New Age Short Stories

These stories are works of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental.

ISBN: 9781483513225

Contents

Ultra-Depth

If Reality Is Illusion, Where Does That Leave Me?

The Raffle

Childhood Hero

The Woman Who Visited Psychics

Time Heals All

New Religion

The Lightbearer

Ultra-Depth

To be considered as an Ultra-Depth test subject, Jamie lied about being married. She needed money, and the $35 per session Dr. MacIntyre offered volunteers sure beat five hours waitressing at the Campus Cafe.

"Jamie Hamlyn, 32, divorced," the crew-cut young male interviewer read from her application. "You attend school mornings, work as a data processor afternoons. No boyfriend, right?"

She shook her head, said, "Is that important?"

"Doctor Mac wants unattached subjects." He scanned the rest of the form. "If accepted after testing, you'll be asked to participate Tuesdays and Thursdays seven to ten PM for eight weeks." He looked up to catch her reaction.

Jamie nodded, brushed fingers through her long black hair. "What kind of tests?"

"Brain-wave, ESP and compatibility tests with your counterpart."

"Counterpart?"

"You'll work with a psychically compatible partner, be hypnotized together and asked to carry out joint tasks."

"Thirty-five dollars a session?"

Nod. "All you have to do is lie back and be hypnotized into ultra depth. We'll let you know," he said, standing.

In the adjacent room, three students waited to be interviewed. Jamie recognized Caitlin from journalism and smiled.

"How many volunteers do they need?" Caitlin asked.

"Four to start. Then, if the results are promising, they'll take four more every eight weeks." Jamie took her ski jacket from the coat rack, slipped it on.

"It isn't weird stuff, is it?" Caitlin wrinkled her nose.

"Just testing psychic ability in a deep trance, I think."

"This psychology department has been known to explore some really strange stuff. See you tomorrow," Caitlin said. Jamie waved.

Jamie's boots echoed in the empty skyway connecting the psychology building with the cafeteria and student lounge. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass, the sun appeared, an orange ball caught in skeletal trees. The snow-covered landscape glowed luminous pink.

In the cafeteria, Jamie purchased black coffee to go, then made her way through the lounge where students gathered around a circular fireplace in the center of the room. The aroma of coffee mingled with the scent of burning oak logs, and she stopped to inhale deeply before leaning into a door that opened onto the parking lot.

"Bessie, please start," she whispered, twisting the ignition key in her 1982 Honda. A low groan became a sputtering cough that finally caught, slamming the loose muffler against the bottom of the vehicle. "Bless you, Bessie." She sat, shoulders hunched, hands hugging the coffee cup, her breath fogging the windshield, waiting for the car to warm up.

Two hundred eighty extra dollars a month would help her to stay in school, but if she were accepted in the Ultra-Depth program, Trevor would yell about the two nights out. Not that he didn't leave her alone more often than not, but logic didn't apply to their relationship. They had met at community college night classes; she was studying data processing, he was learning to use a computer to speed up his construction company bidding process. They were married in 1989, shortly before the country slid into recession and construction jobs dried up.

After three years of subsistence living and a lot of meditation, Jamie decided to go back to school to study writing and computer programming. Combining the two abilities would somehow result in a high-paying job.

"Where'd you get such a stupid idea?" Trevor said.

"In meditation."

"Weirdo New Age crap. Go by that, you'll end up in a white robe selling flowers on street corners."

She didn't argue with him anymore. Rocks are hard, water is wet, and Trevor is Trevor. In the early days, they talked about having a family and planned to build a house on the banks of Crescent Lake. Today, they seldom had sex and children was a taboo subject. Jamie decided to create a life of her own.

* * * * *

"Your brain-wave is alpha seven, just a point off the average," Dr. MacIntyre said, switching on the overhead lights.

Jamie rubbed her eyes. She had been sitting in the dark, staring at a strobing Brain-Wave Synchronizer until the color purple appeared within the white illumination.

Doctor Mac, as the students called him, was fifty but looked younger. He had electric blue eyes and curly, grey-tinged brown hair. His attire varied little from day to day: faded Levis', running shoes, denim shirts, splashy ties and always a tweedy sport coat with classic leather elbow patches.

"Is that good or bad?" Jamie said.

Doctor Mac laughed and held up a set of ESP cards. He explained how the test would be conducted and asked Jamie to pull her chair closer to his desk. Then she closed her eyes and began to breathe deeply until he said, "Let's begin."

She waited for words to come into her mind. "Star. Waves. Star. Square."

"Next line."

"Circle. Triangle. Waves. Star."

The test took 20 minutes. When it was over she said, "How did I do?"

"Very good. Tell me about your metaphysical background." He leaned back, lacing his fingers behind his head.

"My dad always said I was a `great guesser,' but looking back, I think I was being psychic. I don't use it on demand, but I do pay attention to my hunches. Plus, I read a lot of metaphysical books, and I'm a novice astrologer."

"What are your feelings about reincarnation?"

"I consider karma my philosophical basis of reality."

Doc Mac smiled, said, "I want you in the program, Jamie. I'll computer match you to the other volunteers to come up with your counterpart. Can you begin next Tuesday?"

* * * * *

"Well, if you're going to play psychic two nights a week, I guess I'll just spend those nights at the Rodeo Club." Tall and stocky, Trevor leaned against the bedroom door frame looking down at Jamie who sat doing homework at a desk by the window.

She turned to face him. "You spend a couple of nights a week there anyway. Anyway, we need the money, Trevor."

"We wouldn't if you still worked full time."

"At a dead-end job."

"Welcome to the club," he grumbled, walking away.

* * * * *

"Jamie Hamlyn, meet Evan Shipley, your ultra-depth counterpart," Doctor Mac said when she arrived at the psychology department laboratory.

Evan stood, extending his hand. Tall, thin, his rugged looks were tempered by shoulder-length, sand-colored hair. Forty to forty-five she guessed. Warm smile. "The good doctor has been telling me about you, Jamie."

She smiled. "Then it's my turn to learn about you."

"I'm a lawyer who would rather write books, so I've been taking classes on how to become the next John Grisham."

Doctor Mac added, "And Evan's an alpha six, with an ESP test score identical to yours."

Jamie looked from Doctor Mac to Evan. "I feel like maybe we've met before." She shook her head as if to clear cobwebs.

"Me too, but I didn't want to sound corny," Evan said.

"Did I sound corny?" Jamie asked, smiling.

"No, no, not at all. Not ..."

"Okay. Take a seat both of you, I'm going to explain the process." Doctor Mac sat on the edge of his desk facing their two chairs. "You'll both sit side by side in lounge chairs, and I'm going to ask you to hold hands with a special quartz crystal between your cupped hands."

"What's special about the crystal?" Evan asked.

"It's been programmed to enhance subjective impressions. I'll direct the hypnosis over the sound system, and you'll wear headphones. Following a body relaxation, we'll do a chakra-link. I'll ask you both to imagine an arch of deep purple light connecting the crown chakra of spirituality on the tops of your heads. A blue light will connect your third-eye brow chakras, and a silvery blue light with connect your throat chakras. The link increases the potential of joint explorations. That won't happen tonight unless by some chance you've shared a past life, and even if you have, I won't be directing you to choose a shared incarnation."

Doctor Mac took two glasses of water from the desk, handed one to Jamie, the other to Evan. Next he gave them each a vial of honey and two vitamin E capsules. "The honey and E will help you remain awake and alert for the long induction process. Ultra depth is a nickname for plenary hypnosis. It takes anywhere from forty-five minutes to two hours to complete the induction. I'll make it interesting by having you imagine different environments enhanced with three-dimensional sound effects."

"You're going to regress us into a past life?" Jamie said.

Nod. "Have either of you been regressed?"

Both Jamie and Evan shook their heads.

"All right, let's get ready. Go to the bathroom before we begin. The session will be in the next room."

Jamie and Evan settled into the lounge chairs. While putting on the headphones, their eyes met and they smiled. Evan whispered, "This may be an E-ticket ride."

The tiny room was walnut paneled, overly warm, and dimly lighted. A windowed booth faced the chairs. "Comfy?" the doctor asked as he clipped lapel microphones on the volunteers. They nodded. "I'll direct the process from the booth. You're miked." He took a double-terminated quartz crystal from his sportcoat pocket and placed it in Evan's hand. Jamie cupped her hand over his. The crystal seemed overly warm; for a fleeting moment she felt dizzy and mentally fought for equilibrium.

She looked at Evan, who appeared equally confused.

"Close your eyes and let's begin," Doctor Mac said. He stepped into the booth and closed the door.

Jamie closed her eyes, then opened them to see Doctor Mac slide into a chair and begin snapping switches and turning knobs.

"Is this volume acceptable?" he asked. "You can respond verbally."

"Fine."

"Yes."

"All right, it's time to begin to breathe deeply and relax completely. Take a very deep breath, hold it as long as it's comfortable, then let it out slowly through slightly parted teeth. When you feel the breath is all the way out, contract your stomach muscles and push it even further out...and then repeat the process."

Jamie felt herself relaxing a little more with each breath. Evan's hand felt warm in hers, and although the crystal felt like a heating element, their hands were not sweating. By the time Doctor Mac had finished the body relaxation and chakra link, Jamie could hardly feel her physical body.

"And it's time to vividly imagine yourself outside on a warm summery day, standing at the top of a stairway that goes down, down, down, twisting around as it goes down, down, down, through the grass and trees, down, down, down...and you now vividly imagine yourself going down, down, down the stairs as I count backwards for twenty to one. Vividly imagine going down these stairs that lead eventually to a beautiful garden. Number twenty, down, down, down..."

Upon reaching the garden, it appeared before her inner eyes as a vivid dream. As real as if I were here, she thought, watching butterflies flutter from flower to flower.

The stairway continued down, down, down until she was in a mountain meadow. She no longer heard Doctor Mac's voice but the drone of words was magically creating the environment. "In one direction, far below is the ocean, and in the other direction, snow-capped mountains disappear into the distance in diminishing shades of blue."

Jamie felt the breeze in her hair and noted a scent of wild sage. Then to her surprise, she saw someone on the other side of the meadow. It was Evan. She waved. He waved back.

"...and now walk across the meadow to the place where the stairs continue down, down, down."

Evan was ahead of her, waiting at the top of the stairs. When she reached him, he opened his arms and they hugged like old friends. She looked deeply into his eyes and smiled. He smiled, took her hand and led the way down the stairs. Twenty to one, then a landing. Twenty to one again, over and over, down the stairs holding Evan's hand until they finally reached the beach.

"So go ahead and walk along the beach as a mist rolls in off the sea...and it feels good to be here." Overhead Jamie noticed seagulls wheel and dive. Waves rolled across the sand, splashing their feet as they walked hand in hand.

"...and there's a solace in the sound of the surf, a mental tide of tranquility, going out. Leaving in its wake a sense of rediscovered peace...as you drift deeper and deeper into the deepest possible hypnotic sleep...sleep..."

Sandpipers darted in and out of the surf, and in the distance a chain of pelicans skimmed low over the relaxing, rhythmic waves.

"...and you notice among the rocks what appears to be the mouth of a cave, so you decide to go investigate."

She tightened her grip on Evan's hand as they walked to the cave opening.

"...and you know it's perfectly safe to enter the cave...perfectly safe to enter the darkness where a wonderful adventure awaits. And you're ready to explore, so you boldly enter the cave...moving from the light into darkness...deeper and deeper into darkness."

Jamie hesitated. Evan put his arm around her, gently guiding her into the darkness--footsteps echoing--a far away voice saying, "In the memory banks of your subconscious mind is a memory of everything that has ever happened to you..."

Complete blackness.

"...and it's time to bring forgotten awareness to the surface so that you may better understand what influences, restricts or motivates you in the present."

Evan's arm around her feeling warm and protective.

"...as you move through the cave, you begin to see a light in the distance, and as you walk toward the light, your higher mind is choosing a past lifetime that will be of value for you to explore at this time."

Approaching the light together.

"Number two...and as you step out of the cave on the count of one, you'll perceive yourself in an important situation in this past lifetime. Number one."

Jamie turned to Evan...Eva...no, no. Joshua. Joshua yelling. "Damn it, Pauline, what do you expect?"

Angry. "I expect you to treat her nicer." She turned to look down the stairs and across the boardwalk to where her best friend stood crying beneath the flashing ballroom sign. Beyond was the pier and black waves reflecting fragments of moonlight. Palm fronds rustled in the warm breeze, barely heard over trombones and saxophones.

"You know how she treats me." Sadness in Joshua's voice.

"I'll talk to her," Pauline said. Lifting the hem of her dress, she descended the stairs. Joshua and Sarah brought out the worst in each other. They fought, broke up and got back together as regularly as most people took out the garbage.

"Are you all right?" She put her arm around Sarah.

"I hate him."

"You have to accept him the way he is, Sarah."

"If he loved me, he'd change."

"What if he asked that of you?"

"Are you taking his side?" Sarah said, pulling away and glaring at Pauline.

"I'm trying to be your friend."

"The two of you would get along great."

"Sarah, that's uncalled for. Let's go to the ladies room and redo your makeup."

Sarah looked up the stair landing to see Joshua watching them. Face clouded in anger, she grabbed Pauline's arm, and growled, "Come on."

"Sarah, that hurts. What's wrong with you?"

"Come on."

Without resisting, Pauline allowed herself to be led up to where Joshua waited.

Trembling, Sarah grasped Joshua's hand and slammed Pauline's hand into his. "Here! I give you each other--a union sealed by fate." Turning, laughing, Sarah bolted down the stairs, tripping once and catching herself. On the boardwalk, she kicked off her shoes and began to run toward the pier.

"Joshua?"

"Let her go. When she gets like this there's no reasoning, you know that."

They watched her run down the nearly deserted pier, past the merry-go-round and game booths to the railing, which she proceed to climb. Teetering on the top rail, she turned, looked up at Joshua and Pauline. Slowly, extending her arms Christ-like, she fell backwards into the dark water.

When Pauline screamed, Jamie trembled in the lounge chair. Doctor Mac didn't notice. He sat in the control booth preparing to voice the next suggestions.

Sirens. Standing in the sand surrounded by a semicircle of people in party attire, speaking in hushed whispers. Joshua wet, shivering as he held her in his arms. Flashlights. Shouting. Men carrying Sarah out of the surf. White sheet covering her body. Dizzy. Spiraling into darkness to the up-tempo beat of the Charleston.

"Do you want to know what set her off, Pauline?"

Wearing a long black dress, sitting on top of a picnic table, Pauline's knees were drawn to her chest, her arms locked around her legs. The breeze blew her chestnut locks across her face. Below, stretching for miles, Los Angeles glistened in the afternoon sun.

"Does it matter, Joshua?"

"After we married next spring, she wanted me to work for her father. I told her I wanted to work for myself." Joshua, dressed in a black funeral suit, walked to the edge of the yard and stared into the distance.

"Sarah was high strung. Everything took on more importance than it deserved," Pauline said, massaging her temples.

"But I feel so guilty," he said, turning to face her.

"Me too, and neither of us have reason."

Strolling back to the picnic table, he sat on the edge, and placed his hand on her hand. "Before she jumped, did she bless us or curse us?"

"She was just being dramatic like the women in the talkies."

"Some day I'll tell you..."

From far away, another voice intruded, saying, "It's time to let go of this and return to the present. One the count of three you'll be back in the present, remembering everything that you just experienced. You'll remain in a deep altered state of consciousness, but back in the present. Number one ...."

Jamie felt herself float off the picnic table and begin to spiral through time and space into a limbo world where she was being instructed to awaken at peace with herself, the world and everyone in it.

"...and number five, wide awake. Open your eyes and feel good."

Jamie opened her eyes to see Doctor Mac step out of the control booth. She turned to look at Evan, met his eyes and shivered.

"How are you doing?" Doctor Mac said, unclasping the lapel microphone.

Jamie nodded, trying to find her voice.

"Did you both have vivid experiences?"

"It was as real as this," Evan said, pinching his arm.

"Me too," Jamie said.

"Don't compare notes about what you experienced. Not here or anywhere else. Agreed? And I'd like you to use the last half hour of the session to write a detailed report." He handed them both a clipboard. "Take a few moments to stretch, then use the desks in the next room."

Jamie looked at her watch. "We were in hypnosis two hours and fifteen minutes?"

"Seemed like a few minutes," Evan said.

Reports completed, they left the building together. "I'd love to buy you a cup of coffee," Evan said.

Jamie hesitated. She wanted to accept. Trevor wouldn't be home before midnight. Her homework was finished. "That would be nice, Evan. Will you wait to make sure my car starts?"

The aroma of grilled onions and the sound of Counting Crows wafted out the front door of the Campus Cafe. Students in brightly-colored ski jackets hunched over coffee. Some cuddled together, studying. Jamie and Evan made their way to a back booth.

"We're the oldest ones here," Evan said.

"I'm used to it," Jamie replied.

They ordered coffee and decided to share a piece of pecan pie.

"I've never experienced anything like it," he said.

Jamie smiled, shook her head. "Wish we could talk about it."

"One of the people in the regression was my ex-wife."

"We can't compare notes."

"Just an unsettling statement of fact."

"But she looked different?"

He lifted the mug to his lips and looked at Jamie over the top of the steaming cup. "Soul recognition, maybe. I knew it was her."

"Karma, huh?"

"I'm letting go. Our only problem today is over visitations with my six-year-old son."

"What's his name?"

"Joshua. Too Biblical for me, but Susan insisted." Evan slipped a billfold from his hip pocket and opened it to show a photo of a smiling blond-haired boy standing next to his kneeling mother.

Jamie shuddered.

"I understand you're divorced too, Jamie. How long?"

"Uh, not long. Do you really want to write novels?"

"A good lawyer is aggressive, which takes too much out of me. Writing is pure pleasure."

"I'm studying journalism and non-fiction writing in hopes of combining wise words with computer programming."

"Why not?" Evan toasted with his mug. "To our writing careers."

* * * * *

"We may have accidentally happened upon a unique situation," Doctor Mac said to Jamie and Evan at the beginning of the Thursday night session. He was holding the separate reports each had written following the first experience.

"Do you believe in accidents, Doctor?" Evan said.

Doctor Mac met Evan's eyes and shook his head. "My research assures me that destiny is always in play when it comes to important encounters.

"Can you tell us about it?" Jamie said.

"Soon. But let's do a session now."

Minutes later, Doctor Mac was counting them down the long twisting stairs to the garden where she met Evan. They hugged, laughed and enjoyed the idyllic environment. After descending to the mountain meadow, instead of lingering as instructed, they went directly down the many flights of stairs to the beach, where they built a sand castle until instructed to go to the cave.

"Push, my dear, push!"

She opened her eyes to see a ceiling fan spinning above. Joshua held her hand, saying, "You're doing fine." She was lying on her back, legs in the air, covered with a sheet. A nurse patted her on the arm and smiled.

I'm having a baby. My God, I'm having a baby. The realization overwhelmed her.

"Push, Pauline," a man said.

Moments after the baby's first cry, Joshua kneeled beside her. "We have a son, Pauline." Tears welled in his eyes.

As the nurse laid the baby in her arms, the environment began to swirl around her, moving from light to darkness to light again, and finally stabilizing as a Spanish-style living room: night, a fireplace, the baby cooing at her breast. "Auld lang syne" played on the radio, and Joshua leaned down to kiss her on the lips, saying, "Happy New Year, my love."

"Happy 1925, Joshua," she whispered. "And Happy New Year to you, my little James Charles Monet." She kissed the baby on the head.

"It's going to be a wonderful year...year...year...year..."

"Where's Joshua? I can't believe he's late for James Charles' sixth birthday party," said a white-haired woman carrying a tray of cookies to the garden table.

Pauline stood in midst of a dozen children, directing a game--twirling a blindfolded little girl three times before pointing her in the direction of a donkey sketched upon the trunk of a palm tree.

She looked up to see the white-haired woman talking to a policeman, who nodded, turned his head and walked in her direction.

"Husband...accident...sorry." The key words hit her like bomb fragments, knocking her to the ground and dragging her soul into darkness.

"...number five, wide awake. Wide awake. Open your eyes and feel good."

Jamie opened her eyes, looked at Evan, and burst into tears. Putting his arms around her, he whispered, "I know, I know."

Doctor Mac's concerned pleas were unheard.

"You died on me...Joshua died on me and we had such a wonderful..."

"Please, I need separate reports."

Jamie pulled away from Evan and turned to Doctor Mac. "No separate reports. We need to talk about this."

"But for the sake of research ..."