‘It’s lovely to see you all again,’ I said during a four-way group hug. Thelma, like me, travelled little now, although she was twelve years younger. She had a close encounter with renegades before she joined our community and had a damaged hip as a consequence.
‘Come along, we have prepared a place for you.’ As usual, Thelma’s voice was low and husky. I’m sure she must have been irresistible to the boys in her youth. ‘What can we get you, as I assume you would like to take a break to freshen up before you talk to us?’ I stole a glance at Thomas. ‘Don’t worry about him having spilled the beans – he has been tight-lipped other than to tell us you will wish to talk to everyone, probably after dinner this evening.’ I felt relieved and winked my thanks at Thomas. He grinned; he had obviously enjoyed the mystery and intrigue that had surrounded him since he had given that snippet of information as to why I was coming.
Washing the trail dust off felt so good. I was constantly amazed by how healthy and vibrant our skin was just using water. It seemed the soaps and other items we had used in my youth to make us look better had simply made matters worse. Thinking about it logically, it was probably obvious. Nothing else in nature used anything but nature’s products, and they never encountered the problems we did. Were we deceived here as well? Silly question, I suppose. Man’s vanity was a veritable goldmine, and we had all fallen for it, ruining our health and many relationships pandering to it. We had only ourselves to blame for falling for all the advertising and being so concerned at what others thought. The powers that be had simply tapped into that wonderful and lucrative commercial market called man’s ego.
Feeling much better, I ventured out of the rondavel in search of Thelma. I found myself walking somewhat briskly. It seemed that the excitement from being outside of the village, along with all the exercise, was doing me the world of good. I found Thelma working with a number of other women, setting up for the evening dinner.
‘Please don’t do anything special for me,’ I said.
She turned to me and said quietly so only I could hear. ‘It’s not just for you. We must celebrate when we can, and any reasonable excuse to do so should be used. We are beginning to see significant changes in our village, in the approach of the people, and I would dearly love to keep this momentum going.’
I shivered, something not lost on Thelma. ‘Is this why you are here?’
‘In a way,’ I replied, ‘but it is more than that.’
‘We need to talk,’ she said, and led me off to her rondavel. I did not notice, while looking around the village to see what had changed since my last visit, that she had signalled to Yvonne, Sam, and Gloria to join us and to bring some tea.
Seating me inside, she had just got comfortable when Yvonne and Sam came in. I looked over at Thelma and said, ‘Good idea’, and apologised to the two of them for not thinking of asking them myself. Gloria arrived, and I greeted her warmly. I loved her dearly, understanding that Gloria was to Thelma what Angela was to me. They were kindred spirits those two, I suppose pretty much as Angela and I were. I took a sip of the tea. It was the same as I had in the previous village.
‘OK,’ I said. ‘I have to know how you are making this tea. I forgot to ask the others.’
Thelma smiled, visibly pleased. ‘I will ask someone to give you a few plants. One of the scouting group found it a few months back. One of the more sensitive lads smelt it and thought it might be useful. He was so right, and it grows easily too.’
‘Thank you,’ I replied, ‘I shall be eternally grateful.’
The other three had remained quiet, sensing something significant was happening. Thelma broke the silence. ‘I know you want to talk to everyone tonight, and I am sure I have some idea of what it will be about. I would dearly love to discuss this beforehand though. Gloria and I have been wondering if it is our imagination, and I would probably have come to your village to discuss it already if not for my hip.’
I sat in thought for a few moments and replied carefully. ‘You and Gloria are closely connected, as are Angela and I. I believe this collective energy has allowed you and I to see what the others are experiencing but are not yet possibly aware of. I believe that having a discussion with the whole community, together, and allowing them to come to the conclusions themselves, will be far more powerful than you or I simply telling them what we are experiencing, and what we think it is. If we agree on this, I will explain my observations and thinking to you.’
Thelma’s reply was a simple, ‘Agreed.’
The others nodded in unison, and I could not help smiling at the silly little thought that came into my head. In response to the several raised eyebrows, I explained to them how the heads nodding in unison had suddenly conjured the picture in my mind of those nodding dogs people used to put in the back windows of their cars all those years ago. The chuckle told me that Sam understood immediately, but I had to explain it to the other three. The response to the explanation was a little lame, but I suppose you had to have actually seen at least one of them to get the picture clearly enough in your mind.
I put the mug down, realizing I had finished the tea already. ‘I began to notice a distinct change around midsummer. If you recall, our village was under serious attack by that largish group of renegades during the spring, and quite soon after we had survived that, our scouting parties all noticed a massive decline in the renegade group numbers. We stayed away, believing it was some disease or other, and all indications are it was.’
‘We also think so,’ Thelma replied. ‘One of our parties came across a small encampment before the cleaning crew got there. It looked as if they were dead or dying of some disease as there was blood dribbling from their mouths and noses.’
‘The cleaning crew?’ I asked, frowning.
‘Oh! Sorry. Around here we refer to the hyenas and company as the cleaning crew.’ I suppose I might have made the connection if I had not been so deep in thought over the issue being discussed.
‘The change has been palpable, and I initially only noticed it within our own community. I chose to observe though, to try to be sure, but I was still not taking it very seriously until something Angela said to me very recently during a chat we were having engaged my full attention. I explained my thinking to Angela, and she confirmed my observations and feeling. In taking it to the community, it became apparent that most people were aware of some change but had not formalised it, not realising its importance. This was again demonstrated in the second village. I am sure I already know the answer for your community, but they must come to the conclusion themselves to imbed it deeply.’ I paused, feeling the intense focus on me by the four of them. ‘Rather than me telling you what I have observed, I would appreciate it the other way round, for the same reason I have just explained. What have you observed?’
Gloria glanced at Thelma, who took a deep breath and began. ‘People are more relaxed, they are enjoying life and taking delight in improving things, and the rate of improvement appears to have jumped significantly, with many more people becoming involved, people who were previously content to go with the flow. The tension when going outside the village perimeter has markedly reduced too. It’s as if there is a sense of reduced danger out there.’ I could identify with that, as had the other two villages. The trip had been quite pleasant, other than for the incident with the renegade group, and I realised now that they had not seemed as fixated nor as intent as in previous encounters. ‘It’s as if there is a mental shift, a change in approach, but there is no tangible reason for it. We have done nothing differently.’ Thelma paused, waiting for a response.
‘I agree it seems we have done nothing differently,’ I replied, ‘and I suspect that in a way that is true. Our environment, however, has changed significantly.’
The ‘How so?’ came from Yvonne and Sam, the two of them having simply sat and listened quietly up until that point. I could not help smiling, something
I noticed I was doing more and more and was extremely grateful for. It had been far too long.
‘Think about it. What has changed significantly?’ Thelma had a puzzled look, but something was dawning on Gloria’s face.
‘Has it got to do with the renegades?’ she asked quietly.
Thelma sat up straight, her frown clearing. ‘The numbers game! The hundredth monkey effect! Of course! With the reduction of the numbers of the renegades, we have become the dominant thought form in the area. That’s why we don’t have to work so hard lately to keep people positive and working towards the common goal. It is now becoming inbred, so to speak.’ She looked at me, now also smiling. ‘It can now happen,’ she proclaimed.
I was ecstatic, three out of three; the same conclusion arrived at in the second village. All three villages had been experiencing the same phenomenon.
‘What can now happen, and what is it about the monkeys?’ The question brought me back to reality somewhat, but I was still elated. All the villages had experienced the same effect. Thelma explained. ‘Before this, we could not approach any of the renegades to change; they were simply too numerous, and their thought form dominated, controlling the human morphic field in this area. It was the same reason those with insight back before the Fall could not make the headway needed to effect serious change. They were simply too heavily outnumbered and had the mass media against them, which ensured the general population was constantly fed the information necessary to keep them blind and enslaved to the system of the time. Now, with the reduction in numbers of the renegades, our way of living, our approach, how we behave as a community, is now dominant. We now have the opportunity to approach those smaller groups, to offer them a better lifestyle, an improved way of living, and allow them to assimilate our way of thinking, our way of living.’
I was enthused by Thelma’s excitement. ‘Think of the possibilities,’ I began. ‘If we can begin turning the renegade groups into community-orientated and caring people, the need for the protection from other humans will reduce significantly. We could again have open communities, freedom of travel, and so on. The only precaution is that we need to move fast, to entrench the change and spread it as far as we possibly can before the number of the renegades increases significantly again, which it will with time. We also need to plan this carefully, as we cannot simply open our villages to them. It will be too much of a culture shock, as well as being too risky, not just from a safety point of view but also the possibility of disease and so on. We would probably need to get someone, volunteers, to work with them initially in an area in which they live, and then have the exchange program where we invite those with promise to stay with us for periods to learn and take this learning back to their own villages and communities.’
Gloria sat quietly, deep in thought, and while allowing her this time I explained the hundredth monkey effect to the others. ‘When I was still very young, a biologist observing groups of the same type of monkey, but on different islands, noticed a few on one island had started to take the roots they dug up down to a river and wash the soil off them. More and more of the troop joined in this practice, at an escalating rate. A few weeks later, spontaneously it seems, the groups on the other islands started doing precisely the same thing, en masse, without having been exposed to what the first group was doing. This seems to endorse the morphic field theory.’
Gloria was back with us. ‘A number of the scouts have noticed that the renegade aggression has dropped significantly. Single or small groups have been seen quite often lately simply sitting somewhere nearby observing us, seemingly without malice.’
‘That is the same experience the other two villages have had,’ I replied. ‘It was a comment such as this that first awakened me to what I was experiencing but not yet able to formalise. They are ready to talk, to engage us, so to speak.’
We sat there for some time, each in our own thoughts, little being said, completely unaware of the approaching evening. As it turned out, we were reminded of the time, the food being ready, and the community waiting, by a singularly cheerful young lass of about six years old. Her invitation to dinner was wonderfully said, as it nearly always is with the innocence of a child. Her ‘we’re hungry and waiting’ was sufficient to bring us back to the present. Suffice to say, the evening was joyful and positive and very similar to the previous two. The change in our future appeared to be ours to make. I still needed to talk to Yvonne and Sam alone though. Only they, in addition to my discussion with Jim previously, could satisfy what was still on my mind.
Chapter 23
On the return journey to our own village, we would pass fairly close to what was previously known as a mid-sized country town. While still close to the village we had just left, it came to me that perhaps we needed to have a look at it and assess its state. It was many years since I had last seen it, and it had been occupied by a sizable number of renegades at the time and had been a dangerous place to be near, so we had made it an off-limits area. It took me some time to convince Thomas and Dave, despite them having participated in the meetings and understanding a fair deal of what was transpiring.
Coming up to the ridge overlooking the town, we slowed down and were careful to remain hidden and not silhouette ourselves for anyone looking from the village. Standing behind a scraggly looking thorn bush in the tall grass ensured we would not be seen but the bush allowed us sufficient gaps to see the village quite clearly. At first glance it appeared quite peaceful, but as our eyes focused on it in the distance we could see the effect of time and the ravages wrought by the lack of care and maintenance, as well as some obviously deliberate damage by people. It took me a few moments to realise that my two companions would not really know what a town such as this originally looked like, and so they would be hard-pressed to understand the full extent of the damage and the simple lack of care.
The church stood out prominently as its spire was still in reasonable condition it seemed. Sadly, the rest of the beautiful old building was badly damaged, with the roof having collapsed as the result of a fire. I recalled how beautiful the interiors of these churches had been and the wonderful wood pews that had been made from the hardwoods that had graced the forests near here. I shivered, thinking of the wanton damage that we as a species had wrought on the magnificent natural areas of our planet. I could not help but again think that Gaia had needed to take action to protect herself from the excesses that man had been demanding of her. Seeing the magnificent recovery of nature in the areas that we had been walking through these past days confirmed for me that mankind had previously overstepped the mark and gone well beyond reasonable and fair use of the natural resources made available to us to use.
Looking again at the church, I had a sense that the damage had been caused by people angry at the god they had thought would protect them, burning down the church in what I could only imagine as a state of angry despair at the situation they had found themselves in. We ourselves had worked through many religious books, including the Bible and English versions of the Koran and Torah, in the past years since we had established the villages, and we had concluded that everyone could take from them what they wished. We, however, would not create a religion that decided how people lived, what and how they worshiped, how they treated others, and so on. Instead, we decided to live simply by good community principles, which included respect, love, caring, and sharing, to name a few. These principles did not need a dogmatic religion or rigid system to manage and control, such as those systems of the past, which used fear of the unknown or reprisal to keep people in line. The way we applied our principles made them simply what we did, how we behaved.
Many of the houses in what was the living area of the town, or suburbia as it was called back then, were still standing from a structural point of view, but most lacked their roofs. Where these had been constructed of sheet metal, the metal was virtually non-existent, having long since rusted away without the regular protection o
f painting it had received before. Many of the roofs with clay tiles had collapsed either fully or partially, due to the decaying wood trusses that had once supported them failing under the weight. The gardens, which previously people had maintained, were now simply wild areas with many of the exotic flowers and bushes having been crowded out by the more aggressive local vegetation that was better suited to the area. I wondered again at how much time and energy mankind had spent on the pursuit of creating his beautiful gardens from non-indigenous plants, virtually avoiding the stunning and exquisite indigenous plants suited to the area that required little or no effort and energy to maintain.
Having lived as we had these past many years, it was clear now how difficult we had made our lives back then. Had this also been part of the whole enslaving of people, keeping them so busy and also active in spending their hard-earned money on unnecessary things, thus forcing them to continue working for the system? Nowhere did the system back then promote the plants that really mattered, such as food plants, and in any event so few people had access to enough space to even grow anything meaningful. This had been a sad process of losing the knowledge of self-sufficiency in this respect and in the process forced us to become dependent automatons. I shuddered at how these aspects seemed so obvious now from the outside of the system that had broken down with such mammoth consequences for man.
Thomas was the first to spot movement. Two young children were chasing one another in the street near the church. We could hear their excited calling even at this distance. My heart warmed at the sound. Children are born innocent, and wild animals will not only not harm them but will generally protect them, a phenomenon few people are aware of and even fewer believe. The problem stems from the fears, phobias, and aggression we instil in our children, changing their natural acceptance of nature as being non-threatening to one that should be feared – that everything is out there ‘to get you’. My father could get very angry at the way people brought up their children, instilling in them the aggression to compete, often violently, and to win at all costs, using sport as the generally accepted medium to bring this across. Schools unwittingly exacerbated this process with their drive to have children excel. These actions were always at the expense of others, with most having their spirits damaged in the process, believing they were not good enough. My father had believed absolutely that the school system was developed by those in power to further enslave people by teaching them only what they wanted, reducing free spirit and creating a system designed to provide an educated slave, one better suited to the work the masters wanted doing.
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