Seven Point Eight (45 page)

Tahra laughed and kissed him.

“I love you, Mr. Paul Eldridge.”

It had been a while since a woman had spoken those words to him. It had been even longer since he himself had spoken those words, and meant it.

“I love you too, Tahra.”

How could he ever regret this?

***

At the end of the day, they unwound from the pressures of the project, relaxing in Paul’s old bedroom at The Establishment. He moved the small black and white television from the office and put it in a position where they could lie in bed together and watch it. Paul propped himself up on a pillow while Tahra rested her head on his chest.

There was nothing on the independent commercial channel but adverts, so they took a moment to kiss while the sound of Bach’s Air on a G-String accompanied the voice over comparing happiness to a cigar called Hamlet. He needed to change channel, although he felt too comfortable to get up and do the dirty deed.

“I don’t know about remote viewing,” he said, “but we need a remote channel changer.”

Tahra looked thoughtful, then picked up a shoe and threw it in the direction of the TV channel buttons. Surprisingly, it found its mark and they got BBC 2 instead.

“You could have broken the TV, you know,” Paul objected.

“I’m sure we could have found something else to do,” she mused, stroking his stomach lightly with her fingers.

With a choice between an episode of ‘The Likely Lads’, or make love, the sex won, with the sound of dialogue and canned laughter in the background.

Paul valued the romantic element of the OOBE project, for without it, he knew he’d lose heart. For a whole month, they tried using the resonant frequency of 7.8Hz as an accelerator, but to no avail. The ‘release’ system worked fine, yet the objective of leaving the solar system eluded them. Tahra remained supportive, although she felt just as frustrated as Paul and she couldn’t offer any suggestions to achieve their objective, even though she was the vehicle for his idea as much as the inspiration.

Tahra spent less time at The Institute, not problematic due to Max being absent on business for the past six months. Miss Tynedale believed that the extended periods of absence were due to the project with Paul. It didn’t occur to her that Tahra was in a relationship with Paul, and Max had made no efforts to intrude on the project, or enquire about her personal life before he’d left. Was it because he no longer cared and that he’d given up his pursuit? Did she care if he’d become indifferent? Max began to drift further and further from her thoughts, it was an episode in her life with closure.

Paul lost motivation for Max’s project, the remote viewing blocker, but he knew it wouldn’t be difficult pinpointing a resonant frequency to disrupt the movement of consciousness.

However, once August arrived, the project review lay only two months away. This analysis would determine whether or not OOBE had a future, and Paul began to feel the pressure. In many ways, it could be considered a success, as a number of experiments had been carried out and the results recorded. No matter, he still felt dissatisfied. He needed something profound, like a meeting with a being from another world. Ironically, the Rolling Stones sang ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ on the radio, and Paul smiled sardonically. Tahra walked in from the kitchen, singing along, and she danced over to him.

“Don’t rub it in,” Paul said, his face showing the frustration at their lack of breakthrough.

“It will happen,” she insisted. “This is meant to be.”

She popped a piece of fruit in his mouth and looked at him intently. He wasn’t enthusiastic.

“I don’t like to fail at anything,” he begrudged.

Tahra gave him a stern look.

“You haven’t failed.”
 

He sighed. “I just want to find the answer, right this moment.”

“It will come,” she reassured him, “I know this project will succeed.”

Tahra swung her leg over his knees and sat on his lap, idly stroking his chest.

“I can make you feel better,” she declared.

Leaning forward, she unbuttoned his shirt and he made no complaint as she delivered a little wave of pleasure up his spine, something he never protested against.
 
She did indeed deliver on her promise, and they sat with contentment in that position for a while, eventually retiring to bed. He soon closed his eyes and drifted into, what was in effect, a lucid dream. For the first time in his life, he actually became aware of the fact that he’d entered a dream state, and it provided a turning point in the project.

***

I found myself on a partially fertile plain with a river nearby, on which boats full of people floated. I contemplated walking over to meet these people, as I believed they had something important to say. They disembarked from the boats and came towards me, however, they couldn’t see me. As they filed past, I decided to follow them and when I turned round, something amazing loomed into view. The pyramids filled my vision, but they weren’t the semi-ruins I expected, they were encased in polished limestone and reflected the light of the sun.

Watching the people enter the pyramid through a hitherto unknown entrance, I followed them in this lucid dream state. Some unidentifiable light source lit the corridors, and the people made their way to a chamber within the pyramid, where one person lay down. A brief ceremony ensued, which I didn’t understand, and everyone left except for the person on their back.

 
A few moments later, I became aware of a steady hum, some kind of ultra-low frequency which was inaudible, but it caused my body
to tingle. The hum appeared to resonate throughout the chamber, and seemed to be channelled into the walls themselves. I sensed everything vibrating, as if the rock molecules jiggled and oscillated.

The tingling drew me away, although I didn’t travel anywhere, I sensed more of an adjustment in my vision. Shapes seemed to move around the room and ooze out of the walls, then they became more corporeal. Many of them seemed to resemble Egyptian Gods, for they had human bodies and animal heads, while some were simply serpents, both winged and wingless varieties.

It occurred to me that the pyramid, in this lucid dream, acted as some sort of resonator. I longed to know the workings of this, because of the relationship to my own research. Was this the reason for my dream? Although I spoke no words, the beings, or Gods heard my thoughts and one serpent turned towards me.

“You want to understand this machine,” it said.

I’d never considered the pyramid to be a machine before, but it wasn’t the main issue.

“Yes, I think this is the answer to my problem.”

“And what is your problem?” the serpent asked.

“I’m using a resonant frequency of 7.8 to push consciousness towards the stars, but it isn’t working.”

The serpent seemed amused.

“Yes, you have found the ancient number. But life does not resonate at one frequency alone.”

“I have to overlay another signal?” I proposed.

“Yes, you need to find the harmonics. 7.8 is always the foundation, but it is the harmonics that change the experience.”

“And that will have the desired result?”

The serpent pondered the question, but didn’t affirm or contradict him.

“Look at the machine you find yourself in, you must understand its fundamentals, and the results of these principles.”

“And the results are?”

The serpent remained patient.

“The use of the primeval number and the harmonics creates the field necessary to walk with us. You are looking at The First Time.”

“The First Time mankind walked with you, and spoke with you?”

“Yes, this was always meant to be.”

“What is the purpose of this contact?” I continued.

The serpent seemed glad I’d asked this.

“Mankind contacts us to learn, but there are many other beings in the cosmos besides us.”

“What did mankind learn from you?”

“Anything it desired. Each form of life has its own knowledge and secrets: of the workings of the universe, the purpose of their existence, or more practical matters such as medicine and technology. Mankind learned to a great extent in this way, although the consequences of the use of this knowledge are mankind’s only to experience. We do not discriminate, those who walk and speak with us are free to ask any question but mankind has free will, we do not control whether the knowledge is used for good or evil, it is not our nature to intervene. It has always has been, and always will be this way.”

“Was there ever a Second Time?”

The serpent moved closer to me.

“Not in your past, but in the life of the universe, there will be many cycles of progress and devolution.”

“I want to initiate the Second Time,” I declared, eager to access this knowledge.

“Then you must build a machine.”

“It’s as simple as that?”

“It is simple to start something, it is not so simple to continue and accept the outcome of your actions,” the serpent answered.

“I must do this,” I insisted.

“Then you must build a machine.”

“How?”

“Look at the machine that you stand inside. That is why you are here.”

The serpent turned away and diffused into the walls, leaving me alone, yet enthused. Although the serpent had gone, I realised that the answers were here, I just needed to find them myself.

Moving around the machine, I sought the source of the resonance and allowed my gut feeling to lead me there. I found an immensely tall gallery, which was stacked floor to ceiling with columns of bowls. These bowls were responsible for the resonance but in modern society, I knew an oscillator could generate the required frequencies. The resonance was channelled into a small ante-chamber, which I surmised filtered the acoustics and directed them into the main chamber, where the participant lay. I also realised that the walls were full of quartz crystal, and that crystal generated a magnetic field when stimulated by the resonance from the gallery and the ante-chamber. The magnetic field gave strength to the signal, it helped ‘tune’ the consciousness to a different cosmic frequency. It released consciousness from its binding with the brain matter, and allowed the mind to visit other worlds.

I knew what to do now.

Awakening with a fire in my heart, I reached for a pen and paper, and started to draw. I was going to build a machine.

18

Long Way From Home

The schematics for the machine were close to the idea portrayed in my dream, although I made a few major modifications. The dream acted as an instigator, an initial piece of inspiration that would lead me to developing a tool that would take us to the stars.

I stuck with the pyramid shape, because it probably channelled energy in some way and plus, it looked good. The acoustic filtering wasn’t necessary, considering the technology I’d be using. The original ancient design had used objects like Helmholtz Resonators in the grand gallery, which work on the same principle as blowing over the neck of an empty bottle. By altering the size and shape of the neck, different tones can be produced. However, I had the benefit of well calibrated oscillators, which would generate the resonance.