by Morpheus


(Rated: PG-17)


On how a noble soul was entranced by an enigmatic cult, struggled with the still, small voice within, was liberated from false authority, escaped the pod people, and found his way back home.







   Once upon a time there was an aspiring young questor with a song in his heart, looking for his soul's deepest desire, who was warmly drawn in one day by a wonderful group of people with an inviting and irresistable promise.

   After a while, however, he began to see and hear things he didn't expect, didn't understand, and appeared unseemly, and questions arose which he respectfully but with difficulty tried to have explained.

   In the face of daunting authority, however, he stiffled the still, small voice within, feeling ashamed at questioning those higher up than he.

   To cope with his inner conflict he even engaged in self-hate and put himself down for his foolish behavior.

   He assuaged his guilt by renewing his sacred affirmations, redoubling his efforts to absorb and conform to the sacred teachings, however beyond his comprehension they may have been.   After all, they sounded so   authoritative,   esoteric,   practical,   and mysterious.

   He tried to get closer to his teacher, approaching respectfully, but was repeatedly barred by the inner circle whenever he got too near the truth. After years of toeing the line and giving it his best shot, however, the pressure of truth overwhelmed his fears and the questions came up again. News began to leak out on the airwaves. He approached his fellow devotees to unburden his soul, but they only looked at him with pity, scorn, and disbelief. "How could you doubt the path, or judge the actions or good intentions of our beloved leader, with your limited, unenlightened mortal mind?!," they asked, ignoring his painful inquiry and plaintive and hysterical cries.

   Finally, his inner resolve becoming clear, and wanting to make a clean break, he laid it on the line to the teacher, whose chief spokesman (or "buffer") coolly dispatched him with indignance, before the Holy One himself humiliated him, gave him a direct warning, and sent him off with an ominous-sounding threat, thus shattering any illusions he once had of his divine solicitude.

   After running some scenarios in his head, our hero gathered his self-control and with new-found strength skillfully feigned indifference, girding his loins and standing his ground, while making his position crystal clear, letting the chips fall where they may.

   But this only riled up the papparazzi who swiftly closed ranks, trying to silence the heretic before he went public with scandalous revelations.

   His every movement being watched, he stealthily avoided detection, and fighting off sleep, lest his body and mind be completely taken over,  made a narrow escape in a dramatic rescue by fellow friends of the truth.

   Having been freed, he sent a few choice parting words to his teacher to put closure on his ordeal.

   He heard the expected response, but countered with one of his own.

   Alone again, bereft, broke,  and bewildered, he sought the one responsible for his involvement with this crazy cult, to speak his peace and prevent future tragedy.

   With his heart thus purged, he dropped to his knees and humbly prayed to God to set him on the straight path and grant him a new life.

   His prayers answered, he emerged into the light, somewhat bruised but wiser, having come full circle to the place whence he began and never really left.......... yet not quite the same, but possessed with hard-won knowledge to guide him further on his journey.......