The Power of Twelve (11 page)

“It has truly been our pleasure,” Inéz responded, speaking for Jim as well. “And now it is late and time for us all to rest. Tomorrow will be a busy day.”

Gayle tried to sleep, but she could not get the image of Arnold Wheeler out of her head. She found him more than annoying. She thought his arrogance was dangerous—a symbol of all that needed to be changed. At last she got up. She decided to catch a breath of fresh
air in the garden to calm her down enough to fall asleep. Careful not to wake up Randall, she put on her robe and a coat and shoes and walked down to the garden.

She had gone only a few dozen feet into the garden when she felt a familiar presence. Drawing near was the bliss of an angelic being. Turning to her left, she saw the blue dress of Mother Mary. “Do not be frightened, my child. All will be well. You are right to have your fears, but do not let your fears dissuade you. You are destined to succeed. The feminine energy is coming. It is already here. It is time to love and time to fight that which represses love. You are a fighter. You have been chosen to fight this fight.”

Mother Mary folded Gayle into what seemed an embrace of light rather than a physical clasp. Mother Mary stepped back at last and, still holding Gayle's hands, continued to advise her. When the conversation was over, Mother Mary imparted a look of deep and perfect love and then disappeared.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

THE POWER OF CONSCIOUS DREAMING

T
HOSE WERE THE BEST FISH tacos I ever ate,” Randall told Gayle as he stuffed the last remnants of the avocado, fish, and salsa into his mouth.

Although Randall had generated hundreds of millions of dollars in advances and royalties for his superstar author clients and tens of millions of dollars in commissions for himself and his staff, he liked simple, down-to-earth people and authentic dining experiences, whether fish tacos at the local taco stand in Cardiff or a hot dog with all the trimmings on the streets of New York.

“It was not quite as elegant as the seven-course dinner we had at Chateau Mcely last night, but my vegetarian burrito was also excellent. I love this all-night taco stand,” Gayle agreed. “Thank God it's still open at midnight. We are still on European time and I was famished.”

“I'm amazed at everything we have accomplished at the Chateau in just two trips,” Randall said, thinking back. Then a new thought struck him. “You know, Barbara really seemed to be flying. She is always an inspiration, but it is as if she has a new lease on life.” His
eyebrows rose in a question, and she nodded to indicate that she had noticed as well. “In any case, Jim and Inéz really seem to be embracing Project Wake Up. And I am amazed that the Virgin Mary materialized in front of you on each of our two visits!”

“Yes, Mary's presence at Chateau Mcely is the strongest I have ever experienced,” Gayle agreed. “I am not certain why Mother Mary is visiting me so frequently, but she seems to want to warn me about opposition from powerful forces to Project Wake Up.”

“That does seem to be the case. Tell me again exactly what her last warning to you was?” Randall asked.

“My last encounter with Mother Mary was even more powerful than the first. She took hold of my hands, and at one point she embraced me as she spoke. I do not remember her exact words, but it went something like, ‘All will be well. You have never wavered from your task. Your reward is at hand. The obstacles are dwindling, but certain people do not want you or your friends to succeed. Barbara is a special being. Take care. Take care.' And with those few words she took one last look at me, her brilliant blue eyes glistening with knowledge and awareness, and disappeared.”

“I know you asked me not to share your experience with Jim and Otto and the others, but I am still wondering if the warning was as much for them as for us. Do you really feel that we should keep this encounter a secret?” Randall asked as he rose to dispose of the plastic tray on which his tacos had been served.

“At least for now, I think we must regard this as a sacred meeting not to be revealed. We are going back to Mcely for a third meeting to fully launch Project Wake Up at the end of the month, and I will sleep on it and see if Mary returns with any direction on what we are to do. I do think this latest encounter was not so much about my personal destiny as the destiny of our project, but it is best to be cautious. We do not know who among the project participants is motivated by higher will and who might have a less altruistic personal motive in using Project Wake Up for their own purposes. I felt that Mary was trying to warn us that we had to be cautious and that much is at stake,” Gayle explained.

“I will be guided by you,” Randall agreed, smiling but serious. “You have always been my guardian angel, and I know that your extrasensory abilities have in almost all instances been accurate in guiding us toward our greater happiness and fulfillment.” He spread his arms wide, as if embracing the whole world. “I sense that we are on the verge of grounding the great vision that Barbara, Otto, Jim, and so many others have been evangelizing. The real work is now just beginning. We are about to see grand-scale changes in tens of millions of people.”

“It is so strange to hear you talk this way, but it pleases me,” Gayle said. “Even five years ago you were so full of resistance to what I was seeing from the other side. What has changed for you?”

Randall gave her a kiss on her lips and then drew back. “It's your smile and your gentle ways. I have never met anyone so dedicated to loving all creatures as you. I have been skeptical for many years that you were too naïve, too kind, and too easily swayed by conspiracy theories that seemed impossible to me. Being with you these last eight years, though, I have begun to trust your intuition as much as my own.”

Gayle grabbed Randall by the hand. “Come on, let's go home.” They headed to their BMW and drove home to catch some much-needed sleep.

Gayle had cultivated the art of conscious dreaming. Her first encounter with angels had been when she was just seven years old. She had grown up in a warm and loving family in southern California, but had two older brothers who delighted in teasing her and making sure she understood that they, and not she, were in charge when their parents were busy with other tasks.

As older brothers, they sometimes went too far, once trapping her in a drainpipe underneath some nearby train tracks. They coaxed Gayle to follow them into the pipe and then quickly darted out and covered up the entrance with a plank of wood that was lying next to the drain. Gayle was caught in total darkness and started pleading to be let out. Just then a train sped by overhead, and the vibrations in the drainpipe were so loud and forceful that little seven-year-old Gayle was terribly frightened. It took her parents three days to
assure her that she would not die. The trauma of the train noise and the claustrophobic experience of being trapped in the dark drainpipe made her physically sick for an entire week.

During the recovery period from this mental trauma, Gayle started seeing angels. She could not understand why her brothers could be so cruel and why innocence seemed to be a weakness rather than a strength. Gayle's sorrow was not just for herself but for all of humanity. She did not feel that being a human being was tolerable, and so she prayed for death. Raised as a Catholic, she knew about angels and prayers, but she was not yet old enough to know that suicide was a mortal sin and that a good Catholic girl should not be praying for death.

The angels heard her prayers and came to her. They told her that she had a purpose on planet Earth and that they would always be near to protect and comfort her no matter how difficult her life might become. Gayle did not fully understand what the angels were telling her, but she realized that she would have to learn to get along in the imperfect world of her brothers and other people who could sometimes be cruel.

Gayle's life evolved with moments of joy and moments of sorrow, as most lives do. In her moments of sorrow she learned to take refuge in her dreams. The angels would often reveal themselves in her dreams, and though she was never sure exactly what they were trying to tell her, she took comfort in her visions and later in life learned how to consciously enter altered states. She became a remote viewer for the American government and learned to travel interdimensionally throughout the universe. Yet she encountered terrible situations that she did not want to see and abandoned that work, convinced that the governments of the world had knowledge from extraterrestrials that they were keeping from the general populace.

Not knowing what to do with her ever-increasing psychic abilities, Gayle pursued Tibetan conscious dreaming meditation. She studied with sacred Tibetan masters for twenty years and learned how to enter dream states in which she could tap the sacred knowledge of the universe.

It was into such a dream state that Gayle entered that night after sharing the best tacos she and Randall had ever eaten. As she entered into her dream, she asked that the true meaning of the Virgin Mary's warnings be revealed.

In her dream state, Gayle was transported to a remote region of the universe filled with pure blackness. It was a void within a void. Nothing, not even a single vibration, existed in this space. Gayle felt as if she had become part of this nothingness. Suddenly, within the dream, a vibration appeared, as if from nowhere. This vibration vibrated within itself and created a dual vibration, and from this twin oscillation the equivalent of light and dark emerged. There was no longer only the blackness of the void within the void. She spied a variety of blackness and soon a variety of vibration. Gayle could not tell if the process took a trillion years or a single second, but she felt that she was observing the very creation of the universe.

In that moment Gayle understood for the first time that there was no good or evil. The distinction between light and dark was arbitrary. They were two elements of the same energy and equally necessary for the evolution of life. And then suddenly Gayle awoke. With a dead certainty she knew that when she returned to Mcely, she would have a third encounter with the Virgin Mary. Then she would know to whom and when to reveal the warning that she had been given in the forest.

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE ILLUMINATI

G
EORGE W. BUSH WAS A SIMPLE MAN. He could not believe that he had been president of the United States. He preferred to chop wood on his Texas ranch and play with his grandchildren. He had always been intimidated by his father and in a strange way was still a mama's boy seeking to please his mother, Barbara Bush. If not for his mother, he would never had entered politics or agreed to accept the nomination to run for president. Part of him had really not wanted to win the election, and although he put on a brave face when Al Gore dropped his protest over the “illegal” vote counting in Florida that determined the ultimate result of the election, he was less surprised than disappointed that he would now become president. His father had assured him even before he had been nominated that his election was a “sure thing.”

When he asked how his father could be so sure, George senior told him, “It is better that you not ask. Many years ago my father, your grandfather, entered into a contract with a group of international business leaders with powerful connections. Ever since then our family has been ‘blessed.' It was not an accident that our first explorations into oil generated extraordinary wealth. It was not an accident that I was elected president. As my son, you have a duty to
these families to serve, and it has been decided that you will serve best by being president.”

“But I do not enjoy politics. I find running large organizations burdensome. Heck, I even made a mess of running the Texas Rangers baseball team when we owned it. Do you really think I can handle being president?”

“Son, you will find a way. Your mother and I will be behind you, never fear. We got you through Yale and we will get you through this as well. Trust me. We owe the families a great deal, and this has already been decided.” His father turned away abruptly, indicating that the conversation and any further questions from his son were over.

Even now, though he was no longer president, George Bush Junior found the continuous presence of Secret Service agents a burden. He no longer enjoyed traveling off his ranch and increasingly limited his circle of acquaintances to those who came to visit him. In his latest refusal to appear at a function, he had been invited to Chateau Mcely to learn about Project Wake Up by Prince Charles of England, but had chosen not to go.

Prince Charles was a close friend of Jim Cusumano. They had first met through Jim's wife, Inéz, while hosting a meeting of environmental leaders at the Chateau. Prince Charles was interested in preserving ancient historical landmarks and marveled at the restoration work Inéz had supervised to bring the 150-year-old castle back to pristine condition. Since that original meeting, Jim and Prince Charles had stayed in touch, collaborating on special projects. When Jim became involved with Project Wake Up, he naturally invited Prince Charles to join the inaugural meetings. He was only slightly surprised when Otto mentioned that he and Prince Charles were also friends of long standing. Jim felt that the relationship must be more professional than social, but having heard of the extraordinary healing powers that Otto was purported to possess, he felt it would not be appropriate to pry.

George Bush Junior, though he had not attended the meetings, had participated through video conferencing from his Texas ranch. His mother, upon learning that he had declined the invitation to go
to Prague, insisted that he install special 3-D screens and cameras that would allow him to participate as if he were there in person. The Chateau had already had the special conferencing equipment installed for earlier events, and setting up a receiving station in George's den at his ranch was relatively simple, though not inexpensive.

George was not surprised when the first images from Mcely showed a group sitting around a table at which fruit, desserts, and after-dinner drinks were still being cleared. George recognized many of the royals, former leaders of state, and CEOs of large oil and technology companies in attendance. After brief introductions the meeting began.