I: THE McCALLS
ANGEL O
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At birth, Beyond the Mirror's protagonist, Angel O—that's me—was pronounced to be a boy. The doctor responsible for this decision knew nothing of intersex, hermaphroditism, or human chimerism; the year, 1964. My parents named me Angelo Washington Williams.
Growing up I always knew that I wasn't like other boys, but it wasn't until puberty hit that the full truth of the situation was revealed: I was both a boy and a girl, both male and female . . . a true hermaphrodite. Biologically, I'm twins who joined together just a few days after conception: a 46,XX/46,XY chimera. Following this revelation I slowly began allowing my female half—Angel—to be expressed more and more. A few years later I received a mysterious message urging me to become a doctor, and soon afterwards I received a scholarship that allowed me to attend medical school. After a few decades working in the medical field, Angelo relinquished the the driver's seat to Angel for a while, and I revived my childhood passion of music and musical theatre; I became a cabaret performer. By day, as Dr Angelo Williams, I'm a successful neurosurgeon based in New Jersey. I'm competent, kind, compassionate, and well-respected within my profession. I'm a muscular and fit, but also shy and introverted, 'man'; left-brain dominant, logical, rational, smart. By night, as Angel, I'm the star of the The Garden Cabaret in the East VIllage. Here I'm vivacious, playful, full of joie-de-vivre, and much loved by everyone. I'm a voluptuous, full-figured, sexy, confident 'woman'; right-brain dominant, bubbly, creative, spontaneous. Angel O—the name that I've progressively adopted as my female and male halves have become more fully integrated—is great friends with Bernard and Adam McCall, and Mrs Lola and William Chu; we all lived in the same Lower East Side apartment building for many years. My pronouns are I,me,mine and s/he,her/him,hers/his. |
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After the initial awakening of the soul attention naturally turns away from the outside world—away from the accumulation of more things and more experiences—to looking inside ourselves for true, lasting happiness and fulfilment.
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BERNARD McCALL
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Bernard McCall was a brilliant scientist in the field of artificial intelligence; now retired. He was responsible for the development of the ground breaking—but subsequently disastrous—Augmented Intelligence Plus (©) technology in collaboration with Ken Abercrombie and Abercrombie Industries back in the late '90s.
Bernard is a bookworm; intellectual, withdrawn, socially awkward. He's not unfriendly, however. Bernard simply prefers to be alone with a book than with other people. Bernard now owns and runs a small second-hand bookstore on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Bernard's Bookstore is the gathering place and local hangout for the extended McCall family, which includes left-leaning thinkers, many of whom are interested in opposing the right-wing establishment, and a number whom—like Bernard, Mrs. Chu, Amir, and myself—are interested in spiritual awakening and true freedom. |
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"Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside awakens."
— Carl Jung |
MRS. CHU
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Mrs. Lola Chu is Bernard's upstairs neighbour. She is also his landlord, his housekeeper, and his best friend. Mrs. Chu runs a successful cleaning business, Perfect Clean, which has franchises in all five boroughs of New Eden, as well as Jersey Shores and Atlantic City.
Lola Chu is a tough, no-nonsense, second generation Chinese American woman who possesses a wicked, cynical sense of humour. She's deeply interested in all things political, and, as an enthusiastic activist, she is often involved in lobbying for various political issues. Her chief passion, however, is saving the planet—and the human race—from destruction through global warming. Lola ran for Congress in 2006, but a public scandal resulted in a humiliating defeat which deflated Mrs. Chu's passion for politics for a number of years. In 2014 Lola was asked by the Egalitarian Party to run for Congress on their ticket, and she won by a landslide. In the subsequent years she has made her voice heard loud and clear in Washington. Mrs. Chu is keenly interested in spiritual awakening, having been introduced at the same time as Bernard and myself to the teachings of Evelyn Bourne. |
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The process of looking inside ourselves and examining our moment-to-moment inner experience in order to discover our true nature is called self-inquiry. It is one path to liberation.
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ADAM McCALL
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Adam McCall is Bernard's son. He is unaware of his mother's true identity, mistakenly believing that she died in childbirth.
Adam is muscular, strong, and handsome; he spends a lot of time at the gym. He thinks he's charming, but in truth Adam is more goofy than charming. Adam is currently working as a back-up dancer alongside me at The Garden Cabaret (or TGC, as it's known to its inner circle). Adam would like to think that he's motivated by idealistic goals of making the world a better, healthier, more ethical, and safer place—his hero is Captain America—but in reality he's a little too lazy and self-absorbed to actually achieve anything useful in life, and he is frequently paralysed by fear and doubt whenever he has to make a decision about anything. Adam is addicted to bodybuilding, adrenaline rushes, pornography, sex, and his own reflection. He is also a nudist. |
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"This indeed is our final destiny as a species—to realise our state of oneness and unity with all that is."
— Richard Rudd, from The Gene Keys |
WILLIAM CHU
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William Chu is Mrs. Chu's only child. He's a restless soul who is often away from home traveling around the country and around the globe seeking fun and adventure.
William is eternally optimistic and a natural entertainer; he's a part-time stand-up comic. His other passions are snowboarding, abseiling, surfing, and all extreme sports. At present William is doing his stand-up comedy routine at TGC until he is able to travel to Australia, where he plans to work with a shark cage diving company. William is a cheeky young Asian man of medium height and slim build, and he has long, jet-black hair that he usually wears in a ponytail. William and Adam grew up together from the time they were very young. They were inseparable as children, and they got into all sort of trouble together; they are still the best of friends. |
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Once we see clearly how we're perpetuating our own suffering, and once we consciously choose to stop the forward momentum of our mind for just a moment—for 1/12th of a second, Papaji would say—then our true nature as Immortal Being is revealed, and we awaken, spiritually speaking.
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AMIR NAZZIM
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Amir Nazzim is a graduate student of Political Science at NEU. He was born in Paris of Syrian parents—academic professors of architecture (mother) and philosophy (father)—who had relocated from their home country in search of a safer life.
Amir is smart, kind, and helpful, but he is also prone to debilitating anxiety. His passions are poetry and politics, and he is a practising Sufi. Amir works part-time at Bernard's Bookstore, and for many years he lived in the small studio at the back of the store, behind the stacks of books. Amir is also great friends with Bernard, Adam, William, and particularly Mrs Chu—he loves her clear, firm political opinions. Amir is now also deeply interested in spiritual awakening. Amir and I met at a satsang retreat, and we have been lovers ever since. |
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II: THE ABERCROMBIES
LOBIDA
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Zoe Parker, Beyond the Mirror's principal antagonist, loudly rejected her stiflingly rich family and their privileged lifestyle from the youngest age. As soon as she was able, Zoe left Boston and her family and moved to New Eden City to start a career as an actress.
After an embarrassing public scandal erupted in New Eden, Zoe moved to Los Angeles and changed her name to Lucinda. She became a celebrated Hollywood actress with a meteoric career during the '00s, winning an Academy Award for a much-lauded role portraying Benazir Bhutto in 2006. After winning her Oscar, Lucinda quit the movies and moved back to New Eden to pursue her other life's calling: that of being a dominatrix. Here she changed her name for a second time, this time to Lobida. Later that year Lobida met entrepreneur and aspiring politician—and possibly the future president of the USA—Ken Abercrombie. Soon afterwards he made her his exclusive mistress. The main condition of the contract that was signed at the time was that Lobida be given the title and deed to premises where she could combine her two life passions: BDSM and performing. The Dark Side opened on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in 2009, and is hugely successful; repressed sin and debauchery apparently rife in this prosperous neighbourhood. Genetically Zoe/Lucinda/Lobida is pure Mayflower, but deep in her soul she's definitely pure Latino. She is strong-willed, loud, larger than life, and has commanding presence. Lobida also has an insatiable appetite for life's sensual pleasures, and a palpable dark side. |
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The shadow is that part of our unconscious mind that holds our darkest secrets as well as our most traumatic and shameful memories. If it remains unexamined it will continue to sabotage our lives, and cause suffering in some way.
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KEN ABERCROMBIE
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Ken Abercrombie is the CEO of Abercrombie Industries, AI—the world's leading artificial intelligence, robotics, and nanotechnology company. He is extremely successful, and exceedingly wealthy.
Ken is tall, athletic, boyishly handsome, and extraordinarily charismatic. He was elected to Congress in 2014, and is currently serving his second term as a member—and now the majority leader—of the House of Representatives. Ken has just been awarded the Partisan Party nomination for the 2020 US presidential elections, and he's deeply engrossed in the campaign; it's July, and Ken has a commanding lead in the polls. Ken Abercrombie also has a number of secrets, including his penchant for being dominated and disciplined by older women, not to mention some very dodgy business and ethical practices. Public exposure of these secrets could spell the end of Ken's political aspirations if the full truth were to ever leak out. |
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"In the end it's very simple. Either we give ourselves to silence or we don't."
— Adyashanti |
FAYE ABERCROMBIE
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Faye Abercrombie is Ken's wife, and the powerhouse behind his successful business and political careers. She is extremely capable, kind, and helpful. Faye is also a Yale law graduate. If she had a secret superpower it would be the ability to spin gold from straw.
Faye is shorter than the average American woman, but she is classically pretty, as well as being extremely chic and stylish: Chanel suits, twin-sets, court shoes, pearls, etc. She is the devoted mother of twins, Alex and Eve, who are now in their early 20s. Faye regularly hosts charity fundraisers, and, as potential future First Lady and Vice President, she has just started her own charity, Let's All Get Along (LAGA), aimed at achieving universal world peace through promoting eye gazing, hugging, and laughing together. The Abercrombie residence is one of the twin penthouses of a distinctive art deco building on Central Park West. Faye runs the household like an expensive Swiss watch: precise, efficient, and reliable. |
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Arrogance and self-loathing are the polarised—inflated and deflated—lenses the world is seen through when ego is the centre of the identity. Humility, kindness, and loving compassion is the undivided lens the world is seen through when Consciousness is the centre.
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EVE ABERCROMBIE
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Eve Abercrombie is currently living at home with her parents, Ken and Faye, following a suicide attempt a few years ago. Eve is melancholy and lost. She's addicted to tranquillisers, shopping, and social media. One of the triggers for Eve's suicide attempt was being suddenly and unceremoniously dumped by her college boyfriend of three years, who announced out of the blue that he was to marry his childhood sweetheart.
Eve recently started working part-time as a hostess at The Dark Side (TDS)— the BDSM cabaret owned and run by her father's mistress, Lobida. Eve's former nanny and best friend, Yantra, is now the manager of TDS Eve is a singer/dancer/actress—she loves Broadway—but she's shy, lacks confidence, and doesn't believe that she has any talent. Yantra is encouraging Eve to start performing at TDS to try and boost her self-esteem. Ken is supportive of the plan, but Faye—who is bitter about Ken's ongoing relationship with Lobida—is vehemently opposed to it. |
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“We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
— William Shakespeare, from The Tempest. |
YANTRA SRINIVASAN
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Yantra Srinavasan was born in New Jersey in the late '60s. She narrowly escaped being killed in a car accident on her 21st birthday whilst deeply inebriated. Thanks to AA—and her neurosurgeon at the time, me, Dr Angelo Williams—she has been sober ever since.
Yantra was employed by the Abercrombie's as Eve and Alex's live-in nanny from their birth until when they were in their early teens. She is Eve's best friend in the world, and her confidante. Yantra is warm and nurturing, a natural mother. She is also naturally funny, can be extremely lazy and stubborn, and she has a fierce temper which lashes out at others infrequently but fully when provoked sufficiently. Yantra is now the chief hostess and manager of TDS. She is also Lobida's secret lesbian lover; they've recently started living together in an apartment in Harlem. Yantra is a curvy, sexy, Rubenesque woman; her father was South Asian, her mother German. |
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When all thought of past is relinquished, and no thought of future is roused, then one is just here, undefined. The experience is of being a droplet of consciousness in an ocean of consciousness; a droplet of love in an ocean of love. It's also called home. I call it, Beyond the Mirror.
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ALEX ABERCROMBIE
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Alex Abercrombie is Eve's twin brother. He bears an uncanny physical resemblance to Eve: slim, athletic, mousey blond hair, average height, cute face, glasses. Unlike his sister, however, Alex is outgoing, friendly, and confident. He is also hardworking and ambitious.
Alex is gay, and he is currently working alongside myself, Adam, and William as a backup dancer at The Garden Cabaret while he puts himself through medical school at NEU. His relationship with his father is currently strained as Ken had wanted Alex to publicly deny his sexuality in order to keep the family image untarnished for the upcoming presidential elections. Alex leaked the story to the left-wing, Egalitarian Party-supporting, press and caused a minor scandal. Alex now lives in a small apartment near the corner of Bleecker Street and Broadway, NOHO, and he has become an integral member of the extended McCall clan. |
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"When you know who the characters are and what they want, when you root hard for them all night, you are set up to have the greatest creators reach right past your intellectual faculties at the last minute and press down hard on that joy buzzer that lurks in the back part of your brain. When they do, your spirit levitates, just like Peter Pan heading out the window to Neverland."
— Jack Viertel, from The Secret Life of the American Musical. |
