Spirits in the Bathroom

What happens when a project manager decides spiritual research can be managed like a construction contract?

• He establishes a project office – a bathroom
• He recruits his number two – a garbologist
• He recruits a project team – spirits who inhabit the bathroom
• He manages the project his way – ignoring the textbooks

2013. John is in China managing the supply of equipment critical to the running of a mining operation. With timelines for delivery approaching the impossible, John’s stress increases. He finds inner peace in a book, How to Know Higher Worlds, Rudolf Steiner’s guide to spiritual awareness.

Six years later, and still reading the same book, John embarks on a new project: to trace his past reincarnations and those of his partner Sarah. Despite attending numerous workshops and consulting similar books, John’s project stalls. Frustrated and close to giving up, John re-examines his approach to the task. He determines his spiritual project is, in principal, no different to other projects he has managed in the past forty years, and he comes up with an innovative, project-based solution.

What follows is a sometimes profound, oft-times hilarious trip through 1,200 years of past lives. John enlists the support of a group of bathroom-dwelling Higher Beings, who provide direction, wisdom and humour as he careers through the centuries in his quest to find where and when his relationship with Sarah began.

‘You are on a bathroom floor in 1960 with your dead grandpa, your still-living aunt, three other spirits and your young self ... gathering information for a book that you will complete almost sixty years from now. I think anyone, even someone who knows nothing of the spirit world, would consider this room an interesting place to be.’

2115 The World Social Order

In 2045, as World War Three enters its second year, opposing armies, in defiance of their political masters, pull mankind back from the brink of a nuclear Armageddon, negotiate peace and install a new system of government – the World Social Order (WSO).

2115

When Graztec BZ, a super-explosive only available to the military, is identified as the material used in a devastating bomb in Madrid, the Armed Forces take control and General Victoria West from Military Intelligence is appointed to hunt down the perpetrators, working with major international police forces.

A crack team of operatives from the Special Operations Force, commanded by veteran Major Connor O’Brien, is the general’s front-line unit, relentlessly tracking the invisible enemy, which is always one step ahead, from the streets of Madrid to Mexico, Canada, Ukraine, Italy, Africa and the Middle East.

Extremists fuelling the fires of discontent, coupled with violent attacks on WSO officials in Pakistan, leave President of the World Alexei Fedorov facing the unthinkable – a return to the hostilities which plagued the human race in the 21st century. Forced to acknowledge that the goal of equality for all, set by the founders of the WSO, has not been realised, he embarks on a tour to regions where his authority has been challenged, to seek solutions.

In the Vatican, Cardinal Francis Winchester, a master of political strategy, sees the growing dissension as an opportunity to enhance his plan to restore Catholicism to the dominant global role it has held throughout the centuries. Aided by skilled assassin Sister Marilyn Jones, he plots the Pope’s assassination, his goal to take his place.

In the Middle East, a little-known Islamic sect stumbles upon a cache of Graztec and plans to strike a fatal blow during the president’s trip.

As the Madrid terrorists prepare for the second stage of their bombing campaign, West and O’Brien zero in on events in Rome and Afghanistan. What they discover raises questions no one wants to hear. What role did the military play? Is the attack the work of Islamic extremists or a right-wing group seeking to create a rift between Islam and Christianity to bring down the WSO?

As violence escalates across the globe, the spectre of conflicts – like those that preceded World War Three – once again looms over humanity.

2031 The Special Relationship Ends

As the economic fallout from COVID-19 drags on, insularisation is the go-to term for governments. Refusing to honour overseas energy contacts, one leader sums it up: ‘If the pandemic taught us anything, it was to pull the ladder up early.’ Aspiring          politicians have to play the nationalist card or be a distant memory.

It is no surprise, in November 2028, when a Trump clone sweeps to power. John Harris promises to put America first, and put the us back in the USA. While Russia and Islamic countries are in his sights, he reserves his main criticism  for the “sneaky Chinese” whom he claims have stolen America’s technology and jobs.

A month after Harris’s inauguration, billionaire Peter Smith establishes a new party to contest the 2030 British election. He plans to run the UK like a business, enter new trade deals with China, and heal old wounds with countries the UK once stood against, shoulder to shoulder with America. When Smith announces he will withdraw Britain from NATO and Aukus, hardliners close to Harris plot to assassinate him before the election.

In April 2030, the British secret service foils a CIA-sponsored attempt on Smith’s life. A month later, he becomes prime minister with the largest majority in British history.

As details of the assassination plot leak, the two leaders’ ongoing dispute takes centre stage. Within months, there are few countries that haven’t supported Britain’s stance. NATO starts to crack, and Harris looks to former Soviet countries to build a new alliance.

China’s President Huang and the general who built the People’s Liberation Army to be the world’s foremost military power use the rift between the old allies to achieve Mao’s ultimate goal.

For decades, world events have been the touchpaper for violence in the Middle East. In October 2031, a devastating attack on Israel leads to a conflict that will redefine the political world map.

This is 2031 ...