On September 4, 2001, I received a call from my best friend, Max. We had not spoken for several weeks and his message sounded urgent.
Max and I met as undergraduate students in 1991 at New York University. In many ways he was my soul mate. As a couple we shared many adventures on and off campus. We lived together in Manhattan after graduation, but four years ago our paths took us in different directions, while always remaining in contact by phone or email.
I am a free spirit who loves city life and traveling the world at a moment's notice. Max, another kind of free spirit, loves his privacy, and had left the city to spend time in a remote area of the Bahamas working on what he called his secret technologies.
Both Max and I have an insatiable curiosity about most things, Max being the scientist and inventor, while I am a writer and photographer.
We both share a passion for the esoteric, with no boundaries.
Our most recent discussions centered on some major change that we both sensed was about to happen and would be of global proportions.
On this day, Max called to tell me that I must meet him at once in the Bahamas and would say no more. There was no need. I packed a bag and Catherine's camera and flew off to meet him, my soul having the same feeling of synchronicity the day I set off for Tibet. Destiny! It's always about destiny!
Max met me at the airport. It had been a while and I had forgotten how handsome he was. He looked great - 6 feet tall, his golden tan showing off his rippling muscles beneath a Tee-shirt and shorts, blond streaked shoulder length hair, azure blue eyes that matched the color of the water and my own, and still wearing the smile that charmed me on the day we met. We embraced and got into his jeep.
This was a welcomed reunion, the chemistry between us flowing, as he drove toward his home, my long hair blowing in the breeze.
A short time later we arrived high in a mountainous region overlooking the ocean with a 360 degree panoramic view. It was like a magical paradise, one that stretches the imagination.
Max lives alone in a house of his own design, a large open space with a domed roof that opens and serves as an observatory. The house appears simple from the outside, yet inside is futuristic beyond your wildest imagination. My heart was open, my soul connected as I entered.
We were greeted by Max's dog, Mason, a tall mangy looking animal with a kind heart who showed up on Max's door a few months before and never left.
In these remote surroundings, Max had managed to implement some of the most complex communication systems I had ever seen. After four years he had created technologies beyond anything I could have envisioned when we lived together. What he planned to do with these technologies was anybody's guess and he wasn't saying.
Max couldn't wait to share the news about something he had discovered while diving in the Atlantic Ocean. Naturally he didn't want the government, or the rest of the world, to know what he had found, with me the only exception.
I paused when I entered the major living space. Centered under the dome were 4 crystal cylinders, each 9 foot high with a three foot diameter, set in a square pattern.
"What is that?" I asked.
"I knew they would blow your mind! They are some form of crystal energy. I call them 'Tower Crystals,' a name that came to be after I set them up here. I found them several months ago on the ocean floor. I've been experimenting with them ever since, each day finding something new. Each crystal was a different multitude of colors and, as Max demonstrated, was capable of different harmonics.
"Where do they come from?"
"I haven't a clue about their origins, and frankly I don't believe they were created on Earth."
"Whoa! This takes me back to our sci fi days. What have you done so far?"
"I've primarily used the crystals to develop a communication device that allows me to hear signals outside the Earth's atmosphere."
Max walked to his work table, filled with all sorts of inventions. "Listen!" He turned a knob and sounds emanated from the speakers.
"Is that what I think it is?"
Max nodded. "For your listening pleasure, Miss Stone ... outer space."
Max typed something on his keyboard. "Now watch this!" he said. A geometric hologram appeared in the center of the crystals, under the dome, its symmetry seemingly linked to the tones.
"I have lots of work to do with this technology, but I have also discovered that I can spy on the 'spy satellites', the International Space Station, and apparently beyond, without anybody knowing."
Max liked conspiracy theories and was determined to connect with an alien race one way or another. Had he made contact?
He laughed and denied ET contact, but was not giving up. He had found the crystals for a reason, and planned to discover what it was. I shared his enthusiasm and offered to help in any way I could.
He explained that he had not sent for me because of the crystals but because of something he felt linked to me, a far more interesting discovery that lay on the ocean floor. What could be more intriguing? The next day he would show me.
Try as I may, I could not coax Max into telling me more. We prepared dinner just as we had in the old days, laughing, sharing stories, discussing the potential uses of the crystals, Catherine's camera, and enjoying the moment.
In this time and space, we both felt chosen for something with greater purpose for humanity.
At 5:30 the next morning we set out on an 'adventure in paradise.'
Off we went in Max's jeep down the winding road to the sea.
The water was calm ... the sun rising on the horizon.
Max owns a 25-foot boat that was docked at a local pier.
We pulled up alongside the pier and walked to the boat.
Friendly greetings were exchanged between Max and two local fishermen.
We boarded his boat and prepared to leave. Max and I worked well as a team, without skipping a beat.
As the boat moved deeper into the ocean, Max took out a hand held device he had invented. It seemed to be some kind of futuristic GPS that he said was interfaced with the 4 large crystals.
The device made a bleeping noise that seemed to have a rhythmic pulse. We followed the tones which grew louder and more steady as we moved out to sea.
Finally I could contain my curiosity no longer. I had to know what Max was up to!
The tones became a series of loud bleeping noises as Max stopped the engine.
As we sat there, alone at sea, Max explained.
"On September 3, I was out in the Atlantic when I picked up a strange signal emanating from beneath the water. I've been in this area of the Atkantic before, but it was not until I interfaced this computer with the crystals that I first heard the tones, which guided me to this exact latitude and longitude. There's something beneath the water, linked to the crystals and the tones.
Max turned up the volume. "Listen ..." Max paused. "They sound like a coded message."
I focused on the sounds. "I agree. Can you read it?"
"No, not yet."
We prepared to dive, putting on our wetsuits.
"What making the sounds? What did you find?"
"You'll see soon enough."
"Connection to the Bermuda Triangle?" Z
"No."
"The Atlantean Crystal Pyramid?"
"That's not it."
"UFO?"
"Wrong again. The tones are emanating from a monolith - 9 feet high X 4 feet wide X 1 foot deep. Etched into the monolith are hieroglyphic symbols unlike anything I've ever seen."
Chills raced through my body. This allows the consciousness mind to recognize an inner connection or truth. "Any idea where it came from?"
"Not yet, but it's time to find out," Max said.
"Do you suppose this is linked to the stone I dream about?"
"You're still able to read my mind, aren't you?" he asked.
"At times, but the 4 crystals seem to be amplify the energies."
"You're right. When you dream about the stone, you talk in your sleep in a unknown language, just as you did last night, but now with greater passion."
A smile, a blush, and recognition of a mission underway as we checked the equipment and prepared to dive.
He handed me an underwater digital camera which had a strange lens that he had apparently developed for this experience.
The ocean in this region is like nothing I had ever scene, filled with a life force of its own. It speaks to you of magic and mysteries and new marine species. I took as many photos as possible as we descended.
Using underwater propelled vehicles we followed the tones toward the ocean floor.
Max signaled that the monolith was just beneath us.
A moment later we reached the black shiny monolith which stood embedded on the ocean floor.
My heart raced as I swam closer and touched the monolith. Max seemed concerned that I might be in danger, but nothing was going to stop me. It just felt right.
On what would potentially be the front of the monolith were 12 symbols, the ones I had dreamed about. I took pictures of everything.
We stayed until our air supply was low, then returned to the surface.
"Those are your symbols, aren't they?" Max asked.
"You knew they were."
"I suppose I did, but needed you to confirm them."
"Let's get back to your computer and analyze them."
The excitement ran high as we raced back to Max's house and uploaded the digital photos.
The images were clear, the symbols sharply defined.
"I was right. The symbols match," I said. Then I gave Max another disc I had brought with me, which he uploaded into his computer. He was amazed that they were the symbols we had just discovered.
"Where did you get them?"
"I guess I have my secrets too." I paused. "I drew them while I was with Zanchu. Working with him in a clear spiritual environment, allowed me to final tune into my dream and access the symbols. I was going to show them to you, but there was so much else going on."
Max overlayed the symbols again to be ceratin about his conclusions. I already knew they matched from the moment I set eyes on the monolith beneath the water. "It's time to find out what this is all about," he said.
"Creation. It's about creation and rebirth, balance restored. The hawk was speaking to us today."
"I noticed you looking at the hawk and felt your connection with it, especially as one does not normally see a hawk where we were."
"There's somehting else I have to share with you. In 1998, while investigating ancient ruins in a remote area of the Egyptian desert, I stumbled upon a statue of the hawk-headed god Horus. When I picked it up, the ground beneath me gave way and I found myself falling until I reached what one might call a small chamber.
"There I discovered a doorway, the key code of which was a stone puzzle box that opened by using the fibonacci number sequence. Once inside I lit the lamps and discovered an ancient ceremonial chamber honoring Isis and Osiris, whose giant solid gold figures adorned the chamber.
"Standing between them was a shiny black monolith exactly like the one we found today. On it were these 12 symbols. I took photos of the chamber and its contents. When I was finished I knew I was to keep this a secret. As I climbed to the surface, the sand fell in around the chamber, burying it as once it was.
"I felt as if I had been part of an initiation of some kind. I brought the photos home and put them in a safe place, to speak of them again when the time was right. They are also on the CD."
Max continued to examine the files on the CD. All 3 sets of symbols matched.
"Horus was the hawk headed god of resurrection."
"Yes, and we saw a hawk today before we dove into the water."
"It is all connected."
Max and I spent the day working with the symbols combining them with his crystal technology to create holographic models.
Computer analysis of the monolith showed that it was made of an unknown element and we surmised it predated human evolution on the planet.
Exhausted we sat down to reflect on our findings.
"You don't suppose it's part of a monolith left by aliens who colonized the planet eons ago, perhaps the creators of this root race?" Max asked.
"You mean like in the movie "2001 A Space Odyssey?"
"Something like that."
"Maybe they're getting ready to return," Sam countered.
"Too much Sci Fi. This is real and I'm going to find the answers."
"We will."
We spend the next 3 days visiting the monolith, taking pictures, and trying to solve the mystery.
On the fourth morning, the 4 crystals unexpectedly changed colors and gave off strange tones as if transmitting messages of their own.
As Max and I tried to figure out what was going on, suddenly the TV went on by itself. Max and I looked at each other - then watched in disbelief at the evolving news story from New York.
It was 9:30 am EDT - September 11, 2001 and the world was about to change forever as the Twins Towers were under terrorist attack.
"I knew something like this would happen," Max shouted, pacing the floor.
"You may think I'm crazy, but I believe our discoveries are linked in some way?"
"I agree. But how?" he asked.
"I'm not sure, but it's too much of a coincidence that that all of these events are happening at the same time."
All Max and I could do was sit there and watch the unfolding events in NYC trying to make sense of everything.
My home was safely away from the current of terrorist activities that had taken over lower Manhattan.
But so many lives were lost ... so much pain and suffering.
Max was born and raised in New York and could empathize with the people and events.
He held me in his arms and we wept together.
Though I felt safe with Max, a part of me wanted to go back to Manhattan. It was where I needed to be for some reason.
We spent the next few days working with the symbols before I was able to return home. We found nothing of interest.
It was difficult leaving Max. But now it was time for me to go, as the changing current beckoned me back to New York and he had work to do.
As Max and I kissed goodbye we knew we would soon meet in New York, as destiny would soon bring us together again.
With a pain in my heart, we parted!