Gary Brandt delivers his most romantically transformative and philosophically explosive chapter yet in this breathtaking episode from The Dimension Of Mind Dot Com, where Pat's late-night knock on Sally's door leads to their first real date—not because of any mission or crisis, but simply because John convinced him to stop hiding behind projects and finally tell Sally he loves her, worships her, and wants to build a life with her.
The genius emerges through Brandt's perfect balance of romantic comedy and cosmic revelation: Sally's shock that they've never actually dated despite years of friendship, her bossy food ordering that everyone secretly adores, and the appearance of their mysterious waiter Josh who doesn't blink when Pat orders 'a sampler plate of knowledge with a side of wisdom' but instead offers them shots of everlasting life and promises to show them his favorite art pieces at the museum.
What makes this chapter so compelling is how their intimate confessions of love—Sally's admission that she's wondered what it would be like if they were more than friends, Pat's relief at finally dropping the 'as a friend' qualifier from his declarations—become the foundation for revelations that could reshape their understanding of reality itself, especially when a little girl appears asking for Sally's autograph and then vanishes, creating the first hint that their simple date night is about to become something far more significant than either of them imagined.
But the real existential earthquake unfolds through Josh's identity as a 'coalescent'—a being who dispersed throughout eternity like a water drop in an ocean, becoming omnipresent across all levels of existence before choosing to reassemble himself in Powder Junction to help seekers find what they're looking for.
The chapter's profound philosophical depth emerges through Josh's explanation of reality as an infinite sea of possibilities where 'there are trillions upon trillions of realities all emerging, each playing their own music,' combined with his devastating revelation that the little girl who wanted Sally's autograph is her great-great-great-granddaughter from a future where Sally's stories become family legend.
Brandt masterfully escalates both the cosmic implications and the emotional stakes when Josh's final bombshell—that Sally and Pat are actually the same level 10 being who volunteered to help Earth, split into male and female forms, and grew up as ordinary humans lost in forgetfulness—suggests their entire relationship and mission might be part of a plan they designed themselves before incarnating.
The chapter ends with perfect emotional complexity as Sally struggles to process whether this revelation is profound truth or 'some sort of elaborate practical joke,' while Pat finds romantic validation in the idea that they're literally soulmates, leaving them both to wonder if they'll remember their true nature when the time comes or if they're just 'actors in some sort of cosmic drama' reading lines they wrote themselves.
It's a haunting meditation on love, destiny, free will versus predestination, and the possibility that some connections transcend not just lifetimes but the very structure of existence itself.