Part 3 (1/2)
”In a general way. The Volitionalists hold that the discarnate individuality is fully conscious, and is capable of something a.n.a.logous to sense-perception, and is also capable of exercising choice in the matter of reincarnation vehicles, and can reincarnate or remain in the discarnate state as it chooses. They also believe that discarnate individualities can communicate with one another, and with at least some carnate individualities, by telepathy,” he said. ”The Statisticalists deny all this; their opinion is that the discarnate individuality is in a more or less somnambulistic state, that it is drawn by a process akin to tropism to the nearest available reincarnation vehicle, and that it must reincarnate in and only in that vehicle. They are labeled Statisticalists because they believe that the process of reincarnation is purely at random, or governed by unknown and uncontrollable causes, and is unpredictable except as to aggregates.”
”That's a fairly good generalized summary,” Dr. Harnosh of Hosh grudged, unwilling to give a mere layman too much credit. He dipped a spoon into a tobacco humidor, dusted the tobacco lightly with dried _zerfa_, and rammed it into his pipe. ”You must understand that our modern Statisticalists are the intellectual heirs of those ancient materialistic thinkers who denied the possibility of any discarnate existence, or of any extraphysical mind, or even of extrasensory perception. Since all these things have been demonstrated to be facts, the materialistic dogma has been broadened to include them, but always strictly within the frame of materialism.
”We have proven, for instance, that the human individuality can exist in a discarnate state, and that it reincarnates into the body of an infant, shortly after birth. But the Statisticalists cannot accept the idea of discarnate consciousness, since they conceive of consciousness purely as a function of the physical brain. So they postulate an unconscious discarnate personality, or, as you put it, one in a somnambulistic state. They have to concede memory to this discarnate personality, since it was by recovery of memories of previous reincarnations that discarnate existence and reincarnation were proven to be facts. So they picture the discarnate individuality as a material object, or physical event, of negligible but actual ma.s.s, in which an indefinite number of memories can be stored as electronic charges. And they picture it as being drawn irresistibly to the body of the nearest non-incarnated infant. Curiously enough, the reincarnation vehicle chosen is almost always of the same s.e.x as the vehicle of the previous reincarnation, the exceptions being cases of persons who had a previous history of psychological s.e.x-inversion.”
Dr. Harnosh remembered the unlighted pipe in his hand, thrust it into his mouth, and lit it. For a moment, he sat with it jutting out of his black beard, until it was drawing to his satisfaction. ”This belief in immediate reincarnation leads the Statisticalists, when they fight duels or perform voluntary discarnation, to do so in the neighborhood of maternity hospitals,” he added. ”I know, personally, of one reincarnation memory-recall, in which the subject, a Statisticalist, voluntarily discarnated by lethal-gas inhaler in a private room at one of our local maternity hospitals, and reincarnated twenty years later in the city of Jeddul, three thousand miles away.” The square black beard jiggled as the scientist laughed.
”Now, as to the political implications of these contradictory theories: Since the Statisticalists believe that they will reincarnate entirely at random, their aim is to create an utterly cla.s.sless social and economic order, in which, theoretically, each individuality will reincarnate into a condition of equality with everybody else. Their political program, therefore, is one of complete socialization of all means of production and distribution, abolition of hereditary t.i.tles and inherited wealth--eventually, all private wealth--and total government control of all economic, social and cultural activities. Of course,” Dr. Harnosh apologized, ”politics isn't my subject; I wouldn't presume to judge how that would function in practice.”
”I would,” Verkan Vall said shortly, thinking of all the different time-lines on which he had seen systems like that in operation. ”You wouldn't like it, doctor. And the Volitionalists?”
”Well, since they believe that they are able to choose the circ.u.mstances of their next reincarnations for themselves, they are the party of the _status quo_. Naturally, almost all the n.o.bles, almost all the wealthy trading and manufacturing families, and almost all professional people, are Volitionalists; most of the workers and peasants are Statisticalists. Or, at least, they were, for the most part, before we began announcing the results of the Lady Dallona's experimental work.”
”Ah; now we come to it,” Verkan Vall said as the story clarified.
”Yes. In somewhat oversimplified form, the situation is rather like this,” Dr. Harnosh of Hosh said. ”The Lady Dallona introduced a number of refinements and some outright innovations into our technique of recovering memories of past reincarnations. Previously, it was necessary to keep the subject in an hypnotic trance, during which he or she would narrate what was remembered of past reincarnations, and this would be recorded. On emerging from the trance, the subject would remember nothing; the tape-recording would be all that would be left.
But the Lady Dallona devised a technique by which these memories would remain in what might be called the fore part of the subject's subconscious mind, so that they could be brought to the level of consciousness at will. More, she was able to recover memories of past discarnate existences, something we had never been able to do heretofore.” Dr. Harnosh shook his head. ”And to think, when I first met her, I thought that she was just another sensation-seeking young lady of wealth, and was almost about to refuse her enrollment!”
He wasn't the only one whom little Dalla had surprised, Verkan Vall thought. At least, he had been pleasantly surprised.
”You see, this entirely disproves the Statistical Theory of Reincarnation. For example, we got a fine set of memory-recalls from one subject, for four previous reincarnations and four intercarnations. In the first of these, the subject had been a peasant on the estate of a wealthy n.o.ble. Unlike most of his fellows, who reincarnated into other peasant families almost immediately after discarnation, this man waited for fifty years in the discarnate state for an opportunity to reincarnate as the son of an over-servant. In his next reincarnation, he was the son of a technician, and received a technical education; he became a physics researcher. For his next reincarnation, he chose the son of a n.o.bleman by a concubine as his vehicle; in his present reincarnation, he is a member of a wealthy manufacturing family, and married into a family of the n.o.bility. In five reincarnations, he has climbed from the lowest to the next-to-highest rung of the social ladder. Few individuals of the cla.s.s from whence he began this ascent possess so much persistence or determination. Then, of course, there was the case of Lord Garnon of Roxor.”
He went on to describe the last experiment in which Hadron Dalla had partic.i.p.ated.
”Well, that all sounds pretty conclusive,” Verkan Vall commented. ”I take it the leaders of the Volitionalist Party here are pleased with the result of the Lady Dallona's work?”
”Pleased? My dear Lord Virzal, they're fairly bursting with glee over it!” Harnosh of Hosh declared. ”As I pointed out, the Statisticalist program of socialization is based entirely on the proposition that no one can choose the circ.u.mstances of his next reincarnation, and that's been demonstrated to be utter nonsense. Until the Lady Dallona's discoveries were announced, they were the dominant party, controlling a majority of the seats in Parliament and on the Executive Council.
Only the Const.i.tution kept them from enacting their entire socialization program long ago, and they were about to legislate const.i.tutional changes which would remove that barrier. They had expected to be able to do so after the forthcoming general elections.
But now, social inequality has become desirable: it gives people something to look forward to in the next reincarnation. Instead of wanting to abolish wealth and privilege and n.o.bility, the proletariat want to reincarnate into them.” Harnosh of Hosh laughed happily. ”So you can see how furious the Statisticalist Party organization is!”
”There's a catch to this, somewhere,” Marnik the a.s.sa.s.sin, speaking for the first time, declared. ”They can't all reincarnate as princes, there aren't enough vacancies to go 'round. And no n.o.ble is going to reincarnate as a tractor driver to make room for a tractor driver who wants to reincarnate as a n.o.ble.”
”That's correct,” Dr. Harnosh replied. ”There is a catch to it; a catch most people would never admit, even to themselves. Very few individuals possess the will power, the intelligence or the capacity for mental effort displayed by the subject of the case I just quoted.
The average man's interests are almost entirely on the physical side; he actually finds mental effort painful, and makes as little of it as possible. And that is the only sort of effort a discarnate individuality can exert. So, unable to endure the fifty or so years needed to make a really good reincarnation, he reincarnates in a year or so, out of pure boredom, into the first vehicle he can find, usually one n.o.body else wants.” Dr. Harnosh dug out the heel of his pipe and blew through the stem. ”But n.o.body will admit his own mental inferiority, even to himself. Now, every machine operator and field hand on the planet thinks he can reincarnate as a prince or a millionaire. Politics isn't my subject, but I'm willing to bet that since Statistical Reincarnation is an exploded psychic theory, Statisticalist Socialism has been caught in the blast area and destroyed along with it.”
Olirzon was in the drawing room of the hotel suite when they returned, sitting on the middle of his spinal column in a reclining chair, smoking a pipe, dressing the edge of his knife with a pocket-hone, and gazing lecherously at a young woman in the visiplate. She was an extremely well-designed young woman, in a rather fragmentary costume, and she was heaving her bosom at the invisible audience in anger, sorrow, scorn, entreaty, and numerous other emotions.
”... this revolting crime,” she was declaiming, in a husky contralto, as Verkan Vall and Marnik entered, ”foul even for the criminal beasts who conceived and perpetrated it!” She pointed an accusing finger.
”This murder of the beautiful Lady Dallona of Hadron!”
Verkan Vall stopped short, considering the possibility of something having been discovered lately of which he was ignorant. Olirzon must have guessed his thought; he grinned rea.s.suringly.
”Think nothing of it, Lord Virzal,” he said, waving his knife at the visiplate. ”Just political propaganda; strictly for the sparrows. Nice propagandist, though.”
”And now,” the woman with the magnificent natural resources lowered her voice reverently, ”we bring you the last image of the Lady Dallona, and of Dirzed, her faithful a.s.sa.s.sin, taken just before they vanished, never to be seen again.”
The plate darkened, and there were strains of slow, dirgelike music; then it lighted again, presenting a view of a broad hallway, thronged with men and women in bright varicolored costumes. In the foreground, wearing a tight skirt of deep blue and a short red jacket, was Hadron Dalla, just as she had looked in the solidographs taken in Dhergabar after her alteration by the First Level cosmeticians to conform to the appearance of the Malayoid Akor-Neb people. She was holding the arm of a man who wore the black tunic and red badge of an a.s.sa.s.sin, a handsome specimen of the Akor-Neb race. Trust little Dalla for that, Verkan Vall thought. The figures were moving with exaggerated slowness, as though a very fleeting picture were being stretched out as far as possible. Having already memorized his former wife's changed appearance, Verkan Vall concentrated on the man beside her until the picture faded.
”All right, Olirzon; what did you get?” he asked.