The Scrolls

Art used hand signals to bum a cigarette from Antonio.

The seven-meals-a- day-granola-snackers passed around fruit and nuts.

Art found another fire exit balcony to be alone and smoke. He felt very stirred up and alive. No one had made a harsh judgment, except himself. He put out the judgments he had with neutrality. “This is just the way it is,” he told himself. “I said it, and I’m off it. All my beliefs were just made up.” He felt excited. As IAM said, “Judgments beat boredom.”

The bell rang. The participants, not assistants, found those who were still in bathrooms, making sure no one was late. The neophytes were becoming a team of anxious helpers.

“Welcome back. We have five minutes for sharing,” MA said. IAM was not in the room.
Karla, the shit disturber, who wanted the love fest to cease, had been blasted in judgments. She stood, eyes downcast. “I’m happier now. It feels like people are more real.” She dropped into her seat.
MA spoke in a voice aimed at Karla’s solar plexus, “Who’s more real, Karla?”
“Everyone is.”
“Karla, stand and tell me from your gut.”
MA walked over to stand in front of Karla. “Karla look at me.”
Karla took off her glasses and made eye contact with MA. Her eyes were moist.

A spark, a zap, some type of connection happened. Aura’s merged or the tentacle fibers of feelings fused with a healing.
“I am more real,” Karla said.
Everyone applauded. Karla and MA hugged.

MA returned to the stage. “Put down anything on your lap. Assume a comfortable relaxed position, and let’s take a trip.

“Take a deep breath from below your solar plexus. Let it out slow. Relax, sit comfortable, feet flat on the floor. Now take another low, deep breath and let it out slow. Close your eyes. Imagine a tall building in front of you. The doors automatically open and you walk into the lobby. The elevator is straight ahead. Press the down button as you breath low and slow. The doors open with the sound of a bell and you walk in. Push the down button. You begin to descend. Everything becomes quieter and you become more and more relaxed. You’re going down past one then two then floor three. You go down deeper and deeper within, past four, five and six. Each floor is more relaxed more calm. The stillness encompasses you. Down to seven, eight, nine. At ten you stop. Wholly relaxed and completely still, your mind is totally at ease. The door opens and you walk into the storage area of your scrolls. Down here are the catacombs of your existence. Everything that has ever happened to you is waiting for you to take a look.
“Find your scrolls. All the events of your life are stored here. Gather everything you want to study and go back into the elevator. Press the up button. The elevator rises slowly from ten, nine, eight. You are becoming more alert. You are still and relaxed but becoming more aware as you pass seven, six, five, it’s four you. It’s freeing going up. Two, one and then the bell rings and you walk out with your scrolls. Your eyes are open as you walk out of the elevator and back into your seat in the room.”

MA’s voice was slow, controlled and hypnotic. Her words encouraged the trance state. Breath, relax, slow, low, down, within, further, still, all helped induce the neophytes to look for the material needed for the work with ease. Their pictures and memories of life were now at hand.

IAM was now on stage with MA. “What kind of an experience was that?”

“I found file cabinets in my basement,” Art said.

Susan, the attractive waitress from the Jazz D’Opus Café said, “There was a guard
in front of my scrolls. He handed them to me and whispered, “Be gentle.”

“My basement was a mess. There was shit everywhere. Dirt, dust, a bike, my report cards, army uniform, my kid’s crib.” Joe said, “They’re all kinds of other people’s stuff. Stuff they expect me to do.”

Evelyn said, “I fell asleep.”
“Evelyn, just trust that while you were asleep you still gathered the scrolls.” MA smiled at her. “They are there, always with you.”
“I don’t know. I don’t remember as well as I used to. It’s my age.”
“We’ve had people remember things from age one, even in the womb, and before they were born,” IAM added.

“I liked the experience. It was very still. I didn’t have a lot of judgments.” Michael spoke up.

“My scrolls had feelings attached to them. Some I liked. Others were, gunky.” Jules followed Michael with her share. “They felt sticky, like I couldn’t let go of them.”

“Did everyone collect some scrolls?”

Every hand went up, even Evelyn’s. “Take a ten minute break and when you come back, the chairs will be set in dyads. Sit across from someone you don’t know or haven’t worked with.