Thea Alexander - 2150 A.D.

He eyed me thoughtfully. I had a feeling that he was getting ready to give some genuine consideration to what I had to say.

"You've seen that if you think something is true it has real consequences," I said. "Well, I'm trying to show you that the way we think causes everything that happens to us. If we think negatively it has negative results for us, and if we think positively it has positive results for us."

"Crap!" Judd exclaimed." Now we get a sermon on the power of positive thinking. Right?"

"No," I said, "I'm going to give you a demonstration. From now on, every angry thought that you have, about anything and for any reason, will cause a violent headache. It will last only as long as your angry thoughts."

"OOOWWEE! Jesus Christ, man!" Judd cried as he clutched his forehead.

"What's wrong? Griff asked.

"That son of a bitch is sticking daggers into my head," Judd shouted: "Ooooh-it's killing me! Stop it! Stop it!"

"You are the only one who can stop it, Judd," I explained. "When you stop thinking angry thoughts at me the pain will stop."

"Do as he says, Judd," Griff advised. "That bastard's got a hex on us. I guess you better do as he says."

The pain seemed to have reached the point where Judd could think only of it, and the angry thoughts were crowded out of his mind by thoughts of how to get rid of the pain. His face which had been distorted by the pain now gradually relaxed and he gave a sigh of relief as he wiped his forehead with his shirt sleeve.

"There," I said, "all you had to do was stop your angry thoughts and the headache stopped, too. Now I'm going to leave you so you can think about what I've said, and if you still have doubts about the truth of my statements you can test them out. Any questions before I leave?"

"Yeah, man," Griff said. "How long you plannin' on keepin' us here?"

"You've got enough cereal and milk to last you till tomorrow morning. I'll be back then," I answered.

"You're keepin' us here just like the pigs keep people in jail!" Griff protested then spit at me.

A split second later he was wiping his face with one hand while the other held his throbbing forehead. He howled, "I didn't mean it... I'm sorry-damn it, I said I'm sorry!"

"You don't have to convince me," I responded. "Just convince yourself that you aren't angry and your headache will go away. Well, see you tomorrow. Here's wishing you loving, happy thoughts."

With those words I left them and walked down to Karl and Neda's apartment. By this time it was midafternoon and I was just in time to be invited to a late luncheon which Neda had just prepared. Since I hadn't eaten anything yet, I let Karl and Neda do most of the talking while I concentrated on reducing my hunger pangs. Then I told them about my experiences so far that day.

As I had expected, Karl favored turning my captives over to the police. He wasn't at all happy about having two rapists in the same building with his new wife. Scooting his chair closer to hers, Karl put his arm around her protectively. Neda, however, supported my arguments for trying to rehabilitate them.

"After all, Karl," she kept repeating, "look what Jon did for me. If he can make a silk purse out of an ugly sow's ear like I was, why couldn't he work a miracle with those hoodlums?"

"Oh, yeah," Karl replied. "Well, I've learned something about Jon's Macro philosophy and I know, and Jon will agree, that you can't help anyone who doesn't want to be helped. The person has to actively cooperate. He couldn't have helped you if you hadn't had sufficient desire and belief."

"That's true," I agreed. "Neda had to desire and believe in the possibility of the changes that took place in her in order for them to become permanent."

"See there," Karl said, waving his spoon in the air, "you're licked before you get started with those hoodlums, because they sure don't desire to suddenly become model citizens... much less believe it's possible."

"You're right about that, Karl," I conceded. "As of now they certainly lack the necessary desire and belief, but by tomorrow they're going to think twice before they doubt the truth of anything I say. And tomorrow I'm going to start teaching them Macro philosophy."

"That's ridiculous," Karl argued. "Why they're the lowest type of micro scum on the face of this earth, and you've said over and over that the Macro perspective doesn't make sense to micro man. In fact, from a micro view, a concept such as 'all is one', is simply not true. Why waste your time, Jon? Why not just turn them over to the police? You don't want to mess around with people like that. They're sicker than hell and they're damned dangerous, too. They don't deserve... "

"Are you about to say that those young men don't deserve help?" I interrupted. "If so, I warn you to be careful how you judge them. Remember the warning words that Rana quoted and consider your judgment carefully before you condemn yourself, too, as being unworthy of rehabilitation."

Karl opened his mouth to reply, but Neda quickly put her finger gently to his lips. "Please, Karl," she asked, "think about what Jon said. After all, he has been cut off from 2150 for thinking just such condemning thoughts. That's about as much tragedy as we need for one day."

Neda had certain natural persuasive advantages that I had never had with Karl, so I wasn't surprised to see him nod his head and yield the point to her.

"By the way, Karl," I said, "would you mind if Neda typed up my journal? By the end of this week I'm hoping our new house guests will be ready to consider what I've written there. If they can believe it, then maybe they'll want to start learning how to live a Macro life."

Neda wanted to start on it right away, but by the time our discussion ended, the day was gone and evening had arrived. When I left them I was convinced that Neda, far more than I, had gotten Karl to accept comfortably the major tenets of the Macro society and Macro philosophy. I retired early that evening knowing that I wouldn't be awakening in 2150, but planning an early start with Griff and Judd.

The next three days were some of the most frustrating I've ever experienced. It seems that my two captives had headaches most of the time, which made them angry, which gave them headaches, which made them angry, which gave them more headaches, and so on. In their frustrated rage they tried to attack me a number of times and, of course, ended up just hurting themselves. They even burned their hands on the door a couple more times.

At first I was astonished, at the amount of pain they were willing to put up with rather than learn the simple lessons I had given them. Finally, I realized that a lifetime habit of running away from responsibility for one's own life situation was not quickly overcome. Both Griff and Judd were experts at repressing or forgetting unpleasant details, so they kept forgetting that their own anger produced headaches, that the door was burning hot, and that if they tried to hit me they would only hit themselves instead.

Of course, if they hadn't been so angry at their inability to escape they would have learned much faster. But, as Rana had once explained, all anger is self-anger caused by calling something bad and then feeling inadequate to change the "bad" or "undesirable" situation. She had continued saying that since micro man usually refuses to accept responsibility for his unpleasant experiences, he unconsciously projects the blame onto others. Then he feels justified in projecting his self-anger and self-hate upon others, too. Since these denial-of-reality techniques work temporarily, and micro man forgets they are only temporary, this type of behavior continues to become an even stronger habit until it is extremely difficult to change.

This pernicious "it's not my fault" cycle was what I was seeing in Griff and Judd.