“As a consequence,” Ruthorn continued, “Tuengra is not the place for people who perform good deeds and expect a reward in return. Instead, they receive their merits by inventing an imaginary heaven, as their souls have intended, and then they have to wait to be reborn into the old world again to change their behavior. Their souls continue in a cycle in the same place, like the souls of those who committed bad deeds.”

Ruthorn paused, before adding “Well, there is a slight difference; the souls of those who committed bad deeds must go to a sort of reform school to correct their bad nature first.”

“This reform school, is that what we call hell?” I interjected.

“I believe that’s what you call it,” Ruthorn said. “But the intention behind it is not to punish, but to amend the souls. Actually, it should rather be called the ‘hospital for mental remedies’. But I have to tell you that this place doesn’t exist, it’s only an illusion that you created. The process that takes place there is similar to the mental manifestation that you have experienced this afternoon.”

“What? Are you telling me that … hell doesn’t exist?” I asked, quite stunned by his revelation.

“Yes, that’s what I’m telling you,” Ruthorn said. “But even though hell doesn’t exist, you still can’t avoid going through it, though,” he added mysteriously.

“Wait, I’ve lost you, could you please explain that to me?” My thoughts and emotions were whirling.

“Alright, I will try,” Ruthorn said. “The fact that you can’t avoid going through hell, even though it doesn’t exist, is because every process you are going through has already been established by your soul. You can’t lie to yourself. Your soul is always honest, and what is wrong must be corrected. In short, your soul has invented this illusion to correct itself,” Ruthorn said, and, after seeing my confused look, decided to proceed.

“Your soul uses mental manifestation to make you see what you fear most and to torture you with that. The illusion will be different for each of you, depending on what each person is most terrified of. This is what your soul will confront you with. The image of what you call hell, or what I would call the hospital for mental remedies, is therefore different in each culture.”

“You mean a mental manifestation like the one that Piet and Hepf used on me to make me see their illusions? If that’s the case, then hell isn’t real?” I asked.

“Exactly!” Ruthorn replied. “There is no actual physical activity in this process, it’s nothing more than an illusion. However, for your soul it is real, and you will feel real pain, and it will burn as if it had a body of flesh and bones. This torture will never stop, it will go on endlessly for days and nights, and it won’t go away because you created these images all by yourself,” he explained.

I was stunned and had to let it sink in. “I always thought this process of punishment in hell was set up by the guardians who brought us down there. I never even thought of questioning it. So, now you are telling me that it’s actually our souls that make all this happen?” I asked him.

“Absolutely,” Ruthorn confirmed. “And they do it because our souls love us, and they want us to repent. They want to change our quality into love, which is the quality of the souls, and because this is the ultimate goal that needs to be achieved in your world. It’s the ultimate goal that everyone has to accomplish. This is the core of the universe, that all beings do their part to help every single being realise what it means to give true love.”

“But unfortunately, most people in your world ignore this state of pure love, and many of them have never thought of it at all. Some of them may have considered it at one stage of their life but didn’t understand why they should do it. Others sincerely tried to do it, but they still expected something in return, so that didn’t count. And finally, a few individuals have learnt about this process and have been trying to apply it, but unfortunately, they were misled by their religions that didn’t allow them to access this vital information,” Ruthorn explained.

“It seems to me that all the processes you mentioned are set up for the sole reason to turn the conscious mind into pure love,” I commented.

“Precisely!” Ruthorn said and clapped his hands in agreement, “This is the key to solve all the problems of all people in your world. I specifically say ‘in your world’ since this problem doesn’t exist anywhere else in the universe.”

“From now on, I must ask you to learn and put into practice all of these methods until you become proficient. Always revise what you do and apply these methods strictly. I’m telling you this because you will need this set of skills very soon.”

“Alright!” Ruthorn said, getting up and straightening his robes. “That’s all for now, I should let you rest in your room.”

“And don’t forget that you have an appointment with God on the hilltop tonight,” he added.

“I can take Tim there,” Piet offered.

“Well, thank you very much, Ruthorn, and thank you, Piet,” I replied politely.

“Come, follow me, I will show you to your room,” Piet said, leading the way.

We had talked for so long that it was almost evening now. The sky had turned golden yellow with a tint of purple. Birds were chirping merrily while the sun was about to disappear below the horizon. I followed Piet while admiring the beautiful scenery.

“When will you depart tomorrow?” I asked, picking up a conversation while we were walking.

“I have to be at the flight deck at eleven thirty. Then I will fly around 13,500 kilometers to portal 16, which will open exactly at noon,” Piet replied.

“Wait, so the distance from here to the portal is 13,500 kilometers? How long will that take you?” I asked, convinced that he had made a mistake.

“Well, I don’t have to rush, I’ve calculated some extra time in, so if I travel at the highest speed, I’ll reach the portal in less than 20 seconds.”

“Wow, 13,500 kilometers in twenty seconds, that’s incredibly fast!”

“Yes, it is,” Piet confirmed, “our spaceships are the fastest in the universe. They can reach a speed of 700 kilometers per second. One pilot who used to fly to your world regularly once told me that our spaceships can go around the planet in a little less than one minute.”

“Wow, within a minute!?” I exclaimed, very impressed.

“Right, and that without having to accelerate. I mean, we don’t have to increase the speed gradually from zero to ten, we only have to set the speed that we want to travel at and the ship will immediately rev to that speed,” Piet explained. “That’s why people who spot our spaceships assume that our ships can become invisible. They see our spaceships magically appear before their eyes when we arrive, and when it’s time to leave, we just take off within a split second. That’s the way it works.”

“That sounds really fascinating.”

“It is,” he replied with a proud smile on his face.

“How does it feel to pilot a ship like that? I guess you must be very thrilled,” I asked.

“Well, I have to say that I was excited at the beginning, but not so much now,” Piet admitted. “Actually, what excites me more is to visit your world. As I have heard from Ruthorn and from others who had already been there, I believe you now have a severe crisis on your world, haven’t you?” Piet asked.

“Since my arrival here, and after what I have seen, I have discovered that I can now view both worlds with a better perspective. I never thought much about it before but there are so many things in my world that are wrong, and, as you have rightly pointed out, they are now facing a major crisis,” I admitted.

“Do you have any suggestions on what could be done to help your world?” Piet asked.

“I’m afraid I don’t have much to suggest, I think you already know how bad the situation is. And since you can communicate in the soul language, I guess you don’t need me to articulate any suggestions anyhow,” I said, rather depleted.

“Perhaps, then, you may be able to advise me then on how I should prepare myself before going to live in Gaia since you have lived there before,” Piet told me.

“Of course!” I replied. “I have always lived in the city, but every time I went to a rural area, I felt happier and more cheerful. But when I compare it to my experience here over these past few days, I appreciate that the air here is 10 times cleaner and fresher than at even the most rural places in my world. But I think there’s more to it than that. If you plan to move to my planet after having lived here for so long, you will need to be totally prepared to experience some bad things that can occur unexpectedly, some to an extent that are beyond my description.”

“Oh, you mean a negative frequency or negative charge. I’ve already been warned about this by some former volunteers. They told me that the reason why you often feel uncomfortable living in the city is because the negative charges there are very intense. This is caused by two factors. The first one is the artificial electric waves generated by the people in your world. They come from the alternating current, like in devices with electric motors. This also includes the high radio frequencies of your wireless communication signals.”

“The second cause is your own consciousness which also produces these frequencies. These frequencies have a very high negative value, which originates mostly from emotions and feelings like hatred, anger, envy, bitterness, and so on, and they accumulate and hover above the area of their respective sources.  Actually, these frequencies can affect the cells in our body when we come in direct contact with them,” Piet explained.

“So, what can you do to protect yourself?” I asked.

“The easiest way is to try and avoid those places. However, we have discovered another good method to protect ourselves from those frequencies, as we can’t always avoid them. We could wear suits made from metal fibers to shield us from those waves. The best ones are made of golden fibers. Although gold is much softer compared to other metals, its energetic property is so high that the other metals don’t even come close to what we need to shield us from even the most harmful radiation.”

“We use these kind of metal fibers to make everything from hats and clothes, like this loose outer robe I am wearing now,” Piet said.

“And these garments really fully protect you?” I asked.

“Of course, they do! We’ve been wearing them for millions of years,” he said.

“Can I touch and feel the texture?” I was curious to find out more about this fine material.

“Go ahead,” Piet said, holding part of his long shirt out for me to touch.

I reached out and gently rubbed the material between my fingers. “Hmm, it feels like a normal fabric.”

“We have improved the weaving technology over the years to create this fabric. At first, about 800 million years ago, the fabric was much rougher and harder. We can still see some examples in our historical information room on the second floor, next to the children’s classroom,” Piet said as he led me up the stairs.

“Here we are, this is your room,” Piet said, opening the door. I stepped inside and noticed that it was a nice corner room with windows on both sides that offered a magnificent view of the city.

“Have a good rest, Tim, you must be quite tired after this long day. See you in the morning!” he said cheerfully, as he went out and closed the door behind him.

“Thank you very much, Piet!” I called after him.

In fact, I didn’t feel tired at all. However, since Ruthorn had told me to rest and revise the lessons that I had learnt during the day, I thought it would be wise to heed his advice. I wasn’t sure but I thought I had detected a hidden message in his words. I went to the windows and opened them wide to let some fresh air in. The view was really beautiful in the evening, especially when seen from this height. The temperature in the room was ideal, not too warm and not too cold, and I felt a gentle breeze coming in from the windows. When I looked out, I saw the dark landscape and the city below, now illuminated with lights. Though the sun had already set behind the horizon, the sky wasn’t fully dark yet. I sat down on the bed and thought of what I had to do next, while I remembered to breathe deep and long.

As I sat in silence, I felt something strange happening. I knew I had learnt something very important today, but I couldn’t precisely identify what it was. I could only say that I felt more relieved than I had ever felt before. It wasn’t a normal feeling of relief, as it felt much deeper than that. It made me feel so happy that I wanted to cry. And in that moment, I experienced an epiphany on the revelation of so many truths. I also realised that Ruthorn must have known what I was about to experience, and that he had decided to let me savour that moment alone.

I lay awake on my bed for a long time, contented with the feeling of now being able to understand so many things, before I finally drifted into a deep sleep.