Letters from the Afterworld is the third novel by T.L. Orcutt in the Path of Return series and first published within the single volume work entitled, The Path of Return Trilogy, published December 2011.
The third novel in The Path of Return Trilogy, Letters from the Afterworld, begins with Rickshaw reminiscing about his wedding to Crystal Meadows a year before. Crystal is an almost blind fortuneteller, daughter of Carmela de Avila, and a former apprentice on the Path of Return. The event brought together the five members of the Posse, a renegade faction of Sigma Nu Mu at Berkeley. Following a reunion nostalgia that flushes out Rickshaw’s early family life and friends, Rickshaw attends an advertised seance sponsored by Paradigm Research Institute at Kirkwood Inn in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, conducted by a famous medium with a gift for automatic writing. At Kirkwood Inn, he meets new friends and during the seance receives a channeled letter for his friend Murdock.
According to the afterworld letter, Murdock is on a soul recall list of people whose souls prematurely inhabited their selected bodies this time around on planet Earth. Besides Murdock, other friends of Rickshaw and Crystal have dreams of similar recall letters and incur near fatal illnesses and accidents to ensure they will comply with the letters’ intentionally vague instructioins. Rickshaw and Crystal try to get a hold of Jamayah who is on another sailing adventure in Cabo San Lucas. Jamayah seems reluctant to respond, but eventually gets word to Rickshaw to seek out Raoul - destination unknown. Eventually desperate, Rickshaw travels to Tijuana to find Raoul. Surprisingly, Juan (an acquaintance in Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return), finds Rickshaw and takes him to his brother’s (Carlos) mobile home at Rosarita Beach.
Juan informs Rickshaw that Jamayah believes hybrid souls (souls who formerly incarnated on an alien planet), are exploiting humans for enzymatic blood transfusions. The hybrid souls’ former embodied lives limited their current metabolism, which translates to a shorter life span and more illnesses. The tradeoff is they have amazing psychic powers. Juan knows because he is a hybrid soul himself, once healed by Jamayah, who we discover was a restoration master (one who prepares souls for return) between embodied lives. Stakes are raised when Murdock and Rattlesnake Dan are kidnapped and a ten-year-old son of Crystal’s friend is murdered.
Rickshaw, Jamayah, SBL, Weird Willie, Raoul, Juan, Apollo, and a modern-day Billy the Kid mobilize the Cosmic Rangers and drive to Mexico to find Murdock and Rattlesnake Dan. After finding a torched police car and three dead policemen, they discover a sustainable society of thousands of hybrid souls living underground, and with a medical clinic for the enzymatic blood transfusions that will extend their longevity and restore the health of their soul-race. As becomes necessary, all of the hybrid souls are in instant communication with each another by telepathy. The Cosmic Rangers manipulate Wasabi Kuroda, spokesperson for the hybrid clan, to give them an underground tour to check the condition of Murdock and Dan. Once inside and entrapped behind vault doors, where they find their friends drugged for the transfusion, a war begins between the formidable hybrid forces armed to the hilt and the Cosmic Rangers. Fighting their way out with explosives and automatic weapons, the Cosmic Rangers escape above ground where the last bloody battle gives way to freedom and justice for all.
The Cosmic Rangers return home to their various lifestyles. Jamayah goes on another fishing voyage. Five years pass and Rickshaw visits Naomi, the crone psychic. She informs him that Jamayah, Bamboo II, and the captain died when Zephyra, (the yacht), capsized in a storm. She also informs him that she has less than a year to live herself because of diabetes. In the end, Carmela visits Rickshaw and tells him that Jamayah visited her after his death with the information that Rickshaw is also a hybrid soul, but not to worry. Jamayah has taken care of all the karmic repercussions. Rickshaw and Crystal should live a healthy, long, and wonderful life.
Rickshaw Lubowski (alias Bob Kramer): Bob Kramer was a college classmate’s name that Rickshaw used to maintain his anonymity during his adventures in Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return. Born in 1954, and having graduated from Berkeley, his first job was as a biochemist for Bhaisajya Pharmaceuticals until the company needed to downsize. At the time of being laid off, he was in a divorce settlement with his unfaithful wife. Without job or wife, he began an apprenticeship with Jamayah in 1995 at the age of 41. In Collateral Karma Bob Kramer’s real name of Rickshaw Lubowski is disclosed along with his family of origin, college friends, and intimate relationships. Following his divorce from Mariah, Rickshaw marries Natasha who is murdered through sorcery in Collateral Karma and then at the beginning of Letters from the Afterworld, we find out he has married Crystal Meadows, the fortune teller, daughter of Carmela and former apprentice on the Path of Return.
Jamayah (nickname for Jose Guerrero): A genetic and cultural blend of Spanish, Native Argentinean, Italian, and English and speaks Castellano, Basque, and English. He is an educated and senior gentleman, dyslexic, over six feet tall, chestnut skin, lanky frame, large appetite, and passion for fishing. Jamayah is an unconventional visionary and healer who sells Bob Kramer on the commitment to become his currently singular apprentice in an inner wisdom tradition oriented toward paranormal mastery and cosmic awareness. Jamayah does not get wet in the rain and has powers of: forecasting the weather, clairvoyance about events and people arriving and departing, seeing auras, ghosts, and disembodied entities, exorcism, soul retrieval, medical intuition, healing, herbology, and astral travel. He lives aboard a gifted sailboat, a forty-foot gaft-rigged yawl named Zephyra, moored in a luxurious San Diego marina. A chocolate-pointed Siamese cat, named Bamboo, makes home aboard the vessel as well. Jamayah cannot solo sail and must hire a captain for Zephyra’s lengthy excursions along the west coast of North America. In Collateral Karma, Jamayah is largely on another sailing and fishing adventure to Cabo San Lucas until desperately needed by Rickshaw. In Letters from the Afterworld, he has gone fishing again, but eventually returns to help Rickshaw fight the hybrid souls by organizing the Cosmic Rangers.
Richard Murdock (addressed by the surname of ‘’Murdock’’): A member of the five man Posse and one of Rickshaw’s best friends with whom he went to Berkeley and golfs regularly. Murdock is a Capricorn and middle management businessman working for Jack-in-Box. He loves to eat with a pot roast and peas appetite, is ultra realistic, compulsive, devoid of compassion, secretive, owns an arthritic dog, wears wire rims, dresses poorly, does not like to think, and lives in the chic neighborhood of Little Italy. Murdock has no affiliation with the world of paranormal beliefs, but is the focal point in the automatically written letter from the afterworld that was channeled in the Kirkwood Inn Seance.
Crystal Meadows: A 33-year-old, mostly blind fortuneteller with whom Rickshaw falls in love and weds. Crystal’s mother is Carmela de Avila and Crystal’s father was an army officer who died in the Vietnam war. Carmela never saw Crystal’s father after Crystal was born. Meadows is Carmela de Avila’s real maiden name that she no longer uses. Crystal is lean, willowy, attractive without intention, a Pisces with blond hair, values healing the soul over healing the body, ‘’sees’’ the whole picture and respects all beliefs. In a former life, her and Rickshaw were lovers, during which time she was a prostitute. She and Rickshaw live in a small wood framed house in Ocean Beach, San Diego.
Rattlesnake Dan (sometimes called Dan): An old Chiricahua Apache who migrated from New Mexico to live in the desert near Indio. At 12, he hired out to local ranches as a cowboy and breeder of pigs. Similar to Jamayah’s son Raoul, he has an interest in snakes and healing. Snakes do not bite him. Similar to advanced yoga techniques, Rattlesnake Dan uses a practice of recirculation to neutralize energy thresholds and restore energy. He is a keen observer of weather, insects, and animals and uses this wisdom in his medicine.
Struck-by-Lightning (often addressed as SBL): SBL was raised on the Navajo reservation. At twelve his father died of hepatitis from heroin addiction. A year later, his mother died of pneumonia. His uncle, a Navajo witch of the Corpse-Poison Way, raised him and at 17 wanted to initiate him into the witch medicine tradition. Initiation required murdering a child. SBL refused and his uncle cursed him. Four days later, SBL was struck by lightning. Unexpectedly, the lightning gave him a vision to counter all forms of black magick. Unified with his vision was a powerful energy the lightning had given him, one that shoots bolts of energy from his fingers.
Naomi (no last name): A Piscean crone and clairvoyant who divines from cards and birds. Living aboard a fishing boat across the docks from Jamayah, she “sees” Bob Kramer astral travel. Along with Jamayah, Naomi gives Bob an exorcism of a demon that enters him during his first seance in Jamayah: Adventures on the Path of Return. More than Carmela, Naomi is a continuing source of consolation to Bob Kramer/Rickshaw Lubowski throughout the “The Path of Return” series. Naomi correctly predicts Rickshaw’s struggles with Aleister and a path of darkness, as well as his expected challenges with the hybrid souls.
William Randolph Sterling (nickname Weird Willie): A subcontractor-mentor for Jamayah who supervised Rickshaw’s second initiation about humility and trusting synchronicity. In Vietnam, he was Army Special Forces, received two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and a Distinguished Service Cross for bravery and heroism. Choosing to live as a homeless person in downtown San Diego, he is an artist who lives on a ranch in Julian, where he makes masks for children of poverty, disability, or disease. Willie rescues Cinnamon immediately after her automobile accident. He is the Field Commander of the Cosmic Rangers.
Cordero Perez: A sitter at the Kirkwood Inn seance with whom Rickshaw makes friends. Raised in Puerto Rico, he immigrated to Florida and worked at dishwashing, bus-washing, and paper route delivery. He migrated to San Diego in 1988 and has been a taxi driver for Ride-Safe ever since, affording him to live in a midrise apartment on the Pacific Beach rim of Mission Bay. Committed to remaining single, he is generous, well mannered and romantic to a stream of girlfriends. He is devoted to liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and justice, and not in a shy way. He attended workshops on motivation and usually greets with a high five and fist bump.
Apollo Kraikos: A member of the five man Posse and one of Rickshaw’s best friends. With Greek heritage, he was raised in Culver City. He is independent, nontraditional, dedicated to creating his own reality and taking responsibility for his own health. He is a professional hypnotherapist, pursues out-of-body experiences, is against medications and Western medicine, prefers alternative healing methods of acupuncture, herbs, and nutrition. He rarely returns phone calls, but responds to e-mail. He drives a bright cherry convertible Porch and dates Irina - well educated and of Russian descent.
Henry McCarty (alias Billy the Kid or Billy): A 21-year-old friend of Rickshaw Lubowski, who is extremely similar to the historic Henry McCarty. Rickshaw meets him at the Kirkwood Inn seance and solicits him to become an active member of the Cosmic Rangers.
Jack Bledsoe: A famous medium known mostly in England, Germany, and France, who is responsible for conducting the Kirkwood Inn seance for Paradigm Research Institute in Los Angeles. At age 12, his parents died in an automobile accident and Jack was raised in an orphanage in England. At 18, he left the orphanage and as a territorial explorer, roamed the planet before roosting in the remote jungles north of Bangkok, where he studied in a native village with a tribal shaman for five years and became a navon and thi-Naung. Jack returned to England where he discovered a natural gift for automatic writing.
Raoul Guerrero (nickname Snake Wizard): The only son of Jamayah and Carmela, he is the same age as Rickshaw, has a husky physique, broad facial features like an indigenous Indian, penetrating eyes, and a tattoo of a snake winding around his left arm. Raoul lives in Tijuana, surfs, and works as a healer, supporting himself by selling poisonous snake venom to hospitals. Earlier in life, he was given the nickname Snake Wizard. He is a serious meditator and was an apprentice to Jamayah on “The Path of Return”.
Carter Melford Lewis: An unemotional member of the five man Posse who became a wealthy dentist and no longer regularly communicates with the Posse. His life is endangered by a cardiac condition by the hybrid souls. His attorney wife is Namiko Lewis.
Juan Gomez: A close friend of Jamayah, who jokingly impersonates a federal Sergeant and detains Bob Kramer on his way to visit Carmela. He lives in an apartment in Tijuana, but resides as often at his brother’s (Carlos) trailer on the surf at Rosarita Beach when his brother is away. Juan is a hybrid soul, formerly healed by Jamayah.
Wasabi Kuroda: The spokesperson for the hybrid souls’ underground community in Mexico south of Mexicali. Wasabi hold unique moral values for the preservation of his soul culture, but nonetheless exemplifies the justification of exploitation, no different than the historical position of religions and cultures of the world who have gone to war for their own survival and capitalist principles.
