From Concerning Human Knowledge

By: George Berkeley

I sat long in silence after the presence of Rama Sandlob faded from the Meditation Dome. The grandeur of the snow covered Himalayas spread before me as reminder of my insignificance from the standpoint of the physical shell that my consciousness inhabited. Even a few minutes of exposure to the air outside of the crystal clear dome would bring immediate death to my body. But now I felt that my existence was more real and more lasting than the great mountains of solid rock that surrounded me.

As I sat thus in the tower I became aware of an approaching speck high above in the eastern sky. I knew then that it would only be moments before the air car bringing Dr. Karoll and his family would be moored fast to the dome entrance. With a flood of emotions I arose from the meditation table and took a long last look about me before leaving the dome through the trap door. I knew that none of the family would enter the tower so I changed into the clothing in which I had arrived and waited at the exit chamber door. Within five minutes I was sitting in the air car with Dr. and Mrs. Karoll, Alice and her brother, James, headed for the Great Smokies.

As I looked from one to the other I realized that something had been added to my powers of observation. Not only were these people more beautiful than ever to me but I was seeing an aura of light enclosing each one of them. The light showed brightest particularly around the head and shoulders of each person. The colors varied; closest around the head and shoulders it was white, then hues of blue and lavender and sunshine yellow. Their auras radiated out so that they filled the whole compartment of our craft and intermingled with each other. It gave me a sensation like being in the midst of a lovely flower garden in full blossom.

Truly, I thought to myself, to be in the company of this family is as much heaven as I am able to comprehend.

"Oh, David, we are so glad to know that you feel like that," said Alice in her clear musical voice. "We are all delighted to have you back with us again."

Rama Sandlob and his assistants had made me accustomed to having my thoughts read, but when the answer came out loud and in a voice that I had not imagined was so dear to me, it had new impact.

"Ah," I said, "it is truly a pleasure to hear you speak. Possibly spoken words are unnecessary for human communication but I think that I would as soon have the birds stop their singing."

The whole family laughed at this and we began an interchange during which I described the high points of my two weeks in the Meditation Dome. All were intensely interested in the insights that came to me through the memories of earlier incarnations. My release from intellectual conflicts with Christianity especially pleased Alice, although I got the impression there was yet something which she had hoped that I would learn about. As soon as I let my mind dwell on this impression for a few moments, I realized she felt that we had a past experience together as companions. Nothing of this kind had been shown to me but I resolved to spend time in meditation with that question before me in the days to follow.

After a time our conversation took a scientific direction because of questions I asked about the operation of the air car. Dr. Karoll requested James to explain the anti-gravity unit to me more fully than Alice had done earlier.

"First," said James, "you must understand that gravity is a force that is present in all parts of our universe. You are aware that the difference between an ordinary bar of soft iron and a magnet of steel lies in the orientation of the molecules, individual magnetic particles exerting forces either at random or in one direction."

"Yes," I said. "Does that mean that gravity only exists as a directional force as a result of some action which the earth has upon random forces?"

"Precisely, Mr. Neuport," said James.

I raised my eyebrow at the scholarly way that I was being instructed by this sixteen year old.

"Then this is why all of the objects which our scientists were putting into orbit just stayed there. It really didn't matter how much they weighed or at what speed they orbited the earth but only that they were lifted high enough so that the forces of gravity were acting upon them at random instead of in one direction?" I asked.

"Yes, sir," said James.

"I think that there must have been many persons like myself who understood the original theory for putting an object into orbit about the earth. The steady gravitational pull upon the object in orbit was to be balanced by the equally steady centrifugal force obtained from its circular movement horizontal to the crust of the earth. The only result that could be hoped for was a temporary condition, an approximate balance that might have allowed the object either to slowly spiral inward or away. To hit a perfect balance between gravity and centrifugal force would have been like trying to balance a steel ball on a knife edge. When we learned that the hardware which put the first capsule into orbit also stayed up, then we knew that our theory of gravity was in error," I said. "These objects that were not given a carefully calculated horizontal acceleration continued to orbit the earth without falling back."

"There were many indications that your theory of gravity was in error. The forces which keep the moon and planets in their orbits never fitted into your gravitation of theory. The connection between the moon and the tides on earth indicates the same force is acting upon them both; not the moon's gravitational attraction for the sea," said James. "Astronomers had obvious signs that earth was not held in orbit by gravity from the sun. The stationary cloud of asteroids which the earth passes through once a year is an example. If the sun exerted a steady gravitational pull to keep the earth in orbit, then the asteroids would necessarily respond to that pull and be drawn toward the sun. They do not orbit around the sun, thus there is not an action opposing its gravitational pull by centrifugal force."

"It sounds like elementary reasoning when you put it like that," I said. "Now tell me why there seemed to be an attraction like gravity between the objects we put into orbit?"

"Oh, this is quite obvious. It gives a good illustration of how easily an inaccurate theory can be reinforced by faulty reasoning," said James. "Visualize that the force called gravity is force rays, subatomic particles radiated in all directions like light and coming from every star. Any object in space is exposed equally to these random units of directional energy. If you shielded one side of an object in the slightest way, the resulting unbalanced forces would cause its movement in the direction of the shielded side. Naturally, this effect verified a theory of mutual attraction between objects."

"How does this explain the anti-gravity unit in the air car being like a tank of air submerged in water?" I asked.

"The force around earth called gravity depends upon the existence of a liquid like media of more refined matter. It is all around the planet and permeates the elements of the earth itself. Its particles, which intercept the random force rays, are driven into a great spherical body with earth in the center. This sea of subatomic liquid, ether, pervades the earth to its core and reaches far into the stratosphere. It permeates all ordinary metals as easily as water moves through a sponge. The resistance to its flow through a given solid body is called density. The term `density' designates how much directional energy a given element absorbs from the force rays. You can see from this illustration that gravity is a force pushing things inward, to all appearances, it manifests as an attraction or pull exerted by the earth."

"As I understood Alice," I said, "the unit which provides lift for the air car is a tank from which the ether is evacuated. How does this provide lift?"

"Why, it acts like a bubble under water," said James. "The same principle is involved but the forces are greater because of the pressure upon the ether which gives the effect of a liquid of great density."

"You have just said that the ether flowed through metals and the ease with which it did indicated their density," I said. "Now please tell me how do you make a container which excludes the ether?"

"This, of course, was the first necessity to be accomplished, once the principle had been surmised," said James. "The metal that was able to be developed from the condensation of helium by an alteration of the charges upon its atomic and accompanying subatomic particles gave us the needed metallic density. With this new metal we were able to construct a container capable of excluding the ether. Transportation by air of all goods, light or heavy, became a matter of course with the discovery of this principle."

"The principle appears beautifully simple," I said. "However, it required development by a society which had mastered a new metallurgical skill. Surely, the mechanism which could evacuate ether from a container must be fabricated from unusual materials also?" I asked.

"Well," James smiled at my question, "not exactly. The ether could have been evacuated from such a container in your time, Mr. Neuport."

"I don't see how that could possibly be," I said, in confusion.

"James," said Dr. Karoll, "I know that you are trying to stimulate David's reasoning powers, but you should not forget the personal element and the difference in your ages."

"No, sir," said James. "I am sorry."

I looked in wonder from one to the other. It was true that I found it a little humiliating to me to be instructed in question of physics by a mere boy. I wasn't sure whether I was grateful or not to have Dr. Karoll reveal what was troubling me. Just at that moment, the obvious answer as to how we could have evacuated the ether came to my mind. I looked at Alice to see if I could confirm what I suspected had just happened. All realized this at once and we burst out laughing together.

"Well, of course," I said. "I see what you mean. Alice painted me a picture. I'm afraid that I would not have reasoned it out. Our out-dated idea of ether was that it permeated all space in the same concentration, or perhaps I should say in the same density. Now I see that the ether permeating our earth and its atmosphere differs as much from that in outer space as water and air are different. Had we the container, we could have sent it aloft into space to empty it."

With that Mrs. Karoll suggested we take some time for refreshments and listen to some music. I was grateful for the respite for the strain on my ever present ego was interfering with my receptivity toward James.