by Unknown
I also overheard Stirlen at one point telling Jaeger to stop looking in ancient times for the secret to my personality, but to start focusing in a positive manner on treating my amnesia so that I could unveil my personality once more. “We know that he is Northam, now we must convince him to come out of the world into which he has locked himself in order to avoid facing real life after the accident.”
I realised that they were discussing a possibility similar to what we would call “split personality” or “personality change” and they support that Northam is still alive somewhere inside me. They think that my memory has been locked at the point of the accident, like a metal door that’s blocking the way of the rationale, rendering it impossible for me to remember anything from the time of the accident and, obviously, all that preceded it.
Nevertheless, two of the wise men, Esterling and Erlander, kept speaking of some sort of “out-of-body knowledge and experience”. I heard them mention the term “out-of-consciousness memory”, although, unlike Jaeger, they’ve ruled out the possibility of reincarnation.
On the other hand, the version of another wise man, Valdemar Esklud, was completely opposite. He believes—and he truly poked and tired me these past few days—that if I make a real effort I might remember moments from the first days of my short illness back in 1917. I was vainly trying to convince him that my memory has never betrayed me until now, and that I had never remembered anything from those two weeks when I first fell into the lethargy.
However, he and Ms. Coiral with her silver hair and her heavy, ebony cane with the platinum handle, were the only ones who respected my outburst into tears and didn’t start shouting at me when I revealed to them my firm conviction that one day, I will return to my time and place, even if it’s for a few seconds before I die.
Apart from that, Esklud and Coiral lean more towards Jaeger’s view, that is, that they are witnessing one of the most unusual and rarest parapsychological phenomena—or “metapsychic phenomena” as others called them”—that has ever manifested itself with an unprecedented clarity of memory and remarkably heightened sense of consciousness.
As for the information they asked me to give them, I was surprised by the fact that they were more interested in the conditions of our everyday life, our way of thinking, habits, institutions and beliefs, more than the great wars or political events perhaps because they knew the latter very well from history. And what was of particular interest to them was the century before ours. They always led the conversation to that topic. And what intrigued them the most was not the man who lived in 1921, but the man who was in adolescence at the changing of the century and learnt about the recent past from school and books. As a matter of fact, they explained to me that the 19th century was marked as a “suspended century” that stood out between the previous and next several centuries. Especially the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, was for them a very unique era, that harboured many precursor figures and works that could even be argued to be equivalent to the ones of today.
More specifically, the fact that the ideas of freedom, equality, brotherhood and love for nature were introduced and nurtured in that era drove them to distraction! They spoke highly of the struggles of the nations for true liberation and freedom and, of course, of the peace pacts of Europe.
The events of the 20th century did not seem to excite them very much, nor did the Great War, which I hope is never repeated (Dienach is not aware of the Second World War and most probably, the people of the future did not inform him of it, thinking that he might return to his 1921 self), or the huge losses that the nations worldwide suffered. They didn’t know how many people swore to give their lives—and did—so that at least their children could live better and free… I did…
I realised that the passage of time and everything that has happened in the last 2000 years up to their time made them forget all those watershed events that once shook our own lives and changed the course of history. Past leaders, who went down in history as saviours of humankind and whom we considered immortal, are now characterised as “petty people”, “unworthy local leaders”, “opposed to commonwealth and progress of our species”, “deniers of culture” and “anti-humanists”. And I am speaking of leaders who, for decades, played a significant role in history. The only things they asked me when I told them that I was Swiss, were, firstly, if I knew any details about a global child protection organisation, based in Geneva, and secondly, if I had ever met any of the two famous “Alberts” of the era, Schweitzer and Einstein, or Bertrand Russell and Bergson. The latter is considered as another precursor here, since it’s because of his observation on tuition that they managed to “see” the prophecy about the Nibelvirch. The same goes for Maurice Maeterlinck and “Blue Bird”… They claim to have seen the true “Blue Bird”...
The last memory that Norfor left me with was also the best. I said goodbye to Norfor by visiting the old town of Blomsterduft that had kept its old institutes and its alternating fields of green spaces and tree-lined streets, where you could almost feel the ancient Scandinavian spirit floating in the air you breathed. It was one of the few areas of the former Norway and Sweden where some national memories had managed to survive in this most devastating global melting pot of their times…
One of the first things done by young students who come to Norfor from all over the world in the millions is to pay homage to the old city, the cultural hub of their ancestors for 32 generations. Every nook and cranny is a memento of their culture of the last few centuries. As I learned, two great teachers from two-three hundred years ago were called Holberg and Eilensleyer and the traditions these two spiritual figures left behind have not faded in the least.
If the Valley of Roses—which is not even a quarter of the population of Norfor although the two places cover about the same area—is today considered the “Heart of the Earth”, Norfor, starting from Blomsterduft is the “Ark of the Spirit”, according to Stefan and Jaeger, because of the direct link it had to the development of Western civilisation, giving Europe a place next to the North American and South American cultural regions that for hundreds of years had been the centres of spiritual culture, from California and Florida to Boston and New Orleans, Cape Town and Pretoria.
PRIVATE MEANS OF TRANSPORTATION AND THEIR OPINION ABOUT WORK
17- XI
On our way back we travelled through the western, coastal Alps to another state that was unknown to me, which was awash with an artificial pale white light, with palatial buildings that continued in endless symmetrical rows up to the Mediterranean Sea. We went down avenues at least one mile wide. I only managed to take a quick glance before we boarded on our individual means of transport heading back to our villas. While we descended, Stefan showed me a vast complex of buildings that looked as if made of children’s toy blocks, strewn across the whole country. At first I couldn’t understand what it was but I remember thinking that those blocks must have been of immense size. Stefan explained to me that we were flying above the production centres of Ragrilia: an entire industrial city, one of the largest in Southern Europe, with colossal production units where millions of enthusiastic youngsters worked nonstop in shifts.
People of today know that the existence of industrial states such as Ragrilia was a prerequisite for the existence and maintenance of Norfor, the Valley of the Roses and their other spiritual centres. They are well aware of the fact that these huge state production units with the endless electronic devices are the foundation of the current spiritual culture.
“The fact that we live in such comfort, that we have plenty of free time for inner cultivation and that freedom and happiness are now truly possible is owed to these states,” Stefan had admitted.
And just like Stefan, they are all convinced that there is no likelihood of humans returning to their previous condition. They believe they are now on their way to writing true history and that no generation will ever allow this incredible social edifice crumble again.
“W
e’ve paid for those mistakes too dearly to make them again. Rivers of blood and tears were shed in order to escape the mire. People will not return to living in hunger or being exploited by other people ever again. You might not have given enough importance to those things back then, but such history of pain and shame has not and will never be forgotten by us.”
I told him that such extreme situations in our time were rare and not a daily occurrence as they may think. He shook his head incredulously and told me that I had to admit that during the “prehistory”-my time-(people of the future consider the time before Eldere, that is 2396 AD, as “prehistory”), rationality was completely absent in social and economic life. And he knew much, so much that he put me in the difficult position of becoming an advocate and an apologist for our era.
But there were also moments when he spoke with pure naivety, telling stories with amazing plots and exaggerations about arms manufacturers and landowners who took tall and blue-eyed European women as “loot”.
"Just like the old barbarians of the North, who once drowned Europe in blood, so did your own barbarians lack any moral, spiritual and aesthetic values."
The pride that people of today took in the current situation was evident in Stefan’s every word. “Don’t think that the individual linsens or the privilege of not working again in your life after nineteen years of age were always a given,” he told me. He then explained to me that it all started on a winter day of 427 of their new calendar (in 2823 AD of our time) on the ground floor hall of the Binenborg Palace, on the eastern side of the large central square, when the four leaders of that decade were the first to accept the free individual means of transportation of that era, which they would, from that point on, always have throughout their professional and private lives.
It was then when one of them, Torhild, a leading figure in natural sciences and later governor and leader, posed a symbolic question: “Aren’t the people with disabilities or other problems going to need them more than us?” The rest then assured him that everybody had already received their own means and that there was no shortage anymore...
Stefan, evidently moved and excited, paused for a second and then told me, “You can’t imagine what moral satisfaction you derive from working for the common good instead of individually hoarding or putting money aside so that your grandchildren can enjoy the boredom and tedium of not being able to find a purpose in life.”
What could I say? I admired their amazing system that allowed them, with only two years’ service, to secure the rest of their lives. I asked him why, however, they did not raise the service to five, ten or fifteen years to provide them with even more wealth.
“Because our life’s objective is not untold riches,” Stefan answered. “One is wise when one knows when to stop. And trust me, it is not always easy to tell where sufficiency and comfort stop and absurdity and extravagance begin... We don’t need excesses. Our goal is to never be accused of putting barriers in the spiritual way of the Cives, the citizens. The job of an industrial worker for example doesn’t satisfy any innate need of the human soul. Hard work is not a need of the heart; it’s nothing like scientific, artistic or intellectual creation. We consider it as a new individual right for the born scientist, artist or philosopher to be left alone and unencumbered to create.”
“That’s no excuse,” I remarked, “to leave the glothners in the hands of those kids, especially when you know how much better production would be if left in the hands of more mature people.”
“There’s no need to fret about that. The current partners are much more mature than you’d think, considering their age.”
His last words reminded me of an observation I made regarding these people, everywhere I went, since the first day. On the one hand, these young people seemed to have an admirable maturity that I wished our adults could have. On the other hand, however, all of them, adult men and women, sometimes looked and behaved as “big children”.
I was thinking that if I managed to learn how exactly they achieved abundance in consumer goods and means of transport, if I could find out the details about the service plans and the method of enlistment, their universal confederation of trade unions, the commonwealth of the Cives and their rationalistic institutions and could return to our time one day, we could implement all this as well. But first we’d have to transform humans, build them from scratch. Because here, for the last centuries, there hasn’t been a single instance of one person approaching another person with the purpose of benefiting from them or exploiting them for any reason. This phenomenon has vanished from their interpersonal relations. And I’m ashamed to admit it but, in the beginning, even I happened to take advantage of their naivety in order to make exchanges that would prove beneficial to me. I would achieve any exchange the way I wanted to, in less than two minutes, by first showing excessive enthusiasm about something of theirs and then appealing to their friendship and good nature. The thought that I wasn’t being completely honest, never crossed anyone’s mind. Then I stopped doing it.
You could easily do them irreparable damage by taking advantage of their naivety, but the most terrible thing is that, afterwards, they wouldn’t talk about the damage or try to claim responsibility; they would just wonder how there could be so much cunning in the world, and how their love and honesty was repaid with such malice.
One day I asked the Office Partners of the sector of technical resources for a second Reigen (a 3D screen), claiming that I had lost the first one. The next day they sent me a new one without even checking if I was telling the truth and without verifying the order or the serial number.
The Valley of the Roses itself gives directions to the glothners so that there is abundance and variety of consumer goods in order for the Cives to have the privilege of choice, but only for the standard goods. The officials of the spiritual hierarchy, however, even the Tilteys, are entitled to personalised products and can make specialised orders. As for the sufficiency of the products in number, it is ensured by statistical demand; the types, variety and quantity of production are determined by the previous year’s statistical data gathered from the consumers.
TROENDE: THE NEW HUMAN BEING
Stefan doesn’t know anything about my aforementioned behaviour in the beginning of my stay here, and in any case, it is a thing of the past. Their childhood purity of heart and mind is so moving that it makes you want to be like them. Their intellectual and moral purity and clarity has such a power to relax and alleviate me that there are times when I feel love for the whole world… They don’t suspect anything bad about you and you, in turn, feel the need to get rid of even the slightest ugliness inside you. In their eyes you look so much better than you really are and that urges you to actually become better. They see so much sincerity, love and selflessness in you and something inside you makes you want to justify this idea they have for you, as much as possible.
That’s how it is: the current Troende, the man of the new era, is a social and psychological type of human, successor to the human-robot, the "practical man", who wore the blinders of his daily struggle for survival, who was always on the verge of anxiety, deprived of any inner life and free time look after himself or nature, the man-product of the soulless techno-culture, the materialistic man of the era of mechanistic philosophy that was completely out of touch with any spiritual foundation.
Furthermore, now they are also capable of distinguishing the intellect from the soul. Today, more than in any other moment in the history of mankind, the spiritual culture burdens the consciousness of the contemporary man, regardless of the achievements of the intellect, knowledge, scientific and technological progress.
But the most surprising difference between the old and the new social history is arithmetic; the Troende is now the most common type of social man worldwide. Here, the commandment of “love thy neighbour” is the prevailing way of living—it is the rule not the exception. These people have managed to turn the “unbelievable” and the “impossible” into the “possible
” and “real”. They are following the preaching of Christianity without being Christians.
SEX, MATERNITY, RELATIONS AND THE ESSENCE OF LOVE
25 - XI
Lately it seems that someone has cast the evil eye upon our group and two out of the four couples have split up. Axel and Juliet, who appeared even more in love than Stefan and Hilda, after a lot of whining and misunderstanding, decided to go their separate ways. Nobody knows what the exact causes of the separation were since nobody here talks about them. They were probably too young for a long-lasting commitment. After a short farewell party, in between sobs and laughter, she left, heading north. Shortly after, Axel left too. He first went to Sicily but was planning on leaving after two months’ time to continue his violin studies.
A week ago, Aria broke up with Eric with unexpected and remarkable determination and went to live with her folks in her second homeland, Norfor. This separation was seemingly sudden. For a long time it was obvious that their cohabitation and coexistence wouldn’t last long. They split up in a completely civilised manner and with a few clear words.
We went to see Eric on the first night after Aria left and we kept him company for hours. He felt sad that he couldn’t keep her and he said that he had always known that if they ever broke up it would be on her initiative, as it eventually happened. He accepted it, however, with a relaxed and slightly sad attitude and lack of cheerfulness.
“I wish I could have made her happier,” was his last sentence.
As for me, I was still staying at Stefan and Hilda’s and near them I was experiencing every day the one thing I had truly missed in my life: brotherly love.
