I decided to ask about other phobias, since I had nothing to say that
would clear it up other than the same old safety clause that I had used too
many times by now . “You’ll see when we get to Earth.”“Let’ s forget about elevators for a moment. Do people on Uranus suf fer
from acrophobia?” I asked. “Certainly ,” she replied. “Heights really scare people here, it is a very
serious and common phobia.”
“Just how can a height frighten anyone?” I asked. “Heights simply do not want people exploring them. It is our way of life
and everyone knows it on Uranus.”
“But how can a height want anything? It’ s nothing more than a high
place,” I insisted. “Not on Uranus,” she snapped, “and you wouldn’ t be saying that if you
had ever gone too close to the top of a mountain or the edge of a clif f.”
“Are they equipped with scare programming like your elevators?” I
asked. I was beginning to feel stupid for even asking such questions. “No, there is no programming for scare, but the tops of our mountains
and all our clif fs are on hinges,” she said. “What!” I shouted from total disbelief. “Now don’ t tell me that you don’ t have hinges back on Earth,” she said. “Of course we have hinges, but mountains and clif fs certainly are not
hinged in any way .”
“Well, if they aren’ t hinged, how can they come of f?” she wanted to
know . “Why in the world would a mountain top want to ‘come of f’?” I asked,
almost losing my patience with the silly direction in which the conversation
was headed. “Didn’ t you tell me earlier that you had heard someone, several people in
fact, saying heights scare them?”
“Well, yes.” I admitted that I had heard it many times, and had even
recorded it in my log of things to ask about. “So how would it ever be possible for anyone to say such a thing if the
cliffs and mountain tops weren’ t on hinges? When people get too close to
the top or the edge, their weight may activate the antiavalanche control
system and cause the peaks to swing out on hinges with a sudden whoosh. That’ s how heights scare you. How else could it be done?” she asked. “Has this ever happened to you?” I asked her . “No, sir ,” she said emphatically . “Heights have never frightened me, how
about you?” she asked of me.“Well, we don’ t have any hinges on our mountain tops and clif fs, that’ s
for sure,” I answered. “Well then, we’re alike in this matter at least. I guess you’ve never heard
anyone say ‘heights scare me’ before,” she said. “Ahhh, yes, as a matter of fact, I’ve heard it many times, but let’ s save it
for another day . I’m sure you’d be even more confused if we really dug into
the matter .”
All these wonderfully strange conversations had me smiling inside as I
contemplated what it was going to be like for Eykis back home on Earth. All she understood was so insanely sensible. All she knew was her own
reality , and I was beginning to see how it was indeed, in so many ways,
light years removed from the reality I had learned about on Earth. Back home I was considered a highly evolved, no-limit kind of person. But here on Uranus I’m sure Eykis was beginning to think I was a genuine
Loony T unes character . I decided to plunge ahead with our interview , to
learn all I could that night. She had told me that this would be her last
opportunity to speak in depth, since her work was piling up. She had also
said she was putting everything in order so that she could accompany me
back to Earth for a brief two-week observation of her own. All my talk
about anxiety attacks without anxiety attacking, elevator phobias though
elevators were not programmed to scare people, and other mysterious
happenings had piqued her interest in my place of origin. She was clearly
interested in seeing it firsthand. “Will your family object to your leaving without taking them along?” I
asked. “I won’ t allow them to be upset,” she said innocently . “But how can you allow or not allow someone else to be upset?”
“I’ll hide their feeling-hurters and disconnect the anger terminals from
their portable units,” she said, as I almost literally picked myself up from
the restaurant floor . “Okay , okay , I give up, what is a feeling-hurter?” I asked in amused
wonderment. “You mean to tell me that on Earth people can’ t hurt other people’ s
feelings?”
“Of course they can, it happens all the time, but what has that to do with
a feeling-hurter?” I asked.“Once again you puzzle me, but I’ll restrain myself until I see your
people with my own eyes. I can’ t imagine how anyone can hurt another ’s
feelings without the benefit of a feeling-hurter . But to answer your question,
a feeling-hurter is a very light-weight portable machine which you carry on
your belt or in your purse. It comes in many dif ferent models depending on
how much you’re willing to spend. The typical feeling-hurter has three
buttons specifically programed for basic family members. One is for
siblings, one for parents, and one for grandparents or anyone else who may
be living in the home. Y ou can order more expensive varieties that include
in-laws, co-workers, and even strangers if you want to spend the extra
money .”
“But how do they work?” I wanted to know . “They operate through invisible lasers. If you want to hurt your sister ’s
feelings, for example, you aim it directly at her , and zap! Y ou push the
button marked sibling and she’ll generally respond in a whiny tone, ‘Mom,
he just hurt my feelings.’ Make sense?”
“Sense,” I exclaimed. “It’ s absolutely phenomenal. Y ou mean that on
Uranus one cannot hurt someone else’ s feelings without a feeling-hurter?” I
asked. “How would it be possible?” she shot right back. “How could anyone
hurt someone’ s feelings without a feeling-hurter?”
I didn’ t want to go into it. So I simply shrugged of f her rhetorical
questions and put it into that ever growing category of “W ait and you’ll see
when you get to my house.”
But I must say I did think about her question long and hard. I knew that
Eykis, who was already greatly baf fled by my inability to answer her
questions intelligently , would not be satisfied with my reply . Maybe a visit
back to Earth would clarify things for her , although I was already beginning
to be certain that her visit would only confirm her recent conclusions about
us Earthlings. “So your family won’ t be able to have hurt feelings about your trip
because you are going to hide their feeling-hurters,” I restated, to be sure
I’d recorded it properly . “Either I’ll hide them or I’ll disconnect the wife/mother terminals. They
would be inconvenienced to be completely without their feeling-hurters for
two weeks, so I’ll just disconnect those lasers that would af fect me.”“Amazing, absolutely amazing,” was all I could say . “And those anger
buttons you mentioned, do they work in a similar way?”
“Almost exactly ,” she replied, “except that they aren’ t portable. Anger is
too serious an emotional response for people to be carrying around anger -
provokers, so the terminals are fixed within the home. The government
restricts the sale of anger -provokers because they can be dangerous. Although no one would, as you say , ‘harm’ anyone else, still, a provoked
attack of anger can create things like tantrums, shouting, kicking inanimate
objects, and the like. So we seldom use our anger -provokers. But you can
definitely make someone else angry here on Uranus by pushing the right
combinations of buttons.”
“So you are going to insure that your family isn’ t upset at you by actually
tampering with their buttons, so to speak.”
“I will simply inform them that I don’ t want them to hurt my feelings. I
don’t want them to make me angry and vice versa. Then I’ll show them
what I’ve done and no one will be hurt. Can you suggest a way to handle it
any better?” she asked quite sternly . “Not at all,” I replied without hesitation. “Y ou really have a terrific plan
there. In fact, I’d love to take some of those toys back home with me.”
“You mean that you don’ t have feeling-hurters and anger -provokers on
Earth?” she wanted to know . “Right again, Eykis,” I said. “So no one can make anyone angry or hurt anyone else’ s feelings on
Earth. Right?” she asked, almost hopefully . “Wrong again, Eykis,” I said. “I know , I know . We’ll wait until we get there,” she said. I feared that she
was anticipating some kind of alien technology that would help explain
Earthling thinking and behavior . She was in for a shock. It occurred to me that without their mechanical instruments, the people of
Uranus would never suf fer the pain of anger or insult. Why introduce such
destructive emotions into society? I wondered. I asked Eykis directly . “Much earlier in our history , we found that without a range of emotion
we had no stimulation for creativity . We were exceedingly dull. This
technology was as wonderful an advance as, say , the automobile. But, like
cars, it got out of hand. W ith cars there is the tendency to get a bigger ,
faster , newer , more complex model every year . That was becoming the case
with feeling-hurters and anger -provokers. Competition and status dictatedthe purchase more than actual need. Now there is government regulation, as
with auto emissions and so on. Our scientists seek alternative devices also,
just as we investigate mass transit, but the use of these emotion zappers is
deeply rooted in the society and won’ t change until a clearly superior
system has been proved to be ef fective and readily available.”
“Aren’ t your family members somewhat dependent on you? W on’t they
miss you while you’re gone?” I asked, changing the subject from feeling-
hunters and anger -provokers. “Dependency is very important for young children. How else would they
survive?” she asked me right back. “I’m not talking about very young children. I’m talking about young
people who can think for themselves, who would survive without their
parents, teenagers for example. I’m also talking about adults who become
dependent upon each other within the family . How about that?” I asked. “I see. W ell, in almost all cases we disconnect the dependency diodes
from our young children about the age of eleven, and then dependency—
absolutely relying on anyone else—is impossible. I must admit, however ,
that some people on Uranus do have dependency needs beyond age eleven,
often well into adulthood, and occasionally throughout their entire lives.”
I now felt as if I had finally gotten hold of something I could relate to. This was very Earthlike, and I didn’ t want to let it go. “So why would
anyone want to remain dependent after he is able to think, feel, and live as
an independent-thinking person?” I asked, almost as if I were a prosecuting
attorney who had finally trapped a key witness and caught him in his own
illogic. “Haven’ t you ever heard of defective dependency diodes?” she asked,
showing her disdain for my prosecutor -like tone. “Dependency is like an
illness. W e don’ t get angry at people for being sick. No one can help it if he
has defective dependency diodes. The person to whom it happens usually
remains dependent for a while. Rather than thinking for himself, he often
wants others to do his thinking for him. He blames his parents for his
problems and in fact he is right. Only parents control dependency diodes
and a miscalculating parent can create a dependency that might even last. Fortunately , all the dependency diodes are operating properly in my family . I have a whole group of people in my family who can think for themselves,
who never blame me for their problems, and who share and love each other
very much. I’m thankful that all my dependency diodes disconnectedproperly . With the exception of my husband’ s jealousy-jam, which he rarely
uses, we have a wonderful family of interdependent and independent
functioning people. No one wants to put the control of his life in anyone
else’s power , since that would take away what we prize most on Uranus—
freedom. But we must thank the skillful parents for disconnecting the
diodes flawlessly . Believe me, I’ve seen families where everyone is
dependent and obsessed with loyalty to the unit, instead of loyalty to being
individuals within the unit. This can be a nightmare. But it’ s all in the hands
of the diode manipulators.” She stopped and looked at me. I knew what was
coming. Sure enough…
“You look bewildered again,” she said. “T ell me, how could there ever be
any dependency , as you put it, when the diodes are working properly? Don’ t
tell me…”
“You guessed it,” I murmured. “You mean no dependency diodes on Earth?”
“You said it.”
“And you still have dependencies in people after age eleven?”
“Yes indeed, but before you swallow that one, let me ask you another
question,” I begged her . “Okay , shoot,” she said. She was picking up my Earthly vernacular . “I just let that jealousy-jam thing go by . What do you think I’m thinking
about that one?”
“I’ll bet you’ve never heard of jealousy-jam, and that you still have
jealousy on Earth. And that I won’ t be able to comprehend how that is
possible until I see it for myself when we get to Earth next week. How did I
do?” she inquired. “You’ve got it one hundred percent correct,” I said, “and I am even going
to try and tell you about this jealousy-jam I’ve never heard about,” I stated,
taking pleasure in our role reversal. “When your husband wants to make
you jealous, he puts this jam on his toast and eats it, then he is jealous,
right?”
“Almost,” she said, stifling her laughter to avoid being impolite. “First,
you don’ t eat jealousy-jam. Y ou simply rub some on your fingers. And
second, you don’ t make yourself jealous with jealousy-jam, you make
someone else jealous. So my husband would rub some of the jealousy-jam
on my fingers, or vice versa, and then he would be able to say , ‘You’re
making me jealous.’ Y ou see, the cause of neurotic behavior is alwayslocated in the other person. Jealousy-jam on my fingers makes him jealous. Jealousy-jam on his fingers makes me jealous. Got it?”
“Why would he want  to be jealous?”
Eykis dropped her gaze for the first time and blushed rosily . “It is the
finest stimulus for arousal,” she said with honesty and embarrassment,
struggling for control of her constricted voice. “W e enjoy convincing each
other there is no cause for jealousy in reality .”
I grinned. “That’ s one jam I’d like to try , then!” I teased. She smiled and relaxed. “I’m sure you would,” she said, able to resume
her usual unwavering eye contact. I felt myself reddening this time. “You know ,” I said, “what really scares me is that I think we are
beginning to understand each other .”
She smiled and wanted to know if I knew enough yet for us to begin the
preparations for our visit to Earth. I was thrilled that after so many hours of being together we had finally
figured out, although only in a minute way , something about our separate,
unique realities. “Before we close,” I almost pleaded, “let me ask you a few more
questions. I think I know how your reality is indeed separate from ours, but
I want to verify it for myself.”
“All right,” she answered willingly . “And I’ll suspend my questions for
you until we get to Earth. But to be perfectly honest with you, I must admit
that while I am exceedingly pleased that you’re seeing how my reality
system works, I am more than confused about how yours works. I just can’ t
seem to understand it. Everything seems so alien. Y ou tell me repeatedly
that you have the same emotional reactions we do, and yet I’ve failed to
grasp how or why you get them. But I’ll be patient. There must be some
sensible explanation that simply eludes me at the moment.”
She was definitely wrong about the sensible explanation. But I didn’ t
want to say or do anything that might discourage her , or add to her
bewilderment. W e spent another hour talking about almost all the topics on
the list of things I wanted to know . I’d learned by now to suspend my
disbelief and I was no longer surprised at what appeared to be absolutely
ridiculous assertions. I’d finally given up trying to see her through my own
reality . I accepted her for what she presented herself to me as being. I’d
finally learned to stop judging her and to see that she was incapable of
distorting the truth. Eykis was in fact the personification of an acceptinghuman being, living comfortably with the reality of her society and eager to
grow with each new experience. I had read a great deal about no-limit people firmly entrenched in their
own reality . They seemed to be superior human beings who could transcend
themselves and all their petty concerns and involve themselves in a strong
sense of purpose and mission. They were reality-based people who never
forgot the vital truth of what is. But Eykis’ truths were so new to me; so
foreign. I’d for gotten that a person’ s reality is just that, and that it is not
something to scof f at but something to enter and accept. Still, even I had to
admit that this was a very dif ferent reality . Gadgets and jams, lotions and
diodes, anxiety attack reports, and more. But so what! Isn’ t the reality of a
supposed schizophrenic just as unbelievably bizarre and unreal? And hadn’ t
I learned long ago that walking in someone else’ s shoes was far more
reality-based than pretending that their shoes were unwearable? Eykis allowed me to view myself objectively . She made it possible for
me to see my prejudices and judgments by demonstrating that she was
incapable of the same prejudices and judgments. She showed me her world,
and I’d wasted my ener gy in being flabber gasted and incredulous. In the
time that Eykis and I had spent together I learned as much about myself as
about Uranus. Mostly I’d discovered that my disbelief in her reality was
related to a simple fact. I was attempting to understand her as I was, rather
than as she was . I vowed to stop this kind of assessment. I had prided
myself in never behaving that way with anyone on Earth, and yet I was
being as ethnocentric as I could be with Eykis on Uranus. Consequently ,
when she said things that would have shocked me only yesterday , I reacted
with calm resolve today . I was beginning to understand her reality and that
understanding came from listening, not ar guing or even questioning. As she told me about blame points, calculated by blame bankers, I
understood what she was saying. Blame points were assigned by blame
banks which informed the government division. T axes were paid
accordingly . On Uranus it made sense to blame. Self-rejection lotion was
also easy for me to consider now . Some people actually used it to stimulate
self-awareness. The end result was improved self-understanding, since self-
contempt sloughed of f with dead skin. I didn’ t question this sensible
reasoning for so much self-rejection on Uranus. The lotion was available to
cause these temporary problems, leading to positive results. Otherwise, as
Eykis had said to me, “How else could you explain people participating inso much self-rejection?” She elaborated on the importance of fearing failure
on Uranus. Fear worked in conjunction with those worry-wares and actually
helped one to avoid failure by fearing it. Again, who was I to ar gue? The second simple fact that accounted for my disbelief in Eykis’ reality
stemmed from its utterly sensible nature. Something was missing on this
planet of Uranus even though it looked the same as Earth. I felt that the
“missing link,” so to speak, was precisely what gave my own planet its
distinctive (and unfortunate) character and history . Everything seemed to
have such a common-sense explanation. On Uranus, people had reasons to
be neurotic. The reasons were tied to their reality . In contrast, I could never
think of a reason rooted in reality for anyone on Earth to be neurotic or even
unhappy . And Eykis’ incredulity at my inability to give a sensible answer
was quite disturbing to me. She couldn’ t grasp an “unreal” or senseless
explanation, her reality simply didn’ t provide for it. Y et, she was always
polite and willing to wait and see. It was when she talked about love and
loving, sex and sexuality that she really touched my soul. Such a simple
definition, so easy a concept. I knew as I listened over and over to what she
told me of love and loving that I’d never even experienced such a joy , nor
had I known anyone who ever had. Not on Earth at least. And most
frightening of all, I didn’ t know if it was even possible to experience it in
my reality , unless Eykis showed me the way . But that, too, was impossible
to consider . I wouldn’ t want to even chance my dependency diode being
defective, or having her use jealousy-jam on me…or would I? OceanofPDF .com Part T wo 
EARTH
OceanofPDF .com4 
 First Observations
As Eykis and I had agreed before we left Uranus, she was to have ten days
to travel over our entire planet when she arrived here on Earth. She would
travel inconspicuously and alone. There would be no hoopla concerning her
arrival, in fact it was to be kept a secret, just as my visit to Uranus had been. She wanted to see with her own eyes, without my assistance. She was
emphatic in her insistence that she have the freedom to observe and interact
unobtrusively , to research and ask questions, all on her own. She assured
me that she was capable of seeing everything in ten days, since that was all
the time available to her . She had agreed to record her observations on tape
and note any questions she might want to ask me. As soon as she arrived, Eykis used the Urantian Formulas  to pull the
greatest disappearing act I had ever witnessed. W e had agreed on the time
and place we would meet within ten days and I knew she would keep her
word. She didn’ t know how to do otherwise. Keeping her word was a part
of her unique reality . My first inclination was to worry about her . I smiled inwardly at her
description of worry-wares and wished I had access to the little device she
had described on Uranus. I would have loved to peek ahead and be certain
that she would be safe, but I recalled what she had said about worry . “Why
would they use up their precious moments for living, by worrying about
something they can’ t do anything about? It seems so pointless.” I suspended
all worry thoughts and decided to use the next ten days productively . I sorted out and tried to or ganize the tapes and voluminous notes I had
made. She had talked to me about so many things. I felt overwhelmed
trying to write it all down in a single coherent volume. I had thought about
the importance of her messages. How wonderful it would be if I could
somehow introduce this phenomenal way of thinking and feeling to the
people here on my planet. I envisioned a world in which people used their
minds to wash away the foolish and unnecessarily destructive thoughts thatruin so many lives. I visualized importing some of those funny gadgets
Eykis had described and shown to me. But we had enough negatives
without them. I was back on my comparison excursion again. It was so dif ficult for me
to simply see Uranus as it was. I still wanted to ar gue with it, to prove that
its inhabitants were wrong and we were right. Not once had I ever heard
Eykis imply that we were inferior . To be sure she found us confusing, but
she had never insisted that we be otherwise. I did so much want to take
advantage of this new knowledge, to apply it in some way to help my
people escape their collective obsessions with taking drugs for their
problems, or seeking answers in therapy or some silly encounter group or in
gurus of every description. Somehow I knew that Eykis had secrets for me
and all my people, but I wasn’ t sure how to tap them, how to have her share
them with all of us. She had a singular kind of good sense that, if used
properly , could literally transform our world. I thought about her constantly , wondering how she would fare traveling
about this huge planet. I knew she wouldn’ t be an alien to our physical
world, since she had lived on our twin planet all her life. But the surprises
that were in store for her , even though I had spent days briefing her , were
surely going to be monumental. “They’re wrong!” she shouted as she burst into my room at the hotel at
our agreed-upon time. Hadn’ t I just said to myself that she never even tried to prove us wrong? This was a shocker . She bounced around the room, almost ranting. “What? Who’ s wrong?” I blurted, without even saying hello. “I’ve discovered the reason behind the rampant unhappiness here on
Earth,” she said, still waving her arms and walking around the room. “I’ve
talked inconspicuously to many people, but mostly I’ve simply observed. I’ve listened to people all over your world, in Asia, Europe, Africa, North
and South America, and even the islands in the Caribbean and South
Pacific,” she said, and paused to catch her breath before continuing. “W e
both know the concept of neurosis. W e have it on Uranus, and you have it
here in the same proportions. Y ou have as much unhappiness here, and your
people rarely talk or act as if they are fulfilled. It all stems from one basic
flaw. The problem is not that you are unhappy , or even unfulfilled, theproblem is that you are almost all wrong.” She had calmed down, but her
excitement at this alarming discovery did not decrease her enthusiasm for
what she was saying. “If you want to teach your people to be happy and fulfilled, you must
teach them to be correct!” she said. “What do you mean by correct?” I asked, not wanting her to lose track of
this thought. “Look,” she said, “you saw anxiety , jealousy , phobias, fears, and self-
rejection all over Uranus. Y ou observed people aiming their feeling-hurters
and causing others to be embarrassed through their embarrassment barrels. You saw it all. That is simply our reality . We accept our reality and then set
out to be happy and fulfilled within that reality . If our reality can be altered,
we work at altering and feel purposeful in the process. But on Earth,
everywhere I went I saw people thinking, feeling, and behaving in ways
that were simply inconsistent with this reality . Almost all the people I saw
thought and acted as if they were privy to a reality dif ferent from that which
exists. Y et they always ended up being done in by the only reality there is. They were wrong, wrong, wrong, and for the life of me I can’ t figure out
why they simply didn’ t start thinking, feeling, and behaving right, right,
right! So you tell me, Mr . Earthborn, why all this wrongness?”
I had never seen Eykis like this. Her confusion had finally won out over
her sensibleness. She was hammering her fist on the table, demanding both
insight and answers. She wasn’ t angry , or even upset. She had used this
word “wrong” several times and I wanted to know more about what she
meant by it. I’d known she was in for some shocks, but I hadn’ t expected
this “They’re wrong!” reaction to be so overwhelming. “Let’ s go back a bit,” I implored. “What have you seen that has led you
to conclude that we’re wrong?”
“In my first few days I discovered that there are many small but
important physical dif ferences between our two worlds. However , this was
of little concern to me. I noted that your military equipment fired real
bullets and that your jails contained people who were put there because of
the ‘harm’ they might cause themselves or others. I noted the locks on your
doors and the guns in your homes. These, and all the other strange
paraphernalia of a violent world, were not surprises to me, since I am well
aware of our own ancient history on Uranus.“I viewed these physical dif ferences as problems of evolution. Eventually , through experience, you will find that it is quite possible to
eliminate these destructive elements in your world. Y ou will be able to use
your prisons and submarines for positive purposes when you have finally
experienced the futility of competing with each other and have moved to a
more advanced form of living together , called cooperation. This will come
when you’re ready for it, and just plain unable to tolerate the violence. My
biggest shock comes from the wrongness of your thinking. “I’ll start with my first observation, which occurred in a bank line last
Monday morning. I was simply going to get some cash, as you had
suggested, when I overheard two women in front of me having this
conversation. I taped it for my research as you encouraged me to do. Here’ s
an exact transcript.”
FIRST WOMAN : “My sister never should have moved to Florida
twenty years ago. If she’d listened to me, and not married
that oaf, she wouldn’ t be having these problems today .”
SECOND WOMAN : “Well, she should have listened to you. But you
know how younger sisters are, they have to prove
themselves.”
FIRST WOMAN : “She shouldn’ t have left her family like that. If she’d
done what she was supposed to, she wouldn’ t be going
through a divorce now , and she probably wouldn’ t be stuck
with all those children and I know she wouldn’ t be seeing a
shrink either .”
SECOND WOMAN : “How is she feeling now that she’ s talking to a
psychiatrist?”
FIRST WOMAN : “She’ s still miserable because she just wouldn’ t listen
to me twenty years ago.”
SECOND WOMAN : “Well, she has a right to be miserable, having gone
through what she has.”
FIRST WOMAN : “You’re right, she does have a right to be miserable. But she wouldn’ t be that way if she’d taken my advice when
she was twenty .”“There you have it,” said Eykis, “I didn’ t think too much about it at first,
but after a few days of observing your planet, I could see that this entire
conversation was plainly and simply— WRONG ! I’ll bet I’ve listened to it
fifty times, and all I can conclude is that these two women, for whom this
was a perfectly normal, healthy conversation, were incorrect about the very
nature of their own reality .”
“In what way?” I asked Eykis. “In the first place, you were right about rewind. It is strictly limited to
tape recorders. People here don’ t have the ability to re-do their errors.”
I didn’ t say, “I told you so,” but that’ s what I was thinking. However , I
was feeling some empathy for her frustration at trying to make sense out of
her very first conversational eaves-dropping on Earth. “Well, all of this ‘she should have,’ ‘she shouldn’ t have,’ is simply
wrong. T ell me, without rewind and guilt-prodders, what purpose is served
by rehashing what you should or shouldn’ t have done?” she asked
rhetorically . She paused a moment and then continued talking without waiting for my
response. “And besides, it’ s over. If you can’ t re-do it on this planet, as I’m
beginning to see, it can’t be redone. That being the case, why would anyone
ever say , ‘she should have,’ ‘shouldn’ t have,’ ‘wouldn’ t have,’ or anything
even resembling it?”
“Eykis, please, it’ s just a figure of speech. It doesn’ t really mean what it
sounds like,” I said unconvincingly . “But it’ s a figure of speech that derives from incorrect thinking, it makes
people unhappy . I mean those two women…the first one especially , became
more and more enraged as she talked about the should-haves. The little
homilies that people here use in speaking are rooted in fantasy . Can’ t you
see that?”
“Look, I’m not defending it. I agree that it sounds pretty ridiculous when
looked at through your eyes,” I said. “But I’m not looking at it through my eyes, I’m seeing it through their
eyes, and they’re wrong about their reality . If I saw it through my eyes, I’d
be teaching them how to fix the sister and go back twenty years. But you
can’t do that here,” she said. “Well, what troubles you so much about their being wrong?” I asked,
because she did appear to be genuinely concerned.“What troubles me is that when people are wrong about their reality ,
they’re trapped in their own self-imposed shackles. As long as they
continue to be wrong, they can never escape. It’ s not that this particular
conversation made the two ladies unhappy . It’s that happiness is always
impossible when you see your reality incorrectly .”
“Go on,” I said, sensing that she had more to say on the matter . “Don’ t you see, my friend—” She almost grabbed me. “They didn’ t say,
‘She made those decisions and now she’ll have to live with the
consequences and perhaps change if her decisions aren’ t working any
longer .’ What the woman said was, ‘She should have listened to me,’ and
‘She shouldn’ t have moved away .’ Unless I am as wrong as most
Earthlings, it seems to me that on Earth you simply cannot ‘shouldn’ t have’
done something that you’ve already done.”
“You’re correct about that,” I assured her . “But still, I heard this conversation over and over . On a Friday afternoon
I heard a clerk from the phone company tell a customer who wanted his
phone fixed that day , ‘You should have called on W ednesday ,’ and the man
accepted it. He walked away as if she had said something that made sense,
that is, something correct. But they were both wrong and equally unhappy
with their lives at that moment. I wanted so much to whisper in his ear , ‘On
Earth, you cannot ‘should-have’ called on W ednesday , on Friday . It just
cannot be done.’ But I recalled our agreement and acted only as an innocent
bystander . For now!”
I wondered immediately what she meant by “For now!” But I let it pass. “You are right, Eykis,” I said, “you cannot ‘should-have’ called on
Wednesday , on Friday , but you can call next W ednesday , and that is very
likely what the clerk was trying to convey . In a snooty kind of way , of
course,” I of fered as a partial explanation. “But you don’ t understand. She wasn’ t interested in helping him get his
phone fixed. She was intent on giving him a lecture and keeping the
problem as a problem, rather than seeking a solution. And the worst part is,
he bought it! He walked away shaking his head and saying, ‘I didn’ t know I
should have called on W ednesday; I guess it is my fault.’ Here were two
people communicating with each other , and neither was tuned into Earth
reality . How can a whole planet do this all the time and not fall apart?” she
asked.But before I could answer her , she glanced back at the transcript on the
table. “And furthermore, why would people ever say anything like ‘She has
a right to be miserable,’ almost as if they were ar guing for the person’ s
unhappiness and defending her limitations at the same time?”
I had no response. Eykis was upset about what she had seen. As she
explained later , she was hurting for all these Earthlings who were so
unnecessarily unhappy . With her own unique kind of reality-only
orientation, she couldn’ t grasp why people thought, felt, and behaved as
they did. She even confided that if she could just get everyone to stop being
wrong (nothing else—just stop being wrong), there would be no neurotics
on this planet, since from what she could ascertain there were no real-world
reasons for being that way . She was the most idealistic realist I had ever
faced. She asked me for a simple explanation of the two items she had observed
in the initial conversation she had overheard. (1) the should-haves , without
benefit of rewind leading to re-do, and (2) the “right to be miserable.”
Rather than try to explain away these seemingly harmless conversational
habits, I acknowledged that they did indeed represent wrong assessments of
our reality . But I still failed to see why she was making such a big deal
about it. After all, these weren’ t desperately unhappy people she had
observed. They were typical, everyday , normal folks in everyday Earthly
conversation. As I relayed this thought to Eykis in the hotel room, she
looked at me with more than a trace of sadness in her eyes. “That’ s the very point I’m making, my new-found friend. Don’ t you see
how widespread being incorrect is in your world? If it’ s so blatantly
obvious in an innocuous discussion between two women in line at the bank,
or a customer asking to have his telephone fixed, it means that the entire
planet is awash with this kind of thinking. It’ s the everyday common folks
that I wanted to observe. It is they who provide the clues for understanding
a people. If they are infected with this ‘wrong way’ disease, then it is very
likely that it is even more widespread in the influential echelons of your
world. If the business, political, and educational leaders suf fer from being
wrong, and if they implement their false thinking in carrying out their
duties, then it can literally trickle down to all segments of your world. And
it obviously has, since little old ladies in bank lines are so blatantly
afflicted.”“But don’ t you think you’re jumping to enormous conclusions based on a
couple of insignificant chit-chatty talks?” I asked hopefully . “It is precisely the little chit-chatty talks, as you put it, that are the most
revealing,” she said without blinking. “But don’ t forget, I’ve been
observing most intently all over your planet and I’ve merely reported my
very first encounters. I have a whole suitcase here filled with tapes and
written observations. My conclusion about neurotics simply being wrong
comes from an entire inventory of Earthly behaviors. Before I of fer you
what I think will be a remarkable set of gifts to all of the people on Earth, I
would like you to see the rest of my notes, perhaps go through these tapes
and maybe even supply answers that are still missing.”
I agreed. Obviously I was thrilled to be a part of witnessing the results of
her apparently thorough ten-day exploration of our planet. I loved the way
she looked most of all when she was perplexed and rambunctiously excited
at the same time. She was a fireball of high ener gy and she conveyed it in
everything she said, even in her little personality quirks. Her eyes always
flickered before she presented me with one of her discoveries. I loved the
way she jumped up in her enthusiasm or pounded the table with her fist for
punctuation. I also loved her simple honesty . The way she always spoke in
no-nonsense straight talk. Eykis never pulled punches. One always knew
what she wanted to convey . I sat there, with her , deep in thought about how absolutely lovely , no,
perfect, she was, and yet I didn’ t even notice her outward appearance. The
things that one usually refers to in saying that a woman is “lovely” weren’ t
even on my mind. I only wanted to focus on just WHO this remarkable
woman was inside, not how she looked. I was excited by something that she
had said earlier and I had almost glossed over . “A remarkable set of gifts to
all of the people on Earth.” I thought she herself was the essence of just
that, but I knew she had something else in mind. I was also aware that she
would share it with me when she, rather than I, was ready . She came out of her deep thought and asked that we put of f further talk
until the next day . She had spent a week traveling and recording her
observations. She was exhausted and yet I knew she would never complain
to me. Back on Uranus one didn’ t complain to others about fatigue, one
rested instead. There simply was no complaining in her reality . As she stood up to leave, after scheduling a full day with me the next day ,
she told me that her visit to Earth was more than half complete. She wantedone more meeting with me, and then we would make arrangements for her
final days here. She asked that I think about how she might best be utilized. As she held the door slightly ajar , I kissed her ever so lightly on the mouth. Nothing sensual, simply our very first touch. “I think I love you, Eykis,” I
said somewhat clumsily . Long ago I had learned to say that familiar phrase if I felt it intuitively . At this moment my intuition was working overtime. She reacted with the
most unique response I’ve ever heard. “I know you do, and you can be sure I am aware of what that means now ,
as well. I’ll see you at nine o’clock tomorrow morning. W e have much to
learn from each other . Good night, as they say here, as if a night could
really be good  or a day bad.”
OceanofPDF .com5 
 Eykis’ Final Observations
There was no doubt that we were becoming closer , despite her ef forts to
approach her task objectively , almost scientifically . Eykis still showed
unmistakable signs of emotion, signs in which I wanted to read a deeper
meaning than was intended. But then perhaps it was only thinking on my
part. The brief time that I had known her had been the most stimulating in
my entire life. No exceptions. I had spent weeks in the company of
supposed gurus from India and T ibet. I had studied ancient Zen masters and
talked directly to modern ones. There simply was no basis for comparison. Eykis was a breed unto herself. Her communication was so alarmingly
simple that it almost knocked me out before I could digest it. The only
comparison that even came close was some very special moments I had
spent with young, unspoiled children. I have a reverence for children. I have
always felt most at home with those young people who laugh, tease, and lay
their emotions right out on the table for you to accept, reject, or handle as
you choose. Simple honesty is always present in children, and Eykis had all
the qualities characteristic of children as well as a profound knowledge of
how to think realistically and the ability to articulate that knowledge with
no nonsense. I always seemed to be thinking about her inner qualities. This
was new to me. That was exactly what I was thinking as she bounced into
the room early in the morning ready for our final day of sharing each
other ’s observations. “Let’ s walk this morning,” she said in the straightforward style that was
unique to her . “All right, Eykis,” I said. “Whatever pleases you.”
We left immediately and walked through the city to the waterfront. As we
walked together , stopping now and then at an occasional picnic table, we
became consumed by our shared experience. It was becoming easier for me
to touch her now , and once in a while I would take her hand in mine and
just hold it while we walked. She never once of fered any resistance, nor didshe seem at all af fected by my touch. She accepted it as my way of walking
with her , and did not make an issue of it. Y et I relished being even closer to
her. Somehow I felt that touching her brought us closer , and yet I knew it
didn’ t mean that to Eykis at all. For the first time in my life that didn’ t
bother me one iota. “So what do you find most confusing about Earthlings?” I asked her . “Well, I told you about my observation that most of you are simply sizing
up your reality incorrectly . That is the one characteristic that seems present
in virtually everything I’ve noted about your people,” she said. “In what other ways do you find that we are mostly wrong in assessments
of our reality?” I asked, encouraging her to pursue this line. “Okay , I’ll get even more specific than I was yesterday . As you know , I
give the anxiety attack report on television back home, and I think of my
job as a public service, that is, important work which helps people to avoid
anxiety .”
“I agree with that,” I said instantly . “Well, on the logs I’ve kept since I arrived here on Earth, I’ve noted that
well over a thousand times, in my limited sample, I heard people
announcing that they were ‘having an anxiety attack.’ I’ve learned that
anxiety does not attack on Earth, and furthermore, there is not even
anything resembling anxiety on your planet. It just doesn’ t exist! Y et people
are acting as if it did.” She paused to catch her breath, then she continued. “I can only conclude that all the people who say or believe they’re having
an anxiety attack are just incorrect. Y et I don’ t know why they would
choose to be wrong. Y ou all have a choice in virtually everything you
experience on Earth. So why , I keep asking myself, do these people keep
choosing to be wrong? Then, by checking with your medical associations
and experts in the health professions, I learned that tranquilizers and other
drugs designed to quell anxiety are consumed in record numbers. But why
is this so when there is no such thing as anxiety here on your planet?”
“Eykis, hold it. How can you say there is no such thing as anxiety on
Earth. Just look at the people, they’re full of anxiety about their
relationships, their job performances, the uncertainty of war , money , the
economy , their health and on and on. W e have plenty of anxiety .”
“Okay ,” said Eykis, “where is this anxiety that you speak of?”
“Why , just because you can’ t see it doesn’ t mean it doesn’ t exist,” I
offered meekly . “It’s in the people themselves.”“Precisely my point,” she countered, “anxiety per se doesn’ t exist as it
does on Uranus. Here on Earth there are only individuals thinking
anxiously , and that is quite a dif ferent kind of reality altogether .”
“In what way?” I asked, not wanting to lose sight of this observation of
hers. “Why , in every way possible. On Earth, you control your thinking, and it
is up to each person to decide for himself how he wants to think. This is
your corner of fr eedom , so to speak. But instead of using that freedom to
think in self-enhancing ways, you make two huge errors. First you elect to
think anxiously , and then you blame the results on anxiety itself, rather than
on your own choices. Consequently your people say things like ‘I’m having
an anxiety attack.’ It is simply incorrect to speak this way , to say nothing of
the thought processes behind such verbalizations.”
“But is that so harmful?” I asked in all seriousness. “It is devastating!” she said emphatically . “When people assign
responsibility for their anxiety to some mythical anxiety attack, they need a
second myth to correct the original. The second myth is that swallowing an
antidote, such as a tranquilizer , will rid them of their imagined anxiety .”
“Okay , Eykis,” I protested, “but what if people don’ t say they are having
an anxiety attack, but simply feel anxiety because of the way they’re
treated, or because they encounter frustration as they try to reach their
goals.”
“It is even more absurdly wrong and preposterous for a person on Earth
to make such a claim. On Earth, regardless of how things are going, or , as
you put it, how you’re being treated, you still have absolute power over
what you decide to think. This is your reality . Therefore, when all appears
lost, or you’re disappointed in others, you can still elect to think in either
nonanxious or anxious ways. If you elect anxious, you end up tense, hurt,
afraid, angry , or just plain hyper , which is not conducive to happiness or
personal fulfillment. If, on the other hand, you elect to be nonanxious, you
get an opportunity to correct or ignore the externals and have your
fulfillment as well. Now if neither choice will change your reality or how
others choose to react to you, why wouldn’ t all people here simply make the
better and incidentally the correct choice?”
“When you put it like that, I don’ t have a reply , except to say that most
people have learned to make the ‘incorrect choice,’ as you put it, becauseit’s easier to blame someone else for their anxiety than to accept
responsibility for it and rid themselves of it,” I of fered. “That is precisely my concern,” she said. “I have concluded that people
on Earth want to avoid taking responsibility for their problems, including
their anxiety . This gives them an excuse when it comes to doing what is
necessary to change. As long as they continue to believe that anxiety comes
from without rather than from within, they can never do anything to bring
about happiness for themselves, and since they also go around drugged,
their chances are minimized even further .”
“So you feel that this self-deception or ‘wrong-way reality’ can be the
cause of total unhappiness,” I asked. “Yes, emphatically ,” she answered. “Not only does it preclude total no-
limit happiness, but it can lead to even more devastatingly incorrect
choices.”
“But how can anything be more devastating than an absence of happiness
and no chance of reversing it?” I wondered to her aloud. “I actually heard several people talking about their anxiety attack having
led to a nervous breakdown,” she told me. “Yes, that can happen,” I of fered. “But it can’ t happen on Earth, it is plainly an illusion,” she answered. “You wouldn’ t say it was an illusion if you’d ever seen these broken
souls that reside in mental institutions,” I reminded her . “But I did see them, I visited them and talked with their friends and
relatives,” she replied. “So you see, it’ s not an illusion, is it?”
“The results are not illusions, they are very real indeed. But that doesn’ t
change the fact that the reasoning that got the people in the institutions in
the first place is an illusion. First of all, nerves don’ t break down as they do
on Uranus. I checked all the autopsy reports of persons who had actually
died from these choices. I couldn’ t find one single report in which nerves
broke down. The nerves do their job on Earth, and you don’ t know how
lucky you are, compared to a real nervous breakdown à la Uranus. Second,
the people who have these fictitious nervous breakdowns, which seem to be
the final result of too many nonexistent anxiety attacks, don’ t really believe
they chose their infirmities. They literally believe that someone else created
this monster—and what is even more puzzling, the ‘someone elses’ also
believe they are responsible for the anxious thinking of their friends andfamilies. They feel guilty almost all of the time, without benefit of a guilt-
prodder , which I’ve yet to see on Earth. These people actually are prone to
illusional anxiety attacks of their own, which can even lead to their own
mythical nervous breakdowns. It is indeed a vicious circle that stems from
one thing: incorr ect thinking . It is just plain incorrect for you on Earth to
say ‘anxiety attacks,’ ‘they make me nervous,’ or ‘I’m having a nervous
breakdown.’ Now how , please tell me,” she asked, “can I state it any clearer
than that?”
“You can’ t,” I admitted. For the first time I experienced the frustration
that she must have felt with these incorrect Earthlings who could have it all
as far as happiness and fulfillment were concerned. She knew that our
reality , unlike her own, gave us the freedom to be whatever we wanted. I
could almost hear her thinking, “If we didn’ t have anxiety attacks, feeling-
hurters, and the like, as integral parts of our reality , there would be no
barriers to our potential happiness. Earthlings are a collection of people
with no reason in their reality to be unhappy , and yet almost all of them
choose unhappiness and blame someone or something else for their
troubles.” But she didn’ t say it. Instead, almost as if she knew I was reading
her thoughts, she changed her tactics completely . “Speaking of blame,” she said, “there seems to be a lot of that here, and
I’ve yet to hear of blame points or blame bankers.”
I was reminded of our conversation on Uranus, in which Eykis explained
the blame points, which were controlled by elected blame of ficials. Each
person on Uranus was assigned a set number of blame points which were
kept in a blame account at the blame bank. Thus when someone blamed
another for his problems, or ascribed responsibility for his lot in life to
externals, it was because he was reacting to his own reality the only way he
could. That is, realistically . On Uranus people indulged in blaming because
they had an allotment of blame points, and that was that. When I asked
Eykis why they would have such a neurotic system, she had replied in a
way that I didn’ t understand at the time, but that was crystal clear now . “Do you question why you need fresh water for drinking, when 75
percent of the Earth’ s surface is salt water? W ouldn’ t it make much more
sense to use salt water to drink? Why isn’ t your planet that way?” she had
asked rhetorically , answering her own question instantly . “You need fresh water because of your physical evolution, it is your
reality . We have blame points, feeling-hurters, and everything else you findso incomprehensible because of our social evolution.”
“You are right, Eykis,” I said, shaking myself out of my temporary
mental excursion back to Uranus. “Blame is definitely a common practice
in our world.”
“But again,” she retorted, “it’ s an illusion. Blaming is always a reality
error , and yet it’ s so commonplace here,” she reminded me. I tried to explain. “Don’ t you see, Eykis, blame is really quite functional. It enables people to blame others and avoid having to take risks. It makes it
easy for them to explain why they are unfulfilled, and it reduces the options
they have to change. It’ s really quite functional, even though it is certainly
neurotic.” I was feeling somewhat satisfied with myself. That was a pretty
good explanation. “Of course it’ s functional,” Eykis responded, “but so would drinking salt
water be functional, there’ s such an abundant supply . So why don’ t the
people do that?” she asked. “Well, it would kill them,” I said. “People can’ t swallow salt water
without being poisoned.”
“I rest my case,” she answered. “Blame and the resultant anxiety are just
as poisonous to the psyche as salt water is to the body . People don’ t drink
salt water because their reality won’ t permit it. When that same reality
screams at them not to blame, they ignore it and imbibe the poison, blaming
the poison rather than themselves for the ill ef fects. It’ s like blaming the
mirror for what it reflects.”
“Just what kind of blaming have you observed?” I asked her . She inhaled
deeply , as if she were going to say a great deal in that one breath. “Why , it’s an international pastime,” she exclaimed. “I heard a man
respond to the question ‘Why are you so down today?’ with ‘The stock
market’ s performance depressed me. How can I be up when my stocks are
down?’ Now I ask you in all sincerity , how can a stock market control a
person’ s emotions? I checked into the stock market and I found that it has
no connection with human emotional conditions, yet I heard many , many
people blaming the ‘market’ for their unhappiness.”
I stifled a laugh at the absurdity of the image in my head: a stock market
actually dispensing depression. She continued. “I heard one doctor ask an obese lady , ‘Who is responsible for your being
so overweight?’ She responded without even smirking (I thought she might
be a public satirist): ‘Sara Lee.’ Then she gave another name, ‘Big Bones,’ Ithink, who had also made her fat. I checked out Sara and discovered that it’ s
merely a bakery . Imagine, she believes a lady baker actually made her fat. I
still have an asterisk next to ‘Big Bones,’ and I’ve been meaning to find out
who that is, because from what I can discern, he or she is wreaking havoc
on people’ s lives by making them fat.”
I couldn’ t contain myself any longer . I burst into laughter at the image of
someone called Big Bones  rampaging the countryside and indiscriminately
dispensing fat to the unwary . “So what’ s funny about that?” she wanted to know . “Again, Eykis, it’ s an expression that fat people use. And your suspicions
are correct, there is no one called Big Bones here on Earth. People, in fact,
elect their obesity through self-defeating choices, and then blame others for
their conditions.”
“This is so prevalent, I can hardly believe you don’ t see the folly of this
way of thinking,” she said. “Anything else in this blame category?” I asked. “Everything seems to be in this blame category ,” she replied. “It all
seems to boil down to self-responsibility versus blaming others. Obviously
those who accept responsibility for themselves and their lives are few and
far between,” she concluded. “I’m sure you found some reality-based thinkers?” I suggested hopefully . “Hardly at all, and those I did observe tended to be mostly blamers and
only occasionally wandered straight into their own reality—realistically , if
you know what I mean?”
“I do, but can you give me an example of those part-timers?” I asked. “Certainly ,” she said at once. “I saw a man who appeared to be a reality-
based person. He didn’ t blame others, he was happy and fulfilled, both
physically and mentally . But when he was being loud and boisterous in a
restaurant and obviously losing his temper because of the slow service, he
explained his quick temper with one of the strangest comments I’ve heard
here on Earth.”
“Yes, and what was that?” I asked, not knowing what to expect. “When his friends said, ‘Hey , calm down, relax, enjoy yourself,’ he
responded in all seriousness, ‘So what do you expect from me? I’m Italian! I’ve always been that way!’ Now you tell me what his being Italian has to
do with choosing to be impatient! I checked what being Italian meant in
reality , and it has nothing to do with his explanation. It means, ‘from Italy , acountry in southern Europe.’ Nothing more, nothing less. But he uses it as
his blame source.”
I smiled. “Y ou’re correct, Eykis. People often blame their cultural
heritage for their personality quirks. I guess it’ s just easier than taking
responsibility for them. I’d never really thought of it before,” I confessed to
her, “but people here do have a lar ge say about their own personalities.”
“On Uranus,” she said, “people aren’ t given a choice in such matters. They are assigned the kind of personality they will have. But here it’ s
entirely up to each individual to choose what he would like to be. At least
that’s what I have observed. Y et people act as if they had no choice at all in
the matter .” She was talking faster again, which she did when she wanted to
hammer home a point. “I’ve heard people blame their parents, their birth order , their ethnic
background, their childhood, and on and on. Y et according to my
investigations, it seems that even as very young children all Earthlings
have, and always did have, the ability to use their corner of freedom, that is,
to choose their thoughts.”
“But surely , Eykis, you don’ t think that Earth children choose their
personalities? Don’ t you think parents do in fact shape and mold their
children and, in fact, are somewhat responsible for what they become?”
“My observations are admittedly limited. I’ve been studying your planet
full-time for less than ten days. Nevertheless, I don’ t see the validity of the
beliefs expressed in your question,” she said. “How so?” I asked, listening most intently . “I’ve observed lar ge and small families, where, for example, an alcoholic
father is abusive to all his children. Some take it seriously and are afraid,
others ignore it, and others blame him for their shyness. T o me, if he were
in fact creating their personalities they would all be what he wanted them to
be. Y et each one is unique. Each reacts separately to his behavior . Even as
children they choose how they think. But that’ s not the tragedy . The
problem surfaces when they grow up and look back to their childhoods for
explanations (that is, blame) of their adult lack of fulfillment, or
unhappiness. Instead of saying, ‘As a child I chose to react this way or that
way, and perhaps I didn’ t know any better then, however I do know better
now, and if I don’ t like something about myself today I can’ t blame daddy ,
because if I did then I would be saying that I can’ t get better unless he
changes.’ On Earth, what daddy did is over as far as I can tell, so blaminghim is, again, simply incorrect. He didn’ t do it to you even then—you chose
your childhood reactions. And if you continue to believe he did, you will
only remain unhappy .”
“But,” I of fered, “wouldn’ t an understanding of what he did help you to
change more readily?”
“Why , of course, but it’ s not an understanding of what he did that you’re
after. It’s an understanding of what YOU did that really counts. Saying ‘My
father ’s alcoholism made me what I am today’ is not an understanding. It’ s
an excuse, and an incorrect one at that.”
“Then what would a correct understanding be?” I asked. “Very simple,” she stated. “‘My childhood reactions to my father helped
to create what I am today . It’s not his fault, he was only doing what he knew
how to do. How can you ask any more of anyone than that? If shyness is my
problem and I don’ t like what I’ve made of myself, I’m going to change
being shy by practicing new nonshy behaviors.’ Now on Uranus, with the
benefit of rewind, guilt-prodders, and re-do, we could fix that up fast.”
She’d done it again. She had cut through the wishy-washy blameful
thinking. Her sensible, razorlike logic kept her from employing excuses. Here on a planet where free will and personal choice are the only reality ,
she simply couldn’ t find any rationale for blame, particularly since she
resided on a planet where free will was not taken for granted, and blame
was dispensed by external sources. No matter how long we talked, she
remained at a loss to explain why anyone would ever blame, when the
results were always so destructive to the one doing the blaming. We talked for many hours that day . I felt a new sense of awareness about
my own potential for fulfillment and happiness. She was not critical of us,
but thrilled and amazed at the abundance of our opportunities. She was such
fun to be with. I would laugh with her at the folly of our ways, as she
pointed to the significant dif ferences between her reality and my own. I
laughed hard when she told me about having overheard a conversation
related to complexes. “I heard a woman telling her ‘shrink’ that her husband had given her a
complex and that consequently she felt inferior . She was blaming her
husband for her feelings of inferiority , but I was getting used to this by
now.”
“What was it that you found so objectionable, if you expected her to
blame her husband anyway?” I asked.“At that time I wasn’ t aware that you can’ t enter a complex encounter
study ,” she explained. “What do you mean, complex encounter study?” I asked, surprised again
by Eykis’ seemingly impossible conclusion. “On Uranus, if you want to deepen your relationship by working through
a complex, you go to the Department of Encounter at the university and
register for a complex encounter study . They issue one per spouse and you
can earn credit toward a psychology degree while learning more about each
other ,” she explained. “Have you ever received a complex?” I asked Eykis. “Why , certainly , my husband gave me one, for my breasts, many years
ago.”
“And how did it work? What did you do with the complex?” I asked
impatiently . “Well, I kept it for three years. Imagine, for three years I had a complex
about my breasts. But that’ s the maximum time under the law for retaining
a complex given by your husband,” Eykis responded. “But what was the complex? What did you do with it?” I asked. “Well, I wore special underwear for three years. That reminded me to go
around telling others about my inadequate feelings regarding my breasts. I
looked in the mirror and felt inferior , all the things you do when your
husband gives you a complex for your breasts.” She was brutally serious. “You must have been happy when the three years were up and you were
finally rid of that complex,” I said sympathetically . “Well, I was pleased to earn the credits and I did acquire some insights
into my husband’ s attitudes. Complex encounter study is simply a part of
our educational system in the psychosexual department. When you enter a
study project you accept it as basic to the learning technique. Besides, I
gave him a three-year complex for a little portion of his anatomy , so it all
worked out, as complexes usually do.”
“Then you must have been in shock when you heard that woman telling
her shrink about her husband giving her a complex, when they can’ t
literally be purchased here as they are on Uranus,” I asked. “Of course I was shocked. I went to all the department stores asking for
the ‘complex department,’ and they all thought there was something wrong
with me.”The image of Eykis asking information-booth clerks for the ‘complex
department’ was hilarious. W e both laughed out loud at the absurdity of
shopping for a complex. And yet the woman in her therapist’ s office really
believed her husband had given her that inferiority complex. These lighter moments were a treasure for me. They served to drive
home Eykis’ message that it wasn’ t the big problems but the little ways that
we had learned to think, feel, and ultimately behave that made life
miserable for most people on Earth. She made me see clearly that none of
the big problems on Earth would exist were it not for the erroneous thinking
that seemed to infect almost all of us. And she hinted that part of her
package of gifts to me would be the opportunity for all of us on Earth to
change these big problems. But I wouldn’ t press her yet. W e laughed even
more at her descriptions of the multitude of people with phobias, who
blamed the things they feared for the fears themselves. She recalled an
uproarious afternoon searching elevators for speakers programed to scare. She had not found any mountains with hinges; nevertheless she had still
heard people saying over and over , “Heights scare me.” She ended her
frustrating attempt to find the causes of those phobias with the conclusion
that people on Earth scare themselves and blame everything else so they
don’t have to change their incorrect thinking, which is really the cause of
their fears.
_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:

        I decided to ask about other phobias, since I had nothing to say that
would clear it up other than the same old safety clause that I had used too
many times by now. “You’ll see when we get to Earth. ”“Let’ s forget about elevators for a moment. Do people on Uranus suf fer
from acrophobia. ” I asked. “Certainly,” she replied. “Heights really scare people here, it is a very
serious and common phobia. ”
“Just how can a height frighten anyone.
She said it was because people on Earth were not taking responsibility for their own problems and instead blamed others for their unhappiness.
What did Eykis say was the reason behind the rampant unhappiness on Earth?
She said that on Uranus, people are not capable of feeling anxious or experiencing anxiety attacks, whereas on Earth, people do experience anxiety and blame others for their problems.
What did Eykis say was the main difference between her reality and that of the people on Earth?
The text does not explicitly state that Eykis revealed a specific phobia on Uranus, but it does mention that she had heard people saying "Heights scare me" and that she had not found any mountains with hinges.
What did Eykis reveal to be a common phobia on Uranus?
Eykis did not explicitly state the reason for the widespread use of these devices, but it was implied that they were used to avoid feelings of anxiety and anger.
What did Eykis say was the reason for the widespread use of feeling-hurters and anger-provokers on Uranus?
Eykis said that people on Earth were not taking responsibility for their own problems and were instead blaming others for their unhappiness, which was causing them to remain unhappy and unfulfilled.
What did Eykis say was the problem with the way people on Earth think?