Red Sky at Morning
Superstar
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2017
- Messages
- 14,661
C.S. Lewis, in allegorical form foresaw a contact with new forces entirely transcendent to our understanding. A prisoner (Alcasan) had been decapitated and his head kept alive, and able to speak, possibly foreshadowing the transhumanist movement of today). In a key dialogue, Mark (a potential acolyte) is offered the choice of initiation into this inner circle of knowledge and obedience, or face death.
I think it entirely possible that the apparent benevolence of these “magical” extra dimensional personalities may turn out to be a vaneer.
‘Yes,’ said Frost. ‘You have been selected as a possible candidate for admission. If you do not gain admission, or if you reject it, it will be necessary to destroy you. I am not, of course, attempting to work on your fears. They only confuse the issue. The process would be quite painless, and your present reactions to it are inevitable physical events.’
Mark considered this thoughtfully. ‘It–it seems rather a formidable decision,’ said Mark. ‘That is merely a proposition about the state of your own body at the moment. If you please, I will go on to give you the necessary information. I must begin by telling you that neither the Deputy Director, nor I, are responsible for shaping the policy of the Institute.’ ‘
The Head?’ said Mark.
‘No. Filostrato and Wilkins are quite deceived about the Head. They have, indeed, carried out a remarkable experiment by preserving it from decay. But Alcasan’s mind is not the mind we are in contact with when the Head speaks.’
‘Do you mean Alcasan is really…dead?’ asked Mark. His surprise at Frost’s last statement needed no acting.
‘In the present state of our knowledge,’ said Frost, ‘there is no answer to that question. Probably it has no meaning. But the cortex and vocal organs in Alcasan’s head are used by a different mind. And now, please, attend very carefully. You have probably not heard of macrobes.’
‘Microbes?’ said Mark in bewilderment. ‘But of course–’
‘I did not say microbes; I said macrobes. The formation of the word explains itself. Below the level of animal life, we have long known that there are microscopic organisms. Their actual results on human life, in respect of health and disease, have of course made up a large part of history: the secret cause was not known till we invented the microscope.’
‘Go on,’ said Mark. Ravenous curiosity was moving like a sort of groundswell beneath his conscious determination to stand on guard.
‘I have now to inform you that there are similar organisms above the level of animal life. When I say, “above”, I am not speaking biologically. The structure of the macrobe, so far as we know it, is of extreme simplicity. When I say that it is above the animal level, I mean that it is more permanent, disposes of more energy, and has greater intelligence.’
‘More intelligent than the highest anthropoids?’ said Mark. ‘It must be pretty nearly human, then.’
‘You have misunderstood me. When I say it transcended the animals, I was, of course, including the most efficient animal, Man. The macrobe is more intelligent than Man.’
Frowningly, Mark studied this theory. ‘But how is it in that case that we have had no communication with them?’
‘It is not certain that we have not. But in primitive times it was spasmodic, and was opposed by numerous prejudices. Moreover, the intellectual development of man had not reached the level at which intercourse with our species could offer any attractions to a macrobe. But though there has been little intercourse, there has been profound influence. Their effect on human history has been far greater than that of the microbes, though, of course, equally unrecognised. In the light of what we now know, all history will have to be re-written. The real causes of all the principal events are quite unknown to historians; that, indeed, is why history has not yet succeeded in becoming a science.’
‘I think I’ll sit down, if you don’t mind,’ said Mark resuming his seat on the floor. Frost remained, throughout the whole conversation, standing perfectly still with his arms hanging down straight at his sides. But for the periodic upward tilt of his head and flash of his teeth at the end of a sentence, he used no gestures.
‘The vocal organs and brain taken from Alcasan,’ he continued, ‘have become the conductors of a regular intercourse between the Macrobes and our own species. I do not say that we have discovered this technique; the discovery was theirs, not ours. The circle to which you may be admitted is the organ of that co-operation between the two species which has already created a new situation for humanity. The change, you will see, is far greater than that which turned the sub-man into the man. It is more comparable to the first appearance of organic life.’
‘These organisms, then,’ said Mark, ‘are friendly to humanity?’
‘If you reflect for a moment,’ said Frost, ‘you will see that your question has no meaning except on the level of the crudest popular thought. Friendship is a chemical phenomenon; so is hatred. Both of them presuppose organisms of our own type. The first step towards intercourse with the macrobes is the realisation that one must go outside the whole world of our subjective emotions. It is only as you begin to do so, that you discover how much of what you mistook for your thought was merely a by-product of your blood and nervous tissues.’
I think it entirely possible that the apparent benevolence of these “magical” extra dimensional personalities may turn out to be a vaneer.
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