Aulden found a book on a sidewalk in the day world, The Secret of the Golden Flower. When he returned to the night world, during his meditation, he talked to Paula the archetypal bookstore owner. She claimed that she was responsible for causing him to find the book.

A specific section of The Secret of the Golden Flower intrigued Aulden: "The Magic Spell of the Far Journey." The spell was written in such strong metaphor that it was impossible to understand if not for an explanation of the meaning later in the book. Aulden used the explanation in order to re-write the spell in more concrete terms.

Here are three lines from The Magic Spell of the Far Journey, paraphrased by Aulden:

Action through non-action makes things happen in the center.
The center of consciousness is where the conscious turns into the receptive.
The center of the unconscious is where the unconscious turns into the creative.

Aulden wasn't looking for a way to see into the future. He was seeking a way to settle his stomach - a way to make the archetypal figure, Anxiety Joe, relax. While sitting at the soda fountain at Woolworth, Aulden had an idea on how to do solve the problem of Anxiety Joe.

Aulden said to his companions, "Let's have some ice-cream here." Poseidon agreed, saying, "That's the best idea you've had all day."

Sitting beside Anxiety Joe, Aulden noted, "You know, A.J., you make my stomach hurt when you worry, and it feels worse than ever when I think about my ex-wife."

Anxiety Joe suggested, "Don't think of her then." But Aulden disagreed, asking, "How can I learn and grow if I just block everything out?"

Anxiety Joe argued, "I don't care if you learn and grow."

This is when Poseidon joined the conversation, saying, "Ahem, we'd all like Aulden to learn and grow, A.J. What have you got against Aulden's ex?"

Anxiety Joe replied, "She scares me."

"But why?" Poseidon responded.

"I don't know," he answered, adding, "She can be irrational."

"Not all are women are like that," Aulden assured him. Anxiety Joe pointed out, "This one in particular."

This is when Aulden had his big idea: "What if we could change Anxiety Joe's anxiety about the future into an intuition about the future?" How would they do this? Aulden felt that they could change Anxiety Joe if they traveled to the Center of Consciousness - the place he'd read about in the Spell of the Far Journey, where the conscious transforms into the receptive.

They boarded the bus. Having the archetypal Bus Driver really simplified the task of finding specific places in Aulden's head.

The bus traveled through a run-down industrial district with abandoned factories and vacant lots. Aulden asked, "Is there a lot of industrial district?" The Wind answered, "Let's call it 'undeveloped.'" Aulden gazed out the window and speculated, "I bet there's a lot of undeveloped." The Wind responed, looking straight ahead, "Uh huh."

A white building was in the distance, with a tall white spire in the middle. The building had the appearance of a modern church, circular in design with eight hallways extending like spokes from the round central area. At the end of each of the eight hallways was a small, round structure, like eight circular rooms around the main area of the building.

The Bus Driver took the group to that building and stopped, announcing, "Center of Consciousness."

The group approached the wooden double-door entrance, leading into the central structure between two of the hallway spokes. As Aulden reached for the doors, faces appeared around him: curious, welcoming faces, appearing specter-like, disembodied.

The Wind said to Aulden, "They're checking you out." Scattered energy in the form of those spectral faces hovered around them. Aulden and The Wind opened the double-doors. Sparkles of light appeared before them. People inside the church - Aulden had begun to call this building "the church" - were carrying boxes. The spire, which appeared like a steep cone from the outside of the building, was hollow on the inside and extended upward to a great height.

The central structure, being circular, was filled with concentric rows of seats, surrounding a platform. The group walked along one of the eight aisles leading to the platform. As they approached, a canoe rose from the floor, floated upward into the area of the spire and disappeared. Aulden was still feeling curious and puzzled over the canoe as a woman's face appeared above the platform. The face also rose upward and disappeared within the spire.

Aulden asked, "What do we do here?" The Wind answered, "Just be here in the Center.

They stepped onto the platform and gazed around the room - this church sanctuary. Aulden asked, "Is it doing something to us? Is it helping Anxiety Joe?"

Skandi seemed to recognize this place, and he whispered, as if suddenly recalling, "I was conceived here. I was born here. This is the womb of consciousness. You perceived here and I came."

The group sat in the front row and watched the Center, remaining there patiently for two more nights until Aulden suggested they explore the eight rooms at the ends of the hallways.

The following describes what they found in those rooms:

In the first room they found a large sphere with many rings, in motion, circling it. A man who had crab-claw hands was in the room. Aulden asked him, "What is this place?" He answered, "The Globe Room." Aulden asked, "What's it's purpose?" He answered, "Watch and see."

They sat and watched. Occasional tiny explosions appeared on the globe. The Wind knew, and said, "This place… How do I put it in terms you'll understand? It's a newsroom."

The went to the second room. On the way there, Aulden glanced at the Center and noticed that a mist was now filling the space above the platform.

The second room had ice and snow, and animal tracks: bear, rabbit, coyote and pheasant. "Is anyone here?" Aulden asked. Trying to make sense of this room, he said to the group, in the tone of a question, "Tracks of things coming into receptivity?"

They continued to the third room. In this room they found a waterfall which flowed into a streambed along a grassy meadow. Fish were swimming in the stream, and a pony was grazing in the meadow. Aulden wondered what he was to learn in this place. The pony spoke, saying, "Just look." Aulden contemplated, "A waterfall… fish… contents from the unconscious coming into consciousness? I think we're going to see eight metaphors for receptivity in these rooms."

They walked to the fourth room, and along the way they could hear a crackling noise like sparks of electricity from the Center platform. Aulden noted, "The Spell of the Far Journey said there's darkness in the center, but it's not exactly dark. It's more like a fog."

They continued down the fourth hall. As Aulden reached to open the door at the end of the hall he noticed that Skandi had his hand on his holstered pistol. (This was before Skandi was inaugurated into the position of King.) Aulden asked, "Are you ready to fight, Skandi?" He answered, "That's what I do." Aulden said, "You're the one who said, "By loving you I conquer you." Skandi replied, "That's right." Aulden opened the door.

In the fourth room they found a huge black box with a crank on the side. Aulden turned the crank clockwise. They heard a loud clanking of gears. A body, half-formed, came from a hole in the box and landed on the floor, as if the turning of the crank generated this body. A voice was then heard, saying, "We can leave her here to die or we can give her what she needs." The body became more defined, and Aulden could see that this was the body of a woman.

~

The exploration of these rooms took several days because it took place during Aulden's meditation time as he searched his own mind. The search was so intense that he could only stay for a few minutes each evening and each morning. The progress was slow.

The morning after he generated the body from the black box by turning the crank, he met an interesting woman in the day-world who was a yoga instructor. He later wondered whether the body generated from the black box had some kind of syncronistic affect that caused a new person to enter his life.

~

The woman from the black box sat up and asked the group, "What do you think of this place?" Aulden answered, "I don't know what to think of it." He turned the crank again and another half-formed body began to fall from the hole. He stopped when he saw this, feeling a sense of panic and uncertainty. Then he said, "Let's go to the fifth room and see what's next. We can come back if we want."

In the fifth room they found themselves on a street corner in Astoria, Oregon, in front of a toy store. People were carrying boxes along the sidewalk, like the people Aulden had seen in Church at the Center of Consciousness. They watched the box-carriers for a while, and Aulden noted the association with receptivity, and said, "Let's move on."

As they walked the sixth hallway, Aulden asked, "How do you feel, A.J.?"

Anxiety Joe answered, "Anxious," and added, "I was making a joke!"

Aulden said to him, "You know you're hurting me when you're anxious. I still love you, guy, but you hurt my stomach."

They opened the door to the sixth room and stepped into a barbershop. A barber, standing behind the chair in the room, asked, "Want a trim?" Aulden was hesitant but, hoping to learn, consented, "Okay."

Aulden sat and the barber secured an apron to Aulden's neck and began giving him a haircut. Aulden said to the barber, "I have a friend who cuts hair, and he said if you ever need anything ask a barber. He said, barbers know lots of people and they know how to find everything."

The barber disregarded those comments and asked Aulden, "Why are you here?" Aulden explained about looking for a home for Anxiety Joe, and for exchanging anxiety for intuition, ending by saying, "How do I find that?"

The barber continued working and said casually, "You'll know when you see it."

When they continued to the seventh room, they discussed how each of these rooms had a connection to the concept of receptivity. Aulden opened the door to the seventh room and a voice spoke, saying, "The Corpse Room."

Inside the seventh room were rows of coffins. In fact, these rows seemed to go on endlessly into the darkness.

Aulden asked, "What does this Corpse Room have to do with receptivity?"

The Wind speculated, "Receiving the end of something?"

Aulden asked, "To receive the end - the end of my relationship with my ex-wife - would that calm you, Anxiety Joe?" Without speaking, Anxiety Joe simply glanced at Aulden.

Skandi, contemplating the meaning of coffins and receptivity, said, "Action through non-action." As the spell noted, action through non-action makes things happen in the center.

Aulden responded, "Okay, no expectations. Is anyone here?"

The Wind said, "Just us dead people," and laughed. His remark surprised Aulden, because The Wind very seldom tried to be funny.

Aulden called out again, "Is anyone here?" and he sat on a coffin and said, "That's it then."

When Aulden sat on the coffin, it began to shake, so Aulden jumped off of it, and he cried out, "Don't sit on these things! Should we go?"

They continued on to the eighth room. Aulden suspected that if they continued around again the rooms would contain different illustrations of receptivity each time they entered.

As Aulden reached for the door of the eighth room, Skandi said to him, "No expectations."

In the eighth room they found a New Year's Eve party. This large room was filled with people. Aulden's attention was drawn to a table where a cake was decorated with a phrase in frosting: "Happy New Year." Skandi said, "Receptivity to the new."

Aulden was surprised at the contents of this room, and said, "I thought it might be a maternity ward after that last room had coffins." Then he recalled that Skandi had said "no expectations."

The group understood the meaning of this room and was about to leave, but The Wind grabbed Aulden's arm and nodded toward a woman sitting alone. Aulden felt compassion for this lonely wallflower woman in the otherwise energetic celebration, and said to The Wind, "I could say hi, I guess." He approached her and said, "Hello."

She gazed into his eyes and said, "Shouldn't we look at life new every day?"

Aulden, taken aback, answered, "Well, yes. Thank you for that. You're not lonely at all, are you?"

The woman answered, "No," and Aulden said, "Okay, I see. Thanks."

As they left the eighth room, Aulden said to The Wind, "She was a friend of yours, right?" The Wind confessed, "Oh, yes."

~

Having seen all eight rooms, they returned to the Center and sat in the front row. They watched the mist rising from the floor of the platform, mindful that receptivity is found in many, maybe all, forms. Aulden knew what he was watching. He knew that he would see images relating to the future - the receptive coming into consciousness.

They saw, rising from the mist, an origami bird. They continued watching. A rose appeared from the mist, and then a giraffe. The images floated upward and disappeared into the spire. Aulden turned to his companions and said, incredulously, "Where am I going to see a giraffe?" The final image that appeared was of his niece reaching up. All of this he saw in the morning during his meditation time.

Later that day he needed to pick his niece up from summer camp. When he arrived at the camp he saw a family friend who was there to pick up her daughter. The friend asked him to help carry her daughter's luggage. Happy to help, he followed the friend to the cabin where he could grab the luggage. Inside the cabin Aulden saw bunks, and luggage, and in the corner was a tall, stuffed toy giraffe. A giraffe - Aulden yelled, "Oh my God, a giraffe!" His friend asked, "What? What's wrong?" Aulden said to her, "Your daughter - her name is Rose!" The family friend agreed, "Yes, Rose."

A giraffe and a rose: These were two of the images he'd seen that morning. He'd also seen an origami bird. He didn't see an origami bird that day, but he did see a paper-maché bird that he had hanging from the ceiling of his home-office. Also, hanging from his home office was a pull-chain to turn the ceiling light on and off.

At the end of the day, Aulden was sitting at his desk, leaning back and relaxing, with the lights off, in the dark. He wasn't thinking about the images he'd seen in the Church at the Center of Consciousness. His niece entered the room and asked him to read a page from a book she was holding.

Aulden said to her, "I can't see it. Turn on the light." His niece stood on her toes and reached up to take hold of the ceiling chain. Aulden watched her reaching up and remembered the image from the mist in the Center, and he again yelled, "Oh my God!"

From that day onward, one of Aulden's favorite places to go, in his imagination, was that place within the grid of human consciousness that he called "The Church at the Center of Consciousness." It was there that he could see images relating to the future.

The encounter of that place made Aulden recall the words of the Iconic Figure he'd met months earlier: "Only be in the center a little while and come out for a time. You like it there, but not too long." This proved to be good advice.