'Hey, hey, hey!' cried Milplat,
raising his voice. 'Enough of that, please! You sound as if you're on their
side! What's got into you? Did they get
to you? How much of this eulogy to anarchy is Lemurian? How much of it is Dr Jordan Karpachian? I
didn't know you were an armchair anarchist, Jordan?'
The team of onesies laughed
nervously, one or two cheering and raising their fists and bottles in a mock
gesture of solidarity.
'I don't deny that I sympathise with
what they think of us wheelies, Mimplat.
You can call it anarchy you like.'
'We're public servants, Jordan! '
argued Milplat. 'We're not paid to be rabble rousers. You should be grateful
for what you have. We're doing a valuable service back home. What do you think
would happen if children didn't go to school? You're a father yourself, aren't
you? What kind of a society would
Atlantis become, for God's sake?'
'Lemurian?'
'The Lemurians, Jordan, don't
believe in God, isn't that so?' interjected
Salpo, with a smile and a soothing voice, from Religious Services and
Institutions. 'They don't believe in a
life after death, do they?'
'They're
communists!' cried Craxl. 'Not just atheists!'
'They
certainly don't believe in a life before
death!' muttered Mimplat aloud to
everybody's amusement.
'I think if you were to ask
them that yourself, Salpo,' I replied, 'they would say that matters of life and
death are far too important to be left to the fragility of mere belief. That's
what they say about reincarnation.'
'Put that in your pipe
and smoke it, Salpo!' came a voice from the group.
'I'll
remind you, Jordan, that belief is central to all faiths,' counselled
Salpo.
'What I meant to say, Salpo, was that belief for them is not a
wager. X believes in this god, Y believes in another, Z doesn't believe in
either of them. For most people, a belief is directly linked to one's culture
or place of birth. Each belief has some bible or ancient book or text or other
to support it and lend it some rational credibility. The book itself may be of
doubtful progeny or authenticity or may have been altered or redacted or mistranslated
or open to various interpretations, so the book too, itself, has to be
believed. It's not like that for the
Lemurians. They are not interested in what we call belief. They view such a precarious way of stumbling
through life as an actual impediment to truth. Lemurians are spiritual, not religious. When
they say to believe is to see, rather
than to see is to believe, they are
talking about trust. To heal or be healed, for example, you need to believe it,
you need to trust in yourself, in the healing. Doubt is, I understand, an acceptable aspect
of some of the belief-based faiths in Atlantis. Trust, however, harbours no
doubt.'
'I suspect you've been converted, Dr
Karpathian!' Salpo remarked. 'And in a
single day, to boot! I must find out what the trick is and take a leaf out of
their book!' he smiled.
Everybody
laughed aloud at the priest's response.
'But
you haven't answered my question, Jordan. What do they have to say about life
after death?'
'Atheism and anarchy! You've been
brainwashed, Jordan!' shouted Milplat.
'The Lemurians communicate
regularly with their departed, Salpo,' I continued, ignoring the laughs.
'They say that when we die - they call it
retUrn - we retUrn to our true state between lives which is pure joy. They also
say that we are already living in what you call the afterlife.'
'What?!' bleated Craxl.
'They say that Earth is an integral part
of Paradise. We are actually living here, now, in a paradise, they say. However,
we, the Atlanteans, have chosen to turn it into a hell. We still choose to turn
it into a hell. In our blind folly, we have deprived ourselves of the three
basic freedoms, freedom from economic restraint, freedom of expression, freedom
from interference. Above all, we have deprived ourselves of our freedom from interference.'
'Of course they'd say that! What do
you expect? So what's their rationale for existence? What's it all about? How
do they answer that one?'
'Good question, Craxl,'
agreed Salpo, nodding sagely.
'According
to the Lemurians, Craxl, the reason we chose to be here at all in this 3D world
is to interface with, and metabolise, if you wish, the infinite variety of
experiences presented to us here on Earth. Clearly, the most enjoyable way to
do this is live in the present moment and to know that you are a spiritual
being having a human experience and that you are one and that you are all, that
you are the drop in the ocean and the ocean in the drop.'
Another
applause, to my surprise. Even Salpo clapped, although it was more fingers than
hands.
'Is that it?' cried Craxl with his
mouth open.
'That's it.'
One of the quieter delegates asked
me what everyday home-life was like in Lemuria, a very good question, because I'm
sure it'll be the first thing Croescia and Jarok will be asking me when I get
back. I had to tell him that I had no
idea! Unfortunately, I explained, I
never had the opportunity to see inside their homes; being so caught up in my
life-changing adventure, I completely forgot to ask them about it.
And so, the questions went on tirelessly for the
next hour or so and the alcohol kept flowing, but then I showed them the Master's envelope, and everybody was all agog and insisted that I open it there and
then. I told them what the Master had said about not opening it before I got
home, but they argued that he was only playing at being the Master with his
esoteric riddle just to keep the show on the road and hold me in suspense. What
difference would a few hours make? they reasoned. In truth, I felt the same myself, my discernment,
at this stage, warped by the alcohol. As long as our intentions were good, I
felt, sure what harm was there in it?
'I believe, Mimplat, '
I answered, 'that they've been able to achieve this breatharianism, as you call
it, over many generations. But don't forget, they do eat together from time to
time, although it's more of a social thing or even a ritual. Real food, of course. Nothing processed here.
And no packaging either. No plastic.
Nothing that would harm the environment or any life-form. It kind of raises the bar for us guys at the
QSA. Wouldn't you think?'
I told them that the Lemurians work when
they feel like it, albeit out of love, not necessity. Sanchi from Schools and
Universities was enthralled by their ideas on education.
'Those holograms they use are so
amazing!' she began, 'But what about real learning? Do they study at all? It's all very well to discover things, but
you still have to sit down and study, don't you?'
'I suppose you could call it experiential
learning,' I ventured, 'learning by doing, active participating. When studying western philosophy, for example
- and they don't have much to say about western philosophy! - the student interfaces
with holograms of the actual philosophers, interviews them, challenges them,
and so on.'
'Wow!' gasped Sanchi. 'Can you imagine the kind of technology
required for a system like that? I want to live there!'
'You'd have to learn telepathy
first!' snapped Mimplat. 'And live on a
diet of air and water!'
'Apparently, Sanchi,' I said, 'they're
horrified to see how we at home have turned education into a mere springboard
for jobs. Even worse is the fact that our education is compulsory and worse
again, competitive. They say our schooling, as they call it, destroys the
springtime of our lives, confining us to the four walls of a classroom. That's
how they put it.'
'You
can add the summertime of our lives to that!' laughed Sanchi. 'I spent an extra
twelve years on my Masters and PhD!'
'Four walls, they say?' cried Mimplat. 'So what would they prefer? Three walls? No
wall at all? It's a school, isn't it? A building! You'd swear it was a prison
they were moaning about!'
'They
say we spend our whole lives in one kind of a prison or another,' I responded.
'White-collar prisons, blue-collar prisons, prisons of our own making, we are
prisoners of our beliefs, he said, of social norms, of advertising and consumerism.
Prisons of our own minds. Atlantis is an
open prison, according to Xendo. We learn how to be model prisoners at school.'
'That sounds pretty
hostile to me,' Mimplat retorted, peevishly. 'No wonder we don't have any truck
with these weirdos.'
'Nevertheless, Mimplat, the fact
that there are no schools, no churches, no hospitals or no prisons in Lemuria
would make you want to sit up and pay attention, wouldn't it? No teachers, no
doctors, no police force, no army. No shops, no advertisers, no salespeople. No
money. No stress. Just freedom. And beauty. I think he even went so far as to
say that it's actually because of our schools that our prisons - the ones with
the iron bars - are full.'
'But
everybody knows that's simply not true!' demanded Sanshi. 'Education doesn't imprison us. It's the other
way round! Surely, you must agree that education
is the one redeeming factor in our world that keeps people out of prison!
Nobody can deny that!'
'Hear, hear! This Lemurian nonsense
is all a load of codswallop! And if I may say so, I speak with some authority
here,' cried Craxl, from Justice and Law Enforcement. 'Linking our schools to our
prisons is pure cynicism. Who do these Lemurians think they are? They may not
have any prisons but they don't have any lawyers either. What kind of a society
has no lawyers?'
'OK, Craxl,' I ventured, 'let's play the
devil's advocate for a moment, shall we?'
'Be my guest.'
'Education is mandatory in
Atlantis up the age of sixteen, right? So we can assume that all the millions
of people incarcerated in our prison system have attended school, one way or
another, as formative, impressionable children for at least ten years. Would
that be correct?'
'So?'
he questioned.
'So my case rests, as your
legal colleagues might phrase it.'
'But you can't blame
the schools if these people turn into criminals, can you? What about the
parents? Their social backgrounds?'
'The point the Lemurians were trying
to make is that our schools do not offer children the guidance, love and emotional
support they need, irrespective of their backgrounds. Even if some schools do,
the large class-sizes, the one-size-fits-all approach, the drive to compete and
the inexorable link between education, worthiness, respectability, and jobs,
all of these things are corrosive. If kids are having a hard time at home, it's
going to be even harder for them at school. Youth should be a time of love and
joy, not pressure and hard work. It should be like springtime! There is no love
in our schools. And where there is no love, fear, anger and delinquency fill
the vacuum. That's the point the Lemurians were trying to make.'
I
actually got an applause for that little speech!
'More people are educated in our society now than at any
time in our history. Isn't this a good thing?'
probed Sanshi.
'Actually, I put that very
point to them! But you see, they don't
regard what we do as education. Simple
as that. The idea of an authority figure coming into a room, demanding respect
and dumping a load of information to be learned by rote and to regurgitate, much of
it questionable, on a bunch of kids or even university students under pressure
to do competitive examinations, is simply abhorrent to them. I think fundamentally, they see our system of
competitive, repetitive, unjust and invasive programming as a mechanism
designed to babysit our children while the parents are out working themselves
to the bone to keep the wheels of the economy turning for the benefit of the
privileged few. The nefarious link between education and the economy is even
worse. The brainwashed children grow up to propagate a system bolstered by the
media which is funded to uphold a culture of sleepwalking consumerism.'
