Джеффри Дивер - The Goodbye Man

“Islam? The Qur’an says death is the same as sleep. You awake from sleeping. You will awake from death. I could go on and on. Billions and billions of people have been convinced from the beginning of civilization that we’ve lived before this life and we’ll live again, after it. So how can it not be true?

“But with all respect to the religions I just mentioned. They believe in immortality, granted. But there’s a problem.”

Whispers from the ground: “If you’re Christian...”

After a dramatic pause, Eli said, “If you’re Christian, what awaits you is a Christian heaven. If you’re Jewish, a Jewish one. If you’re Hindu, you will be reincarnated. If you watch TV, you’ll come back as the Walking Dead.”

Laughs and applause.

Someone shouted, “Zombies!”

Eli chuckled then grew serious. “The rules for immortality have to be the same for everyone, of whatever religion or no religion. True for atheists, as well as the Pope. But each one of those religions I mentioned excludes the others. That means they all have to be wrong. I’m sorry to be blunt but that’s the way I am. I’m a blunt talker. You know that by now, right? I tell it like it is.”

Nods.

“Now, I have nothing against religion. Not at all. I hope you all find comfort in whatever church, synagogue, mosque or house of worship you prefer. But when it comes to immortality, all the priests and holy men and rabbis and gurus... they should leave the subject to somebody who knows the truth.

“They should leave it to me.”

Eli looked over the crowd, most of them mesmerized.

After a long moment: “What do I — humble me — know about the subject? Oh, quite a bit. I told you about my death experience — not near death but actual death.”

“We remember!”

“We love you!”

“When I was dead, I saw things. Images. When the doctors brought me back I couldn’t stop thinking about what I’d seen. They were images of people, places that were familiar but that I’d never seen in my present life or in a movie or read about in a book. Where had those images come from? I had no idea. All I knew was that they moved me deeply. Some made me deliriously happy, some made me afraid, some made me angry. But what I felt when I thought about them, I felt intensely.

“So I began to focus on people and places in the present — people and places that gave me the same kind of intensity. I began to meditate on them. When I did that, the images from the time I was dead came back. They were from a hundred years ago, two hundred, a thousand...” His voice dropped. “Imagine that! I was witnessing my past lives!”

Gasps of astonishment, joyful murmurs.

So this was what the Process was supposed to do. Samuel had told him to meditate on intense feelings he had in his life. Doing that, according to Eli’s mythology, would open the door to his past lives.

Eli continued, “I told you I was orphaned when I was young. It was terrible. Devastating. I missed my parents so much. My father, Tobias. My mother, Rachel. How I missed them. When I was meditating, trying to bring those intense feelings back, suddenly I saw them again. We were together in the 1800s. And I knew then that I’d see them once more — in the future.”

Whispers from the Companions as they turned to one another. Most, Shaw could see, were buying what he was saying.

Eli walked to the edge of the stage and looked down at Henry, the balding man who’d been inducted at the same time as Shaw. He was the medical researcher so devastated by losing his wife to cancer eight months earlier. Eli spoke directly to him. “You can never lose anybody. Not permanently. You’ll be together again. You’ll be with them in the Tomorrow.”

Shaw felt the same way he did when listening to Pentecostal preachers explain Bible passages to their flocks. The words didn’t follow any logic but it was clear the Companions, like parishioners, were under his spell and took the arguments as, well, gospel.

Looking past Henry, Shaw noted another tall man, a Journeyman, looking Shaw’s way. He thought again about Frederick — the man with the orange sunglasses, who might have seen him above the cliff where Adam had died. Was this the same man? The physique was the same but, with the absence of the eyewear, he couldn’t tell.

When Shaw glanced again, the man was focusing once more on Eli.

“If thousands of years of religion and spirituality get the path to immortality wrong, how can I say I get it right?” A chuckle. “What do my Jewish friends say? Chutzpah! What kind of chutzpah do I have? I mean, getting one up on everybody’s God? That’s a pretty big claim. But I’ll tell you the answer. Why do I have the key to open the door to immortality? And no one else does? Do you want to hear?”

“Tell us!”

“We love you!”

“Because I — and only I — know that immortality isn’t based on superstition or belief or faith or hope. It’s based on...” He looked over the crowd.

“Science,” five or six ICs cried simultaneously. Shaw wondered how long the rehearsals had been.

“Ex-actly!

“Science. Cold, hard science. In my travels after my death experience, I spoke to doctors, physicists, engineers and neuroscientists. They all agree that our consciousness and awareness — our True Core — is a unique combination of energy impulses.

“When your body ceases to exist, the energy that is your True Core remains. This is because of the First Law of Thermodynamics. I’ve written papers about it. Published all over the world. The First Law of Thermodynamics. And what does it say? That energy is neither created nor destroyed.

“So our True Core is energy and energy exists forever! Immortal! And it doesn’t matter if you’re good or bad or a saint or a sinner or a primitive tribesman... Or a politician in Washington.” He gave a sigh.

Earning the laughter his delivery deserved.

“After you pass, your True Core will end up again in another body.” A frown. “How does that happen? I’ll be honest. I don’t know yet. It’s like when I was in school. I could always get the answer. I scored great on my tests. Top of my class. But I couldn’t always explain why I got the answer.

“Someday we’ll be able to know how your True Core travels and ends up in another body. Just like flight. We never knew why for thousands of years birds could fly but eventually we learned about the shape of their wings. For now the how doesn’t matter. What does matter is that your True Core will go on. You’ll be reunited with loved ones. Oh, in different forms, but the connection and love will be the same. You won’t have the addictions, the sorrows, the illnesses you have now.”

His eyes dipped to Walter and Sally, then to Abby. Several others.

“This is what the Process does. You start with meditating on intense feelings from the Today and doing that will raise memories from past lives — in the Yesterday. You’ll recognize the bad habits and bad people from your prior lives and eliminate them in the Today. You’ll embrace the good people, engage in the activities that are positive for you. That’s why we say...”

The ICs: “From the Yesterday, a better Today!”

“And the Process will condition your True Core for the next life. You’ll avoid the Minuses and embrace the Pluses in the future.”

His Greek chorus: “From the Today, a perfect Tomorrow!”

“The best is yet to come!” Eli shouted.

Clapping and chanting ensued.

Now Samuel’s comment at Intake made sense:

As you’ll see, a guarantee wouldn’t really be practical...

You never knew if the Process worked until you were in the grave.