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Michael's practically bursting with pride as he gets ready to give his new friends the grand tour of his creation.
"Come on, let's take a stroll and I'll show you around my little slice of paradise here." The four of them step outside onto the creaky wooden sidewalk, following Michael as he ambles down what passes for main street. "I called this place Powder Junction - got the name from some old Western I read as a kid. Pretty neat, huh? Not too shabby for a one-man operation."
"Oh yes, it's absolutely charming," Sally says with that knowing smirk of hers. "But I've got you all figured out, Michael. This is Earth, isn't it? We're in the past - the old Wild West days. That's why Ben sent us here, and that's why John got plastered and had to pee like a racehorse, and why I had to take that urgent bathroom break earlier. We're back in actual bodies that do all the messy, inconvenient things bodies do. Which means..." she gives Pat a mischievous look, "Pat and I could even get it on if we wanted to, right?"
"Uh, well, I mean... could we?" Pat practically chokes on his own tongue, his face turning three shades of red. See, some people get all tongue-tied when it comes to talking about the birds and the bees. Sally definitely isn't one of those people.
"Okay, slow down there, Sally. The answers are no, no, no, absolutely not, and... well, yes to that last part." Michael chuckles and shakes his head. "This isn't Earth - not even close. But you're right that it feels a lot more solid and real than Penny Lake, and that's because we've got way more minds contributing to this reality. See, here's the thing - reality isn't some fixed thing that exists 'out there.' It's created by consciousness, by minds working together. I built this place - what Ben calls a 'perceptual bubble' - and I made it look like the town I grew up in back on Earth because, well, that's what felt like home to me. But it's all happening in our collective consciousness. You're experiencing my mental creation, but you're not just figments of my imagination - you're real, contributing your own awareness to make this shared experience possible. That's actually how ALL realities work, even the Earth you remember. The only difference is how many minds are involved in creating and maintaining them."
"Back at Penny Lake, you've got less than a hundred souls, so reality there is pretty light and flexible - more ethereal, more peaceful too, I'd say. Remember how sometimes you'd want to visit John's cottage and you'd just sort of... appear there? Other times you'd enjoy the whole walk up that country lane, taking your time, smelling the flowers. And then there were days when you were in a hurry and you don't really remember making the trip at all - that's because once your intention locked onto 'being at John's place,' there you were. But here? We've got nearly a million and a half minds all contributing to this reality, which makes everything much denser, much more... let's say 'sticky.'"
"Ben filled me in on your conversation back at the Lake. The dimensions here are wound tighter, more constrained. That kind of consciousness teleportation you're used to? Much harder to pull off here. So instead of just thinking yourself somewhere, you've got to actually hitch up a wagon or saddle a horse. And after you pack away a big meal, well, your body's going to remind you that what goes in must come out. Same goes for all the livestock around here, so watch your step." He grins. "Pat, back in your lighter domain, when Sally wanted to see you, you'd instantly sense it, and when you decided to visit - boom - there you were. Not so simple here. All these minds create a kind of mental inertia that makes the ethereal stuff much more challenging. Getting a million-plus consciousnesses to agree on anything takes serious mental horsepower, so things that were easy in lighter realms become nearly impossible here. Think of it this way - in a small town, you might get away with bending the rules when nobody's looking, but in a big city, there's always someone watching."
"So all our bodily functions actually work here?" Pat asks, still trying to wrap his head around it all.
"Yep, pretty much all of them, including the one you and Sally have been thinking about. But here's the catch - in denser realities, consequences are a lot harder to dodge. Just like you can't avoid going to the bathroom, you can't avoid dealing with the messier aspects of existence here. There's more... let's call it 'drama' here than you'd find at peaceful old Penny Lake."
"Wait, are you saying I could actually get pregnant here?" Sally asks, cutting straight to the point as usual.
"Well, actually, no - not in the way you're thinking. This domain isn't set up for creating genuinely new souls with bodies and all that complex business. You could experience a pregnancy if you really wanted to, but the baby wouldn't be... viable, let's say. For the real deal - actual soul creation and incarnation - you need to be in an even denser reality, like Earth itself. Remember, the body you think you have is really just a memory image you brought with you from your Earth experience. It was designed to function on Earth, not here. This place is a pretty good approximation of Earth in most ways, just not when it comes to the baby-making department."
"The real consequences for romantic couples here are mainly emotional - attachments that can turn pretty dysfunctional pretty fast. You've probably already picked up on the fact that this isn't exactly a paradise of sweetness and light - there's plenty of bad attitudes and cranky dispositions to go around. This place was never meant to be perfect. It's supposed to be a way station, a place to rest, recharge, and build up your spiritual energy for another trip back to what we call Level 3 - that's the four-dimensional universe where Earth exists."
"Well Michael, I think you just hit the nail on the head - that's exactly why we're here. The going back to Earth part." John's voice carries a mix of hope and determination. "The three of us have been itching to get back there and see what's happening, but Ben said he couldn't help us out. So what's it going to take? Can we just take another magical nap like Ben arranged and wake up back on the old blue marble?"
"I wish it were that simple, John, but it's a lot more complicated than that. Let me try to explain how things used to work, and then what happened when Sally and Pat showed up and threw everything into chaos. The old rules went right out the window, and honestly, we're still trying to figure out what the new ones should be. So here's what I know about the old system: when someone's time here was up, we'd prepare them for the journey back - either as a spirit visitor or for a full incarnation in a physical body. Earth is basically the baby-making factory for this corner of the universe, so when a suitable body became available for one of our souls, we'd make all the necessary preparations. Your consciousness would be prepped, you'd go to sleep just like when Ben brought you here, and when you woke up, you'd be in a human body again."
"Now here's the tricky part - there's never a perfect fit between a mature soul like yourselves and a developing human infant. You'll keep your mature consciousness for maybe a year or two, but gradually, who and what you are now will fade into the background. The body will continue developing its own personality with your consciousness as a kind of template, but without any memory of who you really are or what you've experienced here. When that earthly life runs its course, you find yourself back here - or at the Lake, or wherever you're meant to go - as a 'newcomer' with only memories of that most recent Earth life and no recollection of your previous existences here or in other Earth incarnations."
"Lots of newcomers don't even realize they've made the transition and think they're still alive back there. Others know their earthly life has ended, but they adapt to their new existence here and start treating their Earth life like something that happened to someone else - kind of like when you move out of your parents' house for college and reinvent yourself. John, you just kept on doing what you'd always done, pretty much the same way you lived in that logging community in Oregon back in the 1890s. You were a retired firefighter who spent his days fishing, and that's exactly what you're still doing. Sally and Pat, you two were just getting started when your lives got cut short. You were kids then, and you've been kids here for thousands of years. But that's about to change - and fast. You're going through what we call an awakening. You're going to start remembering not just who you are here and now, but who you were before, and before that, and before that. Normally we don't load anyone up with this much information before sending them back, but these are extraordinary circumstances. So... are you ready for this?"
"Hold on a minute," Pat interjects. "Who exactly made up all these rules in the first place, and why did they suddenly change everything?"
"We did," Michael replies matter-of-factly. "I did, you did, all of us did. This whole recycling system is just how life evolved in this particular corner of reality. It's not the same everywhere - reality isn't a one-size-fits-all operation. There's no cosmic director sitting in some office somewhere, making executive decisions about how we have to do things. We work this stuff out collectively, through parts of our consciousness that operate below our everyday awareness - the kind of stuff we don't remember or even think about consciously. But why everything suddenly went haywire when you two showed up? That's the million-dollar question, and it's a mystery we're going to need your help solving."
"I can't even remember half of what you just told us," Sally complains, looking overwhelmed.
"And I'm not sure I buy any of it," Pat adds with skepticism.
"Perfect! If you two just sat there nodding and swallowing every word I said, you'd be absolutely useless for what you're going to have to do. You're going to need to think critically, distinguish between what's helpful and what's harmful, figure out what's true and what's nonsense, and most importantly, you'll need to reach into the sea of infinite possibility and choose what should become real and what should remain just potential."
"So, Mr. Michael-whoever-you-are-who-seems-to-know-everything," Sally begins, then pauses dramatically. "Are you the Archangel Michael?"
"Nope on both counts. There's a whole lot I don't know, starting with exactly how you're going to pull off this mission you're about to embark on. You're going to have to improvise most of your own solutions, and honestly, I have no idea what those might look like. As for the Archangel thing - I've never met one, don't even know if they actually exist. What you're probably thinking of would be a Level 10 entity, and there wouldn't be much point in beings like that hanging around a Level 5 domain like this one."
"Level 5?" John asks, looking puzzled. "What happened to Level 4? I thought you said Earth was Level 3."
"It's just the terminology we use to describe different dimensional structures. The level number is the number of unfolded dimensions minus one. So we've got six dimensions operating here, making this a Level 5 domain. Earth has four dimensions, so it's Level 3. A single point has one dimension, so that's Level 0, and so on. Level 4 domains have five unfolded dimensions and come in two main varieties. One type has four unfolded spatial dimensions, which allows for dramatically enhanced shape-shifting and morphological possibilities that would blow your mind. The other type has two unfolded temporal dimensions, which means existing on a plane of time rather than a single timeline like you're used to on Earth. Those Level 4 domains would be completely disorienting for entities like yourselves who are still attached to your Earth-human identity. You wouldn't have a clue where you were, when you were, or what you were looking at. Level 5 domains like this one are perfect for folks in your situation, which is exactly why you ended up here. You could visit a Level 4 domain if you really wanted to, but you'd find it so confusing it wouldn't be worth the trip. All this dimensional stuff can make your head spin, but it's really just applied mathematics and geometry."
Pat looked thoughtful. "If this Level 5 domain is where we go when we die on Earth, does that make this Heaven?"
Michael laughs heartily. "Yes and no - it depends entirely on what you're looking for and what you believe you deserve. It can absolutely be Heaven if that's what you're seeking and expecting. Or it can be Hell if that's where you think you belong based on your Earth life. It can be anything in between, or even some pretty wild alternatives you couldn't imagine. But if you're asking whether this is where God hangs out - the place of eternal bliss in perfect union with the Divine - then no, this definitely isn't that Heaven. This is a rest stop for souls getting ready for another round on Planet Earth, and it's both spatially and temporally connected to the specific region of four-dimensional space-time where Earth exists."
Sally suddenly interrupts with obvious irritation. "Okay, boys, this has been absolutely fascinating, and I promise I'll continue this philosophy seminar with you in a bit, but right now I need to get back to the room to deal with one of those wonderful bodily functions you mentioned."
"There are outhouses all over town, honey - you don't need to walk all the way back there."
"It's not that," Sally snaps, clearly getting more fed up with Powder Junction by the minute. "I'm sweating buckets in this ridiculous dress and I absolutely REEK, okay? I'm going to take a proper bath and change into something that doesn't make me feel like I'm suffocating. And frankly, you gentlemen could use the same treatment."