You could call it a dance but martial artists who include "walking the Pa Kua" as part of their practice, don't describe it as a dance. It's an art of self-cultivation, just as the merkaba is *not really described as a dance but it's also,* as well, a powerful tool for self-cultivation. *[editorial note: *....*Should this part be deleted? Is the merkaba likely to be compared to or described as a dance? If not, it makes better sense to eliminate that reference from the text.]*     
   But at the time I had no understanding of those things. Up until that moment I had practiced martial arts for a very long time, but I didn't know that part of it. What I did feel, though, was this instinctive and incredible blast of energy. At the same time, I felt like everything was moving in slow motion. Actually, time seemed to both slow down and speed up. It wasn't that I was invisible to my attackers, although in some way it may have seemed so. But as they and I moved, it felt like the speed at which they were receiving messages had slowed down. Yet somehow I felt quicker than the actual sending of a message from the mind to the source of pain and then the source of pain back to the mind. I felt like my movements were quicker than nerve impulses. I thought that somehow I had tapped into some zone of energy where time did not really have the same relevance. I've experienced this feeling before on many occasions, some more powerful than others. All of the most powerful ones have been when I was in life-threatening situations. And yet I always had examples of a protective energy that could easily override any fear and any opponent.
   Anyway, as I began to move around in the alley, I experienced my movements as quicker than nerve reflexes. And as I'm moving, they're moving like in a game of chess ten moves behind me and I'm moving ten moves ahead, and anticipating the next ten moves, all instinctively. I felt it. I could see it. I could taste it almost, that I was that deeply in the zone. I was that completely in a spiral place, in a circular zone of consciousness. And when I left that alley, as far as time, there was none. There was no sense of time at all. That dimension had almost closed down. In fact, I've never been able to figure out how much time did past, as I don't wear a watch, and I especially didn't wear a watch there. The only thing I can fairly say is that I didn't spend much time in the alley, but from what happened in that immeasurable space of time, I felt so empowered. I had moved around, a full circle almost, and walked out of the alley. Walked out of the alley.
   When I turned back, there was a moment for me that was almost like fear re-appearing - fear re-appearing as when you cut down the tree, but the roots are still there. After feeling so empowered, fear revisited and I could feel it within me, about to raise its ugly head again. And I looked back almost like Lot. I felt like I had to challenge whether I was going to be turned into a pillar of salt or not. But when I looked back and looked into the faces of the Thai men that were in that alley, I was in awe. I was in awe because I could see that they were in awe of what had happened. So I, too, felt in awe, just seeing those expressions on their faces. It was amazing.
   So I didn't run. I just walked at a fast pace about two blocks from the alley, and caught a cab. I don't remember the trip back to the other side of the island. I know it took at least a half an hour, maybe more. But I was still in a space where time did not exist in a real way. I don't remember going back to my room that night. I don't remember getting in bed. I don't remember anything at all, really. If you ask me to remember the rest of the evening, I don't. I don't remember walking into the hotel. I don't remember any of it. It was as though I was totally on automatic. I do remember waking up the next morning to a full sun beaming down in my face. And I felt an incredible sense of gratitude. I felt so      overwhelmingly appreciative. And again I felt in awe - I felt re-inspired to find something.
   My vision quest on Mt Shasta, and my pine cone experience there, had put me on a   mission. I was on a mission then to understand this whole process of co-creation, how that happens, and what the mechanics are in that. And what I had been discovering, like a lost art, is what the Egyptians were doing with their mystery schools. They were finding ways to open the fabric of the universe with God's pleasure, with God's grace, with God's blessing as a divine co-creator. That was the direction I had already undertaken, and now I was evolving an understanding of the practice necessary to participate in co-creation in a self-aware and purposeful way. In taking this direction I have consciously chosen to take on a certain mantle of power. And part of the knowledge I have gained through my experiences, including those in Thailand, is that this job requires vigilance and discipline and clearing - clearing out old waste products, and clearing out old thought-forms, and realizing that we were not designed to be a miserable people. None of us were.
   Finding ways to win back our God-given right - that was and continues to be my mission: to learn and continuously learn and teach how to do that.