EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK:

'CONVERSATIONS WITH NEO'

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Neo Talks About Reincarnation and The Resurrection Comes Into Play - Who Gets To Do It and Who Doesn’t

      During a four day weekend, Neo invited me to go along with him on a trip to Southern California to get in some camping and to watch the grunions spawn. Till then, I had never watched this natural event, only knowing about it from books. I was excited to be involved in a woodland walkabout... as Neo liked to call it.

     I managed to get Rick, Rock and Terry to watch the gym while I was gone. I had coached them on the basic instructions as on how to sign up new customers if the small chance that a potential customer would come in and join during the depression of 1981.

     The road trip to southern California was long and non stop, and true to Neo’s custom, he wanted a reprieve from conversation during entire drive. He had mentioned a few times at the gym that while he did enjoy long conversations... on occasion…he found peace and power in silence. He felt that most people did not appreciate how much they needed silence in their own lives.

      Neo did all of the driving the entire distance without any stops except for bathroom breaks and fuel ups. I contented myself to looking out the window at the various changes of scenery, reading munching on food and napping numerous times.

     When we finally reached our destination Neo smiled in private satisfaction. He jumped out of the truck eager and supple, seemingly immured to the crippling confines of his cramped truck. For me, I was not so lucky, it was a pleasure to stretch my aching and stiff body…especially my legs. Neo, not one to wait about, swiftly took off his cloths with the exception of his loin cloth that he had been wearing under his Carharts.

      We both went to the bed of the truck and grabbed our supplies. Along with his ruck-sack Neo also grabbed a spear that he had used on previous occasions to lance fish and the lance doubled as a walking stick which he lightly and casually used with the blunt end touching the ground.   He kept a small boomerang attached to a holster that he had on a belt around his loin cloth or cossie as he like to call it.

     He had a slingshot hanging on the other side of his body. Under his free arm he was carrying along and heavy looking surfboard, although he seemed to tote it with ease. I knew better than to try and talk to Neo as we hiked into the hill that was situated as a natural barrier to the beach.

      It was times like this that I rather not talk. I would need all of my energy to keep up with Neo. Thankfully, it was not the several hour hike that I had experienced with Neo on previous jaunts.

     I had been looking forward to this trip for months. But until the day of our departure, i had not known exactly where we were going, or what we would be seeing. However, before we got in his truck parked outside of my gym, Neo had promised that the site he was taking me to would be deserted save for us, the grunions and the other flora and fauna indigenous to the area.

     Finally, we had reached our destination and I was looking down at the beach as we reached the crest of the hill I saw the beach that Neo said was deserted of all influences of civilization and I felt an atavistic shiver of anticipation.

      Neo walked down the hill towards an out cropping of rocks fifty yards from the water's edge and I followed like a tenderfoot following his scout master, until he reach the rocks spot and dropped his rucksack into a hollow in the perimeter of the rocks.

     I knew that this would be our base camp and I had a sense without asking that Neo would want to begin collecting materials for a fire.

Without a word, I went out to collect the needed materials. once we had a sufficient amount of wood and tinder collected, Neo stacked the wood in a most efficient pile.

     I remembered that the last time we went camping much to my amusement, Neo had started the fire with an automatic fireplace lighter.

For some reason I had expected him to light a fire in the primitive manner of his Australian kinfolk. Wearing his loin cloth and hunting with his primitive weapons that trip set this romantic Jack London vision in my mind. As I said, I was amused and disappointed by his previous choice of fire making implements. Today, I was not to suffer such disappointment. True to his ancestors credit, he pulled out a fire drill and bow and honest to God it took only minutes for him to get the fire going. Anyone that has ever experimented as a boy scout with a fire drill and bow can attest to the fact on how brutally hard it is to start a fire the first few times at it.

      Most people fail each time and finally they are sneaking lighters on their camping trips. When I was a kid in North Carolina I learned to make a fire that way and to be honest…I was only successful a handful of times and those successes probably took two or more hours of sweating and cussing before a fire took shape. I think I burned more calories from making the fire than I actually cooked and ate.

      The ease of which Neo built the pile and made a fire belied the hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours he had done this growing up in the outback of Australia.

      As soon as Neo had a healthy fire going, he grabbed his rucksack and pulled out a few hunks of dried fish and fruit and tossed me half of these items over to me. He sat down in a cross legged position and started to chew on his food and I followed his example.

      Finally he began to talk and the first break in verbal silence in about twenty-four hours was un-expectantly startling. He motioned with his head at the fire and said, “I like to start the fire every now and then with a bow drill because I don’t want to git soft and rusty.”

I mentioned how beautiful, peaceful the area was.

      He said, Yeah, it’s one of me favorite jaunts.”

I was eager to follow up on the conversation we had the last trip we had been on and I did not think Neo would mind if I jumped right back in. Knowing Neo, if he did he would tell me.

      I said, “I have read that many different religions believe in reincarnation and during some of our discussions you have verified that this is true….do you believe in reincarnation?”

      Neo said, “I believe that a few people are reincarnated…but I believe that most people are like me.”

      I said, “What do you mean?”

      Neo said, “Most people would like to think that they have an immortal soul or that they have lived many previous lives.

I don’t believe that.” “I believe I have never lived before and I believe that unless I prepare myself, I will not survive my body for any real length of time…I will not be able to develop an immortal soul.”

      I said, “If you don’t survive your body, and you don’t get to have an immortal soul…what do you think happens to you?”

      Neo said, ‘I probably will stay around in another plane of existence…beyond the veil of this one and eventually I will probably dissipate and lose my personal identity and be reabsorbed back into the source of all creation…into the Godhead.”

      Listening to Neo’s complex philosophy almost always had my head spinning and as we both sat in our wilderness campsite away from the normal realities of civilization…my mind reeled more than usual from such talk.

    I said, “Why do you think some people are reincarnated but not you?”

      Neo said, “Well mate, that’s a good question…I think there are many reasons for potentially reincarnating and that there are many levels of reincarnation.”

      I said, “I really don’t know what the hell you are talking about.”

      Neo laughed and said, “Let me see if I can give you a brief outline of what many of the beliefs that there are regarding reincarnation.” “Some religions believe that there is no surviving the body and that your life energy is simply reabsorbed straight away with no stopping along the way into the universe, creation, the collective consciousness, or Godhead, or what have you.” “Most Buddhists believe this…other groups of Buddhists believe this also; but they believe that at death people’s consciousness will make many stops or enter many levels often called bardos before dissipating and becoming reabsorbed into the Absolute nothingness. I had thought that the reeling of my mind had reached its limit…I was wrong.

      I said, “Absolute nothingness?” “That is the most illogical bunch of crap I have ever heard in my entire life.”       

      Neo laughed again and said, “I know…it is hard to wrap yer mind around the concept of absolute nothingness…yet some modern physicists are attempting to do just that.” “Some of them are considering that all existence came from nothingness during the big bang….or the biblical concept of Genesis.” “Enough of that mate, I don’t want to piss fart around and git off track with the task of outlining the concepts of reincarnation.”

      I said, ‘Sorry…it’s just that my brain feels like it’s frying from all of this philosophy…okay…go ahead, but before you do…what is a bardo?”

      Neo said, “Bardo in the Tibetan vernacular literally means an interval between two things.” “Bar means interval and do means two.”

      He said, “There are volumes of books on the subjects the most famous is “The Tibetan Book of the Dead”.  “Many of these books describe the variations of beliefs regarding just the concept of bardos is seemingly endless, so I will give a thumbnail sketch of what I think.” “It is believed that when you die, the shock of death puts you into unconsciousness and then your consciousness reemerges after an indefinite amount of time.” After your consciousness reemerges it is thought that you go through a succession of hallucinations or feelings of experiencing several levels or bardos that resemble heaven, hell, limbo, or purgatories.”

      “Who goes to which bardo of heaven, hell or what have you?” I asked.

      Neo said, “Some people believe that we go through them all…other people believe that depending on how we live and how strong our drives, desires, fears, memories will determine what level or bardo that we will stay in for the majority of time until the final transition.”

      Neo quoted, “What we loose on earth we loose in heaven and what we loose in heaven we loose on earth.” 

“In other words…if a person’s life is filled with greed, anger, jealousy, and all of the emotions that is based on fear and shame…then that person is likely to create the hellish bardos that will be their spiritual residence for an indefinite amount of time.”

      I said, “If a person’s life is filled with love, happiness, compassion and so forth…does that person reside in the heaven like places…I mean bardos?”

      Neo said, “That’s the theory of some religious blokes…I mean scholars, and it is believed that the stronger the personality…the more intense the person is attached to either the dark or enlightened aspects of their personality the longer they will reside in their self-constructed bardo.”

      I said, “I think if I remember my early Catholic training, the Catholics mention heaven, hell, limbo and purgatory also.”

      Neo said, “Yeah lots of religions have beliefs or concepts dealing with various levels of after life.”

      I said, “I was taught that after we die, we go to heaven or hell depending on if we were good people who did good things or bad people who did bad things and that we had to have faith in Christ and God…otherwise it is a no go…at least to heaven.” “I know a lot of people who are basically good and they do lots of good things…yet they are often filled with fear…they struggle with jealousy, anger, and lots of bad things.”

      Neo looked at me as if he knew what was coming.

      I said, “Where to they go?”

      Neo said, “It depends on who you talk to.” “Jesus said it will not only be from the good works that you do that get you into heaven.”

      I said, “What did you think he meant by that?”

      Neo said, “I think Jesus was addressing the people of corrupt spirit or people with meager faith trying to put on airs or a show of goodness to buy their way to salvation…you Americans call it window dressing.”

      I said, “What is wrong with people that are imperfect doing good things?”

      Neo said, “Let me ask you a question…if a man was a child molester, and this man was filled with shame, fear, hate, jealousy…all sorts of negative emotions and this man gave his fortune to help people…not because he cared about them…but because he wanted to control people’s perceptions of him and perhaps in a twisted way was trying to hedge his bets into getting into heaven…do you think he would be a good candidate for the heavenly bardos or the hellish bardos?”

      I said, “Well if heaven or hell exists or their equivalent bardos, I would have to say the hellish ones.”

      Neo asked, “Why?”

      I said, “According to Christians his good works were not done with loving intentions, and he committed bad things such as molesting children…also he is hiding negative and even evil emotions and thoughts.”

      Neo said, ‘Yes…and he is tormented and emotionally crippled in that he cannot access himself to love, and the other positive emotions and thoughts that other people can access.” “Some scholars believe he will carry all of this with him after death.” “Even the sociopaths that are emotionless insofar as not feeling remorse or minimal negative emotions are crippled and therefore limited in entering heavenly realities.” “At least that is what some camps believe.”

      I said, “What do the scholars say about people that do nothing but good stuff…yet they do not believe in God, Jesus, or anything?

      Neo said, “Again…it depends on the scholars you talk to.” “Some scholars believe that people that do good works because of the love and compassion they feel will bring all that is positive with them and thereby letting reside more in the heavenly bardos regardless of what they do or do not believe.”

      Neo said, “The drongo arses will tell you that it doesn’t matter how loving and how many good works that people do, that people will not find salvation unless they have faith in a God, Jesus, or some other specific deity?” Neo’s slang was often a source of amusement for me…however…sometimes his slang was irritating.”

      I said, “Neo…what the hell is a drongo arses?!”

      Neo laughs showing his teeth and then he feigns a look of contrition and says, “Sorry mate…I git caught up in talking and I revert back to me Aussie ways, just like you start sounding more like Sylvester Stallone every time you call yer mates in Philly.”

      He said, “Drongo arses translated means idiot assholes. As I was listening to Neo I had been drinking my coffee and the translation had hit me in such a way as to cause me to laugh but instead snort, choke on the coffee, which caused the coffee to go up my nose and spray out a blast of hot coffee out my mouth and nose…making a snort not unlike a porpoise spraying water out of their blowholes and spraying a goodly amount on Neo who had been sitting across from me.” I was more embarrassed than amused from my accidental coffee assault on Neo who found the sight of coffee spraying out of my nose to be hilarious.”

      He saw my embarrassment and wave a hand of dismissal and said, “No wuckin’furries mate.” This new term along with another swig of coffee added with the silly spirit of hilarity that I was caught up in caused me to almost snort and spray again but I managed to control myself to a coffee choking sputter instead.

      I said, ‘What in the hell did you just say?” I said, “Is that Pig Australian you are speaking?”

      Neo laughed again and said, “Just switch the first letters Vinny.”

      I looked at him and said, “Huh…oh, ha, ha…I get it.” I was not use to hearing Neo saying anything that would be considered profanity…not even in a back door sneaky way he had just done.

      I wanted to show off my quick grasp of his slang so I said, “Okay mate, let’s quit the piss farting around and git back on track with our pow wow.”

      Neo claps his hands as a pleased teacher and said, “That’s grouse Vinny!”

      Neo said, “Okie dokie, where were we?”

      I said, “You mentioned that some scholars say that people reside in the various bardos until their final transition.”

      Neo said, “Yes.”

      I said, “What is the final transition?”

      Neo smiled impishly and said, “It depends on who you talk to.”

      I laughed and said, “Of course.”

      Neo said, “Some Christian, Jewish, or Muslim blokes believe that the final transition is to either reside with God in heaven for eternity, others to reside in hell with Satan or Lucifer.” “Other blokes say that you dissipate and go back into the absolute nothingness or Godhead for eternity…while other scholars say that people are doomed to come back to live time after time, life after life until they learn enough lessons to become enlightened and then they will return to the Godhead, Absolute Nothingness, Collective consciousness, forever, or the reward or punishment of heaven or hell that the believers of the God of Abraham have in store for all humans.”

      I said, “What about the belief of coming back to live other lives…how does that work in some religions?”

      Neo said, “The Hindus and some Buddhists believe in living many lives until a person becomes enlighten and only then is able to break the cycle of earthly existence thereby going back to the Godhead.” “Some or the early Jews and Christians believed in reincarnation and some people thought that Jesus was the reincarnation of earlier prophets.” “They believed that some people kept coming back until the Day of Judgment.”

      I said, “Okay, even though you do not believe you have lived any past lives…

which of the many beliefs of reincarnation do you think is correct?”

      Neo smiled and said, ‘It depends.”

      I threw up my hands laughing despite my growing frustration.” “There are just no easy answers from you!”

      Neo laughed and said, “Life does not always provide easy answers mate.”

      I said, “Okay, okay…what does it all depend on?”

      Neo said, “I think it all depends on the person, their life experiences, and the state of mind during their life and at the time of their death, and their belief systems.”

      Neo continued, “It depends if their beliefs were just intellectual or if it was heartfelt as well….and I think that a person’s actual biology my effect what happens after death.”

      I said, “Their biology…how would that have anything to do with reincarnation or salvation?”

      Neo said, “Perhaps a person’s biology…their innate neuro-physiological process may affect their level or direction of salvation or what bardos they may enter. “

      I protested and said, ‘Their biology can help to determine if they become reincarnated?” “That seems hardly fair.”

      Neo seemed really amused by my outrage and he said, “Who said life is fair?” "Or death for that matter mate?"

“It hardly seems fair when one student will study more than another and yet other student may grasp more material faster than his studious counterpart.” “We can both sit here all day and list things that are unfair concerning our biological differences.”

He said, “Remember the uncertainty principal.”

      Not liking uncertainty I said, “Yeah, yeah that damn uncertainty principal.”

      Neo said, “Not to fret too much…we can manipulate and change our biology to a greater extent than most people know.” “Remember what I said, “The cards that you are given – that’s destiny, and how you play yer hand, -- that is free will.”

      I said, “How can we change and manipulate our biology to prepare for where we go after death?”

      Neo said, “Ah…that is for another discussion.”

      I said, “What about those people who believe that they live many lives…that they are old souls…they are the people of India aren’t they?”

      Neo said, “The Hindus believe in reincarnation…they believe that you can come back as an animal or upgrade to a higher caste depending on their karma of their previous life” “The problem with many people throughout the world that their belief in reincarnation is their over reliance of this belief system.

As I was listening to Neo… I thought I saw a way of trapping him intellectually.”

      I said, “How many people in India believe in reincarnation.”

      Neo said, “Probably a few billion.”

      I laughed and gleefully yelled out, “Ah ha!”

      Neo looked at me curiously and said, “Ah ha what Vinny?”

      I said, “How can a few billion people who believe in reincarnation be wrong and you…one person who do not believe in reincarnation be right?”

      Neo sigh showing slight impatience and said, “Vinny, you need to listen closer. I never said, that all of those people were wrong in their beliefs…nor did I say I did not believe in reincarnation.” “I merely told you I did not believe I had a previous life and unless I developed in certain ways that I would not survive my body for any significant length of time.”

      Seeing that my trapped failed it deflated my mood for a moment. I was wondering and stumbling to grasp on what Neo had said that had motivated me to trap him intellectually.

Suddenly I had a mental Eureka!

      I said, “Neo…you said, that all of those billions of people have an over reliance on their view of reincarnation. right?”

      Neo started to smile and his eyes seemed to whirl mischievously at the prospect of what I was going to ask, and he said, “Yes that’s right.”

      I looked at him and realized he was not going to just volunteer more information so I said, “How can all those people actually be wrong to over rely on their belief and you be right in your assertion that they are over relying?”   

            Neo laughed, “Vinny! Historically humans are noted for banding in huge numbers and rallying around flawed belief systems…that has been my whole point of many of our fireside chats.” “When I said that most of those blokes over rely on reincarnation…I am not suggestion that reincarnation is impossible.” “If you recall,

I mention that I think it is possible.” “I was referring to populations of people that take for granted that how many times they screw up in each life…or how many times circumstances of their life(s) are less than optimal…they can just keep blundering through existence and eternity with no real work on their spiritual evolution.”

      I said, “I am not sure if I follow you.”

      Neo said, “Okay…have you ever met people that live as though they have forever by piss farting around most their lives, thinking that they can take their time to get their act together…but never seem to make a real attempt until it is too late?”

In my mind hundreds of people came to my thoughts and in my mind's eye my father, Harry, Larry and me especially was in the forefront.”

      The last image of me in that group made me feel very self conscious and I meekly said, “Yes.”

      Neo smiled and as if he read my mind said, “I bet many of those people you know intimately.” Before I could protest or say anything Neo spoke up again, “What kind of life do those people usually have?”

      I didn’t have to give it much thought and so I said, “Usually they grow up to be bitter about their lost opportunities and they don’t seem to learn or grow as much as they could.” “Usually the people I can think of don’t really accomplish that much if anything and they tend to over exaggerated or even lie about what they have done in life.” Harry was the person most in my thoughts as I said the last comment and the niggling feeling that was the way my life was heading was also present.

      I felt I had to lance that emotional boil so I said, “I have to admit Neo…I am constantly afraid that my life will turn out that way.” I thought, “There…I said it.”

      Neo laughed and said, “As well you should be concerned about falling into that trap mate.” “It is important to know that all of us can fall into that trap and we must guard against this vigorously.”

      I said, “You are telling me that the people who believe strongly in reincarnation feel as if they have forever to eventually get things right and that you would say that they are content to screw around in each life?”

      Neo said, “That is exactly what I am saying.”

      He said, “Many humans tend to be lazy and to drag their feet when it comes to doing any kind of work.”

      Neo said, “They tend to indulge in their baser instincts or into an apathetic twisted existence….always thinking that it will get better in the next life.” “In their mind they think they can see their endless life(s) like most westerners feel that they have their entire life to get things right.”

      I said, “You think that their belief is faulty and that this is what causes them more problems than us and our beliefs?”

      Neo said, “No…I am not saying that their beliefs are necessarily faulty…or that they should change them…I am saying that they over rely on their belief of endless lives and throughout the centuries these beliefs have made much of the populous too complacent with their poverty and misery.” “If they were not over relying on their belief system they would have been actively working vigorously on every aspect of their lives to be empowered in everyway.” “Instead, in many of these countries today have wide scale crushing poverty that is climbing to epidemic proportions.”

      I said, “Okay, I see your point that they over rely on their beliefs, but let’s for the sake of discussion say that I believe that all people do reincarnate…what information could you give me that would prove me wrong?”

      Neo said, “I am not going to attempt to prove you wrong…that is not my intention…but instead, let me ask you a question so that we can agree on certain rules or guidelines.”

      I thought, “Shit! Here we go…that damn Socratic questioning again.”

      I said, “Okay, what do you what to know?”

      Neo said, “What is it exactly that reincarnates?”

      I said, “Our soul.”

      Neo said, “What is a soul?” Neo’s question made me feel as if I was on thin ice…so I started to move slower in my thought processes.”

      I said, “It is the part of us that resides in our bodies that uses our bodies to do things in the material world?”

      Neo asked, “Do animals have souls?”

      I said, “I don’t think so…I am not sure.”

      Neo said, “Why don’t you believe that animals have souls.”

      I was stumbling for an answer…I felt I was on shaky ground with my explanations but I ploughed along anyway.”

      I said, “I think it is likely that they don’t because animals only have instincts to go by and we have an ability to think of things, to build things, to learn lessons and we have religions…animals do not.” 

      Neo said, “How do you know that animals do not have a religion or worship a deity.”

      Feeling a bit smug I said, “I have never seen an animal build churches or temples and I don’t see them congregating to worship God.”

      Neo said, “I don’t see you building churches and even though you have some spiritual beliefs I don’t see you congregating with anyone to worship.”

      Neo pointed at the Gulls and the many birds packed together walking around and feeding and said, “Look at those birds; whose to say they are not congregating at this moment to feed and to worship God in their gull and duck talk?”

      I begrudgingly said, “Good point.” “Well animals don’t invent or create things the way human beings do…such as buildings and tools for survival.”

      Neo laughed, “Yer starting to reach now mate.” “Animals don’t normally have to do the things we have to do to survive because they are completely suited to live in their environments.” “But you forgot the various complex types of nests that birds will build and the dams and the lodges that beavers build and the tools that primates build from the specific materials that they hunt for so that they can collect termites and other food sources better.”

      He said, “Doesn’t that put them on the same level with us for having a soul?”

      I said, ‘Shit! I knew all of that, I just forgot!” I was still determined to show Neo that humans do have souls and thereby that perhaps reincarnation was possible.” “That is all instinctual behavior and those behaviors are handed down to the young by primitive imprinting on to the brains of those animal’s offspring.”

“Also animals do not communicate with any other methods outside of their own songs, howls or grunts or what have you like we can; their methods of communicating in each species have also been handed down through an instinctual process and picked up by the imprinting mechanisms of the offspring’s brain.”

      I looked at Neo as if to say “So there!” and I was feeling very smug and self satisfied over my impeccable logic that I laid before him.”

I thought, “It is a good thing I have been taking psychology classes and I have learned all about animal instincts and baby bird imprinting.” I thought, “Let’s see how he gets himself out of that.”

      Neo smiled and even seemed a little impressed by my argument, but he did not seem to be unsettled at all…in fact he seemed to be ready to cut me off at my intellectual knees. I steeled myself for the onslaught.

      Neo said, “Yes animals do pass down instincts and their offspring do have imprinting mechanisms that serve them for assimilating information and behaviors; humans have these mechanisms also…for example just look at the way small children learn language.”

      Before I could ask him what he meant about language he jump in and said, “Let’s forget about children learning language for now and lets address what you said about animals only communicating in their own instinctual language.”

      I said, “Okay.”

      Neo said, “Did you know that animals such as some primates have been taught to speak and use human words correctly?”

      I told him that I had never heard of such a thing.

      Neo said, “Well the primates are limited to what they can speak because their vocal structures are not designed to handle what come out of our vocal structures, so their speaking vocabulary is very limited.”

      “However they have been able to be taught side language that deaf and mute humans use.”

      I was amazed to hear this and I said, as much.

      Neo said, “Since side language is not dependent upon any vocal structures their vocabulary has increased significantly by many times.”

      I said, “How do you know that they are not simply parroting the signs and words of their care-takers because of operant conditioning.” Ha, I thought, Neo has got to be impressed by my handle on psychological terminology.”

      Neo said, “Very good, that is very sharp of you to consider the mechanisms of operant conditioning, instead of falling into the trap that many people would do by believing without further examining that the primates had a true understanding of our language.”

      I allowed myself to feel a little glow of pleasure from his complement, but experience had taught me that when Neo dished out the complements during discussions such as these, those compliments seemed to grease the wheels of other people’s vehicles of thought to a speedy intellectual train wreck.

      Neo said, “They are not simply parroting their care-takers and you don’t have to trust me on this…you can look the research.”

      I said, “How did you come to that conclusion?”

      Neo said, ‘Because the primates have shown more than passing evidence for originality and innovation and without any provocation some of these primates will actively try and teach their offspring these new languages.”

      This new bit of information rock me back on my heels because of what it implied…especially the news of possible originality and innovation.”

      I said, “How do you know that they were innovative with the words and signs that they were “trained’ to use.” (I felt the need to say trained instead of learned).

      Neo said, “Some of these primates had “learned” enough from their care-takers and would combine words in ways and sequences that they had not been “trained” to do to use for appropriated situations or for an appropriated unexpected requests by some of the primates.”

      Evidently Neo did not miss my emphasis on my semi-covert message in the word trained.

      I said, “You are not suggesting that all of these primates have the intelligence and capability of becoming like the apes in the movie “Planet of the Apes’?”

      Neo said, “Of course not…even the smartest adult apes so far can only operate at the mental level of young human child.” 

      I said, “I have to admit Neo, all that is really impressive, but in actuality one could argue that they were still taught the basics of the language and that they did not invent a new language.”

      I hurried on with a new example to make my argument trying to anticipate another example from Neo.

      “I know that it can be argued that primates and even other animals have been trained and perhaps even learned many tricks by their human masters…and perhaps you could give me examples that dogs, chimps or what have you may have passed these tricks on to their offspring or each other.” “However, I said, they were still originally taught by humans.” “Only humans have the ability to create new thoughts and teach themselves new ways of problem solving in situations that have never existed in their lives or the lives of anyone in their memory.” I felt supremely triumphant from this assertion.”

      Neo unperturbed said, “Yes a few humans have figured out how to solve certain problems without the prior training of another person and a few humans have even created new systems of thought and tools or methods in dealing with problems that have had no memorable basis of similarity with other problems in which to draw experiential information from.”

      I looked at Neo and thought that I had him boxed in with this point.

      Neo smiled, “However, there are many examples of primates, dogs, cats, and even birds such as crows and parrots and other animals solving novel and artificial problems without any training from a human or even another animal.”

      I said, “How do you know that?”

      Neo said, “From the research that I have read, and also many years before that, when I was a child…my granddad…who was a shaman of our tribe…showed me this with a problem he had set up for the birds in the area.”

      Despite my inability to stump Neo I could not but help to feel a growing curiosity as to what a Australian shaman would set up for birds and wonder as to why he would take the time to bother.

      I said, ‘What did your grandfather do?”

      Neo said, “Granddad and me had been on visiting the Island of Tasmania because he was looking to share and exchange “magic” secrets with the shamans of that island and also to do a bit of a walkabout.” “While we were staying with another tribe he had got a bug up his arse and decided to show me a limb that a lot of the birds in the area were perching on so that they could look out at a clearing to spy for food.” “Me Granddad took a length of rawhide twine that was roughly sixty centimeters and tied a piece of meat about the size of a mouse securely to one end of the twine and the other end of the twine it tied securely to the branch that a lot of the birds had been roosting on; the end of twine holding the meat was dangling and swinging freely about on the other end.”

      I said, “Neo…I afraid to admit that I am not up on my metrics…sixty centimeters does not mean much to me.” Neo said, “Ya got to learn yer metrics mate….ya need it if you want to pursue science…sixty centimeters is roughly two feet in length.” I was a little embarrassed about my show of ignorance but I managed to ask Neo the point of having meat hang on a string that was tied to a branch.” “The birds looking for a free meal would sit on the branch and notice the meat on the twine and almost all of the birds would look at the meat and then swoop down ta git the meat, but the swinging twine would make the task almost impossible.” Most of the birds would try many times and finally frustrated they would give up and fly elsewhere for a meal.”

      “Me Granddad had us both sitting silently in the brush nearby the entire day to watch all of the birds that would try their luck swooping down from the branch, missing the meat, flying back onto the branch, and swooping down again…only to repeat there efforts a dozen times or more.” “One little bugger was so persistent that he must have tried a couple hundred times and then it was chased of by a giant kookaburra or what the orthinologist like to call a Dacelo novaequneae.”

      Before he could continue I asked, “What kind of bird is a kookaburra?”

      He said, “It is part of the Kingfisher family and it is the largest one of the bunch…a very aggressive bugger.”

      Neo continued, “Anyway, the kookaburra sat on the branch and it was looking this way and that at the meat dangling two feet below it.” “It swooped down several times ta git it, but failed.” “Finally the kookaburra stops and looks at the meat….looks at the twine….walks back and forth examining it and then stops above where the string is tied to the branch and it looks some more.”

      The color in Neo’s eyes started to swirl as he is lost in reverie recounting the story; he seems to be back in the past with the look of a child that is memorized by the wonders his Grandfather is showing him.

      Neo said, “That big ass bugger started to reach down with its clawed foot and seemed to try and pluck the meat that was two feet below it, then after a few failed attempts of only grabbing air, it made a purposeful grab at the string and pulled the string up as far as it could, but it could only lift it’s leg up so far to bring up the string and the meat was only a few inches closer with seemingly no hope of getting closer.” “Frustrated the kookaburra would let go of the string only for it to drop back the full two foot distance away from the bird, and then it reached down below the branch as far as it could without losing it’s balance and grabbed the twine again and pulling it up as high as it could by flexing it’s knee joint to bring the meat even closer to it greedy little beak.”

      Neo said, ‘The bugger did that maneuver about twenty times until it gave up that approach.”

      Fascinated I said, “Okay, he was smarter than the other birds and he figured out that if he could lift the string up he could get to the meat, but he still failed.”

      Neo smiled and looked like he came back from his childhood and he said, “If you were a bird how would you get the meat to you?” “By the way mate, you have an advantage that the birds did not have.”

      I said, “Well of course it would be my larger brain.”

      Neo laughed and said, “Well yeah…I suppose you might be able to look at that as some small advantage…but that was not what I was referring to.”

      I said, “What then?”

      Neo said, “As a bird with your human intelligence, you don’t have to waste your time diving for the meat or reaching with your claws trying to pull up the meat the limited distance of a few inches…because with your human intelligence you know that a few inches is not enough.” “You have the benefit of knowing about their failed efforts and you don’t have to waste yer time with methods that don’t work.”

      Neo looked at me and the space between us was pregnant with silence.

      Finally Neo spoke and said, “How are you going to solve the problem of getting to the meat without human tools or opposing thumbs?”

      Despite my previous assertion of my larger human brain I felt like the character Charlie in the story “Flowers for Algernon”. Charlie was a retarded man and Algernon was a surgically and chemically enhanced mouse but nevertheless he was still a mouse with limited intelligence compared to humans. Charlie had been challenged to race Algernon through a paper maze that duplicated Algernon’s actual maze.”

      Sadly, much to the retarded Charlie’s chagrined….Algernon won.” Most of my life I have at times felt like this Charlie character. Thinking of the challenge before me and as edgy as I felt and as Charlie-like as I felt…I tried to calm myself with the knowledge of the scores I had achieved on an I.Q. test and on the Armed Forces Qualification test, (Modesty forbids me from sharing my high scores), however, the niggling fear that those scores were flukes and I was a fraud that I was in reality more like Charlie than I care to face up to tormented me and cause me to pause. I sat in silence for a long time struggling to figure out how in the hell I would solve the problem of getting the meat if trapped in a kookaburra’s body.

      I felt very limited by the thought of having no tools or opposing thumbs.        

      After many minutes I said, “It is impossible...there is no way to get the meat without help.”

      I was hoping desperately that this was true and that Neo was just trying to take perverse pleasure in seeing how stupid I would be for even taking the time to think about an impossible task and this thought embarrassed and pissed me off. At the moment I felt as if my anger and embarrassment could not get worse. I was wrong!

      Neo said, “Yeah…it’s a tough problem…even though yer brain is so much bigger.”  “After the Kookaburra failed several times to pull it up, as I said, it stopped to look at the branch…the twine…and the meat.” “In fact the screwed up look you had on yer face as you were trying to visualize and solve the problem reminded me of what the bird seemed to be going through.”

      “Finally the Kookaburra grabbed the twine with it’s claw and instead of lifting it as far as it could in a fruitless attempt to bring it straight to his mouth…the bird pulled it just up to the branch and stood on the twine and then it took the other claw and held the trapped string thereby freeing up the claw that was used first to grab the shortened twine to bring that up to the branch to stand on it and then with the claw that was trapping up the first length the bird reached over to grab the second interval that had been pulled up….”

      I was nauseated and embarrassed beyond belief and I yelled, “Aw shit!”

      Neo laughed heartily and emphatically he said, “Yeesss….you see what the bird figured out.” I snort as I felt the self loathing rise in my throat and in an attempt to lessen the damage to my pride

      I blurted out, “The bird kept repeating the process until the meat was sitting up on the branch where he could eat it at his leisure.”

      Neo was rolling on the ground convulsed with laughter at my failure and embarrassment. It took him about ten minutes for him to gain enough control to speak to me again.

      He said, “Cracky…that was good…I love it when I git the occasion to laugh that hard.”

      As he was talking he was wiping the tears from his red face and still trying to catch his breath.

      Neo said, “Not bad fer a bird brain eh mate?

      Then he exploded into laughter again. My face felt as if it was burning from the heat of the sun and my eyes had teared-up from shame. I just had it proven to me what I had often suspected and that I was indeed like Charlie.

      Neo snickered and said, “Yeah…sitting there as a little shaver, I figured that what the kookaburra had done was a fluke, but the next day, a Forest Raven had done the same thing.”

      Neo started to snicker some more trying to control his laughter because of my embarrassment and then failing utterly as he succumbed to another ten minutes of gasping for breath, weeping tears of laughter as his muscles bunched and spasm in response to the hilarity. During these ten minutes of humor at my expense he manage to shame me further by telling me that the Forest Raven had solved the problem in a third of the time of the Kookaburra and unlike the day before, Neo and his grandfather did not have to wait all day…oh no!

It took only a half a day worth of birds to try it before a bird brained Einstein solved what I could not! I tried to keep my humor although I think I would give my self an A for effort and a D for performance.

      I looked at Neo and said, “Sometimes Neo….I can understand why Harry really does not like you!”

      Hearing this Neo howls with laughter again, finally he said, “Let’s take a break and go fer a swim Vinny!”

      I was more than willing to get away from this subject and I jumped up and with a tone of bravado to hide my shame and anger and said, “Let’s go mate” and I ran ahead of Neo into the surf. As I ran towards the surf the gulls, and other birds spread out to make way for me.

      The hurt and childish part of my mind thought, “Good thing that these birds are smart enough to keep out of my way considering how I feel right now.”

      The mature observer in me was triggered by these thoughts and my ridiculous behavior had me laughing as I plunged into the surf.

      After a few hours of being pounded by the cool surf I went back to our little encampment to rest. Neo had followed me in right after my shameful loss of contest to pit his body against the rough waves.

      After a while he went back to the camp to retrieve his surfboard and he ran back into the surf crying out, “Surfs up! Ye ha!” and he padded way out into the distance past the last sand bar.

      I watched him surf from our beachside encampment and thought how much he and the surf board looked like one being. I thought if he had surf in the pre-Columbian days, the local Indians may have mistaken Neo and the board to be a singular being also and would perhaps worship him as some sort of oceanic god.

      I was still smarting a little from the thought that a few damn birds could figure out how to solve a man-made problem when I had not. My stomach was feeling a growl of hunger which prompted me to dive into the food supplies I had brought along.

      I thought, “That’s it… I am hungry that’s why I didn’t figure out the problem…I was starving and everyone knows starving brains don’t function too well.

      Another voice crept in…”The birds were hungry too....that’s why they persisted so long.”

      I thought,” Aw crap, I should just give up on the excuses and let it go.”

      I had to acknowledge to myself that regardless of my bruised pride I was still very interested in pursuing our conversation on what a soul is and if we reincarnate when we die.” I vowed I would not let my pride and hurt feelings get in the way of getting an unconventional education.”

      Neo had come back from his surfing, and as he came out of the water the salt and water was glistening on his muscular frame and I could not help notice again how much he looked like a rougher hewn larger Frank Zane and how modern people, Indians and non-Indians alike would be tempted to think of an oceanic god from Greek mythology.

      As Neo came closer to our encampment…I blurted out, “Has anyone told you are built a lot like Frank Zane?”  

      Neo laughed, “Not a bad way to be built....I guess you could say I owe a little bit of that to some of the training tips he showed me.”

      I was floored to hear that he had known one of my personal heroes.

      I said, “You never told me that you know Frank Zane.”

      Neo said, “There was never a reason to bring it up.”

      I said, “Hell, he is one of my favorite body builders.”

      Neo said, “Yeah ole’ Frank is a grouse bloke with a bonzer build on him.”

      I said, “Neo, please speak English…I mean American.”

      Neo laughed and said, “I meant Frank is a great fellow with an excellent muscular build.” “He is  a very smart fella and probably has the most spiritual approach to weight training to anyone I know except fer Bill Kazimier, Bill Pearl, Bruce Lee, and me of course.” and as he said, this Neo was buffing his finger nails on his imaginary shirt in a mock display of false modesty. He looked at me and laughed and said, “And you’ve got a fairly spiritual approach to exercise also.” “You would really like him and I dare say he would like you to.”

      I felt like a groupie wanting to find out more about my idol and I said, “What’s he like?”

      Neo said, “Like I said, he is a real smart fella, very educated, very creative and multi-talented.” “He married a beautiful Shelia.”

      I jumped in and said, “Yes, I know, her name is Christiana and I met them both at the Mr. U.S.A. contest that a guy named Glen Snyder and Ricky Wayne put on back in Pennsylvania.”

      Neo said, “Yeah I remember that Frank had gone to that contest… along with Ray and Mike Mentzer, Danny Padilla, Mike Katz, Franco Columbo, Boyer Coe, Dave Draper…lots of me mates were there.”

      My mind was whirling at what Neo was telling me…He was dropping many of my idols names as if he was close friends with them. He even said most of his mates and Neo was not a guy to call someone a mate casually…he reserved that term for people he had certain affection for.”

For people he did not have a sort of friendship with he would call them a bloke or by name regardless if he admired them or disliked them.

I was ready to grill him for as much information as I could about all of the body building stars but he cut me off with one of his familiar dismissive gestures.

      He said, “Vinny, I really don’t want to talk about body building or body building super stars….even if many of them are me mates.” “There is no sense of wagging until we finish what we started in our conversation since it is getting late.”

      I said, “But I have some more questions about Mike Mentzer and Frank…..”

      Neo cut me off and said, “Later.”

      Neo sat down and reached in his rucksack and pulled out some dried meat and start digging in with his big teeth.

      He looked at me for what seemed like a long time and then he said, “Don’t feel so bad about not being able to figure out what the birds figured out.”

      Neo choked a bit and I could tell he was threatening to breakout in laugher again…but he managed to keep it under control.

      He said, “I failed the test also.”

      The look on my face must have looked odd because he started to laugh when he saw my disbelief.

      I said, “What do you mean?”

      Neo said, “My granddad took me out to watch the birds for a reason…and that was to teach me a lesson.”

      I said, “What sort of lesson was your Grandfather trying to teach you?”

      Neo smiled and his eyes seemed to fade back to that distant time of childhood.

      He said, “Granddad was trying to teach me that all life has intelligence…all life is equally worthy…and most of all…he was trying to teach me humility.”

      I was surprised by this last admission since in my mind Neo was one of the most humble and modest men that I have ever met and I said, as much to him.

      Neo said, “I was an arrogant and plucky little shaver…I thought I was too smart fer anyone.” I was full of my self because of my parents had put a lot of effort in their children’s education and I was an apt pupil…the shining star of many of my teachers and of course they wanted to take credit for my early show of prodigious learning.”

      I said, “You mentioned that your family came from a tribe…did you get your education from missionaries or did you have a school on a reservation of some sort?”

      Neo said, “My mother was what you would call Aborigine, but after she married my father they moved to town and my brothers and sisters and I were townies until my father left on a long hard drinking walkabout.”       

      Neo said, “I excelled in school and I enjoyed all the attention for my dog and pony show antics.

      I said, ‘What’s wrong with a kid getting a little attention?”

       Neo said, “Nothing if a kid needs it…I didn’t need it…I took every opportunity to humiliate kids that were not as smart or as well read as I was.” “My Dad liked to show me off and brag to his friends about me...and I guess I had a emptiness in me that needed to be filled and because of this need I became cruel and capricious.”

“My granddad did not live in town and he did not live on a reservation…he lived in the outback.” “He was not a man to understand the urban life like you and I would, but he had a deep understanding of universal things…things hard to explain.”

      Neo said, “My Granddad was a man of many worlds.”

      I asked, “What do you mean about many worlds?”

      Neo looked at me for a very long time…the color and patterns in his irises really moving now. I could tell he was mulling something around in his head that he seemed on the verge of sharing with me and then he said, “I am not sure if you are ready to know everything about my Granddad.”

      He said, “I will say that my Granddad was very wise and he knew that I lived too much in the intellectual world…I was too much intellect and ego…and not enough heart and spirit.” “He knew I needed to be brought back to the common sensible things….he knew I needed to be taught humility.”

      I said, “Your Granddad did to you what you did to me today, huh?”

      Neo laughed and said, “Yes he did…and I was even more frustrated and angry than you.”

      I said, “What did you do?”

      Neo said, “I ran away deep into the outback and I was by myself for a month until my Grandfather and one of my uncles decided it was time to go into dreamtime and track me down.”

      I said, “You mentioned dreamtime before, what is it?”

      Neo said, “It is nothing you need to know right now….maybe never.”

      I was irritated that he would try to keep me in the dark about certain things, but I wanted to keep him talking about his running away.”

      I said, “You mentioned that you were gone for a month until they decided to come and track you down?” “Why in the world would they take the chance of leaving you that long in the wilderness…isn’t that dangerous?”

      Neo laughed, “Yeah it is…but my people reckon life and death differently than townies, it is part of a rite of manhood to be left out in the wilderness alone to survive.” “Besides my mother’s tribe and even my father knew how to live off the land.” “Our people are taught everyday to survive and thrive in the outback from the day we can crawl.” “Even though me and my siblings were mostly townies in the beginning, we visited my mother’s family tribe often and my Granddad and uncles took upon themselves to give us the training that all tribal folk git.”

      “My Granddad figured that I needed to stay out alone and get my crying done and get my ego to lose it’s self of importance.”

      I said, “Was your relatives pissed off when they found you?”

      Neo said, “Na, but once my Granddad and Uncle tracked me down we spent another month in the outback hunting and they put me through some stuff that is usually saved for the older lads when they actually go through their rite of becoming a man.” “The rite of manhood is really tough and I will tell you about it sometime, but I would like to wrap-up what we were talking about.” “Are you ready fer it?”

      I had not lost interest in our discussion, but now I was more interested in Neo’s childhood, but he did not seem too eager to open up entirely, so I agreed for us to move on.

      Neo said, “Okay…you argued that animals compared to humans do not have the requisite intelligence for salvation or reincarnation...so we examined all the ways that animals do demonstrate their intelligence.”

“We have shown that they are capable of communicating, learning new languages, adding in their own innovation, teaching their peers and offspring what they have learned….using tools, and even hunting down materials to make tools. “And learning to problem solve even in novel situations.” “Oh as a side note, another type of bird that is known for its intelligence is the New Caledonian Crow or if you prefer the Corvus moneduloides searches for materials to make tools for use of getting some of its food sources.

      Neo said, “You mentioned that animals don’t seem to involve themselves with religious matters, but the fact is some crows have been observed to have a type of funeral for their mates.” “Ravens are especially intelligent for birds, they score very high on intelligence tests and some of them have good linguistic abilities and they have the ability to pass on information over vast distances.” “Many crows live in hierarchical societies that sometimes have hundreds of individuals and their society is so complex that many of the individual crows occupy a number of occupations.

      Neo said, “You mentioned that animals do not build temples….but our Bowerbirds, notably our Great Bowerbird the Chlamydera nuchalis will spend a lot of time building bowers to attract a female.” “They will hunt for and use collections of objects that look alike and then they will carefully sort and arranged by size, designed and color and make wondrous structures. They use stuff like shells, flowers, stones, colorful fruit and leaves and they arrange all of this with an eye showing an appreciation for symmetry and design.” These birds will even steal from other bowers articles to put into their bower.”

      Neo seemed filled with excitement as he was talking bout the birds, “They spend so much time maintaining these bowers and guarding them.” “The females spend a lot of time examining the bowers of all the males before they decide which male is worthy to mate with.” “The males spend lots of time and putting in a lot of meticulous effort in the bowers and then preening themselves and strutting in front of the females.”

      I said, “Today has been a real eye-opener for me…especially these Bowerbirds.” “I can’t figure out if many animals are more advance then we give them credit for or if we are far more primitive than we like to admit and we are just jerking ourselves by thinking we are that much different.”

      Neo laughed and said, “You see the dilemma.”

      I said, “It brings to mind all of the guys I know who preen and show off their houses and sports cars….and woman do really respond to shiny trinkets.” “Still, overall…humans are capable of doing a lot of things like mathematics, poetry, advanced engineering, painting…and most humans can do this, while most of the bird did not solve the problem.”

      Neo said, “Are you saying it is mostly that part of you that does algebra, writes poetry and builds bridges that is important for reincarnation?” “Are you saying that the more educated a person the more likely reincarnation?”

      I said, “Shit, if it is….then I guess I’m screwed.”

      I sat there wondering if there was such a thing as reincarnation and if Neo did think it occurred occasionally, what mechanisms where involved that would allow for reincarnation.

      I said, “You claimed that you are not an old soul and that you don’t believe most people have past lives or will live future ones….is that right?”

      Neo said, ‘That’s what I believe.”

      I said, “Since I am no closer to figuring out if reincarnation exists or why some people may actually reincarnate, I have to wonder Neo, was there a point for me to go through all of that questioning?”

      Neo said, “Yeah…there is a point to it and I still have a few more questions.” Neo looked at me for more than a minute as if he was thinking of his next line of questioning. I figured for him it was important to keep things sequential. Neo said, “How many people are alive in the world today?”

      I wasn’t sure where he was going but I thought I knew the answer so I said, “About four billion people.”

      Neo said, “Yes…closer to four and a half billion.” “Some historians and archeologist believe that the world population was about 150 million people world wide at the time of Moses and reached 300 million by 1 A.D. and the population stayed roughly at that level until 1500 where it was approximately at 425 million people.” Neo said, “Accidents, disease, wars, and poor nutrition kept the population down.” “By the year 1800 around the time of yer countries forefathers the world population more that doubled at 900 million.”

      “In the decade you were born…1950 the world population was 2.5 billion people that almost triple.” “The population will double that well before this decade ends and by the year 2000 President Carter’s team of experts estimate that the population of the world will be at just over 6 billion and by 2025 over 8 billion…2050 almost 9.5 billion and the population is expected to top out at right around 12 billion people before the year 2100 arrives. That last figure is almost triple what we have today.”

      I now thought I saw where Neo was going but he held me so enthralled by his dissertation on population growth I could not jump in with where I thought he was going.

      Neo said, “Today as we speak, there are far more people alive in our generation than all of the people that had ever lived and died since hominids first appeared on earth.”

      Neo said, “Our current population is 33 times that of the population of the time of Moses.”

      I said, “I see what you mean…most people living today would have to be new souls…if we have a soul”

“Some people think that there are people living throughout the universe and that when they die they can come here to be born on earth…to experience earthly existence and that we can be reincarnated on other star systems.”

      Neo said, “Yeah…I suppose that could account for some people’s theory that we all get to reincarnate…unless of course the universe is increasing its population in the same manner as here on earth.”

      I said, “Some Christians I know claim that there are only a limited number of souls in heaven, waiting to be born into a human body.” “Some of these people tell me that the people that die are not reincarnated but wait around in limbo until the final judgment day.”

      Neo said, “Actually the term originally comes from the old Jewish text the Talmud and it is used to explain that there is a repository for all unborn souls.” “The word ‘guff’ literally means ‘body’.” Some Jewish scholars believe that The Son of David or the Messiah will not arrive until all souls that are waiting to be born are born.”

      I said, “So in a sense the Tibetans may be right and all or these people that have died are hanging out in one bardo or another, or limbo, or purgatory.”

      Neo smiled and said, “That is a very broad way to look at it.”

      I said, “What about all of the people that say that they remember a past life…how do you account for that?”      

      Neo said, “I think a lot of those blokes might be bonkers and some of them are tooling with a bit of a flight of fancy.” “If you go into a half dozen mental hospitals you will find that there are a hellva lot of blokes who claim to have been Napoleon, or Caesar or someone famous.”

      I said, “But what about those people that have remembered things about a time and place in history of which they have never studied and they even can speak or understand some dead languages?”

      Neo said, “There ya go…some or those I think are the rare blokes that may have actually been reincarnated, but I am not entirely convinced that most of them are.”

      I said, ‘Why not?”

      Neo said, “During much of my research over the years…I have come across a few cases where you would have two or more blokes claiming to be the same person in history.” “What was compelling is that these blokes knew things that were relevant that they could not have studied or been coached…yet it is a case of more than one person alive during the same time remembering to be such and such a bloke from the past.”

      I said, “How do you think that they could have all known those relevant items if they did not read or hear about what they “remembered’ from the past?”

      Neo said, “Yer American clairvoyant Edgar Cayce and other scholars describe something called the Akashic records.”

      I said, “I could swear I heard that term before, but I am not sure what it means.”

      Neo said, “Some people think of it as the collective conscious where all memories and thereby all information is record or stored at a frequency that is not normally available to most humans.” “Edgar Cayce could access it, my Granddad could access it, and sometimes I think people access it in such an unexpected way that they tap into the memories of another persons past life thinking that it had to be their past life.”

      I said, “Well maybe it is?”

      Neo said, “If two people access it within the same year…does that mean that it was the past life for both of them?”

      I said, “I see the problem.”

      Neo said, “In a sense that we are all God and God is each of us…I suppose we could say that all past lives were ours.” “But when I speak of reincarnation…I think of us as individuals reliving again as individuals…and I have not done this.” “I am on this trip through life the first time around.”

      I said, “Do you think that even if you and I have never lived before and if we may never live again…do we have a soul?”

      Neo said, ‘That’s the million dollar question Vinny…and the question begs what is a soul and who has one and why?” “Some Tibetans believe that the soul enters the egg of humans just as the sperm penetrates the egg.” “If that is true then I have to ask myself, ‘do people like me who are part of a set of identical triplets have a soul.”

     This newest bit of information had me in alert mode, because I had never heard or dreamed that Neo could be one of three identical triplets

      I stupidly blurted out, “Do you mean that there are three of you running around the world.”

      Neo looked shocked and then amused and he said, “No Vinny…there is only me running around the world.” “My one brother died many years ago and my other brother is still doing okay....and they were not another me…they were their own sovereign selves.” “I don’t want to talk about my brothers…I mentioned the fact that I am part of a triplet set…because if a soul enters the egg after the sperm breaks through…does this mean that I have a third of a soul, or is my soul sixty-six percent more diluted than yours, or do the three of us have the same soul but different intellectual and physical experiences?” “When during prenatal development does a person get a soul?”

      I looked at Neo and just shrugged.”

      Neo said, “Is it right at conception?” Is it before my mother’s egg divided into three or more separate cells that eventually became my brothers and me after my father’s sperm share it’s DNA with the DNA of my mother?” “Does a soul wait a week when the fertilized egg is in the blastocyst stage with a collection of 128 to 256 cells?” “Does the soul enter during the first two to eight weeks when I am still an embryo during the tadpole or fish stage or does it wait for the third month when I became a fetus and I finally measure 1 inch and weigh a whopping ounce?”

      I said, “Perhaps the soul enters as soon as the baby is delivered…if we have one.”

      Neo looked at me and said, “Yes if we have one.” Neo looked at me intently as if waiting to hear me give him an answer or secret to his questions.

      He said, “Hardly anyone has ever…if ever seen one.”

      He kept looking at me and I don’t know why but at that instant I thought about my experiences of OBE’s… I thought of the Dwarf and the Dark energy being I had wrestled with a few years prior to meeting Neo. I thought of the rapturous experience at Cherry Point and I thought of my late night excursion in my non-ordinary body in Valley Forge Park.”

      I thought of all the times I had hovered over my body or both my body and Angelina after making love.” I thought of how it was due to these experiences that I had torn down my agnostic prison and enabled me to even consider the possibility of God, Jesus and the resurrection, heaven and hell, angels, demons and ghosts and a soul with the possibility of reincarnation.

      Yes, since these personal experiences I have considered the possibility of all these things and just as strongly I considered the possibility that I suffered from some type of mental illness at least episodes of psychosis.

      Aside from my pride the only thing that kept me from checking into a loony bin was that those non-ordinary states seem to happen when I was operating at my mental and physical peak and these states seem to cause me to enhance. I also have told myself that is just what a delusional person would tell himself.”

       Now after these past ten years of wondering and second guessing my experiences I was sitting in the wilderness with a strange and charismatic man who was from Australia and claimed to be partly Aborigine. Even though I do not believe in fate, it almost felt like it to be talking to a guy who functioned much higher than me in every way and we were talking about things that have tormented me for years. Evidently many of these questions were of concerned to Neo.

      I decided to take a chance. With the exception of the kid I worked with at the Valley Forge Drug Store. Angelina and one of my close friends a philosopher named Jon Lynch up until now I had never told anyone about my experiences. Even with Angelina and Jon I was careful to tell them only a few and only the blissful experiences. I did not want to push our friendship too far.

      Now I felt it would be okay to tell Neo why I believed that we have a soul. I could not even hope to deal with the questions as to whether dogs, or plants have souls, or when a soul enters after conception, but I felt strongly that if my experiences were not the stuff of psychosis then it was likely that it meant that we were more than animals. I told Neo everything. I told him of all my mystical experiences in vivid detail…and he did not runaway, nor did he laugh or attempt to sedate me.

      Neo looked at me very intently not saying a word during the entire confession and he had a look of complete acceptance as to what I was telling him.

      When I was done, Neo smiled knowingly and said, “Vinny, I was almost certain from the first week I met you that you had experienced these sorts of things…that is one of the reasons I have brought you with me on these wilderness walkabouts.” “That is why I arrange to have all of these conversations around religion and spirituality.”  

      I said, “I thought I arranged the conversations of religion.”

      Neo laughed and said, “Yeah, that’s what I had you believe…I just reeled you in.”

      I said, “Okay…okay, but how you could even think of something like this from just meeting me…does that mean you also have these experiences?”

      I had a thousand new questions and not enough time on earth to ask Neo what in the hell he was all about.

      Neo said, “I could tell by a bunch of little things…the way you intimated you viewed the use of your body during weight lifting and other methods of exercise.”

“A few times I could make out the energy fields in yer body and I could see that they would extend beyond yer body and a few times I could tell that you were drawing from the energy fields generated throughout the universe to augment yer performance.”

      I thought, “Hoy shit! He could actually see what I thought during some of those times I was working-out and mostly thought was fantasy?”

      I also thought. “Careful Vinny, the likelihood is that you are both nuttier than a frigging fruit cake.”

      Neo said, “The way you blissed out when you were holding on to Gladys’s hand when I was helping her to heal…that showed me that your were a sensitive and yer energy fields really showed.”

      I said, “You could see….these…these…energy fields.”

      Neo laughed, “A few times I could, other times I felt that was what you were doing but I could not see it, so I did not really know.”

      I said, “You can see auras?”

      Neo said, “Mmm…sometimes…but that is not really one of my talents.” “I have friends that see auras of people, plants, animals, and even inanimate objects all the time.” “I know people that can’t automatically see auras but they can if they focus.” “I can often feel energy around me even when I am not looking…not always but often.”

      I said, “That is why you knew Harry was gesturing at you the one night at the A & W restaurant and when Brian or other guys would try to sneak up on you?”

      Neo said, “Yes.”

      I was looking at Neo trying to digest all of the information. I knew that if I had never experienced what I had I would never be alone in the woods with him now or ever again. An errant thought bark out in the back of my mind…almost a yell, “Neo you are one schizoid Mo-Fo!”

      Neo looked at me intently and he said, “I know that right now you are thinking I am one sick insane bloke, aren’t you. His statement said so quickly after my errant thought jammed a lance of fear into my gut and it felt as if my blood had turned to ice water and my testicles were threatening to ascend.”

      I hissed, “Holy shit! You can read minds to?”

      Neo started laughing his guts out and I thought he would go as long on this laughing jag as he had done earlier…but it was only a few minutes and then he regained control.

      He was wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes and he said, “Ah Vinny you are so funny…no I can not read minds…I was just being logical as to what anyone would think…even what I would think if the situation were reversed.” “Don’t you think that I have probably questioned my own sanity at times?”

      I thought, “Insane or not at least he cannot read minds.”

      It was weird…I could handle a lot of things but the thought of someone able to read my mind was very unsettling.

      Neo said, “Admit it, you have on more than one occasion wondered if I was playing with a full deck.” I was very uneasy being pinned down on this subject, especially since he was on the mark.

      I said, “Ah…no crazier than I am.” That was mostly true.

      Neo smiled and said, “Vinny, you could be a politician if you weren’t so dinkum-di.”

      I laughed at his funny words. I said, “What the hell is dinkum-di mean?”

      Neo said, “It means you are one genuine bloke…most politicians are not, but they can sound that way.”

      I said, “So…you said, that you knew that I had probably experienced what I just told you.”

      Neo said, “Yepper.”

      I said, “Does this mean you have also experienced many of these same experiences?”

      Neo said, “Yep, those types of experiences…more times then I can count and many different types of experiences than what you have shared with me today.

      I said, “When did you first start to have these experiences.”

      Neo said, “When I was a little shaver…my Granddad and Uncles started to teach me what they had to know as shamans.”

     I said, “You mentioned before he was a shaman... what is a shaman?”

      Neo said, “In other cultures my dad would be called a warlock or a sorcerer…but mostly a medicine man.”

     I said, “Why would a medicine man be called a warlock or sorcerer?”

      Neo said, “Because a lot of these tribal medicine men believed that they had to invoke magical incantations and magical potions to call on the spirits and cast good and bad spells.”

      I laughed and said, “Yeah it is pretty funny that people from primitive cultures are so superstitious to believe in all of that magical whoee crap.”

      Neo looked at me intently and said, “How do you know it is any more whoee than the religious beliefs that you grew up with?”

      I thought, “Oh damn it! I’ve offended Neo.”

      I stammered, “Neo I didn’t mean to offend you….I guess a medicine man’s belief system is just as valid as anyone one else’s.”

      Neo smiled and said, “Indeed it is mate…I must admit a lot of the stuff that shamans or medicine men do is sometimes ineffective non-magical stuff but often some shamans have a real handle on honest to God magical elements and rituals.” “Even in the Christian bible talks about the magi's which were in a sense magicians.”

      I said, “Do you consider yourself a warlock and sorcerer?”

      I was still trying to get a handle if Neo was delusional and how much.

      Neo said, “Na, but my Granddad and uncles trained me to be a shaman or medicine man.”

      I thought, “Okay…as I was looking for the quickest exit out of the area in case he got dangerous. He's about as fruity as Carmen Miranda's hat."

      Then I chided myself for being so paranoid since he had never shown any dangerous behavior, just unusual abilities and beliefs…and what the hell…my beliefs were also odd.

      Neo said, “I am like you, just a seeker who is looking to build my personal power as I go through life.”

“My Granddad is big on building personal power…and that is what he wanted me to do…that is why he put me through that test of problem solving against the birds.”

      I said, “How does that have anything to do with building personal power?”

      Neo said, “My Granddad knew that I operated on too much intellect…too much pride…too much ego.”

“He knew that I had to learn how to operate more from my heart and from my spirit.” “He had to break me down and show me how puny and limited our intellect and ego is.” “My Granddad learned that there are energies, realities and power that we can experience and utilize that our intellect and ego have problems wrapping around.” “Your experiences are the same way…you and I can talk all night about them….but language, is inadequate when trying to share the experience….the mind is inadequate when we trying to intellectualize and build concepts over what you have experienced.”

      Neo said, “But we keep trying…at least to ourselves…and we should keep trying…especially after an experience and before to prepare for an experience.” “However, as I am sure you know…there are many realms where your thoughts are useless and even blocked.”

      My mind was whirling at all that Neo was trying to share and all I could do was nod an affirmative at his last statement of fact.

      After a time I decided to ask Neo a question that I thought was the most germane to his being a seeker.

      I said, “What do you hope to accomplish in your quest…what sort of personal power do you think is important?”

      Neo said, “I am always trying to increase my personal power in every respect that is important…such as the emotional realm…the intellectual realm…the physical realm…the financial realm…and the spiritual realm.”

“Most of all…I look at everything in my quest as an adventure with the promise of experiencing pain and pleasure and increasing insight and knowledge in the intellectual and in the non-intellectual realms. “My biggest goal is survival of the body and not in the live another life sense…but in the sense that I believe what Jesus was really trying to teach all of us and what God set up for many of us.”

      I said, “And what in God’s name would that be?”

      Neo said, “To resurrect when the body dies or to drop the body when I feel it would be best and to keep my individual identity without losing my connection to God…even enhancing my connection to God.” “To enter other realities as it pleases me.”

      I said, “That sounds like a tall order.”

      Neo said, “Many are called to the kingdom of heaven and few are admitted.”

      I recognized that he paraphrased a quote from the bible and I understood the implication.”

      I said, “Why are sharing all this with me?” “Are you looking to become my guru?” “Are you going to put me through rigorous rituals and exercises?”

      Neo laughed and said, “Na…I don’t do the guru thing Vinny, I don’t want the responsibility.”

      He said, “There are very few people that I enjoy hanging out with and there are even less people that I believe I can trust or count on to any relevant degree.”

      Neo said, “You are one of those people I can trust.” “Also, since I am still essentially selfish by nature, I actually look at our friendship as mutually beneficial.”

      I said, “What in the hell could I offer you?” “I could certainly learn from you…but there is nothing I can teach you…except perhaps how to increase your strength.”

      Neo said, “At the risk of sounding grandiose, I think certain labels apply to me because of my approach to the goals in my quest.”

      I said, “What labels are they?”

      Neo said, “I approach my goals mystically, experientially, and as a scientist.” “If we chat and we share ideas and our experiences with each other…then I have another willing guinea pig to verify my experiences and vice versa.”

      I said fearfully, “I don’t think I want to be a guinea pig.”

      Neo said, “No worries mate…you may do things you don’t want to do in regular life, but you will never find yer self doing what you don’t want with the things I am talking about.” “Everything you may do will be because you will be eager to do it.”

      I said, “I can’t wait to tell Larry, Harry and Jon of all of this.” “Now I know another person who has experienced all of these neat things and you know how to present them in conversation.”

      Neo said, “Sorry Vinny. Remember when I said I didn’t want you to talk about our camping trips, I also do not want you to share any or this with the other blokes at the gym…or anyone fer that matter.”

      I said, “Why not? Everyone that heard what you had to say…and experience what you have would have their eyes opened.”

      Neo said, “Vinny…even you are not wholly convinced of a small portion of what you have experienced.”

“You can not just go out and tell everyone, for the obvious reasons that people would think that you would need to be locked up.”

“Even most of the people that would believe you would only be able to understand it somewhat at an intellectual level…they would not know how to feel it in their hearts…they would not know how to experience it without their intellect.” “Most people are crippled without their intellect…because ironically they are crippled by their intellect.” “The best you can do is to approach the people you love in a sneaky backdoor manner and hope that they can experience some of the things we talked about and then they can start the journey that I am on…that I think you want to be on.” “But you are not experienced enough to do the backdoor methods.”

      I said, “Sneaky backdoor…like what you did with me?”

      Neo said, “I must admit…I did a little…but as you told me…you have quite a few experiences before we met.” “You were trying to open the door so I just pulled the door open wider while you had a good grip on the knob.” “Besides the fact that most people that you know are not ready…I simply do not want the attention…whether it is good, bad or indifferent.” “I have many reasons why I don’t like to draw attention to myself and I would like to keep a low profile as I journey on my quest.” Neo looked at me and said, “This is a condition that I must insist on and it is non-negotiable if you want to share my company mate.”

      Neo looked at me waiting for my response.

      I thought, “What the hell, everyone has their personal needs and as long as Neo’s needs did not hurt others, so be it, I wanted in.”

      I said, “Okay, you got a deal.”

      Neo said, “That’s grouse mate…now let’s turn in fer a bit and do some spine-bashing so you will be fresh as a daisy when we go see the grunions spawn.”

      I was so tired from the long palaver and the hard swimming I had done earlier that I practically ran to my bed roll. I closed my eyes and welcome the sweet oblivion that took me away.

October 2^nd, 1982 – The death of Baba Muktananda

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