This conclusion came only after her frantic search for what she
thought had to be the real causes of these phobias, in the light of her own
reality-only approach to life. “Would you like to hear another of my discoveries?” she asked, breaking
a long silence during which we had both been lost in thought. “I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the people on Earth participate
every single day in self-rejection exercises, and I know you have no self-
rejection lotion here, since I’ve researched the subject exhaustively .” She
seemed almost proud, like a little girl who had just received her first
straight-A report card. “That’ s quite a conclusion,” I countered, wanting her to continue telling
me about her remarkable discovery . “And furthermore, I know now exactly why they do it, although I was
really baf fled by this behavior at first.”
“Please fill me in on this discovery ,” I said. “Don’ t hold back.”
“Well, it goes like this. Remember to correct me if you find any flaws.”
I agreed. I must admit I was anxious to hear what she had concluded.“People are trained, almost from birth, to dislike who they are. Y oung
children are somehow expected to gain a sense of self-esteem by being
force-fed a diet intended instead to produce self-doubt. Self-esteem is
revered on Earth, but only in books. Much lip service is paid to self-worth,
but it is seldom reinforced or even encouraged. Y ou believe that by
discouraging self-confidence in the young you will help them to grow into
confident adults. It is a mystery , but I think I have a handle on it.”
“Go on” I almost begged. “You tell young people to learn to think for themselves, but you rarely
allow them to do it. Instead you provide them with an education that
discourages decision making at every turn. Y ou give them lessons on
becoming self-confident and then take away the very experiences that
would lead to that end. All day and all night in their homes your television
programs show them how to pursue the exact opposite of self-esteem.”
“What do you mean ‘the exact opposite’?”
“You tell them that sex appeal can be purchased by wearing the right
bluejeans, or by using a bottle of expensive perfume. Y ou show them
pictures all the time, of women acting like dolts, trying to please their men,
jiggling their bodies for attention, wearing the proper artificial fragrances
and getting the desired results, that is, approving looks from men; or
women who cannot contain themselves because a man smokes a particular
brand of cigarette or wears a specific after -shave lotion. Then you expect
them to grow into self-confident adults.”
“But self-esteem isn’ t discouraged on all fronts,” I protested. “Maybe not, but the overwhelming emphasis seems to be on teaching
obedience rather than responsible thinking, on fitting in and conforming
rather than being independent and creative. Y ou make being an independent
thinker extremely dif ficult, particularly for young people.”
“But I saw a great deal of dependency and conformity on Uranus. Why
do you find it so disconcerting when you see it here?” I asked. “Once again you for get our separate realities. On Uranus we have the
dependency diodes that we discussed in depth. Furthermore, with self-
rejection lotion as a necessary part of our existence, we simply have no
voice in the matter . But it’ s not like that here on Earth at all.”
I had for gotten about our separate realities. She was tied into those real-
world exigencies, and I didn’ t want her to go through that salt water/freshwater analogy that had made so much sense earlier . “You are correct,
Eykis,” I replied. “Please go on.”
“I can’ t figure out why so many of you resist independent thinking and
new ideas, when progress is impossible without them. Y ou make such a big
thing about progress and then do everything possible to stand in the way of
the only people who can bring it about—those who think for themselves
and aren’ t afraid of new ideas.”
“Don’ t you think young people need discipline? Shouldn’ t they learn to
respect their elders and how to get along in life?” I asked. “The Earthling behaviors I’m describing have nothing to do with respect. You can’ t respect anyone else if you don’ t respect yourself. Or to put it
more logically , on Earth your reality dictates that you can’ t give away what
you don’ t have. Moreover , you can never grow into a self-respecting adult
if you are learning to conform and fit in. If you are just like everybody else,
then what do you have to of fer?” she asked without expecting an answer . “If
you want young people to be disciplined, you must teach them from the
earliest moments of their lives to become their own parents. If you want
them to just get along, as you put it, then they’ll have no sense of purpose in
their lives, because that only comes from getting along with yourself, not
trying to please everyone else. Finally , the idea of respecting your elders
makes no more sense than the reverse, that is, respecting your juniors. Respect is earned, and being older or younger is not relevant.”
“So what is your discovery , then?” I asked Eykis. “I think I know why all of you seem so determined to teach self-
rejection. It’ s not because you don’ t have any of the self-rejection lotion we
use on Uranus. I think you do it to insure employment. I just can’ t find any
other reason.”
“Employment! How can reinforcing self-rejection have anything to do
with employment?” I asked. “Designer jeans, perfumes with fraudulent claims of sex appeal in a
bottle, sprays for your breath, and soaps to win approval all have to be
invented, manufactured, sold, inventoried, demonstrated, and advertised
through an entire chain of specialized job titles. Similarly , all those social
workers, therapists of every description, clerks and bureaucrats who keep
the social services working are also being paid to do so. The endless array
of aspirin, tranquilizers, and medicine of every description to treat thoseafflicted with poor self-images also contribute a great deal to this economic
plan.”
She could have gone on with many more examples, but I interrupted. “You sound as if it’ s a conspiracy to keep people neurotic in order to
maintain the economy ,” I stated. “That’ s what I find confusing,” she replied, unaf fected by my use of the
word conspiracy . “Neurosis keeps your system alive. When people think
like conformists, they all go out and buy the ‘right’ things so they can be
just like everyone else. It helps the economy when people are convinced
that they can purchase sex appeal, and many , many people benefit when
dependency and self-depreciation are encouraged.”
She was really convinced of the veracity of her theory . “I find it hard to dispute,” I said. “But I don’ t really believe it represents
any deliberate ef fort. It may appear that way , but I don’ t think it was ever
intended as a ruse to keep employment levels up.”
“Whether or not it’ s deliberate is irrelevant. It is what is. The rewards for
conformity are omnipresent, be it Asia, Africa, Europe, or North America. People are told how to think in the name of obedience. It doesn’ t matter
whether it’ s obedience to the state, your teachers, a business, or even your
parents, the end results are the same. Those with little or no confidence in
themselves, and no innovative ideas, become servants to those who give the
orders. Then those in char ge, who are equally af flicted with self-doubt,
conspire to create an entire society of unhappy conformists.”
She told me about people she had seen or read about, who victimized
others and defended their actions with “It’ s only my job,” or some such
easy excuse. She pounded her fist on the table again, saying, “People who
have been encouraged to be independent rather than conformist in their
thinking couldn’ t possibly do anything horrible to another person in the
name of ‘doing a job’ or ‘everybody else does it,’ could they? So you create
jobs of conformism and the system works,” she said, answering her own
question. “But maybe we can end that,” she said, almost under her breath. She had apparently been giving some thought to the gifts she had alluded to
earlier . “For the life of me,” she said after a few moments, “I still can’ t see why
you react to your reality so unrealistically . Many of you even get sick for no
real reason connected to reality . Many of you are fatigued and even old andsenile for reasons that escape my powers of perception. Let’ s stop for now ,”
she said. “I do have something else I want to discuss with you.”
“Yes, yes,” I encouraged her . “You’ve mentioned a proposal or a gift to
Earth of some sort. I’m willing to do anything you ask of me.”
“As of now , we must stop thinking about what isn’ t working and why . In
the little time left we must direct our thoughts and ener gy to solutions. Ways to make my proposal work. I’ll think more about it tonight, and
tomorrow we can go over it together .”
I had no idea what she had in mind. She had talked repeatedly about
thinking in terms of solutions rather than problems, and I’m sure our rather
lengthy discussions of the past two days had helped her or ganize her
thoughts. She saw our problems and understood how we thought, felt, and
conducted ourselves. What could she of fer an entire planet? As we parted for the night, my
love for her was rekindled. I began to think about her leaving in a few days,
and I had to send these thoughts away . The idea of never seeing her again
was painful, and I didn’ t want to corrode this moment with my anguished
thoughts. Besides, I laughed to myself, I’ll connect the worry-wares to the
appropriate terminals and change them. As she left it occurred to me that
we had spent almost the entire day in a little picnic cove on a hard bench,
and I’d never noticed a moment of discomfort. As she walked away I was
sure I could hear her muttering over and over what she’d said so clearly a
few moments earlier: “Why do they react so unrealistically to their reality? We can fix that, if they’ll allow it.”
OceanofPDF .com6 
 Eykis’ Proposal
I’d spent the night tossing in my bed with my mind working overtime. I
didn’ t want to waste precious moments sleeping. My life had been deeply
touched by this remarkable woman. She was a guru of sorts. Not the kind
before whom one kneels in search of the unrevealed. In fact, she was quite
the opposite. She was a saint of common sense, asking you in terse,
objective language just to take of f your dark glasses and see for yourself
what you’ve allowed to become murky in your life. Her clear logic and wonderfully sensible observations made me look at
myself and my world with new eyes, eyes that were now focused, without
the myopia of customs and habitual thought. She was awakening me: me, a
person who had prided himself on his “conscious posture” all his life. I was
now much more aware of how much I’d taken for granted as simply the
way we think here on Earth. I was beginning to challenge what had
previously been considered “only natural” a few days ago. My mind was
spinning with new thoughts and ways to convey what I’d begun to learn
from Eykis. As I finally drifted of f to sleep, I wondered what gifts this
remarkable woman would of fer tomorrow morning. “What would you say to an entirely new way of thinking?” Eykis asked,
as her first inquiry the next morning in the cof fee shop where we had agreed
to meet. “What do you mean, entirely new way of thinking? ”
“I mean, suppose I could provide the people of Earth, all of them, with an
entirely new way of perceiving their reality? I’m talking about the greatest
gift imaginable. The opportunity to tune in directly to their own reality in
such a way that virtually all the so-called problems you face would be
eliminated.”
“But how? In what way?” I asked excitedly . “I’ve been giving this a great amount of Uranus-like thought,” she began,
almost repeating my Earthlike thought of the moment.“Almost all your problems stem from the way you teach your children to
think. If you’re ever going to achieve true evolution as a people, you must
somehow break the ‘thinking chain’ that keeps you in ‘behavioral bonds.’ I
think I might be able to provide your people with an opportunity for direct
contact with me and my unique reality-only approach to thinking. That
alone might enable your people to turn Earth into the place it was designed
to become.”
“How can you know what Earth was designed to become?” I asked, only
for the purpose of having her continue with her proposal. “I can only consider what my home would be like if we were not bridled
by our own reality . We on Uranus are not self-destructive or neurotic
without positive purpose. It is our reality that makes us what we are. If your
choices were available there, the possibilities for creative living and
fulfillment would be staggering. Since it is clearly impossible for me single-
handedly to alter my reality system, perhaps I can instead of fer your people
the benefit of learning to live happily and comfortably within your own.”
“But aren’ t we altering our own reality system by not living within it?”
“Of course not,” she said, brushing of f my distraction. “Y ou on Earth are
still living each day within your own reality system. That is a condition of
your existence. But you’re deluding yourselves by thinking in ways which
have little to do with that very same reality . It’s as if you don’ t like what
exists, so you invent new thinking modes to help you pretend that life is
what you want it to be, rather than what it is.”
I agreed with her , but sometimes it took me a few moments of mental
gymnastics to understand why I agreed. “All right, so reality just is,  and we
aren’ t being realistic when we create ways to pretend that it is any other
way.”
“True,” she replied, “but I think we might be able to put some dents in
the armor . Would you be willing to help me set it up?”
“I’ll do everything I can—anything at all,” I insisted. “Terrific. Here’ s what I have in mind: I’d like to call together
representatives of the top leadership of various fields of human activity . Please inform your government of my presence here, and arrange an all-day
meeting, with representatives from various segments of your world society . I’ll introduce myself to these people, and tell them about myself and our
visits together . I’ll explain how we spent our time together on Uranus and
what you discovered, how I came to accompany you back to Earth, and howI have observed your world culture incognito. Each of the representatives
attending the gathering will be able to question me. My reality-only
orientation will prevent me from distorting what I’ve seen, and I would
provide the representatives with genuinely truthful answers to their
questions. Since I’m incapable of telling them anything but what is, they’ll
be able to put the results of this day-long conference to work. Y ou will have
the greatest gifts that I can leave for you. And leave you I must, in just a
few days.”
I was thrilled at the notion of a reality conference peopled by
representatives of a variety of human enterprises. “But what if the
governments refuse to participate, what if they elect to appoint a series of
committees to study your proposal, or to study you through the use of lie
detectors, legislative inquiries, psychiatric analysis, and on and on, which is
the way we do things here? They’d put you in a prison or a zoo and
investigate you to death,” I said. “That’ s your job,” she stated, seemingly unconcerned about my obsession
with Earthly red tape. “Y ou must explain that these methodological options
are unavailable to them. Y ou and I know that I can return to Uranus at will,
despite any Earthly protests to the contrary . You know that I am incapable
of studying a problem in a committee. That I am only able to work on
solutions and unable to focus on what hasn’ t been done,  or shouldn’ t be
done. I am always focused on DOING . You’ll have to become one of the
humans in the first of the three categories I have observed.”
“What three categories?” I asked. I hadn’ t heard her mention them prior
to this moment. “I’m sorry , I thought I had spelled them out to you. In all my research I
discovered three kinds of human beings on Earth: those who say , ‘Let’ s
make it happen’ those who say , ‘It can’ t happen’ and the lar gest category ,
those who say , ‘What happened?’ Y ou are simply going to have to get into
category one and make it happen. Y ou’ll have to explain the zero-option to
the representatives. Y ou can give them the evidence you have, lay your
cards on the table, and then we’ll have a conference on Saturday , which will
be just before I leave for Uranus. I will leave on schedule regardless of what
happens. If the representatives refuse the things I have to of fer, I’ll give
them to you to distribute as you wish. This is my proposal. It is intended to
help the people of Earth change their thinking so they can improve their
world and make it really work for everyone. Thinking is the basis for everysingle major and minor dif ficulty you encounter . The problems that arise in
politics, religion, education, families, business, the military , society ,
medicine, and every form of human enterprise are due to self-programed
unreal thinking. At least I can try to leave you with a new format for
thinking that could ultimately put an end to the problems that have plagued
your people throughout the ages. Do you think you can arrange it?”
“Well, to be honest, I’m not sure it’ s as simple as you think it is to bypass
the hugely convoluted bureaucracy that would be involved in such an
undertaking. Y ou see, on Earth we prefer to study rather than tackle a
problem. This is particularly true at the leadership levels. But I’ll damn sure
try, and if I encounter the kind of resistance that I’m accustomed to, I can
take matters into my own hands and stand in for the world leaders myself. It
would take some research, but I could do it in the next few days, and then I
could film your responses. In either case, I love your proposal, Eykis, and
I’ll see that it gets to our people in whatever fashion I can figure out. W ill
that suf fice?” I asked, hoping she wouldn’ t be upset because of my realistic
assessment of how our world’ s leaders would respond to her of fer. “I love it!” she said, surprising me with her willingness to allow me to
even suggest altering her proposal. “Let’ s do it your way . It will save
incalculable hours of persuasion on your part, and you’ll have the reality-
only answers in permanent form, which you can use in whatever way you
can work out. Y ou’ll have only two days to gather the questions, and you
must keep them aligned to what the various leaders would want to know ,
rather than having them colored by your own perceptions based on the time
we’ve spent together . You understand, the essence of this filmed inquiry
must be thinking. W e’re not trying to destroy any institutions or pass
judgment on any of Earth’ s physical realities. Remember , they are
absolutely perfect, and remember also that, except for a few minor
differences, they duplicate my Uranus reality . What we want to focus on is
the inner world of thinking and attitudes that lead to, as you call them,
problems.”
“But what precisely is it about the inner thinking and attitudes of Earth
that I’m to focus on during our final session? I’ve only heard that we are
‘wrong’ when we think in self-destructive or neurotic ways. While I admit
that you’ve given me plenty of examples of the incorrect thinking of
neurotics, I need to know the components of our thinking in order to
simulate questions and responses of leaders in all walks of life.” I waslooking for guidelines to help me with my homework. T rue to her character ,
Eykis provided me with a blueprint that would enable me to go about my
task in the most ef fective and challenging way possible. “In addition to being ‘incorrect,’ much of your Earthly thinking is out of
focus. Consequently you have blurred thinking, which leads to the ultimate
in self-destructive thought.”
“In what areas is the out-of-focus  element most obvious? How does it
reveal itself?”
“So much of the Earthly way of thinking leads to an illusion of happiness
which remains throughout an entire lifetime. For example, most people are
satisfied with appearances and size as substitutes for quality in their
attitudes, feelings, and behavior . There is no possibility for happiness in
these appearances that people pursue so vigorously , because happiness is an
inner activity . Do you see what I mean by unfocused thinking?”
“But how does pursuing appearances rather than quality lead to being
wrong?” I asked. “People who direct life toward appearances are focusing on how their
possessions appear to others. They give up their sense of satisfaction in
what they are doing, for future satisfaction that can never arrive. They are
obsessed with how others view their objects, or they actually look for
happiness from their objects. These are both dead ends, because happiness
is a strictly human venture that can only be experienced internally . Neither
the size of your possessions nor the praise you receive for their appearance
can provide any sense of happiness or fulfillment. Consequently those who
seek appearances of any kind with the hope of achieving happiness are just
plain wrong.”
“And you think that quality  in one’ s thinking can lead to happiness?” I
asked. “Well, first please understand that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way . And happiness is how you decide to think in each
moment of your life. When you’re thinking happiness, you are happy ,
regardless of what you are doing, or what your reality is at the moment.”
“So you think you can be happy any time, regardless of the conditions of
your life at the moment?” I asked. “Of course! Y ou can choose happiness thinking  any time, and that is
precisely what happiness is. I’m not asking people to pretend they’re happy
when they’re not. I simply think that since you on Earth can always choosehow you will think at any moment, you can refocus your thinking by
emphasizing the quality of an experience, rather than how the experience
appears to you or to others. Furthermore, you can see that the objects you
collect can never provide happiness. Not on Earth, in terms of your own
reality .”
“So you would have us teach quality thinking versus appearance
thinking?” I wondered aloud to Eykis. “I’m only saying that appearance thinking leads to wrong thinking, which
can and does have disastrous ef fects at all levels of your culture. T raining
people in terms of quality from the time they are very young would help to
create future generations of quality rather than appearance-oriented people.”
“But how could we do that in our profit-oriented business world?” I
wondered, beginning to protest the simplicity of such thinking. “Be sure to bring that up on Saturday ,” she said, gently reminding me of
our rendezvous. “You said there were other blurry thinking concepts that led to the
rampant ‘wrongness’ of thought we have here.”
“Yes, of course. In place of ethical  thinking, you seem to emphasize
‘rules thinking,’ and you encourage your youngsters to do the same.”
“Ethics versus rules?” I repeated. “Yes. A rules thinker is one who does what he is told, regardless of the
situation,” she of fered bluntly . “But we need rules,” I protested. “W ithout them all of society would
collapse. For example, it is a rule to stop at a red traf fic light. Imagine if
people ignored it.”
“Why do you stop at a red traf fic light?” she asked. “Because it’ s against the law , and besides, I’d likely get a ticket or , even
worse, have an accident,” I shot back. “You mean that if new laws were passed tomorrow , making it legal to go
through red traf fic lights, you would then go through them?” she
questioned. “Eh?” was all I was able to say . “The real reason why you don’ t go through red traf fic lights is that it is
unethical to do so. Placing your life or the lives of others in jeopardy is
plainly unethical,” she said. “But we need to go beyond merely talking about traf fic rules.”“Red lights in traf fic was your choice for an example, not mine,” she
reminded me. “Besides, we can save this for Saturday as well. I’m sure
your governmental and educational specialists will have much to say about
the need for rules-oriented thinking.”
I jotted this down as a reminder for my research. “Rules-oriented thinking places the responsibility for behavior on the
rule, rather than the individual. When rules, laws, and policies are held
accountable as the cause of human thinking, ethics must take a back seat. When people base their behavior on what others tell them is correct, ethical
thinking is almost impossible and the opportunity for fulfillment and
happiness is stifled once again,” she said. “In what ways?” I asked. “You even have ‘happy hours’ here on Earth! Meaning, I suppose, that
other hours can’ t be. Y ou need a rule to tell you when you can be happy and
a supply of cheap booze to insure the result. Once again, happiness is an
inner experience, rules are outer experiences. Ethics, on the other hand, are
inner rules which never allow a person to behave in a way that would be
harmful  to others.”
When we first met, Eykis hadn’ t even known the word “harmful.” Now
she knew it all too well. “So ethical-thinking training would teach people how to think for
themselves?”
“Yes, if it were based on real ethics. The need for so many rules for
almost every facet of your lives would be eliminated. Y ou have rules for
virtually everything, including when you can have a beer , what God will do
to you if you’re not obeying the laws, and even what courses you must take
in school. T ell me, please, how can people learn to become decision makers
if all decisions are already made for them by the rules and policies that you
seem to rely upon so heavily?” she asked. I did what I always did when I couldn’ t give her a sensible answer . I
answered her question with a question. I said, “That’ s two. Quality in place of appearance, and ethics in place of
rules. Any more?”
“Yes, my friend. I’ve noticed that most of the people on Earth substitute
domination for personal integrity or authority  in their thinking,” she said. “How do domination and authority thinking dif fer, and how do they lead
to this global picture of our wrongness?” I asked.“Quite simply ,” she replied. “Domination thinking involves victimizing
or controlling others. Much of the thinking I’ve noted is directed toward the
subjugation of others, whether it’ s nation subjugating nation, parents their
offspring, or spouses each other . There is almost a universal obsession here
with attempts to control and dominate. When thinking is directed at seeing
how much one can control others, it cannot be focused on personal
happiness and self-direction. Since we’ve already established that happiness
is an inner concept, then outer or domination thinking ultimately leads to
the wrong conclusion: ‘If only I can get the people around me to be as I
want them to be, or even as I am, then I’ll be powerful and, consequently ,
happy .’”
“So what constitutes ‘authority’ or ‘integrity’ thinking, as you put it?” I
asked. “It’s quite the opposite,” she retorted. “It is an inner rather than an outer
concept. A person devoted to increasing his authority over himself, to
becoming more personally masterful, to being able to share his mastery
with others, is not asking to dominate anyone. Such a person is using his
thought processes just to be, and to allow those around him to do the same. He does not interfere in anyone else’ s life. He tries only to learn from others
rather than control or manipulate them. This is integrity thinking, and a
person who practices it has no need to seek authority by dominating others. He has it automatically . Those who seek authority through domination
demonstrate their own lack of the very quality they seek to prove they
possess,” she replied. “But what about our enemies, those who would seek to dominate us? Don’ t we have to show them that we refuse to be dominated?” I asked. “Again it is your domination style of thinking which leads you to ask
this. I am thinking globally . I am not talking to ‘you’ as opposed to ‘them.’
All people must be educated to think in personal integrity ways, and
ultimately end the concept of enemy once and for all. As long as you think
in we/they terms, you will be able to blame the enemy for your thoughts of
dominance. But again, save this for Saturday . I’m quite sure it will surface
many times,” she said. “There are two additional areas of myopic thought
which you need to be aware of as you prepare your Saturday agenda, even
though they overlap somewhat with the three I’ve just described. Most
people on your planet practice ‘achievement thinking,’ as opposed to‘knowledge  thinking.’ As a result many people on Earth are wrong and
ultimately neurotic and unfulfilled. “People on Earth don’ t accept the kind of thinking that allows for
knowledge for the sake of knowledge. They see little use for knowledge
that doesn’ t lead to achievement. Hence you see the ultimate folly of
students actually purchasing credits and notations on a transcript, regardless
of whether any knowledge of the subject matter is retained. Achievement
seems to be the reason for thinking, and it is another dead-end pursuit.”
“Because?” I interrupted, just to let her know I was with her . “Because achievements are external and happiness is internal. An A on a
transcript and an understanding of a poem are not even related in reality ,
and yet most people study poetry for the grade. The use of a poem that is
understood cannot be stated in achievement terminology , nor can the money
earned from the mastery of Marketing 101, although this logic escapes most
Earthlings and also contributes to their unhappiness. Knowledge thinking
says that anything you learn can benefit you and enrich your life. Achievement thinking says that you must be able to measure, weigh, or
spend what you study and that it will be manifested later when the fruits of
your study of behavior are to be picked. But if it fails to arrive later—and
on Earth it never does, because you only get NOW—then your achievement
thinking was all for naught. W ith knowledge thinking for the pure joy of
knowledge itself and all that it of fers, one can never be unhappy or
disappointed because the thinking, feeling, and behavior themselves are the
inner rewards. I hope we can help your people to begin to shift from
achievement thinking to knowledge thinking.”
“But then won’ t our great achievements begin to subside?” I asked. “In fact, people chasing achievement are destined to be unfulfilled. And
this in fact inhibits their achievements, the very things they so desperately
seek. But let’ s save this also. There’ll be many questions on this one, I can
guarantee it. I suspect it is the most widespread kind of wrong thinking on
your planet.”
“You mentioned one additional element of our fuzzy thinking that leads
to our wrong conclusions,” I said. “Yes, it’ s a summary of the above four . In place of serenity  and inner -
peace thinking, it seems to me that people on Earth are consumed with
acquisitions. Inner -serenity thinking is hardly taught anywhere on your
planet, with the possible exception of some Far Eastern cults that are lar gelyscoffed at by most of your people. And yet inner -serenity thinking is the
complete key available to virtually everyone on your planet. Physical and
mental illnesses are almost nonexistent when a person learns to think in
inner -serenity ways. Y our highest achievers, your most fulfilled people,
your most innovative minds in all fields seem to share this inner -peace
thinking, and yet so few emulate it. Instead, they substitute for it the pursuit
of things, achievements, awards, trophies, or the approval of others. If my
gift to your people is to have any significance, it must help them to
transform this kind of thinking. It is necessary to cross over from seeking
acquisitions to achieving inner perfection. When you reach the goal of a
serene feeling of wholeness, you will find acquisitions will be in amounts
sufficient to reinforce the serenity . People must stop going at it backward by
trying to make acquisitions bring about serenity . To put it simply , it is
impossible, because the thinking is wrong. I’ll see you Saturday morning,
right here. Bring your questions and prepare to represent your various roles. Ask what you wish. I’ll speak only as I know how . That is, The T ruth,  as
seen by Eykis of Uranus.”
I wrote down the five fuzzy-thinking categories:
Quality instead of Appearance thinking. Ethics instead of Rules thinking. Knowledge instead of Achievement thinking. Integrity instead of Domination thinking. Serenity instead of Acquisitions thinking. Then I hurried away with my notes and tapes stuf fed into my briefcase. Saturday was less than forty-eight hours away . I suspected that I was about
to participate in bestowing the greatest gifts ever received by mankind. I
wondered also if we would ever even unwrap them. But as Eykis would say ,
knowledge thinking would lead to achievement by accident. At least we
would have the knowledge. I knew I couldn’ t ask for more. OceanofPDF .com Part Thr ee 
EYKIS’ GIFTS
OceanofPDF .com7 
 Reality-Only Conversations
I settled into my task with the full realization of what I wanted to
accomplish, and how precious little time was available. My objective was
clear . I was to provide Eykis with a forum in which she would be able to
offer her specialized wisdom to everyone on Earth. I could not let this
unique opportunity pass without tapping her reality-only brain to the
maximum. She had seen what she could of fer us and she didn’ t take any
special credit for her abilities. She was simply incapable of using her mind
in any way that conflicted with reality . Now she was on Earth, millions of
miles from her own home, willing to give us the benefit of her atypical self. I wanted to invite every single leader in every field of human endeavor to
sit and talk with her . The benefits to mankind would be incalculable. In just
over a week, she had transformed my thinking. I was a better , happier
human being for having known her , and an infinitely more wise and
sensible person for having actually spent time in direct conversation with
her. I glowed with the intoxication that comes from anticipating a peak
experience. In this case, it was the prospect of exposing influential people
to Eykis’ remarkable mind. But I also knew fully the reality that she was
presenting. W e had one day in which to complete the gifts she was of fering. She absolutely refused to put up with any hassles or cumbersome
bureaucratic snags. She was definitely not interested in being judged or in
participating in any silly ar guments with narrow-minded disbelievers and
she would not engage in any senseless bickering. I had quickly learned that
when Eykis made a point, she would not continue in endless rehashing as a
means of communicating. She simply expressed what she observed, stated
it in honest, nonjudgmental language, and then, when I still wanted to
argue, she would unceremoniously stop. W ith Eykis there was no
haranguing, no emotional pleas, and, most emphatically , no quibbling with
illogical thinking.We had discussed the ground rules for Saturday’ s simulated press
conference. The number of participants would be limited to representatives
of the highest level of thinkers and leaders in five dif ferent fields of human
activity . Each representative would be allotted thirty minutes to ask or
discuss anything that interested him. Eykis would answer any and all
questions. There would be no restrictions, no limits. Each participant could
choose either to interact with Eykis or to just ask questions, and I was to
arrange for eight full hours of filming to record every word of each
conversation or interview . At the end, Eykis would address herself to any
subjects of interest to the entire group. Then, by way of closing, she would
offer to everyone what she called the Secrets of the Universe. These so-
called secrets would be her final gift to us, and while she had referred to
them on several occasions during our discussions, I still did not know what
they would involve. The most challenging thing for me was my own level of participation. I
was to assume the roles of the five leaders as if I were actually living in
each person’ s mind and body . I wasted no time. I spent the next two days
preparing myself for the Saturday press conference. The thought of what
this film could do for our planet and its inhabitants was staggering. At the
same time I was frightened. Eykis’ thinking was profound in its simplicity . She might be dismissed as a simpleton. But that was not for me to “worry”
about. V irtually every transcendent thinker and creative person who has
ever lived has been viewed by his contemporaries as too simple. It seemed
that all great minds I had ever read about had encountered constant
opposition from mediocre thinkers. Even if the whole world ignored Eykis’
gifts now , perhaps someday it would appreciate her . Jesus was scorned in
his time, and the Greeks forced Socrates to drink poison because he talked
too much (and that from the people who invented democracy). There was
no more time for wondering how she would be received. I had to prepare
myself to make sure she could give us all she wanted to. W e would leave
the judging to the critics. As I worked at my questions, I recalled that Eykis hadn’ t cared to know
which role I would be playing, nor even when I would be shifting from one
to another . She had said to me, “I don’ t need to prepare to be myself. Y ou’ll
be recording Eykis’ truths on Saturday . Do whatever you wish, ask what
you desire, use any format or none at all. Let’ s just do it.”Eykis arrived early on Saturday morning. She appeared to be wonderfully
alive and eager to begin. “You look prepared,” she said. “If you have everything in order , let’s
begin. W e’ll keep this informal and enjoyable for both of us.”
She was reassuring, obviously trying to help me relax, since I was a
beehive of activity . “Almost everything is set. It’ s wonderful to see you
today . I missed you terribly these past two days, but I was so busy thinking
and preparing myself for this that the time flew by ,” I said. She gave me
that quizzical look that I had come to understand. I was sure she didn’ t
really comprehend what “I missed you” meant, since it was at that moment
that she looked puzzled. However , she had also learned to avoid asking me
to explain these kinds of thoughts, since she had been here among
Earthlings for some time and had accustomed herself to our strange ways. On Uranus, people didn’ t choose to miss each other when they were
temporarily separated. They preferred to deal with the present moment and
they didn’ t evaluate love on the unreal basis of “missing each other .” She
had talked to me about this before, explaining in depth how this plugging
into the now was accomplished on Uranus. She was totally absorbed in this
moment. “We’re going to be talking about religion first. I have several questions to
ask you about the way we practice religion here on Earth, but before I get to
that, I would like to find out about religion on Uranus and in your own
personal life,” I said, attempting to lose myself in this role with all of the
fervor of a religious leader . “What would you like to know about me and religion?” she asked. “Well, first, are you a religious person?”
“Yes, I think of myself as very religious,” she responded instantly . “Do you believe in a supreme being, a creator of the universe?”
“I think it’ s quite possible, although I can’ t honestly say I believe it. I
don’t know . None of us on Uranus do. But it certainly is possible. I don’ t
concern myself with believing it or not. I appreciate my planet and the
universe, and I live within it as morally as I know how . I’m not preoccupied
with how it started, but rather in enjoying it and making it a better place for
everyone,” she responded. “How do you know what is moral, if you don’ t believe in the existence of
God?” I said.“When I say I don’ t believe, I don’ t at all discount the possibility of the
existence of God. It is quite possible, indeed quite probable, and I am
totally open to it. I simply don’ t know . Therefore I don’ t use words like
‘believe’ as you do. Second, morality is well defined on Uranus. It is not a
religious af fair at all,” she said. “How is your morality defined?”
“Quite simply , any behavior that doesn’ t interfere with another
individual’ s right to live as he would like to is moral,” she responded. “But how can you say that when you talk about feeling-hurters, guilt-
prodders, and the like?”
“That is our reality , it is out of our hands and has nothing to do with
morality . Just as your DC-10s and Skylabs are your reality . You know how
to produce them and you do, despite the fact that there are casualties
associated with these realities. Y ou do not judge them, nor the people who
invent, manufacture, and fly the aircraft, immoral. Once they are a part of
your reality they cannot be sent away by simple fiat. They exist because the
knowledge to create them exists. Feeling-hurters are a part of our reality
and that is that. On Uranus hurt feelings are not judged as bad, they are a
condition of our reality . It would be like saying that sharks are immoral
because they eat minnows. That is their reality and should not be confused
with morality ,” she said. “How can you know what is right and wrong if you don’ t have religion to
assist you?” I asked. “Morality has nothing to do with right and wrong, it is as I defined it just
a moment ago. Moreover , right and wrong do not exist independently of
man’ s willingness to apply these labels on Earth,” she shot back. “But we do have right and wrong,” I protested as I believed my religious
leader would point out, adding, “and someone has to uphold these
standards.”
“You do have people, religious people and others, defining right and
wrong here, but that doesn’ t mean they exist.”
“But killing, for example, is wrong,” I suggested. “Except when you declare wars on each other , then it is right and moral,”
she said with no evidence of malice. “But war is an exception,” I said. “Then so is saying that killing is wrong,” she answered. “Here on Earth
there is no morality outside of man’ s definition of it for his ownconvenience. It is that way today , and it has been that way throughout your
recorded history .”
“Where would you suggest that we go to help people to be more moral
by your definition?” I asked. “To the only place people on Earth can go, and that is to themselves. Y ou
can train people to think more ethically rather than by rules. Blind
obedience to rules and laws just because they are af filiated with a religious
sect can and does lead to outrageously immoral acts,” she replied. “Such as?”
“Such as wars in the name of religion in Ireland, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and all
over your world. Killing in the name of religion is still killing, even though
you call it patriotism or religious duty . Were you to train each other ,
especially your young people, to think ethically , you would never resort to
killing for any reason. Consequently you would raise moral standards by
helping individuals think for themselves in ethical self-determining ways. A
human being who believed in morality would never make a decision to kill
if he or she considered killing immoral. And if every individual used his or
her own mind and conscience to determine a personal moral position on
killing, there would be no one to do the killing, and no one to order it
either ,” she said emphatically . “But isn’ t it unrealistic to imagine that everyone would be moral under
those conditions?” I asked. “Morality is an individual matter , not an everyone  matter . When you
teach and practice not to kill throughout your world, you will have
individuals deciding not to kill. Only then will you have morality . Regardless of how much rhetoric you spout to the contrary , there is no right
and wrong on your planet. Y ou only have individuals applying these labels. It should be the role of a religious moral leader to foster nonkilling
behavior , rather than comfort those in military war zones. Y our churches
should be outraged at any violation of morality and not participate in
affronts by condemning them only with lip service.”
“Well, would you have people on Earth believe in God?”
“They are free to do so as they choose. However , I would tell them to
stop asking God to do what they have the power to do themselves.”
“Why do people here ask God to do that?” I asked. “Because people on your planet are afraid to be God. They want someone
else to do it for them. They use prayer as a means for communicating withGod, and virtually all the prayer I’ve observed is a plea for God to make the
world into something other than what it is.”
“How?” I asked. “Listen to your prayers. ‘Please God, make my troubles go away .’
‘Please God, help my family .’ ‘Please God, help us win this football game.’
These are the pleas of people who want God to do things for them.”
“How would you alter that prayer , Eykis?”
“I would look within myself for the strength to help me alleviate
suffering in the world. I’d ask myself to push harder , to go the extra step, to
stop whining, to accept the world as it is. If I wanted to give God the credit
for giving me free will, terrific, but I’d want to remind myself precisely
what free will entails. It has nothing to do with asking God to do something
for me,” she responded. “So you believe that we have made God into an external concept to
which we give either credit or blame,” I summarized. “You’ve not only made God into an external concept, you’ve turned all of
religion into precisely what you have just described. Y ou even measure how
religious your people are by such unrelated behavior as their attendance at
church, recitation of scriptures that are not understood, whether they
practice birth control, the symbols they worship, and so on. I even heard a
man explaining to his friend how happy he was that he was going to attend
mass on Saturday evening rather than Sunday morning, so that he could ‘get
it over with.’ Getting religious services over with  is not a healthy signal
when you are trying to cultivate individual integrity and morality . In fact, it
is precisely the opposite of what it was originally intended to accomplish.”
“How is it the opposite?” I asked. “What you have done with religion on your planet is to completely turn
around what started out as an opportunity to help mankind to look inward
and by so doing develop personal standards of conduct that would make the
world a better place. Religion has become a catechism of guilt, worry , fear ,
anxiety . As you know , I see this as elementary incorrect thinking. Man has
used religious af filiation to act out his own wrong, self-destructive, power -
hungry thinking, and then called the conforming behavior that follows such
dogma ‘religion.’ Y our religious colleagues have almost constantly used the
name of God for immoral ends. Y ou can’ t read a newspaper anywhere on
your planet without seeing the evidence. Y ou see wars and executions in thename of God! Y ou see murder and stealing, skyjacking and terrorism, all in
the name of God!” she exclaimed. “But those are zealots, fanatics,” I protested. “Not all religion condones
such activity .”
“It just depends on who is doing the name calling,” she reminded me. “In
your wars you have priests, ministers, mullahs, and rabbis praying to help
you kill more of the enemy . Those on one side exhort their followers to
regard all others as immoral. I’m not talking exclusively about wars, either . When you tell young people, ‘This is what God wants you to do,’ or ‘Y ou’ll
go to hell if you don’ t attend church,’ or ‘Please God as WE think God wants
you to please her ,’ then you’re still taking away that free will. Anything
which encourages people to act in blind obedience to unquestioned
authority is an invitation to fit in and behave as they are told by God’ s self-
anointed representatives. When external behavior turns into ‘good,’ you
label it religious and applaud it, and when it leads to wars, blind obedience,
stealing, or anything else, you overlook it, call it a necessary exception, or
punish it, depending upon how conveniently it fits into your externally
imposed dogma.”
“But don’ t you think you’re being too hard on religion? Certainly you
must think it serves a purpose in our world,” I said hopefully . “Keep in mind,” she gently reminded me, “I am only capable of relating
what is, I can’ t say what you would like me to say because it would make
you and your colleagues happier . But, of course, religion can, and in some
cases does, provide a wonderful service to humanity .”
“What do you see as the benefits of religion on Earth?”
“It provides people with an arena for self-examination. It provides
stimulation for the soul and helps people examine their life choices. It helps
them see how they can improve the quality of life on Earth. Religion can be
an avenue for human expression that encourages self-development and
appreciation for the beauty of your marvelous universe,” she said without
pausing. “But you don’ t feel that it provides this as often as it might?” I
summarized. “I’ve seen it only rarely . For the most part, religion has been used as a
tool for furthering man’ s selfish lust for power and control over others. Many of the most inhumane acts ever recorded on your planet were carried
out with God or religion as the rationale,” she said.“How would you use religion, as you’ve seen it on Earth, in the most
propitious manner?” I asked, recognizing that I had already spent a great
deal of time on this one area, and I still had many more hats to try on with
Eykis before this day and her visit were complete. “Instead of forcing people to practice religion that tells them how to
think, encourage them to think for themselves. That is the most religiously
freeing experience possible on Earth. Rather than imposing rules, laws, and
dogma on your parishioners, you should be asking them to begin taking
moral responsibility for their own lives. Instead of measuring religious
behavior in terms of external symbols, I would measure it by how well each
person is able to realize his own potential for individual morality . If this
goal was ever achieved—and where else but in religious teachings are you
better equipped to take on the task?—then all of the terrible immoral
calamities you’ve brought about on your planet, such as war , crime,
starvation, and pollution, would become obsolete. “From what I, Eykis, can see, you have that option, unlike us on Uranus. We have a reality system that often precludes our having individual free
will. But you, you can think as you elect to, and that is a gift each of you is
misusing. All too often, in the religious institutions you so proudly erect,
you do all you can to rid your people of their individual morality , while
proclaiming quite the opposite in your religious rhetoric,” she concluded. “So you would move religion, in all forms, from the external to the
internal side?” I asked, wanting to be certain that I had recorded her
statement properly . “Yes, but you needn’ t take my word for it. Look to the teachings of one
of your most famous religious leaders, who spelled it out in black and white
for you.”
“To whom do you refer?”
“When the admirers of Jesus, like most disciples today of all religions,
asked, ‘Where do we find the kingdom of heaven? How do we get there?’
he replied with one sentence that communicates all I’ve said here this
morning: ‘Don’ t look outside yourself for it, the kingdom of heaven is
within. ’ That’ s the message. It isn’ t a place you arrive at as a reward for
being just like everybody else, or doing what you’re told. It is within. That
is precisely what I meant when I said earlier that people are afraid to BE
God. God must reside within each person. People should look at their own
capacity for greatness and seek out the strength to do it themselves. BEINGGod is not disrespectful in the least. It involves putting total responsibility
for morality on your own shoulders, and using the free will that is your
birthright on Earth. I am sad to say that I’ve seen very little evidence on
Earth that anyone even remotely connected to any religion understands the
simple little secret of the universe that Jesus unveiled two thousand years
ago—the kingdom of heaven is within.”
Even after many hours with Eykis, I found her simple honesty amazing. She stated her beliefs without any of the usual caution that typifies nearly
all discussions on Earth. She related only what she perceived to be true. She
knew nothing of such things as duplicity , exaggeration, or couching truths
in more palatable language. Even so, I was anxious to change topics. While
I enjoyed playing the role of religious representative, I was also squirming a
bit under Eykis’ straightforward responses. Religion is one of those areas
that is so loaded with emotion for most of us, that it seemed strange to hear
her talk without even so much as a twinge of fear of retribution. She wasn’ t
at all concerned with how she would be perceived. She cared nothing for
her ratings. She was being Eykis, sharing her own truths in the form of
observations she had made. Nothing more! I was loving it and her . “As a person representing the realistic world of business,” I asked her ,
starting into my second role, “just what are your thoughts about such things
as profits, money , and production?” I had given her no warning as to where
I was headed. “I see that it is possible to live happily and fully with or without profits
and money on your planet. I feel that working for money itself is self-
defeating because it teaches that acquisitions, achievement, and
appearances are the reasons for working. These things can never bring
about complete fulfillment,” she responded. “How do you come to see these things as evils?” I asked. “I didn’ t use the word evil, you did. Certainly there are few things more
gratifying to human beings than work. It is one way to feel purposeful and
fulfilled. W ork provides a stimulating avenue for actualizing yourself. But
working for money , or even for what it can buy , is another dead-end
proposition. On Earth you cannot reach personal fulfillment through
external means because happiness is an internal process. If you are happy , it
is because you experience it within.”
“But doesn’ t having money provide you with a better avenue for
achieving inner happiness?” I asked.“Not at all. This is one of those mistaken assumptions that business-
minded people would love to have everyone else believe. The idea that
having money leads to happiness just isn’ t so. If you could only see your
world as I do, through reality-only  lenses, you would have a dif ferent point
of view . There are some four billion people on your planet. Less than 1 or 2
percent of all those people have abundant supplies of money . Thus 98
percent of your people lack money , and yet the poorest among them are
capable of being happy , of enjoying a sunset, a family get-together , or
anything at all. Conversely , the richest among you are capable of the
highest depression and suicide rates, of feeling empty inside even with full
bellies and all of life’ s embellishments. While you would like everyone to
believe that money makes for happiness, I’m sorry to disappoint you. It has
nothing to do with what genuine happiness is.”
“If money has nothing to do with happiness, then why do people pursue
it so vigorously?” I responded. “Because their thinking is wrong. They’ve convinced themselves that
security and happiness will result from accumulating purchasing power . Or
they believe that they must accumulate money in order to be a responsible
person. They sacrifice. They do things they dislike, such as staying in a
routine job, or living in a city they dislike, in the name of responsibility or
the pursuit of happiness. Money has nothing to do with either one.”
“Please go on,” I implored. “I don’ t see how people on Earth can really
be responsible if they don’ t try to better themselves and work for the money
that will bring about a higher quality of life.”
“You are slavishly holding on to the ‘money is happiness and
responsibility’ doctrine that permeates so many of your cultures. All this
fear about being irresponsible and not meeting your obligations to your
loved ones is a myth. It’ s only a product of looking at your world and
fearing what might  happen. In reality , the problems are only inventions of
the mind. If you meet a person who has always been responsible, who has
met all obligations to family and to self, then that is his or her reality and
ought to be the basis of that person’ s thinking. But instead people believe
that success came from the job, the money , the luck, the lack of a recession,
or something else that’ s external. Consequently they start thinking
incorrectly and inventing catastrophes that are not rooted in reality . Because
people on Earth are loath to accept credit for their own success, they look
outside of themselves, both for credit and for blame.“If you had workers looking inside and taking responsibility for
themselves, they would know that they could go anywhere on your planet
and be successful. Their success would not be related to external events,
economic conditions, or luck. Instead, it would be an inner process which
could never be taken away .” After pausing for a drink of water , she
continued, “Besides, your people don’ t understand the real irony of working
for money .”
“And just what is that irony?” I asked in my most business-like manner . “If you pursue your own ideals and enjoy what you do because that is
how you choose to think, success will come to you in ways and abundance
beyond your dreams,” she stated. “But surely you don’ t believe that money will simply come to you?” I
asked incredulously . “Success will arrive in your life in whatever form you need it. All your
creative geniuses—your artists, musicians, architects, statesmen, writers,
actors, businessmen, chefs, designers, mechanics—do not do what they do
for money , even though it may appear that way to you. Can you imagine a
master artist saying to himself, ‘This one will bring in so many dollars’? Not at all! The actual act of doing whatever it is that you do should provide
satisfaction to you independently of any external reward. Even your best-
paid athletes do not perform for the money itself. Do you think a ball player
who is paid less one season works harder in the actual performance of his
duties the next year , when he’ s paid more? The payment is a bonus. The
bonuses arrive when you stop focusing on them and turn your thoughts to
enjoying your life and what you’re doing,” she concluded. “So you think that we place far too much emphasis on accumulations and
appearances rather than on the quality of the experiences themselves,” I
said, trying to summarize and remembering what she had said to me at our
last meeting. “I think you believe that the accumulations and appearances have the
potential for happiness within them, and this is wrong,” she said, correcting
my conclusions. “But if accumulating money for buying things to make one happy is
wrong, why do so many people do it?” I asked again. “Because here you perpetuate so well the myth of happiness as an
external process. There’ s nothing wrong with the words ‘profit’ or ‘money .’I heartily endorse them for what they are. I just see Earthlings confusing
these concepts with personal happiness and fulfillment,” she responded. “Well then, what are the purposes of money and profits on Earth, as you
see them?”
“They serve as a medium of exchange, a way to transfer goods and
services between people of all backgrounds and skills, and this is a
wonderful thing. This is the reality purpose,” she said. “Would you encourage people to work to improve the quality of their
lives by raising their incomes and searching for promotions?” I asked. “The quality of life on Earth is related to money only in your mind, not in
reality . I repeat, not in reality . I saw people living on remote islands who
had not one coin to their names, baking their own bread. They were happy ,
contented human beings who wanted no more. I saw executives in the most
posh homes with uncountable collections of coins who were unhappy to the
point of severe depression. Their children were suicidal with fear that they
didn’ t have the skills to hang on to the amassed wealth. I would encourage
people to work for the joy of what they are doing, to take pride and
fulfillment in their acts, whatever they may be, and just for the acts
themselves. If they can’ t do that, I would encourage them to look for other
activities that they find fulfilling. I would encourage management to focus
on what they can do to make all work personally fulfilling. The people of
your world must try to find joy and serenity within themselves and take that
energy into everything they do. If they follow this path, the symbols of
success will follow , and will arrive in suf ficient amounts. People who
continue to chase the symbols of success will find these symbols always
eluding them, and, even more devastatingly , they will suf fer from the
widespread disease of MORE .” She stopped and looked right at me. “Have I
said it clearly enough?” she asked. “Quite,” I replied, “but what is the disease of more?”
“On Earth, more is the sickness that keeps people from ever arriving at
now. You have a world of strivers when you could have a world of arrivers. When you work for money and what it can bring you in the future, then
‘what-it-can-bring-in-the-future’ becomes the reason for working and
accumulating money . This means that no matter how much you accumulate,
you’ll never arrive, because what you have can only be seen for ‘what-it-
will-bring-in-the-future.’ I’ve seen business people seriously af flicted with
this ‘more’ malady . They have accumulated more than they could everspend, and yet they use their minds to remind themselves that they must
still acquire more. They pursue ‘more’ and ‘better ’ to such an extent that
they destroy themselves and begin to believe in an even more destructive
form of wrong thinking. They subscribe to the incorrect thought that they
are what they do, ” she said. “And why is this so destructive?” I asked. “Because it is simply wrong again. Once you believe your values derive
from what you accomplish, then it must also follow that when you fail to
accomplish, then you have no value. Hence you see people all over your
planet who, when their ‘profit pictures’ turn sour , become depressed, even
to the point of needing treatment from others who are suf fering from
‘more.’ I’ve observed humans feeling useless when they retire because they
believe they are what they do. I’ve seen people afraid of failing when it is
clear that on Earth you can’ t grow unless you are willing to fail—a lot! The
truth as I see it is that your value as a person comes from what you decide
to believe about yourself, not from any accumulations or accomplishments. And when you confuse this, you set yourself up for pain, regardless of how
well you defend your beliefs. Does this make sense to you?”
“Yes, but what are the most common manifestations of the pain? After
all, not everyone in the business world is on the ver ge of suicide or even
mildly depressed,” I shot right back. “The symptoms I’ve observed are reflected in almost all walks of life for
those so af flicted, and it all stems from the incorrect thinking I’ve
mentioned so many times. For example, I heard many businessmen saying
that the most important things in their lives were their loved ones, their
families, and the assurance that these people would be happy . Yet these
businessmen spent almost no time with their loved ones. They were busy
accumulating money , which they must have believed would provide that
happiness. Still, their marriages were breaking up and they were clearly
strangers to their own children. Ironically , they had no time to be with the
very people they described as most important to them. “You see, their thinking is in error . They know within themselves that
they can’ t buy happiness, and still they spend their days attempting to do
just that. In addition, they are often infected with ‘hurry sickness.’ They are
almost always rushing, even when they have no reality-based reason for
doing so. They become obsessed with perfection, using in their personal
lives the same assets-versus-liabilities  approach that works so well in theirbusinesses. I often saw them making unrealistic demands on their families,
insisting that they behave like statistics on a ledger , and then wondering
why the families became lost to them. Moreover , their own bodies were
often racked with ulcers, high blood pressure, borderline alcoholism, and
anxiety . These are the payof fs for locating happiness outside yourself, and
pursuing the false symbols of success, of which the dollar sign is the most
prominent. This money lust seems to run rampant, almost unchecked, on
Earth, and all for nothing.
_OceanofPDF.com_Gifts_from_Eykis_-_Wayne_W_Dyer.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        This conclusion came only after her frantic search for what she
thought had to be the real causes of these phobias, in the light of her own
reality-only approach to life. “Would you like to hear another of my discoveries. ” she asked, breaking
a long silence during which we had both been lost in thought. “I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the people on Earth participate
every single day in self-rejection exercises, and I know you have no self-
rejection lotion here, since I’ve researched the subject exhaustively. ” She
seemed almost proud, like a little girl who had just received her first
straight-A report card. “That’ s quite a conclusion,” I countered, wanting her to continue telling
me about her remarkable discovery. “And furthermore, I know now exactly why they do it, although I was
really baf fled by this behavior at first. ”
“Please fill me in on this discovery,” I said. “Don’ t hold back. ”
“Well, it goes like this. Remember to correct me if you find any flaws. ”
I agreed. I must admit I was anxious to hear what she had concluded. “People are trained, almost from birth, to dislike who they are. Y oung
children are somehow expected to gain a sense of self-esteem by being
force-fed a diet intended instead to produce self-doubt. Self-esteem is
revered on Earth, but only in books. Much lip service is paid to self-worth,
but it is seldom reinforced or even encouraged. Y ou believe that by
discouraging self-confidence in the young you will help them to grow into
confident adults. It is a mystery, but I think I have a handle on it. ”
“Go on” I almost begged. “You tell young people to learn to think for themselves, but you rarely
allow them to do it. Instead you provide them with an education that
discourages decision making at every turn. Y ou give them lessons on
becoming self-confident and then take away the very experiences that
would lead to that end. All day and all night in their homes your television
programs show them how to pursue the exact opposite of self-esteem. ”
“What do you mean ‘the exact opposite’. ”
“You tell them that sex appeal can be purchased by wearing the right
bluejeans, or by using a bottle of expensive perfume. Y ou show them
pictures all the time, of women acting like dolts, trying to please their men,
jiggling their bodies for attention, wearing the proper artificial fragrances
and getting the desired results, that is, approving looks from men; or
women who cannot contain themselves because a man smokes a particular
brand of cigarette or wears a specific after -shave lotion. Then you expect
them to grow into self-confident adults. ”
“But self-esteem isn’ t discouraged on all fronts,” I protested. “Maybe not, but the overwhelming emphasis seems to be on teaching
obedience rather than responsible thinking, on fitting in and conforming
rather than being independent and creative. Y ou make being an independent
thinker extremely dif ficult, particularly for young people. ”
“But I saw a great deal of dependency and conformity on Uranus. Why
do you find it so disconcerting when you see it here. ” I asked. “Once again you for get our separate realities. On Uranus we have the
dependency diodes that we discussed in depth. Furthermore, with self-
rejection lotion as a necessary part of our existence, we simply have no
voice in the matter. But it’ s not like that here on Earth at all. ”
I had for gotten about our separate realities. She was tied into those real-
world exigencies, and I didn’ t want her to go through that salt water/freshwater analogy that had made so much sense earlier. “You are correct,
Eykis,” I replied. “Please go on. ”
“I can’ t figure out why so many of you resist independent thinking and
new ideas, when progress is impossible without them. Y ou make such a big
thing about progress and then do everything possible to stand in the way of
the only people who can bring it about—those who think for themselves
and aren’ t afraid of new ideas. ”
“Don’ t you think young people need discipline. Shouldn’ t they learn to
respect their elders and how to get along in life.
The conversation is about Eykis' proposal to change the way people think on Earth, and her observations on the wrong thinking patterns of humans.
What is the main topic of the conversation between the narrator and Eykis?
Eykis is proposing to change the way people think, specifically by encouraging them to focus on inner happiness and fulfillment rather than external appearances and acquisitions.
What is the main idea behind Eykis' proposal, according to her?
Eykis argues that self-esteem is often misguided and encourages people to focus on self-acceptance and inner fulfillment instead.
What is the main theme of Eykis' discussion on self-esteem?
Eykis identifies three categories of wrong thinking: (1) quality instead of appearance, (2) rules instead of ethics, and (3) achievement instead of knowledge.
What are the three categories of wrong thinking that Eykis identifies as prevalent on Earth?
According to Eykis, happiness is an internal process that comes from within, and it is not dependent on external factors such as money or possessions.
What is the key to happiness, according to Eykis?