Chapter 4: Another Brick in the Wall - Part 1 thru Part2

Time Irrelevant: Within the Energists' Universe

After reviewing the events surrounding my funeral and that rejuvenating period of rest with Kaleigh, I was once again ready to jump back into instructing the Energists. I performed a quick review of all the concepts I had previously helped the Energists acquire on this journey towards their becoming individual physical beings. Not surprisingly, all the Energists were able to articulate a solid grasp of that material. Several of the more daring or extroverted Energists even demonstrated some of the concepts once again, which a few said was very beneficial to practice after our brief break in instruction.

Before I started in with the few remaining concepts which I felt they would need to understand, I asked them a couple of important questions. "Before we begin, can you avoid directly examining my neural memories and truly listen to my instructions? I believe this practice at learning concepts as individuals instead of as mind-readers will be more practical and will simulate how you will acquire new skills on your world."

The Energists collectively processed this request and determined it would be beneficial for them to work like this. Suddenly, a sound amplification device was created, similar to a headset microphone. "Please allow me though to have limited access to your thoughts as it will allow me to quickly comprehend if you are grasping the concept or if additional or varied instruction is required."

I could immediately sense some trepidation within the Energists but I then heard them say, "Your request makes sense to me." At the same time, I felt a lowering of the anxiety levels within a majority of them.

"Thank you for trusting in me here. I will let you know if I believe it best for you to access my neural network to speed up your learning process." I heard my words come through a system of suspended speaker devices. I was amazed at how well they were able to transfer their energy into physical matter until I had my own 'duh' moment of comprehending E = mc2 and these beings were the embodiment of 'E'. "Man, I wish I could have a fraction of your ability to control energy like that!" I said out to them through the sound system.

Before I asked my second important question, I vaguely accessed a small, almost hidden murmuring of thought within the Energists before it suddenly dissipated. At the same time I felt the Energists turning on and off their instant access to my neural networks. I knew then that they would keep a neural connection with me except when we were actually in our teacher-student mode of interactions.

When I refocused on my instructions I asked, "Will you Energists be completely autonomous or truly unique individuals on your home world? Knowing this will help me fine tune my instruction. Knowing whether you will be 'connected' to your central collective or if you will be living as true individuals on your home world will influence my instruction methodologies for these last few concepts."

"We will be separate individuals once we ask for the initiation of our final transitional process. Each of us will be responsible for 'its' singular wellbeing and for raising our own offspring." I was about to comment or question them on their 'we ask for' statement but was immediately refocused back to the intent of my initial question.

The Energists then added, "We have no plans for formal schooling of our offspring like you humans have with your procreation units." I found it interesting that they volunteered that nugget of information with me but I was glad they did as it helped with my arrangement of thoughts.

"Ok. That will alter what I was going to work on with you next. You not only need to learn these concepts but all of you will need to be able to teach or instruct your offspring in how to function in your world. I'm not sure it is a good idea to negate a community based instruction system in your world but that is a choice you Energists will have to make."

"Why? What is the basis for your attitude or position on us not having 'school-based' instructional system?" I heard variations of these questions from nearly all the Energists. However, there were varying levels of emotion intertwined with those questions from the ever growing number of Energist individuals.

"While in your current state of being, you are easily able to acquire new information and practice any task which I put forth to you. Also, I've found that if three or more of you are able to perform the task, everyone here has access to those physical sensations and experiences which greatly aids your learning ability. However, with you becoming unique individual beings, you won't have that future benefit when learning. Each individual and your offspring will have to learn on their own. It may be a struggle for some of you to teach them and for your future offspring to learn all the needed physical skills."

"We recognize your viewpoint but still believe our method of raising our offspring will serve us best."

"Alright," I said though I wasn't sure if the Energists completely understood the entire gauntlet of ramifications of that position. "When you are truly individuals, won't it be a waste of your newly important time resources to have each and every one of you teach or instruct your offspring in the basics or species wide tasks. If one or a few of you were able to instruct a large number of similar aged Energists, wouldn't that free up valuable time to pursue other important physical, spiritual or intellectual tasks."

"We see your point but we value 'family' units more than you humans appear to value them. It is the Energist parent's responsibility to ensure its offspring is well prepared for anything life can throw at them. In addition, we previously accessed one of your favorite rock bands whose classic album, The Wall, includes a group of well-known songs on how your people don't want to participate in their poor education system. Why would this be a favorite part of that album if you did not agree with the intent of the song writers?"

I smiled at them as I recognized Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1, The Happiest Days of my Life, and Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 as that referenced group of songs from Pink Floyd. I then chuckled and tried to clarify the real meaning behind those incendiary songs. "Roger Waters and David Gilmour, the song writers, used these songs to actually satirize most forms of government intrusion in people's lives including education. However, when Waters sang, We don't need no education. or We don't need no thought control, he used a 'double negative' here with 'don't and no'. By doing so, he actually made that statement a desired quality for children and adults to experience. Do you understand that facet of the English language?"

The Energists search mind memories for English language rules and for other examples of this unique writing or communication style. As a strong majority of them accepted my explanation, I continued. "The point of this incredible group of songs is that we humans DO need a high quality education to become well-rounded individuals. In addition, Waters really wanted to indict teachers or leaders who attempted to stifle or control a child's uniqueness as the real culprits to a quality education. Please search my neural network for any other information on this form of poor education."

The Energists quickly searched and examined my memories, both for poor educational organizations and for satirical and sarcastic like examples to help elucidate the full meaning of my argument. When I saw a strong majority of them had an elementary grasp of that concept, I provided them with one more key example from 'Part 2'. "Waters and Gilmour said in a 'backdoor' type manner that a good education would lead to quality individuals. Just like you hope your offspring will become." The Energists all agreed with me on that point.

"Now, do you see or hear any mention of the individualistic word 'I' anywhere in that song?" When I sensed that the Energists were slightly confused at my line of questions, I helped them with out, "No you don't. They were again being sarcastic by continually using the collective 'we' throughout that song. The point of that song, and really of any quality educational system, is not to brain wash or provide 'thought control' to the students but to foster creativity, thinking and true uniqueness."

The vast majority of the Energists were signifying their recognition and understanding of my interpretation of those awesome songs. I felt like I needed to show the Energists a little gratitude for adapting to a totally different way of thinking so I said, "I want to thank you for bringing those songs to my attention and then letting me explain a new concept or two to you because of them. In addition, I think you all are progressing well by showing your openness to adapting a species wide belief. That takes a good amount of courage and portents to your intellectual wellness."

I was shocked when I heard them reply, "We appreciate your words and your valuable instruction here. However, we Energists still value our offspring too much to let another Energist teach them what each individual parent believes is valuable. It is the Energist parent's duty to ensure the wellbeing of its offspring and we have seen countless examples of humans 'throwing their child' into a system and abdicating all personal responsibility for their development to that system. That outcome is not what we want with our offspring."

I couldn't really disagree with their words but I think they generalized a few bad examples of our education system and poor parents to the whole human population. I decided to make a stand for what I truly held dear, so I said, "Please shutdown your neural connection to me for the moment and just listen to my words here." When I felt the severed connection, I pronounced, "I think you underestimate our overall valuation or affinity to our children. Have you forgotten the concept of sacrificial love which we explained to you when you brought Kaleigh and me here with you?"

Again I paused to let them recall their individual memories of Kaleigh's and my explanation of that concept. "Most adult humans would willingly die to save our child, our grandchild or really any child's life. I believe you would do that as well if the situation developed in your new world." The Energists slowly affirmed my last statement. Because they did not truly know death yet other than what they learned from us, they were still somewhat naïve about this concept.

After I sensed a growing understanding of sacrificial love with the Energists, I continued with my explanation of the importance of a quality education. "Now to extrapolate this human concept to that of a school, we just have found that certain humans have a gift for instruction and sacrifice or pouring out their 'heart' while instructing the children or learners in their charge. We humans then take advantage of these gifted people by having community or societal instructional groupings or schools. I call this a sacrifice because humans have not typically rewarded quality teachers for their service to our most valuable resource, our children. Good teachers teach because they love teaching, not because they hope to become wealthy."

The Energists were processing my words individually as I asked them to do and were slowly seeing the value of a quality education system. I felt like I had to be completely honest with them as they were not accessing my neural network during my soliloquy so I offered, "Our schools are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, as some 'teachers' are just that in name only. These people simply view teaching as a job or paycheck and don't truly care for the welfare of their students. These are the teachers which Pink Floyd sang about in their songs." The Energists laughed at that statement and for the first time in a long time, 100% of them agreed in unison with my statement.

I wasn't set back by their unanimity and continued my argument with the word that I found captured their undivided attention and could possibly raise their 'dander' up some. "However ... however," I repeated that troubling word again for major effect. "When good humans, like myself are motivated and focused on helping their students learn what we believe is important, I know a great teacher can do a MUCH better job of instilling the key concepts and information than, for a lack of better word, 'ignorant' or lackadaisical parents. I honestly believe that quality teachers are the key to developing productive and intelligent children and young adults."

I sensed my double barrel shotgun blast of 'Howevers' had a persuasive impact on a good number of the Energists. I then sensed a slight change in a large majority of the Energists' beliefs but it still wasn't as major a shift as I had hoped for. Because my neural network was still isolated from the Energists, I came up with an atomic bomb-like concluding point for my educational system argument. Just like when the crowd at my funeral buzzed with anticipation at the showing of my video, the Energists' ability to anticipate and respond to forthcoming physical information was becoming much more human-like.

"YOU!..." I shouted out to them through my microphone, "Logically selected or claimed me to be WHAT for you?" I paused again to let those physical words sink in. I read a good number of their thoughts before saying, "Most of you are correct in predicting my question as being rhetorical and not in need of a response. However ... I am going to answer it for you to physically simulate your ears and hopefully act like an exploding bomb inside your heads."

I once again paused for emphasis and to allow the Energists to create that image in their minds. Then I spoke slowly and very deliberately. "I – was – claimed – to – be – your – teacher, – your – instructor ... WHEN – YOU rejected previous humans as not being useful to you. YOU then basically discarded them or killed them for nothing."

I waited as a major buzz was created within the Energists, which caused a reexamination of their thought processing after I accused them of senselessly murdering those prior claimed humans. When I sensed serious consternation at their conundrum, I softly added this piece to my argument, "You MUST logically realize that if you don't believe in the power or influence of specialized teachers or instructors as a valuable community resource, then your professed sense of moral superiority over humans is a COMPLETE sham."

I then sensed a good majority of the Energists were agreeing with that statement. I personally felt that each and every one of the Energists should recognize the logic behind my words, so I then added, "You MUST believe in the value of quality teachers or you would NOT have needed to claim me for this task. You could have simply taken some 85 year-old, near death, nursing home patient and 'claimed' that person to do this job." My soft spoken words created a forceful argument and caused a disturbed hornets' nest like flurry of cognitive activity within the entire Energist collective. I could tell that my argument on the value of a quality educational system was going to shake their previously held belief to its foundation.

When I sensed only a few holdout Energists, I finished my educational stance with, "You could have easily arranged to claim someone who would not have been missed as much as me, and thus allowed me to live my life with Kaleigh ... but you didn't. Therefore, your belief that each individual Energist will be solely responsible for instructing their offspring is an illogical act because you previously told me that you actively selected me for this 'teaching job'. Right now I find that difficult to swallow here as your esteemed teacher ... or am I still your 'lower than pond scum' slave?"

The buzz which I first heard was now a cognitive roar as the entire Energist collective was actively engaged in heated discussion. I had a difficult time deciphering the complete gist of their discussions but I felt good that it appeared the Energists were thoroughly digesting the key points of my argument.

Suddenly the Energists fell completely silent. Then all I heard one all-encompassing voice say, "You have truly challenged our thinking and our beliefs on the value of an organized educational system for our offspring. While it may cause us future apprehension, we have decided to adapt your educational systems to form an Energist community based schooling structure. Several individual Energists have already been identified who appear to have this 'instructional gift' which you mentioned in your very persuasive argument. As you have pointed out very succinctly, we Energists once again have come to value your instruction and more importantly, your leadership in assisting us with our transition to our new home. You Dr. Michael Nevins will never be considered 'pond scum' or a slave by us." I received a good many mental high-fives, especially from the 'instruction-oriented' Energists. I could not sense a single Energist being who still held that previous conviction.

"Your statement that our new time constraints would have value was indeed a solid line of reasoning. As future physical beings we are learning about the myriad of novel experiences which will fall upon us." I then heard numerous simultaneous thoughts from the Energist individuals telling me what they would like to focus on or engage in with their new found time constraint. Since a good number of Energists would be somewhat relieved at the loss of their 'parental' instructional duties, I noticed a sense of excitement within the Energist community. I did my best to address or comment on any individual Energist's ideas as I was able to filter them from the bewildering symphony of thoughts.

After communicating with countless Energist beings, I said to all of them, "Thank you for listening and responding to my argument in such a positive manner. However, and this is a 'good' however, we have other lessons and concepts to cover and learn." With those words the Energists quickly refocused their thoughts back onto me, from their previous future based desires or avenues of learning and actions.

"Before you begin Dr. Michael Nevins, we must address one of your scathing comments. We Energists are not indiscriminate killers who simply claimed humans for no reason. Your physical words pierced our cognitive spirit, and we vehemently wish to inform you that we have a strong moral ethic or code of conduct. Even though we will be individuals, we Energists have made provisions to monitor what we consider immoral or pre-criminal type thinking. Should any Energist individual begin to develop these types of thoughts, there will be a system in place to help overcome or eliminate those detrimental cognitive processes."

I was reminded of a Steven Spielberg movie, Minority Report which had a futuristic system to detect criminal activity before it occurred. I hoped the Energists' system would work better than that science fiction system which required two of the three 'precogs' to predict a future murder.

I wasn't surprised in the least when I heard, "Our deviant control system will be much better and more 'humane' than that found in your Hollywood movie. This is one of five areas of concern where all Energists will remain subconsciously linked for the betterment of our new society. A fail-safe super computer will monitor our subconscious deviant thoughts and alert an Energist safety specialist team. This team will work with that Energist to adapt or eliminate any deviant or criminal cognitive thought processes."

Before I asked, the Energists answered, "This is not mind control in any way. No major cognitive functions or appropriate long term memories will be adjusted or eliminated. In addition, this adaptation of deviant thoughts will remain completely private, so no stigma will be associated with the Energist being who developed these detrimental cognitions."

"That appears to be a valuable societal resource. This monitoring will include every Energist, even those who are going to be the leaders of your society?"

"Yes, although we will not have true 'leaders' or a government structure like you have on your Earth," the Energists replied. "Another of our subconscious monitoring links will include a 'vision for the world' cognitive system. With this, every Energist individual will have equal input into how our world should be governed and how our worldwide resources should be employed or allocated for the betterment of the Energists."

As I was about to ask for an example, the Energist explained, "If a group of 25 individuals believe something for their local community would be beneficial, for example some type of transportation system, or 250 Energists opt for a continental or worldwide issue, then that thought will be shared subconsciously via our super computer. Then all Energists affected by that issue will subconsciously decide whether to implement it or some other type of system to address the original idea. When such a large impactful Energists' decision has been made, the appropriate Energist beings will be informed and they will work to carry out the entire new agreed upon plan of action. Similarly, we Energists could decide not to implement any option if it was deemed to be of little or miniscule present or future value."

"That appears to be a good system for the development and implementation of worthwhile projects for your world," I complimented the Energists. "However, and this is a cautionary use of that word, please be careful when a strongly held individual or small group opinion is rejected by the larger group. Those individuals' emotions or feelings may get hurt, and should an individual or group feel like they are being ignored or devalued they may become resentful and eventually protest or revolt against the majority decision makers. Do you have a plan in place for dealing with this resentment or honest disagreement to a local or larger societal decision?"

"We believe we Energists will be able to work through those types of differences of opinion. We have plenty of experience communicating our thoughts within our collective. We recognize differing viewpoints but have benefitted greatly as a whole by replacing our smaller group views for the good of all."

"Very well," I replied back to them. "Just please be careful and recognize that you are now about to become more individualized which may cause some unplanned or unexpected issues within your planned societal decision-making system."

"Yes, we will 'keep our eyes and ears open' to guard against any future surprises. You have done a superb job in identifying potential issues prior to our transitional journey. We are much appreciative of your input and challenging words on these novel issues."

"You are welcome most welcome my new friends," I replied to the entire collective of Energists. "Since you will become basically isolated from your previous cognitive collective, I think you need to recognize and understand your true limitations within your new physical world. Currently you are able to control your world with your cognitive powers, much as I can control my vocal apparatus to form easily recognizable words. We both do these actions automatically and rarely suffer any direct harm from these deeds. I am highly concerned though that some of you will experience and possibly suffer various levels of bodily or cognitive harm from your 'misguided' superiority complex."

The Energists gave a collective gasp and physically shuddered when they heard my words, but not a single individual considered my cautionary statement as worthy of additional discussion. When none of the Energists expressed any of their individual concern at my words, I rebuked them with, "Your refusal to engage me or challenge me now, even though a good number of you disagree with my statement is actually proving my point. Your silence in the presence of human-like fear or disgust at my statement suggests that you need to reevaluate your own perceptions of your abilities as you start your new life. With humans, I constantly had to prompt or draw out questions or concerns from my students. Their silence or desire not to appear 'stupid' hindered their learning of material. Then we teachers would often assume our students had a clear grasp of the material because they didn't ask for any clarification. That assumption is often wrong and our students then suffer the consequences for that error."

The Energists were now soaking up my verbal lesson and several of them then said, "I don't understand your belief that I have misguided superiority or personal perception issues. How can what you just vocalized lead to a betterment of ourselves or our offspring?"

"Good question. Access my memories for my explanation of what 'assume' means in relation to my students and to me as a professor." I felt my memories being probed and then I heard two distinct sounds from the Energists. One was an Energist expression of laughter and the other was a sound of disbelief or confusion. "Some of you were able to understand those memories, while I can tell some are struggling to comprehend and apply the meaning behind my instruction of that word."

I heard more laughter and also several shouts of, "Please explain, clarify this word and your memories of it."

"The word 'assume' can be broken up into its three parts: 'ass'; 'u' meaning you; and 'me'. On earth, an ass is a dumb stubborn animal or a colorful metaphor for where our waste products, our feces are excreted. Therefore, no human likes to be thought of as an 'ass' or the first part of the word assume. The 'u' refers to my students or to 'u' Energists right now. The 'me' is the instructor or ha-ha-ha me."

I paused and quickly recognized that nearly all Energists were up to speed with me. The few who didn't get it right away were quickly integrating the others' understanding with their own. When all were up to speed, I continued, "With the identification of the three parts, I would then say to my students, 'YOU will become an ASS if you do not let ME know that YOU do not understand or comprehend what I'm teaching.' In addition, I would often add this to humor my students, 'I or 'ME' really don't care if I'm an ASS or a fool up here teaching you because I've already got a bunch of letters behind my name: BS, B.Ed., MS, and PhD. However, YOU should care about being an ASS right now because you are trying to get a few of those letters behind your name.' So when we, you and me ASSUME that we are on the same page regarding your transition to your new world, you Energists will be the ASS or the ones to suffer any future consequences as you venture out into your new physical existence."

I heard thousands of individual Energists fearfully ask the same basic thing, "Are you trying to tell me that my prior knowledge has given me a false sense of security and that I may become damaged, hurt or possibly killed before my scheduled end date?"

"Good question and please turn off your neural link to me," I replied to them. "Currently you are vastly superior to me cognitively and you can learn things much faster too. But you are inferior to me on most physical tasks like my more physically more able students were during their learning of new sports or skills. You Energists are able acquire some of these physical skills quickly and you are all excellent learners for the most part. However, let me explain how your misguided perceptions of your abilities might hinder your transition or possibly cause harm to you or some of your companions in your future world."

All the Energists were listening to my words with utmost interest when I said that they or a fellow Energist might be harmed due to their false or incorrect perceptions of their new abilities. I recognized a sense of urgency in many of their thoughts as I prepared the next part of my lesson in my highly charged mind.

"This very important concept is about the compatibility of your 'perceived versus actual competencies' and it will be especially important in your new physical realm of existence. In humans, as we get older and more experienced with our skills, abilities and cognitive tasks we develop a close positive correlation between our actual physical or cognitive competencies with our perceived competencies or our internal beliefs on how good we think we are on those tasks. Our young children or adults with limited experience on a task often over-estimate their perceived abilities, which possibility could lead them into actions they should never have attempted. Similarly, some of these people may under-estimate their actual abilities which could limit their success or 'paralyze' them with fear as they prepare to do that task."

I was overwhelmed by the Energists' request of, "Can you provide me with some examples of this disparity between perceived and actual competency and how it may influence or alter an individual's actions or behaviors."

I smiled at their request and began with a simple recollection of one of my favorite television commercials. "You will need to create or imagine this scene in your minds. A dad was watching his young 4 year old son play youth soccer. The child fell repeatedly as he attempted to kick or pass the ball, he illegally used his hands several times, and just had an awful experience playing the game in his father's viewpoint and any adult who watched that commercial. When the dad went to check on his son after the game, he sympathetically asked, 'Are you OK buddy?' The young child replied, 'Did you watch me?' to which the dad said that he did. Then the little boy raised his arms up in the air and shouted, 'I WAS AWESOME!'"