give the love they need.

ANGELS Yet, In these dark times full of debris we are encouraged to see in the 13th century AD a brilliant poet named Rumi, a practitioner of Sufi, a mystical ascetic, his presence magnetic, eschewing cosmetic concerns, antihetic to his beliefs, called mystic to open man’s heart, altruistic to his brothers, synergistic in monotheistic beliefs idealistic. His talent artistic with words aphoristic, the message simplistic, that love’s the heuristic, the enduring characteristic of reunion holistic.

NARRATOR Yes, if the ego is discarded it’s goals so retarded can be disregarded and the minds it bombarded, will be released and unguarded, ready to be rewarded with the truth so bighearted. Man will be transported from vision distorted by thinking so morbid, belief God could be thwarted and sin and death courted, beliefs now supported by flimsy lies that purported 53

God’s love was aborted, an untruth so contorted that someone should be deported, and by someone I meant the director the evil projector of… (Angels making get on with it gesture.) Oh, ahem, let me introduce Rumi, our honored guest lector.

RUMI If you think I’m going to speak your rhyme you must be flat out of your mind. Many translations have much maligned my meaning in an attempt to rhyme in languages not designed to handle the beauty of my mind, and although I am disinclined it appears I must be resigned to speak your paraphrasing lines. It looks like I’m stuck in this bind knowing I’m sure to find your tone deaf and eyes blind, so here goes poetry unrefined. (Sighs.) Your task is not for love to seek, seek the barriers you’ve built that make love weak and hide it from you, unless you peek behind walls put up by love’s critique so that of love you would not speak thus shrouding it in mystique. (Sighs.) Once again I must object to the fact that you have wrecked the beauty that I would protect with the last vestiges of my self-respect. In the name of rhyme you did dissect, and though the content was correct I’m not on board with the effect. However, it appears you’ll have me continue this way, and once again you do fall prey to extended rhetoric that does stray from the simplicity that I do portray, but here we go to my dismay. (Sighs.) Your depression is due to your refusal to praise, and to your insolence that does amaze 54 as from God you avert your gaze and buy into this malaise.

NARRATOR Yes! the malaise, the myth of the human condition that man has accepted as his mission, unaware that this is fiction, this concept of perdition that the director instilled from the first audition when he installed as ego his own ambition and fractured our angelic coalition. I said before I had a bad premonition, a deep suspicion, that this ridiculous composition deserved prohibition, but no one would heed my admonition and now you see..

RUMI (Interrupting) Are you done with me?

NARRATOR No, continue, I got excited.

RUMI All right, I will, though I’m not delighted. (Sighs) Do not feel lonely, whatever you do, the entire universe is inside of you. Stop acting small with your emotion, you are the universe in ecstatic motion, your power lies in your devotion to love that’s greater than any ocean, than any potion however ambrosian. Acting small leads to erosion of ecstasy, more than a notion to be cast aside thinking it commotion, it is more real than this world you’ve chosen. You must set your life on fire, seek those who fan your desire to live a life that does inspire others to live a life that’s higher, raise us from the world’s hellfire that we imagine we require 55 to save us from guilt that we conspire to believe is real although we require only to look for the purifier. He’s here already and this funeral pyre is an illusion, in fact a satire.

HOLY SPIRIT Was there ever a soul so sweet as Rumi, with desire so deep to awaken from this sleep and reunite with God who keeps him safe and close, they’ve never parted and so the director has been thwarted it’s only the illusion of the faint hearted that keeps man in this world uncharted. But Rumi’s will is all I need as more of this cast starts to heed the call to love they will indeed have my support as I pluck the weeds. Do not doubt I will succeed, as God’s will is guaranteed and everyone will be freed and will look with love upon each other, recognizing all as brothers, closer even, they will discover that they are one with one another and what was fragmented by the director will once again be joined together.

DIRECTOR As soon as I plant my seed of paranoia and of greed up pops another righteous creed, for those little hearts will bleed, who want to see mankind is freed the Holy Spirit does intercede, but his progress I will impede and though their safety I concede they have no idea and so they heed the fear, with which I mislead them into committing violent deeds against their brother, whom they need to escape this play, indeed, it’s plain as day but they proceed to follow wherever I will lead as their anger I do feed. 56

ACT III

SCENE I

At RISE: (Narrator in front or to side of set stage with GANDHI, DE CHARDIN, and MLK positioned on the set stage, Angels on the periphery.)

NARRATOR In the 18 and 19 hundreds we pick back up again, the angles are excited, seeing progress now and then. Gandhi instructs to look within as the science of de Chardin expands the minds of Christian men and MLK is the moral linchpin to pull mankind out of irreparable sin. You’ve heard of Gandhi if you’re not obtuse, an Indian activist who does use nonviolence to produce change, and end long term abuse. And as you may already deduce, many find his approach abstruse once the lure of war does seduce. Eventually even Gandhi does excuse the right to defense from war’s noose, his commitment to nonviolence now transduced, though his contributions are profuse.

GANDHI Be change you want to make, the world but mirrors your internal state, so if you find the world frustrates and you would like that to abate the solution I would advocate is to change the thoughts you contemplate, the beliefs that you emanate, which your universe will create. Allow me to elaborate if a hair on your face you would eliminate as your reflection you investigate the reflection you would not excoriate as in the glass it does not originate, thus this act would not emancipate the hair that you would terminate, on this there is no debate. 57

On this analogy let’s ruminate to see what it does illuminate. If a better world you would cultivate, your mind you need to elevate, all negativity dissipate, all fear and loathing eliminate, what you don’t want, don’t tolerate even a thought or belief of to accumulate, keep your mind pure to activate the beauty to which you would relate and the universe will reciprocate, your happiness it will remunerate as peace and love you communicate. Your role in this don’t abdicate, do it now for all our sakes so that we may celebrate. To make sure you made the right connection, your outer world is but a reflection of your inner world upon inspection, so if change is your election the appropriate place for the correction is in the internal dimension, there is no outer action that can make the change with satisfaction.

NARRATOR Brilliantly said by my peaceful friend, and around the same time we have de Chardin, a French priest who scoffs at original sin and integrates science with the Christian doctrine. He is the one who has this thought of deliverance which I will quote with something like reverence, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience but spiritual beings having a human experience.”

de CHARDIN My belief that orthogenesis can be applied to consciousness has for me such a resonance, such a true and beautiful elegance, driving towards a renascence that brings all of us to participance in God through Christ’s benevolence, as foretold in Corinthians.

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NARRATOR (Reading from a pocket dictionary.) I looked up orthogenesis – it is the source of the theory of evolution he does endorse that there is an internal driving force leading man to a goal, an evolutionary course.

de CHARDIN Evolving in a definite direction, less haphazard than natural selection, merges science with the perfection of evolving in God’s direction towards the inevitable correction of the mistake in our perception that we have lost his protection. We have but forgotten our affection, love is the intersection where we find God in our connection with each other, a recollection of what is, of truth a resurrection. However, it can’t be done in isolation it takes us all for the formation of human unanimization we can only hope that encephalization will expand to support activation of our consciousness in aggregation the Omega Point, divine unification, that some may call speculation, but with God’s laws is in conformation.

NARRATOR Let’s go now to 1963 to hear from Dr. Martin Luther King and his impassioned “I Have a Dream,” the greatest speech by my esteem. A man who took on a regime of oppression without the usual stream of violence that oppression can bring, except that violence was the baseless response from those with beliefs racist, and in an act of brutality heinous took the life of one courageous, who defied a concept so outrageous, a kind of sickness so contagious , so corrosive, creating an environment explosive, 59 oppressed and oppressor become ferocious, attacking as if under hypnosis, the director’s greatest act of bogus vitriolic hocus pocus . It is my humble diagnosis that these acts so atrocious… (Takes a deep breath to calm himself.) But MLK improved the prognosis, teaching love through osmosis, slowly turning the erosive tide of racism with his focus on love and forgiveness, his magnum opus.

MLK Oh, I have been dreaming, one day this nation will live the true meaning of the creed that we’ve been speaking, but that now needs believing, that the truth is self-evident, it’s a fact, not a sentiment, all men are equal and equally relevant children of God so benevolent.

CAST Can your nonviolent position survive the brutal conditions not addressed by abolition? All this brutality against us has us feeling riotous, and though they profess their piousness our oppressors seem like nihilists. We fear we may need force to make inroads on our course.

MLK You cannot fight hate with hate, only love can set us straight, only love can create what we seek, a peaceful state. Peace is not just the goal we seek, it is itself the only technique that will achieve the goal and speak the inclusive words that truth would teach. Mankind must evolve a method that does resolve all conflict, and with love absolve. 60

Revenge and its partner aggression can’t solve the problem of oppression, retaliation is digression, only love removes dissension.

CAST It’s hard to love those whose profession appears to be our depression. What if we can’t stomach intercession for those who delay our progression?

MLK It is difficult, without question, and you may see it as a concession, but forgiveness is the one expression that will release you from your tension, allowing love to form the suspension of enemies in transgression. Hate is too great a burden to bear, release it now if you dare and you will begin to repair the damage it’s done, though you’re unaware. Hate is causing your despair, your happiness it does impair more than would an external scare. Nonviolence is not only physical, it also must be spiritual, to shoot a man is impermissible, but to hate him is just as despicable, even if it is reciprocal, this is not equivocal.

CAST You know that they will take your life, make a widow of your wife. What good is all this if you die? Do you not want to fight?

MLK If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from outright death of the spirit and loss of light nothing’s more redemptive in my sight. No one knows why they are alive until they know for what they'd die, 61 love’s the truth, all else a lie, let that always be your guide, when choosing your road, take the high.

NARRATOR The sly director invented oppression by creating the false impression that one man’s gain demands repression, that the requirement for a man’s possession of whatever is his obsession requires another’s loss, a vile pretention, used through centuries, to my depression. This most incorrect perception keeps this cast mired in deception and the only way to stop this regression is to follow God’s law, an intercession. God is love so no aggression can lead to individual progression, it is all or none, that is the lesson, there is no winning with transgression of God’s law that his protection applies to all, no selection, is present, even in suggestion. But if you are waiting for his confession (Gestures to Director.) of the fiction that concession is ever required for the expression of every desire, without exception, that his shameful indiscretion prevents the entire casts’ possession of joy and leads them to oppression of each other, and dissension where there should only be extension, of joy and love, his indiscretion so vile I lose my self-possession and… (Looks at Angels who shake their heads, deep sigh to calm himself.) Ahem, please forgive my digression, this will conclude this session.

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SCENE II

At RISE: (Narrator to the front or side of set stage, HELEN SCHUCMAN, WILLIAM THETFORD, and rest of Cast engaged in arguments in a boardroom or staff room in background, Angels on the periphery.)

NARRATOR Century after century we’ve watched the Son of God remain obsessed with his bod, finding identity in this façade. Sometimes he does maraud, sometimes he gets a job so he can buy some thingamabob to adorn his costume, though it’s a fraud. But still, to some meaningless work he’ll plod just so the body has a house, just so he can buy a new blouse or eat some fancy Brussels sprouts. The body’s needs are never met, so all his time he spends to get some new thing, amassing debt just to assuage this silhouette. No wonder this world did beget drugs to help mask regret, the feeling he needs to be reset drowned in drug or drink and yet it remains that he feels upset. If only he did not forget that he’s the Son of God and could never fret, he would leave the director’s set where he’s confined with this mindset, he would see that there’s no threat, only the director’s will does abet, through ego, keeping them in this net, if I may use an epithet… (Looks at Angels who shake their heads.) Ahem, I may not, so I’ll leave my critique of this freak and what he does wreak. On Jesus let’s take another peek. In 1965 Jesus tried a new technique, he decided he would speak directly to a human mind for the benefit of all mankind 63 to get their goals more aligned so they could join together and find a way of being more refined that would make them more inclined with each other to be twined, to be combined in the required state, the grip of this play to break. He asked Helen Schucman to undertake the writing of a course to take that miracles would illuminate, with Bill Thetford as her writing mate. It took seven years to create A Course in Miracles, which does relate the words that Jesus did dictate.

BILL As medical psychologists and professors our group is filled with elite aggressors, thinking everyone else is lesser, or, if disagreeing, an oppressor. This conflict is such a stressor I find it acts as a depressor. Helen, there must be another way to say what we need to say, a gentler way to communicate without spewing so much hate.

HELEN Bill, although we are not close I think your idea is on the nose, I agree our environment does expose the need for a new approach. What is it you propose?

BILL I’m not sure yet, but I suppose inspiration will disclose the path to lead us from these woes.

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NARRATOR Their minds opened just a skosh by the willingness that they show to work towards a common goal was all Jesus needed to enroll, to reach into their inner soul and give them a message to extoll, instructions out of this sinkhole, this mess created by this troll, this walking ad for birth control, this creature with a heart of coal, there is another word that ends with hole that I’ll not use because I… (deep breath) Oh, sorry, I was on a roll, what Jesus says we should behold.

HELEN Bill, I am having dreams explicit, of God, though I am atheistic.

BILL Could you use an approach that’s journalistic to capture these messages spiritualistic?

HELEN Yes, though it feels surrealistic, and I certainly am no mystic, but when I write, a Voice realistic does dictate words specific, intense, but also so simplistic. It’s Jesus’ voice, and his idealistic plea that we abandon the egotistic drivers that are characteristic in this world so pugilistic and find an approach more synergistic to release us from this world sadistic that leaves us so pessimistic, separate in our narcissistic thinking our brother antagonistic, taking pleasure in voyeuristic judging of brothers with airs pietistic, false motives presented as altruistic while inside we go ballistic.

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BILL I’ll transcribe the notes you take, maybe this is just the break that will this impasse shake and our better selves awake.

JESUS (Appearing to Helen and Bill. Helen writing in longhand, Bill at a typewriter, Cast sharing books.) What I’m giving to you is a teaching device leading to God and God’s paradise, Heaven for all to be precise and no one has to pay a price, the generosity of God has no downside. Nothing real can be threatened regardless the weapon and nothing unreal is in existence, there’s no truth without persistence, the unreal changes with time and distance, that is how you know it’s nonexistent. Although man does maintain with insistence that the world your physical eyes perceive is the only thing that you believe, and while you to this illusion cleave the illusion itself is going to thieve from you your birthright of God’s peace. What the body’s eyes do perceive, that’s what you must disbelieve, knowing that God would never deceive you with a world that does bereave and gives God’s children cause to grieve. Follow this course for your reprieve. Look at what you have made, a place where you feel afraid, where the physical appears to decay in gruesome and nightmarish ways. It’s illusions your senses pervade, as reality they masquerade, always keeping you in the shade believing real what is displayed to sightless eyes that do persuade you that they see, a cascade of deceptions as they betray with the false images they convey.

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HELEN Are you sure I’m the one to relay the wisdom that you have to say? I’m not really even know to pray…

JESUS Do you think I would make a mistake?

HELEN Of course not, dictate away.

JESUS Your identity is not real, look at the facts, what you consider your “self,” is but an artifact of so called judgment based on the acts you are driven to by dark contracts with the ego which attacks through beliefs that then attract what you express. Only a maniac could believe this is true, and if you could look through the mind of Christ and eschew the ego’s miscues you would see that the truth is this realms malleability is a hint to its unreality. This cannot be your totality, defined by locality and finally mortality appearing as normality, but subject to changeability celebrating its own agility to mask its disability in achieving any tranquility.

CAST (Looking up from the book.) Let me stay awake and not succumb to this fear that makes me numb, fear that threatens to overcome, fear that my image is just the sum of fictions I’ve collected as they come in the night without the sun, fear that what I have become when it is exposed by the light will reveal that I’m a fright, 67 a blight, full of spite, unworthy of sight, already I am contrite.

JESUS No! What you will feel is pure delight when you are standing in the light, when you see with your true sight and your mind does ignite. Your true voice will recite the name of God from memory and once again you can see that in his love you will always be, and have always been, forever free. What you are is so much more than this persona waging war, when to your true self you are restored you will gladly walk through that door and look behind you nevermore. Your energy do not invest in this world that is a mess, I tell you that the things that stress, things you want to repress, the outcomes on which you obsess, that you think lead to success are all fiction, and yes, I am sure you will confess if you look back and assess what in the past did distress you find that it was much, much less important than you did express. So follow now a new process if this cycle you would egress. Give up the need to control, once you stop then you’ll know that you are not alone you have not been disowned your support system will be shown.

CAST How do we find our way? We would like to start today! We will listen to all you say.

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JESUS The Holy Spirit shows you the way. He is here to mediate between this world you habitate, using it as your hideaway. He’ll provide a passageway and you’ll get closer everyday as He reverses each mistake in perception that you make, and with forgiveness He will take your errors into the light where they no longer cause fright, are reversed outright and quickly fade from sight. Share forgiveness is the lesson, love your neighbor, no exception, your giving determines your reception. You create through your expression, so express the forgiveness you want to receive, the results will be what you believe, so believe in your innocence and for others maintain that their innocence as well can be claimed, then you will find all men are the same, the combined light of all will inflame, together the Son of God is your name. So, the Course in Miracles read, and, the Holy Spirit heed, and you are on the right path indeed, you have all the tools you need. (Jesus, Bill, and Helen leave the stage, MARIANNE WILLIAMSON enters.)

NARRATOR Many are inspired by the course, as they should, since Jesus is the source, among others, Marianne Williamson does endorse and spread this message of true life force. She makes it her mission, her life’s ambition to aid the transmission of this composition with her own renditions which expand recognition. She makes the concepts more accessible to those, whom of the course are skeptical, puts in to terms acceptable 69 to minds not yet amenable to find the concept credible that man’s true power is impregnable, so she starts with what’s perceptible of the truth, and from there it is extendable.

MARIANNE That we are inadequate is not our deepest fear, it is our smallness that we hold dear so insecurity can persevere. We fear our power is beyond measure and that it will incur displeasure, make others feel not as clever. In truth it’s a gift all will treasure, rather than making them feel lesser, gives them permission to be better, to shake off the imagined pressure, any thought of a suppressor. If you feel you are a transgressor, unworthy of shining altogether, know you are a child that God does treasure, His will for you is best and better, playing small is His will never and He gains the greatest pleasure when a child shares his ember of greatness, so all can remember their true selves in their full splendor. Love is true reality, fear is what we learned to be unlearn the fear so you can see and with God you must agree that you are safe, God’s guarantee cannot be doubted to any degree. Fear creates what seems to be the threats, in this world we see and love is what will set us free.

CAST But it is fear of failure that keeps us working, without that we would be shirking our obligations soon deserting, it keeps us going through the motions, getting those hard fought promotions, holding on to the notions that we must defend our emotions. We are subject to attack 70 if we do not fear the crack of the whip above our back, without fear we will lack the structure that keeps this life on track.

MARIANNE The only work of any significance is that which restores our innocence, erasing error with forgiveness, healing the world as witness to the love that cures all sickness. We think that with the ego’s loss we’d be left with just chaos, the ego tells us it is our cross to bear but that’s a lie we bought, allowed ourselves to be taught, the truth is, love is all we’ve got when the ego’s lie is caught and we return to the thought of God, spoiling the ego’s plot, his rabid attack dog in our head unable it’s attacks to spread and we can no longer be misled, harmful words now left unsaid, our relationships instead beacons of joy, a watershed of enlightenment to which we’re led when we follow the Holy Spirit instead.

CAST That sounds nice and all but some of us have vitriol and it doesn’t feel so trivial though we try to be convivial, our past has left us equivocal about love, some acts unforgivable, our scarring is material.

MARIANNE The ego tells us that our pain is from our past, this he trains, we weren’t loved and that’s to blame, and his lesson is so well ingrained we don’t realize it runs our brains. But his message is insane, designed solely to cause a chain 71 reaction of fear that does constrain our joy and keep us in his domain. In reality what is to blame is the love we now refrain from giving freely, that’s our pain. Give it and our pain will wane, lifting us to a higher plane where joy runs through our veins and peace and love forever reign. CAST But it seems that we aren’t using our brain if we ignore the past, we’re acting insane.

MARIANNE Your past, if you let it, will control you but it’s just a story you’ve been told to hold you back, it’s time to cut through, understand, forgive, then what you do is just let go, knowing it’s untrue, that the ego has created this false milieu. Forgiveness is what will undo the error the ego did construe, convincing us that was true, so forgive everything and everyone and you will find when this is done there are no more fears to outrun and you shine brighter than the sun. So make sure you do not succumb to thoughts of revenge that keep you from the love and compassion that God’s Son offers to all and never shuns, loving our enemies that they might come into the light of God and find they are returned to their right minds and us to ours, no longer blind from the anger that made us unkind.

CAST We do want to reconnect with each other for the effect that you describe, but with respect, we worry that we might neglect the list that’s in our intellect, that we’ve been convinced is correct and our existence does protect, although the truth is we suspect 72 the list is a misdirect and the outcomes, we reflect, are disappointing when we inspect.

MARIANNE The ego’s counsel now reject that peace comes later, when each box is checked. This fictional list you should suspect, find your peace first, then expect that you will see the desired effect of finding your life is just perfect. (Marianne exits, DEEPAK CHOPRAH AND OPRAH WINFREY enter.)

NARRATOR The Holy Spirit like a supernova continues to inspire and evoke the call in minds like Deepak Chopra who gains a following thanks to Oprah, both of whom are at the pinnacle of their careers, for Deepak clinical for Oprah, entertainment visual. They, instead of getting cynical are both inspired to embrace the miracle and pursue a meaning spiritual, taking as their higher direction to share love and deep affection, a strong underlying connection with all mankind, no rejection. Like Helen and Bill they join their goal to get people in touch with their soul and shed the ego that takes control, that takes its toll, like a sucking black hole, draining the joy a child of God should feel before the director they did kneel. I’ve no idea how he did appeal, how they couldn’t tell from his piggy squeal his eyes burning with unholy zeal, I don’t know how he did conceal from our angels so genteel his intent to misdeal and their angelic life to steal. I’m looking forward to the big reveal when the Holy Spirit does repeal and his grasping fingers peel 73 from… (Deep, calming breath.) Oh, again I am remiss so dear Chopra please assist. CHOPRA Listen as I tell you this, above all else, follow your bliss and you will find you cannot miss, you will be saved from the abyss where you may feel you exist if you’ve been ignoring bliss. So if your life does consist of to do’s that you resist, please do remember this: what you resist does persist and the tyranny of your list, around which you will twist if your dreams are dismissed will leave you merely to subsist, wondering what you have missed.

CAST Follow your bliss, yes we’ve heard that before, perhaps you can tell us a little bit more? We’re not sure we know what bliss is for and have no idea how to open that door.

CHOPRA Bliss is a hint of how to realize the purpose that Spirit will galvanize into action the moment you recognize what your creativity does energize. I’m not one to moralize but your happiness don’t jeopardize, your passion don’t marginalize, instead do as I advise and your passion epitomize, legitimize and you will be revitalized.

CAST What if we don’t all have creativity or even skills in a useful activity outside of our daily productivity, is our purpose just any proclivity? Forgive us if our objectivity 74 responds with negativity.

CHOPRA I see that you’ve been scarred by judgment that did mar and limit who you think you are. But you are not who you think you are, you are a shining star with a creative repertoire, a living avatar, look inside and you’ll go far. Think back to your childhood days, what caused your heart to race with joy, what did amaze and keep you happily engaged for hours, feeling just like play? Odds are good that’s still the way to find yourself in a blissful place and you may find it is the case that when this bliss you do embrace you’ve found your purpose and your place, a required piece of the universe one with all, though we did disperse into beings who appear diverse. If in each other we immerse together we can traverse, overcome the boundaries that we curse. None of this is arbitrary, ignore the hecklers’ commentary, the title is not just honorary, you have the visionary skills to be extraordinary.

CAST We don’t feel extraordinary, in fact we feel extra ordinary. You see, our daily lives are very full of actions quite contrary to finding bliss, in fact, our primary goal is to do the necessary things that are more mercenary, you know, monetary. Bliss is not even secondary so how do we become legendary?

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CHOPRA If you feel you can’t change with elasticity let me introduce you to neuroplasticity, you can remodel your brain with simplicity, an internal move to felicity. Think of gratitude with specificity and if you feel this is duplicity, that your life is just toxicity, don’t be derailed by analyticity, science supports and has some publicity, let’s look for synchronicity. Gratitude has inherent authenticity because it connects you energetically to the universe, where effectively all dreams are true collectively.

CAST To remain grateful all the time is more difficult than your rhyme makes it sound, though it would be divine if thankfulness was the prime emotion oh so sublime that we experience all the time. But negative things, including crime are frequent in our clime. How do we ignore the ugly slime that others create, in our mind?

CHOPRA Each decision you make is between truth and perception, so if you would no longer remain in the deception that your world is not of your own conception, watch your thoughts, the more you perform interceptions of the negative thoughts at the point of inception you will find that you start creating exceptions to the pain you expected, and now your reception to joy, love, and peace is your new affection, lifting you out of any depression. You are on your way to a brand new dimension, all you need to start is your intention, from that you are sure to see the progression, you will shed the weight of perceived disconnection from the flow of life when you embrace this connection, which can be done with complete circumspection and will accomplish the necessary correction.

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CAST Those concepts are pretty deep, and we’re already losing sleep. Maybe you could simplify just a bit to mollify those who feel they may not try to grasp the ideas you supply?

CHOPRA Yes, back to the basics we will go, nowhere to start but with ego, with incessant noise this mental troll blocks access to the realm of the soul, pretending to use reason and logic, built on a foundation that is pathologic it uses past and future to hide the present and thus your true self it does circumvent. But, if you are able to make the ascent to the still, calm place that is within you will find your discontent is relieved to the extent your understanding can relent. Accept that you are a being spiritual about which we can wax lyrical, I assure you I am not satirical, the support is empirical as well as theoretical. Though the body is often irritable and at times hysterical because it thinks that it is perishable, believes that it is local, about this somewhat vocal, it’s your spirit having this experience as man, rather than the opposite to paraphrase de Chardin, and choosing as a spirit, now you can transform your entire game plan. If you release the emotional spam the ego sends, you’re a superman, so let go of all the outside noise and listen to your intuition’s voice, it is there, guiding every choice.

NARRATOR Ok, I’ll keep this short and sweet since I’ve been told I do repeat myself, when swept off my feet 77

Oprah, can I entreat you to speak before I overheat?

OPRAH This I know for sure is true, if your life does not suit you need only change your attitude, look at what you do exude, that’s what’s coming back to you, and from this you can conclude if something different you would pursue your thoughts must change their amplitude. We all have the aptitude to elevate a heavy mood that only serves to occlude the joy that can be renewed. What you look for is what you will view, so make sure to look with mind renewed for that which you would include, never what you would exclude. There is nothing that can elude a mind filled with gratitude for the gifts God has strewed of unimaginable magnitude. I assure you with certitude that if you change your attitude you will change your latitude, this is not a platitude so take a little interlude, if needed, take some solitude away from the turpitude your perception is showing you. Dig deep, and this I know for sure, inside of you lies the cure for what you feel you do endure.

CAST We are hanging on every word, certainly our hearts are stirred, but, if it was easy we’d all be cured, to rely on attitude sounds absurd, some medication would be preferred.

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OPRAH If medication does address and can relieve the stress that does your mood depress it points out, as you may guess, that you create stress as you obsess on problems you think that you possess. I’m not a doctor and would never assess whether or not you need meds, but, if you will let me express the idea that I’d like to impress, that negativity won’t lead to success and fear can only make you regress. Every event is a choice to make, the chance to choose love as the path we take instead of fear, from which we quake, which steals our passion like a snake, making us feel like a fake, not knowing that we can wake from this dream, if we could shake the fear that leads to our heartache.

CAST So, how do we shake this fear that seems to dominate so much it feels our backs will break?

OPRAH It all starts with that first mistake, thinking we are small instead of great, thinking that we have to wait before our dreams we can create, before we seek that inspired state where we know our purpose waits for our attention to demonstrate our willingness to participate, to activate the love that delivers us from hate, the energy that will extricate us from any place that we stagnate, the light that will illuminate, and our reality elevate as limitation it does translate into limitlessness and we celebrate the ideas of truth that captivate our minds, released from the heavy weight 79 our perception of sin did dictate.

CAST Is there any more insight you can relate that will help us accelerate, something you would advocate on which we can cogitate?

OPRAH You own the energy that you create, but also you propagate to those with whom you congregate. So, do not perpetuate on anyone a heavy state, instead seek to elevate the energy you cultivate, the ideas that you pollinate, the concepts that you percolate and the goodwill that you emanate will return to you at a steady rate, you will have redefined your fate as your life you actuate. (Oprah and Chopra exit, ECKHART TOLLE enters.)

NARRATOR Eckhart Tolle, a spiritual author another Oprah helped to prosper, his words of wisdom she wished to foster, adding to an impressive roster of bearers of light to whom she lent her might to Heaven’s delight she shared her insight, her recognition bright of who could ignite a world that’s in flight living in fright, stuck in the night, they help bring the sunlight And Eckhart’s words, like a meteorite, struck man’s heart overnight.

TOLLE Even those who feel that they are smart succumb to the temptation to impart 80 the sentiment ascribed to Descartes “I think, therefore I am,” as part of identification with the mind, and thwart enlightenment, which is the art of being as one, and not apart. The incessant thinking that we do covers over what is true, giving us a fractured view too distorted for any use. So I advise you to mind the gap between your thoughts as they yap, watch the thinker and set traps, then release the thoughts before they wrap around you like a handicap. Now, you know that I avow the importance and the power of now, and though I see your arched eyebrow I wonder if you would allow me to lay it on you anyhow, my words with meaning are endowed in the hopes I reach you all somehow. The Source you search for lies within, forgetting this is the only sin, the one that caused time to begin, as long as fragmentation’s been making you itch in this skin. The past and future are but illusion the ego perpetuates with the mind’s collusion, keeping you trapped in your confusion to maintain your exclusion from your natural state of being in the moment, oh so freeing, liberated from the pain you’re fleeing.

CAST If there is no future or past what exists without contrast? This concept does flabbergast, our belief in time being so steadfast. TOLLE Let’s look at what doesn’t last when you eliminate the past. Sin, for one was never committed, no punishment has been fitted, nothing you need be acquitted, no wrongdoing to be admitted. 81

Without the future there’s no fear, no consequence to commandeer your mind, and make joy disappear. Would you hold on to guilt and fear or return to what is here? Don’t resist the now, the present, it’s the path for your ascent to find the place you are content, it’s here and now, don’t circumvent, looking for substitutes to rent, or put off for future, by then you’ve spent this precious moment in discontent, unwilling to leave your own torment. Resisting what is makes no sense, say yes to what each moment presents. Think of it like an improve act, the actors have an unwritten pact to go with each moment they enact. Saying “Yes and” keeps them in the flow, infinitely creative as they go, you will never hear a “no,” if you do that ends the show. Say yes to each moment and what is in it, you have no problem right this minute. (Tolle exits.)

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SCENE III

At RISE: (Current times. Narrator, Holy Spirit, Director, and Angels are all on periphery of set stage, Cast on set stage.)

NARRATOR Those of you in time interred may have the belief absurd that the cast cannot be lured from this play, but God is undeterred and at last their hearts are stirred as the Holy Spirit’s voice is heard. The Holy Spirit and the director each have a plan, and both are in the mind of man, each doing what they can to get the attention of this clan, as they have since the play began. And, as you know, I am a fan of the Holy spirit, in fact I would ban the director if I had the chance, I would do it in advance, so that this gruesome dance, this wicked trance, this circumstance would never… (Holy Spirit whispering in Narrator’s ear.) Ahem, I have just been reminded that my anger again has blinded me to truth, and once man finds it they’ll see salvation was provided in the instant they divided, and though right now they are misguided they’ll return once they’ve united, and by the Holy Spirit guided, the solution already decided, so no need to get excited, The Holy Spirit has His assignment.

HOLY SPIRIT (Cast can hear him now and come towards him as he speaks, listening.) Giving and receiving are the same, together in the source from whence they came, pay attention and you will proclaim this is the truth and you’ll reframe 83 what you offer others, you’ll declaim any offerings of shame, any manipulation game, anything that would defame now that you know that those are lame. What you see in others reflects your mind, examine this and you will find outer and inner are aligned so change the inner to more refined thoughts that are loving as well as kind. If you see someone who is confined by lack of trust, being defined by experiences that have left him blind to joy and love, and thus he’s resigned to creating a world that seems unkind offer him trust in your heart and thought, that will raise you both, a lot, and you will find the trust you sought for him is yours as well, and wrought trusting vibration where there was naught.

DIRECTOR (To audience.) As long as they think the world unfair they’ll see persecution everywhere, and their brothers they will swear attack them and cause their despair. The deeper they go with this affair, a downward spiral they must bear, no sign of hope anywhere, begging God in their prayer, asking why he doesn’t care, why he does not repair the world that seems so unfair. I would keep them unaware that everything that does scare is their own mind’s creation, they’ve built their own vexation, and blame God, to my elation. HOLY SPIRIT When with your brother you feel frustration do not ask for his negation, you’d only replace his formation with another incarnation that provides the same vexation because it is your own creation. 84

Ask for truth’s application to supply the confutation of your derogation on your brother’s estimation. Make his innocence your declaration, offer him this in celebration of his holiness, an attestation to the meaning of his station a Son of God, God’s creation. When you remove your damnation, and offer only approbation, the resulting situation is your own acclamation, by God and His congregation. You will feel a new vibration replace your botheration.

DIRECTOR (To audience.) Though the Spirit’s exhortation may inspire some activation I work my cancellation of his message through temptation of guilt’s assignation believing a brother’s ruination is required for placation of sin’s hallucination.

HOLY SPIRIT If you are experiencing any lack it’s because you are not giving back. What you lack? Try giving that and you will be right back on track, your life no longer out of whack. If happiness you desire offer that and it will transpire that happiness will lift you higher, you will light your internal fire.

CAST Holy Spirit, now that we know you’re there please instruct, as we are unaware, how we can learn not to compare the differences we see everywhere. How can we learn not care that some of us have more flair, 85 more talents rare, better hair, while others have more despair, they seem impaired, with less to share? And those with more? There’s envy there, for people with blessings to spare, whether or not they may share. Still others with a vicious glare give us a scare, we hear them swear, enjoy warfare, have affairs. It seems unfair to include them in our nightly prayer.

HOLY SPIRIT You hear my voice now, so the end must be near, but you need help understanding it does appear. That you are one you’ll find as you cohere your fragments from costumes you hold dear, so I’ll put it in terms that your brains will hear. You think some fragments of you received something more as you perceive, you could call them better roles in this play that sucks your souls. The thing that you seem not to know, the long forgotten loop hole is that you have all of the control, that you make your world, although it has a few times been disclosed that with your beliefs you do compose, and none of this has been imposed. Pay attention to the beliefs you chose for yourself, and others, those, whom by judging you would dispose. Since you share the same dark goals you’ve joined them at the controls.

CAST Back to the loophole that you mention, if we change our beliefs and intentions we get better roles in this dimension?

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HOLY SPIRIT Yes, although that alone does not provide ascension it will give you reason for suspension of belief in the reality of this dimension, for anything that your intention can easily change, as has been mentioned, that perceived reality must be questioned and found to be, upon reflection unreal and unworthy of your attention. However, as the Son of God, you must see how it is flawed that you would live in this poor façade. Do you think you actually are this bod that you would waste even a nod on supporting its needs so odd?

NARRATOR Sorry to interrupt, but I must applaud as the Holy Spirit reveals this fraud perpetuated on our squad. Now that the final scene is near, He’s kicked into a higher gear as I and all the angels cheer to see such willingness appear from this cast we hold so dear to abandon this dark career, acting out a life so drear under the director’s constant sneer as ego whispering in their ear their mind to commandeer, making their holiness unclear, this being so cavalier, so insincere, this…

HOLY SPIRIT Ahem.

NARRATOR Sorry.

HOLY SPIRIT The power of thought, it’s time you knew, so use intention to accrue the benefits that are your due. But spare at least a thought or two 87 on knowing yourself, the real you, not defined by what you do. You are a Son of God, that is true, and this play is much ado about nothing once you can see through. So don’t settle for a better role in this fiction you control when Heaven is the only goal that will bring joy to your soul.

CAST Yet we still feel resistance to the idea that this existence is in fact nonexistent.

HOLY SPIRIT Let me provide some assistance. Do you notice inconsistence, the fact that there is no persistence in what you see from instant to instant, nothing that remains consistent?

CAST Hmmm, that is true we must admit, but one more thing we cannot quit is our identity. Can we commit to join with others from whom we’ve split, call our personalities counterfeit and others’ sins find to acquit although we think they are unfit?

HOLY SPIRIT All judgments make you a hypocrite as together you are tightly knit, therefore are all complicit in these acts you call illicit, your awareness I solicit, and I am optimistic that you can make a pivot. See the cast beneath the costume, embrace your cast mate, even those whom you’ve reviled in this play’s dark gloom that you consume, this place of doom that is your tomb as long as you believe this thin cartoon. 88

But know that when you do deplume others, whom you assume are separate, and so you presume you are immune, it is in fact yourself you judge, you are the recipient of your own grudge.

CAST We’ve spent so long creating our specialness without it we will be directionless, lose all our relevance. Is this necessitous?

HOLY SPIRIT Your comparisons use illusory evidence with supporting arguments tenuous, which upon inspection, defy intelligence. This illusion you have of specialness is a state of affectedness, in fact it is your emphasis on your perceived differences that maintains this unpleasantness, this celebration of eminence. When joined you’ll find the excellence that was parsed into your separateness combines to prove the evidence of God in all His blessedness.

CAST So everyone must be forgiven, even if their deeds do sicken and leave us feeling stricken?

HOLY SPIRIT Because of your misplaced derision you have remained imprisoned in an illusion, a mere vision that you are making, as a magician, imagining that there is a villain. It is your lack of forgiveness that manifests all your sickness which you would use as a witness that your brother’s not sinless. This belief is so vicious and to your health is pernicious, so to reclaim your fitness, 89 live a life full of richness and perfect health then forgiveness give, and bear witness to innocence every minute. In order to take your final bow and enter into the here and now your fiercest enemy must you endow with angelic light like thou.

CAST One last fear that we defend is that we will not transcend. We see that death brings an end to the body in which we are penned and we feel we may depend on that in order to ascend.

HOLY SPIRIT You are Spirit, not this body, which keeps your thinking foggy and even though you’re feeling groggy you can still disembody. Baby steps are a good start the director to outsmart, each of you will play your part, focus inward to your heart, feel the love that God imparts, unconditional from the start. His love for all of you will thwart any doubt that you are worthy, release you all from any worry, clear your thoughts that now seem blurry and guide you forward on your journey.

CAST But with death can we not pass through this world’s dark looking glass? We doubt that mankind en masse can ever bridge this large crevasse if we are not able to surpass the grievances which we grasp.

HOLY SPIRIT Do not think death can bypass, can get you out of this morass. It’s an artifact of this play so crass, 90 a fiction through which you cannot pass, you’re going to need a little more class. Now is the time for critical mass to leave this world that does trespass on God’s creation, now, en masse, be the light that ends this impasse.

CAST Now that the time is near we find that we are filled with fear that God will judge our sins severe and the payment will be dear if we want to get out of here. What if Heaven does not appear?

HOLY SPIRIT You must believe that this is true: there is no sin that you did do. Think of a play that you’ve been to where an actor turns into a character he does imbue with sin, which, for entertainment you enjoy, but, when it comes to his review is it your judgment he should do penance when the play is through?

CAST Of course not, it was never true.

HOLY SPIRIT Exactly! The same is true of you and the brother that you rue. God sent me here to help you through and your willingness I will use as my happy and Heaven-sent cue to arrange for your rescue. I will take the smallest offering, any time that you spend proffering thoughts of forgiveness instead of posturing, giving love instead of hollering, and I will spread it ten thousand fold, turning pennies into gold and soon enough you will behold your brother’s beauty as I foretold. The peace and happiness you feel when you let God take the wheel, 91 does that feeling not appeal? Joy is the emotional ideal when you experience something real, only love exists, that’s the reveal, so find that joy inside and share, share with your brothers everywhere, raise the vibration in the air, joy is contagious and if you dare remain in joy, it’s the only prayer you need to end this mad warfare.

CAST Joy!

HOLY SPIRIT Peace is the one condition, the price you pay for your admission on your Heavenly expedition.

CAST Peace!

HOLY SPIRIT Forgiveness is your only mission, bringing peace to full fruition, hold nothing back, make no omission, release anger and suspicion, release all but love, and you transition into peace, Heaven’s requisition.

CAST Love!

HOLY SPIRIT It should be no imposition, since joy is your natural disposition with the successful extradition of the ego, with your permission.

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CAST Yes, you have our full permission for the ego’s extradition, this is of our own volition, backtracking from perdition. Joy and love bring the fruition, and the world we have forgiven will disappear, no demolition required for the recognition of Heaven, no longer hidden by the world’s superposition which melts away from our vision.

HOLY SPIRIT Know that only love is true and the rest evaporates like dew. You will see the illusion that does skew reality in your view and you will be able to see through to Heaven, as is your due. But until you know, you must believe, for as long as to this world you cleave this illusion you will weave, so if release you would achieve you must learn to conceive that the truth is beyond what you perceive, and, wanting more this reprieve than you want this world that makes you grieve, the truth will take this new belief and your mind it will relieve of the illusions that deceive and permanently give them heave so this play you’ll disbelieve, and in doing so may finally leave. Laugh with me at the thought that against God you could plot in your heart you know it’s not possible, but you forgot, so drop this fear of being caught, it’s a joke at which we scoff, when you laugh you will remember God’s love that will not surrender and be returned to your splendor.

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CAST Now we realize we have made everything in this charade, and instead of being so dismayed we laugh at the masquerade, at the idea God’s Will could be betrayed. A joke, we cannot be afraid, it seems that we have just been played, and since the origin is surveyed the effects cannot help but fade. (to each other as rays start to appear shining out of their costumes) Now I can see your light, now that I don’t judge your plight, or think that you give me fright. I see you shine so bright, looking with my true sight, you illuminate the night. How did we ever fight, treat each other with such spite, each other did indict for false sins that we contrived? Now at last we do delight as with our brothers we reunite. Finally this feels right! We can see that we created that which we thought we hated, and choosing to see we were fated from our brother’s light to be vacated. But now we are all elevated from this world we fabricated, it’s appeal so overrated it has left us nauseated. However, we are integrated, this nightmare illuminated, and our imagined sins exonerated. (Taking off costumes.) We shed these costumes that separated, the director’s job is terminated as from ego we are emancipated. We feel so exhilarated, peace and love appreciated, God’s love, unmitigated, we receive, and so are sated. It has not been exaggerated, the wonder of being liberated 94 and to our true selves reinstated. (Cast embraces each other as well as Angels whom they can now see.)

DIRECTOR How have you so easily overthrown this life to which you have grown attached, where everyone does own his own individual throne? Return now to the zone, to the safety of the known.

CAST Ha! Your throne of lies we disown, covered up in fake gemstones. We’re with God upon His throne, laughing at your threatening tone, so put away your megaphone.

DIRECTOR Alas, it appears I am alone, here, on my lonely throne, an ego without a home, my power having now been shown to be completely overblown. Won’t someone throw me a bone at least admit that I have shown you something that was unknown? Perhaps somehow I can atone?

NARRATOR Oh, pardon my moan as on and on you do drone, an ego disowned, trying to postpone your inevitable dethrone. Here’s your gravestone: worst director ever known. They’ve already forgotten this play oh so rotten, no longer downtrodden by you misbegotten excuse for a… (Deep breath to calm himself.) ahem, no need for a tirade, this memory does fade, 95 is gone with the charade and I join the brigade as their joy does cascade. In Heaven this is the way, Peace, love, and joy rule the day.