I n the weeks following the Current River trip, Ben reflected on how far-reaching the Enterprise might be in which Cartwright was involved. How many other teaching centers are there like the one in Eminence? Ben wondered to himself. If what he said at the National Defense University conference is true, then the Enterprise is far-flung indeed. Certainly, Rabia must have a teaching center of her own and who knows how many other teachers and students there are?

       Cartwright asked Ben to accompany him to Santa Rosa the next Tuesday morning. They drove to an office building which had the name of a law firm on the sign in front: Castor and Wheatley. They parked and entered, Cartwright informing the receptionist that they were there to speak with Mr. Castor. The elevator took them to the seventh floor and they entered a well-appointed office suite where the executive secretary stood ready to usher them into Mr. Castor's private office.

      Mr. Castor was in his mid-forties. He had a no-nonsense face and was surprisingly modest as he spoke to Cartwright and Ben about his law firm.

       Cartwright got right to the point. "You've been in correspondence with us for about two years and you've attended several of our sessions. It appears that you are progressing in your studies. You've asked if there is anything further you might do to be involved and now there is that possibility."

       Castor was pleased with the prospect. "Good, I've been looking forward to being able to contribute in whatever slight way I could."

       "This is what you could do that would be of benefit to our work in this area. As a member of the bar--and, I understand, even possibly a judgeship in the offing--you are well known in the Sonoma County area. If you would make it your business to speak derisively of me at whatever occasion might present itself, it would be of assistance to what we are doing."

       Castor was distinctly taken aback. "But that seems counter-productive, for me to speak derisively of you in the community."

       "Yes, well, it may be more than you feel you can do," Cartwright stood up and prepared to leave.

       "Wait," Castor said, "I didn't mean to say I wouldn't or couldn't do this, I was just expressing my feelings that it might be injurious to your reputation."

       "Even though I just indicated to you that such activity on your part would be of benefit to our Enterprise?" Cartwright asked him. "Look, I'm sorry to have wasted your time."

       "No, no," Castor exclaimed, "I apologize. I certainly heard what you said. It's just such an unusual assignment that I was shocked by it. Please allow me to carry out this responsibility and I will say no more about it. You, of course, understand that I have no idea why you are asking me to do this."

       "Yes," Cartwright replied.

       Castor extended his hand as Cartwright was leaving and Cartwright shook his hand. He and Ben then drove to the Sonoma State University campus in Rohnert Park. They walked to the building which indicated it housed the Philosophy Department and they knocked on the door which read: Dr. Steven Phillips, Associate Professor of Philosophy.

       Phillips was very pleased to see Dr. Cartwright and asked them to be seated in his small but neat office.

       Cartwright began immediately. "You have been studying our material for the last year and a half and have attended one session at the center. It appears that your studies are progressing satisfactorily. You've asked if you might be allowed to contribute in some way to our Enterprise. The conditions are currently favorable for you to carry out this assignment: you should speak about me personally in an excessively praiseworthy and flamboyant manner, speaking and writing immoderate panegyrics at every opportunity." Cartwright waited for Phillips to respond.

       "If I may be permitted to say so," Phillips said, "this is the most unusual charge I have ever had. But you can be assured that I will carry it out to my utmost capability. And I wish to thank you for this opportunity to participate."

       Phillips waited for Cartwright to say something else, but Cartwright merely stood up, shook his hand and left.

       On the way back to Healdsburg, Ben reflected on what he had just witnessed. He realized that Cartwright worked in mysterious ways. Beyond my ken, certainly, Ben thought to himself.

       Cartwright asked Ben, "Which of the two do you think responded more appropriately?"

       "Phillips," Ben replied. Cartwright said nothing, neither confirming nor denying Ben's supposition.

       "You've now had the opportunity to move into the world of the sorcerer in which coyotes and Whippoorwills speak to humans," Cartwright said. "You also are working effectively in the ordinary world. Thus far you have attained the beginning ability to be aware when you are dreaming and you have successfully carried out the assignment I gave you of taking effective control of the contents of your dreams. You have entered the ranks of the Warrior who hunts for power.

       "You are still not quite aware enough of what powerful entities you will encounter and you need to be better prepared as you go in search of endowment. I'd suggest you re-read the section of Journey to Ixtlan in which Castaneda speaks of the Warrior. Power is something uncontrollable that comes to us and which we must learn to control. We follow the source of power until the ordinary world ceases to exist. You did well to remain essentially silent when the Whippoorwill spoke to you, for you gain power by not-doing, especially not-chattering. As a Warrior you must hunt whatever presents itself to you, which requires that you be in a constant state of readiness."

       Upon returning to the Center, Cartwright asked Ben to come into his study. "You're now preparing for your 'Last Battle.' There is a great deal that bears on this in the books we've published as well as in Castaneda. And now you will study the books by Betty and Stewart Edward White: The Betty Book, Across the Unknown,, and The Road I Know in particular. Castaneda explicates the Perennial Tradition from the perspective of sorcery; the Whites, who predated Castaneda by about fifty years, approach the Perennial Tradition from the psychic perspective. Study these carefully because this is the time when you choose what Castaneda calls the 'Site of the Last Stand.' Evelyn Underhill speaks of this phase as the Unitive Life. Some Perennialists have spoken of it as annihilation, immersion, dying before you die, or unification. Rumi says it best for me:

'I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.'"

       It was a pleasant surprise for Ben when he received a call at his apartment from Rabia. Her appearances at the Center seemed to have no set pattern. She informed Ben that he would now be able to attend the Saturday physical exercises which were carried out, she informed him, at a small gym in Healdsburg. Ben asked about the kinds of clothing to wear and thanked her for the opportunity to participate. Rabia had informed him that there was an article on the Web site which he should read in preparation for the exercises.

       Even having read Rabia's article several times, Ben was not at all prepared for the reality of the physical exercises. The group of about fifteen students first assembled in the gym which had been rented specifically for these exercises. Ben was overjoyed to see that Joan was one of the participants, though they had zero time for conversation the entire evening.

       Rabia first explained the ultimate purpose of the training procedures: to encourage the development of extra-normal cognition. Then she went through the procedure step by step and walked the group through it several times, answering any questions that arose. Some in the group had been participating for some time and others, like Ben and Joan, were new arrivals. There were many levels of physical capability, which was surprising to Ben, because he wondered how such disparate skill levels could ever become coordinated. But the exercise which Rabia started with was fairly simple, so that as the evening progressed, the group began to develop a synchronization that would have seemed impossible at the evening's beginning.

       By the end of the exercise period, Ben sensed that there were some unusual things happening. The coordination at times was so perfect that it appeared that particular participants were using extra-normal powers to perform at such an exceptional level of exactness. He could not be sure, but he set himself the task the following week to be on the lookout for these signs of extra-physical capability from the beginning of the evening.

       At the end of the exercise period, Ben had a chance to chat for a moment with Joan. "I didn't know if I'd ever see you again," he said to her, as they walked together to their cars.

       "You think you didn't know!" she exclaimed. "For a couple of months it was touch and go. Then suddenly one day Wanda my slave-mistress suddenly appeared in a new light to me. I began to see the weirdest nuances in her behavior, just like you'd described Cartwright's signals on the canoe trip. What I had thought was a kind of stupidity in her turned out to be her deliberate reflection of my thoughts and capabilities. When I caught on to that I began to see other subtleties as well."

       She smiled at Ben. "Now it's actually fun to work as a hair stylist; I may make a life career out of it."

       "I can be a butcher, you a hair stylist, and everything will be peaches and cream," he said, "except that now I have another job, writing assistant."

       "Assistant?" Joan asked, "to whom?"

       "I'm Cartwright's literary secretary; I haven't replaced Ms. Spencer. I helped him complete The Himalayan Book of Truth and we're now working on a book on initiation into the Perennial Tradition."

       "Well," Joan said, "you've come up in the world, from a butcher's apprentice to a private secretary. Pretty soon you'll achieve the exalted status of dishwasher!" They both laughed.

       Ben decided he wouldn't try to explain his experience on the Current River. It seemed almost impossible that Joan would be able to give any kind of credence to what had occurred. Ben found that he could sense where Joan was in her studies and it told him that she was still struggling with some of the same doubts he had had to overcome. He knew that there was nothing he could say directly that would be of any assistance to her. Her apprenticeship was exactly what she needed at the present time, teaching her everything she needed to learn.

       They talked about having dinner together and said they would phone to arrange a time. Ben wondered if or when he might find the time.

       Ben found it strange that he felt no dire need to see Joan, as he once had felt. He was not indifferent to her, he still felt a great deal of affection for her. But he was no longer "driven" to be with her socially or sexually. He found it equally interesting to realize that he was no longer spending time worrying about world troubles. Again, it wasn't that he was indifferent to human suffering, just that he was busy in a job of making himself a "bottle" that would have something worthwhile in it when it came time to be of service to some part of humankind in a more direct way. As he reflected on his mother's passing, he realized that he was at peace about that as well; he felt forgiveness toward Gorgon.

       During the next session of the physical exercises, Ben was able to discern very definite instances of psychic activity on the part of specific participants, especially Rabia. As he watched her moving, passing, and shooting the ball, he could see that there was a perfection to her movements which was beyond mere physical skill. The ball left her hands and appeared to move in whatever way was necessary to reach the other participant at the precise time and place required by the other participant's movements. The entire exercise was clearly an elaborate dance, the dancers in this case dressed in gym attire.

       At the end of the evening, Ben spoke with Joan again as they were leaving. She appeared to be progressing favorably and seemed to be more accepting of what she had been assigned to do.

      After several months of "basketball exercises," Rabia suddenly changed the exercises to badminton, which the participants prepared for by reading an assigned essay.

      As Ben moved into his study of the Betty and Stewart Edward White material, he saw that they were speaking of exactly the same spiritual experiences in a different language than Castaneda or even Cartwright. The goal, as the Whites explained it, was spiritual contact and permeation, not developing psychic powers for themselves. Betty White had developed the capability of moving into a heightened state of consciousness through which she was able to enter a higher realm. In this state her consciousness was in what she called her beta body and she was able to travel anywhere in either the terrestrial world or the transcendent domain. This state involved "dying before you die," an entering into the spiritual realm while still retaining corporeal existence.

       As Ben read the White material and practiced the exercises in their books, he slowly developed the ability to relax out of his physical body, enter his beta body, and begin fashioning for himself an awareness in the higher realm. The White material helped immensely because their books contained precise details about what a person should do at each step of the way.

       After Ben had been studying and practicing the White material for several months, Cartwright one morning told him to come to his study that afternoon at 2 PM. When he arrived, he was surprised to see Rabia and Walt already sitting in the study conversing with Cartwright.

       "Ben," Rabia said, "we'd like you to participate in our private sessions on Thursday afternoons. I'll explain the essentials of these sessions verbally now but we'll actually clarify the details when we're in the beta state." She paused to make sure Ben was with her.

       "You've been effectively practicing the White's technique of entering your beta body through relaxation and psychic focus. This next step you're beginning today is to enter a realm which the four of us will inhabit in common where we'll be able to converse with you psychically, demonstrating some of the higher activities of the Enterprise."

       This sounded reasonable to Ben, though he marvelled at how incomprehensible it would have seemed even four months before.

       "Once we are each in a heightened state of consciousness," Rabia continued, "Franklin, Walter, and I will begin teaching you the first aspects of this higher activity."

      Ben had never heard her refer to Cartwright by his first name before and it seemed strange.

      "Yes," Rabia said, in answer to his unspoken thought, "we will be on a first name basis in these private sessions because at this level we are essentially equal."

      Again Ben thought to himself how her reading his mind seemed routine whereas a short time ago it would have felt to him like the veriest magic.

      "Today we're going to give you an overview of the Enterprise and in later sessions we'll explore each aspect in detail."

       With that, she closed her eyes. Ben noticed that Cartwright and Walt already had their eyes closed. He closed his eyes, went through the relaxation technique he had learned from the White material, and entered a heightened state of consciousness. For months, he had been establishing a kind of beachhead in this realm where he had created qualities and capabilities for his new beta body. He was in this familiar territory when all of a sudden his newly created psychic world burst apart and a larger reality permeated him. He could see, with his psychic eyes, Rabia, Cartwright, and Walt in their spiritual essence.

      Cartwright began to speak. "Look about you and you'll see, psychically, a number of physical locations on the physical earth where we have our Enterprise centers."

      No sooner had Cartwright said this than Ben saw, as if from a place above earth that allowed him to see all parts of the globe simultaneously, eight locations where activities were in process that affected all human life throughout the earth. Suddenly it hit Ben with an overwhelming force, these activities of the Enterprise actually maintain the physical existence of all humans. Without these finely tuned operations humankind would cease to exist.

      Ben saw that in each location specific operations were being carried out which affected human life in its fundaments yet remained invisible to most humans. He was seeing over a hundred advanced beings immaculately fine-tuning the universe.

      Without warning, Ben was thrust back into his ordinary consciousness and as he opened his eyes he saw that Rabia, Cartwright, and Walt had their eyes open and were looking at him.

      "This first glimpse of the overall Enterprise," Walt said, "is a bit overpowering. But it gives you a feeling for what we'll be exploring in the future."

      "Do you have any questions?" Rabia asked, smiling because she knew Ben was bursting with questions.

      "Is this what you were referring to," he looked at Cartwright, "when you spoke of this Enterprise being as highly organized and as powerful as the Pentagon?"

      "Yes," Cartwright replied, "though as you can see, our Enterprise is at such a higher ontological level that it can't effectively be compared with the American political-military system--or any terrestrial configuration whatsoever. I was trying to give some top people a slight glimpse of our Enterprise without challenging them or causing inappropriate curiosity."

      "Would it be correct to say, then," Ben asked, "that there really is a President of the World?"

      "President or Presidents," Rabia replied, "though we do have one person whose responsibility it is to oversee the entire operation."

      "That person," Walt said, "is Rabia, at the present time."

      This shocked Ben to his core, but as he thought of it, it seemed appropriate.

      "Am I correct in thinking that the operations I saw are actually responsible for the continuation of human life on this planet?" he asked.

      "Yes, that is correct," Rabia replied.

      "How does the Enterprise know precisely how and when to intervene in human affairs to produce the desired effect?"

      "In coming sessions you will discern the eternal aspects of the Enterprise. All teachers and all operations since the beginning of human history, are present in a timeless, spaceless continuum. There is an overall Plan according to which all entities, physical and spiritual, function."

      "We'll stop there for today," Rabia said. "This will be quite enough for you to digest until the next session. However, I want you to keep in mind what Franklin spoke to you about recently, the Unification perspective of this entire Enterprise. The clearest way I can express it in words is to say that all of this, your physical existence, your burgeoning spiritual reality, and the combined operations of all entities in the Enterprise are ultimately all parts of a single Unity. You will soon experience that Unity whereby you will be joined with the One. Until you experience it, words such as these will not make much sense."

      Ben realized it was time to leave and he drove home in somewhat a psychic daze. Rabia had told Ben to read Sanai's The Walled Garden of Truth, which she said provides one of the most advanced explanations of his current experiences.

      In the next several months, Ben learned more details of the overall operation of the Enterprise. He gained the ability to be in the presence of any human being that had ever lived and to carry out activities in human affairs without most persons being aware of his intervention. Often the operations the Enterprise carried out extended for several generations and an effect begun in one lifetime might extend to many lifetimes beyond.

      Ben learned how the Overall Plan used the qualities of humans, negative or positive, to bring about its long-range goals. For example, he discovered that Gorgon had been used by the Enterprise to provide him, Joan, and Frank an opportunity to develop spiritually and that Gorgon was now being used to allow people throughout the world to perceive the horror of unbridled egomania and oppression. The Enterprise did not make Gorgon negative, Gorgon chose on his own to be a negative force in the world. But even his sinister designs were folded into a Higher Plan resulting in ultimate good.

      Joan had now completed her apprenticeship and she was appointed to serve as the public relations director for the New York City Center. She had phoned Ben the day before to tell him that she was coming to Healdsburg for a week to coordinate some of her work with Dr. Cartwright. They had dinner together in Ben's favorite restaurant in Santa Rosa.

       After they had ordered and the waitress had brought their wine, Ben proposed a toast. "To your spiritual progress which brings out your natural beauty even more."

       Joan blushed and clicked her wine glass with Ben's. "And, to the big lug who didn't give up on me so that I'm here instead of dead in ordinary consciousness." They laughed together, both enjoying seeing one another again.

       Ben now felt he could tell her everything that happened to him and was pleased that Joan was excited about hearing of his unusual experiences.

       "You know," she said, "I used to be jealous of you, having all these big experiences and I was having to put up with gum-popping Wanda. Now I'm having new breakthroughs of my own and I can celebrate your accomplishments just as I do my own."

       She told him of her second canoe trip where she had learned how to steer by watching Rabia's every motion. And how she had begun to study the White material and was now developing a heightened state of consciousness. They shared their excitement over the re-reading of Castaneda's material and their discovery of the White's books for the first time.

       Ben asked Joan if she would like to stay at his apartment. "You big lug, I thought you'd never ask. How many times does a gal have to send you a psychic telegram before you get it?"

       As they were making love later that evening, they suddenly realized that they were communicating on the psychic as well as physical level simultaneously. Being psychically aware of the other person's feelings, each was able to give the other the highest degree of pleasure. Sex now took on an added dimension which transformed it into an entirely different kind of experience.

       During the special session the next Thursday afternoon, Ben was introduced to the Enterprise's functional structure, what operations each center performed and how all activities were coordinated at multi-dimensional levels. After the session, Cartwright asked Ben to remain.

       "You're now ready for the next phase," he said. "I won't even attempt to say much about it, because it involves a realm where words do not apply. I've indicated before that various Perennialist seekers have called this phase annihilation, dying before you die, or Unification. This expresses it best for me."

He recited:

"No need hath such to live as ye name life;
That which began in him when he began
Is finished; he hath wrought the purpose through
Of what did make him Man.

Never shall yearning torture him, nor sins
Stain him, nor ache of earthly joys and woes
Invade his safe, eternal peace; nor deaths
And lives recur. He goes

Unto Nirvana. He is one with life
Yet lives not. He is blest, ceasing to be.
Om mani padme, om! The Dewdrop slips
Into the shining sea!"

      It was, Ben learned, from a poem by Sir Edwin Arnold titled The Light of Asia.

      From that moment, Ben began to seek the place that would be his "place of power" for his "Last Battle on Earth," as Castaneda had expressed it. He considered returning to the Current River in Missouri, but realized that his place of power was somewhere else. Perhaps it is where I was born, in Massachusetts? Ben pondered. But, no, that wasn't right. Then it came to him!

      He arose early and drove alone to the Russian River, with his canoe on top of the van. As he approached the river the sun was shimmering through the trees.

      He canoed by himself down the Russian River, communing silently with the Blue Heron who served as his guide.

      Hiding his canoe and walking quietly toward the towering pyramid, he was overwhelmed by its power. He climbed to the peak and looked out over the peaceful valley and the Blue Heron nests across the river.

       Closing his eyes, he entered a heightened state of consciousness. He sat for a few moments in deep meditation. Then a sound near him caught his attention. He opened his eyes and, unbelievably, a Whippoorwill was sitting on the rock face looking intently at him.

      "You Whippoorwills don't come to California very often," Ben joked. He knew that California was not part of their natural habitat.

       "This is a special occasion," the Whippoorwill replied. "So I thought I'd fly out." It seemed to smile with him.

      "You are between the two worlds of the sorcerer and the ordinary world," the Whippoorwill said. "Now you must cease to exist in either of these two contradictory worlds and realize your being in the One Reality."

      A strange sensation came over Ben's entire body and mind. "I can feel my old self dying," Ben said.

       "Shall I lead you on?" the Whippoorwill asked.

       "I came here alone and I go alone," Ben replied. "What help could you give me?"

       "If you think you really come and go, that is your delusion. This is the path on which there is no coming and no going," the Whippoorwill said.

       And with those words Ben was annihilated. The dewdrop slipped into the shining sea.