Terrance Mann was born, he lived, and he died. I suppose you'd like me to elaborate on that, but I'll have to make it fairly brief, because his death is really the beginning of the story. Okay?

He was born into a fairly well to do family, in the year 2000, in the United States of America, on Earth. He went to all the best schools, from pre-school to post-grad. He always graduated at the top of his class because he loved to study and to learn (in addition to be exceptionally clever). He had a very nearly insatiable interest in knowledge. He was always reading all he could, both fiction and non-fiction. But reading was not all he did. He listened to almost everythingh e could, music, poetry, storytelling, anything. And he watched all the television, movies, plays that he could. He played all sorts of sports and games and musical instruments. He had many friends and relatives, all of whom he loved and liked very much, and who loved and liked him, as well. He dated lots of girls, and later women, throughout his single life. He fell in love and was married when he was 33. He and his wife had four children: two boys and two girls. He had no single profession, but rather many. And all of them were to the benefit of mankind, primarily in the arts. He was a musician, painter, athlete, teacher, inventor, countless other things. But his favorite was writer. He wrote much throughout his life. And for all the things that he did, he was the most famous man in history. Everyone on Earth knew of him and all that he did. He travelled the world, learned a dozen languages, met many people. He was a soldier, a diplomat, a leader, a peacemaker. In his life he experienced more than you could possibly expect on man to experience. He was a very happy man, and when he died, he left the world as perfect as it had ever been since Eden. No one wanted for anything. Billions adored him, and mourned his passing. He died at the age of 125, and didn't look a day over 70.

Are you happy now? Can I get on with my story? Good. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. Terrance Mann was born, he lived, and he died.

And awoke in a place he couldn't describe, for all his many years and experiences and languages. Words didn't exist, so far as he was aware, to describe this place. For hours he looked all around him, trying to absorb it all. He could barely begin to do so. Finally, it occurred to im that he felt younger than he had in many decades. He managed, with great difficulty, to turn his attention from his surroundings to himself. He was quite surprised to find that he, or at least his body, was a newborn baby. Of course,the first word that popped into his head was 'reincarnation.' But he quickly thought of many reasons why that could not be a valid explanation. First of all, this was very obviously not Earth. Secondly, it didn't seem to be a planet at all. And of course, he should not remember his past life, or retain an adult consciousness and understanding. But before he could get much further in his musings, Someone showed up to explain things to him. It wasn't someone who looked in any way human, or much like anything else he was familiar with, for that matter. But even before it began speaking to him, he somehow knew that it must be a living, intelligent creature of some sort. He didn't, however, have time to wonder just how he knew this, before it began talking. He settled in to listen.

"Hello, Terra," the being began. Funny that it should not only know his name, but even his nickname. Not to mention English. "I'm sure you have many questions. I'll try to answer them as best I can. But it may be difficult for me, using so many words. You humans do have a lot of words. Why, it even seems you have many different languages. Different languages is an unusual thing for a single species on a single planet. But I've scanned your mind, and have absorbed your first language, English. I need it to use to talk with you, for now. You may ask questions at the end of my speech, but we've found a few commonly asked questions, and have prepared a standard answer-speech."

"FAQ."

"Hmmm?" the being seemed lost in though momentarily. "Oh, yes. Certainly. Very good. Where was I? Uh...
you may be wondering just where you are. I suppose you know you've died. You may think this is the afterlife. It isn't, really. Technically, you haven't really died. The reality of it is, that whole life you just lived was a dream. It happened in realtime, it actually took you 125 years to experience 125 years. But it was a dream. Well, no. Not the kind of dream you had within the dream. It was more real than that. The universe you knew does exist in...well, the closest word you have is 'dimension.' Another dimension. But that isn't exactly right. It will have to do for now, however. To use the word, this is _the_ real dimension. There are billions of others, which are sort of 'dream' dimensions. They do exist, but they're not quite real. Oh! I believe you have on your world a term, virtual reality. It is not very different from that. Well, hmmm.....perhaps a little different. No, perhaps a lot different. OH, it is so hard to explain in a language with so many little words. I mean, words with little meaning. Specific meaning. At any rate, we put you into that world when you were born.. you into a situation where it would seem you were conceived and carried and born in the normal manner of the intelligent species of that world. So, given that, and having lived there for what must seem to you such a long time, you really are as much a part of that world as you are of this one. And that was the purpose of it.

"You see, when anyone comes into being here, they are placed in another world, one of the 'dream dimensions.' They never know they aren't really of that world. They live a life there, like any of the other intelligent beings of that world. Usually, they manage to distinguish themselves in some way, but not always. You happen to be one of the greatest examples of such... distinguishment. And they all have an incredible desire to learn all they can of their world. As a matter of fact, you yourself used almost 99% of the storage space in your brain. I understand most of you humans use far less than that. You would be surprised how much you know, buried deep in the recesses of your mind. When you are ready, you will be given full access to it all, and you will share it with everyone else here. Just be careful- don't try to remember everything all at once. So, perhaps you begin to see the purpose of the other worlds. One person here is chosen to live a life in one of those worlds, experience as much as they can, and bring back the knowledge they have acquired the people of this, the 'real' dimension. A few more things you should know: everyone here is different. You will not have seen anything entirely like anyone you meet here. You see, we aren't exactly physical beings, at our conception. We are born as a sort of... energy. 'Microscopic energy' is the closest I can come in your language to representing our word for it. This energy can be shaped in any way our 'energenetic engineers' want to. What they do is they shape the newborn energy into whatever would be needed to simulate natural conception within the world they are put into. In most cases, the energy has to be separated. As in your case, where it was shaped into an egg and a sperm. And don't worry, there was no chance of the energies not rejoining, or joining the wrong partners, an egg or sperm of Earthly origins. There remains a bond between the two halves of the energy, an attraction. This bond is so powerful, we could have placed the energies in two people who had never met, on opposite ends of the world, and these two people would have somehow been mysteriously drawn together, perhaps by something with the appearance of what they might call 'destiny.' They would fall in love, marry, produce you. Of course, we wouldn't do this. We put your separated energy into a man and woman who were already married and obviously in love, and in a position to provide you with a moderately comfortable life. And so you were conceived, and born, naturally. You lived a natural life, all the while gathering information on the world around you, and finally, you died. Your death provided an apparently natural transition between that world and this. So it would not seem such a shock to you. Now, you have been placed in a body just like the one you had as an infant on your world. This is merely a means to help you understand what has happened. You have been reborn, in a way. You have total control over your body, on every level. It will never become sick or hurt, if you don't want it to. You will live forever, so compared to your 125 years on Earth, you still are a baby. But you can grow out of that at anytime you wish. You can grow to any age you wish. And you can always change your age in either direction, anytime you want to. Your new brain has a far greater, actually almost infinite, storage capacity than your old one. And it has instant, total recall. You will keep stored in your mind all the knowledge and memories acquired during your life, plus whatever anyone here releases of their memories to the general public. And some you come to know closely may choose to release more private memories to you, and you to them. The language here is different from any other worlds, you will find. It is much larger than your language, but only because it is made up of the languages of all the worlds that people have yet lived in and brought back the knowledge of. So far, that is two billion, 365 million, 672 thousand, one hundred eighty-four different worlds. There are currently several tens of millions of people who are in the middle of their 'dream lives.' And more going into such lives all the time, as they are conceived. Still, there are billions and billions of worlds that have yet to be experienced by our people. Our language contains only parts of the languages of each world. Most thoughts are expressed in a large way, with few words. I expect you have in your life considered that many very large and complex concepts can be squeezed into a word or little more. That is how our language works, except that we understand everything that is meant by the concept-words, all at once. Every last little nuance of meaning. Of course, anyone can imbue anyone else they wish with a full understanding of their own languages, and then converse in that language. As they can give anyone, or everyone, any bit of information they possess, instantaneously. As soon as we are done talking, I will release control of your body and knowledge to you. You will be able to grow your body. You will be able to access your entire memory, as well as the entire puplic memory of the worlds that have yet been visited. After that, you will gain memories of your own in this life, as well as any memories others you meet may wish to share with you. And anytime someone returns from a dream life and releases their memories to the public, they will automatically be added to your memories. Newcomers generally release their memories a few at a time, rather than all at once. And they can keep anything they want to to themselves. And they can choose to release anything else anytime they want. Well, that's about it. Any questions?"

"Gee, uh...so, when I get all these memories, is that just from people's dream lives, or does it include information about this world and its history?"

"Yes. Uh, the second thing you said. But only to an extent. There are things you'll have to learn for yourself. If you want to. But you'll get a basic knowledge that expands on what I've already told you."

"Will I know anything personal about myself? I mean, in relation to this world? Like, about relatives?"

"Yes. You will know who your parents in this world are. Getting to know one's parents is up to the individuals involved, and is done about as often as not. As for siblings, well, people here reproduce once, at most. Some marry, if the idea appeals to them, and they meet the right person, to whom the idea also appeals. Of course, such concepts don't exist on all worlds, but it is an idea that is fairly well understood by anyone here, based on their own experience or the shared experience of others from worlds that do have concepts of marriage, and/or family. Most people here don't marry, and if they do, it's usually a far looser thing than it is on most worlds that have marriage. Polygamy is common among those who marry, though always with complete mutual consent of all persons involved. People rarely bother getting divorced. Sometimes they stay with a spouse, sometimes not. And... well, you'll understand more about relations in this world when your memories are released. But I should mention, there is no such thing as gender here. If anyone considers themselves a specific gender, based on the world they come from, it is of no concern to anyone else. Here, gender means nothing really. Anyone can be attracted to and mate and reproduce with any other person. Of course, rather few of us look anything at all like anyone else, as far as species goes. But we do generally tend to find each other attractive, though not necessarily sexually, unless-"

"Yes, I'll understand when my memories are released. Um...What happens to the worlds, and people of those worlds, that have been left behind?"

"The other dimensions were there long before anyone went to them, and they will continue along their courses as always, forever. Some may even find each other, eventually, but they'll never find this world. And they can never know of its existence. To answer your imminent related questions, yes, you may visit your world from time to time, or you may simply monitor what is happening there. Or you may forget about it completely, though most people don't do that. And you may not go to any other world, unless they have contact with your world, and you first visit your own world, and travel to the other world from there, by the means your people use. You will then usually have to return to your own world before returning to this one. You may not go to your own world permanently, or affect any major effect on your world. You would only be there to observe. This is not to say you could not interact, or do anything that might have a relatively small day-to-day sort of influence on the world. You can do that, within reasonable limits. You cannot contact anyone you knew, or at least not appearing as yourself. You cannot let anyone in the world know who you really are, or were."

"Okay, what happens to people of worlds like mine when they die?"

"Whatever they expect to happen to them, usually. It may be nothing, just death and that is all. It may be they go to a place they would call Heaven, whatever they imagine their Heaven to be. It may be Hell, if that's what they're expecting, and again, it'll be whatever sort of Hell they believe in. Now, such things can always be changed at their will, if they just try, and believe they can do it. Some may become ghosts or similar things. Any number of things can happen when the die. As I said, whatever they expect."

"Okay, I guess that's about it for now. I guess anything else I may need or want to know can wait for the release of memories."

"You are now released, Terra."

Terra, before anything else, grew himself to about 25 years' maturity. Then he searched his memory slowly, carefully. He learned a few points of particular interest. He decided to take a little while to assimilate all his new knowledge, later. There was one thing he wanted to know first.

And he knew. He smiled. He said to the being he had been talking with, Hi dad. How's mom?"