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"It seems just like yesterday," Miss Annabelle said gently as she sat alone in her classroom an hour before school would start. Today was the last day of school, and Miss Annabelle felt as if she had just begun spending time with these twelve children whom she loved. It seemed like just a couple of weeks ago she was singing "The Impossible Dream" to twelve curious onlookers. She started remembering back over the school year, week by week, and she felt overwhelming nostalgia. She did not want it to end. Her nostalgia was amplified because she would not be back. If she were here to watch them develop and have contact with them, she would feel different.
Yet, Miss Annabelle always turned the negatives in her life around into positives, and she had a plan. Today, she said to herself, I will start…
Her thoughts were interrupted. With still a half hour before school was to start, Sally came through the door. Rico was right behind her.
"Good morning, you two," Miss Annabelle said, smiling.
"Are you going to teach summer school?" Rico asked, sounding dejected. Sally nodded her confirmation of the same question, biting her bottom lip.
Miss Annabelle was touched by their feelings for her. "This will not be good-bye," she said cheerfully. Immediately Rico and Sally smiled. Soon, they were joined by their 10 classmates.
As Miss Annabelle looked over her classroom, she was remembering when she did this the first day of school. How far they've come, she thought.
Today, her students looked different than the other students in Duncan Elementary. Parties and laughter filled the other classrooms, and the faces of other students beamed with excitement for summer vacation. But this classroom was different. The air was somber, and the students looked sad.
"Can I fix those long faces?" Miss Annabelle asked them.
"Miss Annabelle," Alan burst, "our parents let you down! They know you are innocent. They know you're the reason for our high test scores. They know you're why we're doing things we're really proud of. But they didn't complain to the school. If our parents didn't complain, then who would? Who could save you?"
Miss Annabelle knew Alan was right. So did the other students. Before she could talk, however, Reggie spoke, "My mom likes you, I know that. But she's scared to stand up to the companyities, even after I begged her to. She let me come back to finish the year with you; she was able to see through to what is enough to know the great value you are to me, but in the end she would not stand up for you. Damn it, that makes me so upset. It's like she's helpless to act on her own mind. She let the minds of others - people like Ms. Minner and that politician who died - make her decision for her!"
Miss Annabelle saw how upset Reggie was. The right course of action seemed so painfully obvious to him and to the other students, she realized, because their minds worked completely on their own now. Their passion for what so obviously was right, and their frustrations with their parents were wonderful signs that these nine-year-olds now lived in the world of what is. Therefore, as Miss Annabelle had set out the year to do, they now had the power.
Reggie's strong words expressed what others in the class wanted to say. Again, before Miss Annabelle could talk, someone beat her to it. She realized the children needed to express themselves and vent their frustrations.
"Most of our parents are good people," Johnny said directly to Reggie, "and they all have the facts to see through the illusions. But, good as they are, they don't stop the firing of Miss Annabelle. They default at the deepest level of honesty and turn their power over to authorities."
Again, Miss Annabelle knew he was right. She knew that the reason their parents were afraid to act on their own authority stemmed from their lifelong inability to effectively see through to the essence of things - to what is. She knew that many things caused their inefficiency at seeing and acting on reality. And by not being effective at seeing reality, they turned over their decisions to the so-called "experts" or "authorities" who, in turn, obscured reality and manipulated the good people for selfish ends, just as Hammerschmidt and Minner did. Those "authorities" were everywhere, including politicians, clergymen, the media, the group, the Establishment. Good people, she thought, still had to look outside their own minds for guidance. But not her students. She knew now, they saw through appearances to what is so efficiently that they could never accept being told how to think or act. And that was what bothered them so about their parents accepting the school firing their innocent and beloved teacher.
"Unlike you, your parents for the most part do not see reality efficiently enough to be their own authorities. So, in the end, they turn their authority over to the leaders," Miss Annabelle explained. "You're equipped to efficiently see and integrate reality, so you don't turn over your decision making to the so-called authorities. Most people, including your own parents, are not able to be their own authorities all the time, like you. However, two parents did call and fight for me - Sally's mom did and Teddy's dad."
The twelve students clapped, and Sally and Teddy grinned from ear to ear, feeling very proud of their special parents.
"As you know," Miss Annabelle continued, "in today's world what is best oftentimes is not what appears to be best. When I started here, I was told that my job was to `teach the children how to integrate effectively into society'. That sounded good, like the best thing to do. But, this being the year of my own awakening, I learned to look beyond appearances to what teaching really is: `teach the children to someday build magnificent values that a lot of people want to buy'. Now, look at you…you have already begun to experience the real excitement of life - creating values like your Breakthrough News masterpiece. You feel the excitement and happiness inside and have discovered the meaning of life. Remember our camping trip? I told you the meaning of life was the happiness you would feel by making values for society. And all of you will someday become wealthy from selling your competitive values. Teddy already is becoming wealthy, which makes me so proud."
She stopped to take a moment to absorb those beautiful faces beaming back at her. During this memory, Bobby raised his hand.
"Yes, dear?" she said.
"Can I request something?" he asked.
"Sure, Bobby."
"Okay," Bobby said, then looked at Teddy. "I was wondering if Teddy could tell us how our parents can break out of their stagnant traps?" Bobby loved his parents and knew they wanted more out of life.
"Sure, I can," Teddy said.
Bobby smiled gratefully and asked, "Miss Annabelle, could you record Teddy?"
"I'd love to," she said, taking the audiocassette over to Teddy's desk and turning on the "record" button.
"First of all," Teddy began, "it's so true what you've taught us about seeing through what appears to be to the what is - to the essence of things. It applies everywhere. A couple of months ago, my uncle showed me his schedule at work. In about two minutes, I saw he was trapped in a routine rut. I knew he would quadruple his effectiveness if he set up his schedule not task by task, but by the few physical movements he must perform each day - by mini-days like me. So I told him to write down a list of three days of tasks as he did the tasks. From that list, together we figured out his handful of physical movements and set up his mini-day schedule. His productivity multiplied four or fivefold, immediately. He got a bonus and promotion three weeks later. That happened by looking past what appears to be efficient…to the essence of efficiency. After he got his bonus and promotion, I started to wonder about something. You see, I multiplied the profitability of my business four or fivefold by dividing my workers into entrepreneurial mini-companies. Of course, I'm the owner of my company, so I could do that. But what about my uncle? Well, my dad has risen rapidly in his company ever since that talk with you that one evening after school. He started looking past what appears to be best. My dad has essentially become an entrepreneurial unit with his own mini-company in his place of work. He absorbed the money-making responsibilities by enthusiastically taking over their nitty-gritty details as you told him. He's now called a project manager with a team of people under him. …Well, we asked my uncle to write down his job responsibilities. At first glance, they appeared to represent a definitive job. But as we thought about the essence of business, which is making money, we realized how stagnant his job responsibilities were. They had nothing at all to do with making money. They amounted to nothing more than maintaining the business, not moving it forward and making money. My dad said this was exactly the trap he was in just a few months ago. As I looked at my uncle's job responsibilities, I could not stop from feeling his job was a terrible waste of the company's greatest asset - the mind. So, I looked at the company my uncle worked for as if it were mine. Then, with both my dad's and my uncle's help, we figured out every way in which the company made money. Therein lay the secret to breaking this company down into jobs of essence - into the 21st-century division-of-essence business. For each way the company made money, I asked my uncle what responsibilities were needed, and I listed those responsibilities under their corresponding money-making essence. When we finished that, we realized that we were looking at the company from a completely different dimension - the division of essence. As I stared at the different ways the company made its money and the list of responsibilities under them, I knew that the company my uncle works for could be divided differently - into profit-making jobs just like my little company. His company makes money in six basic ways. In my little company, six ways of making money might result in only six money-making or entrepreneurial employees with their mini-companies. In the big company my uncle works for, you could have several mini-companies in each money-making area with the same set of responsibilities, and each would have his or her own money-making project. Changing them from dead-end routine ruts of labor to exciting money-making jobs of the mind, well…you should see the change in my uncle. Like my dad, he absorbed the money-making responsibilities and is now his own mini-company at his place of work. It's like he's alive and young again, just like my dad!"
"Yes!" Bobby shouted, "That's exactly what I want for my parents, too!"
"Teddy, how long did it take your dad and uncle to get from their routine ruts as you call them to those exciting entrepreneurial jobs?" Miss Annabelle asked. She knew the parents would love to know this secret and was glad she was recording him.
"Oh, it was a very exciting process that lasted a couple of months," Teddy explained. "They selected the money-making area they wanted to move into, and they targeted the corresponding responsibilities. They didn't tell anyone what they were doing, but they started aggressively taking over, one by one, the nitty-gritty details that made up those responsibilities. They found that nitty-gritty details are open for the taking, just as you told my dad. People will easily let go of them and allow someone eager to take over those tough details. By taking over those essential details, they gradually absorbed the bigger responsibilities, one by one. Within two months, they both created their mini-companies at work. Both my father and my uncle and, of course, I got so much success by being able to see past what appears to be best to what is best."
"That's a great story, Teddy." Miss Annabelle said. She felt the most incredible pride for this young man. His classmates clapped. Most of them planned to bring the idea home to their folks.
"The power behind Teddy's story," Miss Annabelle continued, "is that he can efficiently see through to the essence of things and therefore, uses the authority of his own mind and does not turn his authority over to `the way it is'. This is how breakthroughs are made. This is how society progresses. Through this process of seeing through what appears to be best to what is best, you can take things in life to the next level never seen before as Teddy is doing in business. I liken Teddy to Henry Ford, being able to cut through `the way it is' to something altogether different and better."
Teddy's eyes opened big and he blinked several times. He was just compared to his hero.
"Mr. Melbourne and I think Teddy is building piece by logical piece the world's next business paradigm. Henry Ford did this in the 1920s as he developed the assemblyline, which perfected the division of labor and brought mass production to the world. Before that, everything was more or less handmade in limited supply. Whereas Ford perfected labor's role in business, Teddy is perfecting the mind's role in business. Mr. Melbourne and I believe most businesses will shift to the division of essence in the next few years."
Teddy was blushing and bursting with pride.
"And I see comparisons between Ian and Copernicus," Miss Annabelle continued. Ian sat up to the edge of his seat when he heard his name mentioned next to his hero; his teacher explained why, "Copernicus completely changed the way we looked at the Universe. Until he came along, we thought Earth was at the center of the Universe and the Sun, planets, and stars circled us. Looking up at the sky, that geocentric or `earth centered' explanation seemed quite logical. But Copernicus saw through that appearance to what is. He built that breakthrough piece by logical piece until he saw a brand new puzzle picture forming, taking the cosmos to the next level - the heliocentric or `sun centered' perspective of our solar system. I also see Ian building a breakthrough, piece by logical piece, and I see a puzzle picture forming not seen before - the God-Man Universe. Until now, everyone looked at the Universe as controlled by mass and energy. Teddy sees through that appearance to what is - the Universe is controlled by consciousness millions of years more advanced that earthlings. Mr. Melbourne and I both believe Ian is developing a profound, Neothink breakthrough."
Now Ian was blushing and bursting with pride.
"Remember this as you leave my class and go forward: do not glide through life - pierce through appearances! The other day at recess, I heard two older boys arguing who would be better for the country - a white president or a black president. Then I was so proud when Johnny interrupted and showed them that anything or anyone who rules over us is wrong. The things Johnny said sounded like pieces to yet another success puzzle that could lead to a powerful political breakthrough. For example, one of the boys started arguing that we owe a living to some unfortunate people trapped at the bottom of society. He said we historically suppressed blacks, and now we `owe them'. Welfare and other handouts by the government were good and necessary, he said. A black president would assure such public good, he concluded. Johnny then, very benevolently, said, `You will become a slave all over again, this time to the government, with that kind of thinking. Freedom comes from producing values - producing your own way is how you get independence.' Johnny went on to turn this 11-year-old's thinking around. Johnny finished his mission by saying, `Politicians are political animals. Their talk about the public good is like a wife beater saying baby, I love you. It sounds good, but when you see through it, you realize it keeps you sticking around for more abuse.' …Johnny, you were magnificent."
Johnny was blushing. "I got the wife beater idea from one of your lectures," he said.
Miss Annabelle smiled and continued, "I see several success puzzles starting to form in your Breakthrough News. I see Neothink working in all of you; it's exciting and rewarding!"
Miss Annabelle's gaze dropped on Sally. Her emotional maturity, displayed in her contribution to Breakthrough News, was breathtaking. Sally saw through appearances to what is the meaning of life and death. Her depth of the value of human life went beyond anything Miss Annabelle had seen before. The only thing wrong with life, as Sally so well demonstrated, was death. Everything else could be corrected. Death could not. Sally vowed to someday cure cancer and work toward the elimination of human death itself.
"Nothing I've ever seen even came close to expressing the value of human life the way you have, Sally. I see a couple of possible success puzzles forming for you. One is medical research to cure cancer, aging, and death. The other is emotional research into why people do not resist death as the worst natural disaster and aging as man's worst plaque…a disease that is 100% fatal that must be cured. In either case, you're on your way."
Miss Annabelle savored the moments…their last precious moments together as a class. She knew she had accomplished what she had set out to do. In fact, she now realized she never had a completely clear focus on what she was hoping to accomplish because she had never witnessed the Neothink mentality before her twelve students showed her. So, on this day, the results of her goal were fresh and exciting. Those results were concretized and tangibly poured out before her in the Breakthrough News publication. For Miss Annabelle, that publication was the final exam from her students. And in it, she witnessed her students go to the next level beyond people today.
Filled with pride, filled with nostalgia, she continued her talk, "All of you are using common denominators to form concepts, and then using those concepts like puzzle pieces to form success puzzles. …Rico, who would have ever thought to separate criminals by two different common denominators - by those who committed a crime through force or fraud versus those who committed a crime not through force or fraud, but through breaking some political-policy law or regulation."
Rico was smiling. He had spent many days in the prison's visiting room the past five years. His father was imprisoned three of those years and his uncle the past two years. While visiting the prison, Rico began to notice a clear distinction in looks between those who committed a crime of force or fraud versus those who committed a crime not through force, but through breaking a law or regulation created by politicians or bureaucrats. The distinction became so evident to Rico that he would play a little game when he visited: he would observe a man for about an hour, then decide in his head what category he fell into. Then he would ask his father why the man was in prison. Rico was right most of the time.
Rico came to realize the men who were in prison because of political reasons were different - they were good people for the most part. They shouldn't be in here, he'd conclude.
Rico sat quietly but proudly after Miss Annabelle complemented him. But Johnny spun around in his chair and said to Rico, "Yeah, Riccy. I wanted to tell you what a great piece you wrote about those two concepts of law and regulations. You're right on about that."
"Thanks," Rico said modestly. He was quiet, but he felt a wonderful power within. He now easily saw through illusions and perceptions that had trapped his family for generations before him and had previously begun to trap him, too. He could not get over how good he felt now. Seeing reality for what it is feels spectacular, he thought.
"I want to thank you, Miss Annabelle," Rico said, overcoming his shyness. "Anyone could have shown me another path than I was on before - the good path. But it would have never changed me. But you showed me how to think…how to see through illusions to what is, and that changed me because I was able to discover, through my own thinking, the good path. Thank you."
Rico's words were said with sincerity and sensitivity. Coming from this little nine-year-old tough guy, they slammed into Miss Annabelle's heart and stuck on it like a heavy plunger. God, I'll miss him, she thought. But, she knew his life would be a good one now. …With a heavy but happy heart, she continued.
"Each of you demonstrated signs of Neothink in your Breakthrough News," she said glancing around the room. "Jeremiah, that was a powerful common denominator you identified that keeps churches going today despite their growing problems with scientific facts. You're absolutely right: churches do offer substantial life advantages because of their social networkings. I love your idea of starting a new, scientifically sound church someday, emphasizing that common denominator of great social networking as the building block while working toward a common goal of achieving biological immortality before, not after, you die."
"I love that idea too," Sally said.
"What an exciting set of concepts you have, Jeremiah, from the value of such a church to the marketing ideas of such a church," Miss Annabelle continued, still impressed by Jeremiah's conception of an entirely new church to outcompete the waning religions today.
Jeremiah, a humble fellow on the outside but stirring thinker within, was quick to give credit where it was due. "My idea came off of the God-Man theory of the Universe, in which we would never die," he said. "Also, your lecture on life being the highest value in the Universe made me realize that biological immortality is the most important goal, and religion should be focussed that way. Also, Mr. Melbourne taught me about the bicameral man who lived 3000 years ago and how religions, including today's religions, came out of that past, superstitious mentality."
"And you took all those concepts and began snapping them together into a completely new success puzzle that is starting to reveal a different puzzle picture never seen before," Miss Annabelle said. "You'll succeed with the new church, Jeremiah, because you know how to go down to the common denominators of people's needs. I started the school year by saying that you children would learn how to make values that a lot of people want to pay money for. Well, you have learned how to do that…by going down to the common denominators of many people's common needs. That's where the greatest values await to be discovered and the greatest marketing ideas, too. You've got a nice start, Jeremiah."
Miss Annabelle glanced around again, then stopped, spotting her next subject. "There's the master synthesizer, Alan Patterson. He organized and narrated this diverse set of subjects into one integrated publication. He tied all those subjects together under one common denominator: breakthroughs that jump to the next level, a common denominator of great interest to a lot of people."
"That's right," Teddy added. "That's proving out, too, with the number of the Breakthrough News that I'm selling. I tell people it's the next evolution of money, power, and love."
"Congratulations Alan. Congratulations Teddy. Congratulations every one of you!" Miss Annabelle said. She could have said that a hundred times and not grown tired of saying it. It was like congratulating her own children for doing something no one has done before. Looking over her class of little geniuses, she stopped when she saw Reggie.
"And what a breakthrough you're onto, Reggie," she said. "You saw through to the essence of music, through the way things are set up today. Is the essence of music what we see today? Is the essence of music to be decided by an elite Establishment? As you point out, Reggie, ultimately the consumers and artists must hold the power in a mutual, supply-and-demand value exchange. You say the music industry is like a big balloon waiting to be popped by piercing through to a direct consumer/artist exchange that eliminates the enormous but unnatural power held by the brokers. I think you're right on with your point that the music industry still needs to be run through business, but through a new business format set up more like an indifferent supplier bringing endless choices to the people instead of feeding the market with its relatively select few choices. That way, the consumer, not the elite, make their own choices. You pierced through powerful illusions to the essence of music. And you're absolutely right: if you figure out the right business format that is true to the essence of music - the consumer/artist value exchange - the whole industry would change to that consumer/artist value exchange you talk about, and there would be no more Establishment controlling the music industry or any of the arts for that matter."
Miss Annabelle knew that Reggie was on to something powerful that could change the world of art once some entrepreneur figured out the right business format. She wondered: would that someone be Reggie himself someday?
Miss Annabelle looked around the room to savor these geniuses before her. They were geniuses because during the year they had advanced into the new mentality that saw through appearances to what is. By being able to know reality effectively, they did not need to turn their authority over to the "experts" like politicians, clergy, and others who tell people how to live. Because these children so effectively saw the essence of things, they became their own authorities as they efficiently, naturally integrated reality into broad puzzle-picture understandings that others could not reach. These children were, at nine years old, going to the next level of living.
Miss Annabelle rested her eyes on the slim beauty who represented physically the metamorphosis the students went through psychologically. Like Cathy, their minds went from uncompetitive and out of shape to potent beauties. Miss Annabelle continued, "Cathy, dear, you pierced through all the illusory diets out there and went to the essence of dieting. You showed us in Breakthrough News a diet based on the three forces of nature: hunger, cravings, and fullness. Once you got past all the illusionary diets…down to the essence of dieting at this biological level, you developed the most effective diet I've ever seen. As you so clearly showed us, the essence of dieting is removing hunger and cravings while adjusting fullness levels downward, which you proved! I think your diet can help millions of people, just like it helped you. Congratulations, beautiful!"
The class gave Cathy an ovation. Cathy smiled and blushed. These days, she was always smiling.
"Another breakthrough came from you, Nattie," Miss Annabelle said, looking across the room at the attractive brown-eyed blonde. "You cut through to the essence of what happiness is made of. But how obvious you make that age-old mystery: Man is a social animal, as you say, and he gets his pride and happiness by putting values into society. Your short story about the scientist who is the only survivor on the planet after a cataclysmic event is powerfully moving. With no society, he can't feel happiness. That anecdote underscores that value production for society is the essence of happiness, for your poor survivor has no society to produce values for, thus can feel no happiness. Without a society for which to inject one's value production, there can be no value reflection…no pride or happiness. Nattie, you really pierced through a very difficult subject that has befuddled humanity through all ages: what is the meaning of life? Once you answer happiness, then you must ask: what is happiness? You, Nattie, answered that elusive question once and for all, clearly and convincingly, with your short story Sole Survivor."
Ian turned around to talk to Natasha. "I love that story about Sergio," he said. "I like the part where he was so unhappy he was about to take his own life when that last-second survival pressure, just as he pulled the trigger, made him break through to realizing the existence of the Civilization of the Universe. That was thrilling. Suddenly, he had a civilization. Now he had to figure out how to create values for it."
"But how?" Reggie joined in. "Finally, he realized how: He spent his life learning and developing magnificent classical music. He then sent his beautiful creations - his music - into the Universe through continuously running radio beams. He thought, someday, other civilizations would discover his music, and it would live on as an eternal value in distant planets. I thought that was thrilling. …My favorite part was his passion to learn how to create great music, knowing his valuable creations would someday live on in the Civilization of the Universe. I can see why that made Sergio a very happy man, even though he was all alone."
"That was so emotional," Sally added, "when Sergio was old and dying. I cried when he went around and turned the speakers all the way up on all the radio stations in the valley where he lived, all alone. He was beaming his music into the Universe while also listening to it for the last time. That was so sad when he lay down on the comfortable grass that night to die. It was like I could see him lying on his back, all alone, looking into the cosmos above him, listening to his beautiful creations boldly filling the valley, from mountainside to mountainside. That was just so sad as he lay with a smile on his face, immensely proud and happy, sharing his last moments with his greatest creations."
"I cried too," Cathy said, "as his favorite piece played proudly across the valley floor, and Sergio yelled out, `I wish I could travel with you, my love! You must journey to distant civilizations and live forever in the Civilization of the Universe. You will be loved by many. You make me so very, very proud. But my time has come; I must say good-bye. Tonight I will leave you, my companion, my love. You must find other ears to listen to you, to admire you, to love you as I have. Go now on your journey. Go now, my love, and find a new home. Make millions of people happy. You are free!'"
Everyone in the classroom took a deep breath, and then Johnny continued Natasha's short story:
"When the morning light rose over the valley, it found Sergio's lifeless body lying on the bed of grass. His face still had a smile on it. Conscious life no longer existed on Earth, but his wonderful music proudly played on and filled the lonely land with the triumphant sounds of human consciousness. …That was really moving."
"It was a stunning story," Miss Annabelle said. And, she thought, it was also a beautiful metaphor of the lonely yet happy God-Man on Earth who was not as fortunate as herself, who was all alone in the anticivilization that surrounded us. …What value that Breakthrough News brings its reader! These are just nine-year-olds, she thought, and they're answering centuries-old mysteries about the meaning of life, love, religion, politics, physics, wealth and power! Miss Annabelle could not stop wondering: what would these dozen children be like as adults? I mean, she said to herself while shaking her head, Natasha knows more about happiness and love than any woman or mother I've ever known! How can that be? Yet, Miss Annabelle knew the answer to her own question: these twelve children had gone to the next level…they were now her twelve God-Men.
"Natasha," Miss Annabelle continued, "your puzzle picture kept on growing to reveal the answers to love that could save marriages. More and more marriages today end in divorce. People don't understand the essence of love. You continued expanding your puzzle about happiness and showed us that happiness is needed first in order to feel and sustain romantic love. Value production is the essence of happiness, and you showed us a man's value production comes through his livelihood. Value reflection is the essence of love, and you showed us a man's value reflection comes most through his wife and children. You're so right that a person must know and admire and reflect his or her spouse's value production in order to have value reflection. That, in fact, keeps the love alive and burning, like your mom and dad's renewed love affair. I love your true story about saving your mom and dad's marriage by understanding this value production/value reflection dynamic. …Your piece on the essence of love helps me in my relationship!"
The twelve children laughed. …What a shame I didn't have more students than just twelve, Miss Annabelle thought, for she knew that the natural competitive pressures pushed all twelve students to the next level of Neothink and would have pushed 30 students to the next level if her class would have been that big.
Next, she looked at Debbie. She wrote a remarkable article about her parents' restaurants and her first taste of Neothink. For the past two and a half months, she spent evenings and weekends in her parents' two hamburger restaurants. She learned every imaginable detail and searched for common denominators. She was determined to make the breakthrough that would let her parents achieve their dream to expand their business, which seemed stuck at this level for years.
Debbie made a number of little breakthroughs among the details that improved efficiency. But she came to learn that the problem of not being able to expand was not an operations or personnel problem. As Teddy had once suggested, she learned the problem had to be either in marketing or in the product. Both the product and marketing were satisfactory, but something was needed, something not known to her parents before, in order to go to the next level. So, Debbie started studying the customers' eating habits, searching for common denominators. She had to break through the way things were now to something new. She also sat for long periods of time in McDonald's. There, she spotted a common denominator: almost everyone, regardless of their order, also got the golden fries. The more she watched, the more convinced she became that the fries caused an "addiction" that brought people back, over and over again. Debbie thought the people did not themselves realize that the fries (not the hamburgers) were behind their trips to McDonald's. The children, too, ate their fries and ate them first. It all happened on a subconscious level, Debbie believed. But McDonald's had to be aware of the secret of the fries, for the combo meals with fries costs about the same as ordering the burger and drink separately, without fries. In other words, the fries were given out, more or less, for free.
So, she talked about her observations with her parents. They decided to give fries away, free of charge, to any purchase of any hamburger and drink. One month later, sales were up 40%. Based on those results, her parents were in the process of changing the name of the restaurants from Kirkland Burgers to Debbie's French Fry City with the marketing hooks: "free fries with every order" and "fresh fries cooked every 180 seconds". They were planning to open a third restaurant in Buffalo. And they were remodeling the two existing restaurants and purchasing new equipment to display, in plain view, clean stainless steel french fry cookers, with fresh fries cooked every three minutes and "old" fries discarded. They were perfecting the art of the perfect, tasty, crispy fry that was "addicting". Debbie kept close track of the customers. She recorded a three-time increase in frequency of repeat customers and scores of new customers. She knew she had taken the product and the marketing to the next level.
"Your story of Debbie's French Fry City was fascinating," Miss Annabelle said. "Debbie's French Fry City is on its way to the next level because of your Neothinking. Do you think your parents will start franchising them?"
Debbie really was excited about her family business and its growing success that she was now part of. "Yes, we've even been talking about it! And my parents are studying Teddy's article about mini-companies, replicating, tracking reports, and division of essence. Daddy says the division of essence is exactly how he will set up his franchising!"
Bobby turned to Debbie and said, "Cool! That's a franchise I'd suggest people getting into." All his life, Bobby witnessed his father and mother stuck in stagnation - despite their natural ambitions. Bobby helplessly witnessed their dreams fade away. He remembered them talking with enthusiasm about their goals when he was still very young. Now, at nine years old, he never heard them mention those goals. He could never forget their enthusiasm from the past. They were so happy then, he remembered. During the last few weeks as Bobby felt his power to make a difference grow, he became more and more interested in the idea of finding the right employer for the right people. Bobby absorbed Teddy's division of essence concept and was convinced the division of essence was the answer to so many people's stagnation traps. He was convinced that the division of labor - jobs of labor - was the reason for stagnation traps. He was also convinced that Teddy's division of essence, with its mini-companies creating entrepreneurial jobs, gave people jobs of the mind. The mind - thinking - was the essence of man and opened a whole new exciting world to the employee. Bobby became convinced that the division of essence with its jobs of the mind was the future of business and jobs. He became obsessed with the idea of bringing ambitious people, like his parents, to those new businesses set up that way. It was the way back to enthusiasm and happiness for adults, he wrote in Breakthrough News.
Bobby did not have a specific breakthrough, for he was working off Teddy's breakthrough. Nevertheless, Bobby was searching for common denominators that would let him start building a success puzzle that would someday take him to the next level with his passion.
First, Bobby identified that the essence of business was making money by creating and effectively marketing values, which meant the essence of business depended on man's creativity. Then he demonstrated that the essence of man was his mind, thinking, creativity. Thus, the most competitive business structure in the future had to be the division of essence where the employees - all employees - used their minds creatively. The employees' thinking minds were the greatest assets to any business that previously were wasted in the old division of labor structure.
He demonstrated how the division-of-essence business would be quickly filled with ambitious, creative people who would get as close to filling the business with clones of the original entrepreneur as can be. Both the business and the employee would break through to the next level.
"You have become so motivated, Bobby, to bring ambitious working people together with the new division of essence business," Miss Annabelle said. She was delighted to see such passion take root. Bobby had seen that Teddy's new business paradigm was the answer to his parents' stagnation traps and to all stagnation traps. As far as Bobby was concerned, the whole business world had to change. And he wanted to bring together ambitious people with those businesses as they changed.
"I haven't figured out how to bring them together yet," Bobby said, "but I will. I know it can be done. There must be some way to reach all corners of the world, finding both companies and people."
Miss Annabelle marveled at the intellect of her students. They had gone to the next level of integrated thinking, and onto Neothink. Their mentality was different than others. They had, at nine years old, evolved into our final evolution: God-Man. As God-Man, they did not think in percepts, one thought, one perception at a time like most people. Instead, they thought in pictures. Their minds sought common denominators, pulling together percepts into powerful concepts and then snapping together those concepts as pieces of growing puzzles to reveal never-before-seen puzzle pictures.
As Teddy and Bobby exchanged some ideas, Mr. Melbourne walked into the classroom. He was the other person who really belonged with this group of people. The children smiled, waved, and said, "hi!" They loved him.
"Class," Miss Annabelle said, "As you know, Mr. Melbourne has worked on a book for over a decade - since before you were even born! Today, he wanted to reveal a bit of it for the first time - to us…"
"Whoa! Yeah! Wahoo! Alright!" shouted several students. Their reaction was impulsive and genuine. They felt this was a treat and felt honored. Mr. Melbourne raised an eyebrow and smiled.
"Hi kids!" he said to the applauding class. "You twelve children have impressed me over and over again since I've known you. Your teacher has impressed me, too." The kids laughed, catching the second meaning to that comment. Mr. Melbourne smiled and continued, "You're a unique group, a unique little society, that has advanced to the next level - into a new mind of the future that I've spent over ten years identifying in my book. You're the concretization or the evidence of my hypothesis."
He paused to gather his bearings of where to begin. After some thought, he said, "Last night, your lovely teacher talked to me for a long time. She was proudly telling me all the many different success puzzles you are building. I also read about those growing success puzzles in your stunning Breakthrough News. But the surprising thing is, of the wide diversity you present, all of it ties together by a common denominator: all twelve of your very different success puzzles do the same thing in their respective areas - they get rid of the external authorities. Think about it: the mind of nearly everyone else outside this room is ultimately controlled by external authorities. But you represent the next mentality - everything you wrote in your Breakthrough News eliminates the external authority. What is the new mentality, the mind of the future? It's putting authority from `out there' to inside yourself. You can do that only if you effectively see through illusions to what is. You children can do this, so you're dumping external authorities left and right in every area that interests you and making breakthroughs that take those areas to the next level. You are your own authority integrating what is, free of external guidance. You build your own mental maps for guidance. You represent the next evolution of man!"
The children were very proud of themselves. The amazing thing was: they knew exactly what Mr. Melbourne was talking about. They looked up to him and respected him. His impression of them was very important to them.
"Let's quickly go back and see this common trait among the twelve of you: Bobby, you're not accepting the status quo in the way almost all jobs are set up. You're dumping that external authority for a better way based on your own authority of seeing what is - Teddy's division of essence, in particular. And Teddy didn't accept jobs of labor and their routines dictating the unthinking human being. He went to the next level, dumping the external authority in the form of a routine dictating us…doing our work in an unthinking, following mode. He replaced that external authority, that we blindly follow, with the internal authority of our thinking minds - jobs of the mind - the entrepreneurial mini-companies where we think for ourselves to build values. Johnny wants to end politicians and bureaucrats dictating us how to live - needless external authority - and limit their power to protection only. Jeremiah wants to jump past religion and the clergy demanding blind faith - destructive external authority - and replace it with the integrating, scientific mind. Sally wants to remove the corrupt FDA - destructive external authority - and free up research for the hard thinking, entrepreneurial mind. Reggie wants to rid the elite control - the external authority - over the music industry. Ian breaks through staid scientific Establishment perspectives like the point of origin and the mass/energy view of the Universe and breaks through religious external authority to bring our understanding to the next level where God-Man uses his internal authority - his mind - to control the cosmos. Rico differentiates bad law based on force versus good law based on protection from force. He wants to eliminate bad laws created via gun-backed external authority by image-seeking politicians. Debbie simply does not accept the common external authority that one reaches his or her limit and levels off and must passively accept stagnation. Natasha does not accept similar external authorities - the emotional norms of limited happiness and lost love - for she broke through to God-Man's natural state of intense happiness and intense love, forever. Cathy broke through her external authorities - her parents - trying to convince her to overeat. And Alan, you orchestrated a publication that breaks through the views of the two external authorities that envelop everyone in this country - the media and the Establishment with their agenda-driven illusions."
The children looked a bit surprised. Mr. Melbourne was right - a very simple common denominator did tie all their success stories together. Their successes seemed to grow from the same seed: dumping external authority for internal authority. How elegantly simple, they thought. …What exactly is this external authority thing, anyway? They wondered.
"Outside this room, almost everyone is guided by external authorities," Mr. Melbourne continued, and as if reading their minds, he said, "What is external authority, where did it come from, and why does almost everyone follow it? Once, very long ago, 3000 years ago, man was not like man today. His entire existence was guided by oracles and god-kings who `heard' the gods telling man what to do, especially in stressful situations. The oracles and the god-kings and sometimes the common man himself hallucinated the `voices' of the gods. Civilization was politically structured as a theocracy. The civilizations often used awe-inspiring symbols, statues, tombs, pyramids to evoke the `voices' of the gods. Of course, we now know that those `voices' of the gods were nothing more than audio hallucinations, not unlike schizophrenics hearing voices today. But 3000 years ago, important decisions were made by those external authorities - by those `voices of the gods'. Our mentality during that theocratic age is now known as the bicameral mentality.
"As civilization advanced, and man left behind those audio hallucinations, he still sought external authority. He simply switched from the `voices' of the gods to voices of leaders. But today, most leaders are unnecessary because man has the ability to integrate reality to know what is and to act on his own authority. However, today man still looks to leaders to guide him. You are the first group of people I have witnessed who naturally turn inward to your own, integrating minds for guidance. Always seeing through to the essence of things, you rely on your own minds to see what is as the authority, not what `experts' or leaders tell you per se. Therefore, illusions used by leaders for easy power and money do not affect you. You represent a new mentality altogether. People around you still function under a modern-day format of the bicameral mentality - seeking external authority for guidance. You function under the brand-new God-Man mentality: broadly and honestly integrating knowledge to know what is, then using the authority of your own minds to lead your lives."
"Why do you and Miss Annabelle call it God-Man?" Ian asked.
"The reason I think God-Man is a good description goes back to the hallucinated `voices' of the gods. As renowned Professor Julian Jaynes from Princeton University demonstrated last year, human nature was split in two: an executive part called a god and a follower part called a man. The god was the authority, and the man was the follower. A few hundred years later, the two parts of the mind - the executive part and the follower part - were starting to integrate together as one powerful mind, which gave rise to history's most powerful minds: the Greeks during the Golden Age of Athens. The authority or the god part of human nature became part of man's mentality - the God-Man mentality of that ancient time. But master neocheaters of the Western World figured out how to return man to a follower so those neocheaters could rule over civilization. Those self-serving educated elites - the scholars of the Church - split the god part or the authority off to a God in heaven. Man was now nothing more than a follower to be led by the leaders of the Church in the name of God. That reversed humanity for a thousand years, now known as the Dark Ages. Mankind was caught in some kind of weird mutation of the bicameral mentality…until now. He needed to be led by external authorities, and those external authorities became our leaders who use illusions to rule over us for easy money and power.
"Today, you twelve children represent the modern pioneers breaking free from that mutation of the bicameral mentality. You are integrating the executive part or god-part of human nature with the man-part. You are the first - at least since the Golden Age of Greece - to advance into the God-Man mentality. There's no telling how far you will go in your lifetimes."
Miss Annabelle's heart was pounding with pride as her lover described what was happening to her students. Her students' eyes were opened wide with wonder. Their eyes were glued to Mr. Melbourne. She knew he was right. They knew he was right, for they could feel their power to cut through the leaders' illusions to the essence of things and to make their own decisions. They really were different than those around them, and they knew it. Yes, they were the God-Man. …Ian had a special feeling going on inside him, for he had been calling the advanced beings who control the cosmos the God-Man because they were men with the control and power of God. Now, Mr. Melbourne was calling Ian and his classmates the God-Man. "I really am one of them," he thought.
"Thank you, Mr. Melbourne," Miss Annabelle said into the silent room. Her voice brought her children back from the depths of their thoughts, and they clapped and smiled. They loved Mr. Melbourne. His value reflection and articulation of who they were gave them pride and confidence for the years ahead.
The kids sat peacefully. "We live for happiness," Miss Annabelle continued. "As Natasha so well demonstrated in Breakthrough News, happiness comes to man - a social animal - by putting values into society. That's how human beings earn pride and happiness. They feel large doses of their earned happiness from reflections of admiration and love from their spouses and children. The meaning of life - happiness - comes from value production and is felt through value reflection. In other words, happiness comes from producing values and is felt during time celebrated together with loved ones.
"There's also room in our hearts to feel love for those individuals who bring great values to society. Those geniuses of society are raising our standards of living. Of course, I know you'll cut through the illusions of our variety of leaders in the media, in the government, and in law who orchestrate class envy against those geniuses of society. You'll never fall into that trap that builds resentment against success. We've had a taste of this envy with our own battles with the principal and the school-district superintendent."
The nine-year-olds knew exactly what she was talking about. They looked up to the geniuses of society, the great value-and-job creators now and in the past, with great admiration. Miss Annabelle knew they did, but she wanted to state it to help counteract what will be drummed into their heads in the years to come, for resentment toward success would hurt their own deep motivation to be successful.
"Now that you know the meaning of life is happiness, and now that you know how to create and experience happiness, I'll tell you how to someday multiply your happiness! That'll bring you the greatest feeling life offers. …Someday, you'll have children, and seeing your children become happy value producers making their dreams come true will multiply your own happiness. I know because I felt my happiness multiply many times over as I watched you advance toward happy value producers. Or, maybe I should say, value creators, for you're creating values that never existed before. Watching you children do this…well, it's the greatest joy a grown-up can feel."
Her comment sparked curiosity among her students. She was talking about their children. The students did not recognize their pleasant feeling inside, for they had never felt it before. They felt warm and special. Without knowing what it was, they felt good that their teacher thought about their well-being, so far out into the future.
Rico raised his hand. His teacher nodded toward him, and he said, "But how would we do that? You're a professional teacher, and I don't know if any of us will be teachers. So, how can we do for our kids what you did for us?"
Miss Annabelle knew that Rico seldom saw his father while growing up. She said, "You can bring your children into the new God-Man mentality in less than five minutes a day. You don't need to educate them; they can even go to public schools for that - as long as you show them one thing: show them how to penetrate what appears to be to what is. You want to break through traditional ways of looking at things, just as you did in Breakthrough News. Your example teaches their young minds to cut through illusions to what is. From there, as you know, mental puzzles of powerful knowledge grow, and eventually your children will create new values for the world. Also, from the emotional side, tell them bedtime stories about the great value producers who brought our many values to the world. All this can be done in a daily bedtime story - in a five-minute story each day.
"Let me take you back in history to demonstrate this secret to bringing your future children into little God-Men. I figured this out, believe it or not, on Christmas Day five months ago. During the Golden Age of the Greeks, the great minds - the forerunners to God-Man - got a good education, yes, but they also had exposure to an accomplished philosopher or scientist. Sometimes that philosopher or scientist was hired to live with the pupil. Aristotle, for example, lived with and was mentor of Alexander the Great. Aristotle's mentor was Plato. Plato's mentor was Socrates. The same format took place during the Renaissance: the great Renaissance men studied under accomplished or renowned artists, inventors, philosophers, or scientists. Those great minds grew not out of the many hours of good education, per se. They grew from Neothink seeds planted in, perhaps, five minutes a day. Those seeds were the stories told by the mentors that broke through the normal way of thinking. Those boundary-breaking talks taught the student's mind, at a young age, to break through boundaries, go through appearances to what is. With reality, they could start integrated thinking and eventually Neothink to go to the next level. The general lectures I gave you each morning were examples of this type of talk that pushed your minds through the traditional boundaries of thinking created by external authorities. Now you use your own minds; you see through illusions; you see what is; you see common denominators, and you build success puzzles. You never look toward external authorities on how to live; instead your own mind honestly integrates reality and has become the authority. To get to this point, I talked to you for about forty-five minutes a day, and that was enough for you to make the jump out of the old bicameral mutation to the new God-Man mentality. But we only had nine months together. If you spread that time over fifteen years, you're well under five minutes a day. So, you bring your children into this happy new world with you, and your happiness will soar. I know, because my happiness has soared this past year, seeing you come into this new world with me."
Sally raised her hand slowly.
"Yes, Sally?" Miss Annabelle said.
"But…well…are we going to be together anymore?"
Sally had asked a powerful question, for this group was its own civilization, different than the rest of the world. How could it end now?
"It would be a crime to split us up," Miss Annabelle said, and she could feel the tension leave the room. Twelve sets of little shoulders relaxed and dropped an inch or two. "I'll hold a class every Thursday afternoon at my house from 3:30 to 5:00. I'll lecture for 45 minutes to an hour, and we'll have our discussion group for the remaining 30 to 45 minutes. We'll always keep this class going and our group together."
This good news put smiles on her twelve little God-Men. Now, they could enjoy themselves again and feel the celebration of life. For, this was another beautiful day full of precious, bigger-than-life memories.
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