What if Angels Are Real?

 

It is my belief that every book begins with a question, at least every good book of fiction. The question is, “What if?”

America leads the world in people who believe in angels and yet, what do we really know about them? What if they are not what we think? What if the mythology that has grown up around them has cloaked them so completely that we are blind to see them as they really are?

And if they are real, not just in our minds or our beliefs, but physically real, would not the world they inhabit be just as real? And what if creation itself (of which they are only a small part--as are we), is more intentional in design, more humane in compassion and more significantly dimensional than a mindless, random act of physics as some would have us believe? Would we not see it and them differently as well?

"What if the mysteries of the universe were never meant to be secrets?"

ABOUT KIM MICHAEL

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Kim Michael is an American Author, Novelist, Business Man, Public Speaker, Ghost Writer/Speech Writer for several prominent Presidents and CEOs of national organizations, and a creative consultant.

He is from Glasford, Illinois, a small town in the Midwest, twenty miles outside of Peoria; and is a graduate of Bradley University in Peoria, IL.

He is known for his articles on Business Development, Sales, Healthcare, the Christmas Classic--“A Christmas Story: The Fourth King” and the novel GOAT MAN.

He also has a personal blog of unique stories entitled “KIM MICHAEL BLOG.

It can be found at: http://www.kim-michael-author.com

FACEBOOK:

https://www.facebook.com/Kim-Michael-447306082089545/?ref=bookmarks

Like “The DaVinci Code” or “The Celestine Prophecy”, the story of The Chrysalis is born of these “what ifs”. Fiction derived from real events and real people, in a fantastic “what if” that lingers in the echoes that surrounds it; connecting the dots, linking fact with fiction, and exposing the wizard behind the curtain in a truth far more amazing than anyone could ever imagine? Such is the story of The Chrysalis.

At the outset of this journey I have to admit, I had never really thought that much about angels. My mother collected them, more specifically figurines of Michael the Archangel, primarily because of our last name--“Michael”. After her death in 1992, I inherited the collection and one day I stopped to look at one, a small rendering of Michael defeating Satan, a figurine that I'd seen literally every day of my adolescent life while growing up.

It’s curious how you can look at something thousands of times without really seeing it, and then one day you stop and look at it, really look at it, and it's as if you are seeing it for the first time. That single moment is where the seeds of my curiosity began. What is an angel? Like most people I had no idea.

My first attempt to find an answer began with the internet, where I found an almost limitless supply of mis-information. With all the “noise” surrounding them, it’s easy to get lost in the emotional mythology of angels. Still, in every myth there is some degree of truth, but like a snowball rolling down a hill, growing larger with each turn,  the truth at the center becomes much harder to see. The question then becomes, how do you strip away all the layers of distortion to see what is real from what is not?

I think for most of us the description of angels falls in one of two basic categories: fairy like apparitions from heaven, or benevolent, non-physical wisps of spirituality watching over us. But what if our perceptions in either case is wrong? What if they are real beings much like an undiscovered life form. We live in a world where new species are discovered every day so it is not entirely unreasonable to think that an advanced intelligent being that looks and acts human, could actually walk among us undetected, especially if their anonymity is by choice.

It also became obvious very quickly that angels through out history have been defined not by who or what they are, but rather, by their supernatural acts, as if an animal can be defined by the footprints it leaves in the snow. I wanted to find the "being" behind the myth, standing faceless in the shadows of the miracles it creates.

As the story evolved, I knew that for it to be believable it had to have substance and truth to it. Angelology only provided me with history and traits of angels, but no insights as to scientific explanations of angels. That I would have to piece that together myself. Then there was the additional problem of a physical transition from human to immortal, which is the cornerstone of the story. I surmised that it would have to be some kind of physical metamorphosis.

My daughter, graduated by then and the assistant administrator for the University of Tennessee Genetics Behavioral Lab in Knoxville, gave me the idea of a genetic transformation. There is no metamorphosis more dramatic than that of a butterfly; beginning as a caterpillar and then morphing into a butterfly via a cocoon called a chrysalis. The challenges of constructing the genomic maps to demonstrate one life form transforming into a total different and new life form were mind boggling. The actual genetic model and metamorphosis progression I used in the book was provided by Dr. Richard Gaines of the Vanderbilt Genetics Lab in Nashville TN.

Once the medical/physical models were formulated, I had to come up with the birth and hospital sequences of the child’s birth. An extraordinary model for this event was provided by Dr. Melanie Dunn OBGYN, and her husband Dr. David Dunn-Vascular Surgeon, who also contributed to the medical diagnostic sections of my book, as well as help me construct most of the hospital scenes and the progression of what had to happen to make the story work.

The writing actually started in January of 1995. I know everyone thinks they have book in them, but few actually sit down and try to write it. This being my first novel, when I started I was not sure I even could write it. Previously I had only published medical and business development articles for magazines, but nothing on the scale that this book would be. I was terrified. I decided to write a single chapter. It was not the beginning chapter, in fact, it occurs in the middle of the book. It was a story within the story that I knew would be very difficult to write and I reasoned, if I could write it, I could write the rest of the book. A little later in this blog I will talk more about the three miracles, and about the story behind this first story, but for now just know that it is about an old Jewish man who survived the Nazi holocaust, who meets a young boy (an angel) in Boston’s Public Garden.

Time and time again I wrote it just to throw it away, at least forty times. I just couldn’t make it work. My family and I had planned to go to a family reunion in July of that year, but at the last minute I came down with a bad sinus infection. My wife and daughter went on with out me. I spent the first day on the couch barely able to move. The second day, doped up on antibiotics and cold medicine, I finally got up around midnight and sat down at the computer for the 41 first time. I tried to forget everything I had written up to that point and was determined to start over. I don’t even remember writing the first couple of pages, but as I wrote something clicked. By 3:45am I typed the last line. Exhausted, without looking at what I wrote, I went to bed and did not wake up until the next day. Reluctantly, I finally turned on my computer fearing I would see the same rubbish I had been writing up to that point. I sat back and began to read. Barely past the first page I could feel the excitement building in my chest as the words flashed on the screen. It was good. After months of trying I had actually written something that was good. True, it was only one chapter, but once I knew I could do it, I knew I could write the rest of the book. Of course that chapter has undergone numerous changes since then, but what is in the book now, is basically what I wrote then.

Some weeks later while attending a healthcare seminar (my then day job), during one of the breaks I ran into a friend and in the course of our conversation mentioned what I had been writing. She suddenly became interested when I mentioned it was about an angel. She asked if she could see it. I don’t know why I had it in my briefcase, but I did. I reluctantly gave her the folder but asked her not to read it there. Needless to say as the seminar wore on for hours and eventually, out the corner of my eye, I saw her take out the folder, open it, and begin reading. I thought to myself, “Please...not here.”

It was an emotional piece for me to write and I had no idea how people would react to it. Within minutes her face grew red and tears began welling up in her eyes. She told everyone afterward that it was her allergies, but it wasn’t. She came up to me on the break, handed the folder back and said, “Kim...I can’t believe how this affected me. You have to finish this. It’s wonderful.”

The greatest fear, I think, that I or any author can have is starting out with a story or premise that is totally unbelievable, and at the end, still have a story or premise that is totally unbelievable. At some point it has to become real to a reader, it has to draw them in, and in that moment they become part of the story. Looking back on it now, the innocence of that young lady's emotional response was the first proof to me that I had succeeded at what I had set out to do.

Publishers used to tell us (and some still do) that writing a 600 plus page book is death. No one reads a 600 page books any more. Then along came Harry Potter; an even longer book for readers with an even shorter attention span then their adult counter-parts. The truth about reading a long book is, if the story is good and the writing is good, the length doesn't matter, other than you hate to see it end. That is what I think you will find in The Chrysalis.

When you The Chrysalis you will find that it is divided into two main sections. The first half involves most of the science, research, and character development. The second, entitled The Age of Miracles, focuses on three miracles that must happen before the child can transform into an angel. Each event unfolds growing in magnitude, each leap of his evolution forcing his body to the next level, dramatically increasing his powers as he draws closer to his metamorphosis. Once the three miracles are complete it becomes a race against time, his body must complete the change or die.

The first two miracles are based in part on real people and real events (see below) that in some way inspired me, or touched me in some way over the years. I found that when I used real people and real events as a catalyst for my artistic license that it allowed me connect with the characters and the story in a way that I could not before. I equally hoped that same connection would carry over to those who are reading them. In a way it allowed me to give closure to certain things that did not have it before. My way of "righting" the world if only in my writing.

The "third" miracle was inspired by a drive I made once in a rainstorm on a business trip in Boston. As I struggled in heavy traffic my mind wandered creating a strange series of "what ifs" that ended up as the final massive miracle near the end of the book that sends the child hurtling towards the final epic conclusion.

So here is a behind the scenes look at the Three Miracles: 

The First Miracle--"The Miracle in the Public Garden in Boston"

His name was Klaus Bergman, an old man who survived the Nazi Holocaust. Once, destined to become one of the great poets of Deutschland, he sees Hitler's Nazis murder his family, destroy everything he knew and loved, and it was as if they had taken his very soul. Numb to the world, unable to beauty in the words, he watches in silence as his manuscripts burn, their ashes rising from an old metal barrel lifting high into the sky over Auschwitz.

Now, seventy years later, like Moby Dick who bears the scares of every harpoon that had ever struck him, bitter and soul sick, Klaus comes to the Boston Public Garden, broken and alone. He comes to sit and gaze mindlessly into the water, to remember and to forget with a broken heart knows no peace.  It is here that a miracle is about to happen, Klaus Bergman is about to meet a young boy, horribly impaired and unable to speak, and who, un-be-knowns to Klaus--is an angel. And in those few moments his life will change forever.

This story is actually based on a story told to me by a friend, Kristoffer Sargent. Back in the nineties his high school senior class visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. As they were about to leave Kris visited the restroom and there found an old Jewish man crying.

He told Kris that he and his sister were prisoners at Auschwitz during the war and had become separated. Until that day, did he know what had happened to her. He found her shoes in the last room where the shoes of the dead are displayed.

That story remained with me for many years and when I began writing The Chrysalis I knew I wanted that old man in my story. The story in the book is different, but that old man, his story and his spirit, are very much the same  and that is what inspired the First Miracle.

The Second Miracle-- "The Miracle of the Dolphins"

Imagine a little girl dying from leukemia whose last wish is to swim with the dolphins. She comes to a marine park to get her last wish. And then imagine, a young boy, who no one suspects is actually an angel, is there.

She enters the enclosure at the center of the massive amphitheater and is helped onto the waiting backs of two dolphins. To her delight they begin to to swim the circumference of the tank now lined with divers. Then the unimaginable happens, half way around the dolphins suddenly veer off course heading for the deep center of the enclosure. The little girl desperately tries to hold on, but she is too weak, and slow slips off their backs and sinks beneath the waves. Then the boy, watching from a distance closes his eyes and slowly raises his hand as if reaching out toward the enclosure.

Suddenly the dolphins mysteriously begin circling the girl's lifeless body suspended half way between the bottom and the surface, each turn growing faster and tighter, not allowing the divers to get close to her. In the amphitheater above a great wind sweeps over the structure as reporters duck down between rows.

Then a great flash of light courses through churning water and it begins to glow, rapping around the girl's inanimate body, but beyond the walls of the amphitheater something even greater is happening. The sea begins to boil as thousands of dolphins rise out of the water. And the second miracle happens....

The Miracle of the Dolphins is actually two real stories combined. The first is one I encountered over twenty years ago. I saw a piece on the evening news about a little girl named Leigh White in North Carolina who was dying of cancer whose last wish was to swim with the dolphins. Through an organization that grants dying children their last wish, she was taken to a research center in the Florida Keys and to her delight got her final wish, to actually swim with the dolphins she loved so much, and a few short days later died quietly in her father’s arms. Her parents released her ashes on the ocean and in the distance, the dolphins who had given their daughter her last wish, returned to take her home. The story was written by Alegra Taylor and I do not know the publication she wrote it for, but I wanted to give them attribution for the story and the inspiration for The Miracle of the Dolphins. For those who have read The Chrysalis it is perhaps one of the most moving stories in the book.

It is pared with another true story that is equally as intriguing. I ran across it on the internet and it is from a doctor in Great Britain whose real name is Horace Dobbs, his character in the book is Horace Tomlinson. His story includes encountering a friendly dolphin who they lovingly called Donald while sailing with his autistic son off the coast of the Isle of Man is absolutely incredible...and true.

They had seen the dolphin many times while sailing and one day, sensing that the dolphin had become incredibly friendly ordered the sails drawn and the boat left to drift. Then he had an even stranger idea, he lowered himself in the water and the dolphin actually came up to him, nudging him, playing with him. Noticing the excitement of his small son watching from the deck, he had an even stranger idea. He had the boy lowered into the water with him. The boy squealed with excitement as the dolphin interacted with them and at one point the dolphin came up beneath Horace’s son and with the boy on his back gave him an hour long tour of the bay. Strangely, Horace had no fear that his son was in any danger and after the tour was finished the dolphin returned the boy safely to his father’s arms. Horace knew that something had happened. When they pulled the boy from the water, his son began to speak. Not in the one-word sentences that Horace was used to hearing, but full sentences. In the days to come the boy would improve dramatically, and Horace Dobb’s’ life would change forever. For several years after that miraculous day Dr. Dobbs brought other patients to see the dolphin and most, inexplicably saw their conditions dramatically improve. He began studying dolphins and their incredible ability to connect with impaired children. His work can be found at: http://www.operationsunshine.org/html/dolphin_healing.html The Third Miracle:

The Third Miracle--"How do you tell the parents of a dying child that he is not dying?"

That he is changing into an angel? This is the dilemma facing Dr. Simon Jacobs. The parents of a Sukalli (in the story) can not know the true nature of their child, partly to protect them but also to protect the child, though one person knows however, a guardian of sorts. It is his responsibility to watch over the child until her or she reaches the age of transition. But it becomes clear that the guardian, Dr. Simon Jacobs, must tell them. Dumbfounded the father refuses to believe him. In a rage he leaves with his wife and child though Simon thinks, on some level, the mother already knows. They get on the I-93 freeway to go home but a horrific accident happens: A taker truck caring high octane fuel nearly jack-knifes and then flips backwards traveling seventy miles an hour on slick pavement, finally stopping it rolls over, the massive tank partially suspended on the retaining wall. With hundreds of cars gridlocked behind it the tank ruptures pouring hundreds of gallons of gas on the pavement stretching out under the hundreds of cars on the grid, which now looks like a battle zone.

The child just minutes before, nearly unconscious, undoes the restraints and jumps out of the car now running toward the stalled tanker hanging precariously on the retaining wall with the cab overturned on its side and the unconscious driver inside crumpled against the passenger side window. At the same moment a lit cigarette but is flicked from a car of unsuspecting teenagers.

In desperation the father tries to overtake his son, just as the cigaret is about to hit the pavement he slips and falls on the wet pavement unable to move. Looking up helplessly at his son he watches as the boy closes his eyes, turns his face skyward, and reaches out his hands to touch the mangled bumper of the overturned truck, and for the first time he sees the truth about his son as a miracle takes place. A miracle meant for him.

When people ask me what The Chrysalis is about I often cringe. Trying to capsulize it in a quick couple of sentences for someone who has not read it, it's easy for some people to assume that it is just another story about an angels, and it is at least in part. But it is a lot more than that. When I started out my intent was not to write a religious story, or one that had the overtones of a religious book. I wanted it to be as much about how we view the world around us, and the  way that we look at ourselves, as about an angel.

I think all too often we sell our beliefs short by choosing to accept by blind faith that which we do not understand without ever questioning it. If the true intent of creation can be determined by its architecture then it can be assumed that we are given questioning minds for a reason, and it is not only our prerogative, but our responsibility to question everything, including what we believe. One of my favorite quotes from The Chrysalis is from Nicodemus (one of the main characters), who says,“Perhaps the greatest guardians of truth are its greatest cynics.”

Still I think faith is important, not as a way to believe in things we don't understand, but in believing that there are real, tangible answers beyond what we don't know and accepting that view also means that we know that truth is not always what we think, or want it to be. "Truth requires no complicity of either you or I to exist" (another Chrysalis quote.)

"The mysteries of the universe were never meant to be secrets" (another Nicodemus quote from the book), and I believe it to be true. We are given questioning minds, not to diminish what we believe, but to strengthen it.

If there is a reason for my writing The Chrysalis, this is it.