Thea Alexander - 2150 A.D.

"What hope for the future have we got? If what you're telling us is true we'll probably be born girls next time and get raped and murdered," he reluctantly observed.

When I explained that this was only true if they refused to evolve to a more Macro perspective where karma, as popularly defined, didn't apply.

"You mean," Judd asked, "there's a way of escaping that damn karma thing?"

"Well," I answered, "the law of karma is only a problem to micro man because he had more hate or negative thoughts and actions than positive loving ones. At the Macro level people live by the law of love, which does not include penance. Its basis is joyous acceptance of whatever is, as perfectly chosen by each soul for its own development"

They kept asking questions about the law of love until Neda said, "If you can lovingly accept everything that happens to you, then nothing bad or unpleasant will be a part of your future."

"How in the world does a person learn to do that?" Griff asked.

"By wanting to learn it," Neda replied, "and by believing that you can learn it."

Griff kept asking questions, and Neda and I kept trying to answer them until Griff surprised us by saying that he'd like a notebook and a pen so he could start writing down some of these ideas. Once he started writing, he stayed up most of the night creating his own journal about Macro philosophy and how it might be used to rebuild his own life.

During the last couple of days of that week we had almost no headaches. Griff and Judd were both demonstrating greater awareness. Still Karl questioned their sincerity.

"After all," he cautioned, "they know that all they have to do is pretend to listen to everything you say, then promise to live the kind of life you expect of them, and you'll let them go."

"But they really mean it," Neda assured him.

"How do you know?" said Karl. "Don't forget, these guys are probably expert liars and wouldn't know the truth if it hit them on the head."

"Oh, Karl, you wouldn't be so skeptical if you'd spent all the hours with them that Jon and I have. Besides, we can always be sure of their progress by having Jon look at their auras."

"Is that true, Jon?".

"Well," I replied, "I haven't looked at their auras since I first saw them because they were so depressing, but I'll give it a try tomorrow. Telepathically I see that they're coming along amazingly well. However, if their auras show that they're lying, I'll keep them here."

"But if they pass your aura test with pretty colors, you'll let them go tomorrow?"

"Exactly. Of course, I'll invite them to come back for more Personal Evolution tutoring at least several times a week for a while-"

"Well, I'll be..." I said, amazed at my new realization. "I'm a P.E. tutor! Can you believe that, Karl? And Neda-she is, too! It's amazing-simply amazing!"

On Sunday both Neda and Karl spent most of the day talking with Griff and Judd while I devoted my energies to observing their auras. By the middle of the afternoon I had watched them as they answered seemingly endless questions put to them by Karl. They had become angry occasionally, but only briefly, though I felt that Karl had pushed them pretty hard at times.

Still their auras looked much cleaner and sharper than they had been only seven days earlier. At last I asked them the biggest question of all.

"Would you like to stay here another week?"

There was a long silence while they looked at each other, then back at Neda, Karl, and myself. Finally, Judd cleared his throat and said, "I've learned an awful lot this past week; I guess I'd like to stick around a while longer if it's all right."

Then we all looked at Griff, who was staring intently at the floor. I saw Karl start to say something, but he caught Neda's eye and changed his mind. We all waited. Then Griff raised his head and, looking intently into my eyes said, "I want to leave. I've got it written down in my journal that you learn by practicing-by doing-and out there is where I'll find out how much I've really learned this past week. I can't find that out up here four floors above the rest of the world."

First Neda kissed Griff and then Judd while I watched Karl's neck, but he didn't say anything. Then I said, "I promised you both that once you had listened to what I had to say you could leave, and I'm not going to start lying to you now. I hope that you'll come back, Griff, to talk with Neda and me several times a week for a while, but that's up to you."

Hearing this invitation and being assured that it applied also to him, Judd decided that he would go with Griff, but they both wanted to come back and talk with us some more, soon and often. On that note I removed the hypnotic blocks, which had turned their anger into headaches and the doorknob into fire, and we bade them goodbye.

I accompanied Ned and Karl down to their apartment, where we spent the rest of the day until late evening discussing and digesting the past week's experience lessons and contemplating possible futures.

Going to sleep that night I decided that I agreed with what Neda had said earlier about the week: It was the most important learning experience of my life because I took the biggest risks, made the biggest mistakes, and attained some important successes.

I then employed the 2150 custom of closing the day with praise for having taken the risks necessary to grow that day and reaffirmation of my "lifestyle" plan for growth in the future.

I awakened in the huge bed of our Alpha room to find that it was morning. Carol and the rest of our Alpha were looking down at me.

"Welcome back, Jon," Carol said with a hug.

Then everyone was congratulating me. Lea and Rana, along with other nines and tens, had been able to follow my week's activities in 1976. They observed that I had at last demonstrated love, leadership, and wisdom (the three Macro virtues) along with some Macro powers, so that my aura was now an emission of fresh lemonyorange with tones of pink, purples, greens, blues, and white. I had achieved second-level Macro awareness.

Later that morning, while I was in my lakeside room at the C.I. center, I asked C.I. to provide me with more information about the levels of awareness. Since this was a general question, I soon discovered that I was receiving a lot more data than I could use or understand. However, by interrupting C.I. and asking specific questions I was able to gain some of the following information.

(1) While it was recognized from the beginning of the Macro society (back in the 1970s) that there were ten general levels of Macro awareness, it was not until the year 2025 that anyone demonstrated more than level three. The levels eight, nine, and ten were not achieved until after the year 2100-a rather recent development.

(2) Because of the relatively low levels of awareness in the early years of the Macro society, there had been some regressions in awareness level. This had almost always been associated with the misuse of Macro powers or leadership power. Some of these people had been on Micro Island, where they grabbed power and became the ruling elite. However, in the past 30 years no one above level two had regressed.

(3) One could attain a high degree of Macro power and still not demonstrate level-two awareness since awareness level was determined by the degree of personal evolution or Macro awareness, not by the extent of one's Macro power.

(4) The greatest challenge to the first seven levels of awareness existed on Micro Island and, thus, my best chance of developing level-three awareness quickly was to visit there. However, C.I. pointed out that on Micro Island I also ran a good chance of losing my second-level awareness and regressing to level one.

Figuring that the sooner I got there the better, I began asking all the questions I could think of concerning Micro Island. Some of the most important information involved the dangers I would be facing.