Tunnel Vision

54

“We think he’s merged with another mind.”

“What? What? Who?”

“We don’t know who. And there’s no way that can be determined,” said Morris Stern. “But we’re certain it’s a bona fide merger.”

“Glory hallelujah,” Warren Gladstone said. “Thank you, sweet Lord. Thank you.”

They were back in Warren’s suite at the Taj. Morris Stern maneuvered the mouse until a video image of the MRI of Zack’s brain appeared. “Here are images of the electrical activity in his first NDE. You can see discrete signature patterns consistent with the mathematical analysis. Now look at this.” The next screen showed other pulsing blotches in superimposition of the first.

“Oh my,” Warren said.

With a pen, Stern pointed out the new configurations. “This activity here and here and here were not present in the original NDE. They’re a completely foreign imprint.”

“We’re looking at the mind of God,” Gladstone declared.

“More likely the mind of someone else.”

“But from the other side.”

“That I don’t know,” Stern said.

That was the most he was going to concede. “Why not God?”

“Because we don’t have God’s profile on file.”

“But you’re telling me that the boy was in communication with someone from the other side. So why not God? Why couldn’t his mind have merged with the Lord’s?” Warren could barely contain himself.

Stern shook his head. “I didn’t say from the other side—”

“Warren,” Elizabeth broke in, “what we picked up was clearly an intrusive electrical presence imposed on his own activity. It’s a huge leap to claim merging with God. More likely he mind-merged with someone now deceased, which is nonetheless still remarkable. A first!”

“Hallelujah.”

Warren had seen the videos of the other test subjects, including several college kids; he had listened to their accounts of near-death experiences, some so full of detail and passion that he was nearly convinced. He had even allowed Luria to set up their lab in his own minister’s home, which they’d had to gut to install their MRI machine. He had spent $10 million of ministry money, an investment that had turned some board directors against him. And after all the years of expense and false hope, after all the brain scans and videos of people in suspension—this was the first time that Elizabeth Luria and company had shown actual evidence of spiritual contact.

Yes, more tests would be needed, as Elizabeth had said. But he felt a near rapturous anticipation of the day he could grasp the Holy Grail and show the world that the Lord God Almighty exists.

And the possibilities were endless. No longer would belief be simply a leap of faith. No longer would death be final. His would be evidence of things unseen. Evidence that all the world would embrace. Gone would be barriers that separated Christians and Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and the rest. All would be joined in one unifying belief system, at the core of which would be Warren Gladstone and his tabernacle. Yes, there would be cries of trickery, even heresy, perhaps even temporary backlashes—the inevitable resistance and protests against any pronouncement from Evangelical Christianity. But he’d cross those bridges when he got to them, fortified by the realization that he was at the vanguard of the greatest revelation ever: that he had found God.

“And you’d said he declared no religious affiliation?”

“Sorry. He entered ‘NONE’ on the questionnaire.”

“Sorry nothing,” Gladstone chortled. “All the better. He’ll be our own Doubting Thomas who not only sees the light but sheds it on the world.” Then he added, “Guard him well. This young man is manna from heaven, a gift from the Lord God Almighty Himself.”

“It couldn’t have happened without your generosity.”

“Worth every penny.” Warren stared at the images from the fMRI. “And delicious irony abounds. Deus ex machina.”

Elizabeth Luria smiled. “That may be, but we still have more computations to do before we claim vindication.”

“Then do them.”

And as Warren lost himself in those pulsing colors across the schematic of Zack Kashian’s brain, he felt the breathless promise well up in his soul. He knew he was looking at the mind of the Creator—but he also knew in his soul that he would indeed live in the house of the Lord forever and ever.

Amen.