Although it had been a while, for some strange reason I felt myself drawn back to the City of the Homeless.

Closing my eyes, I again found myself floating suspended in bluish-white light, with the Homeless City's characteristic brown swirl in front of me.  Moving forward into it, I found myself flying over the city as usual.  Swooping down, I landed on the brown, dusty ground of the familiar main street.  It seemed to be the same time of day...that kind of weird night-not-night, where the buildings were illuminated but I couldn't often see any clear light source, and the swirls of brown were still in the sky.  The stars I'd put there last time were still there though, but a little more faded.

I looked around, feeling a presence, and noticed a man sitting with his back against the wall of one of the buildings, facing the road.  I wasn't sure of nationality or other details, but I suspected he was American by certain elements of his appearance.  He had a bandanna or some kind of scarf around his head, and quite bony, angular facial features.  He also seemed to have his sleeves rolled up, with a lot of dirt on his clothing.

"Were you the one who left that stuff in the house over there?" He asked me.  "I saw the picture you spraypainted on the wall.  Looks just like you.  I watched that video you left.  What does it mean?"

I was surprised he knew what the VCR was...that idea/move had been a long shot on my part, given that I didn't know how long some of the people had been here for.  I got back that he'd died sometime during the 80s, but couldn't get anything more specific.  He also told me that this city itself was very old...he'd learnt that from some of the people who'd been here a lot longer...and that many of the existing buildings here were built on top of or were altered versions of much older ones.  The abilities of people here to shape the landscape/reality were somewhat limited.  Most knew they were dead, but beyond that were in a heavy state of confusion.  I noticed being here was giving me a headache in the physical as well...the background vibe was pretty heavy, and people weren't hanging back so much like they were my first two visits here.  Seems they were getting used to having visitors, or those of them who weren't completely out of it were, anyway.  A lot of mental illness, there...some really trashed minds in some cases.

I answered his earlier question by telling him about Focus 27.  I was going to mention that I hadn't actually been there myself yet to my knowledge, when something told me that wouldn't be a good idea.

"So, you want to go?"  I asked him.  "You could reconnect with your relatives if you have any."

He looked hesitant, and I got that this was the only place he'd known for a while now.  I answered by saying that although he didn't know F27 was better than this, it couldn't be much worse than this place.  He grinned at that and stood up.

I visualised a large circular piece of brass and one came flying down out of the sky.  The centre of it hollowed out, and it landed on its side against a building opposite where the man was sitting.  The hollowed out centre of the brass then changed colour, and lightened to resemble the bluish-white energy I had seen before coming into the Homeless City.  I closed my eyes and mentally sent the intention for this portal to hook up with the communal park in F27, and then opened them and looked at the old man.  He looked awestruck.

"Pretty cool, eh?"  I grinned at him.  "You can learn to do these kinds of tricks.  Anyone can.  Just go through and you'll find help."

The old man wordlessly walked towards the portal.  After waving once, he went through, his image being swallowed up by the blue-white.

The portal blinked shut after I mentally closed it, and the brass ring melted away.  But before I left I wanted to leave a more solid message for the people here than last time.  A paper flier emerged in my hand, similar to the old kind that were used to advertise concerts and so on, so it wouldn't look too out of place.  It contained a message that the people here didn't have to stay here if they didn't want to...that there was a better place.

After taping that to a wall facing the main road, I looked around, then up, and began gradually rising back up into the sky and out of the city, until I again opened my eyes in front of the computer.

Thanks, Marilyn...
I've noticed it's actually a strange feeling when I'm about to experience one of those...I sort of feel it approaching for a couple of minutes before it comes...it's like a piece of music gradually increasing in volume until it gets to full volume.

I noticed a lot more of a headache this time as well.  Although I normally get them during these...I think it's trying to visualise things, coupled with the flow of info and the struggle I have to wage with my Interpreter/logical mind as Bruce has written about it...it has a tendency to go nuts and second guess everything/claim certain things are silly, etc.

In terms of my creating different objects during retrievals...Some of Bruce/other people's writing in the retrieval archive implied that that was something some people found difficult.  I think it's possibly because people perhaps have the idea that, "If I can create *anything*, what do I create?"  They get buried by the possibilities.  The way I do it myself is by asking myself what functionality I want...What am I trying to do?  So in terms of the homeless city...I'd first ask what it is I'm trying to do, and then ask myself how I could do that in such a way that it is consistent with that environment, such that it won't potentially scare the people there.

Possibly the other problem people experience is that if they're able to visualise a genuinely photorealistic environment, they might then limit themselves by having the expectation that they will only be able to do things that they could do in a real C-1 earth environment.  The way I got around that myself is that I was/am a very big fan of The Matrix films.  Neo of course was only able to develop his abilities once he realised that the environment he was in wasn't "real" according to the definition of that word that he had previously applied...Once he had figured that out of course he was able to do all sorts of things.  I'm also very much into editing/creating three dimensional areas/"maps" for a particular computer game, Unreal Tournament...which is itself a more limited three dimensional virtual reality, in which it is possible to supercede the simulation of things like gravity, and also to manifest certain objects in front of you at any time.  So I find the Matrix/other existing computer games an extremely useful metaphor for the Afterlife and the BSTs...Actually to the point where I really think of the BSTs as virtual realities...because in a sense, they of course are.  The Internet to me is a man-made/atheistic/electronic facsimile of the Afterlife as well.  Anywayz...enough rambling. 

Petrus, the only thing that I can remember consciously creating is the flying magic carpet. Otherwise, things/clothes, ships, buses, helicopters, etc. just seem to automatically create themselves to the situation which I've always found fascinating. 

Love,
Mairlyn 

Awesome story. That'd be amazing if somebody could find and dictate the painting back to you....but i'd imagine it to be hard probably due to the size of the city.

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Hi Marilyn,
It's very possible that that was it.