Unfortunately, they had no suggestions as to how Carol and I could escape from Elgon without help from the superior Macro powers of the Macro society.
I decided to talk to Rana to see if she could offer a solution to my dilemma. But before I left my Alpha members, something very strange happened. Adam and Joyce asked if they could accompany me back to Elgon's palace.
I refused. 'If Carol and I can't escape, you'd just be two more prisoners for Elgon.'
'We realize that,' Joyce said, 'but Adam and I would like to be with you during the next few days, Jon. If we can't help you, we'll at least provide companionship.'
I was reminded that if I couldn't raise my awareness level and still refused to cooperate with Elgon I would have just a few more days in 2150. I was touched by Adam and Joyce's offer to share my prison even if it meant becoming prisoners themselves. I thanked them; but explained that knowing Elgon had four of us instead of just two would more than double my anxiety, and if I needed companionship I could now just project my astral body to visit with them.
It was Adam who then said, 'Perhaps we can help you another time then, Jon. You 'see, we owe you a great debt, for you were of great help to us in another life. In that life you know us as Griff and Judd.'
To say that I was breathless, speechless, elated, is an understatement, for beautiful vivacious Joyce and tall handsome Adam bore absolutely no physical resemblance to Griff and Judd of 1976. Yet, as I reached out to make contact with their Macro selves, I knew these were indeed the same two souls who 174 years ago had inhabited bodies called Griff and Judd, and I thrilled with the joy of their growth.
I embraced them and thanked them, touched by their concern. I assured them that any debt to me was amply repaid by their willingness to give up their lives to join me in Elgon's palace. Before I left, I made them promise that they would not try to join me on Micro Island. Then I bade farewell to all my Alpha members. As Nancy's eyes caught mine, my blood felt warm inside me and I wondered if she knew-if Bruno had known.
No time to pursue that now, though. I surrounded her with loving thought and went immediately to the tutoring room to meet with Rana.
It was still early morning and I had always met her in the evening. Still I had an overpowering feeling that she would be there waiting for me. I wasn't disappointed, for, as usual, the door opened before I got to it. Upon entering I found Rana calmly sitting back in one of the chairs smiling at me as if we were meeting for one of our regular Personal Evolution sessions.
'I won't ask how you knew I would be coming here at this time in my astral body,' I said, 'because I'm sure that your power of precognition is working perfectly along with your telepathy which told me that you'd be here.'
Rana nodded her agreement. 'I also know,' she said, 'that you are hoping I will have a solution to your problem with Elgon. You'll, be pleased to know that I have learned the solution from your own mind.'
'My God! Thank you, Rana, thank you,' I said with joyous relief. Then urgently, 'What is it?'
She shook her head. 'I'm going to disappoint you, Jon, by refusing to tell you what I see you doing in the future.'
'What?' I asked, shocked by this turn of events. 'Are you telling me that you know the solution but you won't tell me what it is? Are you afraid that if you tell me it won't happen?'
'No,' she replied. 'Whether I tell you or not, there is only one course of action that you will take at this time.'
'Then I can't understand why you won't tell me what it is if it can't affect my future actions,' I said puzzled and bewildered.
'Because,' she answered, 'if I tell you, it will affect your future thoughts, and while this won't change your actions with Elgon it would change your actions later on.'
'I don't understand, Rana,' I said. 'What do you mean?'
'I'm talking about the problem of good and evil,' she replied, 'which will be your final test for third-level awareness. You'll remember that these concepts, like everything else, depend on the size of your perspective.
'The measure of a mind's evolution is its acceptance of the unacceptable. What may be unacceptable at the micro level is always acceptable at the Macro level.'
'Yes,' I concurred, 'and I remember that everything is perfect from a totally Macro view. But what's that got to do with the solution to my problem?'
She continued her explanation, 'I'm saying that ou haven't become aware of your only satisfying solution to Elgon's threat is because you've been using a micro view in which it appears unacceptable and even bad or evil.'
'Then you're saying that if you told me what it was I would use it, but for the wrong reasons-because you told me and not because I discovered and accepted it myself, right?'
'That's exactly right, Jon,' she replied, 'and while this would not affect the distant future it would affect your next ten thousand years and lengthen the time before you and Lea will become one again at the physical and astral levels:'
'I hate to say this, Rana, but thank you for not telling me,' I said reluctantly. 'I'll have to go back to Elgon's palace and see how long it takes me to discover this solution which you say is already in my mind-the one course of action that I can take.'
As I prepared to leave, Rana cautioned me to be careful not to see Lea before returning to Micro Island. I asked why.
'Because,' Rana explained, 'as your twin soul she will not, at this time, be able to hide from you the solution you're seeking, and the effect will be the same as if you had gotten the information from me.'
I thanked her once again and agreed to follow her advice. Then I returned to Elgon's palace without attempting contact with Lea.
I realized that in spite of the constant video picture of Carol in her empty room I didn't know where that room was. I would have to explore the palace to find it. Then I made my big mistake.
I forgot that Elgon had stationed a number of his telepaths outside my room and when I came walking through the walls out into the hallway they saw me immediately and tried to stop me. I visualized myself in the huge dining room and disappeared from their view, but they had already notified the rest of their mind net of my escape into my astral body.
Finding myself suddenly in the dining hall I began running with literally the speed of thought, from room to room hunting for stairs leading down into the lower levels of the palace, because I felt that's where I would find Carol. By the time I located the right stairs and had descended to the level where I felt Carol was being held, Elgon's telepaths had located me.
Once again I felt the increasing power of the crushing vise on my mind, but this time I sought to deal with it by not resisting. I tried to respond to it with Macro loving acceptance. At the same time I continued my search for Carol. The underground cellars of Elgon's palace seemed a veritable labyrinth of rooms, but at last I passed through the right door and found myself in the right place with Carol lying as if dead at the center of the room. As I started toward her, I heard deep booming laughter as Elgon emerged from the shadows at my side.
Almost instantly the pressure of the vise upon my mind multiplied and I realized that Elgon was now personally directing the Macro powers of his thousand-member mind net with crushing force upon me. I have no doubt that Rana or even Lea could have handled their telepathic onslaught, but my level-two powers were no match for this mind net.
The pressure quickly overwhelmed me. I could no longer accept it. Then as I began to struggle against it the end came very suddenly. I lost consciousness and awoke back in 1976.
My room was dark. It was only 4 a.m.
I quickly decided to go back to sleep and see what had happened to me back to 2150. While it took me some time to calm my mind from the vivid memory of the crushing vise, I at last managed to fall asleep and awakened back in the canopied bed with Sela bending over me.
The moment I opened my eyes she said, 'You are a fool, Jon Two.'
I smiled at her in Karl's wry cynical way and said, 'I see you no longer keep up the pretense that I'm a level ten.'
'That's right,' she replied. 'We've discovered that your Macro powers are very limited. You'll hardly be attaining level three in these next few days.
