I walked back to where my last adversary lay sprawled out and began my clairvoyant examination of his injuries. It didn't take long to realize that he was dying from a broken neck. I began working to repair the damage before it was too late. I had learned from C.I. that the healing powers of the greater mind are unlimited if used properly. The problem was to stop the struggle of the patient's micro self so that the healing process could take place. In less than thirty minutes I succeeded in completely healing his neck. While this would have been considered very slow by 2150 standards, I was satisfied, having done the very best I could. Before permitting him to regain consciousness I planted powerful subconscious suggestions of obedience to me. I sensed that his name was Griff.
His pudgy-faced companion, Judd, was still unconscious with a broken jaw, so I resumed my healing efforts. Again I was able to reach deep into his mind and still the unconscious struggle. Then working with his gland and nerve centers, I released the great healing forces. His jaw was soon healed and his mind had accepted my hypnotic control of his actions. He demonstrated his obedience by quietly getting to his feet and going to his motorcycle.
Returning Griff to consciousness, I started him toward his, motorcycle also. Then, with me-riding behind Griff and directing him, we made our way back to the apartment building with Judd close behind. Entering the seldom-used rear door, we made it up to the fourth floor without being seen. Once inside the apartment, I told them they could not leave without my permission and suggested that they go to sleep until I awakened them. Walking down to my third-floor apartment, I took my weary body to bed.
For the first time in almost two months I went to sleep and did not wake up in 2150. Instead I had a dream in which I saw Lea standing at the foot of my bed looking sadly down at me.
'Why do you look so sad?' I asked.
'Because I could not bring you to 2150 this time,' she replied. 'Your anger has broken the time-space translation loop.'
'What do you mean?' I questioned.
'I mean that your vicious treatment of those two men this morning lowered your vibration rate so much that it is now impossible for us to translate your vibrations into our time dimension,' Lea explained.
'You mean that just because I protected that little girl from certain rape, and probable murder, I can't return to you and the Macro family? That's impossible! That wouldn't be fair at all,' I protested, sure that there had been some mistake.
'You're right, Jon. It certainly wouldn't be fair if just protecting the child prevented your translation,' she answered. 'It's not all that simple, though. You protected her not with the love and acceptance of a Macro perspective, but rather with the hate and rage of your micro self.'
'But I couldn't fight them at the Macro level. What else could I have done?' I asked.
'At the Macro level,' she answered, 'you would not have needed to fight them, only restore the imbalance of their minds.'
'But I couldn't possibly restore balance to their depraved minds. They're monsters!!' I defended.
'So you acquiesced to your limiting beliefs, condemned them for their micro violence, then fought them with your own micro violence,' Lea stated.
Suddenly I felt an agony of pain in my jaw and neck. I was shocked to find they were broken! Then in my mind I heard the voice of Rana. 'Pass no judgment, and you will not be judged. For as you judge others, so will you yourself be judged, and whatever measure you deal out to others will be dealt back to you in return. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye with never a thought for the great plank in your own?'
'All right,' I said, 'I'm experiencing the pain that I inflicted this morning. But they deserved it.'
'Of course they did,' Lea replied, 'but only micro man punishes. You are dooming yourself to live in a micro world as long as you desire a micro way of life.'
'Does this mean that I've forfeited my chance to live in the Macro society?' I asked.
'You won't be able to return to 2150 until you've balanced the negative vibrations you created within your essential self,' she explained. 'If, within a month you succeed in positively balancing today's negative actions, you may return to continue seeking level-three awareness. However, now that you have broken the time-space translation loop it will take a great deal of energy to reestablish it. This will probably reduce the amount of time you have left in 2150.'
'I'm so sorry, Lea. I didn't mean to louse things up. I just couldn't help myself. I could do the same thing over again... I just mustn't. I've got to grow, and I'd better start by balancing the negative vibrations I've set up. How can I do that, Lea?' I asked.
She smiled sadly. 'If you don't know the answer to that question by now, Jon, you might as well give up hope of experiencing 2150 again in this lifetime.'
With these words ringing in my mind I awakened to an excruciating pain in my jaw and neck. Fortunately for me, I had healed my victims so that their pain had not lasted long. I remembered that according to the law of karma my own pain must soon pass, too. Then I realized. that my perspective must have suffered a terrible blow, for I hadn't thought in terms of karma since my first week in 2150! That's when I first learned that karma is only valid from a less than Macro point of view.
As these thoughts entered my mind the pain began to diminish, and it was not long before I was completely free of the misery I had inflicted upon myself.
While I was free of one pain, the thought of being forever separated from my new world would, I knew, prove far more painful in the long run. Somehow I had to learn how to balance my negative vibrations and I was sure that my best chance of doing this lay upstairs with the hoodlums I had captured. If I forced them to go to the police and confess to the rape-murders of the two co-eds, which my probing of their minds had discovered, maybe that would do it. They would be punished, if not by the electric chair, then by a life term in one of our prisons... But that kind of angry vengeance usually fills its victims with even more hate, and from the Macro perspective I knew that those who died with hatred often chose quick rebirth in an attempt at revenge. Thus, what micro man can not see, due to his limited life perspective, is that hate and revenge always produce more hate and more revenge. No, I couldn't balance my negativity by using micro man's approach to the problem. That was not the solution. But what was?
I smiled sadly to myself as I recalled that micro man had been given the solution by all his great Macro philosophers. The so-called Christian nations knew of this as the one commandment that their great Master gave: 'Love one another, as I have loved you.'
Shaking my head, I resigned myself to the fact that this one commandment didn't seem very practical from. a micro point of view. However, I had been exposed to a larger point of view... the Macro view... which I must now use to solve this problem and, thereby, get back to my beloved Lea in 2150. So I couldn't turn my two captives over to the police, but I couldn't turn them loose to continue on their murderous path, either. Could I, I wondered, rehabilitate them?
While I had succeeded in using my Macro powers to heal them and to safely firing them to the apartment, would I now be able to heal their twisted micro minds? I knew that I could control their minds and force them to do only what I commanded, but this would certainly not be rehabilitation, not with me acting as the prison warden of their minds. Somehow I must help them see the long-term painful and unfulfilling consequences of their micro existence. As I searched my mind for a way of performing this miracle I loaded a tray with bowls, spoons, a carton of milk, and some granola. I picked up the tray and started off to their apartment.
When I entered the room they were still in their hypnotically induced sleep. I quickly awakened them and got them into the kitchen, where we all sat at the kitchen table. At first they eyed me with fear, but this slowly gave way to puzzled bewilderment as I told them that they were my guests and that I had healed their bodies and was about to start trying to heal their minds. I told them that if we succeeded they would be free to live satisfying new lives without fear of the police. If we failed, and I emphasized 'we,' to begin developing the idea of a joint venture in which they would have at least equal responsibility, then I could promise nothing but a future filled with misery and unhappiness.
Griff, the tall one, scratched his head and began pulling on his mustache. 'Listen, man,' he said finally, 'I don't understand what's happening. How did you get us to come here with you? And how come you haven't called the cops?'
I wasn't sure how to answer these two questions, so I took my time before saying, 'I hypnotized you into coming here, and the reason I didn't turn you over to the police is sort of complicated. You see, I know that you
