Then they reassured me that they would do all in their power in helping prepare me to demonstrate level- three awareness within three months. We talked about ways in which my awareness growth could be accelerated by increasing the number and frequency of learning experiences. This led to a discussion of how the normal 7th- triad experiences could be broadened to include more opportunities for experiencing Macro contacts. Alan explained some of the requirements for transcending the micro world.
He began by saying that since the two factors in all learning, desire and belief, are developed by cumulative failure-success experiences, obviously the more of these I could have, the faster I would learn. However, the problem with Macro contact for beginning students was that the experience was so pleasant that it tended to make them want to hold onto it in order to escape unpleasant micro experiences. This would immediately end the upper level contacts, because they are made possible through joyous pursuit of learning experiences and their consequences, not retreat from them. They all admitted their own Macro contacts had been extremely limited, since this ultimate experience requires total acceptance of everything which, obviously, not only includes all the positive experiences but all the negative ones as well.
At this point Carol said that our recent Macro contact was only the fifth time in her life that she had attained this level, although she had attempted it every day since she first entered the 2nd triad at the age of three. Alan said that while he had demonstrated 6th-level awareness and attained Macro contact more times than anyone else in our Alpha, this was only ten times.
The problem was desire and not belief. Since they had all experienced Macro contact at least once, they no longer doubted it was possible. However, their desire tended to be limited and selective rather than the necessary all-accepting. Paradoxically, then, the more often they attained Macro contact, the more difficult the next contact became. The less one's awareness the more one tends to grab, to cling, to attempt the impossible feat of holding on to-holding constant-a part of the macrocosm. It sometimes takes a tremendous number of little failures to lead to one great success.
'Well, then,' I said, 'if it takes a thousand failure successes to reach level three awareness and I currently have only five hundred, the solution is to experience five hundred more failure-successes-and fast.'
'Exactly,' she said, 'but it's a thousand degrees of failure-success which means that one huge failure- success may equal a hundred small ones.'
'That gives me a fighting chance. I don't think I'd have time for five hundred little failures in three months. But, I can keep hoping until the very end for, one monumental failure that will completely fill my quota.'
They laughed and told me that a sense of humor was always a sign of expanded awareness. Then Alan said that they usually spent their mornings at the C.I. center or in their rooms using C.I. as a learning machine. The afternoons were spent playing learning games with the other triads, and the evenings were spent with their Personal Evolution tutors.
This daily schedule, I learned, was not inflexible but broadly applied to all triad levels. The older triads, however, particularly the eighth, ninth, and tenth, spent more time with the younger triads-especially the first and second. They felt the early years were crucial ones, for they contained the greatest number of critical learning experiences or developmental lessons.
Steve used the analogy that the taller the building the stronger its foundation has to be. Thus, once the foundation is laid, the maximum limits for a building's size are established by the strength of its foundation.
Joyce continued, pointing out that micro souls chose micro families to be born into and receive early micro learning experiences which severely limit the rest of their life's learning. Thus, there is literally no hope for micro man from a micro view. Only the Macro view, which includes joyous acceptance of total responsibility for all that exists within our lives, offers ultimate success and hope.
After breakfast Carol suggested that we walk to the C.I. center, where we could obtain separate rooms in order to work on separate problems. As we left our Gamma I noticed that again the weather was beautiful and remembered that C.I. had told me that it was controlled. I began wondering when it rained or snowed and realized that I knew very little about our geographic location or, for that matter, the new world geography of 2150. There were just so many questions to ask and so many things to learn. I envied Carol having grown up in the Macro society and having used C.I. for so many years.
We arrived at the C.I. center, and I went again to the room overlooking the lake while Carol chose an adjoining room. For the next four hours I forgot everything else in my enthusiastic questioning of C.I. over as broad an area as possible. I began with geography and discovered that one of the reasons the world maps of 2150 had changed so greatly was the shifting of the poles.
According to C.I., micro man's interference in the ecological and geological balances of the world had caused such tremendous chain reaction pressure build-ups that great land masses had sunk into the oceans and vast areas previously below water had risen. As a consequence the north and south poles had shifted, producing vast climatic changes. Delta 927, in which I was living, was located in what was formerly northern Canada and the climate was semi-tropical although controlled temperature limits were between sixty degrees Fahrenheit at night and a maximum of eighty during the day.
Lea had been right when she said I would not recognize a world map of 2150. Every continent was drastically changed and there were two new continents, or subcontinents, as large as Australia, in the North Atlantic and South Pacific oceans. Since all of these great Earth changes had taken place by the early part of the 21st century, I could understand how the earth's population had shrunk so drastically to only a little over three hundred million by 2150.
As a social psychologist, however, the bulk of my questions were in the social areas. I was fascinated that there were no businesses as I knew them in 1976. Since the Macro society valued expanded mental awareness so highly, the vast array of material artifacts, such as several hundred different brands of soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, or pet foods, were nonexistent. (Concerning the latter, I'll digress just enough to mention that there were no pets, since Macro man lives in harmony with all animals and, thus, keeps none of them in domestic bondage for food, protection, or friendship.) Without a wastefully polluting competitive economy there was no need for salesmen or advertisements. And since all factories were ran by servo-mechanisms, there were no worker- manager divisions, and, thus, no labor unions.
Because there were no laws requiring litigation, there were no lawyers or courts of law. Because there were no illnesses that could not be controlled by Macro mind powers, there were no doctors and no hospitals. Because there was universal agreement in the Macro society on the values of love and cooperation, there were no vast governmental bureaucracies.
The thought of no government was incomprehensible until I realized that the governmental functions of a micro society would obviously not be needed in the Macro society. There were no police or armed forces because there were no micro divisions or inequities. There was no money or private property because all physical needs were provided free. There were no taxes because everyone owned everything and contributed everything to fulfill the means. No need for welfare agencies to take care of the victims of micro competition or indifference. No need for legislatures and legislators with their endless micro biases and acrimonious debates. No need for lobbies to protect the vested interests of big business and labor. No need for politicians, the C.I.A., or the F.B.I. No need for micro bureaucracies at all!
Then I thought of a world of competing religions and my own U.S.A. of 1976, professing Christianity but practicing micro separation. I remembered the tens of thousands of church buildings constructed at immense cost with their tens of thousands of church officials attempting to help micro man attain salvation and social acceptability through membership in some narrow religious sect. The world of 2150 had no churches and no priests, ministers, or rabbis.
Could there really be a time when there would be no more religious fanatics and separatists? No groups of people claiming to be the 'chosen' people of God? It seems that micro divisions had low survival value particularly in religions, which were so important to man's beliefs or philosophy of life. Only an all-accepting philosophy of macrocosmic oneness had long-term survival value.
I knew Karl would be fascinated by C.I.'s description of the end of racial differences. By 2150 drastic physical changes in the earth had caused drastic weather changes which caused drastic economic changes, which caused drastic social and spiritual changes. The final result was an almost total blending of the races with the added benefit of greater mental and physical -health, strength, and beauty. There were no longer any racial divisions because there were no extreme differences in any physical characteristics, including skin color. Macro man was a combination of the best genetic qualities of all the races, which left only one race-Macro man.
