The following excerpt is from my book, which I will publish just as soon as I get this annoying Store jackboot off my head. It is called: "An Autistic Life - Visions of Past Lifetimes' Futures".
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Many lifetimes before — at least 15 — Steve had been born a Thalidomide baby.
That lifetime Steve was born male; simply male. At that time he was about 3 feet tall, had 2 stumpy legs with 2 more partial legs splayed between them. The inside pair could barely move. He had two tiny, baby-like arms. One arm was completely non-functional and the other he could barely move, with a few wiggly nubs for fingers. His head was enormously large, in proportion. Fortunately, his mother Rosey, that lifetime had taken Thalidomide rather later in her pregnancy, producing a most unusual side effect. Although seemingly completely handicapped, he was extremely curious and loquacious. When he was 4 years old a doctor ordered an IQ test and was shocked to find the little guy's score went off the charts. After ordering a more advanced test and working with him for several visits, the doctor made the astonishing announcement that his best determination of an IQ was 315.
His mother, Rosey, helped him as much as she could. Nevertheless, it was clear that he was far too disabled to live much of a life. He seemed to have nothing to contribute. That is, until a powerful government psychiatrist became involved in their lives.
With much trepidation, his mother finally signed the paperwork to transfer her little 'Crab Man' to a secret laboratory in Maryland. There were several hard surgeries, including the removal of the two vestigial inner legs. He had several more surgeries later in his life; eventually enabling him to walk slowly and clumsily with special crutches. There he lived and was trained, along with 2 other Thalidomide victims with similarly high IQs, and a menagerie of other characters. The old scientist became his hero and substitute father. Steve was nicknamed 'Stubby' by his team. The old psychiatrist looked a bit like the 20th Century actor Charles Lane. All the team members except one were under 9 years old. The exception was a short, stocky, balding former military General. He stayed with them through thick and thin, helping them to cope with an ever increasing load of adult problems to solve. He taught them to stride forward, to never ever give up, to never look back, and to manifest positive outcomes.
Little by little, the concept of the Faction Games simulator was introduced along the way to the whole team. The members included over a dozen able-bodied children of special aptitudes and abilities. That immersed virtual reality (VR) required all their bodies to be suspended in a huge tank of distilled water, in simple inner space suits, with bio support hoses all over the place. The old scientist and the General hid all the real agendas, expertly. For instance, they never told them until they were about to enter, that they would be sealed inside liquid tanks for complete sensory deprivation immersion. Their initial VR experiences were couches with relatively simple VR headsets. So, the immersion tank was a nasty surprise. The old doctor and the General also never mentioned that the whole team would eventually be inside the tank for several months at a time.
All the team members that passed initial testing adapted to the VR environment quite well. Those that washed out were given supporting roles in the project. The 3 brilliant Thalidomide children adapted best. They never wanted to leave a reality where they were in normal, healthy, powerful bodies. One of these children was female. She was the second most brilliant member of the team, behind Steve by only a few IQ points. She and Steve became inseparable leaders, often leapfrogging each other with solutions to major obstacles.
Steve remembered leading his group of warriors across multiple worlds, starting from a liquid tank, underwater, plugged into a simulation that ended when the tank exploded... or so they believed. Several survivors, including Stubby (the Crab Man), were thrust off Earth at extreme velocity. They found themselves on a giant surreal world, fighting enemies, and progressing, barely, through many dangers, injuries, and failed battles. They eventually were immersed in pure warring hell... non-stop, never-ending battle.
The boy was not the Crab Man in the VR world. He operated as a healthy, athletic competitor who quickly climbed the ranks and built his own fantasy team, eventually rising to the rank of General over a giant army of many millions. He led them into deep space and led battles against monstrous extraterrestrials, which eventually worked out as a victory over the enemy.
By that point the whole team had somehow forgotten that it was all only in simulation. It was the Faction Games VR simulation experiences that caused Steve to later relate so closely to Ender Wiggin, the main character in Orson Scott Card's 'Ender's Game'.
Steve remembered the early days of battle as Stubby. Stubby raced his synthesized, simulated, perfect, princely, muscular, slim body up the green hill. He wore a dark blue Elizabethan waist coat and black leather leggings. As he led his army charging on foot, with his long raven hair rippling in the wind, competing with a colorful flag that he lofted in his right hand, the others pushed themselves to keep up with him. He was holding a long curved silver scimitar, pointing forward with his left hand.
As Stubby crested the hill, by then a Lt. Colonel, he halted their advance and spied the enemy army, in full retreat, just crossing the next major hill, several miles away. Stubby enjoyed the power he felt, totally immersed in the Faction Games simulator.
The 3D VR world simulator was hosted on a primitive, miles-long, giant computer system with maximum redundancy throughout its design. It was composed mostly of vacuum tube and EM relay technology. It worked well enough that when the participants in the simulations it generated were actually physically immersed in massive group sensory deprivation tanks, the effect was about the level of the original Halo video game of this lifetime. It required a simple level of 'suspension of disbelief' on the part of each Player. Fortunately, the human mind adapts to and accepts whatever reality it is presented, eventually. It was not long until the Players accepted and even embraced the alternate reality for long periods of time. They all agreed that they were fighting for their real lives, in a real place, and for real purpose.
On every mission and every campaign Stubby remained humble, but driven to conquer the enemy in the most energy efficient manner possible, resulting in at least some type of win. They called this important strategy: Least Energy Consumption Mode (LECM). Whenever the team hit an obstacle that required new technology, Steve was usually the one to invent the quickest, best solution. He designed spacecraft, plasma blades, railguns, teleportation weapons, encrypted communications, and dozens of other advanced technology devices. The movie "Starship Troopers" has some space battle scenes — especially the hand-to-hand combat scenes — that reminded Steve of many such battles as Stubby, with giant arachnids in the Faction Games. This all took a toll on Stubby's tiny weak body In Real Life (IRL), as it did to lesser extent for the whole team. The LECM life they lived stemmed mostly from the need for Stubby and the other Thalidomide victims on the team to limit their energy consumption; the base need for Least Energy Consumption Mode.
What Steve did not know, as it was by policy hidden, was that even as he was being promoted to General, years into the Faction Games, the military Generals of all countries in the real world had united into a single planet-wide giant war machine. They were implementing every winning strategy, every device invented in the Games — that they had the technology to fabricate — and every trick that Steve and his team came up with against actual powerful extraterrestrial invaders who had already sent probes to Earth. This was IRL.
This had some very dire consequences some bit of time after that. Because the arachnid enemy were actually quite reasonable people; human xenophobia aside. All humans had to do was make friends with them. But, they did not do that. No one even tried. Instead, the policy was to genocide the enemy. Steve was sick with remorse when this was finally revealed to him. Pray that humans never have to deal with such an enemy again! They are still out there. And some of them can remember previous lifetimes. Learn to make friends, people, whatever the beings' form!
Many of the major events in these "war games" were recreated in real life by Generals and Presidents in the real world. Not only were the players not told of this reality, they were kept in the total dark, isolated and protected at all costs. They knew nothing of the real world invasion. After a number of years, regularly participating in a near-perfect, very high-resolution virtual reality, the players were finally allowed to exit the liquid VR tank for good. The teams were shocked to discover they had grown to believe the Faction Games were actual reality.
Adjustment to civilian Earth life involved sad episodes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) induced violence and attempted suicides; some unfortunately successful. Steve and the one other remaining Thalidomide-overcoming team member, now an adult woman, had a very tough time acclimating to being always physically disabled. Of course, by that time they were in their 20s, learning to cope with a world that sometimes doubted their contributions, because of their physical deformities and weakness. They were no longer the children they had once been. The reality was, they ceased being innocent children by the time they were 8 years old.
Being disillusioned with the fully immersive Faction Games, and especially the chaos created in real life based on their moves in the games, the Crab Man turned his back on warfare. Instead, he focused on solving every other kind of problem the planet was facing. Steve's soul always questioned the concept of 'reality' every lifetime after that one.
Although he was always miffed at the world for putting him through the Faction Games, the world would not stop beating a path to his door. By the time he was in his late 20s, he had solved most of the serious sociological, economic, and geopolitical problems of the planet. In his 30s he was promoted to Administrator of the planet. However, Stubby was having none of it. He would allow them to call him an advisor, at most.
Many lifetimes after the Faction Games, Steve grew to realize that one of the primary tasks for God's workers, preparing for the ascension of this universe, is galactic beatification. That is to say, the Tao of the universe must be placed into balance by deliberate intensions from within each source; celestial objects such as planets, stars, and galaxies.
At one time the Tao of this universe was corrupted to the point where no more black and white swirl could be seen. There was only ignorance swirled with hate; darkness leading darkness. For humans to give source input into this balancing of the state of our universe, God's workers devised the Faction Games. So, they served multiple purposes.
Manifestations in this Matrix can come from any source, even from an inner simulation, and so Steve remembered. She remembered that many of the events in the Faction Games simulator, some 15 lifetimes previous, were victories for truth swirled with wonder; light increasing light. The matrix we share is produced by a light computer implementing the heart & mind intentions of all the intelligent beings experiencing the simulation. Positive manifests positive in the matrix universe, even from a small number of the meekest beings, existing inside a sensory deprived room-within-a-room, seemingly only to be playing a game. This is a level of worker Steve would feel satisfied in becoming, although at the time she was in The Games... she had not one clue.
Steve had many ancient memories of doing lots of strange missions to right a melted Tao in this 8-dimensional matrix universe. Being a worker for God as a Thalidomide victim of exceptional intelligence was perhaps the most strange. His life started rough, and was never easy, but became ultimately fulfilling. Steve remembered a vivid vision dream where the "Crab Man", as many people affectionately nicknamed him, was propped up on a dais full of microphones, where he faced dozens of primitive video cameras. This was a command performance. The entire world was watching. He gave his final speech to the people, which to Steve in further lifetimes reminded her of the powerful and beautiful speech of most-loved King Benjamin, in the Book of Mormon, setting his house and kingdom in order before he died of very old age.
In many ways for Steve, the life she lived as a Thalidomide boy stood out as the most challenging — and at the same time most fulfilling — experience of her more recent lifetimes.
Peace, prosperity, and long life was the state of the planet when Steve died of old age. For a Thalidomide person, 35 was quite old in those long forgotten days.
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