Cameron looked around himself totally dismayed. This was the third time he was opening his eyes to the morning light streaming in his bedroom window. The first time it had happened he had gotten up, plugged the coffee maker in as he normally did and headed for the shower. Upon reaching the bathroom however, he realized all the hooks above the window were staring at him empty-handed like upside down question marks as they insisted they had no idea what had happened to his prized ferns. Not understanding the vacant area where they had once hung, he had stepped back slightly to survey the room again. Then Cameron had notice his tile had changed color. It was no longer the newly installed mint green but had reverted back to the sickly 60’s scheme of pink and black which had plagued his outdated bathroom before he had renovated it. That’s when he realized he was dreaming.

But it was no ordinary dream. He found he had little control over it as he had mentally tried to wipe the offending tile away from his dream. It had remained glued stubbornly gloating in its obstinacy. He tried to go out of his house but the doors were locked seamlessly against their frames. He tried to float through a open window in the living room but the window sensing his wish to escape his fate had slammed itself abruptly in his face. He was stuck there it seemed and he didn’t like it. This was no dream like he had dreamed before. The growing sense of confinement crept over him like a spider edging up his spine. Whirling around he thought he felt a presence in the dream but no one appeared before him. As he reviewed his past dreams he began to wonder what trap he had stumbled upon in the Tower of Dreams. Deciding he still had a chance to leave and re-enter he tried opening a hole in the floor similar to the hole in the gazing globe in his garden. It swirled at the foot of his sofa the destination unknown and thus feared. But, Cameron decided he was wasting time. Something was obviously wrong here and he needed to leave to proceed through the Tower of Dreams. Summoning his courage he put his hands in front of him like a diver plunging off a high cliff. As his consciousness drowned in the eddy of vibrations within the whirlpool of his own creation he kept reminding himself it was all a dream. There was no real danger here other than his own mind. Then the vibrations had overwhelmed him and his lucidity had waned long enough to jump back into the same dream he had started from. He had done this thrice and was now facing a pent up frustration as he realized he had been experiencing three false awakenings that he could remember. And if he understood dream memory correctly, he could have been doing this eternal circle for many dreams now totally oblivious to the time spent futilely trying to escape. On his last false awakening he had pursed his lips in thought and returned to his bed. That’s when he had nearly fainted in horror.

There on the bed lay his body as he had left it, the covers neatly pressed to his chest as the sheet billowed subtly with each breath. Unable to tear his eyes away from the image before him, his mind began a cascading hiccup of thoughts designed to stabilize his reality.

"It’s my body!" Cameron marveled, awe mixing with the distinct uneasiness at the implications of this dream. He looked at the blond hair cut neatly in lumberjack fashion. One wrinkled, overworked hand lay on top of the sheets pinned next to the body. Cameron walked over as if to peer into the closed eyes of the sleeping man. He noticed a slight bulge under his chin and decided he needed to loose weight. "What am I saying?" Cameron’s mind grappled with the duplicity of his consciousness. "How can I be saying ‘I need to loose weight’ from here?!"

The confusion of his thoughts implied the impossible. His body needed to loose weight but at this moment, he was not his body.

"A state of mistaken identity?" A voice chuckled softly, harmoniously. "Cameron, you are not your body, you are your spirit."

Looking back towards the voice, Cameron jumped to see the outline of a ghostly female figure etched translucently against the background of his bedroom.

"How can I see you, a spirit, and my body at the same time?" Cameron voiced the thought that had been stretching his perception of reality like a thin deer skin on a hollow drum. "Wait a minute!" He gasped. "I am real because I am, that I know." He began to reason. "My body is real because I woke up from it and left it. And you must be real because you see me as I am standing next to my body! My God!" He exclaimed accepting the paradox of the situation. "You are real!"

"I’ve been waiting for you," The ghost said warmly her figure dissipating into a warm, bubble of light. "Welcome to level three."

The announcement of his achievement made Cameron swell with pride. The test had proved to be a child’s game, he chuckled delightedly to himself. Here he was on the second night of his adventure and he had already gotten to the third level. The prize was his for sure, he thought. And so far, the only so-called "dangers" he had discovered had been beautiful women vying for his attention, like the one that had just melted into a bubble of light. There was nothing to fear in the tower of dreams, there was only beauty and love, Cameron decided.

"Who are you?" Cameron said his voice echoing the awe he felt at the illuminating warmth of the bubble’s glow.

"I am your guide," the bubble resonated thoughts that drifted easily into Cameron’s open mind.

"What’s a guide?" Cameron was about to voice his question but realized words were unnecessary on level three. His thoughts intentionally directed at the spark of light in front of him sounded audible even to himself.

"I am your spiritual guide, your counselor, your friend. I have been with you since the moment you were born watching your journey in the third dimension trying to keep you to your goals."

"Do you mean you’re my guardian angel?"

"You can call me that if you like, but I know you don’t believe in angels, Cameron. Remember, I have watched you grow up and know you better than your own mother and father."
The thought of any being, even this spiritually awesome force in front of him, spying on his private life made him uneasy. "Why are you interested in me?"

"We have been friends, soul mates, for many eons Cameron. You just do not remember them. But, you are not special, " the bubble continued, "everyone has a guide to help them through the challenges of the third dimension."

Hearing her confirm his suspicions made Cameron’s stomach sink as he reviewed some of the things in his life he wished no one would ever know about. And he now realized there was nothing secret on earth, no matter how deeply hidden nor how well forgotten. The guides would know.

Reading Cameron’s open mind, the bubble glowed more brilliantly until its outer aura expanded over Cameron enveloping him in the warmth of its light. A sexless love of understanding and compassion engulfed him, comforting his soul with acceptance on all levels.

"Yes," the guide’s thoughts spun unbidden into Cameron’s inner mind, "there is nothing hidden. But why should that bother you, Cameron? You have gone beyond that. You have understood that on level two. All experiences are valuable. We do not judge you for them. They were necessary for your growth."

Feeling the touch of his guide’s essence as it comforted him and held him to a higher standard, Cameron felt the last vestige of personal reserve fall away. He had found a friend for life and beyond. A soul so close to his own that even sex was meaningless. It was not a union of opposites, it was a union of wholes.

"What shall I call you?" Cameron asked.

"Call me Fern," the bubble chirped in mirth at the obvious implication. "I know how much your present personality loves plants."

Unwilling to argue with his newfound soul mate, Cameron shrugged his shoulders and laughed with her. "OK, Fern," Cameron acknowledged the less than glamorous title, "what do I do now?"

"I’m glad you asked," Fern’s form expanded into the woman’s image Cameron had seen earlier. "I’ve been waiting to take you to the Akashic Library. It’s your time to go."

Looking at the most spiritually inspiring woman he had ever seen, Cameron marveled at the total lack of sexuality between them. She was more beautiful and radiant than any earthly woman had a right to be and yet there was nothing seductive in her beauty. There was form but oddly no color other than a sparkling whiteness that helped solidify the image. She was a free spirit, a bodiless soul, a jubilant sexless entity that merely appeared before him as female for his own comfort. Understanding this, Cameron realized she could have just as easily formed her image as a man.

Fern smiled a pleased look of a teacher who has caught his student in an act of unedited brilliance. "Yes, you are remembering even now," Fern nodded approvingly. "I think we should see one of your past lives as a woman first."

"What?"

"Just follow me," Fern said as she heightened and attuned the vibrational frequency of her own soul’s signature. "I will carry you to the location of the Akashic Library. From there we will find the records of your past life in Atlantis."

As Cameron watched Fern walk out of the bedroom and to the front door he felt the shift in frequency she was creating. It was as if this parallel universe echoing the physical one had it’s own musical note, an octave higher than the third dimension. And as Fern deftly handled and tuned the vibrations she was generating, Cameron’s soul resonated still yet a higher octave than the one before. And so it went, with each step taken by Fern, Cameron’s own matching step followed her higher into a different reality until the moment when they would have reached the front door. But they never did, because from that last step they walked into the Akashic Library.

"Violet," Fern walked over to the elderly librarian behind the reference desk. "I’ve brought Cameron, here, " Fern motioned towards Cameron who was trying to figure out exactly how they had made their way here from his bedroom, "to look over his life in Atlantis. The year is 2030 in the Brugellian timeline."

Violet stood up and without even a moment to review the request and led Fern to the "Shifting Time/Space" geographical zone. She walked to the previously empty card catalogues and as she opened the tiny cabinet the correct references magically appeared. Lifting a card out she handed it to Fern who reviewed and shook her head in the negative.

"Nope, not that life." Fern said as she returned the card to Violet. "A little later, maybe. Cameron still needs time to get used to the idea of a past-life. He had many on Atlantis in different timelines, but I’m interested in one that has a positive aspect to it and will help Cameron to define the reality he is experiencing. The Brugellian timeline was the most positive one analyzed to date. This one is from the Chrys timeline."

"Oh yes," Violet agreed whole-heartedly, glad to have a fellow investigative reader to talk to. She reached back and pulled out another card for Fern. "I loved the Brugellian timeline myself. It was almost as dramatic as the Chrys timeline. I mean, gee, can you believe a whole land mass disappearing into the ocean?! I At least in the Brugellian timeline, the continent remains but the dark energies are routed and moved to a less physical sphere."

"I’m sorry," Cameron finally interjected as he watched these two ladies bicker about Atlantis, timelines and energies as if the subject was one discussed daily. "Fern? I don’t understand. This is too much for me. Why Atlantis? Couldn’t we go back to something more familiar like, say, New Jersey?"

Violet peered over her instantly appearing spectacles, her dark eyes piercing a disapproving look of the stern patrolling librarian who has caught someone disobeying the rules.

"Don’t be so strict, Violet!" Fern reached over gently enfusing more light and love into the librarian’s soul. "He means no disrespect. He doesn’t understand the nature of our relationship. He is a man of limited words. His intelligence is totally experiential. He is only expressing himself when he objects to reviewing a life he feels he currently has no connection to."

With this explanation Fern turned to Cameron the new card in hand. "You’re just going to have to trust me, Cameron." Fern said punctuating her statement with a heavy dose of love that pulsed into Cameron’s body in a warmth that exploded into his brain. "We have many lives to review tonight. If you still wish to find one in New Jersey at the end, I will have no objections."

Cameron looked at Fern’s glowing figure realizing the warmth he was feeling was being dispersed by her soul’s light. He cozied to the warmth of her presence like a mountain man near the coal-white embers in a Franklin belly stove. "Sure Fern," Cameron shrugged realizing he had the widest puppy dog grin on his face he had ever managed to crack. "You lead, I’ll follow."

"Sorry, It was your life. You lead. I follow."

"But, I don’t know how..." Cameron began then he looked down at the card and he saw a holographic pink pyramid edged in gold that tripped his subconscious into his past life. His essence slipped easily into the card and Fern followed close behind. The card drifted ownerless to the floor. Violet bent down to pick it up and replaced it back in the catalogue. These new technologies are wonderful, she thought as she speculated over the new memory books in the catalogues. All she ever saw about other people were timelines and locations on the card, a time/space coordinate. It took either the guide or the owner to trigger the doorway to the actual life. So thoroughly confidential and yet compact and easy to use. The Akashic library was a marvel of modern soul cataloguing.

Cameron felt himself flying effortlessly through the outer edges of the card and into a balmy mid-day oasis of gigantic palm trees as his soul zoomed unswervingly towards the sunset pink and gold-edged pyramid placed squarely against a mystic blue wading pool.

Cameron’s soul floated bodiless as he looked down from a height halfway up the pyramid. "Where am I?"

"Atlantis," Fern’s bright pinpoint of light shot up behind him ready to answer his every question.

Cameron, a man hypnotized by the environment and his own presence, accepted the answer without comment. He viewed the artificial mountains against the ocean in the distance as he felt the familiarity of the surroundings begin to echo memories into his being. His soul made its way down towards the opening he knew to be at the base of the monument. Soon he found himself winding through the narrow passageways oddly lit up by strips of luminescent material. His being burst into the inner chamber where he finally found what had drawn his attention here. This was a memorable day in Cameron’s life as Aliwana. She was to be accepted into the healing temple, putting aside her old life as a worker, and donning the garb of a novitiate of the order of Skepilos. As Cameron watched Aliwana prepare to take the final step to seal her commitment to the higher spiritual arts, his consciousness could not resist the pull of her life any longer. He felt himself hurled into her body with the force of a whirlwind that sprouted from nowhere. Fern’s light pulsed brighter as she realized her protege was now beginning his rememberings. He would flash through his life as Aliwana remembering the more difficult lessons best when he returned. It would take numerous such trips for him to learn to travel his timeline without dipping deeply enough to trap him. For now, she let him experience that which Cameron would never accept on teachings alone.