Joseph Conrad

Since plans had altered for the Saturday evening, Dr. Karoll suggested that possibly Alice and myself would like to see a currently popular stage play. Entertainment, I thought to myself, might hold as much an element of surprise as many other things about this enlightened society. I freely admit this thought was secondary to my anticipation of the thrill of escorting Alice to the theater.

Apparently Dr. Karoll had expected there would be such occasions, for I found that he had already ordered appropriate clothing tailored for me. So many things like this were being done for me that I was again diverted into questioning my state of consciousness. I had just finished dressing and, after observing the reflection of myself in the superbly becoming outfit, I found myself struggling to hang onto my sense of reality. Just then I heard Alice knock on my door. One glimpse of her made me forget all questioning of reality and decide that if I was dreaming, or that if I had died and was in heaven, then I had best enjoy it to the fullest.

Alice's gown enhanced her natural loveliness and added to her air of noble and pure womanhood. Whether it was the delicate color of her dress or its folds and pleats that did this, I could not say, but there was something about her which made me think of the strong and beautiful women of ancient Greece. The fabric was a shade of lavender trimmed with gold edging and decorated with small symbols brocaded in gold. While modest and feminine, still the dress revealed the beauty of her form and posture. As she stood there smiling, my ideal of all that was loveliest and most virtuous in woman seemed crystallized before me.

She sensed the effect that she had upon me in that moment and was both delighted and, very surprisingly...to me, a little abashed. She turned away from me and for an instant she was not altogether in command of her emotions. Seeing this reaction had the impact upon me of an electrical shock. I experienced a thrill which had the sharpness of physical pain. It could hardly be imagined by anyone who has not had a similar experience. For an instant, it was as though the earth and all the stars in the heavens stood still. Then it was over. Alice regained her poise and I wondered if it had really taken place.

She smiled her approval as she looked at me, and I was delighted that she liked what she saw! My evening apparel was a semi-gloss forest green except for a narrow soft white collar, cuffs at the sleeves and trousers, and a deep "V" patch of white from the throat to the waist. The cuffs, collar and the "V" patch showing were an integral part of a removable light inner coverall-like garment. This liner was attached by bands of pressure sensitive fastening material. Like a fresh white shirt, it served to provide a fresh change but in a more complete way. This new style tuxedo was cut to give a good fit through the waist but allowed complete freedom of movement through the arms, shoulders and hips. It allowed the body to breathe, made a fine fit and was both very practical and good looking. It honestly accented masculine characteristics. The focus of attention was upon the head, neck, shoulders, hands and the carriage of the wearer.

Fifteen minutes after we reached altitude, Alice began letting the air car down to earth again. She circled the building so that I could have a good view of it in the little remaining day light. The architecture of the theater was like music in three dimensions. The mathematically developed contours followed the requirements of acoustical formula and its structural elements were exposed on the exterior surface. The entire theater was suspended a few feet above the ground by a network of fine cables laced to surrounding frames. The cables were strung taut to produce a stressed skin action on the exterior shell of the theater and supported it like spokes to the hub of a wheel. Its design was imaginative, artistic and highly functional but its seating capacity was for not more than three hundred people.

A road with a walking and biking path beside it led to the theater and what I took to be several bus-like vehicles were moving on it. Most of the people were walking or riding bicycles. The parking area was not visible from the air. Entrance places led to an underground parking area and, for craft like the air car, three small landing platforms offered a special convenience.

Alice set the craft on one of the underground parking entry platforms as I watched with admiration for both her and the performance of the craft. She activated a mechanism to lower the air car into the subterranean chamber. The arrangement was such that we debarked below ground, walked a short distance through a passage way, through a spacious lobby and then up a ramp into the theater itself. When the audience was all seated, the ramp folded in to improve the acoustics, Alice explained.

As we entered the theater, Alice began to tell me how important a place in society the theater had and how broad were its uses in developing individuality and encouraging the free exchange of ideas. The sum of what she said was this: Thousands of community theaters just like the one we were in dotted the countryside. They offered all an opportunity to develop and express theatrical talents. The function of the theater was to educate and ennoble people everywhere, as well as to provide opportunities for self-expression and individual development. Unusual incidents, scientific discoveries, archaeological finds, personal achievements and similar events were dramatized, accenting the human element. The theater lifted up before the race the heroism, the drama, and the adventure of mankind's struggle for greater harmony and understanding of itself and of the forces of nature.

The competition which existed among the community theater groups was keen and exciting, just as it was in their athletic games. Recognition for excellence was the inspiration for great effort and any group had the potential of moving into the fore to receive acclaim throughout the earth. Development of the arts was on par with the sciences. Artistic talent was equated with spiritual development. The day to day struggle for physical necessities no longer drained away the time needed for individuals to achieve a high level of proficiency in performing arts. Works of art were regarded as windows providing openings into the race mind to reveal the beauties and intricacies of man's higher nature.

Man's natural instinct and need for competition was sublimated to provide incentive for the refinement of human nature through using it to motivate youth toward the elevation of the values for which men strove. Social standing could no longer be bought but was attained only through distinguished service to the race in some form and especially through all of the arts. I thanked Alice for her discourse but had to apologize that I was hardly able to absorb such philosophical thoughts, especially not just then when I was experiencing so much beauty and wonder.

When I looked about the interior of the theater, I could see that it was designed to eliminate the need for voice amplification. It was small and the acoustics so excellent that close personal rapport could be established between actors and audience. The interior was not gaudy but subdued. It was decorated with relief figures. Alice explained that theater decorators tried to create a mood of receptivity and dignity that would harmonize with whatever the production depicted.

"Isn't this theater quite a distance from your home, Alice?" I asked. "From the time it took to get here in the air car, it could be three hundred miles. Your community theater would have to be closer or no one could walk or ride bicycles as we saw them doing when we landed."

"You are right, David. This is not our own center. The particular drama to be given here tonight is the reason we came. A great variety of plays are always being produced. However, when a particular play is timely or thought provoking, it may gain nationwide attention and be produced by a number of community theater groups. It is, perhaps, like a popular song or a successful musical show of your day. The ideals which stimulate their production are broader and more satisfying, perhaps, and the competition for the national limelight keener; but, otherwise, it seems much in the same spirit."

"Stage plays are a superior way to inspire and teach and there are few more effective ways of implanting reverence and respect for the human potential in the hearts of people. The experience of live performances of inspiring plays can hardly be equalled by other media. Our great thinkers are quick to work with skilled playwrights to introduce their ideas, whether they are for improving the administration of world government, for dealing with developing minds of children, or for furthering our understanding of the destiny of man."

"It is difficult for me to see how you avoid the pitfalls that such use of this means of communication must include," I said. "Why, you could mold the thinking of the people to any point of view. Government supervised propaganda, which uses the theater to channel the thinking of the people, sounds like a hopelessly undemocratic approach to communication."

We were interrupted from pursuing the discussion further as a sudden hush in conversation signalled that the performance was about to begin. The atmosphere became charged with the same electrifying thrill of anticipation and excitement that I remembered from times at stage plays in New York. The man who was to play the lead role stepped from behind the curtain. He was a man about my own size and build and, much to my surprise, dressed in a smartly fitting business suit of the early nineteen eighties. Alongside him stood the playwright, a woman whose poise and bearing reflected self confidence and intellect. This particular woman had an extraordinary quality about her that is difficult to describe. Perhaps one would say that she was radiating intellectual beauty.

"Dear Friends," she started. Her voice had the richness of quality which is the mark of a highly developed personality. "We have a play tonight that has a degree of uniqueness which we feel will fix in your memory some of the historical events it portrays. We hope that it will give you a new insight into a crucial period of our history. We must never forget that times of testing in the earth are for the refining and purifying of our character and improvement of our race. The disintegration of America in the 1980's was precipitated by our disobedience of moral laws, laws that have always been written in men's hearts."

She paused for a long moment as though to give dramatic impact to her next words.

"I have just been informed that the actual person out of the past whose life story provided the inspiration for tonight's play is here with us in the theater. We will not reveal his identity but hope that his presence will add power and meaning to our play." Then after a slight pause, she said, "...and now we present to you The Darkness Before the Dawn."

At first, the meaning of this introduction did not register upon my mind. When Alice turned toward me with a knowing smile, I suddenly realized that it was myself to whom reference had just been made. My surprise could not have been more complete. I was dumbfounded. The curtain was rising and an intense silence hung over the audience. I gripped the arm rests of my seat and determined to give no indication of my feelings for fear of drawing attention to myself.

There would have been no way to prepare me for the experience of seeing a live play such as began to transpire before me. The use of scientific knowledge, technical skill and artistic talent to produce the scenery was a marvel to me. A method of projection on a screen that was actually a mist-like vapor or fine dust trapped between several layers of transparent material, each layer responding to a different kind of light, provided a three dimensional effect for background scenery. The acting was superb. The accuracy of the portrayal of America in the late 1970's and early `80's left me speechless. It was done as an historical play, but it required a narrator to bridge over the great difference in points of view from those times until the present year of 2103.

I was not prepared for the contrast drawn between the times. Our society of the 1960's, `70's, and `80's was made to appear more grotesque and to have more distorted values than any social order out of the past I was familiar with. Activities of politicians and industrialists which in my time were thought of as needing some regulation were now viewed as heinous crimes against mankind and our environment. For example, the furnishing of modern technology's weaponry to undeveloped nations in order for them to carry on warfare was portrayed as inconceivably immoral, not only upon the part of those directly responsible, but upon the part of every single person who knowingly contributed to the effort, whether by owning stock in the companies, working for manufacturers or munitions, or by being willing to pay the taxes that they knew would be used for such purposes. It was a matter of individual responsibility for every literate citizen to make a moral choice to support or oppose the decisions of his government, no matter what the personal cost.

To these people of the Twenty-Second Century, the most vicious of all crimes against humanity was not the warring of one nation with another, not even the use by America of atom bombs to destroy helpless civilian populations in the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima of an already defeated Japan. In retrospect, the human race now regarded the misuse of the channels of communication as the most inhuman and destructive error of the Twentieth Century. All other abuses paled beside this and were secondary to it. The abuse of our technology they regarded as a byproduct of this one principal error which enslaved the minds and distorted the thinking of the masses.

This was amazing to me. I had thought we might be most critical of ourselves for the destruction of our natural resources and the pollution of the land and water with poisonous chemicals. The play did point out how our city water treatment plants took drinking water out of polluted rivers and did little more than clarify the water with coagulants and filters and kill the water borne bacteria with chlorine. From my own background in chemistry, I knew that dissolved contaminants coming from chemical processing plants or crop run-off water containing insecticides remained in our water supply, unaltered by coagulants and filtering. Horrible though it was that we allowed global contamination of the land and air and water with long lasting poisons, it was the poisoning of minds, the minds of the common people, with fear and hatred, with immoral desires, with disbelief in the spiritual nature of man that ranked as the supreme error of the Twentieth Century.

As the play moved on, my mind was constantly being jolted by the great difference in the perspective of these people with regard to human values. The errors of my time appeared so glaring to them that it seemed no one could have been quite insensitive enough to live in them without vigorously objecting to what they saw. Theirs was no self righteous attitude as they looked back on the errors of their predecessors. Quite the contrary. They believed themselves to be the very people who had committed the errors. Now, having been born in later times, they recognized their past failure as a lack of faith in God! Lack of belief in their responsibility on an individual level had enabled them to tolerate America's atrociously immoral government. Indifference, fear of reprisal, and failure of the well educated segment of the public to express vigorous objections to the infringement upon the right of individuals finally allowed the government to fall into the hands of those who lacked basic moral values.

The play went on to show how understanding of the purpose of life in the earth began to break forth when privately sponsored scientific studies established factual data concerning the natural laws governing reincarnation. This information provided an intellectual basis for mankind to change its direction. Peace, order, beauty, true justice and equality before the law for all peoples on the earth resulted when an understanding of the exacting natural laws to which each is subject became common knowledge. Scientists were able to establish that cosmic laws governing the reappearance of each individual had always preserved perfect justice, regardless of any temporary illusion of injustice. This was the key idea and theme of the play and the reason for its title, The Darkness Before the Dawn.

The belief that physical death ends all experience was the greatest darkness of my time. This widespread loss of belief in some kind of eternal life, examined in retrospect, was seen as the beginning of moral decay of the nation. It justified the prostitution of science to indiscriminately furnish the public with contraceptives. Scientists ridiculed the Virgin Birth of Christ and discounted the virtue and power to generate constructive influences of religious figures who lived chaste lives. The times offered no intelligent reason to dedicate one's life to selfless service of the race either for eternal rewards, or for the good of posterity. Gifted youth were using powerful drugs that would render them physically and mentally unfit to be parents. They drifted aimlessly, wasting their talents. Educators had become little more than mere hirelings. Impotent religious leaders, blind leaders of the blind, could provide no rational basis to oppose the widely held and scientifically endorsed belief in absolute death for the individual human unit. Intellectual leaders ignored the data from near death experiences which a few pioneering researchers examined. Such a condition was portrayed as the darkness which covered America.

As the play moved on, the old Chinese proverb, "one picture is worth a thousand words," came to life for me more vividly than ever. Advanced techniques for the projection of scenery in three dimensions with movement, sound and occasional odors had been applied with powerful effect. Because of all this, watching the scene concerning the great money collapse in America was the most stirring part of the evening for me. The play went over it briefly, giving the picture of it that Dr. Karoll described but in a way that I could understand better. America had been unwilling to correct her unsound money policies. All of the major European powers were forced to take steps to protect themselves as America's run away inflation threatened to disrupt international exchange and literally steal the wealth of other nations. By the early nineteen eighties, something life fifty percent of America's wealth was owned by only one percent of the population. They were quite indifferent to the disaster they were creating for the common people.

America was forced to take the desperate measure of confiscating all the silver in the possession of the American people. This became necessary so that it could be used for bullion to provide credit with an International Monetary Fund Bank in Europe in order to support the value of our currency in foreign exchange. The play showed how our system could have been saved by some honest reforms. It also showed how our government had become so corrupt as to be impotent in its response to meet a danger to the public. A final plea for us to take corrective measures along with a warning from the European Common Market nations and Japan gave America six months of grace to make changes before they would refuse to accept American money. The warning by the European bankers was kept a closely guarded secret from the public. Because there was such a vast amount of American currency abroad to be converted into the IMF currency, the credit furnished by the silver became exhausted. On the set day, all Europe refused any further dealings with American currency. The money panic that followed caused a complete breakdown of the mechanisms by which cities maintain their life. In one week, transportation, utilities, forces of law and order, and communications had ceased functioning from coast to coast. The major cities became great death traps which were devoid even of potable drinking water. People on foot struggled to reach the outskirts of the cities. Every artery was jammed with wrecked or stalled vehicles.

Adding to the horror of it, the public's human quality of sensitivity had been dulled to such an extent by the poisons in their bloodstream from spoilage retardants and insecticides in food and by the never ending stream of violence and cruelty they had witnessed on the television screens that they had lost compassion for each other. Our nation's inhuman use of technology upon the defenseless peoples of Indochina, poisoning their soil, dropping of defoliants, fire bombs and high explosives had hardened our own hearts, so that we were equally merciless toward each other in the emergency. The scene depicted staggered my mind. During the financial collapse, people became like beasts. Cannibalism became a way of survival!

While this episode was being portrayed, tears flowed freely down my cheeks. In a moment this was over and the play moved on to show the peaceful communities that survived the collapse. Foresight and intelligent cooperation had enabled many small groups to prepare for the trouble. About one third of America's population survived. The most important of the surviving communities were those groups of dedicated people who were determined that a beautiful America should rise again from the chaos.

The groups that survived had made intelligent plans. They recognized the irreversible nature of the political corruption. The most successful of them had selected isolated valleys in regions where terrain and vegetation prevented easy access and planned their self sustaining communities two or three years prior to the actual collapse. Such groups had chosen themselves a rendezvous and made plans to assemble the needed materials and equipment to fully prepare their area after the anticipated collapse brought all commerce to a halt. All equipment and materials needed were available after the money failure, for such items had no value to the leaderless hungry masses. These communities eventually developed means to communicate with each other by radio while travel was still unsafe and impractical. Later they selected representatives to gather together to re-establish their nation's government, honestly basing it upon the ideals and concepts of the original Constitution of the United States of America.

The play showed how this simple community life and closeness to nature was a time of re-thinking concerning the ideals of America. The early American practices of sharing of spiritual experiences and having community prayer and meditation began transforming those who survived the collapse. America's youth were deeply interested in the new information about the psychic nature of man and scientific evidence to support the belief in reincarnation. During this time of living off the land, the study of Edgar Cayce's life and the teachings given through him helped many to become convinced that they would be reborn themselves into the better world they planned to help create. This provided the incentive for heroic efforts to establish a just government.

The Night of Ignorance ended and a new Dawn broke over the earth. Much effort and many failures were ahead but the direction was clear. Peace on earth was inevitable. Virtue had finally become recognized as intelligent self-interest. The ideal of unselfish service to others, the expression of the Christ Spirit, filled the nation and created an atmosphere of fellowship and cooperation which soon spread throughout the earth. America resumed its position among nations as the birthplace of freedom, a land where there truly existed freedom from mental and spiritual enslavement, as well as the freedom from injustice and physical wants.

The curtain fell and the audience sat in reverent silence. It was not an occasion for clapping but I knew that everyone present would have the opportunity to show his appreciation in person to the playwright and cast members later.

The evening's experience at the theater with a beautiful companion, the sense of well being generated by my surroundings, my improved health and befitting apparel, all added to my self-confidence, so that I felt equal to meeting the cast and playwright. The theater was small but the large lobby below gave the audience, playwright, cast and all who participated in the presentation an opportunity to intermingle and share refreshments together. The play had stimulated a kaleidoscope of powerful emotions in me. The cast and playwright were entranced to have me recount from firsthand experiences my own recollection of some of the events of their play.