"You don't think that I could demonstrate my Macro powers to other behavioral scientists?" I queried.
"Ha!" Karl said, "I may be considering, adopting some mighty crazy ideas, but I'm not crazy enough to think anyone else is going to buy them. For example, for the last twenty-five years, some very detailed evidence from some highly reputable individuals has been presented on U.F.O. phenomena, and the very 'respectable' scientific associations refuse to take it seriously. Now here I am, a budding Ph.D., giving serious consideration to stories a lot more far-out than UFOs. Oh, lord, Jon, I'm going to hell in a hand basket!"
"Congratulations, Karl," I said. "You'll make a Macro philosopher yet!"
"Does being a Macro philosopher mean that you believe in things that almost everyone else calls crazy?" Karl asked.
"Sometimes," I answered, "but more importantly, the Macro philosopher does not shut his mind to anything. He realizes that truth is always a function of the size of one's perspective. That is, the larger your perspective, the more truths you can comprehend."
"I'm going to bed, and I'll think about that and about what these pictures mean," Karl replied. "I've had a hard day. My philosophy of life is being pulled up by the roots-maybe destroyed for good."
I, too, headed for bed, looking forward to getting back to 2150.
Once in bed, however, I found it difficult to stop thinking about the day's events-particularly my experience at the supermarket. Try as I did, it was impossible to forget my own fear, frustration, and anxiety during my confrontation with the angry woman and the store manager. I had to admit that if I really had been able to practice a Macro perspective, these negative feelings would not have occurred. I would have been able to completely demonstrate loving acceptance. How would I ever reach third-level awareness if I responded to threats as I had this afternoon?
I shook my head sadly as I realized that the real test of high-level Macro awareness was not accepting with love the members of the Macro society-that was easy but accepting with love micro man. That was the greatest challenge of all.
The one commandment of the philosopher-tutor, Jesus, to love one another-even your enemies-had always seemed to me a ridiculously impossible commandment. And it was impossible for micro man-only the highest Macro levels could consistently demonstrate this when living among micro man. Now I understood why many members of the Macro society volunteered to teach and counsel on Micro Island. Would I have to do that, I wondered? I'll think about that later, I thought, as my mind finally wound down and accepted sleep.
CHAPTER 10: Jon's Past Lives
I awakened to the sight of Carol and the two children just entering the pool. I knew that, once again, only a few seconds had passed in the year 2150 while I had experienced a whole day, from morning to night, in 1976. I wondered if I would ever understand the concept of subjective simultaneous time.
Surprisingly, the few seconds of sleep in 2150 had reduced my fatigue. I decided to join Carol and the children in the pool.
Before reaching the edge of the pool I removed my tunic and dropped it down an opening provided for this purpose. It would travel to the underground cleaning plant, be washed, and be returned to this recreation area. As I stood naked at the side of the pool I was pleased to realize that I no longer felt uncomfortable at my nudity-even in front of the children. Since everyone swam naked and strolled about the pool naked, I would have felt uncomfortable if I had been clothed.
I located Carol at the far end of the pool some 100 yards away. Diving in, I swam toward her. I had never enjoyed swimming as much as running, but after the loss of my leg, when I could no longer run, I found swimming very satisfying. Swimming with two strong legs was even more so, and I reached Carol feeling more refreshed than when I had entered the water.
We played water tag with Neal and Jean. Their agility in the water was remarkable. Like young seals, they seemed equally at ease above or below the surface, so without Carol's help the game of tag would have been no contest at all. After about fifteen minutes of this delightful but strenuous activity, I climbed out and lay down on the soft mats beside the pool. Shortly Carol joined me and we lay side by side in the warm sun watching the seemingly inexhaustible children continue the game.
Suddenly I was aware of a tingling in my Macro identity bracelet. I looked first at it, then at Carol, who said, "It's C.I. calling you."
I lifted it to my ear and heard C.I. request that I meet with Lea back at my C.I. room overlooking the lake. Then I heard Lea's soft resonant voice saying that she was already at the C.I. center and would be waiting for me.
"I'll be right there, Lea," I said and started to get up to run back to the research building when Carol reached out to stop me.
"There's a faster way," she said. "Come with me."
We stopped at the clothing rack, where Carol picked up a freshly cleaned tunic for herself and one for me. As we slipped into these, Carol led me toward the exit of the recreation area.
As we ran I picked up the telepathic farewells from the children and returned them, expressing my happiness at having met them and my hope of seeing them again soon.
Carol said that we would probably be seeing them every afternoon. By this time we were near the exit and Carol was pointing to a red ten-foot metal-looking square on the ground. We stepped into the middle of this and, as Carol used PK to push a button at the edge of the. square, we disappeared into the ground.
Neither metal nor cement was used in any of the buildings. What looked like metal, cement, or marble was all some sort of synthetic material which could be molded into almost any shape and strength to stand up under tremendous loads: Our red square turned out to be another void that took us down almost 300 feet below ground to their subway area.
As we swiftly descended Carol informed me that we would use one of their two-seated subway cars which would take us the almost three-mile distance to the research building in less than two minutes.
We walked to a torpedo-shaped bubble containing two large comfortable seats, which, as we sat in them, enfolded us. Carol turned a dial to a setting marked C.I., pushed it in, and our bubble car seemed to rise on a column of air into an opening above us. Then in complete darkness I had the sensation of tremendous acceleration for a moment followed by great deceleration and then we were getting out.
Walking to the middle of another red platform we rose to the surface just outside the entrance of the learning center. It was all so fast that my impressions were still rather garbled.
Carol left me, saying that she would see me back at our Alpha. I hurried into the building and up to what I now thought of as "my" C.I. room. As I opened the door I saw my beautiful twin soul standing by the window turn quickly with a smile. My heart seemed to contract, my breathing accelerated, and tears stung my eyes.
"Lea," I said, "you are the loveliest, most exciting woman in the world. I can't think of words that really describe how I feel about you."
"You are me, Jon," she replied, "my twin soul, and you don't have to tell me how you feel. They are my feelings, too."
We stood silently, then reached out with our minds to each other and felt the strange and delightful sensations of mind contact.
As we slowly disengaged from our deep mind contact I could not help comparing Lea's fair-complexioned blond beauty with the dark loveliness of Carol. I compared Lea with the sun and Carol with the moon and knew that, while they were as different as the sun and moon, I loved them both.