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rippling and stretching, his arms and legs flowed and twisted. Michael's real
body remained where it was, sitting on the floor of the courtyard, its eyes
open, still staring blankly at Randolph and humming the mantra.
Michael's spirit - for that was what the liquid creature actually was, his
antakaranasarira - beckoned with both arms to Randolph and smiled a fleeting,
watery smile. Randolph heard a slight deflection in the endless vibration of
Om and it seemed to mean to him, 'Rise, rise up, join me, rise out of your
body and join me.'
For an instant Randolph thought: This is impossible, it can't be done. But
then the split second afterwards, a huge and sudden realization rushed out at
him with the darkness and power of a hurtling locomotive and he was yanked out
of his body upside down and sent spinning end over end; he saw rooftops,
clouds, walls, traffic and trees before sinking again, much more slowly now,
sinking towards the courtyard floor; and there below him was himself, naked,
cross-legged, humming his sacred mantra.
Michael's spirit flowed across to meet Randolph as he descended. All of
Randolph's fear had left him now. He slowly approached his material body and
drifted around
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himself to see what he looked like. He found the experience astonishing. He
looked much older than he had imagined himself to be, and much more heavily
built. His stomach could do with some exercise, he thought, and there was a
wider bald patch at the back of his scalp than he had realized; but apart from
that, he was not bad looking. Michael's spirit followed him, watching him, and
then raised an arm to point upwards, towards the sky.
Together they floated high over the temple, higher than the rooftops of the
tallest shrines, higher than the trees, floating like two kites over the
markets and the streets and the glittering river. They dived and dipped and
soared and then at last began to sink back towards Jalan Mahabharata, and the
Temple of the Dead, and their material bodies.
Sliding back into his body felt to Randolph like sliding under the bedclothes
on a summer's night. For the first few moments he felt hot and stuffy and
constricted, and he shook his arms again and again to relieve the feeling of
heaviness. Michael laughed and stood up.
'Everybody does that. You're feeling the weight of your body after having had
no weight at all.'
Randolph stared up at him and then turned to look at the sky. 'Were we really
there? Did we really do that?'
'Our spirits were there.'
'I never before understood what my spirit is. Why haven't I been doing that
all my life, going out of myself? It is fantastic! Who needs to go by plane?'
Michael tugged on his shorts and zipped them up. 'I don't think you understand
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just how much I was helping you. I practically pulled your antakaranasarira
out of you by its roots. Besides, it's dangerous to do too much of that flying
around; it can get to a point where your spirit is unable to get back into
your body. Then all your spirit can do is hover around and watch your body
die. That's what happens to people in comas. Their spirit leaves their body
for so long that it can't get back in again. Just remember that when your
spirit leaves your body, you're halfway dead.'
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Randolph eased himself to his feet. 'Is that all we're going to do today?'
Michael said, 'We can go back to your losmen now and I'll teach you the first
of the chants you're going to need to know. I'll tell you what you're going to
be allowed to eat too. From now on, until we enter the death trance, you have
to stay with a special holy diet.'
As they left the temple, Randolph said, 'This all seems quite practical. I had
the impression when Dr Ambara first described it to me that it was going to be
very mystical, very religious.'
The ways of the Trisakti have always been practical,' Michael said. 'It's only
through practical experience that you can achieve enlightenment. Of course
there are many different kinds of enlightenment. Some kinds are completely
theological, completely abstract. Other kinds can be much more ordinary, much
more concerned with earthly things.'
Randolph walked back through the streets of Denpasar feeling as if he had just
been born. He felt innocent, happy and incredibly alive. He had only one
regret: that he should have had to lose Marmie and the children to discover
what his spirit was.
Michael talked volubly on their way to the temple. 'You'll be able to feel all
the magical power here once you develop your psychic talents. This city is
absolutely teeming with magic. When you're in a death trance, you can walk
through the streets and look around and see demons and spirits everywhere.
It's one of the great magical capitals of the world, maybe the greatest.'
They reached the losmen and went upstairs. Wanda and Dr Ambara were supposed
to have gone out shopping while Randolph was studying with Michael, but when
Randolph unlocked the door of his room, he found them sitting there. They
looked up anxiously as he entered and Dr Ambara said, 'You're back. I was
beginning to worry.'
'What's happened?' Randolph asked. 'Wanda? Is everything all right?'
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'We had a call from the police in Djakarta. They found our names in I.M.
Wartawa's address book. They called Memphis first and then Memphis directed
them here.'
Randolph slowly walked across the room. 'Have the police discovered what we're
trying to do?'
'No,' Dr Ambara said. 'But in some ways it could be worse than that. I.M.
Wartawa was found dead outside his office early this morning. His throat had
been cut.'
'My God!' Randolph breathed. 'Do the police have any idea of who might have
done it?'
'Well, of course that was what they wanted to know from me. They said that
three or possibly four men were seen driving away from the building shortly
afterwards. Americans in appearance, but nobody was sure.'
'It's Ecker again, isn't it?' Wanda asked. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]