This book seeks to explore and address questions relating to life and death, reincarnation, karma, the soul, the spirit, the temporal body, the brain, the mind, consciousness, subconsciousness, superconsciousness, material consciousness, collective consciousness, God Consciousness, Universal Consciousness, Platonic information base, the Akashic record, the Shadow Self, the Authentic Self, dreams, intuition, instinct, genetics and early life experiences, agency/choice, inherited conversations, language, reality, quantum physics and mechanics, possibility and potentiality, life purpose, soul purpose, and enlightenment.

With the 22 Cairns of Illumination in place — which focus primarily on matters of this world and this life — we can now begin to take a deeper look into the nature of ethereal existence. The principle question that this book seeks to explore and address is how a person might most effectively attain higher degrees of awareness and awakeness — more enlightened ways of being, and ultimately even enlightenment itself — living inside the construct of this world. To this end, I will introduce and articulate the aforementioned concepts above, with acute focus on the Shadow Self, the Authentic Self, God Consciousness, and agency/choice.

The aspiration is to at first build bridges between one's ego/identity (material consciousness, or the Shadow Self) and one's soul and spirit (the former, from God's quantum matter, and the latter from God's Consciousness; thus, we are created in "God's image") — until such time that we arrive at the Authentic Self, which is a balance of all consciousness, including Universal and God Consciousness.

Imagine for a moment: what if...

"God" — the name used to distinguish The Creator of Everything — in God's perfect and blissful state of Eternal Being, got a little bored, and in God's boundless Creative Consciousness, chose to write a play. But not just any play — The Play. And in this play, there would be breathtaking drama and theatre — comedy, tragedy, intrigue, suspense, satire, and rich irony all rolled into one great, epic, and exquisite journey of the imagination and senses. Of course God need not write, for God's own Consciousness is the blank canvas on which anything and everything is possible, and God's mere thoughts manifest material and ethereal existence.

So through God's Thoughts, God creates The Theatre — quantum matter and multiple universes. And God creates numerous Stages — earth and other life-supporting planets and numerous dimensions in space and time. And God creates numerous Sets for The Stages — all manner of nature and life-supporting material. And God creates The Actors — a finite number of soulful and spiritual beings. And God creates the supporting cast of characters — animals and other complex life forms. And then God gives The Actors Direction as to how The Play should be carried out — in accordance with God's Vision.

As with all of The Actors when they were spawned, God created them from God's own quantum matter, and breathed life into them from God's own Consciousness, giving them what would come to be known as a soul and a spirit — thus creating The Actors in God's own image — such that they always had a direct quantum and conscious connection to The Director, and thus The Play and The Script. During the course of their careers, The Actors would inhabit various and numerous life forms — each designed to carry out their roles in a given act of The Play.

And so the first act of The Play begins — just as God thought. And when it ends — just as God thought — God is still a little bored. After all, God already thought it — as it was God's imaginative Thoughts that created The Play. So God wipes the slate clean, and begins anew. And on and on this goes — from one planet to the next; from this universe to the next; from this life form to the next; and so on — for centillions of years, or a few of God's Visions. During this time, there were many wondrous and spectacular acts performing on numerous Stages in God's great Theatre, and many of them are still running to this day as spin-off plays in their own right — off Broadway.

At some point along the way, God chooses to mix things up a bit, by giving The Actors a little room to improvise — wondering if perhaps The Actors can add a little something to The Play that might intrigue, amuse, and entertain God a bit more. This would come to be known as free will. So for this next act in The Play, God creates a higher life form for some of The Actors to inhabit while acting on Earth's stage — our ancient ancestors. Now among our ancient ancestors, there were great actors and poor actors, and everything in between — including good actors, which represented the lion's share of actors.

The defining quality of a good actor is one who understands and plays their part well — adding a touch of personal improvisation at appropriate moments as to not disrupt the act of The Play in which they're a part, yet still adding a little something to it, and thus God's entertainment. These good actors appreciated, and perhaps even loved the act of The Play of which they were a part, but still felt the desire to express themselves through improvisation from time to time — primarily out of boredom. These good actors maintained their quantum and conscious connection to The Creator, and thus were able to clearly hear and follow God's Direction, or The Script, should they choose.

Great actors — which were fewer, but still prevalent — were ones who not only played their parts in the act to perfection, but who actually had a deep intrinsic sense of the perfection of The Play. With this awareness, these great actors saw no need for personal improvisation, since The Play, as God created it, was already perfect. Instead, these great actors focused their days on enhancing this quantum and conscious connection to The Director through soul and spirit, such that they could better understand and perhaps even come to know The Play — and with that, their roles in the act, or The Script.

This was a real spectacle for God — and precisely what God intended when God created free will: for to come to know The Play, one can either come to know one's quantum and conscious connection to The Director, or one could master one's part in the act of The Play. And although none of The Actors ever came to see The Play from God's perspective — as only God can watch The Play — some of these great actors came to grasp the awe-inspiring perfection of The Play sight unseen, and thus chose to pursue their roles in their act of The Play as perfectly as they could — something that came quite naturally and easily since they now had access to The Script.

This pleased God very much, as these great actors clearly recognized the perfection of God's Vision, and chose to honor The Play, and thus The Director, through their own free will. Their reward for seeking out and maintaining their quantum and conscious connection to The Director and coming to know The Play sight unseen was abundant: for they experienced the perfection and bliss of being great actors in The Play, and they also shared in the intrigue, amusement, and entertainment of The Play. Over time, some of these great actors became legends, and were retired by God from acting altogether.

Meanwhile, a handful of our ancient ancestors had quite the personality, and longed to become legends themselves — without taking the time to gain a proper knowing of The Play. Instead, they took full advantage of the free will they were given to improvise as a means to this end. These poor actors ended up running amuck, like children — taking advantage of The Set as their own personal playground. In time, many of these poor actors forgot about their roles as Actors in an act of The Play altogether, and focused instead on their own acts in their own plays — or simply no act or play at all, just themselves in their present life form. In the end, these poor actors lost their quantum and conscious connection with The Director, and therefore had little or no access to The Play or The Script.

No one likes to see bad acting, and God is no exception. So God, from time to time, sent one of his retired legendary Actors back down to the set to give The Actors a pep-talk, and remind The Actors in the present act what their purpose and roles were, and how perfect The Play truly is, or at the very least could be — should they merely come to understand and align themselves with It by devoting themselves to knowing The Play, which would in turn make their roles clear and their experiences blissful. And, when that failed, or simply from time to time, God dropped a few pieces of the set onto some of The Actors, to remind all of the actors that this is indeed God's Play — lest they forget.

And thus, the act of our ancient ancestors ran its course, and the curtain was drawn for yet another intermission.

God was satisfied with the act of our ancient ancestors — it gave God great intrigue, amusement, and entertainment by adding free will. In any case, it wasn't much of a gamble or risk, since God could end the act at any point God chose. In God's pleasure, God chose to create yet another act on the grand Earthly stage, with even higher stakes for The Actors. This time, in addition to free will, God gave The Actors immeasurable creative freedom in co-creating the act of the Play in which they were to be a part.

For this, God needed a new life form — one with such higher creative consciousness and ability that he or she could manipulate matter and manifest material reality. In order to provide these new life forms with such God-like capacity and capability, God placed creative consciousness on a substrate of emptiness, giving them access to infinite creative possibility. God was interested in seeing how these new Actors might manage the delicate balance between complete creative freedom and free will with their act in The Play.

These actors would come to be known as human beings, and were created in the same manner — with the same quantum matter and conscious connection to The Source through soul and spirit — as their ancient ancestors. But as with everything else in God's great Theatre, inherent in this God-like power was a trade-off: for creative and material consciousness also serves as a cloak between recognition as human beings and as Actors in an act of The Play. If used wisely, human beings were given the opportunity to co-create quite the act — maybe even The Play itself. It was truly quite a test, adding to God's intrigue, amusement, and entertainment.

So, with this free will and creative ability, we set out to write the script to our act in The Play. At first, we were deeply occupied by the construction of our set, since we felt a need to be more comfortable. And construction continued, and continued, until much of God's Set was neglected and displaced by our own — all the while forgetting the perfection of God's masterpiece Set. In between construction, and in our exhaustion, we human beings remembered that we were Actors in an act of a play — and vaguely sensed something about The Play. Still sensing that quantum and conscious connection to The Director, but now lost to our own creations, we began work on our act, which we now interpreted as our play — but quickly fell asleep.

And through the millennia, this is how it went: construct the set in order to be more comfortable; vaguely remember why we were put here in the first place; sleep; construct more set; eat, have sex; sleep; construct more set; vaguely remember that we are here as actors in the form of human beings to create our act in The Play; get inspired and write some script; vividly remember while writing that there is such a thing as The Play, if only we could define it for others to see and read; get frustrated and revert back to our script; fall asleep; eat; have sex; have children so we have someone to pass our script on to; and die.

From time to time, one human being would admire the creation of another, and adopt an aspect of their script. Sometimes, entire groups of human beings would come together to construct elaborate sets and co-create their scripts — thus adding to the desire to have more children to pass down this great comfort and these great scripts. And before long, there were literally billions of scripts within our act being acted out simultaneously — not that we knew it, because we were too busy constructing sets, sleeping, eating, having sex, and writing scripts.

Indeed, we were so far removed from our quantum and conscious connection to The Director, that we lost the ability to even sense that this was all designed and intended to be an opportunity to co-create our act — much less our act in The Play. We now simply interpreted everything we did as The Play — becoming human doings rather than human beings, much less Actors.

Over time, a veritable plethora of well developed and comprehensive scripts were written and passed down for future generations of human doings to follow. And they all had one thing in common: they claimed to be The Script — no doubt a great actor sensing that such a thing does "exist," but neglecting to tell their fellow human doings that The Script is of no use without an understanding of The Play. Yet, many human doings seeing that many others were following these scripts, decided to try to follow the scripts too. But they did not know how, for they did not understand the purpose or meaning of the scripts — even if they did accept them as The Script. And so, they wrote yet more scripts — to explain the purpose and meaning of the script that they now accepted as The Script.

This was all very intriguing, amusing, and entertaining to God. There were so many theatrical and dramatic performances going on — and all at once! But it was also a bit chaotic, and it was giving God a headache trying to keep up with it all — which included acts beginning and continuing on numerous other Stages in God's great Theatre.

Seeing how far astray human beings had gone from their connection to The Director and thus The Play — to the point of forgetting even that they were Actors, much less co-creators in an act of The Play — out of mercy, God sent down to the Earthly stage — which was hardly recognizable any longer — legendary actors time and again to remind The Actors that they were not solely human beings as they had come to think of themselves, but also actors in a play — indeed, God's Actors in our act of The Play, with the possibility of co-creating The Play with our own free will and creative consciousness.

And for a time, after being visited and inspired by various legendary actors, a number of human beings removed the cloak long enough to remember that they were Actors in an act of The Play, and they played their parts well. But as time passed, and free will combined with creative and material consciousness took over — along with the comfort of the newly constructed set — even these good actors forgot that they were in an act of The Play, and went back to sleep; and when they awoke, they wrote more scripts. And through another handful of millennia, every so often, a human being would regain their quantum and conscious connection to The Director, and gain access to the perfection of The Play.

Yet, time and again, in their attempt to describe the act, The Play, the scripts, and The Script to others, they recognized that there's no way to describe the act or The Script — for the only way to understand the act is to be an Actor in the act, and the only way to know The Script is to at the very least recognize that we are Actors in an act of The Play, until such time that one comes to understand and even know The Play.

And, time and again, this really angered the human doings who had been following these various scripts, which they now firmly declared to be The Script — because they had dedicated their lives and those of their children to it; not to mention all of their tireless set construction. After all, if this is the case, and there really is no script, other than The Script, and the only way to know The Script is to understand The Play, and no one and no thing but God can watch The Play, then how do we know what The Play is, and therefore what The Script is? That's just crazy!

Naturally, these human beings that had come to see themselves as Actors in our act desperately wished to co-create our act in partnership with The Director so that it could be consistent with The Play. But in their attempt to convey to others what they sensed about our divine creation and thus our eternal quantum and conscious connection to The Creator, these great actors — who would come to be known as mystics, witches, psychics, seers, philosophers, thinkers, monks, and ultimately heretics — were killed off by frustrated human doings who had come to stake their very lives on these various scripts.

Many of these great actors cracked the apparent paradox — which is really simply an irony — of the acts and The Play, and the scripts and The Script. It is for this reason that they were killed or shunned by a society of human doings, who had lost their quantum and conscious connection to their own divinity. This is what they might say:

There is such a thing as acts in The Play, which includes our present incarnation of being humans on Earth — with many other incarnations that came before us, and many that will come after us — and many more around us throughout this and other universes, as well as numerous dimensions in space and time. Life is The Play, and we as Actors inhabiting a human life form have the unique privilege of participating in The Play and the unique opportunity of co-creating our act in The Play; and God is watching, with wild intrigue and enthusiasm.

Indeed, we do have an opportunity to create our own act, including our own set — given our God-like powers of free will and creative and material consciousness — which we are doing. Yet we also have the opportunity to co-create The Play, which is God's perfect Play on God's perfect Stage with God's perfect Set — given that we possess God's matter in the form of our souls and God's Consciousness in the form of our spirits. Either way, God is intrigued and entertained and full in the senses.

But God is also loving and kind, and thus God will let us in on the great irony, and thus the laughter, once we leave this place and return to our soulful and spiritual essential state of being — until we are called upon to act again. But there is a way to get to the heart of the irony before then:

To see the irony, one must watch our acts from the perspective/context of The Play, which we can do should we get outside of ourselves sufficiently to see the human race as Actors in just one act of The Play. And since only God has the perspective of watching The Play, which includes other Actors on other Stages in The Theatre of life — other life forms on other planets in this and other universes — one must be one with God in order to get a sense of The Play's existence. This is known as enlightenment.

Ironically, many of the scripts that mankind has written are indeed part of The Script. But The Script is not and cannot be written — it is inherent, even embedded in the soul and the spirit, for only these things came from The Director. To understand The Script, one must understand The Writer, which happens to also be The Director. To know The Script, one must know The Writer and The Director.

"But our script, which has been passed down for generations, and was given to us directly from God Himself, clearly states that He is separate from us, and so there is no way to be one with God — even in death. We can only hope to sit near Him in His Kingdom of Heaven. We are merely human beings."

Correct: there is no way to be one with God so long as you're a human being — and definitely not as a human doing — which is to say living inside of material consciousness, or the ego/identity complex, also known as the Shadow Self. There is, however, an opening to be one with God by remembering that we are one with God — born of the same quantum matter and consciousness as God, which at first may be born out of faith, but in time comes from re-establishing our quantum and conscious connection to The Creator.

Every human being has an equal opportunity to truly come to see and know — as clearly as they see themselves in the mirror and know that they love their mothers — that they are an Actor, created by God for the purpose of seeing: what type of act they might choose to co-create and act in — their own, someone else's, their ancestors', our act in our play, or our act in The Play; whether or not they might come to realize not only that they are in a play, but also get a sense of The Play — and that it is perfect — and seek to re-establish that deep quantum and conscious connection to The Director such that they may be a great Actor in The Play, and ultimately lead other Actors to become great Actors as well.

Should a human being achieve this level of awareness/awakeness, and gain perspective on not only our act, but also The Play, The Script will be not only evident, but easy — and this great actor will play their part in God's perfect Play to perfection, and relish every moment of The Play, including The Theatre, The Stage, The Set, and the other Actors.

Short of this, when we leave this temporal body and place, we will once again return to The Source. Left with only God's soul and spirit, our Authentic Self, we will once again be part of The One, and thus be able to watch our act and come to witness the perfection of The Play — and share in the intrigue, entertainment, and amusement of it all. This is where we will likely have a good laugh — with God.

This novel seeks to explore and address questions relating to genetic engineering and cloning, environmental factors in upbringing, limitations and full use of the body and mind potential, the true power of thought and beliefs, quantum physics and mechanics, possibility and potentiality, the end of the world, The Messiah, humanity, and faith as seen through the life experience of the central character, Quark.

Quark is the genetically and biologically engineered product of two scientists: a geneticist, Brenda and a physicist, Michael. Brenda and Michael work together at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and develop a romantic relationship. While getting to know one another, it becomes clear that both of them suspect an imminent end to the world. Given that both Brenda and Michael are atheist, they set out to take matters into their own hands by engineering The Messiah in order to prevent the world from coming to a cataclysmic end.

Using Brenda's trust fund, the two purchase a small island off the coast of Oregon, where they begin their task of creating Quark. Using the latest in DNA manipulation and bio-engineering, Brenda manages to create the perfect embryo — capable of super-human powers. Meanwhile, Michael builds an elaborate set of structures in order to execute the next part of their plan: to instill in Quark the belief that everything — from telekinesis to flying to teletransportation — is not only possible, but expected.

Given his perfect biologically engineered body and brain, and his belief that he and his creators are able to perform any "super-human" task, Quark is now set to enter the world at large and fulfill his destiny of saving the world from cataclysm. Upon entering the world at large, Quark makes some incredible discoveries: most notably, the delicate balance of weakness and beauty that other human beings possess. Quark comes to know a few human beings, and learns more about the human race and humanity. Equipped with the ability to save the world from disaster through complete mastery of quantum manipulation, Quark is now faced with the question: should I?

Through his now clear understanding of the purpose for which he was born, Quark comes into his own understanding and awareness of the existence of God, and makes his choice...

The statistics are astonishing: 1 in 5 males will experience some form of sexual abuse in their lives; and the number is an appalling 1 in 3 for females — taking into account the fact that only some 10% of all sexual abuse is reported. In more than 90% of cases, the perpetrators are men, leaving heavy implications on both male and female victims.

Whereas sexual abuse of any form to any gender is damaging, the cost to a person who has not yet experienced sexual maturity is a lifetime sentence of uncertainty — around not only their sexual orientation, but their sexual consciousness, their self-worth, and their well-being in general. As a life coach, I have had the great honor and privilege of working with a number of men and a few women who were sexually abused prior to sexual consciousness, or pre-puberty. For these individuals, their sexual orientation may never be completely clear.

Take one of my clients, "Jim" for example. Jim presents himself as gay. He is 45 years old and he has never been in a long-term or committed romantic relationship. Instead, he has short-term relationships with various men. He admits to enjoying the sex, but upon deeper discussion and disclosure, Jonathan acknowledges that what he truly craves with his male partners is intimacy — affirmation, validation, attention, affection, and touch. In fact, Jim can live without the sex altogether.

When asked about his sexual desire for women, Jim claims he has none. Upon deeper discussion and disclosure however, Jonathan admits to not having much or any sexual experience with women, and thus, no sexual biochemical reaction to women. In fact, Jim is quite terrified at the prospect of being sexual with a woman — and therefore gives it very little thought.

Jim was molested by his grandfather between the ages of 8 and 9. Again, when he was 17, he developed a sexual "relationship" with his Pastor from church. In both cases, Jim was told he was loved, and he felt loved.

In the first case, with his grandfather, Jim had no concept, or language to identify what was happening sexually. Rather, he simply enjoyed being held and touched. In fact, the memories he has of the sexual acts that took place with his grandfather are rather vague — he's blocked out most everything.

In the second case, with his Pastor, Jim had long questioned his sexual orientation, and he had great respect and trust for his Pastor — thus, it seemed natural enough for Jim to include sexual contact as part of that loving relationship. In any case, there weren't any romantic relationship brewing with women, so he welcomed the touch.

When inquiring into his early childhood, Jim admits to having "normal" contact with girls: chasing them, trying to kiss them, and so forth. But that is where his masculine development stopped: he did not play sports, and instead found himself drawn to more "feminine" forces and activities — he was a sensitive and empathic child. So, with all of this information, we ask the question: is Jim gay?

The answer is yes, Jim is gay — as defined by the fact that he engages in sexual relationships with men. But this is not the only question to ask: that would be, was Jim meant to be gay, and is he truly gay? Unfortunately, because Jim collapsed unidentified sexual energy into other, more natural forms of human energy, that question will likely never have an answer. This is why I refer to sexual abuse prior to sexual consciousness as a lifetime sentence — and one of the most egregious crimes imaginable.

Much of the work being conducted today is done by clinical therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists working in conjunction with religious institutions to "correct" the behavior of members "struggling" with SSA. The primary methodology for treating individuals with SSA is referred to as reparative therapy — implying that these individuals are broken and require repair. In fact, SSA is also commonly referred to as unwanted same sex attraction disorder — again, implying that these individuals have some type of mental health dysfunction.

I believe that same sex attachment is a more fitting expression for the SSA acronym, given that much of the energy is sourced in attachment and not so much sex or physical attraction.

In any case, "correction," "struggling," "treating," "repairing," and "disorder" are not the language of transformation, which might explain why many of these individuals remain in therapy for an entire lifetime — and often without freedom, power, or relief. The language of transformation rests on the principle that these individuals are perfect just as they are, and that there are simply barriers in the way to accessing their perfection — which might be in a gay, straight, or bi-sexual lifestyle.

In this book, I will introduce a new language for SSA — one that takes into account my deep understanding of the SSA phenomenon as a life coach working with many of these men, as well as my work in the world of transformational coaching.