CHAPTER 14: The Challenge

I awakened in the huge bed of our Alpha room to find that it was morning. Carol and the rest of our Alpha were looking down at me.

"Welcome back, Jon," Carol said with a hug.

Then everyone was congratulating me. Lea and Rana, along with other nines and tens, had been able to follow my week's activities in 1976. They observed that I had at last demonstrated love, leadership, and wisdom (the three Macro virtues) along with some Macro powers, so that my aura was now an emission of fresh lemonyorange with tones of pink, purples, greens, blues, and white. I had achieved second-level Macro awareness.

Later that morning, while I was in my lakeside room at the C.I. center, I asked C.I. to provide me with more information about the levels of awareness. Since this was a general question, I soon discovered that I was receiving a lot more data than I could use or understand. However, by interrupting C.I. and asking specific questions I was able to gain some of the following information.

(1) While it was recognized from the beginning of the Macro society (back in the 1970s) that there were ten general levels of Macro awareness, it was not until the year 2025 that anyone demonstrated more than level three. The levels eight, nine, and ten were not achieved until after the year 2100-a rather recent development.

(2) Because of the relatively low levels of awareness in the early years of the Macro society, there had been some regressions in awareness level. This had almost always been associated with the misuse of Macro powers or leadership power. Some of these people had been on Micro Island, where they grabbed power and became the ruling elite. However, in the past 30 years no one above level two had regressed.

(3) One could attain a high degree of Macro power and still not demonstrate level-two awareness since awareness level was determined by the degree of personal evolution or Macro awareness, not by the extent of one's Macro power.

(4) The greatest challenge to the first seven levels of awareness existed on Micro Island and, thus, my best chance of developing level-three awareness quickly was to visit there. However, C.I. pointed out that on Micro Island I also ran a good chance of losing my second-level awareness and regressing to level one.

Figuring that the sooner I got there the better, I began asking all the questions I could think of concerning Micro Island. Some of the most important information involved the dangers I would be facing.

(1) Any visitor from the Macro society was liable to be killed unless protected by Macro powers. The greatest heroes of Micro Island were those who either killed the Macro visitors or persuaded them to give up membership in the Macro society to live permanently on Micro Island.

(2) The current leaders of Micro Island were all former members of the Macro society who had some degree of Macro powers and used these powers to gain personal fame and fortune. This allowed them to lord it over others on the Island. These leader had been seduced by their desire for power with its fame and adulation. In other words, pride was the last and greatest obstacle to the soul's evolution toward greater awareness.

(3) To attain level-three awareness I would have to demonstrate a personal evolution level which would overcome this last and greatest micro trait-pride. To do this I would have to voluntarily relinquish the protection of the Macro society and all its high level members including Lea and Rana.

I questioned C.I. extensively on this last bit of information and was finally given the analogy that if I wanted to demonstrate swimming proficiency I wouldn't wear a life jacket. From this I concluded that if I let anyone else help me overcome pride I would not be demonstrating level-three awareness.

The thought of being attacked by the inhabitants of Micro Island didn't seem so frightening since my experience with Griff and Judd. However, if I was attacked by someone who had developed Macro powers as great as or greater than my own that would be something else.

That evening I talked over this last possibility with Carol and Rana and received some very disturbing news. It seemed that the leaders of Micro Island were expecting me.

"How could they be expecting me?" I asked Rana. "I've never visited Micro Island."

"You've been told," she answered, "that the leaders of Micro Island are former members of the Macro society, some of whom have highly developed Macro powers. With telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition they have learned a great deal about you."

"And," Carol added, "they are determined to either kill you or persuade you to give up the Macro way of life."

"But why should they be especially interested in me?" I asked.

"Because," Rana answered, "they know you are a twin soul of Lea, who, with the help of all other nines and tens, has managed our first time-space translation. They would like to destroy our project by killing you or, even better, by getting you to denounce the Macro society and join them on. Micro Island."

"That's ridiculous," I said. "They must know that if I joined them I couldn't attain level-three awareness and would lose my chance for permanent time translation."

Rana gave me a long appraising look before she answered. Finally she said, "There is another way of staying here permanently. Since Lea and the rest of us have established the time translation, as long as you are in 2150 time they could complete the translation if you would cooperate with them."

"But... but... that's impossible!" I exclaimed. "C.I. told me that no one above level seven has ever defected to Micro Island. They wouldn't have the Macro power."

I was shocked to see both Rana and Carol shaking their heads in disagreement with my statement. Then Rana said, "There are over 1,000 former Macro society members on Micro Island with varying degrees of Macro power. When they form a mind net in which all of them link their minds together, they could exert enough psychic power to complete, with your help, the time-space translation. However, while you would be a permanent member of 2150 it would have been accomplished without the help of your twin soul and before you reached the psychic balance of level-three personal evolution.

"My God!" I exclaimed. "Then they can offer 2150 without my having to attain level three!"

Rana nodded, "And they are planning to offer you not only permanent translation to 2150 but also adoption into their ruling elite, making you the third most powerful person on Micro Island."

"Yes," Carol added, "you would rank just below their President, Elgon, and their Vice President, Sela. Elgon was the only level seven in the Macro society who ever regressed levels. It made him so angry that he chose to leave the Macro society some eighty years ago and make himself president of Micro Island. Ten years later he managed to persuade his former Alpha mate, Sela, who had been a level six, to join him as his Vice President."

"But how is it," I asked, "that they can permanently complete my time translation when the combined efforts of every level nine and ten here and in the nearby planets are unable to do the same?"

"Oh, they could do it all right," Carol answered calmly, "but they chose not to until you demonstrate level-three awareness."

"Now wait a minute," I said. "Do I understand correctly that the Macro society has the power to keep me here permanently right now but won't do it because they don't like my level of awareness?"

"Precisely," Rana answered. "But not because we're snobbish over levels of awareness, as you are presently suspecting."

"Well, then, what is the reason you won't let me become a permanent member unless I attain level-three awareness?" I asked, a bit miffed.