THE MAGIC LABYRINTH

"'A person loses the wathan or ka at the moment of death, which is when the body is beyond revivification. Where does the ka go? As seen through our device, let's call it a kascope, it usually drifts off at once, carried by what etheric wind we don't know. Sometimes it remains attached to a locality, why we can't guess. But eventually it cuts loose and drifts off.

‘"The universe is filled with these, yet they can never increase enough to occupy all of space. They can intersect, pass through each other, an unlimited number can occupy the same space.

" ‘We assume that the ka is unconscious though it contains the intelligence and memory of the dead person. So the ka wanders through eternity and infinity, a vessel for the mental potentiality of the living person. A frozen soul, if you will.

‘"When a dead person's body is duplicated, the ka reattaches itself to that body. No matter how far away it might be from the body in spatial terms, it flashes back at the first second of life of that duplicated body. There is an affinity between the two that knows no bounds. But when the reunion takes place, the ka has no memory of the interval between the moment of death of the first body and the first moment of consciousness of the second duplicate body.

‘"However, some have said that it is possible that the ka is fully conscious during its bodiless periods. Evidence for this theory was lent by a certain phenomenon of afterlife which was well documented, I understand, in the 1970's. As I remember the accounts a significant number of men and women who were legally dead were revivified. They testified that while dead they had experienced out-of-body flights, had watched relatives grieve and had been yanked back into life. Whether or not the ka does have a memory during these times, we are concerned only with its incarnations, its enfleshed states.'

"La Viro was both stu

Goring paused, then said, "As I know only too well."

There was some laughter.

‘"Pardon me,' La Viro said. ‘How do you make this duplicate body?'

"He looked down at his own body and thought of how it had been dust and now was whole again.

"'We have instruments which can detect and scan the ka,' the visitor said. ‘These can determine the nature of and location of each nonmatter molecule. From then on, it is a matter of energy-matter conversion.'

"'Can you duplicate any ka at any stage?' La Viro said. ‘I mean, what if a man died at eighty? Could you duplicate his ka at the age of twenty?'

" ‘No. The ka of the eighty-year-old is the only one existing. Then, while the mind is unconscious, the body made from the records is regenerated to the twenty-year-old state. All defects are corrected. A recording of that body is made and destroyed. For the first resurrection on the surface of this planet, another energy-matter conversion is made. During this process, the bodies are unconscious.'

"'What if you made two duplicates?' La Viro asked. ‘At the same time? To which would the ka be attached?'

‘"Presumably, to the first that was revivified,' the visitor said. ‘No matter how synchronized the new resurrections, there would still be at least a microsecond difference. Our machines ca

"'Yes,' La Viro said, ‘but what if it were done?'

"'The body without a ka would develop its own, I suppose. And though the second body is the duplicate of the first in the begi

"'But we are getting into minutiae. The important thing is this. Most disembodied kas go forever without consciousness.

At least, we hope so. It would be hell to be imprisoned in an intangible body, without control of it, without communication with others, yet aware of it all. The inevitable result would be the torments of the damned. It is too horrible to contemplate.

"'Anyway, nobody who's been resurrected remembers the interval between death and the second life.'

"And so," Goring said, "La Viro was told that out of the billions who died on Earth, only a minute fraction was not part of that wandering horde of kas. A few went out. Disappeared. The visitor did not know where and why. The Ancients had only told the Ethicals that these few had gone on. They had united with the Creator or were at least keeping company with It.

"The visitor said that he could see that La Viro had many questions. He would answer a few, but they would be confined to the center of this subject. How did the Ethicals know that a few kas had gone on? How could every one of the billions of kas be numbered, be kept track of?

" ‘You must have some awareness of the vast powers of our science and technology,' the visitor said. ‘Even the forces that shaped this world and brought you back to life are beyond your imagination. But what you experience here is only a small part of what is available to us. I tell you that we have counted every ka that came into being on Earth. It took over a hundred years to do it, but it was done.

"'You see, it is science that has brought about what was thought to be possible only to the supernatural. The mind of humankind has done what the Creator did not intend to do Itself. Because, I suppose, the Creator knew that sentient beings would do it. Indeed, it is possible that sentiency is the ka of God.

‘"Let me detour a little myself, though it is not really an irrelevancy. You seem to regard me as, if not a god, at least a cousin to one. I can hear you breathing hard, smell the fright in your sweat, see the awe in your face. Be not afraid. It is true that I am ethically advanced beyond you. But I am not proud because of that. You could catch up with me. Even, perhaps, overtake and pass me.'

‘"I have powers at my fingertips which make the science of your day look like an ape's. But I am no more intelligent than the most intelligent of Riverdwellers. I can make mistakes and errors.

‘"Also, keep this in mind. When—or if—you go out to preach, stress this always. He who climbs up may slip back. In other words, beware of regression. You do not know the word? Then, beware of backsliding. Not until the ka has winged its way outward forever is it safe from regression. Who lives in flesh lives in danger.

‘"That advice applies to me as well as to you.'

"At this point, La Viro reached toward his visitor. He felt an urge to touch the man, to assure himself that he was indeed flesh and blood.

"The visitor recoiled and cried, ‘Do not do that!'

"La Viro withdrew his hand, but his injured feelings showed. His visitor said, ‘I am sorry, sorrier than you can imagine, but please do not touch me. I will say no more of this. But when you have gotten to the point where I may embrace you, then you will understand.'

"And so, my brothers and sisters," Goring said, "the visitor proceeded to tell La Viro why he should found this new religion. The name of our organization was La Viro's idea, nor did the visitor compel La Viro to found it. He merely asked that he should do so. But he must have known his man, for La Viro said he would do as his visitor asked.

"The principles of the Church of the Second Chance and the techniques for enfleshing them are not tonight's subject. It will take too long to propound and defend them. That is for tomorrow night's meeting.

"At the end, La Viro asked the Ethical why he had chosen him, of all people, to become the founder of the Church.

"'I am an ignorant half-breed,' La Viro said. ‘I was raised in the deep Canadian forest. My father was a white trapper, and my mother was an Indian. Both were looked down upon by the British who ruled our land. My mother was almost an outcast in her own tribe because she married a white man. My father was scorned as a squawman, a dirty Frenchie, by the English he worked for.