text: Lavinia knew all humans had enough food, clothing, and adequate shelter, as well as a livable water budget to stay clean and hydrated. Hers was a regulated world. Humans had all been told since birth that they would always have enough of the necessities to sustain life for the extent of their experiences on Earth in their lifetime. That was a given and never in doubt. Life had been this way since the arrival of the Helpers long ago. Lavinia now lived and studied at the Helpers’ well-established Institute of Seekers (IS). She was being taught to practice being respectful, responsible, and compassionate in all venues of her life while at IS and even beyond when she received her adult assignment. Being respectful, responsible, and compassionate were basic skills taught at IS. Upon graduation, an IS graduate was guaranteed an assignment within the infrastructure that regulated all humans on Earth and thus kept Earth functioning as a habitable planet. It had not always been thus. History was filled with stories of Earth before the Arrival of the Helpers. These were cautionary tales used to direct human minds, hearts, and energies on a trajectory based on global cooperation for sustainable management all earth’s resources for the common good of the human species everywhere on the planet. This was the way it was in Lavinia’s world. Lately, an odd thing had happened within the walls of IS. A whisper of a pernicious rumor was infecting the minds of some students with Doubt. It was only at the whisper stage, but was already quite unsettling to Lavinia. The rumor was circulating slowly, but steadily. In hushed tones it was saying that the guaranteed future after IS graduation was in question. Thus, the seed had been planted in her heart and mind that perhaps all was not as she and her fellow students had been told. No one knew how the rumor got started, but there it was, a seed of Doubt implanted within her mind. She had tried to dismiss it, but Doubt remained, challenging the Belief that was foundational to her world. The first thing Lavinia noticed was that Doubt brought forth that tricky term “evidence.” Questions arose in her mind. What evidence have you seen of the fulfillment of the IS promise? What evidence have you seen of working graduates? None was always the answer. The truth was that without other kinds of evidence, she was dependent on the Stories from the Story-Holders and on her intuitive abilities to sort out fact from fiction or opinion. She wrestled with these thoughts until she could wrestle no more and finally, fell into a deep, dreamless, but restorative sleep. Meanwhile, by the time she awoke the next day, the seed of Doubt had sprouted into a fragile but potentially powerful fracture in her Belief in the basics of the Healing Way she had been taught all these years of living and studying at IS. This was presenting a transformative conundrum. After all, at IS ultimate Truth was the inherent goal of all Seekers. She did a mental review of the history stories. History said that over ten thousand sun years after the Arrival of the Helpers on Earth, life had improved for the planet, humans and other species as well. The Helpers were benign beings from a far-away planet known as Ethos from the galaxy Zaraluz. These beings heard Earth’s vibrational cry for help across the galaxy boundaries and came to Earth to help. No one in her family lineage had ever traveled to Ethos, though during the last 1000 sun years, some intrepid space traveler pioneers had gotten close. Space hopping hadn’t been possible on Earth for very long, a couple of centuries she thought, maybe. Space pioneering wasn’t a beloved topic for her. Such feats as space hopping didn’t appear in any of the ancient text readings with which she was acquainted. She had read of mystical occurrences in those ancient texts, but not space hopping. She pushed her thoughts further. History told stories about how the Helpers began to regulate and mitigate human behaviors by adapting and adjusting their mindsets to be in alignment with the needs of the human species and the planet which supported them. The ills that had plagued humans for millennia on Earth were finally placed on a healing trajectory. History said that the Helpers knew that the healing of toxic human minds would lead to the healing of toxic human hearts and those healings would lead to the healing of the planet, which at the time of The Arrival, was teetering on the brink of becoming uninhabitable. And then, History said, “The Helpers arrived in a star shower, and the healing began.” There were so many stories of sacrifices and transformations about those times after the Arrival of the Helpers. There were stories of humans cleansing greed and hatred from their minds and hearts. Most of Lavinia’s favorite stories were about cleansed humans surrendering material goods and/or services as a means of aligning themselves with the powerful founding principles of sharing and caring. Thousands of stories were told about caches of essential and luxury goods being voluntarily donated to the Common Good Fund, which was managed by the Helpers during the transition time until IS was firmly entrenched, a sufficient number of humans had been cleansed vibrationally, and trained to assume management of the Common Good Fund. That had all been achieved seamlessly in the first 500 years after the Arrival. All the stories of humans before the Arrival had been passed down orally from generation to generation by the Official Story-Holders, a high-level assignment for IS graduates. Sometimes Lavinia had dreamed of becoming a Story-Holder. After the Arrival, stories had been added by Story-Holders all along the way right up to Lavinia’s present time. All the stories from After the Arrival ended with some version of the traditional ending: “And thus, so onward life traveled and Here we are Now.” The living humans and the stories they told and retold were the only evidence that the Helpers had come long ago to reset the minds and hearts of the humans which resulted thousands of years later in the regulated and healing world that Lavinia knew. All the Helpers left behind after their departure were their stories and the infrastructure for healing which they had established and nurtured. They left no technology nor written texts. Their work was on such a high vibratory rate that their knowledge was transferred by intuition and telepathy. IS was a significant part of that infrastructure for healing, and still running on intuitive and telepathic powers. Lavinia awoke with remnants of the dream stories she had experienced while sleeping still visible in her mind. These remnants evoked the personal story of her life at IS. She had been brought there as a very young child. Eventually, she had been told that her parents sacrificed their claim to her for the Greater Good. The mandated testing for potentially adept Seekers had revealed she had a very high score in that arena. Thus, she had arrived at the intake room of IS and ever since had been cared for, guided, taught a broad range of academic subjects, and trained in the principles and practices of the Healing Way of the Helpers. She was destined to live a life dedicated to the Helpers’ Principles of Wholeness and thereby continue to sustain and elevate the ongoing healing of the planet. In order to keep Earth habitable, all systems regulating humans and other species had to work as an integrated, positive whole. That task had become a duty of the Seekers. Lavinia accepted her destiny. However, when the question of evidence came up, she realized that her devotion to Destiny’s Truth depended on her Belief in the stories. There was no evidence outside of Belief. She was a Seeker-in-Training. She squared her shoulders and finished dressing by pulling on her boots. She had to walk about half a kilometer along a tree-lined path to reach the Morning Exercises Park where IS students gathered every morning for spiritual training and physical yogic exercise. This produced a vibrational energy up flow each morning that was essential in the continuous work of removing toxins from specified areas of earth and the humans living there. As she walked, Lavinia loosened her mind to dive deeper still into the significance of the appearance of Doubt in her sphere and its implantation in her mind. Perhaps, she thought, this recent occurrence of Doubt and questioning was actually part of her Seeker training. Surely, she wasn’t the first to Doubt. She thought about the basic maxim she learned experientially, early in her training: “It matters not what happens to you. What matters is how you respond to what happens.” As she analyzed what had happened, especially the rumor meant to produce Doubt in her mind and heart. She decided it had to be a built-in IS test to determine her readiness to level-up in her training. She pondered deeply how to neutralize and then expel Doubt from her mind and heart. Intuitively, she knew that was the response she needed and wanted to cultivate. She had to use the belief-strengthening techniques she had been taught at IS in order to work this toxin of Doubt out of her system. She knew Doubt could lead her to the precipice of unbelief in the Way of Wholeness and the Common Good Fund, and if not battled from within, ultimately over the precipice she would go into madness and obliteration of all hope of ever becoming a full fledged and vetted Seeker. Yes, this was a test. There was no place for Doubt in the mind and heart of a Seeker. Being a Seeker meant following the Principles of Wholeness. Principle #1: Believe healing is possible--healing of Self, healing of Others, and healing of the Planet. Principle #2: Do not give up. Strive. Principle #3: Do not surrender to the Darkness. Principle #4: Always lean closer and closer to the Light. Principle #5: Use the Helpers’ training and seek a compassionate way to sustain the positive change you wish to see in yourself and the world around you. Principle #6: Believe and you will find that compassionate way. Her teachers had taught her to follow these principles, and she would find what she sought. These principles would enable her to awaken others to the possibilities present here on Earth dedicated to the healing of human flaws like greed, selfishness, lying, hate, intolerance of biological diversity and lust for control that had brought Earth to the brink of being uninhabitable, which was where Earth’s situation stood when the Helpers arrived. As Lavinia neared the Morning Exercise Park, all her thinking made her decide to immediately begin the belief-strengthening exercises that morning. After all, the Helpers had come and shown her ancestors the way that compassionate healing and clear understanding could be responsibly applied to any problem to root out toxins great and small. Her ancestors had worked devotedly with the Helpers, and together over time, Earth and her humans were healing. The work continued. Balance was being monitored and restored in real time. Lavinia was part of that work. She was grateful that the Helpers had come and stayed long enough to teach the humans how to keep planet Earth habitable. The fact that they turned the work over to well-trained Seekers only added to her gratitude. It was good to know that she and other occupants of Earth were not alone in the vastness of this inter-galactic universe. She took her place amongst her other Seekers-in-Training on the brilliant green clover lawn of the Morning Exercise Park and began the belief-strengthening exercises to remove the toxin of Doubt from her being. As she practiced, she could feel the vibrational energy of Belief in the Stories and in the Way of Wholeness expanding within her. She knew that she would ultimately prevail and succeed in banishing Doubt from her heart and mind. She left the Morning Exercise Park determined, nourished, and very uplifted. She knew she would continue to strive, always lean closer and closer to the Light, and never ever give up until she was free of all Doubt. Only time would tell how long it would take. She would persevere to victory.