Storms, hurricanes, earthquakes everywhere, a savior appears, preaching of end times: rapture, damnation, Earth entering some supposed force field, the "Photon Belt". Some say he's Jesus, or Buddha, or some new Master of light. Egbert Benson knows he's a fake, cashing in on all these weird calamities. Yet he has some mysterious power over dreams, and every day the world falls more into chaos.

Egbert's coworker Jody is condemned by this new "Master", conveyed personally, through dreams. Egbert hadn't much liked her, but with end times at their door, he feels love awakening.

At the steps to the front door of his technical software firm in Palo Alto, California, Egbert finds a voice and a way for battling this dark Master through the unlikely source of a web based social networking game and the soft gentle voice of a mysterious stranger. But the clock is ticking, the Photon Belt fast approaching, Jody's days numbered, Egbert has just one focus: End this false Master's stranglehold.

"The Steps", a novel by Arthur Telling, putting a blur and a spin to the cherished notions of hero and villain, good and evil, right and wrong; brings Egbert and cohorts, even the Savior himself, into a surprising and unexpected new dimension.

Telling was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has authored several novels on spirituality and religion. He has written numerous stories and articles on religion, philosophy and metaphysics. His articles have appeared regularly in OM Times magazine. His article A Different Jesus Message appeared in the AMORC November 2011 online Rosicrucian Digest.