From Book One, Chapter One
OVERSOUL SEVEN’S EXAMINATION AND JOSEF’S DREAM
Oversoul Seven grimaced at Cyprus and began the examination. “Let’s see,” he said. “In Earth terms, using an analogy, I’m a man on Wednesday and Friday, a woman on Sunday and Thursday, and I have the rest of the time off for independent study.
“Actually, because of their time concepts this is somewhat more complicated,” he said. “Each life is lived in a different, uh, area of time to which various designations are given.” Cyprus smiled, and Seven continued. “As Lydia I’m in the twentieth century, as Josef in the seventeenth, as Ma-ah in 35,000 b.c., and as Proteus in the 23rd century, a.d. Then there’s the further background in space, uh, different locations called countries. Then there’s the ages of the personalities. “I’m partial to Josef and Lydia, though I suppose I shouldn’t be. Still, they show so much vitality and seem to enjoy themselves. Ma-ah cries a lot, and Proteus is always looking back to the good old days—”
Cyprus had been silent. Now she said, “You’re wandering and not organizing your thoughts very well. Pretend that I know nothing about all this, and you’re trying to explain it. You just told me that you had personalities in all those times, for example. So why should Proteus look back to the good old days?”
“Oh, I see. Sorry,” Oversoul Seven said. “Proteus doesn’t know that. He doesn’t take anything for granted. He doesn’t even take me for granted, or himself, for that matter. That is, he doesn’t realize that he is a soul, much less that both of us are one. Certainly he doesn’t know that other portions of us live in other times. I get lonely for him now and then, but there it is. In fact, sometimes I think we Oversouls aren’t appreciated at all. We work and strive—”
Seven was suddenly struck by such a sense of desolation that he dematerialized his hallucinatory pencil. He brought it back as quickly as he could, but Cyprus shook her head at the lapse and said sharply, “Now, none of that. Dropping your hallucination loses you five points, you know. Suppose you were, say, Lydia on Earth, and she did something like that? Physical matter wouldn’t be a dependable framework at all. One slip, that’s all it takes! How would you like to be responsible for such a massive reaction? Then everyone would have to start over with a new . . . Oh, Seven, you just can’t make errors like that. Pencils disappearing in mid-air!”
Oversoul Seven nodded, then suddenly, almost despite himself, he started to laugh. “Actually, Josef is almost on the edge of knowing. Once he forgot to materialize one of his painting brushes—he was in the throes of creativity—and bongo, the brush was just gone. Josef almost went out of his mind.” Seven’s eyes glowed with parental-like pride.
Cyprus said sternly, “None of your personalities are ready to understand that mind forms matter, and you know it. I hope you remedied the situation.” “I hallucinated the brush back at once,” Oversoul Seven said. “But tell me, don’t you find the affair even a little bit funny?”
“Not at all,” Cyprus said, concealing a smile. “But now let’s get back to your examination.”
“Gladly,” Oversoul Seven said. “But when I reach your position, I hope I retain my sense of humor.”
Cyprus laughed. She laughed so hard that Seven got uncomfortable. Finally she said: “Your sense of humor includes only a small part of my sense of humor. There’s so much you don’t see. This examination of yours, for example—oh bless me—and having to maintain Earth-type conditions for it. Now that’s funny. By the way, look around this room. There’s something else that quite escapes you. Your visual is awful—”
Oversoul Seven looked around cautiously. He’d been secretly quite pleased with the environment he’d chosen and created. The classroom was authentic twentieth century, like the one Lydia knew as a child. There were rows of desks, blackboards, windows, everything right down to stacks of paper—all individual new sheets—and an automatic pencil sharpener.
Then he blushed, all over his nice new cheeks and right up to the roots of the thick brown hair that sprang up from his forehead.
“Nice effect,” Cyprus said, watching. “I meant to congratulate you on your form, very good fourteen-year-old male type, Caucasian, I believe. But for the other—”
“I found it, the error! There!” The wastepaper basket had been in the corner, complete with girth and thickness, exactly two feet high and as many around, but he’d forgotten to materialize it visually. Now he made it red, and with a flourish added scallops around the upper edge.
“But there’s still another error,” Cyprus said, looking nowhere in particular. Just at that moment a young man wearing a toga appeared. He looked around with a rather wild air, then shouted out at Seven: “Ah, there you are! I knew I’d find you again. Just the same, all this has to stop.” He looked half mad, and yelled in tones of deepest outrage.
Cyprus raised her eyebrows at Oversoul Seven, who coughed several times and tried to look the other way.
THE OVERSOUL SEVEN TRILOGY: The Education of Oversoul Seven, The Further Education of Oversoul Seven, Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time
Book One: The Education of Oversoul Seven
Chapter 1: Oversoul Seven’s Examination and Josef’s Dream
Chapter 2: Part One of the Examination — A Quick Peek at Lydia, Proteus, Ma-ah, and Josef
Chapter 3: Ma-ah’s Trek: The Earthization of Oversoul Seven — Part Two of the Examination
Chapter 4: The Descent of Proteus
Chapter 5: Oversoul Seven’s Mini-Vacation
Chapter 6: Josef’s Second Dream
Chapter 7: The Further Descent of Proteus and the Rest of Josef’s Dream
Chapter 8: Proteus in the Dig of the Tellers and Story’s Tale
Chapter 9: Cyprus and Oversoul Seven — Beginning Part Three of the Examination
Chapter 10: Lydia and Lawrence: A Trip Is Interrupted
Chapter 11: Ma-ah in the Land of the Speakers
Chapter 12: Ma-ah and the Shining Building Blocks of Sound
Chapter 13: Josef’s Pictures of Magic and Jonathan’s Revenge
Chapter 14: Proteus’ Decision — Window’s Window into the Past (and Aspect One)
Chapter 15: Lydia’s Children Grow Backward in Time and Tweety Delivers a Message (Aspect Two)
Chapter 16: Ma-ah’s Signature in Stone and Sumpter’s Surprise (and Aspect Three)
Chapter 17: Seven’s Blackboard in the Sky (and Aspects Four and Five)
Chapter 18: Out of Body, Out of Mind — Lydia Takes a Journey
Chapter 19: The Speakers’ Dream Tribunal (Ma-ah)
Chapter 20: The Speakers’ Dream Tribunal — The Night of the Soul (Seven and Lydia)
Chapter 21: The Speakers’ Dream Tribunal (Proteus and Josef)
Chapter 22: Proteus Gets a Few Answers from Window and Learns That Window Doesn’t Know It All
Chapter 23: Ma-ah and Sumpter — In Which Ma-ah Speaks Through Proteus
Chapter 24: Discussions Between Lives — In Which Lydia Doesn’t Believe She’s Dead, but Cromwell Knows
Chapter 25: In Which Lydia Meets Tweety, Discusses the Meaning of Life with Oversoul Seven, and Stakes Out Her Future Parents
The Final Chapter: The End of This Particular Examination — Seven “Graduates” — He Learns Something About
Himself and Discovers Who Wrote This Book
Epilogue
Appendix
Book Two: The Further Education of Oversoul Seven
Prologue One
Prologue Two
Chapter 1: Journal of a Surprised Psychologist (Jeffery W. Blodgett)
Chapter 2: Ram-Ram’s Experiment
Chapter 3: A Book Out of Nowhere and an Interview in a Mental Institution
Chapter 4: Gods Wanted (or Chapter One of Jeffery’s “Further Education of Oversoul Seven”)
Chapter 5: The Beginning of the Search and a Demon in the Foothills
Chapter 6: Josef’s Difficulties
Chapter 7: Some Assembled Gods
Chapter 8: Lydia Meets Christ Under Very Unfortunate Circumstances
Chapter 9: Oversoul Seven’s Student, Will, Wants to Drop Life Class
Chapter 10: Jeffery’s Notes and Questions Without Answers
Chapter 11: Oversoul Seven Journeys to the Undersides of the Universe
Chapter 12: A Mother-to-Be Gets a Midnight Surprise
Chapter 13: Between Ages: Lydia Meets Tweety and an Old Love
Chapter 14: Lydia Attends a Séance, Shocks the Sitters, and Keeps a Promise
Chapter 15: Oversoul Seven Has His Troubles and Will Tries to Drop Out
Chapter 16: Jeffy-boy’s Uneasiness Grows and Ram-Ram Does a Disappearing Act
Chapter 17: Ram-Ram the Godologist and Case History 9871: J. Christ
Chapter 18: Seven’s Disquieting Interview with Christ, a Multidimensional Happening Turns into an Insane
Vision, and Jeffy-boy Becomes a Character in a Book
Chapter 19: The Virgin Mary’s Tale and an Ego for Buddha
Chapter 20: Jeffery’s Notes and Some Upsetting Realizations
Chapter 21: Stage Fright and Preparations for Birth
Chapter 22: A Birth
Chapter 23: After-Birth Complications In Which Lydia Wakes Up in a Probable Life
Chapter 24: The Birth of Self-Consciousness for Tweety
Chapter 25: On the Brink with Will and Jeffy-boy
Chapter 26: Ram-Ram Says Good-bye and Tells What He Knows
Chapter 27: ”The Time Is Now,” Lydia Says Good-bye and Hello, and Seven Remembers
Chapter 28: Oversoul Seven Keeps His Promise to Lydia and Begins Tweety’s Education
Afterword of the Gods
Jeffery’s Closing Notes
Epilogue
Oversoul Seven’s Little Book, An Appendix
The Charmed Life
The Body and Creaturehood
The Power and a Special Sumari Song
Sumari Time
The Beginning
On Methods
Book Three: Oversoul Seven and the Museum of Time
Chapter 1: Cyprus and Oversoul Seven Look in on Dr. George Brainbridge and Friends
Chapter 2: The Right Place but the Wrong Time — The Right Name but the Wrong Man
Chapter 3: Oversoul Seven Takes a Body and Finally Meets the Right George
Chapter 4: Up and Down the Time Staircase
Chapter 5: A Would-Be Thief in the Night
Chapter 6: A Challenge of Probabilities
Chapter 7: The Transformation of Gregory Diggs
Chapter 8: Dr. Brainbridge Is Confronted with Proof of the Impossible: Or Is He?
Chapter 9: George Hears Further Disclosures: His Dilemma Deepens
Chapter 10: Seven and George Meet Dr. Josephine Blithe, and Christ Disappears
Chapter 11: The Museum of Time
Chapter 12: Window Speaks for Monarch, and Seven is Worried
Chapter 13: A Complicated Out-of-Body Experience and a Full House
Chapter 14: Dire Probability
Chapter 15: Cyprus Introduces Seven to Framework Two, and George the First Visits the Museum of Time
Chapter 16: Brothers of the Mind, a Dream Investigation, and Paranoia from the Past
Chapter 17: A Together Dream
