I felt very naked.
A wall panel slid open revealing two retractable hoses, one dispensing sparkling, slippery cleansing bubbles, the other clear water. Carol invited me to stretch out on a cushion that extended out from the shallow end of the pool. There she began spraying me with one hand while slowly lathering my body with the other.
She covered every square inch of my body with the utmost care. Once again, I tried not to think or feel sexually and ended up with one hell of an erection.
As her hands slid over me I listened to her softly telling me of the joys of sharing a bath with your Alpha mate. She admired my shoulders and my firm abdominal muscles. When she came to my penis she made a number of casual remarks about its esthetically pleasing composition and its remarkable tumescence. This last was too much for me, and I broke my long silence.
"For God's sake, Carol, help me," I pleaded: "I don't want to be sexually aroused."
"Why not?" Carol promptly asked.
"Because," I replied lamely, "it makes me feel like a child who can't control himself. Besides, I don't want to be unfaithful to Lea."
"If you're worried about Lea, she's at ninth level," Carol said in her deep soothing voice, as if this should immediately put my mind to rest. "I mean," she continued, "that Lea is so adequate that she has no neurotic need to possess any part of you and so she could not be offended or jealous, no matter what you do."
"But, I don't-"
Carol interrupted, "Lea asked me to help you in every way I could and that specifically included dealing with your sexual neurosis."
"I'm not neurotic!" I defended vehemently. "I am perfectly normal."
"Maybe, by 1976 standards," Carol replied calmly, "but it's not normal in a 22nd century Alpha to feel inadequate or in conflict with yourself over a perfectly normal, healthy enjoyment of out beautiful bodies."
"Well," I replied righteously, "in 1976 I didn't take baths with girls I had only just met five minutes ago."
While we were talking, Carol had finished washing me, then used the other hose to rinse. Now she handed the hose to me and, raising her arms above her head, began to turn slowly and seductively about. I took a deep breath and gingerly began to apply the sparkling bubbles while I held the hose with both hands.
Carol smiled impishly. "That's not how I washed you, Jon. Are you really afraid that you'll lose control if you touch me?"
"Oh, hell!" I exploded and began to feverishly rub the bubbles over her satin smooth skin.
"Hardly hell," Carol answered with a laugh. "It feels to me more like what the 20th century might have called heaven!"
She was right. I recognized my guilt-ridden judgmental self shaking its frightened finger at me. It was so limited, so one-sided, like a white-line figure drawn on a blackboard. I erased it and began to enjoy a truly heavenly experience. I covered her with bubbles, then, with both hands, lovingly explored every delightful curve and valley. I was in no hurry and would have stayed in that bath all day if Carol had not, after some time, caused the floor to descend, taking us back down into the water. After a few moments of splashing, and playful wrestling, Carol led me out of the pool. Activating another circuit, she removed the plastic shield and emptied the pool, refilling it with fresh water. Streams of warm air quickly dried our bodies. Taking my hand, she ran and flopped across the huge pad in the corner.
For the next hour I abandoned myself to the joy of a romping physical emental union with Carol.
By the end of that hour I had learned that sexual intercourse, when it is emental intercourse as well, can open two people to a oneness that I had never before thought possible.
As we lay in each other's arms I told Carol about my guilt and fear concerning pregnancy. I told her that I had not been able to freely enjoy a sexual relationship since my high school days. As I talked about my guilt concerning Valerie, I relived the most unpleasant experience of my teen years when my father had angrily denounced me– for my "animal selfishness:" It was then that Carol told me that no female in the Macro society could ever have a child without special emental preparation. Even then it required permission from the Deltar.
I didn't understand her technical explanation of how the female reproductive cycle had been modified so that no female experienced menstruation unless she was going to bear children. However, I knew it would have been welcomed by most 20th-century women-and men!
We talked about the Macro society policy of permitting only their finest members (physically, ementally, and spiritually) to produce children. They restricted births so that the student population was approximately 10 percent of the total population. When I realized how few women would ever have an opportunity to bear children, I was shocked.
"Carol," I asked, "do you honestly feel it's fair to deny nine out of ten people the right to become parents?"
"Fair?" Carol questioned, then laughed. "For a moment I forgot you're from the 1970s, Jon. Creating and giving birth to a child was the most physically destructive ordeal that woman put herself through. It's no longer necessary. The incredible conceit of couples thinking the world needed little copies of themselves was just a sad symptom of micro man's limited perspective.
"I studied the history of micro man," Carol continued. "For thousands of years anyone could have children, and they were treated as possessions. By the 20th century, in your country, they could no longer be put to work at an early age, so the micro family began ignoring them. The drug cults and youth revolts of your time were partially the result of micro man's compulsion to create far more offspring than he/she was at all prepared to guide into effective adulthood."
"And your solution," I said, "is to parentally disenfranchise ninety percent of your population."
"Oh, Jon," Carol, said shaking her head and giving me a wry smile. "You don't understand. Anyone can have a child if they prepare themselves for this purpose. It may take a few lifetimes for some, but we're not imprisoned in one lifetime as micro societies thought they were. Micro man's motto was 'you only live once, so eat, drink, and pollute, for tomorrow you may die.' And, of course, his frantic selfishness not only destroyed him but almost destroyed our whole planet."
I had to admit that by 1976 we had seriously polluted most of our lakes and rivers and were affecting the oceans as well.
I wondered how bad it had gotten between my "time" and Carol's.
Obviously perceiving my thought, she paused for a moment, her eyes saddened as if remembering something very unpleasant. Then she continued, "You polluted your oceans, your air, and your land until almost all animal and fish life was gone. Then you caused geophysical imbalances in the earth which produced-earthquakes, and tidal waves so destructive that when you look at a map of our world today you will not recognize it.",
"Well," I said lightly, not really comprehending. the magnitude of the disaster, "I guess that solved our overpopulation problem. How many people are alive in the world of, 2150?"
"Approximately 303 million," Carol said. "There would have been a lot more, in spite of the physical disasters, if micro man could have at last cooperated and helped each other. Unfortunately, he accentuated all the traditional divisions-nationality, race, religion, language, educational and socioeconomic levels-and fought over the fast-dwindling resources of his ravaged planet."
"Did micro man really become as extinct as the dinosaur and dodo bird?" I asked.
"Almost," Carol responded. "There are only about three million micro beings in existence today, and they
all live on one island, which we call Micro Island. If anyone in our Macro society gets tired of our life, they can move to Micro Island and live selfishly and in fear of their fellow micro neighbors-the way your society lived in the 20th century."
"You mean," I said, "your Macro society keeps three million people on a prison island?"
Carol shook her head. "No one has to live on Micro Island if he is willing to live in the Macro society by our Macro standards. You must understand that every person who lives on Mic
ro Island has chosen to live there."
"Even the children?" I asked.
"Yes," Carol nodded. "We know that every child, prior to his birth, chooses his parents, as well as the environment he will grow up in."
"You mean," I added, "you, too, believe in reincarnation?"
"Yes, I do," Carol responded. "We all do. Just as exploration of the earth proved the theory that the world was round, exploration of the mind proved the theory of reincarnation.
"When we explored the subconscious mind we discovered the soul and its memory of past lives on this planet as well as in other dimensions. We learned that the first human souls to enter this planet inhabited the bodies of various animals and got trapped in animal flesh. Then other human souls decided to help their brothers by preparing a way out of this animal-life trap.
"To achieve this they hovered over the bodies of apes and, working with Macro powers, manipulated the gland centers of the apes to change their evolutionary pattern. This is how the five races of man were produced, black, brown, red, yellow, and white, at approximately the same time in different parts of the world. As these apes developed more human-like bodies, they were used as vehicles for human souls to experience this physical dimension and to provide human bodies for those trapped in animal flesh."
"And are there still human souls inhabiting animal bodies?" I asked. "In my life in 1976... could I have met a fellow human soul trapped behind bars at our local zoo?"
Carol was amused by my question. "No. Not quite. There is an evolution of souls, with some almost human souls still incarnating in other forms of life. Some of these are using mental powers that outreach those of man in specific– areas. But all truly human souls trapped in animal flesh were free to inhabit human bodies long before recorded history began. That does not, however, mean that they were not trapped."
"What do you mean?" I queried.
"I mean that in human bodies most souls could only conceive of pleasure in the limited, scope of physical. existence. Afraid of giving up or losing these pleasures, they became victims of their own desires-their own limited perspective-and kept incarnating again and again. In an attempt to avoid the law of karma they tried to forget their past. They lived in a kind of delusionary amnesia."
"I'm familiar with the concept of karma," I said. "As I understand it, it's the same as the Christian concept of 'what you sow you must reap.' Is that right?"
"Essentially, yes," Carol answered, then went on to clarify. "Karma, you see, reflects the Macro truth that all is one, and, thus, anything we do to others we do to ourselves. Of course, this isn't apparent at the limited micro perspective, so souls take refuge in micro lives in an attempt to avoid the painful consequences of their own past actions and thoughts. This is the delusionary amnesia I spoke of.
"From a purely micro view, karma doesn't exist because it is not perceived as existing.
"From a mid-point of evolution karma is acknowledged as the logical explanation for one's fortunes and misfortunes. It is believed to be real and is, therefore, real as a cause-and-effect element within a continuous time perspective.
"From a more Macro view, however, time is simultaneous, and karma is understood to be a valid element of a limited perspective regarding time. Fortunes and misfortunes are seen, from the broader perspective, not as cause and effect, but as learning opportunities specifically and carefully chosen by each soul for its own development."
"Wait a minute," I interrupted. "Let me go back a bit. You said that some souls try to forget their past in an attempt to avoid the consequences of their actions and thoughts. What's this about thoughts?"
"Thoughts are things, you know, and they are just as important as actions," Carol added. "The way you think makes you what you are and profoundly influences the world around you."
"You mean," I said, "that if I rob or murder someone, or even if I hate someone, that this will eventually come back to me?"
"Exactly," she replied. "But that's only half of it, for you see if you are patient, helpful, or think kindly of others, these, too, will come back to you.
"The great Macro philosopher, Jesus, said that whatever measures you deal out to others shall be dealt back to you in return. That's why the golden rule of treating others as you would like to be treated makes sense from a Macro view, though not from a limited micro view.
"Another expression of the law of karma is Newton's third law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This law is cumulative throughout all of one's incarnations and there is but one escape from its effect-an applied and practiced Macro perspective."
"I'm not sure I understand." I hesitated.
"What I mean, Jon, is that the same law applies to all experience, but it is seen and interpreted differently according to the size of one's perspective.
"From a Macro perspective it is seen that your conscious intent affects every cell of your body and exerts an influence on your environment. It is understood that you, and only you, are responsible for your life and what it holds. This is the great truth that will soon come of age in your 1970s culture-the most joyful, rejuvenatingly hopeful insight of all. We are not the victims of circumstance but the architects of our lives. Our conscious thoughts create an image of our lives, our selves, our feelings, and our unconscious produces it in perfect accordance with our predominant conscious beliefs.
"The law, you see, remains the same in all those lives we live. We just interpret it differently, depending on our level of evolution during the particular life in question."
"Well," I asked, "if we've all reincarnated so many times, why don't we remember past lives? Are you saying it's just because we don't want to remember them?"
"That's right," she replied. "People forget their past lives because they don't want to remember their ugly, selfish actions which would humble their pride and make it impossible for them to feel superior to others. Pride is possible only when we forget our past failures. However, he who forgets his past is doomed to repeat it. To the extent that human souls deny that each person's mind is totally responsible for all it experiences they can only continue repeating the same selfish actions that cause the same painful consequences. They must accept total responsibility for their entire state of being, then joyously create the life they want if they are to facilitate evolution." She smiled and took my hand. "We'll talk about that more later. Right now let's freshen up and go have lunch."
We got dressed and ate a delicious meal in the Alpha dining room. Their kitchen was a marvel. All one had to do to get any kind of food was turn a dial and press a button. Within a few seconds your chosen meal appeared either hot or cold, just as you selected, from a sliding panel in the wall.
I had what I thought was a delicious two-pound steak served medium rare and sizzling hot. After I had eaten it and profusely praised the cook, Carol, finishing her carrot juice, informed me that the steak was synthetically derived from high protein seaweed combined with other vegetable ingredients. The cook, I learned, was another computer-run servo-mechanism.
Carol tried to explain their complicated food-processing technology, but I told her not to bother, since I was trying to forget that steaks weren't really steaks. She accused me of practicing delusionary amnesia to deny unpleasant reality, and I had to admit my guilt. I could still remember the delicious taste of my steak and I knew I would enjoy my meals in 2150 if I could just forget where they came from.
My major objection to a vegetarian diet was that I liked the taste of meat and felt it was the best source of protein I knew of. If the science of 2150 had solved these problems I wouldn't fight it, even if I didn't agree with Carol that it was wrong to kill animals for food.
I told Carol that I thought she and the rest of the Macro society members were pretty hard on micro man and his habits. However, she insisted that she did 'not condemn micro man or feel that she was intrinsically better than he was any more than a sixth-grade child was better than a first-grade child. It was all a matter of evolution along the
m-M (for microcosmic-Macrocosmic) continuum toward ever greater awareness of the oneness of all. Besides, she insisted that she could remember many past lifetimes in which she had lived selfish micro existences both as male and as female.
I wondered about this business of past lives of different sexes, but decided to bring it up later.
Back-in our Alpha dyad room-I thought of it as our room now-Carol showed me the toilet facilities by activating a circuit which caused a portion of the wall and adjoining floor to change into a very strange, but remarkably convenient, area for disposing bodily wastes. When I looked pained at its lack of privacy, Carol smiled and suggested I press a nearby button, which I did, causing an opaque plastic-like wall to slide completely around the area.
"There you are, Jon," she said. "A way to hide that part of you which you feel is shameful. We prepared this barrier screen especially for your arrival," she teased.
"Here in 2150 we provide privacy for thinking, not for hiding, but I know that you in the 20th century were still very ambivalent about the human body and its most basic and necessary functions."
I had to agree with Carol that I was probably neurotic by 2150 standards, but I used the opaque wall and asked her to do the same. I was pleased that she didn't resist my request. She was a very accepting, easy-going person. Not that she was at all reluctant to express a point of view that differed with mine, but she didn't get impatient or angry with my micro neurotic ways or my insatiable curiosity about 2150.
When I asked her about the video wall screen, she explained that it was connected with Central Information just like the one in the C.I. room. Then/ she showed me some new ways of using it.
As we sat down in the two chairs facing the. video screen Carol commanded Central Information to show us some newsmagazine material from 1970. Almost immediately we found ourselves leafing through the pages of Time and Newsweek magazines as recorded on microfilm. Carol stopped the C.I. at one of the pages and asked me to read and comment on the following:
2150 A.D. Page 5