conversations

Excerpt from Addie and the Alien

/ Darlene Franklin-Campbell / 2 Comments

Addie and the Alien is my newest novel that is still unpublished. It’s a “different” kind of sci-fi. I hope you enjoy this excerpt. I hope to send it to the publishers this summer. Thank you for reading:)

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“Is that lady in the hospital right? Are you Jesus?”

He laughed. “No. I am Azariah.”

“How do I know Erestu isn’t heaven?”

“No streets of gold there.” He grinned. “Actually, there are no streets of any kind.”

I laughed.

“Do you want to learn or not?” he said, then shrugged, “because if you don’t, I’ll go right back to talking to the trees and….”

“Go on,” I told him. “I’m sorry I got you off track.”

“If the people of this world grasped the things your Jesus was really teaching, there would be much less disease and people would live to be a thousand years old, and then one day, their spirit energy would merely leave their bodies and no one would be sad or feel the need to grieve. There would be no pain in death, and to see a loved one as an energy-being would not be a supernatural thing but an expected event. Here, death is painful because it is unnatural and always too early.”

He smiled at me and laid his hand on my shoulder. “When we are broken, we fix one another, and we fix ourselves. I was broken and you tried to fix me, but it was the Ti  energy in me that did it. I am fixing all things that are broken in you, Addie, with that same energy.”

“But why? And why did you heal those people in the hospital?”

“I had to. Look all around you.” He put his arm around me and turned me around so that I looked out over the yard and neighborhood. “I have a grasp on your language now and I can explain it well. There are many kinds of energy. Ekna is a specific type of energy that animates the body. This can be so disrupted that it is jolted from the body and the body will cease to be alive. But there is a stronger energy. That energy is the Ti  force or original never ending source, what your people call God or Holy Spirit, within each of us. However, in order for you to see this energy supersede the limitations of your world, you must believe in it and trust it.  You spoke of laws. Well, this is a law of spirit energy or Ti. This energy is unlike any other. This energy is the source of all other energies.

“All natural things live because of their ekna, but the source of all energy is Ti . Each being has its own ekna or amount of Ti  energy and that energy animates whatever it inhabits, and each person can actually communicate with Ti  and it is back and forth because we each carry a piece of Ti,  which is what you call spirit and I call ekna.

“Energy cannot die, each spirit is eternal, but the temporary vessel that it resides in can be altered.”

“The amount of matter and energy in the universe is constant,” I said, “and matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed but can only change forms.”

“Yes, that’s right.” he replied. “You understand that with your mind but your ekna understands it on another level.

“In my world, we can maintain a body indefinitely unless a person meets with a horrific accident which almost never happens. We don’t die from sickness and we don’t die from the body deteriorating. Our world is not poison like this one. The sun isn’t harsh. There is no extreme heat or cold, no thunderstorms or earthquakes or tidal waves. Erestu is a gentle world and we don’t spend our time making life easier because it’s already easy. When we are hungry, there is food growing everywhere. When we are thirsty, the rivers are always clean.

“Since the beginning, our people have studied our minds and how to direct our Ti  energy to make things grow and flourish and how to live in perfect harmony with the ekna of our world. We are not bound to clocks and calendars.

“Each living thing has its own energy, its own connection to Ti .”

“But we refer to energy as electricity, electromagnetic radiation and so forth and so on,” I said. “What you’re talking about sounds like some sort of metaphysical, holly roller or New Age stuff….”

“For you it is fantasy. For us it is reality. Intent and thought are the most important parts of understanding the laws, as you would call them, of our universe and there is only one law, love. Love is a frequency.  In our world we do not need telescopes or microscopes or cars. Our ekna reveals to us the location of the stars and the things too small to see with the flesh eye. We understand all these things without what you call technology. Still, your technology helped me to learn your language quicker and I can see that it is most useful in this world. And maybe, your technology will help me to use what I already understand about ekna to go home again.”

He sighed. “Things are much more difficult in your world, but I can begin to help you understand.”

“Okay,” I said. “Help me to understand more.”

“Technology is energy, too, but a different type than our energy. There are many kinds of energy and all kinds are alive forever. Our energy lives, not just while we are in these bodies, but even when we leave these bodies. Our energy never ceases. Your world is sick because people here do not live long enough to discover what they truly are. And because you don’t know what you are, you never heal your world. You never reach the point where you no longer fear death. It is hard for me to be here, because there is so much pain in this world, so much to heal and so much that is broken that it is almost too much for me.”

“Are you afraid?”

“No. I am never afraid. Do you know why?”

“No,” I said.

“Because there is no fear in love. When you live by the law of love, you can’t exist in fear. Love is the unconditional acceptance of what is without the need to control it or change it. However, real love brings change to everything it touches. Love is not an emotion like on your romantic television shows. Love is a creative power that alters reality by bringing it into alignment with the spirit realm.”

“But I don’t walk out in front of moving cars,” I said, “because I fear getting killed.”

“No, that is not fear. That is wisdom. That is intelligence and intuition. Fear that I speak of is a different fear. I can see how frightening it is in this world for people who have never known another, or don’t realize that they once had another, for your whole race.”

“How do you learn so fast?” I asked.

“Every time I am around you, my energy absorbs, and my mind understands. If I touch you, I learn from you. If I touch a blade of grass, I learn from it. This is what my people have been doing for all the millennia, learning to communicate, to understand through the great energy that connects all things.”

“You mean you read my thoughts?”

“Not the words in your mind. I hear your ekna, feel you and know you. Like this. Be still, be quiet, close your eyes, and I will show you a little.”

I closed my eyes, and I could feel his presence, the touch of his hands on my arms, his cheek against my head, but more than that, I could feel something primal and real, like I was touching eternity in a moment.

I could feel his compassion for my world, his longing for his world. I could hear hundreds of birds and tell each one’s song from the next. I could hear the flowers growing and grass crying out to be watered in the summer heat. It was magical and powerful and painful because I felt so much need and an overwhelming need to connect with all the energy fields that we were touching and I felt joy, his joy of discovering a connection in this world. No embrace, no kiss, no earthly experience could have compared with what I was a part of in that instance.

Then, a shrill noise broke the magical moment.

Spiritual or Just Religious?

/ Darlene Franklin-Campbell / 2 Comments

Middle Class White Boy and the Moonshiner’s Daughter

Frankie and Ellie

Frankie saw Ellie as equal.

A few years ago, I wrote a novel called Touched. It’s the story of a young man growing up in the Appalachian Foothills. He comes face to face with the hypocrisies of religion and the authenticity of genuine spirituality.

On the surface, it’s a story about a forbidden friendship between a middle-class White boy, Frankie, and the local Melungeon moonshiner’s daughter, Ellie. Their friendship turns the community upside down when Frankie dares to see Ellie through the lens of spirituality rather than religion.

I reference the novel because it dawns on me this morning that I’ve been proclaiming that there’s a great divide between religion and spirituality for years.

So, just what are the differences? 

RELIGION

Religion is a system of time-tested boundaries and accepted rules.

Its purpose is to maintain a system, order, control, structure, and an acceptable way of thinking.

It seeks to glorify the system and reach divinity or a higher state through the keeping of standards.

Religion exalts the chosen few to an elite status of “the elect.”

It elicits an air of self-righteousness and moral superiority.

It is maintained through fear and criticism.

Spirituality

Spirituality, on the other hand, is an understanding of one’s place in the universe.

It does not depend upon adhering to a structure (although, it can occur within or without a structure or system).

Spirituality seeks a sense of balance, and inner peace.

It operates on the axis of letting go of ego, of understanding the basic principle that a cup is only useful because of the empty space inside which can be filled with something besides self. 

It brings out the genuine best qualities in a person.

It elicits joy, love, hope, faith, kindness, forgiveness, patience and peace. 

Spirituality is determined by one’s personal relationship with a divine source.

It is cultivated, not by keeping rules, but by seeking to be aligned with the divine way of doing things.

KUNG FU OF THE SOUL

The difference in religion and spirituality reminds me of the principles of internal martial arts such as Tai Chi and Bagua. Soft overcomes hard.  Flexible overcomes rigid. Humility overcomes self-importance. 

Religion focuses on external acts to obtain eternal security. On the other hand, spirituality operates from the premise that eternal security cannot be earned by performance but is assured because of our oneness with eternity. It flows from being in alignment with the Way of God, from staying true to our own spirit-path.

EDIT: A spirit inspired friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, recently sent me this beautiful clarification of one of my above statements. 

Spirituality implies by its very nature, the Supernatural and the eternal part of man.  While universe implies the temporal, the natural, something less than eternal. Therefore according to my reasoning, I believe your statement should read, “Spirituality, on the other hand is an understanding of the eternal nature of the soul of man and one’s place in the universe.” 

 

That Quickening Moment: Part I

/ Darlene Franklin-Campbell / Leave a comment

 

To Quicken Means to Bring to Life

To Quicken Means to Animate, to Bring to Life

The Quickening

I’m sitting here early on a Sunday morning, sipping coffee at the kitchen table, listening to two of my favorite sounds, the clicking clock and the humming fridge. Outside it’s been drizzling rain. I take pleasure in slow rain. It brings me a sense of calm, like the ticking clock and humming fridge.

I think about my life and smile. Lately, I’ve experienced a life-altering moment of profound clarity. Every action that I’ve taken in the days since then have been because of that life-altering moment, a moment that changed my entire outlook on myself and on my life. I call this moment, the Quickening.

I take the word quickening from Romans 8:11 where the apostle, Paul, uses the Greek word, zoopoieo (quickening) to refer to the way the spirit of God makes a person “alive.” So, to quicken something is to make it fully alive. 

The last time that happened, I was thirteen. Can a person have more than one life-altering moment, more than one moment of coming to life, more than one awakening? more than one quickening?

I believe they can. 

A quickening moment is best described as an awakening. We all wake up every day in the natural, so too, we can re-awaken in the spiritual sense. We may need to re-awaken because we allowed ourselves to be lulled to sleep.

Some people wake up in an instant and spring into their day. Others wake up slowly and go through a morning ritual of sorts before they’re truly alert. Well, spiritually, it’s the same way. However, it happens for you, a quickening moment is a spiritual awakening that shifts the entire meaning of your life and outlook on everything and everyone. It’s a moment when you wake up and are “born again.”

TWO REALITIES

Pink Clouds

There are Two Realities

There are two realms of existence.

We will call one realm the physical realm and the other realm the spiritual realm, (Kingdom (realm) of God (Supreme Magistrate, Divinity). We could even say that there is God’s reality and physical reality.

The spiritual realm has no starting point and no stopping point. The laws of physics do not apply to this realm. They apply to physical reality. The physical reality is inferior to the spiritual reality in that it is temporary and subject to the laws of thermodynamics.

The laws of the spirit realm operate on principles of a particular kind of energy and that energy is the creative force behind all that exists in the physical realm.

That energy is God, love, the source of all.

The physical realm is like parentheses in eternity. The beginning and ending parentheses are time. Or we could think of the physical realm as a bubble floating in the vast expanse of the spirit realm. The spirit realm is so much more expansive that everything inside the bubble is minute in comparison.

Now beings from the spiritual realm can take on a carnal, physical form and enter the physical realm for a time. While they’re there they experience what it means to be finite, to have a beginning and an ending.

So often these beings come into the physical realm and experience trauma, hardship, and pain, because they forget who they are and, just like Adam and Eve in the garden, they believe a temporal lie that enslaves them while they’re here.

ONE SPECIAL BEING

However, there was one particularly unique being from the spirit realm who came with all of his memories and awareness of his true origins still intact. This being defied the laws of physics at every turn, starting with his birth. He was born to a virgin. He walked on water. He raised the dead, healed the sick and confounded the most brilliant and highly educated minds of his day.

He never sought earthly credentials and was unmoved by both praise and criticism. These things meant little if anything to him because he knew who he was, where he was from, why he was here and where he was going.

Nonetheless, his final demonstration of the origin of humanity was when he allowed himself to be crucified and laid in a grave. Then he left his physical body for three days before returning to it, healing it, and reanimating it. (see Romans 8:11) 

Open our eyes

He came to open our eyes and show us who we are and the kind of life we are meant to live while we’re in this physical realm. He said, “…he (those) that believes on me (trust me, adhere to what I say) the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”

In another place he said that he had come to give us life and life more abundantly. He said he came to seek and to rescue those who were lost, off their path, wandering around with spiritual amnesia.

So, now that we’ve established that there are two realms of existence and that we are really spiritual beings having a physical experience, let’s look at how to get our memories back! What happens when that occurs?

I will discuss this in the next blog post.