Book Structure and Plot Summary Chapter 1 Andrew’s journal----Andrew relates that he was a photojournalist studying subcultures, that he is 26 but has an androgynous look that makes him look younger, that he has had anomalous experiences since childhood, that he is writing the journal because he senses that other mutants need him to and that he feels that if he puts them anywhere on the web, they will find them. He gives an abstracted summary of past tragedies : car accident at age 12 killed his parents and took him past the edge of death and back, that the best friend of his childhood died when they were both 16 and that he is currently living in the aftermath of the suicide of his best friend and traveling partner. Andrew then explains why he is canvassing and what canvassing is like. It’s a Friday night and winter in Seattle. This leads up to Andrew arriving at an anomalous door. He has a flash back about the supermarket lady, finds the old woman is really a school boy who seems preternaturally old and world weary. A strange exchange between them. Andrew realizes he was put under a spell and made to experience illusions. Chapter 2 Another Encounter 7 weeks later, winter is turning into Spring and Andrew is canvassing in Colorado. He tells us that he meant to keep up the journal, but didn’t, and that strange experiences of the last few days have seemed like a lifetime. Before relating the new encounter, Andrew tells us more about his photojournalism career and why it makes journal writing difficult. Andrew narrates a night of canvassing where he encounters a portal, is transported to a green world/parallel earth without homo sapiens and reencounters the “school boy.” A telepathic link is established and Andrew explains his realization that this boy is a member of the elf species. The boy reveals that he is Jeremiah, that he is an adept of the Vehrillion and that he is a traveler from another realm. He tells Andrew that in his realm he knew another version of Andrew who was his friend, mentor and teacher. Jeremiah explains that he made a choice after he was given a vision to journey back to the ancestral realm the elves call Old Terra. He is one of the older elves who was born on Old Terra, but they left it for another habitable planet they call the New World. They left in 2028 when Jeremiah was 14 and the other version of Andrew was 40. Traveling back to Old Terra involved time travel into the past, but when Jeremiah arrived, he discovered that he was not on the same earth that he knew form his past. He tells Andrew that for clarity he will call the earth of his timeline “Old Terra” and will refer to the earth of Andrew’s timeline as “earth.” Old Terra and earth appear to be identical timelines that diverge in about 2001 when the technology of Old Terra advances much more quickly than that of earth. Andrew’s life history is identical to that of the OT Andrew until about age 13. After 13 their histories diverge so OT Andrew has a different life history (after age 13) than Andrew. The first bridge or crossing between Old Terra and earth was created by Andrew at about age 13. Andrew showed up briefly on the New World at a time that was several decades into the future of the divergence point (based on the biological years experienced by the elves--- due to time dilation caused by near light speed space travel this would actually be thousands of years into the future from the perspective of Old Terra) Jeremiah reveals that he has appeared to Andrew in disguise because otherwise Andrew would have recognized him from his memory of his crossing (Andrew’s NDE). Jeremiah reveals his true form which is similar to that of a 14 year old boy who is covered in fresh scars. The scars, he relates, were part of the price he had to pay to make the crossing. (((not in book: Andrew’s crossing creates the potential for reconnection of the timelines (Old Terra, earth) that have just diverged---if this is retrofitted, must show reader map as well as concise words)))). Jeremiah takes Andrew to a campsite he has set up nearby. Andrew relates his NDE which includes an encounter with the elves/New World . Then he relates his time in the hospital after the NDE/ car accident and his sense of double identity and the wrongness he feels about homo sapiens and their bodies. His bf Corey is the only one he doesn’t feel this alienation about. His aunt Hannah comes to act as his guardian and stay with him in his parents’ apartment in Manhattan while he finishes high school at age 16. At the hospital, Andrew remembers the encounter with Jeremiah but also becomes aware of another version of Jeremiah, a boy about two years older than himself named Tommy. Throughout the rest of his life, Andrew feels like he lives alongside of Tommy who stays the same age as Andrew continues to age. This age anomaly shifts their roles. At first Tommy seems to be Andrew’s protector but as Andrew gets older he feels more protective toward Tommy. Andrew describes his visions of Tommy’s community which he always sees during a particular summer. Certain details reveal advanced technology that suggest it is a near future. Andrew doesn’t ask Tommy about the year, etc. because he feels a constraint. Jeremiah explains that time travel involves certain constraints, felt intuitively, that keep travelers from certain things especially encountering or even knowing too much about other versions of themselves. Jeremiah, however, does not feel constrained from asking Andrew some things about Tommy and his essence, etc. Jeremiah announces that they have stayed a little too long in the green world and summons a portal to take them back to earth. They decide to walk to Andrew’s camper van and Andrew sees that Jeremiah has cloaked himself to a degree to hide the scars. He looks more like an ordinary 14 year old causing Andrew to feel more protective toward him than intimidated by his powers. They talk about the need for cloaking and its limitations. Jeremiah relates that the powers he developed through the Vehrillion are diminished on earth. Part of the need for cloaking is that there are both attractions and dangerous tensions between hominid species and subspecies and this goes back to the era of the Neanderthals, etc. Andrew’s elf essence is being activated due to proximity with Jeremiah and therefore he needs to learn more cloaking. Andrew introduces Jeremiah to his camper van and the practical cloaking strategies he uses to live out of it while avoiding police. He drives them to a campground and as they arrive Jeremiah senses something. He recognizes that Andrew has taken them to a nodal point, a place of power that he soon discovers is a shadow portal. He narrates that a shadow portal encounter is a key phase of initiation into the Vehrillion. An additional shadow portal encounter brought Jeremiah the vision that led to his making the crossing to earth. Andrew has an inner vision of lines of force running through the mesa and realizes that he must undergo a shadow portal initiation. Jeremiah explains the classic phases of a shadow portal experience including the experience of incarnations as other identities. These grotesque incarnations relate to the collective shadow of homo sapiens. The first experiencer was a protoelf and Andrew senses that it was his other version. While they wait for the predawn window for the shadow portal initiation they have further dialogue. Some of this is redundant of Jeremiah’s explanations on the Green World, but Andrew wants to make sure he has it right. (this redundancy may get cut in finished draft) Jeremiah explains that both versions of Andrew spent the first 13 years of their lives on earth because the OT Andrew was born 13 years before the divergence. Jeremiah was born 13 years after the divergence (2014) so he only knew OT. They were culturally similar enough that he has no problem with the language and customs of earth, 2014. Tommy is the earth version of Jeremiah, but since both were born after the divergence, their early histories do not coincide though there are some parallels. They had the same mother, but received different names. They both grew up in communities in Vermont, but Jeremiah’s was larger and funded by a reclusive billionaire who made the crossing to the New World possible. (we later realize the billionaire is Kyle) The moment of Jeremiah’s crossing into 2014 of earth’s timeline corresponds to the moment of Tommy’s conception, and he senses that it would have been harder or impossible for him to travel further back in time than the moment of his parallel version’s conception. Andrew wonders why Tommy, who is still a few months from being born, always appears to him at age 14. Jeremiah speculates that given the parallelisms in their timelines and given that 14 was the year he began the crossing, that it is likely that 14 is the year when Tommy will also experience a massive change. In response to a question from Andrew, Jeremiah explains more about the great crossing. It took a generation during which he lived with the community he grew up in inside a space-faring biosphere. The journey ends with the discovery of a verdant planet which they call the New World. After landing there they never attempt further space travel. Everyone who was part of the Great Crossing turned out to be a protoelf, but only the youngest underwent the elf metamorphosis which occurred during the crossing. They stopped aging while all the adults changed somewhat but continued to age. Andrew asks, and Jeremiah provides, a more detailed explanation of the differences between elves and homo sapiens: nonaging, greater regenerative ability (but they can still be killed by a severe enough injury), greater intuition, psychic awareness, heightened senses, different relationship to food, sex, time. Abilities include speed, and altered time modes (quick time, slow time), ability to generate illusions, cloaking, psychometry, telepathy, capacity for energetic merger that somewhat supplants sex. Besides these natural endowments of the elves, the Vehrillion awoke other abilities. OT Andrew was the greatest pioneer in the development of the Vehrillion. Jeremiah’s abilities allow him to sense at a distance key protoelves on earth. Jeremiah met OT Andrew when he was 10 and OTA was 36. The crossing took 20 years so OTA was 60 when they arrived on the New World. Jeremiah explains more about the constraint and why it is more permissible for him to hear about Tommy than for Andrew to hear about OTA. The more fully developed you are, the more permissible it is to know about another version. This is consistent with the need for alterations to be subtle rather than massive which would necessitate branching of a new timeline. Jeremiah also senses another time anomaly related to Andrew and Tommy. Even though Tommy is still unborn, Jeremiah senses that a more developed version of Tommy will cross Andrew’s timeline much sooner than his current unborn status suggests. Jeremiah senses that a major purpose in the crossing is for him to initiate Andrew into key elements of the Vehrillion before he meets Tommy. Andrew asks for more info about protoelves and Jeremiah explains that they have elf potential but are born and raised as homo sapiens. The emergence or loss of their elf potential varies greatly. They will feel alienated from their realm, human bodies, human ways, and especially grosser aspects of human sexuality. Non telepathic communication is not sufficient for them, some manifestations of human sexuality seem brutal and primitive and they may fell confused about their identity in general. The adult protoelves who made the crossing came to be known as the Old Ones. Jeremiah points out that Andrew is a protoelf and asks him a whole series of questions like a naturopathic physician taking a case history. Andrew asks if elves are what humanity is evolving toward and Jeremiah says he doesn’t know, but likely elves are one of many possibilities. He left Old Terra before he could witness its further evolution. The elves themselves are not a finished creation but a very new one still evolving. They did not feel like they were the only occurrence of the elves, they sensed that the form already existed at least as potential. Jeremiah points out all the past lore of elf encounters and wonders on what level of reality they occurred---future memories, time traveling elves? Jeremiah asks Andrew about his feelings of alienation which began even before the accident at age 12. Andrew points out that his sense of himself as alienated observer of his species led to his photojournalist career in which he acted like a visiting anthropologist to various subcultures. Andrew then segues into meeting Alex 3.5 years ago. Alex was 19, Andrew would have been 22-23. He finds that Alex had been working on a story with uncanny parallels to Andrew’s life. Andrew continues at length to recount the history of their relationship including Alex’s suicide and a connection being established after Alex’s death. This history takes a number of pages. After, Jeremiah comments that it is an example of Andrew being a portal between realms. He points out that while he and Tommy grew up with a close bond to a loving community, and for Jeremiah this continued on the New World, Alex and Andrew never had a community bond, but had strong ties to certain fellow travelers. Alex comes forward for a moment to affirm Andrew’s inner vision of a map that shows links between certain souls. Alex wished he had been more aware of such maps, and the intense soul links they reveal, when he was still alive. Their maps also parallel because neither of them are completely bound to a single realm. Alex needs Andrew to remain as a key soul to whom he still has a link. Chapter III Jeremiah’s Crossing Andrew realizes that there is something else he needs to know before encountering the shadow portal and asks Jeremiah to tell him how he got the scars. Jeremiah suggests a “sharing” (identity transfer telepathy) to convey the experience. Andrew experiences an identity transfer to Jeremiah. Andrew experiences Jeremiah waking up in the forest and traveling to the cave entrance of Liatrin mountain. Then Jeremiah shifts the sharing to give a voice over of info. Andrew realizes that the development of movie techniques parallels the future evolution of telepathic sharing. Jeremiah narrates the history of the elves relationship to Viealetta. A great change (obviously related to what the Old Ones called the Mystery) happened on OT after the crossing that ruined V’s harvest forcing her to become a hungry fugitive across space and time. She catches the scent of the elves who are so closely related to her host species and travels across the galaxy to the New World setting up a lair beneath Liatrin Mountain. V then sets up a portal backward in time to OT?/E to continue feeding, though this harvest has a thinness due to time displacement so her famine continues. Also, slowly, patiently and insidiously V begins to infiltrate the minds of the elves. Currently the elves energy is the wrong color to nourish her. She needs to ferment them with suffering so that they can become digestible. The elves, however, unlike the human collective, are aware of her and use Vehrillion techniques to erect defenses which work for several years until a disaster occurred. V successfully infiltrated the minds of three fifth-level adepts and used their self-importance to tempt them to undertake a foolish quest to slay her in her lair. Five adepts including Jeremiah (who is an eighth level adept, the highest level yet achieved, though this is not made explicit just that he is at a higher level than the three) undertake to rescue these three. In the midst of planning the rescue a powerful psychic attack on the elf collective occurs which reveals that V has deconstructed the three and digested the contents of their psyches giving her immense knowledge of the elves and their weaknesses, etc. The five rebuild their psychic defenses. Since the fifth level includes the ability to create portals, they hope that the three have escaped into another realm and realize that rescue is not possible (implied). Work on the Vehrillion intensifies in the next few months. Jeremiah decides to return to the shadow portal focusing his intention on receiving a vision that would help to resolve the situation with V. To explain this vision, Jeremiah narrates that the Old Ones felt haunted by the OT they left behind. The Old Ones were not able to adapt to the crossing and the abandonment of their mother world as the young (inc. Jeremiah) were. OT was like a phantom world pain and they desperately wanted to know what happened on the world they left behind. Some of the Old Ones used remote viewing to track the OT timeline, but they discovered there was a horizon line they called The Mystery past which they could not look. (The implication is that this is the singularity for OT, an evolutionary event horizon) In parallel to Tommy, Jeremiah as a child volunteered at the hospice where his mom, Eleanor worked. This role transferred to the New World as he helped the Old Ones die. One of these dying Old Ones is Arthur who has deathbed visions he shares with J. Arthur senses that the Mystery was diminished by the removal of so much elf potential from OT due to the Crossing. J feels haunted by these last words of Arthur. He studies their vast digital archive of OT and realizes that despite being a member of a new species on a new world that the elves are still fatefully linked to OT. Soul links are not broken by space or time. The abandonment of OT had deep effects and one of the most potent of these was the arrival of V. After the loss of the three J. realizes that he must travel to the shadow portal with an intention that has two sides: “So the intention I brought to the shadow portal had two aspects, a need to reckon with the fateful ties we had broken with Old Terra and to find a way to resolve the situation with Viealetta. These two aspects were really two sides of the same intention. “ The sharing shifts again and Andrew experiences Jeremiah standing before a wall of flowing shadows. Jeremiah’s shadow vision unfolds: A battle between two sailing ship armadas. A dying sailor and his companion are revealed to be protoelves who experience a sharing while one of them is dying. A pilot in a jet fighter arming his weapons A worker with a bolt gun working in a slaughterhouse The fighter pilot again trying to accelerate away from a hydrogen bomb detonation A disembodied perspective on a surgical procedure that is creating a human cybernetic organism A banquet hall of contemporary (our time) humans who are wealthy, subtle and deceitful. Five protoelf children--- Sarah is their leader---they are doing an experiment with group telepathy in an attempt to help their imperiled world. Jeremiah feels an intention to help them and finds himself standing before the entrance to V’s lair at Liatrin Mountain. The implication is that to help them he must crossover. He has a vision of the portal as an orifice of suffering, but realizes he most cross it to help OT. He experiences an unknown force linking his mind to V’s and sees how the cosmos looks from her perspective as a bone labyrinth, etc. Then Jeremiah finds himself in a domed embassy space. There are DMT-like (implied) morphing geometric forms that are holographic projections of cosmic thought forms that are telepathically translated for him. A synthesized telepathic voice tells him: “You and Viealetta are recognized as representatives of species in a conflict that has caused a putrefaction of certain critical timelines. We created a one-way link, allowing you to see for a few moments through Viealetta’s eyes. At the same time, we sequestered Viealetta and conducted a process with her that we will not disclose to you. “It is necessary for you to understand certain critical information about the lifecycle of Viealetta’s kind for this stalemate to move toward a resolution. Viealetta is part of a highly evolved species of hyper-dimensional parasites necessary to the structure of the cosmos. From her perspective, her lifecycle has been interrupted, and she has been persisting in a state of illness and frustration unable to thrive, multiply or metamorphose. The lifecycle of her host species, Homo sapiens, went in a direction that diminished both species. Her machinations were largely responsible, but the outcome was not one that she desired or anticipated. Archparasites do not seek to extinct their host species. Viealetta failed to foresee that the twisting of certain minds who had access to powerful new technologies resulted in emergent effects that destabilized a carefully tuned and balanced ecosystem to the detriment of host and parasite. “You are both here as a result of a previous intervention to restore the viability of this timeline. We were forced to create a new trunk of the timeline, but a more subtle intervention is necessary to repair the main trunk. “A treaty has been calculated.” ….“Viealetta possesses and guards a portal backward in time to the earth, earth before the putrefaction. The portal presently functions as a transtemporal feeding tube. “A sufficiently evolved elf, allowed to pass through this portal back to the earth could act as a seed crystal, a catalyst that would generate a cascading series of alterations that might reconfigure lifecycle patterns and irrealize the putrefaction. The outcome cannot be precisely known because of indeterminate variables. Principle among these indeterminate variables is a degree of free will possessed by some Homo sapiens that may alter outcomes in ways that are impossible for us to calculate or foresee.” J is shown a cauldron with putrefying contents that is injected with a glowing seed crystal that reanimates it. “The more potent the elf seed crystal, the more likely that it will trigger mutagenic and catalytic alterations. Such interventions have a certain cost and will not be attempted repeatedly. “The treaty specifies that Viealetta will permit such a seed crystal to pass through the portal she has created, but she will also be allowed to test for critical flaws before she allows one through. It is assumed, given her nature, that she will devour any that do not pass her tests. “If the catalysis works, the putrefaction will be irrealized, and a metamorphosis will occur allowing both species to complete their lifecycles.” “Viealetta is being made to understand this. She wants to be freed from the lair she has burrowed into your world. Despite her recent encroachments, this lair has become a prison for her, a place of famine and illness, an entombed sterility and stagnation in which she is able to persist, but in a state of hunger and frustration, unable to thrive, multiply or complete her lifecycle. “We are helping her to realize that no matter what thought forms she manages to implant here and there in the minds of vulnerable elves, her ability to infiltrate your species will almost certainly not be sufficient for her purposes. Her powers of mind parasitism may twist certain individuals, but that will only make the community of elves more aware of her as a threat. She will not be able to achieve the deep fermentation necessary to make the elf species digestible. And even if she did, there are too few of you to be sufficient to fuel her lifecycle. “If the catalysis works, the central trunk of the earth’s timeline will be revitalized. If the intervention is insufficient, then the putrefaction will occur in a slightly altered way. This perilous opportunity is offered to you, because we recognize you as a potentially sufficient catalyst. We also perceive that you are unlikely to use disruptive force. This is crucial, because timelines can absorb only a certain degree of intervention. A catalysis of this sort must be potent, but also subtle and indirect. A forceful intervention can cause a split in the timeline, a new trunk, and we are rarely authorized to work in this way. In the case of the earth, such a forceful intervention has already been made and that is part of what is allowing the possibility of a subtle catalysis of the main trunk.” Jeremiah is permitted to ask three questions and the answers parallel the information Tommy is given near the end of the book when he makes his crossing: “What will help me to survive the encounter with Viealetta and make it across the portal?” The voice responded without hesitation, “Acting in a way that accords with you essence and core intentions.” “‘If I do make it across the portal, what can I do to assist the catalysis?” “Your presence itself is a new variable in the timeline. What you should do is not for us to calculate. You are a free-willed, self-aware agent and it is expected that you will take actions that accord with your essence and core intentions.” “‘If I make it across the portal, and have a sufficient catalytic effect on the situation, would there be any way for me to return to my present timeline and the world of the elves?” The reply was immediate, “This treaty makes no provision for return.” Perspective shifts again to Jeremiah standing before the shadow portal. He has received his shadow vision and realizes that he will not have the usual shadow worlds experience which follows the vision. The shadow worlds experience will be his quest to cross the portal to OT. The sharing shifts again to Jeremiah awakening in the forest. Andrew will now experience Jeremiah’s approach to Liatrin mountain and encounter with V. A long section follows that narrates J’s encounter with the shape-shifting V and her Viealettation tricks and manipulations. Eventually V reveals that the portal is within her and insists that J remove his shields and clothing to enter her. She wounds him with her vampiric antennae and he has to pass the reverse Gom Jabbar test of resisting the temptation to stay in the opiate ecstasy of her parasitic womb. Jeremiah falls to the red desert in earth/2014 in a desperately wounded state. He uses his diminished powers to staunch the bleeding. His bag with healing elixir, clothes, cloak, etc. survived the crossing. Jermiah realizes the red desert is a power spot. He senses buried treasure nearby and uncovers the cache of money and takes some of it as a survival resource, and reburies the rest. J senses certain protoelves in this realm to whom he is linked. One of them is Andrew and as that becomes apparent it causes the sharing to end. The time has arrived for Andrew to encounter the shadow portal. Jeremiah gives Andrew some last minute instructions and Alex comes forward in silent solidarity. Jeremiah shares with Andrew the sphere of sapphire elemental to give him clarity and strength. The sphere resonates with some of Andrew’s silver jewelry which helps to hold its charge. Andrew has his shadow vision of the parasite network revealed as vampiric nerve tissue, etc. This includes a vision of 9/11 as orchestrated by V. to be a feeding frenzy. He compares her to medusa ,and feels the sapphire elemental keeping him from being paralyzed as his vision withdraws from 9/11. Then he sees a powerful, dying man whose mind is infiltrated by V and this man has spinnerets on his body emitting vampiric webbing out into the world. Andrew then sees various humans from various perspectives and the different ways they are infected, etc. The shadow vision withdraws and he and J talk about it as they walk back to the camper. Chapter IV Through the Shadow Worlds Portal This chapter begins with a note from Andrew in which he explains that due to identity transfer his first person voice must shift to that of the new identity. He confesses to the obnoxiousness of this new identity and invites readers to skip the whole section if they feel put off by it. The note concludes with this: “But as Jeremiah pointed out, the common theme of the shadow world journeys appears to be the collective shadow of Homo sapiens, and apparently this is something that protoelves need to assimilate before they can gain greater access to their elf essence.” Our perspective shifts to Morris Schnauman (the Snowman) on a bleak winter morning about to enter the subway. He is experiencing a feeling of memory loss and identity confusion. As he recovers his sense of self we learn that he is a mutant who lives off the state and there is talk of the Beckstein limit and readers may begin to indirectly infer that he is a snow person, etc.. In the subway the Snow Man (SM) finds the copy of Healing Nexus Magazine with the ad for RA inviting him to give RA’s cult power of attorney, etc. The SM reveals that he suffers from: “chronic incarnation seizures (what they now refer to generically as Multiple Incarnation Disorder Syndrome or MIDS)” He is predictably bankrupted by RA’s organization and ends up homeless for about six weeks. Walking around at night in the city in a state of despair, RA’s loving, telepathic voice breaks in and SM realizes that RA actually is who he says he is. RA apologizes for the need for the deceptive ad and tells the SM to look around for a key that will unlock the vast deception of his existence. SM sees the supermarket lady (an instance of parallelism between Andrew and the SM) SM realizes this is the key RA told him to look for and RA telepathically confirms this and tells him to look for a portal. SM finds a refrigerator box made by Portal Technology Industries. He crawls into it and finds himself floating in undefined dark space for eons. He self-forgets and the eons pass quickly and then he finds himself in the outskirts of a mostly empty universe. He discovers that he has no momentum or trajectory and apparently no body and loses his mind. When he recovers his sanity he finds he is standing before a middle-aged black duck. The duck protests that he is not real and he finds himself split in two with each half pulled into a different duck eye. There is a moment of poignant telepathic contact with his sundered self before they are forever separated into different timelines. The SM emerges from the duck eye portal into a universe richly populated by stars and he finds that he now has momentum and a trajectory in space. His snowbody has returned, as well as his overcoat and other personal possessions and clothing and he is heading toward a dust planet (Pluntith). He collides with Pluntith and is submerged in dust to which he is highly allergic. His situation seems hopeless but he discovers he has psionic powers which allow him to hover above the dust and begin a journey across this sterile, twilight world. He is attacked by dust scorpions and becomes dangerously dehydrated and famished and realizes he is heading toward the Beckstein limit. After journeying for forty nights he encounters two entities--- a skull and grasshopper. The skull viciously attacks his self-esteem and SM is drawn into the skull’s eye cavities and another incarnation seizure (by implication). His heroin addict incarnation with dead mother upstairs, etc. begins with him standing over a bathroom sink. He shoots up and recalls that this matrix is completely empty of life. Telepathic aliens tell him he has had another incarnation seizure and offer to guide him. He has another incarnation seizure. His identity resumes with an old woman tugging at his sleeve, he is in a 1940s era medical la. The old women tells him she’s lost all her natural beauty and he looks into a Zeiss Ikon microscope and sees a tiny snowman with empty eye sockets. He has another incarnation seizure and finds himself waking up in an alley and this begins a long journey in Upright World. He wakes up in he alley in a desperate state but is pleased to find that he has a shopping bag in which he finds Snow Comfort and Turbo Sugar Skin Popper Snacks. He’s awakened to his addictions and the grim realities of Upright World which has a very toxic version of consumer culture with fines for commercial evasion, etc. SM is confronted by a policeman for his illegal presence in the alley and just as the cop shoots papers at him that staple themselves to his snowbody Edie cat appears to rescue him. After a blank moment he recognizes Eddie Cat as an old friend. They flee through Upright City. SM is in a despairing state and Eddie Cat encourages him to go the distance warning him about dire consequences for ending his life prematurely. The SM experiences his ambivalence about Eddie Cat and realizes that he has hidden agendas and that all his statements are half truths, etc. They travel through the dusty maze of Weed land toward Cat City. The weeds are increasingly deformed as they seem to be descending to the bottom of a large crater. Interpersonal tensions with Eddie Cat and moments of extreme awkwardness ensue as it is revealed that Eddie Cat is being paid to be his social worker, etc. Eddie Cat reveals that Weedland was created when the Uprights (homo sapiens) dropped the N Bomb. Eddie Cat is amazed at how little the SM knows about various letter-designated bombs especially the J bomb which damaged reality waves resulting in all sorts of mutations such as talking cats. No mutation, however, is as distorted as the SM and he feels a rush of self-esteem when EC tells him that he is the most reality-distorted mutant in all of Upright World. EC claims to have read a medical evaluation that says that the SM’s biological mother abused an army surplus reality wave field generator, etc. Nervously the SM admits amnesia for everything happening before his most recent incarnation seizure. EC reveals that the incarnation seizures are a symptom, likely to increase, of his irreversibly destabilizing condition. The SM, coaxed by EC, begins to remember his foster mother Betty Cat. EC becomes manically excited when he concludes that SM is suffering from repressed memory syndrome and hypnotizes the SM. The hypnosis allows the SM to remember being bullied by cat children who called him Snowfag. He recalls an episode of sexual abuse where cat children pushed objects into his snowbody when he was 14. SM generates some sort of psionic effect during this abuse that causes his abusers to dematerialize. SM feels deep guilt and shame about this recovered episode but also feels that EC is inducing some therapeutic effects. The journey through Weedland is dehydrating SM and he worries about the Beckstein limit but EC assures him that they are close to Puddletown where he offers to buy him food and drink. EC mentions his cousin Jamie cat, and SM feels a strange resonance with the name. EC suggests they stay at the Admiral Black Paw Inn in Puddletown, which is frequented by nautical travelers and there is talk about pirate cats, etc. In Puddletown they encounter Jamie Cat sleeping on a dock and the SM awakens to his obsessive and hopeless infatuation with her. He witnesses her awaken when her boyfriend Tony Cat approaches and is horrified when she performs oral sex on him. The SM becomes enraged at his whole incarnation which starts to produce dangerous psionic effects. EC tries to talk him down from his rage with lots of hollow psychologease and hollow therapeutic talk to which the SM responds with rage and rebellion. The SM is at war with his snowbody and forms desperate resolutions to look more catlike. They stop at a puddle where the SM wants to wash up so that Jamie Cat won’t see that he has been crying. He announces that he no longer wants to be called the SM and that his new name is Jake. EC mocks the name changes, further enraging the SM. As the snowman holds his freakish, spindly snow hands (his deepest snowbody shame) over the rippling water of the puddle,e he has a long flashback to to his childhood centering on a shameful psionic episode that occurs during birdfeast day when he is seven. A flashback within this flashback recounts the history of the deformity shoes that Betty Cat has him wear to this extended family occasion. The flashback concludes with the SM still holding his hands above the rippling water. A cathartic, therapeutic effect has occurred and the shamefully freakish hands he now perceives as unique and powerful. He immerses them in the water and rehydrates himself. They travel toward Puddle Bay and find the Inn where they are greeted by Jimmy Cat who is a very respectful and compassionate boy cat who becomes their host. He serves them excellent food and drink. In response to a question from EC, JC reveals that his father is terminally ill. JC also reveals that there have been strange occurrences at the Inn beginning with a visit by the Old Woman of the Cards who does a prophetic card spread: “The card showed what looked like an Upright boy standing on a dark hill holding a silvery dagger up to the moonlight. ‘A prince travels here from afar, another world, another time.’ She drew another card that showed an unformed Upright man hanging upside down from a rope attached to a yellow doorframe. ‘A mutation, powerful and in conflict within himself, will follow Jimmy Cat (JC) narrates the arrival of the prince who is obviously a version of Jeremiah. Following these disclosures, JC shows them to their rooms. As JC is helping SM get settled in his room, JC’s mother shows up and in the SM’s hearing berates JC for allowing such a deformed mutant into the inn which she claims will ruin them. SM is forced to leave the inn, and departs without informing EC. SM travels alone toward Cat City and finds lodging at the Mutant Motel where, in grim contrast to the Inn, he is treated contemptuously by the clerk working the night shift of this very ghetto establishment. SM has a very despairing night in his motel room succumbing to his addictions and self-pity. Although he recognizes the cheesiness and crass manipulation, he is eventually seduced by TV commercials for Adventure Cat City, the red light district of Cat City. SM checks out of the Mutant Motel and begins walking to Adventure Cat City. This is all the same night. SM describes the sleazy night life of Adventure Cat City, but encounters one very benevolent and highly distorted mutant, a naughty-but-nice elderly she-mutant who has three heads that resemble Eleanor Roosevelt and is attired in an odd conglomeration of S&M accessories as well as old-fashioned feminine ones. This mutant, upon hearing an abstracted summary of his predicament, suggests that SM go to the Adventure Realities Store. SM purchases a session at this store which he thinks is a tanning salon. He discovers that it is a VR facility and finds himself in a synthetic matrix, the TSW or Turbo Sugar World. He encounters a shape-shifting digital avatar named Oliver Twister (OT). OT leads him through a maze of alleys in the post apocalyptic setting of the TSW. He then leads him through a portal into a secret matrix that is running off the processing power of the TSW but is unknown to its agents. OT is revealed to be a brilliant young, college-student-aged mutant who is part of a secret group of matrix-source-code hackers. OT is amazed to find the Snowman is not merely a digital avatar and realizes that he represents a fundamental matrix-source-code hack. Just when SM and OT are starting to bond, and OT is offering key insights, the matrix freezes with an illegal operations warning. SM is thrown back to the Adventure Realities Store and pays for his session plus a fine for the illegal operation. The sudden termination of his VR session has left SM’s system full of neuropharmecuticals and he finds himself back on the streets of Adventure Cat City in an altered state of consciousness. SM, in low self-esteem mode, has a series of ever more humiliating visualizations of what OT must be experiencing after his removal from his matrix. SM finds himself wandering into a desolate industrial part of Cat City and then feels himself drawn across train tracks and into some woods. He is magnetically pulled toward a campfire where he sees from behind a blond- haired youth whom he realizes is the prince, Jeremiah (whom he knows from Jimmy Cat’s testimony at the Inn). Chapter V (which needs a title) Chapter V begins with the prince turning around to look at the SM who then has a discontinuity that he speculates might be a black out or incarnation seizure. Jeremiah , whom SM (Andrew) refers to as “the prince” is waking him up from his Shadow Worlds Experience because he senses that law enforcement is about to enter the campground. Andrew is extremely disoriented about his identity and believes he still has a snowbody, etc. J coaxes him out of the disorientation enough for Andrew to be able to drive them out of the campground and to a supermarket parking lot. In the back of the camper J. does some healing to Andrew and helps him to recover his identity. They relocate the camper and go to sleep. While Andrew is sleeping, Alex pulls his dreambody into his apartment in the lower astral. Alex is distraught and feels like Andrew abandoned him for a very long time. Andrew initiates a sharing so Alex can experience what he went through and this proves therapeutic for both of them. Andrew wants to know what life is like in the lower astral, but Alex resists and tells him he would be better off not knowing. Eventually Alex relents and tells Andrew about lost, hungry souls and their endless loops in the city of eternal night and how they use frightening illusions to attempt to pull other souls into their dark loops. This is why Alex mainly stays in his apartment. His most redeeming experience is when he vicariously shares Andrew’s life. Andrew notices that Alex has acquired books, and when Andrew responds to Alex’s explanation of how they manifest, Alex is irritated and resentful because he thinks Andrew is making the lower astral ghetto sound too magical. Andrew further angers Alex by suggesting that he view the lower astral from a detached, aesthetic perspective seeing it all as cleverly contrived, etc. Andrew apologizes, but Alex still shows signs of the resentments and dark feelings that often came over him and characterized their tense relationship when they were both alive. Alex tells Andrew that he can see that Andrew has been changed by his Shadow Worlds experience and is now closer to the spirit world. Alex tells Andrew that as stressful as the incarnation seizures he experienced in the shadow matrix were, that such dynamism is preferable to the lower astral where change is very slow and difficult. Being connected to Andrew helps Alex greatly because it connects him to the dynamism of Andrew’s timeline. Andrew apologizes again for not considering how the Shadow Worlds experience might affect Alex. Alex tells him that his dreambody is getting weak and that they must end their encounter. Andrew awakens in the camper van and he and Jeremaih return to the supermarket and buy some food as Andrew still struggles with his identity. They have some conversation and J points out that the aesthetic perspective that Andrew suggested to Alex is a foundational principle of the Vehrillion. Jeremiah shares a vision of a Renaissance era painter to illustrate the principle. They discuss where they should go next and Andrew states that he doesn’t feel he can canvass anymore but feels guilty about terminating his informal arrangement with the animal refuge. Jeremiah suggests that they go to the red desert and recover the rest of the buried cash so that Andrew can donate a considerable sum to the refuge and they can use the rest of the money to support their continued travels. On the way out of town, Andrew sees a local newspaper headline that explains the disturbance at the campground. Three teenagers were found unconscious in their vehicle. J and A realize that they had an encounter with the shadow portal that they have interpreted as alien abduction. Andrew has some inner monologue about how his telepathic relationships with Alex and Jeremiah are altering his sense of boundaries. He senses J’s graceful tact in not being intrusive with it. This is where plot summary---still unfinished---breaks off and what follows is my attempt to put the current state of plot brainstorming into a comprehensible form: The work on PJ, by me, by Andrew, Tommy and Alex, is an export of info from another timeline to intervene in the main trunk timeline(MT)---the intervention works as: A seed crystal (Jeremiah/Tommy) whose presence in the timeline subtly intervenes hopefully preventing plague, etc. Posting the journals online---an alteration of the timeline via effects on certain readers, acting as a catalyst for their metamorphosis, for their emergence as seed crystals, interveners, etc. Examples of possible influences of PJ that would have overt consequences: Influencing mutant readers to recognize themselves as protoelves and to encourage their continuing metamorphosis via principles of eating, ethics, telepathic communication, etc. they see illustrated in the story. Influencing certain mutant readers who are already feeling drawn to intentional community to create community like that of the Friends in Vermont which gives rise to Tommy. Perhaps protoelf children will be born into such communities. Alex’s story could influence certain mutants not to commit suicide. These possibilities could be overt suggestions in the journals. Here are three examples of crossovers, moments where PJ can reach out of the snowflake globe paperweight world of a self-contained fantasy world to directly intervene with the reader: Tommy, Alex and/or Andrew could have a vision of a protoelf mutant kid who is reading the journals alone in his room and realizes that they are written for him. The vision is generic enough that it will synch up with some actual kids who will be reading the book alone in their rooms and who sense they are mutants. It may be suggested that reading the journals, and following some of the principles they illustrate, will trigger an elf metamorphosis in receptive proto elf mutants reading the story. It would be more humble for Alex to suggest this as he can point out that the way Tommy and Andrew live and the choices they have made personify certain transformative principles. To ground things, Alex can point out that the probability is that the elf metamorphosis they experience will probably not involve the bodily transformation experienced by Jeremiah, Tommy and Andrew because they don’t have the support of a community of other elf-metamorphosing mutants. Alex’s statement doesn’t exclude this possibility, he just states that is unlikely and not necessarily advantageous. The elf metamorphosis without bodily metamorphosis would actually allow the affected mutant(s) to alter society more since they will be better able to integrate themselves. PJ/ the journals, would be like the Never Ending Story story book in the hands of the boy reading it in the school attic, except that instead of them being read by a boy in the story, the boy reading them is the actual reader. Alex can say he has a vision of a protoelf mutant who is considering suicide and Alex is being drawn to share his story to influence that mutant. One or more of the characters can say that part of the purpose of the journals is that they will encourage certain mutants to form Friends-like intentional communities. In some fold-over trick, it could be revealed that Eleanor and some of the other Friends who formed Tommy’s community were inspired by reading the journals. Tommy, would, therefore, be helping to give birth to himself. Other key protoelf children may be born to other such loving communities. All readers, and middle-aged readers, etc. should be included by the visions---- readers of any age, gender, etc. can influence the timeline by being influenced by the journals and by living by some of the principles illustrated in the story and personified by the main characters. Anyone who is reading the journals is someone on the crucial main trunk timeline (MT). The fate of the MT is unfinished and may be significantly influenced by how the readers live their lives. Some key principles Johnny and I came up with might be retrofitted and stated explicitly in the story or, by being known by those of us working behind the scenes of the story, may increase likelihood of these principles being subtly encoded or implied in the story. One of those principles is that the elves have to face the meta-parasite evolutionary bottle neck again because they chose to escape darkness rather than integrate it. That’s why the Old Ones sense that it was a mistake and cosmic injustice to take elf potential away from the mother world thereby diminishing the Mystery (the evolutionary event horizon) when it eventually occurs on OT. This is also the reason why the shadow portal has to be about the shadow of homo sapiens. This could be explicitly retrofitted as a realization brought forward by Jeremiah who is in the best position to have this realization. The plague, the ELE or extinction level event, is a timeline strange attractor and evolutionary dead end that the main trunk is trending toward. To get past this bottleneck or dead end, information from the MT future, and from parallel timelines must be retrofitted and inserted into the timeline (the journals) so as to allow the MT to get past the bottle neck or dead end of the plague. The main characters of PJ are edgewalkers—by living at the edge of what the matrix currently allows to be possible---they are able to push out the edge or envelope of the matrix and crossover into parallel realities. To be an edgewalker is to be a liminal creature living between and betwixt. The main characters are all in liminal states of metamorphosis and of timeline displacement. Tommy and Kyle are exemplars of different human sub-species. Tommy, an empath, embodies the love principle and arises from a loving, egalitarian community. Kyle, a psychopath, embodies the power principle and arises from the top-down manipulation (via genetic engineering) of a predatory capitalist who creates Kyle without the feminine (K has no mother, only a paid surrogate who does not share his genetics). That Kyle funds Jeremiah’s community and space-faring biosphere in the OT timeline implies that Tommy has healed him, and perhaps Viealetta has more brutally healed him (which would serve her purposes) by humbling, neutering (maiming and castrating) him, which along with Tommy’s love cures part of his psychopathy. Perhaps Tommy needs to explicitly suggest this. Tommy doesn’t know about any of this until he reads about Jeremiah’s story and realizes that Jeremiah’s timeline and the birth of the elves as a viable species capable of reproducing itself biologically, is a result of Kyle’s intervention. The reader is in the MT, the main trunk timeline, a crucial and indeterminate timeline. The way things presently stand in the story, Jeremiah comes from an alternative branch off the main trunk (Old Terra/Crossing/New World). Jeremiah travels across timelines (from OT to earth/MT) and back in time. In so doing he is partly reintegrating his branch into the main trunk since he is bringing healing info from his branch to help the MT get past the potential ELE. Jeremiah must exit the main trunk to allow Tommy to do his parallel intervention. (two versions of same being cannot meet) Tommy brings info from the MT’s possible future (the plague, etc), and also personifies elf potential. Tommy comes from the future, but there is an uncollapsed-wave-function, Schrodinger’s-cat –before-box-opened aspect to which timeline Tommy comes from. He can either be from the future of the main trunk that it is trending toward, or he can be from an alternative dead branch if his subtle influence on the main trunk prevents the ELE. If Tommy’s subtle influence prevents the ELE, then there would have to be a third version of the Tommy/Jeremiah entity----what Tommy becomes on MT without the plague. This third version of Tommy is, like Schrodinger’s cat, in an indeterminate state because the main trunk is an indeterminate state and the choices of the readers may be what collapses that wave function. If we get to 2028 and there is no plague then the reader should assume that the intervention worked and that the third version of Tommy exists. If that happens, then the plague/biosphere version of the MT becomes a deadend branch off the MT and is no longer the MT. The story currently ends without our knowing the futures of Tommy the journal writer, Andrew, Alex or Jeremiah. A Major Variation of the Current Plot/Timeline Structure In a more complex variation, Alex can reveal to Tommy and Andrew that they are not actually on the main trunk but another branch created by Tommy’s crossing. In this variation, any crossing over of a person from another timeline generates another branch. Therefore we have the following branches: Old Terra/ New World ----created by Kyle’s crossing in 1999 which includes Jeremiah and a version of Andrew that undergoes the Crossing and helps to create the Vehrillion. Earth 2014+Jeremiah---- when Jeremiah crosses over to earth 2014, he creates a new branch which we can call earth2014+Jeremiah. When Jeremiah and Andrew attempt to leave the lower astral currently Jeremiah never makes it across from the perspective of the journals. Actually there are two (and possibly) three branches off of this event: Earth2014+Jeremiah In this branch Jeremiah returns from the lower astral with Andrew. This is a branch unknown to the journals so we don’t witness it. It is the continuation of earth2014+Jeremiah. In this branch both Andrew and Jeremiah return from the lower astral and journey together instead of Andrew and Tommy journeying together, etc. Currently we have no info about this branch. One of the cool things about the complex variation is that could allow future books that would be called “paraquels” ---a new literary term I just invented. We already have sequels and prequels, but PJ allows for paraquels, parallel timeline versions which are neither before or after but simultaneously parallel. earth2014 + Jeremiah. + Tommy---the Journalverse This is the branch created by Jeremiah not returning from the lower astral which allows Tommy’s crossover to earth2014 + Jeremiah. This has to be considered a new branch, even though Andrew and the reader experience it as continuous with the rest of the story. The above branch, Earth2014+Jeremiah, is not a new branch, but the one we’ve been following so far continuing. earth2014 + Jeremiah. + Tommy---the Journalverse is a new branch because whenever a physical being crosses over it creates a new branch. The journals, therefore, are actually a composite of numerous timelines. There is the earth2014+Jeremiah that Andrew begins narrating from. There is info about OT from Jeremiah’s testimony but this is info, not a departure into another branch. When the story continues after the lower astral Andrew doesn’t realize it but we are now continuing from a new branch earth2014 + Jeremiah. + Tommy----I will refer to this composite timeline, the timeline of the journals (earth2014 + Jeremiah/ earth2014 + Jeremiah. + Tommy) as “the journalverse” ---written. It is a branch off of a branch. The journalverse includes a version of Andrew who loses Jeremiah in the lower astral crossing and meets Tommy in 2014 when Tommy is 19 and Andrew is 26. This version also includes a version of Alex who acts as Tommy’s editor and tells more of his story. A possible New Jeremiah Branch It is also possible that the version of Jeremiah who does not return to earth from the lower will generate a new branch if he crosses over to some other timeline that has not known him. A complex possibility would occur if Jeremiah returns to OT/NW. Since this is his native timeline, it seems like it would not necessarily cause OT/NW to branch. On the other hand, it seems like there must be an OT/NW timeline in which Jeremiah does not return and another one in which he does. Because Alex is an astral being, he is aware of at least three instances of himself: Alex in the continuing earth2014+Jeremiah Alex in earth2014+Jeremiah. + Tommy, the Journalverse Alex MT--- Alex in the main trunk timeline. In the main trunk timeline Alex is the only crossover. Since Alex is an astral being, he does not physically crossover so his effect is subtle enough that it conserves the main trunk and no branch occurs. The MT includes a version of Andrew who never encounters the school boy, Jeremiah or the 19-year-old Tommy. In the MT, Andrew’s metamorphosis is centered on his relationship with Alex. They form a “coaxial,” a being that is a homo gestalt dyad of a living protoelf (Andrew) and an astral (Alex). Alex may consider his MT version as his central instance. He has withheld the knowledge of his other instances until the journals are complete as he recognizes that they are needed to help heal the MT. Since Alex can cross between timelines without creating new branches, he can bring the journals from the Journalverse into the MT by communicating their content telepathically to MT Andrew. Following the logic of this new variation there may or maynot be a fourth instance of Alex. We do not know if OTAndrew, who has a different history after age 13, ever met Alex, and if he did, if this Alex committed suicide, etc. It would be entirely possible given the enormous alterations that they would never have met which would foreclose this complication. So far, with the complex variation, the only true crossover entity in the MT is Alex and the only crossover info we have comes to us via Alex and the journals. Since Alex’s testimony comes to us through the journals, they contain all the crossover info. Andrew MT is a partial crossover because he is in contact with and hybridizing with a crossover entity. Any reader who is exposed to, and integrates the crossover info---the journals---is also a partial crossover. With this complex variation there may need to be an explanation of why the main trunk is more central. Perhaps it has more processing power than the branches. Perhaps the branches only exist to send crossover healing info. Both the OT/NW and journalverse composite timelines crossover through the journals. Perhaps once they have been able to send their info across they self-limit, but that would be a nonconservation of novelty. Since they have been brought into existence, they should probably be able to continue. Perhaps the primacy of the maintrunk is only that it is primary from the perspective of the readers, since it is the timeline in which they reside. The self-aware crossover entities on the branches would consider the MT their mother timeline. Presently, the OT/NW branch could be seen as more limited than the MT because its evolutionary event horizon on OT, the Mystery, was limited. It generated a viable elf species on another planet, but that outcome is limited because it has yet to transcend the evolutionary bottleneck of the meta-parasite. Jeremiah’s travels and interventions (and possible return) may however get OT/NW past the bottleneck. If Jeremiah does return to the OT/NW, perhaps Alex, who has met Jeremiah in the lower astral, can telepathically bring the info in the journals to him. Jeremiah already knows part of what is in the journals, but does not know what happened to Andrew when he returns alone from the lower astral and he does not know Tommy’s plague/biosphere story. With the new info that Jeremiah has from his own travel to earth/2014, his encounter with V and with new info from the journals, he may be able to return to the elves and improve their viability and shadow integration. This possibility seems way too complex to introduce in the present book and would probably have to be its own paraquel. In response to some of Austen’s questions about the new variation: In the OT/NW timeline there is presently no mention of it being hit by the plague which, had it occurred, Jeremiah would have mentioned as something necessitating the crossing. If the plague were retrofitted into the OT timeline, that could be the thing that the Old Ones regret. They could realize that the children they removed from the motherworld had the potential to become immune through elf metamorphosis, etc. Perhaps they could have repopulated the mother world or acted as seed crystals causing a global elf metamorphosis so that a certain small percentage of the whole earth’s population would become immune elves. Retrofitting the plague into the OT is probably not a good idea. Since Kyle has been partly cured of his psychopathy, and because even as a psychopath the plague would be a huge setback to his power agenda, it seems much more consistent that his intervention would include preventing the plague. He would have the power, high technology and detailed knowledge of how the plague works to nip it in the bud. This seems more satisfactory and conserves the way things are currently written. Like the MT, the journalverse composite timeline, and the Andrew/Jeremiah continuing branch, all have indeterminate futures. Any of them could run into the plague bottleneck if subtle intervention is unsuccessful. The journalverse and the OT/NW can not be the same branch even though both Tommy and Kyle successfully travel back to the past through the same portal. In the complex variation this is because of the rule that any crossover of a physical being generates a new branch. Since they do not crossover together, but leave at different times and arrive at different points in the past they each create a new branch that is separate from the other. In the present version (not the variation) they are separate because Kyle’s heavy-handed intervention generated a new branch (OT) diverging in 2001. Tommy crosses over to MT 2014. In both the new variation and the present one, readers are being encouraged to prevent the plague bottle neck by subtle intervention and influence. I.E. their job is not to kill the person or persons who will create the plague, but to create cascading positive effects which alter things sufficiently so that this person or persons never creates it, etc. If we specify the years, anyone reading the text in 2028 or later would know that the subtle intervention worked in the MT if they are reading in a plague-free reality. It could be pointed out that the readers should be positive subtle influencers anyway, because that is almost always the thing to be in any timeline. A possible plot element to retrofit suggested by Johnny: In an expanded ending in which there is a scene between Andrew and Tommy after he finishes his journal, Tommy might state a feeling that it may not be necessary for him to pick up the ID (that the computer hacker Adam has been working on from his apartment in Tucson) as it may not be necessary for where they have to travel next. Quotes supporting creating crossover art: In creating a new form of communication, the work of art is both an expression of a more expanded consciousness, as well as being its initiator. Art attains its greatest numinosity and ability to affect others when the creator of the work of art is re-creating themselves and being transformed in and through the act of creating the work of art. The artwork then becomes a living testament to, encoded with, and a carrier of this experience of transformation, as if the work of art unlocks the door through which this transformation becomes activated in and transferred to others in an act of living transmission. The artist’s creative endeavors are timeless artifacts, which act like transducers of the semantic, symbolic power encoded in the human psyche. Contagious in its effects, art can “virally” spread via the unconscious of our species in a way which liberates and unleashes the latent, creative energy lying dormant in the unconscious of humanity, which has the power to affect real change in the world. ---Paul Levy in his book Wetiko Grant Morrison’s graphic novel epic masterwork, The Invisibles, is based on crossover catalyst effects (see my document on The Invisibles: https://zaporacle.com/are-you-an-invisible-manichean-mutant-metamorphosis-a-chaos-magic-artifact-brought-out-of-a-reading-of-the-invisibles-by-grant-morrison/) Here are some excerpts: Grant Morrison wants to empower Invisibles who are busy being born. In a fax he sent on October 26, 1993 with his proposal for THE INVISIBLES, Grant stated his intentions this way: One of the things we should be trying to bring out is the idea of the Invisibles as a group to which anyone might belong. Involve the reader in the whole process by making him/her realize that she/he too can join/has already joined the ranks of The Invisibles. Part of what I want to achieve with this title in the long-term involves actually changing the consciousness of the readers by presenting them with various techniques and concepts which will undoubtedly alter their way of looking at the world, in that sense, THE INVISIBLES isn’t a comic about something but is the thing itself and every reader is a potential Invisible. If the Invisibles are Shamanic Terrorists, the comic itself is an act of shamanic terrorism. THE INVISIBLES is a spell. It’s not just a comic book. It tells the future. Things happen around it and to the people who absorb it. I’m not lying to you. I present a slice of human experience in this form. I started out writing a story and slowly, over a few years, the world I live in became almost exactly like the story. —excerpt from Grant Morrison’s final “Invisible Ink” essay, from THE INVISIBLES Vol 3, #1 The Invisibles is a nexus of synchronicities and crossover effects for both its authors and for many readers. For example, I found many synchronistic links to my own unfinished fantasy epic, Parallel Journeys. There were several, but here are the two that are the easiest to explain. In a panel with a picture of a tower with six high-tension power lines one Invisible says to another: One day when we’re all gone, the creatures who come after us’ll find these old steel skeletons marching across desert wastes or tropical swamplands. Think how mysterious they’ll appear, like the old stones are to us. The new caretakers of the earth will wonder if these pylons were built to mark highways of unknown and forgotten power. In a passage from Parallel Journeys written in the mid-eighties, a character named Tommy, who is an Invisible in multiple senses (he is a mutant with literal cloaking abilities) is also standing before a high-tension, power-line tower: In the center of this dry ground stood an enormous geometric construction of steel bars, an abstraction of a standing human form with upstretched metal arms holding six black power lines against the sky. Tommy stood before this structure with a deep, primitive dread, feeling its power through the pores of his skin. Invisible energy from the lines made his muscles twitch and pulled at his hair. One issue of THE INVISIBLES is entitled The Last Temptation of Jack. Jack’s full name, his Invisible’s name, is “Jack Frost.” The largest section of book one of Parallel Journeys (which also dates back to the 80s) is entitled The Last Temptation of the Snowman. Note added: On April 24 of 2013, the day after I wrote the above, I found that my very close friend, Jack Savage, had just taken his life. Jack had just turned 24 and was one of the greatest poetic and soulful voices of his generation (Savage Reflections—the Soulful Poems of Jack Savage). He was, by far, the most significant Jack ever to cross into my life. The Last Temptation of the Snowman takes place in an astral realm. Two weeks (and again three days) before the suicide (and with no information about Jack for the previous eight months) I had a powerful dream where Jack appeared to be in a distressed, paranoid place in a lower astral realm (which looks like a grim, abandoned, urban landscape) written about in Parallel Journeys. That part, and the Last Temptation of the Snowman involve an attempt to help persons having a difficult time in a lower astral plane. No specific dream was recalled three days before the suicide, but I awoke with an overwhelming and anguished concern for Jack. In the panel where Dane, a young man is being given his Invisible’s name, Jack Frost, he says: “Fuck off! I’ not committing suicide…” Dane also looks like Jack. 589 of the Invisibles Omnibus (Jack Savage was born in 89’) Excerpt from Grant Morrison’s final “Invisible Ink” essay, from THE INVISIBLES Vol 3, #1: THE INVISIBLES is a spell. It’s not just a comic book. It tells the future. Things happen around it and to the people who absorb it. I’m not lying to you. I present a slice of human experience in this form. I started out writing a story and slowly, over a few years, the world I live in became almost exactly like the story.
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