by Charu Thapliyal
WELCOME TO THE 275th OFFICIAL 4D-EARTH TOUR. KINDLY FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS. PLEASE TAKE YOUR WELCOME KIT FROM THE FRONT OF THE BUS. OUR TOUR WILL COMMENCE SHORTLY.
The loudspeaker at the end of the bus played a light classical track as Ralphio groaned. He was already in his seat with his seat belt fastened and had heard this message replay in his headphones for a good fifteen minutes! He would never go on any tour on the recommendation of his wife again. Much good it did him listening to her, he thought as he humphed into his coffee. His eyes followed a tall pimply gentleman with disheveled brown hair who had just got onto the bus wearing a blue uniform coat with a matching hat. He looked like the tour guide.
Finally some information!
“Welcome to the official 4D Earth Tour Bus. My name is Shin Stamprickle. I’ll be your guide for today”, the pimply man said pointing to his name tag.
“Please hold onto something. This is going to be a bumpy ride. In another ten minutes we are going to start the tour as we hurtle thousands of light years into space to travel to the other end of our galaxy and see ancient 4D Earth in person. This tour has been subsidized by the Ministry of Humanistic Concerns. Please line up your tickets so I can give you the discount coupons which can be redeemed at our gift shop later”, he spoke in a rehearsed voice as he moved along the rows of the bus and people started shuffling their bags to find their tickets.
“High schoolers taking this trip for their galactic history class credit please open your welcome folder within which you will find the official journal entry as received from Mother Gaia on the day the split happened. This should contain all the information needed for your annual report and …”
“Excuse me, Sir … what do you mean by ‘split’?” a blonde girl with pigtails who seemed to be about ten years of age asked. Shin smirked. The young ones never knew until you told them. He loved seeing the look on their little faces as someone did. The poor girl was probably on this bus with her parents and had been told to sit quietly in her seat without providing any information of where she was going or why. Shin detested such parents.
“I’ll tell you, missy, we are …” He stopped to look at the light above his head flicker ever so slightly.
Suddenly a thundering sound boomed in the air as if a whip had struck the top of the bus. A child screamed as another one started to cry.
“CLOSE YOUR EYES, EVERYONE! IT IS TIME”, Shin bellowed as all trace of light vanished from the bus and the children on board started crying, anticipating in their energy bodies something was going to happen. He held on tight to the pole in front of his seat. He had flown off the bus once only to integrate in the middle of nowhere. Not this time. No, Sir. He was going to hold on for dear life.
A crackle of electricity arose from within the roaring engines of the bus and before Ralphio knew it he was gone!
…
And before he could think about where he had gone he was back. The entire bus shuddered and shook. “Damn, these new tour agencies. Smooth operation … my foot!” thought Ralphio as the lights turned back on. His grandfather was from Earth, or so his grandmother had told him. Were it not for him he would never have entered this bus.
The passengers gaped in true amazement as each panel of the bus rolled down revealing large transparent glass panes surrounding them, rendering the bus a see-through aura which gave them a 360 degree view of space. Ralphio saw his dangling legs. It seemed like he was suspended mid-air. For someone looking at them from afar it would have seemed that 40 odd people were floating mid-air, sitting on invisible chairs, an invisible force field somehow keeping them all oriented in the same direction.
“Look, papa! It’s the Earths!” the girl with the pigtails shouted pointing to their right.
Ralphio turned to look in the direction and sure enough he saw them there. Some hundred kilometers away from the bus were the two Earths, both identical but one with more green in its brown hue and a cleaner blue in its blues than the other one.
“Ladies and Gentlemen”, Shin cleared his throat as he pointed to the Earths with both hands. “Presenting to you the 4D and the 5D twin Earths spinning seamlessly one next to the other. Children will see them as they are. Adults with spiritual vision blockage due to old age might need to use the special dimensional shift glasses in your welcome kit. Look closely, my little ones. This is a lesson in cosmic history which was one for the ages.” He looked out the window. He had been on these tours ever since they started but this was the moment which still took his breath away every single time.
Ralphio followed Shin’s hands and looked on in awe as he saw two seemingly identical Earths spinning next to each other, massive balls of dust and water hanging in the void.
He closed his eyes, crossed his feet, clasped his hands and became one with his breath. He entered into a meditative state to see what was not visible to his eyes. The second Earth was the 5D-Earth, obviously much lighter in vibration than the 4-D Earth, but this lightness of vibration came not from the Earth herself but from the people on it, he noticed. He felt like he was looking at the origin of life itself and a deep wave of gratitude overcame him as he opened his eyes and looked at the Earths. He felt like he could sit and look at the Earths in silence for all eternity.
“Hello, excuse me. Hello, am I audible?” Shin’s voice echoed around the bus as if coming from all around them as he tapped on his microphone. Ralphio groaned again.
“Many many moons ago in circa 2020 there was the 4D Earth as the cosmos knew it back then. Apart from the three spatial dimensions, humans in the 21st century had started to explore the fourth dimension which gave them access to a unified perception of the self cutting across time and they realized that they could travel in time by being in high meditative states. However, not everyone had access to these abilities. They were reserved for the serious seekers and students of consciousness. As time for the next jump approached it was noted that humanity had pushed the consciousness of the planet’s energy body, Mother Gaia, to the extent that she had to unleash an unexpected plague upon herself to get rid of the karma of the humans who were not ready for the jump.”
“Err…when you say ‘jump’, Sir, what exactly do you mean?” a little boy with blue eyes and copper hair sitting in the third row from the front asked.
“The jump in consciousness of course, laddy!” Shin jumped from his seat and twirled to face the audience, a twinkle in his eye. This was his favorite part. “Exactly like a photon jumps from one frequency band to another!
Earth was shifting into 5D you see. Those who were not ready for the jump were going to vacate their bodies as per their soul contract with Mother Gaia, while those who did not wish to leave their bodies but were not mentally prepared for the leap were going to stay back on a split earth which was going to vibrate in the 4th dimension. Yes, this was the infamous COVID-19 which swept Earth by storm in the year 2020, my friends! It is one of the perfect examples of disaster management responses our galaxy has seen in many light years! It was truly ingenious on part of Mother Gaia!”
Shin waited till the moment of silence occured. He practically knew now what response to expect when from his audience.
“High schoolers, you may now open the journal entry by Mother Gaia herself on her tipping point day, tucked inside your welcome kit, and see what I mean straight from the horse’s mouth.” Pages ruffled as everyone switched to their reading glasses and immersed themselves into the story of Gaia. Shin sat down and shut his eyes. The perfect time for a good snooze while everyone read. This would take exactly twenty minutes according to his schedule.
Ralphio opened his welcome kit and took out the paper which had been scanned from a diary, xeroxed and shared with everyone. He started to read.
“It was a beautiful day and I sat in the garden with the sun shining gently on me. A soft breeze caressed my cheek as if telling me that the wait for my son was not mine alone. I stood up and readied myself. The place had to be tidied up, there was a lot of work to be done. I filled a basket with fresh fruits for him. I knew his favorite were mangoes and I put a lot of those aside for him. I went to the garden front and watered the flower bed. Rows upon rows of roses had been planted for him. Nothing but the sweetest smelling flowers should greet my son when he came back. I went to the stream flowing behind our house and filled a jug with cold, clear water for him to quench his thirst when he came back tired from work. He worked hard all day long and the least I could do was show him all the love I have for him. Lately he had been stressed out a lot. Maybe there was some problem at work, I thought.
Suddenly I heard footsteps and snapped out of my reverie. My heartbeat escalated.
My son was back! Oh, how could I possibly explain my joy in mere words!
I ran up to the front gate and stood on my toes to get a better look at my boy. He stood there all dark and brooding. He seemed angry at something, someone. I saw him standing near the roses I had just watered. He glanced at them, plucked them and threw them aside in a heap. He shouted at me for wasting precious space and crashed into the basket of fruits I had just put down. He tipped it over with all his might and shouted some more. I just stood there and patiently waited for him to see me and calm down but before that could happen he saw the jug of water I had just brought for him. He shouted some more foul words, spit into the water and spilled it on the grass saying that it was not clean enough to be consumed now and started cursing me for not paying attention to his needs. He saw me standing at the entrance of our house, smiling, waiting patiently. He came over and whacked me square on my face. He pulled my hair, kicked me twice, complained about my wasteful efforts and reprimanded me for being such a lousy mother. I smiled all the while and took one last loving look at his face before he left for the day.
I got up, went and sat by the stream and started to clean myself.
My darling son would be back tomorrow and as Mother Gaia I had to make sure to satisfy all his needs when he came back. I do suffer when he unleashes his wrath on me, his masculine energies on the rise for the last thousand years, without sufficient balancing divine feminity in his aura yet. But I smile and wait for the day when he will finally realize how loving, caring and forgiving I am. Until that day my routine follows. So, for now I get up from the river bank, smile and go back to the house to wait for my son to come back.
Loving him as much as I do I have to shift my consciousness soon and I hope he will come along on the journey or else like many of my children species before him I will have to leave him behind. I close my eyes and pray for his return to me.”
Ralphio looked up from the paper as tears started to dwell in his eyes, the vibration of these words echoing in his soul as he heard Shin’s voice coming from behind him, bringing him back to the invisible bus.
“You see, ma’am, no one knows exactly when the shift happened but with each day that the virus spread on Earth the planet became lighter and moved higher”, Ralphio heard Shin tell a passenger.
“Many people turned inward when they were locked at home to contain the spread of the virus and their quest to realize their errors put them in a higher vibration. They could move onto the new Earth with the realization that they are not just the body but they are souls. As they understood deeper aspects of the law of karma and reincarnation it became clear to them why the COVID-19 was supposed to happen the way it did. It was divine intervention, purely. Those who aligned themselves with this new plan of the planet survived and moved onto 5D which gave them access to a ‘unified timeless perception of the Self along with consciousness of the Soul-Self’. However, many people failed and they had to stay back in 4D.
Those who could stay in harmony with their fellow man and with nature were bumped up to 5D. They were the ones who started respecting nature again. Taking only as much as they needed, they turned vegetarian, realizing that animals are not food but complex sentient beings present on earth to experience Gaia consciousness just like the souls in the human bodies. It was a tough decision for Mother Gaia as she loved all of her children equally, but some souls had their karma bank full. There was nowhere to go but empty it all out.”
Ralphio took off his glasses and looked gloomily out the window at the blurry Earths in front of his eyes. When his grandmother had left her human body in 2020 her soul had traveled across space and taken birth in the planet Pandoria where their family then had sprawled. She had retained all her earthly memories on account of her karma and knew her husband was still alive as a human, but she could not tell which dimension Earth he was on. It took a long sip of water for Ralphio to clear his head as he wondered which of the twin Earths in front of him his grandfather was on. The lush green blue 5D Earth or the brown blue 4D Earth.
Ralphio thought back to memories of his grandfather passed to him in thought by his grandmother. He was a fairly kind man with gentle words flowing from his mouth. He did well to all and never cheated or lied to anyone, his grandmother had told him, but he was a voracious meat eater and that was one habit which he had not been able to give up. Now the question was, was that one habit strong enough to make him stay back on 4D or not, Raphio thought as he peered from the glass windows at the edge of 4D Earth as the bus made a slow revolution of the twin Earths.
Raphio closed his eyes again and asked Mother Gaia to guide him. There was a whisper in his ear –
“Killing animals for food is the highest akarma a soul can accrue on earth.”
He jolted his eyes open with a start as tears started gushing down his eyes. He could suddenly feel the pain of all the souls whose life paths had been abruptly ended on account of his grandfather’s interruption of their life cycle. He had killed them for his own pleasure. The pleasure of his taste buds at that!
Ralphio wiped his tears and made a silent prayer for the souls of all those animals and requested Mother Gaia to help them reach their peaceful soul state in whatever dimension they were now.
As for his grandfather he added another silent prayer to his soul to give up meat now, if he hadn’t already. Ralphio knew now that he was in 4D. Still alive, but at what cost!
He opened his eyes as tears streamed from them and he looked out the window at the blue ball in space. What a beautiful planet it was. Ralphio smiled as the thought crossed his mind. What a pity the people there did not realize there was so much life teeming just outside their orbit.
He closed his eyes and put his head against the window pane as he slowly drifted off to sleep, his mind unburdened with half-inherited memories of his grandfather. A slight knowing smile crossed his face as he entered the dream world …
There was fog all around. Ralphio seemed to be in the middle of a mountain top. Lush green vegetation surrounded him everywhere he looked. From a distance he saw a curvaceous figure of a woman clad in a long flowy khaki robe. She seemed to be adorned with ornaments made of flowers and fruits. She took her time to approach him, seized his hands and put the backs of his hands on either of her eyes before joining her hands in a namaskaram in front him.
“Thank you for understanding”, she murmured to him just before she turned and left.
Ralphio did not get a good look at her face, her head being bowed down towards the ground. In his heart, however, he knew what Mother Gaia meant by this interaction. He knelt in gratitude to her and closed his eyes as a gentle breeze caressed his cheek. His life was complete …
Ralphio woke with a start. The bus rumbled as the lights flickered on and off. It looked like it was time to take off again. He quickly took one last gaze at the twin Earths and he could swear on his wife’s head that he got a wink back from them. He smiled as the bus got enveloped in darkness and before he could think about what was going to happen Raphio was gone …
Similar to the first time, before he could think about what had happened he was back at the parking lot no. 44 on Humanity Memorial Street as he saw the next batch of passengers line up with a ticket in hand, waiting to board the bus.
“We hope you had a safe and enlightening journey. I’m Shin Stamprickle. Thank you for choosing thought travel for all your travel and education needs.” Shin’s voice echoed from the in-built speaker in the bus. Raphio was brought back to reality as a child realized he had teleported and started to cry.
“Please find our travel catalogue below your seats. The first people to book the next tour with us get 50% off … special discount for school children and senior citizens …”
Raphio zoned out the rest of the words coming out of the microphone and took out his sketchbook. On it were two disfigured replicas of the twin Earths he had hurriedly managed to get. He was going to cherish this experience for a long long time. In fact he was …
“Sir, are you ready to get off?” a voiced came from next to his ear as someone shook him gently. Raphio turned his face to the left and Shin’s wide smile on his pimply face came into view. “Sir, we need to empty the bus now. Tour’s over.”
“Err, yes. Right. I’ll just get off here then. Thank you for this tour”, was all that Ralphio managed to say to Shin.
His heart was full, but as always his words were few.
“My wife will be waiting for me. I’ll buy her favorite flowers on my way back. She was the one who insisted I go on this tour, you see”, Raphio said to Shin who had already moved on to the next row to wake up the senior citizen couple snoring together in perfect rhythm.
Petunias. Her favorite were petunias. Ralphio remembered.
He got up as the vision of Mother Gaia carrying a petunia on her left ear came to his mind pulling a smile out of him like nothing in the past few months had.
What a day it had been. What a day.
Dr. Charu Thapliyal is an Indian author, spiritual researcher, and storyteller who explores the intersection of consciousness, destiny, and alternate timelines. Her work blends mysticism with psychological depth to reveal the hidden structures of human experience. When she isn’t writing, she leads transformational workshops and teaches shadow work, healing, and inner alchemy. She believes stories are portals—and we are all travelers of parallel worlds.