Chapter 03 - The Beginning

Seconds later a large flash of light and one of the loudest thunderclaps I’ve ever heard plunged me into absolute and complete darkness and cold.  I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t see, hear, smell, feel, or taste anything.  It was an utter void.  Not even ‘void’ properly describes it.  It didn’t feel like there was any space around me.  I couldn’t move.  The universe at that moment consisted of what was in my skin.
  
My new metaphysical sense was barely tingling, although previously it had been more akin to a raging torrent of sensation.  It was weird, and I started to doubt I was even there.  I couldn’t make a sound.  The only thing I was sure of was that I was thinking, barely; and if Descartes was correct, then I still existed.
  
This stifling state of limbo didn’t last too long, though I really couldn’t tell how much time had elapsed.  I was quite sure there was no such thing as time at that point.  Whatever time was seemed to be, just like space, completely within the boundaries of my body.  Soon, however, the ‘tingling’ I had been feeling earlier became stronger.  It was the presence of another being.  I finally recognized who it was, but he was not doing anything yet – just existing – so I could barely sense anything beyond who he was.
  
After a while he stirred.  I felt a rush – a torrent of energy – explode all around me.  The force was incredible, and I could feel many sensations impact my body.  Sometimes it felt like knives piercing me; other times it felt like water flowing around me.  Very little of it was pleasant though.  It was a sensory overload.
  
I heard a sound unlike anything I’ve ever heard before: a sort of explosion louder than any I could have imagined.  It sounded like a combination of all the sounds I’d ever heard – music, noise, bass, treble, loud, quiet, soothing, grating, and everything in between.
  
The first thing I saw was pure and utter white light, painfully brilliant to my eyes which had adjusted to the blackness of the void.  Then many colors came into focus.  Out of that brilliance, I also sensed ultraviolet, infrared, X-rays, gamma rays, micro-waves, radio waves – everything pulsating.  I felt searing heat as well.  I could have jumped eyeballs first into the center of the sun, and it would not have compared to that incredible temperature.  The external heat energy made my insides feel icy cold by contrast, and I didn’t think I would survive.
  
Strangely enough, I could also smell, and hence taste, things.  This was probably the least painful of the senses I was experiencing.  It was still a sensory overload, which soon became uncomfortable, but at least most of the odors and tastes were pleasant.  It was like winning a hamburger eating contest without even trying and later feeling really sick.
  
The most unusual thing I experienced was the metaphysical explosion.  This was perhaps the least jarring of the things I sensed, but it was by far the most noticeable, for beings arose out of this ever-expanding torrent of data.
  
The creator himself personally fashioned each being the way he wished.  He gave them many powers and taught them many things.  They were all amazed at what he was teaching them and what they could do.  That which they learned they turned into music, art, food, perfumes, and clothing.  They were trying to imitate the creator by showing their own creativity.  He accepted these gifts graciously and gave them something far greater.  He gave them the universe.  He would later delegate to these agents the task of organizing the rest of creation, but the creating and sustaining of life itself was entirely his doing.
  
I was in awe of this power.  Scientists described that moment as the Big Bang, but that was a pretty lame description in comparison to what I experienced.  In coming eons, I would go through many powerful cataclysms.  I would witness the formation of stars and galaxies, the explosion of supernovas, and the spinning of neutron stars.  I’m probably the only human who ever went into a black hole and lived to tell about it.  I experienced earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, wars, and violence on earth, but these also could come nowhere close to that first moment of creative energy.  I felt excruciating physical pain, though that would never happen again.  I thought I would die (again)!  I felt like a dry leaf falling into a pit of lava, yet after the initial explosion of matter, energy, and spirit, I was still there.  The shock waves moved out at a tremendous speed like ripples through the void and never stopped.  They’re still moving to this day, ever expanding and adding ‘being,’ breathing life, warmth, energy, and data into the former nothingness.
  
Galaxies, stars, and planets started to form in the aftermath.  Everything moved together in an extremely orderly fashion.  A mathematical precision was behind those early galaxies as they started spinning and as each individual star began taking shape.  It reminded me of a camera lens focusing – what started out looking fuzzy and unclear soon became sharp and detailed.  Not only that, but within every galaxy, star, and planet was a spiritual being given the task of tending its individual domain and enjoying that which the creator gave it.  The process took an extremely long time, though I had no way to measure it.  Time itself was not moving at a constant pace.  I couldn’t even begin to guess today what the age of the universe is.  Those first eons, or minutes, were utterly surreal for my former earthbound self.
  
I found I could move through the universe pretty quickly using a highly sensitive solar ‘sail’ the creator made for me.  I could take the energy of the photons flying out of a nearby star and use it to pull or push against the flow until I reached incredibly high speeds.  The creator also showed me a few other techniques that made travel even swifter.  I could use black holes.  The physical form of the universe was like a very flat yet ever-expanding balloon.  The black holes were openings on the surface of the balloon to tiny tunnels that connected one side to the other.  It almost looked like a slice of Swiss cheese, except the holes were very small in comparison to the whole universe.  These tunnels, or wormholes, connected separate sections of the universe in quite random and surprising ways.  I got hopelessly lost for a long time until I finally got my bearings.
  
Traveling through the event horizon – the boundary of a black hole where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape – was quite a rush.  I felt as if I were moving at an enormous speed, yet everything appeared to slow down.  For a while, my body would stretch out, with the feet or head, whichever entered the hole first, light years in front of the other end.  I would remain in that stretched out state for an unknown amount of time, feeling like I was moving incredibly fast, and yet nothing looked like it was moving.  It was almost like Alice in Through the Looking-Glass, who had to run very fast to just stay in the same place.  I just flowed like a light-speed spaghetti noodle through the wormhole and emerged on the other side in one piece.  At the last moment, when I resumed my normal shape, I felt I was motionless, yet the entire universe slipped before my eyes in a blurry flash.  I don’t think normal human bodies could have survived something like that, but for my new body, the rush was better than any a roller coaster could have produced.
  
After I got better at wormhole travel, the creator showed me how I could create my own black hole.  It required a tremendous amount of spiritual concentration, but once I learned how to do it, I could cause myself to implode, turn into a spaghetti noodle, and streak across space.  I had no control at first.  I once landed in the middle of a star and got belched out by a solar flare.  Another time I imbedded myself in a large asteroid and made it explode into dust, scaring the daylights out of a small spirit who was floating by.  This technique was quite dangerous and required a lot of empty space around me.  I could never have done it on a planet, for I would have destroyed everything within a ten-mile radius of me.
  
I would later stop using this ability to travel through space so easily.  Once humans were created on the planet Earth, I spent most of my remaining days there.  While the Earth was not the physical center of the universe, I soon found out that it would be a pivotal place in upcoming history.  Besides, it was my home, and my task was to be the universe’s human historian.
  
The spirit beings tasked with bringing order to the universe were at first in awe of everything they encountered.  They worshipped their creator for his gifts and creativity, and they busied themselves with the ordering of their individual domains.  The creator endowed these spirits with unusually powerful gifts and an incredible intelligence.  I was more intelligent now in my new body than I was in my former life, but these beings far surpassed me.  As the planets started to form and physical life began to appear, they were given the authority to develop that life – to grow and arrange their gardens, aquariums, and zoos as they wished.  I spent eons and eons traveling from galaxy to galaxy to observe the things these agents developed.
  
There was a hierarchy as well.  There were millions of individual spirits in charge of developing various aspects of each planet.  For example, one might work on the flying creatures and another would work on the land-bound animals.  One would regulate the flow of air and yet another the flow of water or whatever other fluid might be on a given planet.  Still others busied themselves with rocks, magma, or metal.  These lower beings took on natural appearances if and when they made themselves visible on the physical plane.  They might choose to look like the element or form of life they were in charge of developing, or they might take on a form similar to the intelligent beings that almost always inhabited a planet.
  
There would be several overseers on each planet, one guiding the caretakers of life, another guiding the weather spirits, and another governing the agents in charge of sub-surface functions on the planet.  Then there would be one agent in charge of the entire planet.
  
This agent would in turn answer to the spirit who resided in and controlled the star that served as a sun for whatever planets were in that domain.  The agents in charge of stars were classified as agents of light, and when they chose to make themselves visible, they would shine like suns.  They were quite powerful, possessing the same sort of power that drove the thermonuclear reactions inside stars.  If they wished, they could have easily destroyed a planet.  The one in charge of our sun was named Helios.
  
In addition to the planetary agents in the solar systems, there were agents in charge of the non-planetary objects.  There were agents that governed the motions of the comets and meteors, and each moon had an agent with his or her own underlings in tow.  Some of the larger moons around Jupiter and Saturn were as large as small planets, so they often had their own life forms and intelligent beings.  Around Pluto, in the second belt of asteroids called the Kuyper Belt, there were many large, round objects.  Some were as big as a planet; however, these distant worlds had no native intelligent beings on them.  The Plutonians would later use them as remote settlements, but even they found these places to be a bit too cold.  Except for a minimal number of agents governing the motions of these objects and the asteroids in the even more remotely located Oort Cloud, not many more beings were in Helios’ realm.
  
On the stars themselves, there were also lower agents that regulated the electromagnetic fields, solar winds, and temperature fluctuations within.  These agents were technically agents of light since they manifested themselves as glowing, flaming beings, but their powers were much more limited.  They answered directly to the stellar agent and interacted rarely with outside spirit beings.
  
Some solar systems had binary stars, which rotated around each other like two thumbs twiddling.  If one of the pair were smaller, the rotation would be less stable.  Matter and energy from the bigger one would be transferred to the smaller one until equilibrium was established or the entire system collapsed.  If it collapsed, the two agents would have to start again.  It was like a marriage.  Meanwhile, the planets could not form until the two-star rotation normalized.  Once the binary stars were stable, their combined gravity created unusual planetary rotations, but the entire system could progress in a stable manner.
  
The agents of light would in turn answer to an overseer at the center of the galaxy.  These were gigantic agents of light, but since they also were the caretakers of large black holes, they sometimes appeared on the visible plane as pitch-black beings of pure shadow.  They could emit photons, the building blocks of light, at different wavelengths than the solar agents did.   It was quite disturbing when they did this, so they usually just manifested themselves as glowing beings.  They also possessed powers that would boggle the mind.  Any one of them could completely destroy a star by sucking it into a black hole and consuming its energy.
  
There also was a class of agents that dwelt within the black holes and which regulated these unusual objects and the wormholes to which they were connected.  It was truly a rare day to ever meet one of these.  I didn’t want to know what kind of stamina they had to have in order to constantly dwell beyond the event horizon of a black hole or to never leave a wormhole.
  
The millions of galaxies in the universe clumped together into loosely organized clusters, and over these clusters was another type of agent.  These beings governed the dark matter and energy that held the galaxies together and bound them to their neighbors.  Their function was quite a mystery to their underlings, for their realm could not be sensed according to the laws of physics.  Scientists would later discover that over ninety per cent of the universe consisted of this mystery substance.  They called it dark energy or dark matter because they could not even come close to discovering its purpose or structure.
  
I was privileged to encounter and interact with more of these particular overseers than most beings could.  They explained to me that the invisible backbone of the universe consisted of a substance closer in form to that which made up pure spirit, i.e. data and emotion.  They said it controlled the interaction and stability of the physical realm, but they would not elaborate much beyond that.  Actually, they rarely said anything beyond these four sentences: “That is true,” “That is false,” “I like that,” and “I dislike that.”  When they were talkative, they rarely showed normal emotions or tact.  For this reason, their underlings somewhat feared them.  The dark matter agents rarely manifested themselves on the physical plane, but when they did, they appeared as typical physics-bound beings such as humans or Martians, only far larger.  They were always colored black and white like zebras, Dalmatians, polar bears, or black bears.  Once again, these agents had powers that would dwarf their underlings.  They could have easily taken an entire galaxy, undone the physical molecules and atoms binding it together, and turned it into quantum dust.
  
Over these galaxy-cluster overseers were three archangels.  They were each given roughly one third of the known universe to control.  They governed the pure spirit that was the backbone to the dark matter and physical matter.  Their powers were nearly limitless within their realms, and the beings that worked for them would have true reason to fear them, should they ever get angry, for they could destroy anything, be it dark matter agents, agents of light, planetary spirits, or physical beings.  If that happened, the being would return to the creator to await his judgment.  This never occurred at first because everyone worked together, but later on it would come into play.  Once the creator received them, he would either restore them to their former selves or imprison them, depending on why they were destroyed.  He never annihilated them though.
  
The archangels could not annihilate anything.  That was something only the creator could do, but even he did not do it often.  I once saw the creator do this to a cloud of stardust because it was not forming in a stable fashion.  The agent in charge of that galaxy was having difficulty, so he asked the creator to help him start over.  The act of annihilation was nearly as powerful as the initial act of creation, only on a smaller scale, and the entire universe felt the shock wave of that implosion.  Then he created a new cloud, which caused yet another disturbingly powerful shock wave, thoroughly rattling that particular galaxy’s agent.  Nobody ever asked for the creator to annihilate again.  If they messed up a particular part of their realm, they sought help from the dark matter agents or the archangels, who usually could fix the problem.
  
The three archangels had many names, but the ones most familiar to humans would be Michael, Gabriel, and Phosphoros.  Phosphoros, usually shortened to Phos or Phon, sometimes went by the name of Lucifer, meaning light-bearer, among the humans.  The other beings found this to be a bit presumptuous.  The name carried the connotation that he could create something – light in this case – out of nothing, and this was an act only the creator could do.  These archangels could manifest themselves as anything they desired, but they each had preferred forms.
  
Michael, whose name meant “who is like the creator?” usually appeared as a winged human with golden skin and eyes, armed to the teeth with various swords, spears, or even firearms.  He was a bit extravagant in his appearance, but he was quite unassuming when he interacted with people.  He simply enjoyed combat, sports, and competition.  I actually spent a large amount of time in the beginning learning the art of combat from him.  I learned quickly, but I couldn’t keep up with him.  However, I think he truly enjoyed such an avid student and would have trained me for the fun of it,.
  
Gabriel would manifest himself as a simple being mimicking whatever intelligent creatures were on the planet he was visiting, which is why the creator sometimes used him to send messages.  He was the least likely to scare someone to death, and he usually was the most eloquent.  I spent a good deal of time with him as well, for he was extremely wise and always had something important to teach me.  His name meant “man of the creator.”
  
Phos almost always appeared as a brilliant agent of light.  He would make himself shine more brightly than any agent near him.  He was also quite eloquent and could often get beings to willingly follow him if he wanted.  Since I was pretty sure what his fate would be, I avoided him.  I tried not to make it obvious, but I think he could read a lot in my facial expressions and my aloofness.
  
His long name, Phosphoros, meant “morning star.”  His nickname, Phos, pronounced with a long ‘o,’ meant “light.”  The name was often mistaken for ‘phon’ (also with a long ‘o’), which meant “voice.”  Phos would answer to all three names – Phosphoros, Phos, and Phon.
  
The three realms the chief agents ruled had subtle differences as well, reflecting the moods and preferences of their overseers.  Each archangel gave his realm a name of his own creation.
  
Michael’s realm was quite beautiful and rugged.  The galaxies spun swiftly, and the stars shone with a lot of heat and energy.  The planets in his realm were sturdier and more dangerous.  The creatures living there enjoyed exploring, sports, and building things.  This led them to be among the first civilizations to explore the galaxies and solar systems.  Granted, Phos’ realm had its share of advanced races capable of long distance space travel, but in Michael’s realm it was a universal phenomenon.  Even though the Atala in Phos’ realm were the first creatures in the universe to develop space travel, many of their neighbors had not.  In Michael’s realm, all of the creatures adopted space traveling technology and improved on it because they loved exploration so much.  They would sometimes visit other worlds to the neglect of their own.  Michael called his realm Mallachia, which meant ‘Realm of the Mariners.’
  
Gabriel’s realm was more unassuming.  His galaxies and star systems were stable and calm.  Order ruled his realm.  His creatures also enjoyed exploration and building, but they took their time.  They would first focus on their own planets, making sure they understood everything there and had fully developed it before moving on to visit their neighbors.  Even then, their exploratory visits were over short distances and for limited periods of time.  They were not at all warlike but were extremely loyal to their overseer Gabriel.  Their realm was called Gelashalem, meaning “Reveal Peace.”
  
Phos’ realm sought glory most of all.  They built wondrous things, explored space, and developed their worlds with more zeal than that of the creatures in Michael’s or Gabriel’s realms.  Their worlds showed the most balance.  They may not have explored all the galaxies and planets as thoroughly as Michael’s creatures did, but their planets were much more cultivated and comfortable than his.  Their planets were not as cultivated and beautiful as those in Gabriel’s realm, but they were far more prepared for combat or competitions than those, and they had a better understanding of their distant neighbors.  Phos also ensured that the stars in his realm shone more brightly than any others.  Some warned that by doing this they would not last as long, but he did not care.  A benefit of brighter stars was that there was more energy available for the creatures to harness in his realm than in others.  The solar winds were stronger and solar power was much more productive.  In this alone, Phos showed some foresight.  His realm was called Doxades, meaning “Glorious Netherworld.”
  
I personally feel that Phos’ heart had been corrupt from nearly the beginning.  He knew that by forcing his galaxies’ stars to generate more energy, he would be able to use that energy to dominate his neighbors if need be, even if it meant wearing out his realm faster.  Nobody else saw it this way, but I was reasonably sure that he had been secretly plotting all along to overthrow the entire universe and take the creator’s throne, even if it meant destroying his original realm.  I once asked the creator if he knew the exact moment Phos rebelled, but he would not tell me.
  
The last class of agents one could encounter in the universe was the group of agents that continually accompanied the creator himself.  They would fly in circles around him, forming a sphere of swiftly moving beings.  From a distance, it looked like a large atom with a brightly glowing nucleus and many electrons orbiting around it at multiple angles.  Nobody was sure what these agents did, but that only served to heighten their mystique.  They flew about with their faces and feet hidden from view at all times, yet they still knew where they were going.  Their boss was named Metatron.
  
Merely being near one caused me to suddenly feel very weak and fearful.  They even had this effect on other agents up to and including the mighty archangels.  Nobody would dare challenge these particular beings.  I likened them to some sort of secret service, though I highly doubted the creator needed any sort of protection.  Perhaps their sole purpose was to increase the awe people or agents had when they were in the presence of their maker.  Whenever the creator was headed somewhere to meet with someone, one of these mysterious agents would appear shortly before the creator arrived to announce his imminent presence.  Agents would stop what they were doing and immediately focus their attention on these heralds until they departed or until the creator appeared, whichever came first.
  
Another possible theory to explain their purpose stems from the fact that they always faced inward to the creator.  Normally, a bodyguard or a security agent faces outward from that which he’s protecting, looking for potential dangers that could threaten the person or thing being watched.  These special agents, or seraphim, faced inwards to perhaps protect the creation from the limitless power of its creator.  If an agent wanted to approach the creator to talk to him, they never had to go through any sort of security check from a seraph.  As they were leaving, however, they usually were stopped by one of these agents for a few minutes.
  
The seraphim seemed to have attributes resembling those of the archangels.  They had the same sort of control that only the chief agents had over spiritual substance.  They commanded the respect of any being that was in their presence as well.  The most disturbing of their abilities was to instantly reflect the creator’s mood at any given time.  If he was angry, the ‘secret service’ would simultaneously create an aura of pure wrath as they surrounded him.  If he was happy, these agents would reflect this much more agreeable state.
  
There was one final agent, if that’s what you’d call it.  The creator would not normally just appear before living creatures on the planets.  His size alone when he manifested himself was larger than a star.  Coupled with the ever-orbiting, mysterious entourage of his, he took up as much space as a small solar system.  Instead, whenever he wanted to visit a planet, he’d take on the form of whatever intelligent being inhabited that world and would walk about in quite an unassuming way as a farmer, animal herder, or hiker.  On Earth he either appeared as a lone wanderer or as a shepherd, calling himself Bar-Enash.  If someone with metaphysical senses were nearby, they’d swear he was an agent in disguise, although they’d be able to sense an immense power in him.  This ‘agent of the creator’ was a separate entity from the gigantic ‘star’ surrounded by seraphim.  Of course an omnipotent, omnipresent creator can be in several places at once in as many forms as he wishes.  Besides the star form and the small being form, he was always detectable on a metaphysical level anywhere in the creation.  If one needed, one could always talk to him and he’d be present, listening.  I had to ‘listen’ or ‘look’ carefully for him in this form, but he was always there like a gentle breeze on a sunny beach.
  
After many long eons, the creation was nearly complete.  The agents had finished forming their realms, and their intelligent beings were hard at work settling their planets and expanding their realm.  I was truly amazed at every turn.  Traveling through this wondrous universe, I had experienced a flood of new and amazing adventures, and I was excited to see what would happen next.