The message spreads

Delusional or not, Gershon was a changed man. When he returned to the clubs after his 40 day hiatus he was completely sober. He was decked in a shiny golden robe and a crown. He commanded a presence. He was Moondwabi in every sense. He ascended the stage, new guitar in hand. The room went silent. Then came the lyrics...

Gershon had never displayed any songwriting talent before and only covered the songs of others. Suddenly out of nowhere he had a play list of dozens of songs hinting at the meaning of life, inspiring spirituality, faith, worship, and inner healing. None of the staff at the hospital recalled ever seeing him jot down any notes. So when did he create these songs. And how? It was a strange phenomenon indeed. And the audience went wild. Reprinted below are the lyrics to the first song he played on his return to the stage. You will immediately see what made everyone stop and listen - and beg for more:

DEEPEST OF THE DEEP

Your soul has searched for a million years
For the path back to the start
Draw forth from wellsprings of love
And let it penetrate every incarnation
That you may be reborn
In the Moondwabi generation

Come together people
The many are as one
We know where we are going
'Cause we know where we've come from

Our souls are rooted deeply
In the garden of His love
Watered with loving kindness
From the heavens far above

Deeper than the ocean
Wider than your rectum
Brighter than a sunbeam
Mightier than a ski team

Older than the cosmos
Newer than fresh bread rolls
Wiser than an owl
Drier than a towel

How kind he was to tell us
The reason we are here
It's to worship and adore him
And to always draw him near

No one can take us higher
From the depths of our despair
There's new reason to keep living
It's that Moondwabi is now here

Deeper than the ocean
Wider than your rectum
Brighter than a sunbeam
Mightier than a ski team

Older than the cosmos
Newer than fresh bread rolls
Wiser than an owl
Drier than a towel

His essence penetrates us
His morals liberate us
The light of his salvation
Is a cause for fornication

Fans loved the existential riddles he posed in each song and his following grew. His next song, "Reincarnation" was his break-through hit, topping all the regional charts, from Toronto to Barrie to Collingwood.

REINCARNATION

Talkin' about reincarnation
Givin' us a second chance
That good ol' reincarnation
Another life to sing and dance

What in tarnation,
Is this thing your talkin' 'bout?
It's good ol' reincarnation
Clap your hands and jump and shout

I've been here before,
It's not my imagination
I saw it all
Under hypnotization
I've been all things that I can be,
From mighty king to bumble-bee
But through it all, I've always been ME!

You only live 999 times
So get it right
If you need the motivation
Then think of...

Here we go!

Reincarnation
Deja-vu it's
Reincarnation
Round we go, it's
Reincarnation
I repeat, it's
Reincarnation
Been there, done that, it's
Reincarnation
Wear a carnation, beware of castration,
Inform the whole nation, 'cause it's
Reincarnation
Round and round and round we go
Round and round and round and whoa,
Dizzy, slow down, stop!
Get me out of this
Reincarnation

Moondwabi at this point had a hardcore following of fans - but not worshippers. Ironically, it was one day when he suddenly stopped playing in the middle of a gig that he transformed from rock star to God. One night in the middle of "The End is Only the Beginning" he stopped strumming. He raised his guitar high over his head as if to offer it to the heavens and continued to bob his head and tap his toes - to the silence. "Can't you hear it?" Moondwabi asked his bewildered audience. "Can't you hear the cosmic melody? The harmony of all existence? The notes that permeate all matter? It's the sweetest sound of all. Listen."

Somewhere in the audience a head started to bob. Then another. In the back of the room a girl screamed from ecstasy and started gyrating. Like some kind of invisible virus, everyone in the room got infected. "I'd never seen a wilder crowd in all my years in the business", says Alfonso, owner of the Space Cake Confectionery. "Dancing like animals, writhing on the floor - yet in all total silence."

"It was like the other 90% of my brain - the part that we don't use - opened up. Everything became, like so...clear", says Paul who now goes by his cult name, Aphelion.

"The only way to describe it...you'd have to invent a whole new alphabet to find the words." says Cindy, now named Spectrum.

Was it all an elaborate hoax? Or was it the greatest example of mass hypnotism ever seen? Ask anyone who was there that night and they'll tell you that is just doesn't matter. "It happened and that's what matters" sums up Moondwabi.

The second CD Moondwabi released succeeded in turning almost everyone who listened to it into a dedicated convert. It sold in the thousands in Toronto alone. The money from sales allowed Moondwabi to establish his first temple. His cult quickly grew to include 15 core members and 1368 casual followers.

What songs were on this CD that made it so great? The back cover lists only "The cosmic melody". The disk was blank. "Not blank - silent" is Moondwabi's terse response to his critics. "The problem with my detractors is that they turn up the volume of their players and complain that there's nothing there. First they need to turn up the volume of their souls."