Lift With Your Mind (Liu Fong)

[Sage Hazzard]

Sage sprawled out on the floor, looking up at the ceiling from his back.

He'd sent a message to Liu. This time the message was in a letter, in a package. It could be considered cruel and unusual punishment. But to be a Jedi is not only to help people but teach them how to help themselves. The letter simply had the location and a time. By now the Padawan would know Sage's handiwork through the methods the messages were sent.

[Liu Fong]

Liu wound up hooking his fingers in the flaps on the package's wrapping and shaking it violently to open it up. He opened the letter by pinning it under something heavy, then opening it properly. He arrives with his usual timeliness and looms over Sage, lifting a brow and scratching his head.

"Comfortable, Master Hazzard?"

[Sage Hazzard]

"Oh yes, very. I'll assume you opened my package easily enough, yes? I must stop forgetting about your handicap."

Sage smiled, winking.

"Well then, lay next to me Liu. You'll find the ceiling pattern to be very interesting."

On the cieling were, suspending from it, loops and squares made out of durasteel and hollowed out in the middle, making rings and obstacles. If the Padawan had taken note of the enviorment, he'd already have noticed the small wooden balls on a table across the room. It was an obstacle course for the mind.

[Liu Fong]

Liu simply falls over backward, his feet coming up into the air as they follow his motion before settling on the floor. He folds his arm behind his head and sighs.

"Do the Jedi usually make their ceiling patterns three dimensional? One would think it would be less trouble simply to make reliefs in the ceiling itself."

[Sage Hazzard]

Sage chuckled.

"Jedi seem to find the hardest path, you know."

He smiled as he lifted up a ball from across the room, with the Force, with ease.

"Obsearve."

He moved it through a loop, under a bar, up over another bar, and through another loop. He dropped it out of the air but caught it with his hand.

"It's an obstacle course for the Force. You've stretched out to touch the Force before, even felt a rock and sensed it as if it was visible to you through closed eyelids. Now, we shall take it a step further."

He Padawan was not expected to do this easily. In fact, Sage didn't count on him being able to lift it to the cieling, to go through the obstacle course. However, it was a terrific motivation. Instead of a basic challenge, like raising a rock two centimeters, this was a hard one. Liu would have to dispel his doubts about his abilities, doubts all Padawans had, and try to accomplish the unthinkable instead of the closely graspable goal. The result, hopefully, would be that he'd think the goal to be the obstacle course and that lifting the rock would have to be a step to that goal. It'd push his limits and make him try harder. Much like breaking a wall by punching through it instead of on it.

"Now, how would you propose you lift this ball? What, based on your current knowledge of the Force, be the logical steps to accomplishing telekinisis?"

[Liu Fong]

"First, I have to open myself to the Force and kind of nudge it toward my goal with out forcing it, as it were...If that makes sense. Maybe it would help to focus on the Force like the cube, but instead as a hand or platform that lifts the ball."

[Sage Hazzard]

"Hmm. Interesting perspectives my Padawan. However, you complicate things needlessly."

The Jedi Master smiled. His Padawan was growing wise indeed. He only needed a bit of guidance.

"You see, the Force flows everywhere. It's an old hermit it would seem, as it's seen everything and knows no challenges it has not faced. Though, as you may have guess, there are many ways to ask an old hermit to do things. Your way might work but I find another way simplier, if you'd like to try it instead."

Sage sighed as he slipped into the Force more, feeling his way around as he spoke.

"You see, it is your ally, as it is to all Jedi. It flows through the ball and has already made friends with it, you have not. The easiest way, instead of getting to know the ball, is to use the Force as a go between. Go inside the Force, see the ball in your mind as the Force shows you it apon your request. See the ball rising in your mind, with an implied question of want implied in the vision. The Force will accomadate and do the task you have shown it to do. As if it is making your imagination reality. It happens instantly and you'll find that the ball stays where you wanted it to go, in your mind's eyes, as the Force made your request reality immediantly without delay of negotian with the ball."

He opened his eyes.

"Try it."

[Liu Fong]

Liu isn't quite sure he understands, but he grasps the concept of a go between well enough. He calls the Force and sits focusing on it for a time, before making his request.

Find the ball.

There, in his mind's eye, the glowing cube of the Force becomes the dull brown ball wood. Now...will the Force grant his request?

Lift it.

The ball rises shakily, as if questioning him: How high? Liu decides to risk splitting his concentration to ask a question.

"Now what, Master Hazzard?"

[Sage Hazzard]

The gentle russling in his hand brings a smile on the Master's lips.

"See it raising. See it levitating. Shape your vision to imagination and write in the ball raising. The Force will change physics to accomadate your imagination and will."

[Liu Fong]

Imagine it? Liu shuts his eyes and pictures the ball rising to the top of the room. He opens one eye to check the ball's progress; it's not much higher than before. Liu sighs and relaxes, seeing a slow, lazy rise in his mind. The ball floats a few inches higher.

[Sage Hazzard]

Sage smiles.

"Yes, you see? The Force does not know you well. It must get to become best friends before it will move mountains for you! You must stick to molehills for the moment. Do you feel the sweat on your forehead young Liu? This connection tires you, surely. Yet you press on..." he smiled. "...Good."

[Liu Fong]

Liu hears Sage as if he's shouting down a hallway; he sounds distant and detached from the world Liu sees through the Force. The ball in his mind gains a few more inches; in reality it gains a few scant millimeters. The tingling of sweat rolling down his face twitches his eyes and itches his nose. He sneezes and the ball drops to the floor and rolls a short distance from its starting point.

"How high?' he asks as he rubs the itch from his nose.

[Sage Hazzard]

Sage chuckled.

"High enough, my Padawan, high enough."

The actual hieght was seven inches, though Sage isn't sure he should know that. Would it discourage him or encourage him?

"Seven inches."

[Liu Fong]

"Well...it's a start at least," Liu says with a glance at the ceiling. "It'll be a while before I can play the obstacle course though. Should I try again?"

[Sage Hazzard]

"Perhaps. However, reflect on what you just did. Repeat the steps verbally, and reflect on how, if there is a how, to do it more effectively."

[Liu Fong]

"First, find the Force. Secondly, show the Force the objective I need to achieve. Thirdly, request its help..."

Liu places his hand on his forehead as he thinks, then finally sighs.

"I can't think of how else to do it."

[Sage Hazzard]

"Perhaps it lies in your concentration. You must also show the Force more of what you want. Step by step how the ball raises. Inch by inch, you must take it through it. Also, with practice comes expertise. Well, are you up for another try?"

[Liu Fong]

"Sure," Liu says, settling back and focusing on the ball. Show it more of what he wants...ok. More then. He wants the ball to rise steadily, straight up towards the ceiling until it hovers just below the high rafters. The ball floats upward on a steady rise, just a bit wobbly. It reaches Liu's previous mark with ease before slowing its progress.

[Sage Hazzard]

Sage says nothing. Liu is in his 'zone' now. The Jedi Master cannot help but be proud. To interrupt him with needless instruction would only break his concentration.

[Liu Fong]

The ball shudders and shifts crazily to the side, still moving upward, but lacking control. It shifts back toward the other direction, overshooting its mark before making a steady, wobbling rise to double its first height.

[Sage Hazzard]

The Jedi Master nods slowly, approvingly. His Padawan is indeed growing in skill.

[Liu Fong]

Liu's brows knit as he tries to maintain a straight line, but the added focus is killing his ability to lift the ball and fight gravity. At last the ball reaches a height of twenty-four inches, holding solidly and refusing to budge in any direction. Liu opens his eyes with a sigh and rubs his eyes. It would seem that telekinesis isn't one of his strong suits.

[Sage Hazzard]

Sage catches the falling ball.

"Excellent! Wonderful for a first session. Tell me, what do you feel and think at this moment, Liu?"

[Liu Fong]

"I think that this is one of the hardest things I've ever done, and I feel like a bit of rest would be a good thing to have," he says, wiping the sweat from his brow. "That was like lifting one ton weights..."

[Sage Hazzard]

Sage nodded.

"It is, I assure you... trust me," he said with a wink.

He stood up.

"Well then, should we part to train another day, my Padawan?"

[Liu Fong]

Liu doesn't want to appear lazy, but he's developing this wondrous headache.

"Yes...later will be good."

[Sage Hazzard]

"Understood. Be well, my Padawan."

On that, Sage exited.