Chapter XVI

Here the talk ended with the understanding that all should meet at breakfast. We were up early next morning and ready for breakfast at 6:30. As we left our lodging, we met our friends going in the same direction, walking along and conversing the same as ordinary mortals. They greeted us and we voiced our surprise at meeting them in this way. The reply was, “We are only men the same as you. Why do you persist in looking upon us as different? We are in no way different from you, we have only developed our God-given powers to a greater extent than you.”

We then asked, “Why can we not do the works that we have seen you do?” They answered, “Why do not all we contact follow on and do the works? We cannot and do not wish to force our way upon anyone; all are free to live and go the way as they wish to go. We try only to show the easy and simple way, the way we have tried and found very satisfactory.”

We went to breakfast and the conversation drifted into the ordinary everyday  occurrences. I became lost in wonder. Here were four men sitting opposite us at table. There was one that had lived upon this earth about one thousand years. He had so perfected his body that he was able to take it with him wherever he desired; his body still retained the buoyancy and youth of a man of thirty-five years and this perfection had  been completed about two thousand years.  Next to him sat a man that was the fifth in  line or regular descendant of the family first mentioned. The second had lived upon this earth for more than seven hundred years and his body did not appear to be a day over forty. They were able to converse with us the same as any other men would converse.

There was Emil who had lived for over five hundred years and appeared to be about   forty; and Jast who was about forty and appeared to be about that age.  All were conversing together like brothers with not a hint of superiority, all kindly, simple, and yet well-grounded and logical in every word uttered, with no trace of the mystical or mysterious about them—just plain human beings in daily intercourse with each other.

Still I could scarcely realize that it was not all a dream.

After breakfast, when we arose from the table, one of my associates started to pay for the meal. Emil said, “You are our guests here,” and held out to the lady in attendance what we thought was an empty hand; but when we looked a second time, there was just the amount of money necessary to pay the bill. We found that our friends did not carry money with them, neither did they depend on others for their supply. When money was needed, it was right at hand, created from the Universal.

We walked out of the house and the man that was with the No. 5 party shook hands with us, saying that he must return to his party, and disappeared. We made a note of the time of his disappearance and afterwards found that he appeared with his party within ten minutes after he had left us.

We spent the day with Emil, Jast, and our friend of the records, as we called him, in wandering over the village and the countryside, our friend recounting in detail many instances which happened in the time of John’s sojourn of twelve years in the village. In fact, so vividly were these instances brought to our minds that it seemed as if we were back in the dim past, walking and talking with this great soul, who, to us before this, had seemed but a mythical character conjured from the minds of those who wished to  mystify.  From that day on, John the Baptist had been a real living character, so real to  me it seems as if I can now actually see him walking the streets of the village and countryside and receiving the instruction of those great souls about him, the same as we walked the streets of the village and countryside that day, yet not able to grasp the fundamental truth of it all.

After tramping all day, listening to the most interesting historical occurrences, and hearing records read and translated on the very spot where the incidents took place thousands of years before, we returned to the village just before dark thoroughly tired. The three friends who were with us and had walked every step of the way as we had walked were not showing the least sign of fatigue or weariness. Whereas we were begrimed, dust-laden, and perspiring, they were cool and at ease, their garments were as white and fresh and spotless as when we started out in the morning.

We had noted during all our journeys with these people that none of their clothing  became soiled. We had remarked about this a great many times but had received no reply until this evening when, in answer to a remark made, our friend of the records said, “This may seem remarkable to you but it seems far more remarkable to us that one speck of God’s created substance adheres to another of God’s creations where it is not wanted and where it does not belong. With the right concept this could not happen, for no part of God’s substance can be misplaced or placed where it is not wanted.”

Then, in an instant we realized that our clothing and bodies were as clean as theirs were. The transformation, for to us it was a transformation, had taken place instantly to all three alike while we stood there. All fatigue left us and we were as refreshed as though we had arisen from bed and had our morning bath.

Here was the answer to all our questions. I believe we retired that night with the deepest feeling of peace we had experienced at any time thus far throughout our sojourn with these people; and our feeling of awe was fast giving place to the deepest love for these simple, kindly hearts that were doing so much for the benefit of mankind, or their brothers, as they call them. We began to look upon them as brothers. They took no credit upon themselves, saying it was God expressing through them, “Of myself I can do nothing. The Father that dwelleth within me, He doeth the works.”

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