There was a window above the bookcase. She glanced up at it, and as if the window were a clue, suddenly her fingers flew nervously past book after book, sorting through pages. She’d never felt such a strange pressure in her mind, in her fingers, in her entire being. Then the moment came that she would always remember. She yelled out suddenly in triumph and exaltation as she found the phrase, the particular phrase, that was so vital. It was in an old book, Psychic Politics, by a Jane Roberts, written many years before. There it was—the blueprint for mankind’s future, the blueprint that she was now completely sure was also written in the tissues and cells of the species itself. She read quickly, triumphantly:

CODICILS

(Alternate hypotheses as a base for private and public experience.)

1. All of creation is sacred and alive, each part connected to each other part, and each communicating in a creative cooperative commerce in which the smallest and the largest are equally involved.

2. The physical senses present one unique version of reality, in which being is perceived in a particular dimensionalized sequence, built up through neurological patterning, and is the result of one kind of neurological focus. There are alternate neurological routes, biologically acceptable, and other sequences so far not chosen.

3. Our individual self-government and our political organizations are by-products of sequential perception, and our exterior methods of communication set up patterns that correlate with, and duplicate, our synaptic behavior. We lock ourselves into certain structures of reality in this way.

4. Our sequential prejudiced perception is inherently far more flexible than we recognize, however. There are half steps—other unperceived impulses—that leap the nerve ends, too fast and too slow for our usual focus. Recognition of these can be learned and encouraged, bringing in perceptive data that will trigger changes in usual sense response, filling out potential sense spectra with which we are normally not familiar.

5. This greater possible sense spectrum includes increased perception of inner bodily reality in terms of cellular identity and behavior; automatic conscious control of bodily processes; and increased perception of exterior conditions as the usual senses become more vigorous. (Our sight, for example, is not nearly as efficient as it could be. Nuances of color, texture, and depth could be expanded and our entire visual area attain a brilliance presently considered exceptional or supernormal.)

Josephine’s glance slid down the page. The Codicils were followed by comments by the author. There was a paragraph called Comments on Codicils. It seemed to apply to Codicil 1, and to the five Codicils in general at the same time. She read the pertinent passages quickly and impatiently.

COMMENTS ON CODICILS

Acceptance of these first codicils would expand practical knowledge of the self, break down barriers that are the result of our prejudiced perception, and restructure personal, social, and political life.