Now she is definitely flying.

It is a beautiful day over the ancient civilization. The vegetation is brilliant green at the jungle's edge. Sunshine dazzles buildings and avenues of the bustling community. Her body thrills with excitement.

Julia is cruising easily over the marketplace. Piles of maize glisten in the Sun. There is clay pottery, fine fabrics in the merchant's stalls, objects of gold....

At the end of the marketplace is a pyramid. Julia glides over it and continues toward the Palace, Temple and Solar Observatory space -- a Mayan or Incan version of StoneHenge. Finely carved stones on the walls surrounding the space mark the points of the rising and setting of the celestial bodies across the calendar. In the center of the space is a raised platform -- a small flat-topped pyramid.

Whoa -- now this is definitely an out-of-body experience.

There she is, herself -- standing on the central platform, Julia as the princess and priestess, regally adorned in gold, jewels and a magnificent headdress. Her dark eyes flash and the adornments sparkle on her dark skin.

The observation space is filled with people. The scene is hyperreal - almost colorized -- Hollywood kitsch.

Julia chants in her clearest, strongest voice to a large assembly of her worshippers, in a group prayer to the Sun God. They return their variation of the chant in rhythm, in thunderous unison.

The relentless rhythm drives a call-and-response groove. She can feel the energy building. Her gestures seem to direct the swaying movement of the crowd.

Julia is in the focus of the temple, at the place of Solar observation, at a critical time of the solar year. She sees the Sun move into alignment with the markers in the architecture.

Her view of the sun in the sky turns to a dream-vision. The Sun morphs into the form of the Sun Deities.

The sky darkens, the contrast on the solar disk becomes that from modern solar telescope imagery.

Sun spots, solar storms become visible. The corona blooms in tongues of plasma trailing off into space. The solar magnetosphere fades into view in wisps of blue-green against the yellow-orange.

Stars become visible around the sun. She soon feels that she is traveling out from the earth, around the sun.

Earth hanging in space swings into view. It's a breath-taking site -- the continents in green and the endlessly varied colors of the land. Julia can see solar wind blowing around the earth, bathing it in life-giving energy.

Now she is looking at Earth from the Sun's point of view. She dives like the sunlight itself, endlessly into the Earth -- ever increasing in detail -- Back to her land -- the jungle nestled between the desert and the mountains. She has returned to Palace and Temple...

Julia's prayer is building in intensity. The group chant, music and choreography build to a climax. Julia is projecting her vision verbally to the Assembly of Worshippers and they are reflecting back their collective response. She feels their ENERGY flow into her.

Her body begins to glow from within. The jewels adorning her become point sources for colored beams of light radiating outward from her...

"What the hell's a telephone ringing for?" She wonders, a wave of sudden weariness sweeping over her.

Copyright 2000 Stewart Dickson and Rebecka Dickson