2150 A.D.

"Yes," I nodded, "and while I have developed some Macro powers, I haven't learned to use them unselfishly. Rana warned me that if I used my new powers selfishly. I would make myself very unhappy. I was sure that I had nothing to fear since I was using them unselfishly, or so I thought. Now I know what she meant."

"Then do you realize," Karl questioned, "that you were bragging when you told me about all those people you had healed at the hospital? Do you realize that you were predominantly serving your pride, not people?"

I nodded my head in painful admission, and said, "There's another ancient bit of wisdom that says that anyone who exalts himself shall be humbled."

"Okay," Karl said. "I'm sure that if I'd suddenly developed Macro powers, I'd have misused them too. I'd probably have wiped out half the world's population by now, especially those bastards who know they're polluting our planet but just keep right on doing it to pad their own micro pockets. I probably wouldn't even have healed people out of pride-I'd have killed them out of hatred. But our problem now is to undo the damage you've done to Neda."

"I'm sorry as hell," I apologized. "I had no intention whatever of hurting her." Then, thinking it over, I added, "I could be dangerous, Karl."

"I'm not worried about that, Jon. Let's just get Neda back in shape before you go on to any more projects."

In the next few days I worked to teach Neda the principles of Macro philosophy. I was pleased to see how quickly she learned to grasp the concept, for I knew that if she could see herself and others through a Macro perspective, she could not be fearful, lonely, or dissatisfied with any experience.

After a week as her Personal Evolution tutor, I gave her this journal to read. I had talked it over with Karl beforehand and, while he, at first, was opposed to introducing her so quickly to the strange concepts presented here, he finally agreed to it on the basis that we didn't want to be over-protective. Our decision was vindicated by the enthusiastic reception Neda gave to the concept of the Macro society and by her acceptance of my desire to leave the world of 1976 and become a life-long member of the Macro society of the future.

While the Macro philosophy and P.E. tutoring helped Neda, the severance of our unhealthy dependency relationship would have taken much longer to complete if Karl had not fallen so completely in love with her. He devoted almost every waking moment that he wasn't teaching to being with her. It was he who got her out of the apartment and introduced her to the world of dating. However, he wasn't successful in getting her to return to her classes for the very good reason that the girl who was a university junior and had enrolled in courses under the name of Neda Cricksley no longer existed.

It was at this time that Karl came into our room one evening after a date with Neda and told me that he didn't know what to do about the legal problem of Neda's identity.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Well," Karl answered, "we couldn't get her back into her old classes because her professors and classmates would never recognize her or accept her as Neda Cricksley. We thought of enrolling her under a fictitious name for the next semester, but we finally realized that they won't accept her without past school records, and we haven't been able to figure out how we can come up with acceptable fake records for her."

"Well," I said, "I am sure you can figure out something. It doesn't sound too difficult."

"Yeah," Karl said, giving me his crooked grin, "I haven't told you all of it yet. Seems Neda's mother called the university and found out that Neda stopped attending her classes and that the psychology department has no record of her doing any typing work for any of their research."

"How did you find that out?" I asked.

"There was a notice on our department bulletin board," Karl explained, "listing her as a missing person and requesting that anyone who knows anything about her whereabouts get in touch with the campus police."

"Hmm," I said, "maybe I'd better call her mother and get it all straightened out."

Karl shook his head. "I wouldn't advise it," he said. "I talked it over with Neda and she thinks her mother is looking for her to get money from her now that she has a job. She'll want to see her, and we can't produce the body of Neda Cricksley, that's for sure!"

"In other words," I said, "you think the mother will charge me with kidnapping-possibly murder."

"Exactly," Karl nodded, "and neither she, the policemen, nor the jury that convicts you is going to believe your story, although it may help you cop a plea of insanity."

For the next couple of hours we argued about the necessity of talking with Mrs. Cricksley. Karl was strongly opposed to this and kept trying to sell me on the idea of finding a new identity for Neda and just letting her become one more unsolved missing person case. I pointed out that she had her name on her apartment mail box in the lobby and her telephone was in her name, which would certainly make it fairly easy for the police to find her when they really started looking.

With Karl still protesting, I insisted that I would see Mrs. Cricksley in the morning and try to convince her that her daughter was safe even if she couldn't see her. I went to sleep that night wondering how I was going to convince her.

Back in 2150 I had my first precognitive experience while talking with Rana. I had been practicing review of past lives when suddenly the vision of being interrogated by two policemen imposed itself on my consciousness. I had a strong feeling that this was coming in the very near future. When Rana agreed with me, I told her about my 1976 problem with Neda's identity and we discussed ways of handling it along with their probable consequences. A wise Personal Evolution tutor never tells people what to do, but rather, helps them see their problems from a more Macro perspective, then explore alternative solutions and their probable results. So I received no simple solution. However, I did decide on a course of action which seemed to provide the best long-term results for Karl and Neda. I immediately went to sleep in the tutoring room with the strong desire of waking up early in my 1976 morning.

I awakened at 5 a.m. and telephoned Neda with the request that she get dressed and come up to our room as soon as possible. Then I woke up Karl with the a

By the time Neda arrived, Karl and I had dressed and shaved. As we ate a hurried breakfast I outlined my plan of action. First we would move all of Neda's belongings into Karl's station wagon. Fortunately, she still had not acquired more belongings than the wagon could easily accommodate. Then, I suggested that Karl pack a suitcase for himself and leave with Neda for the adjoining state where they could get married and begin a little honeymoon trip.

Karl gri

Neda gave Karl and me a lovely shy smile and admitted that she too was delighted with my plan.

With their agreement to the first part of my plan I began supplying the next steps. First I would teach Karl's classes and give out the story that he had eloped with his beautiful new girlfriend. She would get married under the false name of Neda Dailey and be Neda Johnson for the rest of her life.

At first Karl was worried about the legality of their marriage if Neda used a false name, but Neda said that she didn't mind as long as Karl loved her. Then she added that if 2150 could get along without any marriages at all, they should be able to survive a slightly illegal one.