Chapter 8 Summary

Phil decides against telling Fat that he has encountered himself at various points into the far future, because Fat seems happy to have met God. Overcoming time is an age-old quest, with the sacraments and the plasmate extracting people from the lower realm without their being aware. Siddhartha recalls all of his past lives and is called Buddha (The Enlightened). His knowledge passes to the Pythagoreans, most of whom keep it secret but Empedocles goes public. Phil does not tell Fat that he is a Buddha; Fat is more like a hit-and-run accident.

When Sherri's remission ends, Fat worries about her but obsesses about finding the Savior who is being reborn, wherever he is. This is the fifth (or seventh) Savior. The friends realize that Gloria and Sherri are the objects of the quest, which is like the Grail legends, especially as seen...