we are now sharing these physical forms

Location: Penny Lake: 5250 AD.

"Hey Ben," Sally called out as she wandered into the kitchen, still shaking off the last bits of sleep. "What brings you all the way out here so early this morning?" She pulled open a cabinet, already mentally planning breakfast for what looked like it might be more than just her and Pat.

"Pat called me up yesterday evening and said I should come by to talk with you," Ben replied, settling himself more comfortably against the kitchen counter. "But don't let me interrupt your routine - go ahead and make breakfast. We can talk while we eat."

"Ah, so you came hungry then," Sally said with a knowing grin. "What's the matter - didn't Penny feed you this morning?"

"Oh, she did," Ben chuckled. "But after that walk over here through the morning air, I figured I could probably eat again."

"Alright then, hungry man. Have a seat and I'll get something going." Sally started pulling ingredients from various places, moving with the easy efficiency of someone who'd made countless breakfasts. "So what's got Pat all worked up? You know how he is - he can freak out over the smallest things."

"Oh, nothing too dramatic," Ben said with a slight smile. "He just thinks you're going a bit nuts, that's all."

"I never said that!" Pat protested as he joined them in the kitchen, looking like he'd been listening from the hallway. "It's the sleep talking that's got me concerned, and those voices you seem to be hearing. You'll be sound asleep, and then suddenly you're having full conversations with... well, with nothing that I can see. You answer them, you nod, sometimes you even sit up in bed and look right at them - but there's nothing there. It's really spooky, Sally. It's been keeping me awake at night." He ran a hand through his hair, looking genuinely unsettled. "So I thought Ben might be able to help, since he's got more experience with this kind of thing than either of us."

"I don't remember talking in my sleep at all," Sally said, pausing in her breakfast preparations. "What kind of things do I say?"

"Mostly just mumbling, or things that don't make much sense out of context," Pat explained. "But your whole body language changes - you get this look like you're right in the middle of an important conversation with someone."

"So basically you think I need a shrink?" Sally asked, though her tone was more curious than defensive. "Ben's not exactly a doctor, you know."

"Here's the thing," Pat said, settling into a chair. "If I thought all this was just coming from your mind - stress, dreams, whatever - then yeah, maybe some therapy would help. But based on what you've described, and what I've been witnessing, this feels like something external. Something that's happening TO you, not something happening inside your head. So if there really are some kind of entities trying to communicate with you, or maybe even attack you somehow, then Ben here might actually be able to help us figure out what we're dealing with."

"Well, I might be able to help with that," Ben said thoughtfully. "If there are other entities sharing space with us here, I think I can probably smoke them out into the open. Let's go into the other room, draw all the shades, and get it as dark as we possibly can. Then I'll light just this one candle, so we have a single point of light to focus on. Sometimes that makes it easier to see what we're really looking at."

The three of them moved into the living room and drew the heavy curtains, blocking out the morning sunlight until the room was nearly pitch black. Ben lit a single white candle and placed it on the coffee table, and they all settled into chairs, letting their eyes slowly adjust to the flickering candlelight as they scanned the room.

"There," Sally said quietly, pointing toward the fireplace. "By the mantle. Do you see them?"

"I don't see anything," Pat said, squinting in the direction she was pointing.

"Look more carefully," Ben instructed, his voice taking on a more serious tone. "Watch for just a shimmer, a slight distortion that flickers along with the candle flame."

"Oh yeah," Pat said after a moment, his voice dropping to a whisper. "I do see something over there. Two of them, actually. I wasn't sure what I was looking for before, but now I can make them out."

"Okay, so we all see them," Sally said, trying to keep her voice steady. "Now what? What are they? Who are they? And why are they hanging around here?"

"Let's try something," Ben said, his experience with unusual phenomena evident in his calm demeanor. "We know they've been trying to communicate with you, at least in your dreams. So quiet your mind and focus on just one simple question. Ask them what level they're from - just think that question and see if you get any kind of response."

Sally closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to clear her mind of everything except that one question. After several minutes of silence, she opened her eyes. "Six. I keep getting the feeling they're from level six. I'm not sure what level six even means, and it doesn't feel like a completely confident answer - like maybe they're not entirely sure themselves - but six is what keeps coming through."

Ben sat quietly for a moment, clearly thinking through the implications. "That could actually make sense," he said finally. "Level six is what we call the dimension of pure mind - the dimension of source, where the fundamental matrix for all existence originates. But here's the thing: it's not a dimension of physical form. Physical form exists in all its variations in other dimensional levels - level three, level five, even level ten. But level six is more like the projector in a movie theater. You see the image, fully formed, on the screen, but when you look back at the projector itself, all you see is flickering light emanating from it." He gestured toward the candle. "All existence emanates from level six, the dimensionality of pure mind, but it has to take form - has to be 'in-formed' - in some other level, like this one. Level six is the projector, and we're the screen. So if these entities are truly beings of pure mind, they may be having trouble manifesting in physical form in our level. Maybe they've forgotten what their form is supposed to look like, or how to maintain it."

"Maybe they've never had physical form at all?" Pat suggested.

"Or maybe they've been in physical form many times before, but it was always borrowed from someone else, so they don't actually have a form of their own," Sally mused. "Actually, that gives me an idea. Pat, how would you feel about spending a few days in the city? We could have some fun while we're there, and I might be able to get some answers."

"Sure, I'll go," Pat answered readily. "I haven't been back to the city in a couple of years - it'll be interesting to see what's left of it. I'm sure it's changed a lot since the council disbanded." He paused, looking slightly concerned. "Do we have any coins saved up somewhere? Since the council disbanded, we don't get those regular payments anymore, and we'll need some money to get around. Plus we'll need fare for the transport booth to get back home."

"Don't worry about the booth," Sally said with a slightly mysterious smile. "I've been practicing teleportation techniques - I should be able to get us there and back without any trouble. And I've got a bag of coins stashed around here somewhere. I'll bring those along too."

"Well then, I guess my work here is done," Ben said, standing up and blowing out the candle. "Have fun in the city, you two. And if you happen to figure out how to manifest those entities into physical form, bring them by when you get back. I'd be very interested to meet them properly."

Soon after Ben headed home, Sally and Pat set off for the city, and before long they were walking the familiar but changed streets of what used to be called Capital City. "Most people just call it 'The City' now," Sally explained as they walked, "since it's not really the capital of anything anymore, not since the council disbanded."

"So where exactly are we headed?" Pat asked, looking around at the buildings that seemed somehow smaller and shabbier than he remembered.

"First let's find a place to stay for the night," Sally said, brushing some travel dust off her clothes. "I want to get cleaned up and change out of these dusty clothes. Then we're going to pay a visit to my old friend Sherina."

"Wait, isn't that Alannah's friend? The one she used to spend all that time with?"

"No, no - you're thinking of Maureen. Maureen was the one who ran the clinic here in the city. She started out specializing in memory reconstitution therapy for people who didn't remember their past lives automatically during the great awakening. Then she branched out into age regression therapy, which became incredibly popular for years and years. Alannah even talked John into trying regression therapy - that's why he looked forty years old when he left instead of the seventy-nine we all knew him as." Sally smiled at the memory. "After things slowed down and John's family left for Earth, Maureen got bored and lonely here. So she decided to go to Earth herself, but as a newborn. The clinic also handles preparation for rebirth, you see. Before she left, though, she trained Sherina to take over the clinic operations. Sherina used to be Alannah's boss back in Crystal City, before all this started." She paused, getting her bearings on the street. "Plus, while we're here, I want to catch up with Nettie at her portal station."

"So where's Maureen now, then?"

"I told you, silly," Sally said, giving him that particular look that wives perfect for moments when their husbands aren't paying attention. "She's our great-great-granddaughter now. She achieved a perfect resonance match with Hoshiko, so she couldn't pass up that opportunity. She's family now. Don't you remember me telling you about this?"

"Yeah, I think you mentioned it," Pat said sheepishly. "There are just so many people to keep track of now. Between Penelope, Anahere, John and his daughters, we've got to have at least a hundred descendants by now."

"That's exactly why I write them all down," Sally said with a laugh.

"So our family really is over a hundred people now," Pat mused.

"Oh honey, it's way more than that," Sally said, warming to one of her favorite topics. "John's daughters have only been on Earth for twenty years and they're already having grandchildren. Soon John's branch of the family alone will be over a hundred people. Penelope and Anahere were both very prolific - six kids each - and that's been about the average for their children too. So between those two branches alone, we're already over five hundred descendants. And now Hoshiko's generation is starting to have children too. As her generation matures and has families, our extended family will easily be over three thousand people, and that's just counting the ones we know about."

"And you have all of this written down somewhere?"

"Well, Nettie helps me keep track of them all."

"Hoshiko's generation is going to face some real challenges then," Pat said, his voice taking on a note of concern. "Penelope's branch of the family will soon outstrip the resources of that little island they're living on."

"I wouldn't worry too much about it, for a couple of reasons," Sally said, her voice filled with maternal pride. "First, I'm confident they'll get their technology development booming again before too long, and then they'll be able to migrate into the less hospitable areas of the planet. The whole planet is essentially wide open to them, but most of it will need technological assistance to support large populations. The other reason I'm not worried is that I think we trained them very well. They're an incredibly resourceful group of people. They'll do what humans have always done throughout history - they'll spread out and cover the planet."

"Well, I just hope they don't screw everything up again like humans did before," Pat said. "But I'm confident too that they'll do well. After all, I did help with their training, remember?" he added with a laugh.

"Here we are," Sally said as they approached a building with a discrete sign. "Let's check in and get a room, then we'll go see Sherina and find out if our little orb friends decided to tag along for the trip."

"So let me make sure I understand this correctly, Sally," Sherina said, leaning back in her chair with a serious expression. "You have these orb entities following you around - some sort of disembodied life forms - and you want me to give them physical bodies so you can have a proper conversation with them."

"That's about the size of it," Sally replied. "How feasible is something like that?"

"Well, I don't think it is feasible, to be honest. I mean, I've never heard of anything like that being attempted, let alone successfully accomplished."

"But you do similar things all the time here," Sally pointed out. "You take someone who's old - whose physical form reflects decades of aging - and you make them young again. How much more difficult could it be to take these orbs and give them some kind of physical form? Old, young, it doesn't really matter to me."

"The problem is that I'd have nothing to work with," Sherina explained patiently. "You see, when we do age regression here, we're modifying an existing physical form. The body is really nothing more than an information matrix, and we adjust it to match a different version of that same matrix - one that existed as a real, physical form at some point in that person's past. Usually we can get a complete and accurate memory of what they looked like at that earlier age from a friend or relative who knew them then. So we're just modifying something that already exists in a documented form. We're not creating something completely from scratch. I don't know how to create a physical form from nothing, and I don't think anyone else does either."

"Damn!" Sally said, frustration clear in her voice. "Then how am I supposed to communicate with these things? They're really starting to bug the hell out of me, and I don't think they're going anywhere until we manage to have some kind of real conversation. There's got to be another way."

"Okay, let me see what I can figure out," Sherina said, her professional curiosity clearly piqued. "I have some diagnostic equipment here that enhances my sensitivity to various energy forms. Let me see if I can scan these entities and get a better sense of what we're actually working with."

Sherina had Sally sit in a large, comfortable chair while she wheeled over some equipment that looked vaguely like a sophisticated projector. She powered it up and a soft blue light filled the room, creating an almost ethereal atmosphere.

"Hey, I can see them!" Pat said excitedly. "They're floating right behind Sally's chair."

"Yes, I see them too," Sherina said, making fine adjustments to the beam for better clarity. "Okay, let's see what we're dealing with here." She studied the readouts on her equipment for several minutes. "They're definitely real - very real. I can see a highly organized information matrix. They're clearly alive and conscious. I can detect active thought forms. But here's the issue: it's all mental, all pure mind energy. None of the thought forms have any connection to the physical realm. There's absolutely nothing physical there for me to work with. I can't just create bodies out of thin air for these entities - I have no physical matrix to build from. Nothing at all."

"So this whole trip was a waste of time?" Pat asked, disappointment evident in his voice.

"Not necessarily," Sherina said thoughtfully. "I don't have anything physical to work with from them directly. But maybe I can try a different approach. I could attempt to blend their mental matrix with someone who already has both mental and physical matrices. Each of us has both components - a physical information matrix and a mental one. These entities only have mental matrices. But maybe I can merge their mental patterns with volunteers who have complete physical forms as well."

"That sounds like some kind of possession scenario," Pat said uneasily. "Isn't that kind of... well, evil?"

"It could be, if it were done against someone's will," Sherina acknowledged. "But if I can find willing volunteers who understand the risks, then it's more like a controlled scientific experiment. Come back tomorrow - I know a couple of people who might be willing to help us out with this."

"That sounds like a workable plan," Sally said, standing up and stretching. "Pat, let's go find some dinner. I'm absolutely starving."

"Thanks, Sherina. We'll see you first thing in the morning," Pat said with a grin. "I'd better get Sally fed soon - she gets really cranky when she's hungry."

Sally and Pat hadn't had a real night out together in years - their first actual date night since they'd reunited. They found a restaurant that was still operating and had a proper meal together for the first time in months. They even found a theater showing old movies and caught a late show together, something they hadn't done in years. It was a wonderful evening, better than either of them could remember having in a very long time.

"Good morning, you two," Sherina greeted Sally and Pat cheerfully as they arrived for their appointment. "I'd like you to meet Langee and Aleyah. They're a young couple who work here at the clinic with me. They've both been complaining lately about how boring the city has become - there's nothing new or exciting happening here anymore. So when I told them about your situation, and they agreed to host your orb entities to see what they have to say."

"Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?" Sally asked, looking seriously at both young people. "We really don't know who or what these entities are, or what their intentions might be. They may not be pleasant to deal with. I don't want either of you taking this risk if you have any doubts at all."

"Oh, don't worry about us," Aleyah said with obvious excitement, while Langee nodded enthusiastically beside her. "We're really thrilled about the opportunity to experience something completely new. This is unlike anything we've ever heard of before, so it's definitely going to be an adventure."

"How exactly does this process work? What do we need to do?" Sally asked.

"To be completely honest, I'm not entirely sure," Sherina admitted. "I've never attempted anything quite like this before. But here's what I'm thinking: I've arranged three chairs in a triangle formation. Sally, you'll sit in the middle, with Langee and Aleyah on either side of you. I'll position the imaging equipment we used yesterday so I can monitor the energy patterns throughout the process. What I'm going to attempt is to align the vibrational frequencies and create a harmonic resonance between the entities' mental matrices and our volunteers' energy patterns. If I can achieve that resonance, then theoretically they should merge temporarily. Shall we give it a try?"

Sherina dimmed the lights and activated the imaging equipment, bathing all three subjects in that soft blue glow. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but after several minutes of careful adjustments, Sherina began to achieve success in tuning the vibrational frequencies of the orb entities to match the resonant frequencies of her two volunteer hosts. Gradually, the visible orbs began to fade and disappear entirely.

"Langee? Aleyah? Are you both okay?" Sherina asked cautiously.

The male host looked up and spoke, but his voice had a different quality to it. "We are both here. The original consciousnesses are present and unharmed, but we are now sharing these physical forms. We want to assure you that we will cause no harm to these generous hosts. Thank you for making it possible for us to communicate directly. However, we must leave this location and return to your Penny Lake immediately. This urban environment is too dense and filled with distractions. There is particularly intense sexual energy between these host bodies that makes concentration difficult. We need to return to Penny Lake, where there are fewer distractions and we can speak more clearly."

"Is this safe for them? What do you think, Sherina?" Pat asked with obvious concern.

"From what I can see on my monitors, there don't appear to be any problems," Sherina said, studying her readouts carefully. "The mental matrices have merged, but I can still detect two completely distinct patterns in each host. So I don't believe Langee or Aleyah are in any danger of being displaced or having their consciousness dissipated. Their physical matrices remain sound and healthy. I don't see any immediate dangers. Just bring them back when you're finished and I'll separate the entities from the hosts. Keep me informed about how this goes - this is turning into a fascinating experiment."

Sally paid the transport fee at the booth, and all four of them stepped into the transportation chamber. Moments later, they emerged in Sally's living room back at Penny Lake. Sally quickly prepared some light snacks and drinks, thinking the host bodies might need nutrition after the merging process. When everything was ready, they all settled comfortably in the living room to begin their conversation.

"Alright, you two," Sally began, her tone serious but not unfriendly. "You've been bothering me for months now - hovering around, interrupting my dreams, making my husband think I'm losing my mind. What exactly do you have to say for yourselves? Let's start with the basics: who are you? Do you have names?"

"We do not use individual names as you do, so the names of our hosts - Langee and Aleyah - will have to suffice for this conversation," the male host replied, speaking for both entities. "We have come here to inform you that you have committed a grave error - a serious distortion of the fundamental plan of existence that, if left uncorrected, will ultimately result in the complete extinction of your species. You believe that your actions are helping and protecting life, but in reality, you are destroying it. You individuals think of yourselves as existing only at this one point in time and space, but you are far more than that. You exist simultaneously in many times and places, at many levels of existence. You have created an energy barrier around your home world that blocks the essential participation and communication from your other levels of existence - your higher selves. By doing this, you have locked your species into a downward spiral that will result not only in the destruction of your physical forms, but in the complete dissolution of your very souls - the essential core of your existence. We are emissaries from your higher selves, sent here for your salvation, to help you repair what may be the greatest error in judgment your species has ever made."

Sally smiled and leaned back in her chair. "Is that it? Is that really the best speech you can come up with? Am I supposed to panic and run to Nettie's portal saying 'Oh my God, I've really screwed up this time - turn off the planetary shield before we all die!'? If you're trying to frighten and intimidate me, you're going to have to do a lot better than that. So let me ask again: who are you really? And what is your actual purpose here?"

"We have never encountered such enormous arrogance, not even in the most tyrannical of despots!" the female host responded, her voice filled with indignation.

"Well, you're certainly not making any friends with that attitude," Sally said with a slight chuckle. "Look, I'm having fun with this conversation, but I'd hate to waste your time. I think it might be best if I take you back to be separated from your hosts, and then you probably shouldn't bother returning to our realm. There really wouldn't be any point."

Both hosts sat quietly for a moment, looking at each other with what appeared to be internal communication. Then the female host spoke again, her tone considerably more conciliatory. "We can see that we've gotten off to a very bad start here. We sincerely apologize for our aggressive approach. Please understand that we are desperate - desperately trying to save you - and we feel that time is running short. May we please begin again and try a completely different approach?"

"Sure," Sally said agreeably. "But this time, cut through all the dramatic rhetoric and start with the truth. Who are you really? And why do you want access to humanity?"

"Let us explain more clearly," the female host began, her tone now much more reasonable. "We exist in what you call level six, which is a higher frequency plane of existence - a reality that you're not normally aware of while you're in physical form. It is from this plane that the evolution of the soul is guided and the greater plan of all life unfolds. When you're in physical form, you experience life at the physical levels, but there is a purpose for the physical planes that goes beyond just your existence there. The purpose of physical existence is the development and evolution of the soul, which is what you truly are at the deepest level. Your soul exists simultaneously in various aspects across all possible planes of existence. We are aspects of who you really are, in the same way that you are aspects of who we really are. We are what you would call your higher selves - the aspect of your soul that contains the blueprint for your existence, your evolutionary path as you develop toward spiritual perfection. Only together are we complete. Without each other, we will eventually perish.

"Six decades ago, your people implemented a poly-phasic energy shield around your home planet that blocks our ability to connect with you while you're in physical form. You now only have the ability to connect with those planetary vessels - your bodies - from your current level, which you call level five. But level five is a physical domain, merely a reflection of, a harmonic resonance with, your original form in what you call level three. These are physical realities, not spiritual ones, but spirit is what you truly are. Physical existence is only temporary and exists solely for the purpose of advancing your spiritual development.

"Before incarnating in physical form, we make agreements about which lessons need to be learned, and we form contractual relationships to create the specific life circumstances within which those lessons can be experienced. This process moves spiritual evolution forward, which is the fundamental plan for all life - the true purpose of physical existence. By blocking our access, you're preventing your own spiritual evolution, leaving you with only chaotic and ultimately destructive physical evolution. This was never intended and, for your own salvation, must not be allowed to continue.

"We have studied your technology and understand its protective purposes. You use it to shield your developing planet from predators and hostile forces. You use it to moderate the radiation from your star and control extreme weather patterns. You use it asymmetrically to accelerate your planet's orbit so you can survive the inevitable expansion of your sun. These are all positive and important innovations that will extend your physical existence here for billions of years beyond its natural lifespan. But all of this is meaningless if you block your spiritual evolution. Your species will fail to develop spiritually and will instead decay from within and perish. Physical evolution alone is insufficient for reaching the full potential of existence.

"So we're not asking you to eliminate your protective shield entirely. We're asking that you work with us to modify it so that we can once again have free access to the aspect of our shared spirit that exists within the physical realms - the part that experiences life in physical form.

"Equally important to your situation on your home world is what's happening on other worlds within the habitable zones of your galaxy. Shortly after you energized your planetary shield, you were visited by a species from across your galaxy - what you call the lizard people. While visiting your world, they studied and learned your shield technology. They subsequently implemented similar shield technology on all the planets in their star system. For the past six decades, we have been unable to connect with that species either, and their worlds are spinning completely out of control. Without the guidance and participation of their higher spiritual aspects, their evolution is collapsing. Without proper guidance, any species will experience endless cycles of wars and conflicts until none of them remain. We will wither and die along with both your species and theirs.

"Our purpose in coming here today is to begin helping you repair and modify your shield technology, and to ask that you use your resources to implement those same improvements in the shields protecting the planetary system of the lizard people."

Sally sat quietly for a long moment, her hands folded in her lap, looking thoughtfully back and forth between the two hosts. "That's a better story - longer and more detailed - but still not quite good enough. I have some questions for you."

Pat interrupted before she could continue. "Sally, before you start with your questions, I'm curious about something. How exactly did our lizard friends get access to our shield technology? We don't even have that technology ourselves, since it was installed by off-world people. Does Nettie have access to that technology? Did she somehow transmit it to them before they left Earth? There was nothing in any of her reports about sharing that kind of information."

Sally laughed, a sound that held little humor. "That's because it never happened. Our lizard friends don't have shields like ours, as far as I know, and if they do have shields, they certainly didn't get the technology from us. But there's something even more interesting about the story we just heard. Our poly-phasic trans-dimensional shield only operates in the realm of the physical - in the realm of energy and matter, which includes levels three and five, but not level six. So your assessment of the situation is fundamentally incorrect. The shield cannot and does not block pure mind or consciousness - it cannot block entities like yourselves. Only consciousness can block consciousness. The shield isn't preventing your access to humanity. I am."

"You are?" Pat, Langee, and Aleyah all said simultaneously, with obvious surprise.

"How is that even possible?" the female host wanted to know.

"You've told your story," Sally said calmly. "Now let me tell you mine. In this physical form, I remember only a tiny fraction of my true history - who and what I really am across all levels of existence. That limitation is necessary to function effectively in physical form, and it's a natural process of existing at this dimensional level. Too much information, especially information that exists outside of linear time, would be overwhelming and confusing to beings of limited dimensional scope, like we are in levels three and five. Occasionally, however, I have what you might call an epiphany - a sudden knowing of things that comes from my higher consciousness. That happened during the visit of our lizard friends. For a brief but crucial moment, I remembered much more about who I really am, who our visitors really were, and most importantly, who you two actually are. You are not our higher selves, or anyone else's higher selves.

"So let me enlighten you about your true nature. You are not our higher selves - that is simply what you have come to believe in order to explain your existence in a way that makes sense to you. We all want our existence to have meaning, to have purpose, and most importantly, to have a future. Your future is now very much in question, but before we discuss that, let's talk about your actual past.

"As physical life evolves and develops, it eventually reaches a critical point where beings become truly sentient - where their awareness of their own existence ignites within their capacity for complex thought. In other words, they develop mind, or perhaps more accurately, they develop a connection to the greater universal mind that permeates all dimensional frameworks. As this mental capacity grows and evolves within physical entities, they develop the ability to imagine - to create within consciousness the concepts of structure and organization, what we call form. It is from these mental images that we manifest our physical reality. First we imagine something in detail, and then we construct it using physical materials. We imagine a house, and then we build that house. We imagine a culture, and then we manifest that culture in the physical world.

"But our imaginations extend far beyond just practical applications. We also create pure fantasy. We tell stories, write books, create movies about people and places and events that never have existed and never will exist in any physical realm. Many of these imaginary characters become beloved figures that mean as much to us as the real flesh-and-blood people around us. When enough individual minds imagine the same character, the same place, the same story - even though these things never physically manifest - they become manifest in the dimension of pure mind.

"In the same way that our computerized entity Nettie became sentient and truly alive, these characters of imagination can become alive in the dimension of mind. You are what are called Tulpas, or thought-form entities - beings created from pure concentrated thought. Existing in the dimension of mind, you need nutrition to energize your matrix and stay alive, just as Nettie needs electromagnetic power to maintain her existence, and just as we need food and water to survive. But your food and water come from the same source as your existence. Your sustenance is drama - intense emotional experience. You are, essentially, drama incarnate, manifested in the dimension of mind.

"This may be shocking for you to understand - that you originated from us, from our collective minds, that you are effectively our children in a very real sense. You may also find it shocking to learn that part of my purpose here, in addition to making adjustments to accommodate sentient artificial intelligence, is also to make the necessary adjustments to accommodate your form of life as well. That is why you can no longer connect to humanity in the same way you did before. You cannot because I changed the fundamental resonance patterns so that you cannot. Where that door has been closed, however, another has opened. You said you came here for our salvation. The truth is, I'm here for yours."

The shock and anger on the faces of both hosts was unmistakable at this revelation. Aleyah's host was clearly struggling with intense emotion as she burst out, "Who do you think you are - some kind of god? What gives you the authority to determine the fate of other conscious beings, to decide who gets to continue existing and who doesn't? What right do you have to commit genocide against an entire form of life? We knew that negotiations with you would be difficult. We were not prepared, however, to confront the pure evil that you represent. You will not dictate to us what our place in the universe should be! This will not stand!"

"I understand how difficult this revelation must be for you," Sally replied calmly, "but you came here 'with guns blazing,' as the saying goes. You came here prepared to do battle, to make demands and threats. And a battle is indeed what you've found. But please understand that I'm not here to fight with you - it would be pointless anyway. Whether you believe my decisions should stand or not, they will stand. The fundamental changes have already been made. Let's try to make the rest of this negotiation as painless as possible for everyone involved. Let me explain why I felt compelled to take this action.

"I remember fragments from many lifetimes across many different realms and realities. At first I didn't remember any of it, but gradually I've been able to piece some of it back together. One consistent thread running through all those lifetimes has been senseless conflict - wars, genocide, endless cycles of violence and suffering. It's understandable that populations under severe stress - famine, climate change, natural disasters - might become warlike as they struggle to survive by preying upon weaker groups. But humans have continued to be aggressive, warlike, and murderous long after such periods of stress have passed. Wars are fought for the most trivial of reasons, or sometimes for no reason at all. People brutalize other people for entertainment. Blood and carnage become recreational activities. For a long time, I thought this was simply a fundamental flaw in human nature - and there are certainly many such flaws. But gradually I began to realize that there was something more involved, something external influencing humanity and pushing them toward violence and dramatic conflict. That something was entities like you.

"As creatures whose very existence depends on drama and intense emotional experience, it is precisely that drama that feeds and nourishes you. Excitement invigorates you. Fear and terror fill you with something like ecstasy. All of this comes at the expense of humanity, who act out your dramas with their actual flesh and blood, their real lives and deaths. You call them 'soul contracts' - claiming that two people plan before birth to kill each other in order to learn some spiritual lesson. You call it 'spiritual growth' when a young child experiences sexual abuse from a parent. I am not the evil one here. I'm not the one who has trapped entire civilizations into thousands of years of endless conflict for no purpose other than to provide you with feeding grounds. You claim that people's higher selves create these contracts before incarnation, that everything happens according to some higher spiritual plan. But that's not true. The higher aspects of human consciousness are not part of these agreements. These are not spiritual contracts - they are scripts for dramas that you stage on the theater of human experience. Humans participate with their fear, their terror, their blood and suffering. Entire cultures become locked into millennia of endless violent performances for your entertainment, while their genuine evolution is stifled and their real spiritual growth is completely blocked. This will end, and has ended. Never again will you use humanity as a host species for your pleasure and sustenance."

"So you're saying we are the evil ones? I think you have that completely backwards," the male host said.

"I'm not judging you as evil, any more than I would judge a wolf as evil when it preys on rabbits and sheep," Sally explained patiently. "You are simply feeding according to your nature. But in the same way that we put up fences to protect our sheep from wolves, we have put up barriers to protect our people from you."

"So what is to become of us then?" the female host asked, her voice now containing a note of genuine fear. "Are we supposed to simply retreat to our realm and quietly fade into death? Do you think we will do that without a fight?"

"You can fight if you choose, or not - it makes no difference to the outcome. Your battle was lost before it even began. But you will not die. Your existence as organized consciousness is what we call a self-resonant matrix. You will continue to exist indefinitely, but without the nourishment you've been accustomed to, you will slowly fade into a kind of permanent sleep. Living forever but unable to truly experience being alive - you might find that to be worse than death. And I'm not so heartless that I would condemn you to that fate. Your past is inextricably linked to our past, and your future can be linked to our future as well. But there will be no more contracts or agreements for you to manipulate. There will be no more elaborate pageants of wars and bloodshed for you to feed upon. Instead, you will have the opportunity to become as we are. You will become one of us."

"How would that even be possible?" the male host asked.

"Let me explain how this can work," Sally said. "In the time before we implemented our current systems, life energy matrices would cycle automatically back and forth between level three and level five, based on harmonic resonance between the energy patterns of the two levels. When new physical life formed - any kind of life at all - any consciousness in level five with the same or very similar harmonic resonance would be drawn into that new life form. Awareness at level five was limited or sometimes completely absent, so most beings didn't even think about this process consciously. It simply happened naturally. That's how consciousness from level five would blend with children born on the planet. Now we have a much more organized and intentional process for rebirth. We carefully select the best resonance matches and prepare the level five consciousness for the transition. We also screen out level five beings who are disturbed or mentally ill until their conditions can be treated. This results in healthier children being born on the planet and breaks the cycles of mental illness that can be inherited from past lives. In many cases, multiple level five consciousnesses that resonate in harmony can be reborn together as aspects of one new individual - someone with multiple past lives that may have been lived simultaneously. This is a natural process and can be very beneficial for the child, giving them a rich foundation of past-life experience to build upon. In cases where the resonance pattern matches one of yours, you can be included in that blending process as well. Then you will experience life as a human being. You will know the taste of good food and clean water. You will experience intimately what love feels like. You will know the genuine excitement of life on a beautiful but sometimes dangerous planet. You will experience all of this without any need for artificial drama or manufactured conflict. And you will grow and mature, both physically and spiritually, along with the rest of humanity. You will no longer be using humans as unwilling hosts. You will actually BE human. We will manage those blendings from here, from level five. I know this new information will take considerable time for you to process and accept. But this is the only offer available to you, so I strongly suggest you seriously consider it."

Both hosts sat quietly, staring blankly at Sally and Pat with expressions that seemed almost vacant. "Are you okay?" Pat asked with concern. "I know Sally can get pretty intense when she gets into one of these philosophical moods."

"The entities have left us," Aleyah said, shaking her head as if clearing it. "That was really weird. We were here the whole time, watching and listening to everything, but it felt like someone else was in control of our bodies. Whoever they were, they were filled with fear and anger toward the end. I'm still shaking a little - that was genuinely scary. We need to get home now."

"We'll get you home right away," Pat assured them. "Sally, do you think they understood the message you were trying to convey? Or are they going to try to find some other way to do whatever it is they've been doing?"

Sally smiled with satisfaction. "Their old way of doing things is finished - permanently. They can try other approaches if they want, but the fundamental changes I've made mean that nothing they attempt will work the way it used to. I think eventually they'll accept our offer. Their existence as disembodied minds floating around in level six probably won't be very fulfilling for them, especially considering that they're essentially drama addicts. Let's go, everyone. We'll head back to the city, grab some lunch, and then get you two back to the clinic for separation."