All Death is Preventable
The tall building looked like a church with four high Corinthian columns and marble foyer. I walked inside, through the stained-glass doors and down some stairs. I was greeted by the Master who produced a large key from his pocket and opened a 3 metre high sponge covered door, ‘I’d hate you to get hurt by the door’ he said. ‘Absolutely’, I said. The door closed behind me with a shwoosh, and we went down some more stairs. I always wanted to see what was below and had felt attracted to this place for some time. The world outside was filled with stories of mysteries and miracles from this place and I wanted to see it for myself. A friend introduced me to the Master with a secret handshake a few weeks ago and my appointment had come. I made sure I wore the right clothes, I wanted to blend in.
As we ventured down the second flight of stairs to the pre-sacred level I could tell I was in a special place. The wallpaper was spattered with the same message in mixed writing reading ‘Risk is Sin’ across a skull and crossbones. I came to a new door. The sign above the large double doors read ‘Living Forever is a Choice You Make’. I was delighted. ‘Now there’s a real aspirational goal worth speaking about’, said Master Spudley. ‘Absolutely’ I said. It seemed the answer to everything in this place was ‘absolutely’. ‘Would you like to go down deeper?’, asked the Master. ‘You bet’, I replied and I was ushered to the next staircase.
When we got to the bottom of the steps Spudley introduced me to the ‘Zero Terror Wall’. This was a collection of people from the sect who had died, with names embossed in gold on the wall as we walked by. To not transcend mortality and fallibility was called ‘the terror’ and this was the anti-thesis for the sect.
‘We try not to show too many people the ‘Zero Terror Wall’, said the Master, ‘so we usually use the other stairs past The Wall of Immortality’. ‘Further down on this side is the Sickness Room, Luck Room, Chance Room and Randomness Hall Way’, said Spudley. ‘Don’t mind the mess’ he said, ‘we are getting this all re-carpeted, it’s worn out’.
Down the stairs to the third level we went and came to a vast open room. There were hundreds of chairs around the walls and it seemed like the centre of the room was reserved for dancing. In the far end of the room looked like an altar underneath a high arch and in the background a massive black door. I asked if I could go closer but was told this was indeed sacred ground, I could only observe the room from afar. Regardless of the distance I could read the sign that was above the altar, it was the mantra for the movement, it read: ‘All death is preventable’. ‘Great stuff’ I stated and asked, ‘and what’s behind the black door?’ ‘Oh that’s the Cemetery’, said Spudley.
Dr Rob Long
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