Joel to Peggy:
"'I have some powers over the mind,' he said slowly. 'With your co-operation, I could adjust your feelings about this.'" (p. 48)
She says, "'No -'" (ibid.) but is unable to resist his strong will and telepathic brain. Is he right to do it when she has said no? And, if we were offered it, should we consent to someone else adjusting our feelings? In zazen, we practice "sitting with" whatever thoughts or feelings come up.
Although he adjusts her feelings towards him, he does not erase her memory of his extraterrestrial origin. In fact, she suggests how he might contact his people. However, when the elders of his species arrive, they:
"...make certain changes. Your memory and that of others, your body, the work you are doing and have done -" (p. 60)
He wakes up thinking that he is a Terrestrial human being. But have they also changed his body, changed Peggy's memory, removed all trace of his many inventions and discoveries and erased everyone's memories of them? God-like powers, indeed.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Of course it was wrong for Joel do what he did to Margaret.
I never believed in those magical godlike powers we see in those "elders."
Again, Anderson soon moved away from stories of that kind.
Ad astra! Sean
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