The Mysterious Stranger's Bargain

Change your life in an instant...

It's a place on the edge, the middle marches, on a desolate coastline. It's where the fringe dwellers feel at home. A place where you can change your life in an instant.

On first observation, you’ll find the location bleak and windswept, with a huge medieval church standing close to the sea. Long ago it was the hub of the local community - until the Black Death decimated the area. The towering church no longer had a full congregation, sermons and prayers reverberated off the stone walls, but few were there to participate.

Eventually the church fell to rack and ruin, but there was still a demand from the reduced local populace for a place of worship. So the church authorities simply had a small church built within the ruins of the larger one. A church within a church.

But how can a place like this change your life? How can it turn things around? How can it take you from poverty to prosperity?

Being an in-between place, where the veil between the worlds is slight, you can meet a mysterious man (if man he is). He will see that you are down on your luck, but that you have some definite spark within or else you would not have come to this place, certainly not with the intention of meeting him.

He will say:

"Ah, I see that you have come to better your life, to improve things for yourself. You may be desperate, as many are, especially in these uncertain times. Yet unlike most of the human herd, you have the courage to come here and call upon me. I look upon you with kindness, but if you accept the bargain I offer I will expect greatness from you as time goes on. Let us sit for a while. Tell me your story. And I shall see what I can do if you are prepared to put in the effort to transform yourself. Then perhaps we will make the bargain."

With dusk beginning to fall, shrouding the majestic ruins in shadows, you will talk with this mysterious stranger. Feeling the cool sea breeze, you will come to know that the world is not what it seems. You will recognize that all it took for you to meet this personge was for you to open your mind and reject the herd mentality of the masses.

This stranger will tell you what his bargain is all about and what it entails. The key aspect being for the genuinely worthy to develop and evolve into Human 2.0. To stand mighty and tall, to be consciously aware, and make one’s mark as an individual of merit.

With a rueful smile he will ask you to look at the sorrowful history of this planet and to ask yourself: Is it not an insane asylum, what with the endless wars, discord and strife?

He will then add:

"The bargain is not what most people think. For time immemorial I’ve been an upholder of truth, honor, and liberty. The vast majority of Earth people cannot hold to these simple tenets no matter how hard they might try. Why? Because they don’t have conscious awareness. Thus my teachings revolve around conscious awareness and it is this that I school you in. Should you choose to make the bargin, you will learn, and be expected to excel at, the ability to stop your internal dialog, to be able to control the rearing horse of emotions, to be self-aware and to be able to ‘see’ yourself. In short I will teach you to be a Human 2.0., the next step of evolution.”

As darkness envelops the ruined church, you will recognize the wisdom the mysterious stranger holds. How the bargain he offers is far removed from what most Earth bipeds believe it to be.

The mysterious stranger will continue by saying:

“The bargain is not about belief. In fact, you will need to learn how to use belief and not let it use you, as most people on this pitiful planet do.”

He will then look you in the eye and say, “I can offer you the bargain right here and right now. Would you like to sign on the dotted line? For I promise you, your life will change - happiness, fulfillment and prosperity shall be yours. You will still need to operate in the world, but you will be much better prepared to do so, to weather the storms, to forge forwards as a Faustian Man.”

If you decide to sign your name on the parchment, which is done with your own blood (he will offer you a sharp knife), then the mysterious stranger will disappear into the obsidian gloom. Rest assured you will hear from him again. But for now you will leave the ruined church, feel a slight shiver at the cold night air, and make your way back home.

What comes next?

All of creation, all that you see, shall be yours to shape according to your will.