I. Neighborhood Tour

The Earth's Neighborhood Tour includes the following visits:

Star             Distance from Earth
Alpha Centauri     4 light years
Arcturus          34 light years
Pollux            30 light years
Procyon           11 light years
Sirius             9 light years
Fomalhaut         20 light years
Altair            16 light years
Vega              19 light years

Total travel time 4.5 hours at 1000 light years per day speed. Total time depends on how long you visit each star and its planets.

The tour travels in a circle around the Earth, heading first toward the constellation Libra for the first two stops, then toward Gemini for Pollux. We travel back toward Earth to Procyon, then toward Aquarius for the next two stops. Then traveling toward Scorpius brings us to our last two stars, after which we travel toward Taurus to get back to Earth.

This is our most popular tour, and after making the trip several times, you should be able to make an occasional tour on your own or with friends to one or more of Earth's nearby stars. Remember the 1000 years = 1 day formula to estimate your travel time. You travel 1000 light years each day. Remember you can communicate telepathically by hypermail if you want to share something with a friend.

II. Galactic Orbit Tour

You can circle the Milky Way if you want a longer tour. This tour is usually made by a fairly large group with a lot in common. You can really get to know folks during this one year tour!

The Milky Way is 100,000 light years in diameter (about 600 quadrillion gazillion miles). At your heavenly travel speed of 1000 light years = 1 day you could travel across it in 100 days. The circumference is 300,000 light years, but it takes 314 days, 3 hours, 49 minutes and 21 seconds to make the circle. No one has figured out why it's different.

The usual tour arcs out from earth to the edge of the galaxy, then circles almost around, and arcs back to earth. We take an extra month for the arcs in and out, since this portion can be disorienting at heavenly speeds. Traveling 1000 light years per day means traveling 365,000 times the speed of light. The stars are invisible! Pulse traveling is best, stopping instantaneously several times per second. This way you can actually see the stars, and watch them whiz past.
The spiral arms of the Milky Way are like the seasons, in that taking a year to circle, you pass over a spiral arm every three months or so. This is a very inspiring and rejuvenating tour that you will remember forever!

Heavenly Hyper-Mail
From Crystal Smith

NEIGHBORHOOD TOUR

Lissa and I applied for a space travel permit. Lissa didn't even know it was possible, and she has been in Heaven for over 2000 years. I suspected it, and insisted that she ask. I can't believe it, but we'll really be able to travel 1000 light years in one Heavenly day! We'll be able to travel to Alpha Centauri in only six minutes!

Our flight plan is filed; my subconscious mind has the coordinates of the eight nearest stars, and we're off to Alpha Centauri! We each have our 8 young children and 18 infants in the same egg-shaped formation that we use above earth. Travel this fast really does allow a slight visual movement of the stars, but not like the old Sci-Fi movies showed.

After about six minutes of travel, we are suddenly in orbit around a planet near Alpha Centauri. We appear to be seven miles up, and the planet is covered with craters. The children think they are visiting the moon. We cruise for an hour, traveling about 42 miles. The speed of 1000 miles per day is MUCH slower than 1000 light years per day!

"Plot a course for Arcturus, Mr. Spock -- I mean Lissa." Lissa thinks I am crazy. but space travel is one of the dreams of my age. After nearly an hour of travel, we arrive in orbit in a huge cloud bank. We are protected from the probably toxic and hot vapors by our metaphysical state. I assume the clouds are hot because of their high velocity. Being limited to an area seven miles up prevents our learning any more about Arcturus.

The kids are getting frightened, so we travel on to Pollux , another giant star. The trip is slightly longer than the trip to Arcturus, and has the same result. Another giant gas planet! Next stop -- Procyon.

In about a half hour, we're looking down on a new planet orbiting Procyon. I say new, because I can see three volcanoes in the several hundred mile view I have. No green trees or plants are visible, just brown and tan soils and black volcanic flows. Lissa is amazed when I tell her people may live here someday.

Our next stop is Sirius, a blue-white, very hot star. We orbit seven miles up over a heavily cratered dead planet. A very near reddish star is probably Sirius's companion. The children are fascinated by the different colored stars (suns) near this planet.

We have now visited the nearby stars from Libra through Gemini, and we're again close to our Sun after only a few hours of travel. We now head for Fomalhaut, also a very bright star. Lissa is disappointed -- clouds again. This is a larger planet, possibly a gaseous planet, but I don't think it is nearly as large as Jupiter. A yellow color indicates chemicals hazardous to life, and we depart for Altair.

Altair's Heavenly planet truly has possibilities. Drifting white clouds and tall thunderheads part briefly to show a large lake or ocean below us. We laugh and I promise Lissa to bring us here again. The kids play on the cloud tops and try to identify the shapes of other clouds.

Our last star is Vega. It turns out to have a planet with a steamy, dusty (sulfurous?) atmosphere. Our seven mile high observation point is surrounded with impenetrable clouds. Disney Land this isn't, and the kids have had enough.

Our trip to Earth is finished in another half hour, and we are suddenly drifting along with our meditating brethren and sisters and their broods. The telepathic meditation channel has a little static now, caused by all the children trying out their mental singing abilities. They will mature only very slowly -- one day older for each 1000 years they spend in Heaven.

The Patriarchs are debating evolution. The Pope accepts it. If the Patriarchs go along, each adult here will get 96 Australopithicus and Homo Erectus kids in addition to our 26 "modern" babies and children. The first thing we will teach them will be to meditate quietly !

(See also "Time Travel in Heaven")