|
Chapter 10
|
|
"SPACE BROTHERS" Chapter X William M. Salter "You say you come from an island a thousand miles west of here?" "Yes." "But there are no islands only a thousand miles west. It's all dry land, very dry." The four professors had arrived a little before dinner and we had just finished our meal and gathered in the family room for the evening of discussion that Dr. Karoll had planned. I had directed this question to Dr. Daren to follow up some earlier remarks. This professor had been introduced to me as Dr. George Daren who was engaged in Medical Research at an institute of learning called the University of Utah Isle. The professor was a man like Dr. Karoll in many respects. He had the manner of a self-confident and cultured person and the physiognomy of a gymnastic instructor. A particular difference in his physical make-up intrigued me. Dr. Daren was like a well proportioned Greek athlete who had been evenly elongated from head to toe. He stood six feet eight inches tall and appeared to weigh not more than one hundred and seventy-five pounds. The shape of his head reminded me of President Woodrow Wilson. Dr. Daren looked thoughtfully around the room for a moment until his eyes fell upon a globe showing the configurations of oceans and continents of the earth. He turned to Dr. Karoll and asked if we might set it upon the low table near our chairs. "Lucky for you that you were in these mountains to make your experiment with suspended animation, for much land throughout the earth has been submerged since your time. There have been extensive geological changes since the shifting of the poles." "Why, I didn't realize the coast line was changed when the poles shifted. Dr. Karoll mentioned the shift to me. He said it was like the skin of an orange slipping loose and moving its position relative to the inner part." "A good illustration, David. This caused extensive changes in the coast line. During the earlier upheavals there were some changes in the west coast. The greater changes came when the poles were relocated and much of the western part of the United States was submerged in the Pacific Ocean. The present west coast of this continent is at the edge of Nebraska. Some of the higher ground further west still projects above the open water to form islands such as our Utah Isle. Take a look at the globe and you'll see how extensive these changes are." I inspected the finely detailed globe. Many of the changes were so drastic that it was difficult for me to become oriented. Geography never had been one of my interests so I was not able to tell just what had taken place in many of the areas. I mentioned my weakness in geography and then Dr. Karoll reached over and pressed a small button on the supporting stand of the globe. Immediately the globe lit up from the inside so that a dark profile of the continents as I had known them was outlined under the new geography of the world. Now it was apparent at a glance how extensive the changes were in the earth. "What a terrible loss of life must have resulted!" "This was needful, David, as you will soon understand." These were Dr. Karoll's words and I turned toward him in shocked surprise. "Needful! What do you mean?" "Is it not true, David, that there was beginning to be widespread interest in psychical research in the last of the 1970's?" "Yes...yes, of course, I was interested in the subject myself. In fact, most persons who thought for themselves were becoming intensely interested in the subject. But how is this subject related to a tragedy of such proportions...the loss of millions and millions of people?" "David, suppose we set this question aside for a time and go back to an unanswered question which you posed some few days ago to Alice while you were watching a sunset from the air car." "You mean about religion...about belief in God?" "Yes." "Why should we change the subject. It's difficult for me to carry on a conversation when someone makes a statement that seems so inconsistent with the ideals of decent people. It sounds inhuman to speak of the extermination of millions of innocent people as being needful. God knows, we had enough inhumanity in the earth in my time. Mankind could not survive much more of it than we had then." "Please, David, don't allow yourself to imagine that Alex could express an inhuman thought. You will be so wrong to do so and will only cause yourself shame and confusion." Mrs. Karoll spoke gently, but I could almost have gone through the floor in humiliation, for I recognized the implication of my words to Dr. Karoll. "I am very sorry, Dr. Karoll. I'm not thinking clearly and I apologize to you. Self-righteousness is one of my failings. There seemed to be so much apathy toward injustice and cruelty in my time that those of us who were painfully concerned felt themselves to be different." "Thank you, David. I accept your apology. I can easily understand your feelings. But let's look at this question of religion to help you understand our attitudes." "All right, sir. My interest in psychical research stemmed partly from the impasse that I had with religion, that is, the form of religion that was being taught in the churches. They presented ideas of God that were altogether unacceptable to me. At least, psychical researchers seemed to be making some kind of an examination of spiritual questions. The church authorities refused to recognize that any modern man could contact the same sources of information which they claimed gave them their holy scriptures." At this point Dr. Karoll turned to another of the visitors who, like the medical scientist, had the appearance of being in remarkable physical health as well as having the mien of a competent scholar. A marked difference distinguished him from the others. He was a shade darker in coloring than the olive complexion of a southern Italian and his physical proportions were a cross between those of Dr. Karoll and Dr. Daren. He had been introduced to me earlier as Professor Arthur Hilliard whose primary field of research was political science. "Arthur, perhaps you would like to make some comment on the status of religion in today's society. You have what may seem to David to be very personal reasons for being able to comment upon certain aspects of religious thinking that could have been a stumbling block to David." "I gather, Dr. Karoll, you refer to my mixed blood. I'm inclined to question if David is able to absorb ideas of such startling nature just now. We all know how earth people first reacted to the peaceful invasion of the new race after the shift of the poles. However, he is open-minded. He must have a very unusual mind for his time or he could not have conceived the courageous experiment that has placed him among us today." Dr. Hilliard turned to me. "David, the most beautiful of the tenets of all the great religions of the world might be summed up by the simple saying, `all men are brothers under the skin.' This has become a universal truth among people of earth. It is no more questioned among us now than did people question if the world was round in your time. My own blood is three-quarters what earth people first called the `long heads.' These were the celestial immigrants, who came from a far distant solar system. I am one-quarter Hindu." "Many people talked about brotherhood in your time, but not many acted as if they believed that the backward peoples of the earth were their brothers. Selfishness and ignorance dominated your world. Spiritual values were nebulous in the minds of religious leaders. They thought that science had proven religious teachings to be only superstitious tales from the past." My impatience to question Dr. Hilliard before he said any more was showing. Dr. Karoll raised his hand to stop the political scientist from proceeding and nodded at me. "Perhaps, Arthur, you have already brought up a point that's disturbing David. Suppose we let him bring you back to the thoughts which he wants you to clarify." With this all eyes turned toward me as the gathering silently waited for me to form my question. "Dr. Hilliard, do I really...," I paused, choked with emotion and began again. "The planet isn't ours anymore? We were invaded by a superior race from outer space? You are one of these?" I could hardly conceal my shock at the very idea. "David...please, you can't possibly realize how wrong you are to feel as you do." Alice spoke without a trace of criticism but it seemed to me that her words both pleaded with me and shamed me. "We all know how violence, fear, greed and hatred ruled the earth in your day. We know that you've been immersed in an atmosphere of such thoughts. No matter how you may have tried to prevent it, your mind would be contaminated with them just as your body is still contaminated with poisons." Alice paused a moment while I painfully studied the floor in front of me. "Couldn't the brotherhood of man extend beyond our little earth...don't you see?" "David, the mothers of the nation in the twentieth century were not equipped either with an understanding of their responsibility or with the knowledge to carry it out," Mrs. Karoll spoke quietly. "We can give you some idea of the handicaps you will be helped to overcome." Mrs. Karoll began to carefully reason with me about the influences of my earliest childhood, my home environment, my schooling, and how these had conditioned my thinking to be narrow, earth centered, nationalistic, favoring international white supremacy, capitalism, private ownership of natural resources and generally revolving around shortsighted materialistic self interest. She described how I was conditioned to hate the peoples of some nations and feel superior to those of others, how my desires and emotions were manipulated by advertising techniques which generated responses from deep within the unconscious mind. She pointed out how the air, food and water, contaminated with trace poisons in the form of insecticide residues, lead, cadmium, fluorides, and spoilage retardants, further dulled the people's compassion and damaged the linkage of the conscious mind with the intuitive faculties which normally keep man in touch with the Great Race Mind, called the Christ Consciousness by the western world. I was relieved by her explanations but still astonished with the realization of my arrogance. The group fell silent as they all waited for me to speak. "I'm sorry, Dr. Hilliard, I guess that maybe my thinking really is knotted and twisted with suspicion and prejudice, criticism and anger. These feelings came to the surface in an instant. All my life I've tried to oppose these thoughts in a world that seemed to be ruled by them. It's hard for me to realize that the world is so different now. My thinking, which I thought was liberal and broadminded, must be far in the other extreme now. I know you are very understanding and tolerant of me." I was silent again and for a moment no one spoke. I could feel their sympathy. I was suffering embarrassment like a person who suddenly realizes that he is in a gathering for which his clothing is exceedingly inappropriate. It was difficult at best for me to retain my self assurance in this group and now having revealed such uncharitable thoughts I felt humiliated. However, their understanding and freedom from criticism or sense of superiority helped me get over this embarrassment. Just the same, my ego was suffering. I was accustomed to feeling myself to be more charitably disposed than most anyone in my acquaintance. Now I was humiliated beyond words to learn that my imagined broadmindedness and tolerance appeared rather to be on a childish level. It was Alice who broke the silence again. Even as she spoke, a new awareness came over me of how the human voice could mirror understanding, kinship and tolerance. I needed so to feel these just then. "Don't be critical of yourself, David, please. Surely you can sense our feelings toward you." Words, of themselves, were inadequate to encourage me. However, in the way Alice spoke them they overcame their shortcoming. Dr. Karoll suggested that we should take some time to refresh ourselves and stimulate our blood circulation with a breath of outside mountain air. Mrs. Karoll had left the room unnoticed by me a little earlier and was just returning with a tray of some delicious combination of hot herb tea and fruit juices. A tingling effect from head to toe went through me from this stimulating drink. We walked out into the garden for a few moments to enjoy the autumn evening. The night sky was strewn with an infinitive number of pinpoints of light. I looked up to see if I could pick out the big dipper and the North Star. Dr. Karoll seemed to read my mind at times. He quietly mentioned that the heavens must look a bit different to me because the latitude of the Great Smokies had changed considerably. |