"02 - Birth of an Age" - читать интересную книгу автора (BeauSeigneur James)

"It would certainly appear so," answered Milner. "And as I said, I think that he and Cohen may have the power to make these things happen. Whether this is what John had in mind all those years ago when he wrote the book of Revelation is highly unlikely. His psychic and telekinetic abilities have only recently grown to the magnitude that they are now. And I doubt that 2,000 years ago he had any idea they'd ever grow to this point. It's more likely that now, finding himself possessed of such powers, he's chosen to use what he wrote then as a blueprint. It wouldn't be the first time the Book of Revelation was used in that way. Cult leader Charles Manson did much the same thing back in the 1970s, combining the words of Revelation and lyrics by the Beatles. But Manson's

3 Revelation 11:3-6.

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crimes will pale by comparison to what John and Cohen have planned."

"Okay, hold it a minute," Decker said. "Perhaps I'm a little slow," he began self-effacingly, "but obviously there are a few things here that I'm not catching. Would somebody please explain to me why these guys have all this power?"

"I'm sorry, Decker," Milner responded. "All of this has been happening pretty fast. I'll try to explain. As I told you at the hotel in Israel, humankind is about to enter the final phase in its evolutionary process. At the completion of this final phase Ч which we call the New Age Ч humans will have evolved as far beyond what we are now, as we now are above the insects. The KDT are the first to enter that phase.

"Decker, haven't you ever wondered what it is about the Jewish people that allowed them to survive for nearly 1,900 years without a country? They survived dispersion and literally dozens of attempts by kings, government, and bigots to wipe them from the face of the earth. They have flourished despite the cruelest discrimination, and most amazing of all, they have avoided assimilation into the civilizations around them. No other nationality in history has ever done that. Decker, they really are different from non-Jews. Now, I know that may sound like a racist statement, but what I'm saying is that they are actually slightly farther along on the evolutionary scale. The difference is so small that it's not measurable by any known standard, but it has allowed them to survive as a people, and that is why the first concrete manifestations of the New Age are being seen among the Jews. The KDT are the spearhead of the evolutionary changes to come. Soon the changes will spread throughout the world, to people of every nation and race."

"So how do John and Cohen fit in?" asked Decker.

"Like the biblical Jewish prophets before them," Milner answered, "both John and Cohen were born with certain psychic abilities. I suspect that Jesus recognized that ability in John and that is why he chose John to be among his disciples, even though John was much younger than the other apostles." Decker looked over at Christopher, thinking that perhaps Milner's supposition would spur a memory from his former life. Christopher shrugged to indicate he had no recollection of the matter.

20 Birth of an Age

"Thousands of years ago, men like John and Cohen would have been acclaimed as major prophets. A few years ago, they would have been just two among hundreds of moderately successful psychics. Now, as the New Age approaches, they have been catapulted beyond anything the world has previously known. And yet the power they have now will soon seem like nothing at all. I cannot begin to tell you the magnitude of what lies ahead for humankind. As the potential of the human mind is revealed, we will begin to see our fellow humans not only through our physical eyes but also through the mind's eye. We will begin, as the members of the KDT already have, to see the innermost part of those around us: their needs and desires; their hopes and their fears; their pain and their joy; their true selves! We will all be stripped bare of the facade which makes some of us seem beautiful and some of us ugly; some of us seem charming and others dull; some of us attractive and others repulsive.

"When we can truly see those around us, when we are forced to see not just their outward appearance but into their very souls, then we will begin to truly understand each other. Certainly, all that we see will not be pleasant; indeed, much will be dark and corrupted. But we will also be able to see beyond the corruption to its root cause. And as we learn to understand what has made each of us what we are, we will quickly lose our desire to hate."

The excitement in Milner's voice grew with every sentence and it was contagious. Milner picked up the Bible that Christopher had closed and put on the coffee table. "The Apostle Paul put it beautifully in First Corinthians.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. Wlien I was a child, I talked as a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.4

41 Corinthians 13:9-12.

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Milner put the Bible down and continued. "For a while, a short while, the embarrassment of having others see our innermost thoughts will be more than some of us can bear. But soon, as we and all around us are stripped bare of pretense and deceit, we will begin to understand that those around us are really no different than we are, that they share the same hopes and fears, the same needs and desires. And when we see that, we will come to realize that understanding others is just as great a blessing as being understood.

"As we learn to speak and listen with our hearts, true cooperation among people will begin. There is no end to what we will be able to do when we really work together! But even this is only the beginning! All of this will happen in just the next few decades. It is merely the foredawn of the glorious New Age!" Milner was nearly out of his seat with excitement.

"As the transcendent dawn becomes full, we will grow beyond the realm of our own bodies. Now we know only matter and energy, and we operate within their constraints. Then we shall know a whole new form. To call that form 'spirit' would not be inappropriate, but that term would limit it to what we can now imagine it to mean; and it is so much more. The solar system, the galaxy, indeed the very universe, will be ours! We will travel to places, times, and dimensions unimaginable! There will be no end!"

Decker's eyes had grown wide and his eyebrows arched halfway up his forehead. "I had no idea," Decker said. Never had he imagined the awesome magnitude of the promise this New Age held. In that brief moment, Decker swore himself to its fulfillment.

"And yet," Milner said, "it is possible that all of this could be torn from us. The next five to six years will determine whether we boldly enter the glorious light of the New Age or retreat into the darkness of our hatred and fear. If the latter course is chosen, on that day we will surely begin to die as a species. It may take a hundred years, perhaps even two, but man will certainly destroy himself and the earth with him."

'"Man must evolve or perish,'" Christopher said, introspectively. "That's what my father told me in the desert: 'Man must evolve or perish.'"

"Even as we see the emergence of so great a promise as the New Age," Milner said, "we also see the specter of a hideous and macabre threat. History, it is said, is the record of man's

22 Birth of an Age

inhumanity to man. Our history since the Disaster certainly bears grim witness to that: the destruction of Russia, the China-India-Pakistan war. And even where there is no war there is individual brutality. Violent crime has risen dramatically each year since the Disaster," he said, referring to the day seventeen years earlier which saw the the mysterious sudden deaths of nearly one fifth of the world's population.