The Twelfth Insight: The Hour Of Decision Part 4

"There's a large wilderness called Secret Mountain a few miles north."

He walked ahead again, then turned and added: "One aspect of Wolf you should know about-he often knows what's going to happen."

I had heard of Secret Mountain but knew only of its general location. One thing for sure, the wilderness it was part of was huge. I figured we would have to wait to know what Wolf had meant, and surprisingly, I was content to do so. I should have been apprehensive about our sudden flight into the wild, but the deeper we penetrated into the wilderness, the more energized I felt. And instead of the spooky feeling I had experienced the last time I was in Boynton, I was now feeling the opposite emotion-a sense of being at home somehow, and trusting that whatever might happen here was going to be beneficial.

We were now walking through an area of juniper and mesquite interspersed with huge red boulders and outcroppings. A sky of brilliant stars made the flashlights almost unnecessary.

"Why," I asked Wil, "do the Hopis believe this place enhances purification?"

"Because of its impact. It repels anyone who isn't ready for a breakthrough of some kind. But when you are ready, the power of this place helps you."

"You mean energetically helps?"

"Yes. According to legend, if you go far enough in here, say at least a couple of miles, it inevitably tests your a.s.sumptions about life and inspires a rea.n.a.lysis of how you forge your way in this world. Again, it makes perfect sense that we are being led into this canyon to study the Laws of Spirituality.

"All this is up for people because of the economic downturn. During the material age, we tended to think we were creating our subsistence with our knowledge and reason, the common a.s.sumption being that if you used your head and worked hard, you could prosper in life.

"But in reality, everyone knows there are intangibles at work in determining who has success. You can be equally as logical and hardworking as the next person and not do as well. There's always been an unknown factor concerning who is fortunate and who isn't in this life, and we're about to figure it out."

He stopped suddenly and gazed out toward a flat area above the trail to the right.

"Let's go up there," he said, "and set up camp and sleep for a little while before dawn."

We made our way up to the location, and in just a few minutes we had both tents up and the food bagged and roped in a tree to protect it. Afterward, another question came to mind.

"So you think the missing factor is this Alignment thing?"

He nodded. "According to my Hopi friends, the Third Integration says that during a time of transition such as we're in, when economies are faltering and people are acting crazy, we'll all be shown a new way of getting our worldly needs met."

Wil was already climbing into his tent.

"Let's see what happens tomorrow."

The next morning, I was awakened by tree limbs breaking outside and Wil yelling. I pulled on my boots and looked through the tent flap. It was barely daylight, and Wil was running toward the tree where our food was tied. When I got there, I could see the limb was broken and the bag containing our provisions was missing.

"Did you see her?" Wil asked, pointing up the slope. "She was big."

"I couldn't see," I responded.

We looked around until we found some large tracks.

"Strange," I added. "I didn't think there were many big bears around here anymore."

Close by were several freeze-dried meals that had fallen out of the sack as the bear had dragged it away.

"We could track her," I said, picking them up, "and try to recoup some of the food."

Wil just looked at me and I knew what he was thinking. Not a good idea. We weren't armed, and that was a very large bear. Perhaps she even had a young cub.

We made our way back to the tents and Wil got out his cooker and began preparing one of the meals. A chill was in the air now, and a light rain was falling.

"The question," Wil said, "is what to do? With no food, we have a decision to make. We might have to be in this wilderness for many days. We need provisions. On the other hand, if we go back to get them, we might run into those guys following us."

"What choice do we have?" I asked.

"We could just keep going. Let this play out."

I was resisting. "We can't stay up here without food."

Wil just looked at me. "Well, it's a challenge, but isn't the same thing happening out there in the world? Think about it. Millions of people are experiencing this same situation. They go in to work one day and hear they're fired, and suddenly, no more money for food. They're in this same situation we're in now, only worse."

"But how will we eat? Are some of your Hopi friends up here somewhere?"

"No," he said. "They're already looking for the Fourth Integration farther up north. We'll have to rely on getting food from strangers."

I squinted. "That might not be easy."

"No, but again, in reality isn't that what we all have to count on? We're all in business somewhere, aren't we? Even if we work for the government, if others don't buy what we're selling, or no longer need our service, we can't survive. So to some extent we all have to be fortunate. If the Universe doesn't smile on you, if you're not lucky, then you're in big trouble. In times like these, especially, we come to realize we are solely dependent on strangers showing up to, in effect, give us food."

I'd never had it put that starkly, but I knew Wil was right. Cut to the bone, we're all always at the mercy of others.

"So it figures," Wil continued, "that there are some esoteric rules working behind the scenes determining whether people are going to show up or not-rules that we can figure out and get into alignment with. I'm telling you this because it is exactly what the Third Integration says."

"Okay," I said, "then let's see how it plays out."

Within minutes, we had consumed the stew, put the tents and water in our packs, and headed up the trail. After a while, Wil looked back at me.

"There's something else. Remember that other cultures have awakened in history in the same way we are now. These cultures have always been smaller and somewhat isolated, but they have always discovered the same basic spiritual principles that operate in this Universe."

I ran up beside him. "So you are sure the Third is going to tell us what the laws are?"

"Yes, the basic laws are known. The Hopi told me some of these principles have aspects that aren't fully complete yet, and of course, they have to absolutely be proven out in one's own life before they can be believable. But yes, we know what the basic laws are, beginning with the one we've already been using."

"What is that?"

"The Law of Truth. We used it to keep our Synchronicity going, and it governs the situation when we swap truths in Conscious Conversation. Just remember that it's easy to stay in truth when the Synchronicity is flowing to help you. It's much harder to maintain the habit when the economic stakes get high."

Suddenly, in the distance, I saw two people walking along the trail in front of us.

"There are some people up there," I said to Wil.

We sped up until we could see them clearly. Two men were walking together, dressed in hiking gear and floppy hats and bearing large, expensive packs.

I looked over at Wil. "What do you think?"

He shrugged. "They look okay to me. I don't think there's anything to worry about."

"Okay," I said, feeling for some reason I should handle the matter. "I'll go ahead and talk to them about buying some food."

Wil looked slightly surprised that I took the initiative, but smiled and nodded.

Campers, I knew, were usually extremely friendly and helpful. I was sure that, as long as I didn't appear threatening, they would share some of their food. When I reached them they both turned around. I gave them a big smile and introduced myself, and they told me their names were Paul and David from California. I knew immediately that they were tourists and probably knew nothing about the Doc.u.ment.

At first they seemed very friendly, but just as I gathered my thoughts to bring up the issue of food, they looked at me suspiciously and began backing away.

"Listen, something has happened," I said. "We were supposed to bring some food to friends camping up here, and our food was stolen. It's really important that we get there right away." I was pulling my wallet from my back pocket. "I was hoping you might have extra food I could buy."

"We have to get moving," Paul said, fidgeting. And his friend, David, added quickly, "There are park rangers on this trail all the time. I'm sure one will come along any minute."

Both of them were almost running up the trail now, looking back as if they thought I might give chase. They hurried ahead until they were completely out of sight.

Wil came up behind me with a perplexed look on his face.

"That didn't look like it went well," he said. "What happened?"

I was just as confused and told him every word of the conversation. He was shaking his head, smiling. When I got to the part where I had told them our food had been stolen and we needed more to take to some friends, Wil grimaced noticeably. I felt embarra.s.sed but rationalized the fib by saying I was afraid they would think we were crazy or unstable, since we hadn't just hiked out to get more food.

Wil stared at me, remaining silent, still shaking his head in disbelief. At the same time, I realized how weak and nervous I had become. I had lost all my centered clarity.

"We were just talking about telling the truth," Wil said.

"I guess I outsmarted myself," I replied. "It really brought me down."

He looked at me sympathetically. "Once you elevate your clarity and energy in an authentic way, then it's pretty dramatic what happens when you lie about something. It's an immediate crash."

I moved over and sat down on a rock, and Wil sat beside me.

"Look," he added. "It's the canyon. It accelerates everything. It doesn't feel good, but what happened is a helpful Synchronicity just the same. You just have to see what it's showing you. During the Modern age, we've been bending the truth for our obsessive personal gain, or to further some political end. That's why, as we wake up, we see corruption and greed everywhere.

"But as you can see, at higher levels of consciousness there's no such thing as a lie or a distortion that is okay. The Law of Truth is absolute. If we don't stay honest, to our best awareness, it hurts everyone: us individually, because it collapses our energy and clarity; and others because we fail to give them the benefit of our truth and positive influence."

He was up and heading down the trail again and I followed along.

"This brings us," he said, "to the next spiritual principle the Hopis told me about: the Law of Connection."

Just at that moment, we caught sight of a crowd of people in front of us. Walking closer, we realized everyone was looking in one direction, farther into the canyon. Then we heard the object of their attention: the sound of a helicopter in the distance.

Wil gave me a look, and we eased up slowly to where the others were. From here we could see the chopper hovering only several hundred yards ahead. It stayed there a few moments more, then slowly descended to the ground and cut its engines.

Wil leaned over and whispered, "That isn't a tourist helicopter. It's military."

Some of the people who seemed like tourists began to walk casually up the trail again. But two groups held back: us and a group of about a dozen men, all of differing cultural backgrounds. Some were clearly Europeans and Americans, but judging from their speaking patterns, most of them seemed to be from out of the country, probably the Middle East. As they moved around, I saw two women with them as well.

One of the women turned to face us, and I recognized her immediately. It was Rachel, the woman I'd seen at the Pub. She walked away then and began talking to the other woman in what sounded like Hebrew. As I watched, I suddenly felt a rush of emotion toward Rachel similar to the one I had felt before.

I quickly looked away just as Wil grabbed my shoulder. Many of the men in Rachel's group had spotted us looking at them and were staring hard in our direction.

"Let's walk on," Wil whispered.

We headed deeper into the canyon, wanting to put some distance between the men and us. Out of the corner of my eye I could see them glaring at us as we walked. Finally, when we were out of sight completely, Wil darted off the trail to the right.

"I think we should get off this trail," he said, and led us straight up the slope about a hundred yards, where we ducked behind a large rock outcropping. Once there, I felt more hidden, yet we could still see some of the main trail down below through the scrub pines and junipers. The eastern wall of the canyon towered behind us.

I told Wil I'd seen Rachel.

"Really," he said. "That was her, huh? I wonder who those people are she's with."

"They looked none too friendly," I remarked.

We waited there for a long time as more people came walking down the trail. There was no more noise from the helicopter, so I figured it must still be sitting where it landed. The question was, who was in it? And where are they now? Was it the same group that had been following us?

Finally, Wil said, "Look, I think you have to understand what the Hopis told me about the Law of Connection."

"Okay."

"You said those two guys you asked for food earlier had started to back away from you even before you began talking."

"That's right."

"Do you have any idea why?"

"Not really."

"It was because of the Connection we have with one another. It's built into our brains. The Doc.u.ment says that because we're all connected, we sense what others are feeling and thinking. As we progress through the Integrations, it says we will develop this sense even more. But everyone already has this basic perception."

"Are you telling me they could tell I wasn't going to give them the exact story? My intent wasn't to harm them. I wanted to give them money for their food. I just left out some of the details."

He shook his head. "It's not that they knew what you were doing exactly. They could feel what you were feeling, and as the lie you were contemplating brought you down, they felt that drain themselves, and thus became more confused and unclear-which was an unconscious signal to them that something was wrong, and that you were probably up to no good. So they backed away."

He paused a moment as if to let his words sink in.

"And this sensitivity," Wil went on, "increases as our consciousness increases. Humanity is reaching the point where you'd better not lie, even a little bit, because if you do, there will be more people every day who will be able to sense it. Lying is just not going to work much longer."

We were interrupted again as we noticed other groups walking by on the main trail below us.

"A lot of people are coming into the canyon," Wil said, suddenly concerned. "And many of them are packed for long-term camping, probably all without permits. Eventually, they're going to draw the attention of the park rangers. We'd better find out what we can before they show up. Time to move."

He gave me a serious look. "Keep your eyes open. Watch everything that happens."

We carefully walked down to the trail again. There was no sign of Rachel or the group she was with. As we walked slowly forward into the heart of the canyon, we began to notice people sitting around talking everywhere. We found a spot out of the way and stopped.

"Listen," Wil said. "I feel I should walk up ahead alone and see if anyone knows what that helicopter is about. If you'll watch the packs, I'll go do that, and be right back."

I nodded and sat down. Staying here was fine with me since I wanted to think more about the Law of Connection. If this was a true principle of our spirituality, it meant that it was the same for all of us. How far could we develop this Connection with each other, I wondered. Would we eventually become telepathic? For a long time, I pondered what that would be like.

Suddenly, I heard someone walking up behind me and turned around to see an upbeat man of about thirty smiling and offering me his hand.

"I'm Jeff," he said. "How's it going?"