Once upon a time, in a magical land far, far away there was a happy family who all lived in the enchanted forest in a tiny little hut. One day, they looked under a strawberry bush and there was a lovely baby boy. The boy came to be known as John (Bingham).

They took this baby inside the hut and raised him to be a fine, upstanding citizen. He grew up and went away to a huge university called "life". He then travelled the world sharing his wisdom with the birds and the trees and the flowers and the bees. He learned how to send his thoughts into the universe and eventually there was world peace and harmony throughout every land.

One day, he came across a bag of magic beans and he took them home to his Mum and she told him to plant them in the backyard and water them everyday. He told her to go and take a spade and dig a huge hole so he could stand in the mud and eat his porridge. She then called the cat team and they came over and filled their little hut with lovely, playful kittens. People came from galaxies far and wide and they all lived happily ever after.

In the beginning, John's mind was crystal clear and it resonated with all manner of vibrational frequencies. All creatures great and small would come from the nearby hills to enjoy his company. The sun warmed their little valley and the spring rains could always be relied upon to make the ground fertile for every conceivable fruit and vegetable in the known world. Leprechauns and miniature robots helped cultivate and harvest the crops so that everyone could be healthy in mind, body and spirit.

Early one morning, John woke up and felt like a brisk, ten-mile run. So he put on his favourite red mocassins and strolled off towards the ferny creek where the tree-climbing squirrels lived. Along the way, he spotted some of his pet kookaburras as they were fishing for trout and barramundi. They were having a marvelous time and John decided to watch them in silent contemplation for a few days. After a while, he suddenly realised that he had reached nirvana and this made him very happy indeed. John had heard strange stories about people finding nirvana when they weren't really looking for it but he never thought that it would happen to him. He smiled quietly to himself as he reflected on the long and mysterious journey of human souls. He realised at that moment that he had perfect understanding of this level of reality and all its wondrous aspects which now had become crystal clear to him.

There was news that a friendly tribe of invisible beings would soon be visiting the planet and preparations were well underway. Everyone was excited at the thought of having some new characters and personalities to interact with. Nobody was quite sure if these beings would require sustenance in the form of food or whether they would simply absorb pure biological energy from all the enchanted creatures that lived near John's hut. Somebody also wondered if the party decorations would be visible to these beings who were in fact travelling across our three-dimensional reality for only a brief period of what we know as "time". Little Timmy even suggested that these beings might be able to spin wondrous yarns that would entrance and delight everybody who heard them. His father looked surprised as the mice ate his biscuits and drank his tea.

In the next exciting installment of the "John Bingham Story", you will learn all the secrets of this happy valley and how all the creatures learned to live in sublime harmony with each other. We may also visit one of the fifty-seven nearby coffee plantations, where the children grow and harvest the world-famous raspberry-cordial tree and they sing traditional songs like this one: "We're happy little ERMHA-mites, as bright as bright can be. We love our Haloperidol for breakfast, lunch and tea. Our doctors say we're growing stronger every single week. It puts a rose in every cheek!"

Story by Geoff Allen, with occasional inspiration provided by Phil Farmer and Cath Roper. Why not come along to the Newsletter group and you too could be writing bedtime stories of your very own one day.