After
the Council started to receive reports of Helena's strange
psychiatric practices, the Council demanded that Helena face a board
of inquiry concerning her practices.
“We
have heard that you are engaging in unorthodox techniques that have
not been approved,” said the Chairman. “We are told that you have
some weird practice in which you claim to retrieve buried memories
from the minds of men and women. Please describe your technique so we
can judge whether it is sound.”
“It
all started when some people started to complain about recurring
dreams,” said Helena. “I was told by three people that they kept
having the same strange dreams again and again. I wondered whether
these dreams might be a sign of memories buried deep inside their
minds. So I started to use a method to try to extract or elicit
memories buried deep in their minds.”
“And
what was that technique?” asked the Chairman.
“It
is a technique that I call hypnotic regression,” explained
Helena. “I use various techniques to put someone into a state of
deep relaxation. Slowly the patient enters into a strange type of
consciousness that is neither normal waking consciousness nor sleep,
but kind of a strange mental state somewhat in between the two. I
have found this is a useful technique for extracting hidden memories
buried deep in the mind.”
“So
what happens when a person enters this state of 'hypnotic
regression,' as you call it?” asked the Chairman.
“I
start asking them questions about what happened long ago, before the
earliest memories they could normally remember,” said Helena. “It
is really quite amazing, because when I start asking these questions,
my patients will tell me very strange stories. They all tell the same
type of stories – they are amazingly similar.”
“Amazingly
similar?” said the Chairman. “So tell me a typical story that one
of your patients would tell.”
“Typically
a patient will describe a kind of 'past life' before the patient's
current life,” explained Helena. “But what is very strange is
that the patient will say this 'past life' didn't take place on our
planet. The patient will say the 'past life' took place on some other
planet out in space.”
“Past
lives on another planet?” said the Chairman. “Obviously these
patients are just hallucinating or confabulating, just making things
up. Maybe this 'hypnotic regression' state encourages them to
fantasize.”
“Conceivably,”
said Helena. “But what is strange is how often my patients will
tell the same weird tale. Here is the story I will hear them tell
again and again. They will say that they once lived on a distant
planet, and signed up to be something called 'astronauts.' They will
say that they boarded some space ship to travel from the distant
planet, and that then they were kind of frozen.”
“Frozen?”
said the Chairman. “Well, that's a silly detail.”
“But
as the patients tell the story, it doesn't sound quite so silly,”
explained Helena. “They explain it like this. They signed up for a
mission to travel from one solar system to another. But the distance
was so great that the trip took many decades, too long for a human
lifetime. So the travelers on the ship – these 'astronauts' – had
to be kind of frozen so that they would sleep throughout the long
voyage between the stars. The patients tell me it wasn't really
freezing, just kind of a lowering of the body temperature much lower
than normal.”
“So
how many people have told you this strange story while under
'hypnotic regression' as you call it?” asked the Chairman.
“A
total of 12 people,” said Helena.
“And
what other stories of 'past lives' do they tell?” asked the
Chairman.
“Pretty
much only this story,” said Helena.
“That's
an astonishing coincidence,” said the Chairman.
“But
perhaps it's not a coincidence,” said Helena. “I have a
theory to explain these stories. It's a very far-out and fantastic
theory, but I'd like to explain it.”
“Go
ahead,” said the Chairman.
“My
theory goes like this,” said Helena. “Perhaps all of my patients
really were born on some other planet. Perhaps on that other planet
they built a spaceship designed to travel from one star to another.
The planned voyage may have been a voyage lasting many decades, so
they may have needed to put the people on the spaceship into almost a
kind of deep freeze in which they were unconscious. But maybe that
lowering of the body temperature may have caused a loss of memory. So
when the people on the spaceship finally reached the distant planet,
and somehow woke up, they may have lost all memories of their lives
on the planet they were born on. Except that the memories were still
buried deep in their minds. And maybe the planet they traveled to is
our own planet.”
“How
did you hatch that crazy idea?” asked the Chairman. “How could
such people have got mixed up with people like you or me?”
“According
to my theory, all of us adults here in the Village are these
'astronauts' from another planet,” explained Helena. “Think about
it. You and I are one of 40 adult people living in this Village, and
we and our children are the only people on this planet. That raises
the question: how did we get here? Do you know how you got here?”
“I
must have been raised by my parents here on this planet,” said the
Chairman. “It's just that I don't remember them, or anything about
my youth.”
“Exactly,”
said Helena, “and none of us remember our parents or anything about
our youth. Our parents aren't around. But hasn't it ever occurred to
you how unlikely such a coincidence is, that all of our parents would
have died when we were young? If the chance of your parents dying
when you were young is maybe 1 in 2, then the chance of 40 people all
having their parents die when they are young is maybe 1 in 2 to the
fortieth power – too unlikely a thing to have happened.”
“What
are you suggesting?” asked the Chairman.
“I
am suggesting that all 40 adults in our Village – the entire adult
population of this planet – was actually born on another planet,”
said Helena. “We bravely signed up to be space voyagers. When we
got on the spaceship, they did some kind of temperature-lowering
thing – almost a freezing – that caused us to sleep through the
long space voyage. Then our ship reached this planet, and we woke up.
But the long sleep caused us to lose our memories. So we couldn't
remember our home planet. We just got busy building ourselves some
shelters, which became the Village we live in now. We still have our
memories of our home planet, but those memories are buried deep in
our minds. Those memories can only be brought out through hypnotic
regression like I use on my patients.”
“My,
my, that's a fascinating theory,” said the Chairman. He consulted
with the other members of the Council. They then announced their
decision to Helena.
“We
have decided that your silly theory is a disruptive superstition that
we must ban as a damnable heresy,” said the Chairman. “You are
henceforward forbidden from engaging in this practice you call
'hypnotic regression.' And you are forbidden from teaching this crazy
theory of yours that we were all born on another planet.”
“I
submit loyally to the will of the Council,” said Helena sadly.
Before
she left, the Chairman had one last question.
“Oh,
just out of curiosity,” said the Chairman, “did your patients have
any name for that distant planet they said they were born on?”
“Yes,”
said Helena. “They called it planet Earth.”
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