BEARY I feel a strange sort of connection with that guy. Does he look familiar to you?

ERON Looks like one of the 60’s leftovers to me.

BEARY Yeah, but it’s more than that.

ERON What do you mean?

BEARY Déjà vu.

ERON I don’t understand.

BEARY I feel him like… oh, never mind.

ERON What’s goin on?

BEARY Shhhhhh

MAN (Folding his hands in pranam, the traditional Hindu greeting meaning ‘the lotus in my heart bows to the lotus in your heart’) Om Namaha Shivaya.

MAN (Goes back to making tea.) We have tea but no sugar, Baba.

MAN (To monk) You are tired, older brother, let us take chai, you will feel better. (He pours the monk a cup of tea and notices his feet.) for your feet I have something as well.

MONK And what is that my young healer?

MAN (Going over to his bundle and taking out a small container.) A salve from the holy medicine plant. They used this on my wounds after taking me down from the cross. It will help to heal your feet quickly. (He drops to his knees and applies the salve to the monk’s feet.)

JESUS There is much evidence to support the theory of pre-Christian mushroom cults and the seed bearing herbs the Bible speaks of are believed by many to be the cannabis plant that grows in abundance in the Middle East and accounts for many of the regions home remedies; salves for healing wounds, potions for sleep etc. and if his missing years were spent in India, as there is evidence to suggest, learning and living the sadhu life, it is more than likely he used those substances that were, and still are, an integral part of the Indian religious scene.

SHIVA Lord of Destruction and Re-creation, supreme yogi of the universe is the third person of the Hindu trinity and the ascetic ideal of Hinduism. He is generally worshipped in the form of the linga, the erect male genital organ coming out of the yoni, or female organ. In human form he is represented as usually living in the Himalaya with his wife Parvati, trampling on demons, making love, meditating in forests and graveyards and smoking ganja. His teaching is the power to be obtained by penance, the suppression of passions and the virtue of abstract meditation leading to the loftiest spiritual knowledge and union with Brahman, the Universal Spirit. This state of supreme consciousness, which is the ultimate aim for all devout Hindus, can be obtained by various means, the greatest respect going to those yogis who practice kundalini arousing meditations and psycho-experimental methods of ecstasy. Soma, the psychedelic beverage of the Rig-Veda, the divine plant of immortality that the Aryans brought with them prior to Hinduism, was worshipped as both a god and a plant and Rudra, the pre-cursor to Shiva, delighted in the brew along with the other gods.

MOHAMMED The Koran forbids alcohol but the use of cannabis and khat have been a part of Arab culture for centuries having come from Persia where they were used as sacraments in the Zoroastrian religion from which the SUFI brotherhood, a religion of tolerance and love, evolved. The Whirling Dervishes still use them to this day in their ceremonies extolling their virtues as a giver of divine revelation and oneness with Allah.

BUDDHA It will probably never be known if the Buddha left his body and entered mahasamadi after ingesting psychedelic mushrooms or rotten pork but there are numerous references to his subsisting entirely on hemp seeds when he lived the ascetic life and on only one per day just prior to his enlightenment. Today there are many Buddhists, both lay and clergy, who use ganja as an aid to meditation in China, Nepal, India, Thailand, Ceylon and Tibet.

LAO TZU Though we know little of his life it is well established that Taoist sages have a hearty appetite for most mind altering substances and when the dragon men fly their propulsion is often fueled by such indigenous power plants as the magic stone mushroom and Ma, their name for cannabis.

SOCRATES Kykeon, the sacred potion of the ancient Greeks used for celebrating the Great Mystery, the soma that inspired their vision, is said to have been his favorite beverage.

MADAM BLAVATSKY Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, occultist-mystic and founder of the Theosophical Society was an inveterate ganja smoker and both The Secret Doctrine and Isis Unveiled were written under its influence, it has been said.

RASTAFARIAN The Church of The Triumphant. A contemporary religion, circa 1930, that uses ganja, the holy herb, the weed of wisdom, as their sacrament.

MAMA COCA Legendary goddess of the Incas who represented the Supreme Universal Mother and the divine coca plant: feminine fecundity and magic power.

MOSES Mushroom stories abound in the Old Testament and follow him throughout the first five books and just what was the burning bush?

MARIA SABINA Mazatec Indian curandera from Central Mexico and sacred mushroom guide.

NATIVE AMERICAN Peyote roadman and spirit guide for the Native American Church.

PROFESSOR NIETZCHE Naturalistic philosopher, evolutionary humanist and opium addict; the religion of non-religion.

FATHER INNOCENT Roman Catholic Priest.

* * *

BUDDHA (To Jesus) My feet feel better already. That is indeed a special medicine.

JESUS Our Father has given it all. It is only for us to learn how to use.

BUDDHA This is the same plant whose seeds gave me life for many years when I lived as a wandering ascetic before my awakening.

SHIVA And to many wandering brethren as well. To the Hindu the hemp plant is holy for in God’s goodness he made it as a heavenly guide. It is his breath.

MOHAMMED (He carries a camel bag over his shoulder and a rolled-up prayer rug and wears a turban, a striped kaftan or jelaba and a very long beard with a shaved upper lip.) if this plant is so good for you why is it outlawed in so many places?

JESUS Because it allows you to see the truth and the truth will set you free. Caesar does not want his subjects to be free -- then there would be no need for Caesar.

MOHAMMED But how can a plant make you see the truth? That can come only from Allah.

SHIVA There are many who believe this plant to be Allah.

MOHAMMED This is blasphemy, God is God, man is man.

SHIVA Some people say God is man and man is God (Finishes cleaning chillum and takes it off his big toe, begins packing it with a mixture he takes from his pouch.) Do you want to see for yourself? To test it?

MOHAMMED To test it?

SHIVA Yes, (Offers chillum) to take into your being the very breath of God.

MOHAMMED Absolutely not! It is for idolators and indolents!

SHIVA But will a little puff-puff hurt if Allah is protecting you? It is even possible to see him.

MOHAMMED I don’t believe it. To see Allah? How?

SHIVA The spirit of the plant is the spirit of freedom and knowledge. With freedom and knowledge comes wisdom and with wisdom comes Brahman, or Allah, as you call him. Do not deny it without tasting it.

MOHAMMED And what about one’s health?

BUDDHA Inhaling any kind of smoke or fumes is not good for the body but we inhale noxious fumes all day in our travels both in the city and village. The secret is moderation, the Middle Way, I call it.

MOHAMMED Middle Way? You mean a compromise with the devil.

BUDDHA The middle way is not one of compromise but a razor-edged path that neither over indulges or denies. It is the way of reason.

SHIVA Moderation, and using only the very best.

BUDDHA (Smiles) When you use only the very best you need only a very little.

SHIVA (To Mohammed) And this is the very best...got it from an American.

MADAM BLAVATSKY My dear Sir... (To Mohammed as she holds up antique, silver stash box and cigarette/joint.) This little box has been a constant companion to me for many years and is indeed my medicine for a variety of ailments. It cures my dysentery, my constipation, quickens my digestion, sharpens my appetite, gives my body energy and my mind alertness, lowers my blood pressure, freshens my intellect, removes the wool from my eyes and puts me in contact with that deepest part of myself which in turn allows me access to my spirit guides and those Masters that direct the energies of the world.

SHIVA With the help of bhang ascetics can center their thoughts on the eternal, go without food and drink for many days and students of the scriptures learn their lessons more easily and more deeply.

RASTAMAN Hey, mon! Rastaman call the plant the weed of wisdom, the holy herb!

MOHAMMED (Unrolling his prayer rug and sitting down.) Who but a fool would call a plant wise?

RASTAMAN (Comes down from the top step. He is dressed in the traditional Rastafarian colors of red, black and green and a ganja leaf is silk-screened on the chest of his shirt. He speaks in the patois of Jamaica, land of his birth and that of the Rastafarian movement. His dreads are wild and his face is hairy.) The laws against the ganja plant are a chain around the necks of the poor peoples of the world, the black and the brown and the hungry. They want to keep the power for themselves cause the ganja energy is power, mon, power for the soul, power for the mind and power for the pocketbook. The herb gives sight, mon, the ability to see the truth, to see through the jive, all the tricks and lies the Mon play on the people and pocket power gives you the long green to implement soul and mind and there’s nothing Big Daddy fears more than the power of the dollar. If the oppressed of the world had the holy herb they wouldn’t be oppressed anymore. The Big Mon know that. Just say yeah, yeah, yeah to the holy herb, mon, cause it’s the herb of the Holy bible. "And the earth brought forth grass and herb-yielding seed after its kind and tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after its kind, and God saw that it was good".

SOCRATES Good? Good? Good God! What is good? Is it a good thing for itself? Food for its own purpose? Or a good thing in itself? Intrinsically good, or ethically as an ultimate good? A relative good?

JESUS (Passes pipe to Socrates) Bom shiva Shankar, Hari, Hari Ganja.

SOCRATES (Accepts the pipe, puts it to his forehead for a moment, then with eyes closed takes a deep hit, exhales and smiles. After a few moments…) First let us determine why some substances are illegal and others legal. What exactly do we mean when we say this one is bad and this one is good and what is the criteria for making that determination and who has the right to pass judgment? What is the standard for making one easy to obtain, condoned by the law, and another illegal and punishable by jail? Similar looking substances in many cases, natural plants from the good earth, but they make you feel different. Is it then a feeling, or a certain kind of emotion that the State does not want you to have? Is it the behavior that might result from these attributes? Let us then examine those resulting attributes. Surely there is no way the State can outlaw a feeling or a thought. But what they can say is the behavior, the attitude and the thinking that those feelings, sensations and perceptions engender is detrimental to the State.

MOHAMMED (To Sufi) You are an apostate, an infidel and your behavior is wrong, wrong and you should be punished until you are convinced that you are in need of new beliefs. You smoke and spin your life away alone and for the benefit of no one. What good are you to yourself or others?

BUDDHA Never is a man less alone than when he is by himself. Never is a man more active than when he does nothing.

MOHAMMED We must be assertive in informing others of the correct way. (To Sufi) Why do you smoke, dog?

SUFI (Taking a hit.) Ganja is the poor man’s pleasure, Effendi. Take that away and we have nothing.

MOHAMMED But don’t you understand it is the drug that is keeping you poor?

SUFI My family has been scraping their livelihood from the earth for many hundreds of years. Will we become rich if we stop smoking?

ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST (Awakening from his meditation.) No, my son, but you will join the developing peoples of the world and your children will have the opportunity to become rich.

SUFI I see how the children in your developing countries carry guns and kill each other over your white powders in their passion to become rich. I am already rich beyond my wildest dreams, Effendi, what need I for gold? (Looking toward the heavens he takes another pull on the pipe and goes spinning off back into an Up Stage corner while softly singing) Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah.

BUDDHA There is no joy like the joy of freedom.

MOHAMMED Or to dance away your life in godless and lawless frenzy without contributing to society.

BUDDHA (Smiles) Honey can be gathered from many kinds of flowers.

RASTAMAN (Coming down to Center Stage.)

MADAM BLAVATSKY Hear! Hear! (Gets up and starts to dance to the beat with joint in hand.)

RASTAMAN (Warming up he does a little hip-hop with her.)

SHIVA (After a pause) What to do? It is the age of Kali Yuga, the most degenerate, the age of strife and dissension, where only wealth confers rank, where governments are addicted to falsehood and wickedness. It is that time say the Puranas when the human race approaches annihilation.

MADAM BLAVATSKY The last gasp of a spiritually bankrupt world.

PROFESSOR NIETZSCHE (Who has until this time been on the nod.) The logical consequence of values pursued.

FATHER INNOCENT (As Rastaman passes him the pipe.) Those who take intoxicating drugs for their spiritual advancement are creating delusion.

PROFESSOR NIETZSCHE Those who take intoxicating drugs for their spiritual advancement are indeed creating delusion, my friend. The proper drugs to take for spiritual advancement are those substances that open the mind and heart. Intoxication closes both. Those substances that open you to that deepest part of yourself I call awakening medicine. Those substances that close those channels I call sleeping medicine. All of the religions of the world have their holy plants. They are the very heart of their genesis. The established churches and temples that publicly disdain their use have much to lose by telling the truth. They prefer to mutilate the genitals or vocal chords as the way to God. There are fanatics everywhere. The mystery schools are no longer a mystery. Welcome. The Way is now open to everyone. Beware of false teachers.

ERON Whose that guy?

BEARY Shhh, I don’t know, some teacher (Long pause) Wow…

PROFESSOR NIETZSCHE (To woman) That which serves the higher class of man for nourishment must be poison to a different and lower order of human being.

MAMA COCA My medicine serves as an opportunity for all. (She takes a leaf from her bag and seductively puts it into her mouth.)

MOHAMMED (To the others.) She is sent by the devil!

MAMA COCA And who has sent you, Senor?

MOHAMMED I am sent by Allah, God himself, the Compassionate, the merciful.

PROFESSOR NIETZSCHE He is the messenger for the Almighty.

MAMA COCA I too am his messenger.

MOHAMMED I bring the word of God, woman.

MAMA COCA I bring the flesh of God, Senor.

MOHAMMED You bring demons!

FATHER INNOCENT You are the devils door, Madam.

MAMA COCA The demons are in yourself, Senor, but they can become helpful spirits if you allow the medicine to draw them out. Only then can you change them. Face your demons. You will see. The door opens both ways. They will leave. Do no be afraid.

MOHAMMED Allah protects me. I fear no demons or their powers. Only Allah, the compassionate, the Merciful, do I fear.

SHIVA Bom-bom? (Offers pipe to Mohammed who again refuses.)

MAMA COCA (Offers Mohammed a leaf but he also refuses. The same offer she makes to the Priest but he refuses as well.) Why are you afraid? There are many paths to god. Go into the depths of the experience, into the fire and you will understand what others have learned about power. It is the ultimate challenge for the entire world, the challenge of facing your fears and overcoming them, to become master of your destiny rather than slave.

SHIVA In India it is called the fast path, the left-handed way. For some it is dangerous, it is the warriors path and not for the light of heart. A momentary glimpse into the meaning and vastness of the creative source and one is never the same. Not everyone is prepared for such change.

PROFESSOR NIETZSCHE The real drug war is taking place within – the dynamic tension necessary for growth. And the tension becomes unbearable in some individuals and not everyone survives. Some fall into the pit of madness never to return to this earth plane.

SHIVA This is a special brand of saint. We have many here in India. They feel no pain. They have left the mundane world and are with the devas. They dance with the gods.

FATHER INNOCENT In the West they are locked awauy in mad house.

SHIVA Here we touch their feet in reverence.

FATHER INNOCENT In reverence? Why? These poor, demonic, possessed souls who wander your cities and villages will only indoctrinate your children into damnation.

PROFESSOR NIETZSCHE It is a revolution that is happening, an internal revolution and it cannot be stopped. It is looked upon as treason by the Empire because it is a spiritual revolution and as such goes against the material grain of the power brokers. Plants that have become sacred signify a transcendental reality to their users. They have available to them another frequency of experience. That is a weapon that cannot be objectified on a computer screen and eliminated by superior technology.

FATHER INNOCENT But what about the children? The future generations?

MAMA COCA If children are given the truth, Papa, they will walk the true way. Then there is nothing to fear.

PROFESSOR NIETZSCHE There are those who are afraid of almost everything, pain and change in all their many varieties and shades foreshadow death from which the world runs. We do not want to be reminded, we hate the very idea of dying. (Rubbing his nose he looks at the funeral pyres in the background.)

BUDDHA Thus I have heard, the most important moment in a person’s life is the moment of death, for the degree of wakefulness and the quality of consciousness one possesses on leaving the present body will determine the kind of life one will reenter.

JESUS (Who has been quietly patching his blanket.) Absolutely, but this strange cult that has sprung up in my name does not seem to understand that life is not a one time experience to be afraid of, it is a cycle and there is a way to live and die, a science and skill that the plants can help teach. This is the main difference between us and them, between the enlightened and the unenlightened. Our Father’s body is one and we are all cells in that body. Some of us know it, some of us don’t. We are here, (Indicates others) we are here to awake everyone in the world to that truth. There are many roads to the truth. (The chillum comes to Jesus, he takes a big hit and passes it on. Mama Coca comes over and sits next to him. The energy is electric.) Whoever comes to God through whatever means, God welcomes him (Looking at Mama Coca)…or her.

MAMA COCA (To Jesus) You are very wise for one so young.

JESUS I am nothing, another barefoot poet, a faceless face in an empty crowd. I drift here and there like all the others seeking out the wise ones. They have the wisdom, I have only a voice… What is this plant that you wear?

MAMA COCA The wisdom of my people. (They look at each other with deep knowing and attraction.)

JESUS (Reaching into his bag he takes out a large mushroom.) The wisdom of my people.

MAMA COCA Let us pray. (Takes from her bag a coca leaf and from the gourd around her waist adds a touch of lime. They exchange sacraments and eat silently.)

FATHER INNOCENT Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord be with you…

SHIVA (Reading) We have eaten the Soma and we have become immortal, we have arrived at the light, we have found the gods. What now can the malice of mortals do? What now can hostility do? Oh Immortal Soma! Oh Immortal Soma! Oh Immortal Soma!

ERON What’s he reading?

BEARY The Rig-Veda, the ancient holy scriptures of India.

ERON He’s talking about dope!

SHIVA (Continues reading) Of this sweet food I have eaten wisely, sickness has fled and disease has vanished and the powers of darkness have become alighted. What strength Soma gives us within; we have reached the dawn where man renews existence. Oh Immortal Soma!

JESUS Truly, truly I say unto you, unless one is reborn anew he cannot see the kingdom of God. The lawgivers tell lies and fill your ears and heads with their crooked speech. But I say unto you, empty your heads of what you hear and go only into your heart where God’s law resides. The kingdom of heaven is within you.

FATHER INNOCENT They are destroying their chromosomes!

PROFESSOR No Sir, they are rearranging them.

MOHAMMED But they have no right to do that.

PROFESSOR Why?

FATHER INNOCENT Because it is a sickness that will affect the children of future generations. They are playing God.

PROFESSOR Yes, it will affect the children, that is the whole point. A parent has every right to pass on to them their values, their religion. If that rearranges the genes, so be it. It is the evolutionary process in motion and the duty of mankind, a categorical imperative for the parents of the future, the karma of the New Man.

FATHER INNOCENT Everything not of faith, that does not increase faith and the knowledge of God, is an idol.

PROFESSOR Drugs are not only the new faith, the new religion, they are the oldest faith of mankind. And as in all religions there is the holy and the unholy, the sacred and the profane. That which helps to awake is sacred and that which keeps mankind asleep, in fear and trembling, is the unholy, the power of darkness. So let there by light. The old must make room for the new. A new age is upon us. A new congregation for a very old religion. The plants are here to stay. They have been here from the very beginning, as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in your Garden of Eden. You know this as well as I. They will not go away regardless of how much legislation is passed. The problem is not a legal or medical one, but one that has been politicized by the anal-retentives in the government that want all the control, all the power for themselves. The drug war is a religious crusade, the ritual persecution of the infidels, those people that want to control their own reality. It is an attack on the freedom of religion, a war started and sustained by the addicts of control, those Inquisitors who have been around for millennia, the tight and angry soldiers of righteousness who envy the pleasure and ecstasy of their neighbors but who are incapable of experiencing it themselves. They are the lowest common denominator in the evolutionary process and they are on the way to extinction. This is their fear. They see the handwriting on the wall and there is nothing they can do about it. Wisemen counsel graceful acceptance of the inevitable but the drug warriors are a lower order of species and they can only rage. Emotion, not reason or intuition, guide them. The lowest form of consciousness. It is as it should be. Extinction is an inescapable fact of life and conflict is necessary for growth and mutation. As long as there is conflict there will be natural selection and as long as there is natural selection new species will evolve. And that is what is happening now; mutation of the species, DNA is being reprogrammed, a new order of man and woman is on the horizon. Supermen. Gods and goddesses. Fully awake beings. It is the planets only hope. So when you go to woman—take your pipe. That is what I really meant.

FATHER INNOCENT You are a madman, Sir.

MADAME BLAVATSKY Divine madness it is called.

MOHAMMED The tongue on this infidel should be cut out. When the great trumpet sounds and the heavens are split asunder and the mountains fall to dust both men and jinn will be called to account and you will be cast into the fire to abide therein forever. May Allah be merciful on your soul.

FATHER INNOCENT Amen. Are you saying that drugs are mankind’s only hope for salvation?

MADAME BLAVATSKY No, my good Padre, he is saying only a change of consciousness will save the planet and those power plants that have been available for thousands of years are one of the major vehicles for that transformation. There is no deathless species. Extinction is an integral part in our four billion year history of life and there is no reason to believe that Homo Sapien is an exception to this rule. He is saying that if we are to survive, we must change, we must continue to change. Where will it end? Homo lunaris? Homo psychedelaris? Now this new man is more a state of consciousness than a physical type though in time it will produce a change in physical characteristics as well. The races are coming together and mixing the blood; new blood, new genetics, new consciousness equals new man. Young people go off to war, millions at a time, have relations with all the other races and mix their reconditioned blood that carries the embryo of the sixth root race, the new humanity without any racial or national barriers. It is already happening on a large scale and the proliferation of this practice is a result in large measure of the sacred plants opening up the channels and allowing those energies to commingle between peoples that wouldn’t normally come together. Different cultures and temperaments are not always compatible but the offspring who will inherit this legacy will most assuredly be a large evolutionary step ahead of their parents. They will be of the sixth root race, the godmen and women that the ancient wisdoms refer to in their most esoteric writings. And this is what the Empire fears the most for they will be a new group of world servers with no allegiance to the past and no fear of the present. No authority or dogma will bind them.

FATHER INNOCENT And that will mean more violence.

MADAME BLAVATSKY Yes, in the beginning it will mean more violence—a bridging process—you see it now in Europe, Russia, the barrios, Asian, Latin, in the black ghettos, between the old and the new, the birth pangs of transition that invariably come in a bid for power. A new species is always impertinent in the eyes of the old and the new must struggle to survive.

FATHER INNOCENT Anarchy. The breakdown of law and order.

PROFESSOR Law is only what is in the best interest of the strongest. It is there to serve the hygienic function of order, of "cleaning up", getting rid of the undesirables, whomever they might be; Jews, witches, communists or drug users and the structuring function, designed to allow the stronger to interfere in the peaceful activities of the weaker, to shape not only his or her conduct but the mind behind that conduct. Power that can penetrate the recesses of culture is infinitely more dangerous than brute force. Men are entirely what their form of government makes them, Rousseau said. The most absolute authority is that which penetrates into a man’s innermost being and concerns itself no less with his will than his actions.

RASTAMAN (Shouts down to audience.)

FATHER INNOCENT But there has to be order in a society.

SOCRATES When the State regulates, limits and prohibits a person’s conduct to such a degree that he is not able to make a meaningful decision regarding his life, is this not powerlessness? And does not lack of power over one’s life result in frustration? A sense of impotence? And does not this explode in violence sooner or later. Correct me, please, if I am wrong.

MOHAMMED But social control is necessary or people will fall into licentiousness and indolence. If they are morally unrestrained in their temptations then they are lost and Allah shall separate the wicked from the just and heap them one upon another and cast then into hell. We must save them from this fate if we can.

FATHER INNOCENT It is our duty, the shepherd’s duty to his flock. The scourge must be stopped. The war must be won.

BUDDHA Victory breeds hatred, the conquered live in sorrow.

SOCRATES You underestimate the people. Wrong actions are committed only out of ignorance. If a man knows the right thing to do he will do it, will he not? No one injures themselves purposely or chooses to do wrong. But if a person feels that he no longer has any control over his own life, if he feels that he is at the mercy of others and cannot direct himself toward his goals—this must end in violence sooner or later—violence to oneself and violence to the other.

FATHER INNOCENT Useless slaughter.

PROFESSOR To embrace life it is necessary to embrace death. This is what your Christ did, was it not? Was his a useless death?

FATHER INNOCENT He died for the sins of the world. And God so beloved the world he gave his only begotten son.

PROFESSOR Do you really believe that? Why don’t you ask him, he’s right over there (The Priest cannot bring himself to look at Jesus) Why did you put yourself through all that, friend, why did you let them crucify you?

JESUS I was there to fulfill a prophecy and the broma theon helped me to do it. I hardly felt a thing. I was in another world having profound visions. You must not feel too sorry for me. I didn’t even feel the nails going into my hands and feet nor the spear that pierced my side.

FATHER INNOCENT Are you saying it was all a set-up?

JESUS I was raised a Jew. A good Jew lives by the book. It was foretold. The book said the Messiah was coming. As a child I suspected it was me. After I took the sacred mushroom I knew it was. I was consciously fulfilling the prophecy of the coming Messiah. It was written. I didn’t want to die though so instead I ate the broma theon and drank a potion that mimics death. I wasn’t worried. I’ve always been here and always will in one form or another. Though I must admit for a moment I thought I was a goner, forsaken, but it turned out alright. Then I returned to India to live out the rest of the life with Mary Magdelene as my wife and mother of our two children. It was splendid to be human.

SHIVA Eight hundred and forty million times, we Hindus believe, that everyone has been here before and repeats the same pattern more or less.

BUDDHA The pattern of ignorance, desire, frustration and endless rounds of rebirth.

FATHER INNOCENT Your pain, your passion was an act? A drug induced act? Is this some kind of nightmare? Has my whole life been a waste? What is going to happen to the Church? Do they know? Have they kept this a secret? Have they sacrificed truth for fairy tales?

JESUS Of course they know, it is one of their best guarded secrets on which the whole edifice is built. There is such a fine line between the two, good Father, even Paul’s vision of me had help from our little friend.

PROFESSOR Ah, the holy epileptic…Once upon a time men sacrificed their children to their god, those they loved the best—to this category belong the first primitive religions. Then during the moral epoch of mankind they sacrificed to their god the strongest instincts they possessed, their nature, and this festal joy shines in the cruel glances to this day of the fanatics. And finally what was left? What remained to be sacrificed? Truth. God himself. And now it comes out as truth always will: that the ecstasy and the passion were drug induced. (Smiles)

FATHER INNOCENT Then it was a lie, the Son of God is a lie, the Church is a lie, the passion, the resurrection, the ascension, all an evil lie?

PROFESSOR What is done out of love always takes place beyond good and evil. He fulfilled his duty and obligation to his people and to his nature.

SHIVA It was his dharma born of prophecy and righteousness.

PROFESSOR Rome has changed little these last two thousand years. Caesar hunted the Christian for his practices and beliefs. Then the Christians took the throne and now they hunt the new heretics. Power. How insidious it is, enveloping everyone with threats of damnation. Pride. The complete anti-god state of mind, each feeding on the other, twin sisters, the furies, each in competition with themselves and each other for completion, to become God. The good shepherd becomes the butcher.

RASTAMAN (Coming down to the circle and moving to the beat.)