The Twelfth Insight: The Hour Of Decision Part 19

"Come on," I whispered to the others when I got close. "Let's go." I grabbed my pack, my hands shaking slightly. The group followed me around a large outcropping and down toward the gorge.

Luckily, the soldiers were now running up to where Peterson was, so we took our opportunity to slip over the edge of the gorge, out of sight, and head up the ledge toward the Mount.

As we hurried up the slope, I moved closer to Coleman again and told him what Peterson had said. He shook his head and forced a smile. I could tell he was struggling to keep his energy up.

"What else is the Doc.u.ment saying?" I asked.

"It says the solution is the same for all time periods. In politics, an enlightened center, aligned in an open discussion of the truth, has to emerge to end the outright manipulation of voters and the corruption from both Left and Right.

"And in religion, an equally truthful group made up of the tolerant center of every religious tradition, all seeking the direct experience to which we have access, has to take center stage. No longer would one tradition try to impose their doctrine on other people or claim their way is the only path to Divine Connection. All religions would begin to emphasize those aspects of their traditions that are in line with this Connection, so that the religions would move closer to the truth and to one another."

Now he stopped dead in the pathway, looking down at the Doc.u.ment.

"This is important," he stressed. "It says the final part of the Eleventh Integration occurs when people in Alignment everywhere, across all cultures and religions, consciously begin to tune in to each other."

Of course, I thought. We have to tune in one more time at a higher level.

"How does it say to do that?" I asked.

"By consciously connecting in Agape not only with those we can make eye contact with but with everyone all around the world. We do that by intending and envisioning such a Connection fully in our minds. The Doc.u.ment says when this Connection is made, the natural influence of the individuals involved is amplified many times."

I nodded and concentrated on the climb, which was increasing in difficulty. After many hours of weaving in and out of crevices and jumping across small ravines-where we had to toss our backpacks to one another-we climbed onto the fortlike overlook where Rachel and I had been together earlier. The sun had long set, and a hazy dusk was descending over the mountain. We could see the bare outline of the rocky mound down below. Behind it, I knew, were the Apocalyptics.

I awakened the next day just before dawn, as usual, and got up quickly, knowing this would be an eventful day. Outside, I found everyone still asleep, which was not surprising. We had been up late talking about the Eleventh Integration.

Wil drifted into my mind. We hadn't heard from him since his last text, which said he would soon be on his way back to us. The question now was how would he find us. I pulled out the phone and checked. No texts from him. I wasn't surprised. He wouldn't risk using the phone to get directions.

Suddenly, I caught sight of the faint glow of flashlights far down the slope. I leaned over the rocks to watch the activity. Fortunately, the lights were heading away from us, so I relaxed again. Our climb had been much more difficult than I had remembered with Rachel, and I knew it would be equally difficult for anyone else to reach us now.

As I walked around, I suddenly realized Coleman was making noise on the other side of his tent. When he saw me, he handed me a cup of coffee. In the other hand was a pair of binoculars.

"It's about dawn," he said. "Want to see if we can spot the Apocalyptics?"

I nodded, and we walked over to the edge of the outcropping and hunkered down behind its natural raised edges. As I peered out through the early morning haze, I realized our position here was situated perfectly. From this vantage point, we could see not only the mound of rock where the extremists were hiding, but also the large, ma.s.sive summit of Mount Sinai towering above us, and all the trails leading up to it.

The mound itself was about a hundred yards down the incline directly in front of us. For fifteen minutes we waited until it was light enough for Coleman to use his binoculars. The others awakened, one by one, and joined us.

"I see them," Coleman suddenly said. "They're doing something to the rock bed just beyond the mound."

Abruptly, I saw an image in my mind of myself going down to get a closer look. The image was accompanied by a surge of urgent energy. I grimaced at the idea and lowered my head. Tommy was behind me and noticed.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I think I need to go down there and take a look. Anybody else get that idea?"

No one responded.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Coleman asked. "Remember the Second Integration: logic first."

"I know it's dangerous, but too much has happened for me not to follow an intuition now. Rachel followed all of hers."

For a moment, the whole group looked at me, and I could see the determination building.

"I better go with you," Coleman said finally.

I tuned in to whether I was down there alone or with someone, and could see only myself.

"Looks like I have to go it alone this time."

Turning to Tommy and his mother, I asked them for advice on the route and they pointed out the way they would go, giving me encouragement.

"We'll focus on helping you," Tommy said, "like the Angels."

I gave him a pat on the shoulder and eased down over the ledge as the sun broke above the horizon for the first time. Focusing on the beauty, I managed to hold my energy as I crept down the rocky slope. I thought about my father's advice on how to keep one's wits while in situations of extreme danger. And smiled. I knew he was around.

At last, I arrived at a spire of rock that rose up about twenty-five feet in front of me. Very carefully, I crawled forward and gazed over. Within fifty feet of me, about a dozen men were covering something in a twelve-foot crevice with rocks. Anish was nowhere to be seen.

Then I spotted someone sitting alone, his hands tied behind his back. He turned his head, and my stomach seized. It was Wil!

I stared at him until he felt me looking and jerked around and saw me. He immediately began to point with his eyes toward the ground to his left, where a handheld two-way radio was sitting on an old leather briefcase on the ground. I was bewildered. What did he want me to do? Grab the radio? I couldn't understand how that would help us.

Suddenly, I heard a noise in the rocks directly below me. I rolled backward quietly and dropped into a mild depression in the rock, hoping to hide. The noise continued, and to my horror I realized someone was climbing the same spire I was lying on, coming my way. I tried to duck down but it was too late. The individual, holding a pair of binoculars, had climbed to a point just ten feet below me. Anish.

He turned and looked, recognizing me immediately.

"I thought you were around here somewhere," he said. "I could feel you. You're like me. You never give up."

His tone and demeanor were casual, even serene, again like someone feeling invulnerable. Rachel had tried to reach him, and now it was my turn. As best I could, I tried to center myself and move into Oneness, hoping he might sense his own Divine Connection.

"I have to talk to you," I said. "I don't know what you're doing, but you have to rethink it. There's another way."

"Will you stop exporting your corruption to my world? Will you stop trying to reform my religion?"

I sat up so he could see me better. "We all have souls. We're all the same, spiritually. It's true, there's too much corruption everywhere. But we can fix that, all of us together, if we find the one experience."

He laughed and gave me a look of pity. "The prophets don't lie! The end must come now."

For a moment there was only silence. I didn't know what to say. Then I thought of Rachel and remembered my last conversation with her.

"The Prophecies all point to an Armageddon," I stressed. "And a Rapture where the true believers are protected, so they can avoid this war. What if the message of the prophets is really for all of us? And the message is that we can all find a higher G.o.d Connection together that will allow us to avoid Armageddon? Do you see what I'm saying? Armageddon doesn't have to happen!"

I could feel Rachel wanting me to say something else about the Calendar and about the point of Connection I had felt on Secret Mountain, but I couldn't put it together in my mind.

Anish looked at me, first in confusion and then in anger. When he reached inside his belt for a weapon, I was ready. I rolled over and slipped off the crest of the huge rock on the side away from him. As I did, I glimpsed from the corner of my eye the item the extremists were covering up. It was about the size of a suitcase and had several blinking lights on one side.

For a minute or two, I ran up the hill frantically, thinking he was chasing me. Then I heard him yell from back at the mound.

"If I see you again," he called out, "your friend will be the first to die."

When I got back to the others, I was so out of breath and exhausted from the climb that I couldn't tell them anything for a full minute.

"They have Wil!" I finally blurted out. "I tried to convince Anish to stop what he was doing, but it didn't work. There wasn't enough energy. They have some kind of device."

Coleman was listening intensely. "What did the device look like?"

"It's a boxlike item," I said, "like a small suitcase with handles. There are lights on one side."

He grimaced and stared at all of us. Our hearts sank. We knew what he was going to say.

"It has to be a small nuke," he voiced.

We were all shocked and speechless. Everyone's fear had just turned into a reality.

"Why here?" Tommy finally asked.

"Probably," I guessed, "to make it look as if someone had attacked Egypt, so that other countries would retaliate, igniting the war."

For a long moment, we were all alone with our thoughts, knowing this could be the end. Every one of us might die right here on Mount Sinai.

Then I saw something down below. Hundreds of people were approaching Mount Sinai from all directions, pressing up against the checkpoints and being held back at gunpoint by the soldiers.

"Hurry," Tommy shouted. "We have to connect with them."

THE RETURN.

Tommy was gathering us all together at the top of the outcropping. Down below, the crowds were becoming larger every minute.

"First," Tommy was saying, the Doc.u.ment in his lap, "we have to amplify Agape with one another and with the Great Spirit."

We all elevated into that Connection in seconds.

"Then," he continued, "it says to project the Agape to ever larger groups, by intending Oneness with everyone who is genuinely seeking spiritual Connection, across all religions, especially those down below us."

As we did so, our energy increased even more until we regained the level of collective intention that we had felt spontaneously on Secret Mountain. For a moment we looked at one another, feeling the Eleventh elevation fully, then immediately went into a template discussion.

Joseph quickly pointed out that while most traditions emphasized prayer, some, like the Sufi of Islam, advocated a lived prayer very close to what we were feeling now.

"Christianity," I said quickly, "also strongly emphasizes the power of collective prayer." In minutes, we agreed that the emphasis placed on prayer by Islam and Christianity most reflected the reality of connected group intention. A rush of energy from the agreement sent us soaring even higher.

I looked at my phone, knowing what was about to occur. The text ring sounded twice, and I opened it to find messages from Hira and Adjar, both expressing heartbreak about Rachel and telling us they had worked through the Tenth and Eleventh Integrations and were feeling Unity with us and her. They were making preparations to reach out more widely, mentioning that hundreds of people were collecting in Jerusalem and near the Mount in Saudi Arabia.

For several long minutes, we focused on the people down below, and those in Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia. At first nothing happened, and then slowly we began to see individuals at the checkpoints grouping together as though they were picking up on what we were doing. Some had copies of the Doc.u.ment and were showing them to others. People near the soldiers began to reach out and talk to them as well.

"Bring the soldiers into Agape with us," Tommy said. "See them lifting up into their own Connection with Spirit."

Almost instantly, we could see some of the soldiers lowering their weapons. Some even joined the group that seemed to be forming. Looking angry, the officers came forward and tried to stop the interaction, but some soldiers were allowing individuals to walk past them and head up the trails toward the summit.

At the mound, we could see the Apocalyptics looking over the rocks at the scene below. Anish glared up directly at us, obviously concerned.

"Look at that," I said to Coleman. "He knows what we're doing."

"Focus on the Apocalyptics!" Tommy yelled.

I pictured seeing a higher expression on their faces that reflected their souls' desire to move into Connection. After a while, several of the extremists actually left their positions to see what the crowd was doing.

Suddenly, my phone rang twice. It was Hira and Adjar, telling us the crowds there were pus.h.i.+ng forward at both the Temple Mount and the Saudi Mount, Jabal Al Lawz.

Then Coleman shouted, "Look over at the mound!"

Anish was out among his group, shouting and gesturing dramatically with his arms. The men hurriedly began picking up their guns and strengthening their positions. From behind him, another man walked up hesitantly behind Anish. It was the round military general we had seen earlier.

"That's my brother," Joseph shouted. "I've been focusing on him. Help me!" Joseph took off over the edge of the outcropping and ran down the slope toward the mound.

Before I could react, I heard a gasp from Tommy's mother. She was looking in the direction of the crowds down below again. More troops had arrived and were pus.h.i.+ng people back down the slope. Several began firing their automatic weapons into the air. With each burst, I could feel our energy waning.

Again my phone rang with a text, and I looked at it quickly. It was Adjar saying that more soldiers had arrived there as well and were pus.h.i.+ng everyone back. Seconds later, another text rang. It was Hira saying the same thing was happening in Jerusalem.

I looked back at the crowds and saw they were being pushed back even farther. Barricades were being set up. We were failing.

"Hold your energy," I shouted, trying to focus.

Coleman grabbed my shoulders. "We aren't strong enough! We haven't yet regained the full consciousness we had on Secret Mountain! We need the Twelfth!"

Immediately, I thought about the point of Connection we'd experienced on Secret Mountain, and in a flash I seemed to feel it again. I looked at Coleman and his expression told me he was feeling the same thing. Tommy, obviously sensing it, too, rushed over.

"This is the Connection we had," he yelled. "We have to hold this, build on it."

As soon as Tommy made that statement, we couldn't feel the point of Connection anymore. It had completely disappeared.

"What happened?" Tommy asked.

I was struggling to remember my earlier experience.

"Wait," I stressed. "You can't force it. You have to allow it or have faith in it or something."

As soon as I spoke those words, we could feel it again, but it was still sporadic, appearing for a moment and then disappearing.

"There's something we're missing!" I yelled. "What is it?"

Then I remembered. At the height of the Connection on Secret Mountain we had experienced another emotion I had forgotten about: a soulful sense of appreciation.