DARK MATTER

     "So, you were there when the walls came down, when everybody ended up in everybody's head?" The archivist was still trying to understand what had happened when the darkness had come. His question was directed at the large bear sitting quietly beside him in their study.

     The bear had actually been the first to realize that the world mind now included all consciousness, all life really. "Yes, I was there. I was somewhat surprised when it happened, but I had been expecting something like it for a long while. Humans couldn't continue to hide behind their self-imposed walls forever, not if our world was to continue." He went on:


     Just before it happened, the stars had gone out and the new moon had disappeared, as a giant shadow crept slowly across the world. Soon, the darkness extinguished all light, both in the heavens and here on Earth.

     I had been stalking a small group of humans, just for fun mind you, when it had begun. When the world mind overtook us, the humans were startled at first to find me there so close to them. But having become one with me, they felt no fear, only surprise. We sat together then, all of us, and enjoyed this new way of being. This common feeling we shared was love. We really were all one!

     We soon saw that it was all a matter of focus. We could tone it down to a gentle murmur in our minds, leaving each of us to our own thoughts and feelings. We could let it blast through our minds, cleaning out the residue of our pasts. We could also direct it where we wanted, connecting only to those we wished.

     Of course, there were a lot of egos - mostly politicians and celebrities - that had to be soothed. But this was easy too. All of us could see the hurts and fears that had led them to seek power over love. But now, embedded with the rest of us in this field of love, they gathered up their courage and opened up to their true selves.

     At first, there had been thoughts of imminent chaos, but these quickly subsided when we all saw that our world mind was still taking care of business, in fact, taking much better care of it than we had before. No more mistakes. No more dishonesty and fatal falsehoods. How could there be with all of us watching?

     We all knew immediately that all the old forms of society had become useless. We no longer needed to have a few of us govern the rest of us. Actually, there was no longer anyone to govern. Each of us was quite capable of governing his or her self. And together, we were more than capable of governing Earth.


     Then after awhile something very strange happened. Suddenly, all life and consciousness upon Earth became silent. We were hearing voices now that we had heard only in our deepest dreams, speaking in that language that had so long tantalized us. We realized that these voices were coming to us from a great distance.

     Each and every voice said the same, "We are here," and, with that, a picture of our galaxy appeared to us with a pointer at a distant spot, way off somewhere on the far side of the galaxy from our Earth. Each voice continued, "The darkness passed through our lives many long eons ago. Welcome brothers and sisters."

     Then the pointer would move again, to another spot in our galaxy. This continued to happen over and over again, each time drawing nearer to our part of the galaxy. Each time, we heard new voices.

     Together, we asked these many voices, "what about all the other galaxies? Is there life and consciousness in all of them too?" Suddenly, the entire universe lit up and responded with a song of welcome. We realized then that we had been the last to wake.


     "You sound erudite, almost like one of those old university professors. Why is this? After all, you are a bear."

     "Well, the truth of it is that I have always thought like this. I have just kept it to myself. You humans are so insecure. If you had known that other animals thought too, how would you have defined yourselves? By your vaunted opposable thumbs?"

     By Eugene Marks