The Apotheosis of Mankind

A thirty-something woman gazed at the breath-taking view from her balcony in South Brisbane. She had always wanted to live in a high-rise building that looked like it was about to caress the night sky.

Rumi was glad she had already put her son to bed and her husband was tired from a hard day at work, so she had a few hours to spare. She was about to go to her massive antique bookshelf when she heard a clattering sound coming from the balcony.

She raced to the stone balcony and looked around. She couldn’t find the source of the sound and dismissed it from her mind. She went to her bedroom and turned to switch the TV off when something on the screen caught her eye. The US presidency elections had everyone on edge, not just in the States, but all over the world.

“Bah,” she smirked. Who cares who becomes the leader of the “free world”! They are all the same. I wish I had the opportunity to change the future. I’d get rid of the leaders. I’d throw them in the nearest black hole! I’d stop people from killing each other and create a Utopia! She grabbed her book and turned the telly off.

She settled down on her bed and turned the page of her book when she heard the same sound from earlier. She tried to wake up her husband, Aaron, but to no avail. She grabbed the heaviest book she could find from her bookshelf and quietly crept towards the balcony.

“Help me!” came a voice from the balcony.

“What the?!” said Rumi as she ran towards the voice.

An old man was hanging off the edge of the railing. His long white hair blew around his face but there was no wind as the weather was quite muggy. His face was etched with deep grooves and his eyes were a brilliant shade of blue.

She threw her book down and grabbed his arm.

“Who are you and how did you get here?” she asked him as she struggled to use her tiny frame to pull this tall, thin old man onto the balcony. Her dark hair whipped around her face with a sudden wind gust.

“I’m here to help you see the future,” said the old man as his blue eyes twinkled.

“What?! Wait, I have to help you up first,” she said as she struggled more. An unseen force of energy pushed her towards the man.

“You are not supposed to pull me up, young lady. But you are coming with me inside the vortex that awaits you and the future you want!” he rasped out as the wind picked up.

She now struggled to let go of his arm but she couldn’t. She was somehow stuck to this strange man with blue eyes. Her eyes opened wide as a swirling vortex appeared from underneath the old man. Its iridescence paired with strange colours caressed her vision. She had never seen such colours in her life. The old man grabbed her arm and pulled her in. She snapped out of her reverie and screamed as she fell in. Terror filled her heart and her mind went blank. She couldn’t breathe. Her breath felt like it was seized out of her and kept as far away from her as possible. She kept on screaming until she couldn’t utter a single sound.

Everything went dark. She could feel she was still falling and it was very disconcerting to her minimal senses. She couldn’t hear anything. She tried to feel her body but she couldn’t. It was like her body didn’t exist. She had no body! But her mind travelled through this vortex and somehow she knew that her feet would touch “a ground” any moment.

A sudden whoosh sent her hurtling further as she bumped into a body. A body! She could feel now and hear now as she felt the air rush back into her ears, making it pop. She heard someone cough and grunt. Her feet touched a hard surface and a white light blinded her eyes! She fell forward, emptying the contents of her stomach, and adjusted her eyes to her surroundings. She wiped her lips with her trembling hands.

Where was she? Who brought her here? Was she dreaming? These and other questions rocketed in and around her consciousness. Suddenly she realised she was staring at giant Television sets all around her. They looked like a ginormous silver iPhone. But only wider and all around her. Her feet were touching a metallic floor.

“Where am I?” she said to no one in particular.

The same old man with electric blue eyes, who had whisked her away earlier, appeared in front of her and stood 20 feet tall, about the same size as the TVs. His enormous size scared and fascinated her at the same time.

“Welcome to the Apotheosis of the Future,” said the old man. “I am your inter-dimensional guide. You have safely arrived at the engineering headquarters of the Apotheosis. We control every organism on every planet in every universe. You simply wished to change the future and here you are. With several hundred buttons at your disposal, you can change anything you want and view the changes and once you are satisfied, you are free to go!” he said, all while Rumi looked around like she had won the lottery.

“I knew it! We were engineered, weren’t we?!” Rumi said excitedly, eyes taking in all her surroundings. The floor tilted and looked like it was vibrating. The giant TV screens were moving all around her, changing with different scenes from all over earth. The remote the old man handed her vibrated on her palm. It was made from some glass material and lit up as she touched the front clear panel with her fingers.

“Think hard about what you want to change and press any button. You can change anything and anyone’s future,” the strange old man offered.

“Are you an alien?” she asked this man.

“Whatever you say,” he replied, inclining his head towards her. He looked down at her and smiled.

“This is so cool! Can I access Facebook from here?” she asked mischievously, looking up at his giant body.

“Whatever you want,” he replied and suddenly disappeared into thin air.

She thought hard about the popular social media and up popped her Facebook page. She squealed gleefully. If this was a dream, it was a damn good one!

She made the necessary changes, tucked the glass remote inside her top and stood back to check her input. Thoroughly satisfied and smiling like the Cheshire Cat in heat, she thought about Mr Blue Eyes (that’s what she named him) and he appeared immediately.

“All done?” he asked, his blue eyes looking down at her shrewdly.

“Can I go now? And when will these changes take effect?” she asked.

“When you travel back,” he replied.

All of a sudden out of nowhere, the wind picked up speed and everything in the silver room disappeared and once again she was hurtling around in the vortex devoid of all her senses except for her mind.

Everything went quiet and she opened her eyes. She was in her apartment again. It was as if she never left! She wondered if she had been dreaming. She felt something hard against her chest and she pulled out the glass-panelled remote.

“Great! I stole from an alien!” she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

She played around with the remote and suddenly holographic images filled her room! She thought of increasing the volume and leaned back and watched the images with a giggle.

The holographic images showed the following.

A newscaster who looked just like Rumi was making announcements in USA. The year was January 2020.

Zoltan Istvan won a seat at the Senate House. This had come as a surprise as votes for him surged ahead since he had travelled to most states spreading the word about Transhumanism and the end of all religions. His famous quote: “The American Dream has become a death sentence of drudgery, consumerism, and fatalism: a garage sale where the best of the human spirit is bartered away for comfort, obedience and trinkets. It’s unequivocally absurd” - had gone viral all over the world when he travelled in his Immortality Bus for his campaign. He later on announced Roen Hoen as his Chief of Staff. This dynamic duo has a lot to give to the people of the world and they will continue to do so in many years to come. In other news Donald Trump was declared the winner in 2016. He’s still working on being the President of the People. Hillary Clinton has formerly retired and moved to a country-side mansion where witnesses claimed she was abducted by the Greys. These Greys apparently used their third finger out of the four fingers to urinate and had their fingers permanently attached to her mouth!

In other news, due to the work of amazing scientists all over the world, ageing has been cured. The immortality pill had been a success and uses a human’s DNA sequence to embed itself on the DNA strands and therefore lengthens the telomeres indefinitely. Carla Parsons of the TRED Laboratories was given the opportunity to travel to Mars to collect samples of rocks which had vast traces of amino acids which was later used to determine that life indeed came from Mars to earth millions of years ago.

Henriette S went on to become a famous blogger on raw vegan foods and had her own show.

Luke Parks wrote his third novel on Human Struggles and Capabilities. He’s doing very well and is engaged to his beautiful boyfriend. Lisa Kuik travelled worldwide to lend her awesome nursing skills and she opened up her own nursing centre for all ages in Groningen.

Ken K made his own particle accelerator which was turned on in 2018 and created a micro black hole. To tell you the truth he hasn’t been seen ever since then. Rumour has it, along with Ken, that the truth is still out there.

Midhun Krishna gained the ultimate confidence of the Space and Tech Agency and went on to become a Space Research Manager and is currently working on wireless power transmission technology.

Matt Blackburn and Missy Sterling delved in spirituality to an immense extent that they were able to create a haven for people who were going through spiritual awakening.

Rima still chased the aliens and ufos and finally got abducted in 2018. In the summer of 2019, she appeared to her family and friends via a sophisticated hologram and got her family to leave with her for another galaxy. She hasn’t been heard from since then.

In 2019, the different factions of the Anonymous Groups had taken over government authorities and now the world was about people and its needs. Countries came together to focus on the earth’s global warming and the impending ice age due in a couple of decades. Religions were made obsolete. People now focused on their inner growth now that they had all the time in the world. Kepler found many more planets within our solar system and now was being tested for habitation to solve the overpopulation although families were now only allowed to have one child per nuclear family.

As Rumi slowly drifted to sleep, the old man with the blue eyes walked into her room and looked at her.

He said: “We are creators, and yet we naively play the role of ‘the created.’ We see ourselves as helpless sheep buffeted around by the God who made us. We kneel like frightened children, begging for help, for forgiveness, for good luck. But once we realize that we are truly created in the Creator’s image, we will start to understand that we, too, must be Creators. When we understand this fact, the doors will burst wide open for human potential.”

He peeled the skin off his face and the skin dissolved into nothing as he finally stood in his true form. It was a ball of cosmic energy.

Rumi heard its last few words before sleep overtook her senses.

“Remember, Rumi, the divinity is within. You humans can create and destroy. Don’t be bound by the limitations of the physical world. You have to transcend everything physical and become what you desire. Bring forth the Apotheosis within. Create your own future.”