“Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.” Robert C. Gallagher “Peanut M&Ms?” “Yes. But with everyone it’s diff erent.” “What in the world are you talking about?” “Have you ever gone into a restaurant or grocery store where you know they have a specific food that you really like, but they never seem to have it when you’re there?” Penelope’s mind flashed to the great grits/risotto incident the day before, but she wasn’t about to tell him how close to the mark he was. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” “Mine was peanut M&Ms. Every store I went to was always sold out.” “You are a very odd person.” “I’ve been told that before.” “I don’t doubt it for a moment.” “Back to M&Ms. Food is an essential of life and the diff erent elements of your mind want to control it. One part of your brain wants something sweet, while another part knows it’s bad for you and wants you to avoid it. When they get into conflict, the power of thought just makes it go away.” “Do you know how ridiculous that sounds?” “Not if you’re dying to have a peanut M&M.” “So all of my problems are related to food?” 55 The Fourth Awakening “Now who’s being ridiculous?” “What?” “You asked me for examples of things you wouldn’t understand and I gave you a general one and a more specific one. I gave no indication that it was an exhaustive list.” “Oh, so there is a list now? And you have all of the answers to my problems.” “Of course not.” “Th at’s reassuring.” “Only you can answer some of the questions.” “So I already have some of the answers.” “All of them, actually. But your mind won’t let you accept them yet.” “Yet?” “Yes.” Penelope propped her elbows on the table, placed her hands under her chin and stared at Walker. He seemed completely sincere. Crazy as a March Hare, but sincere. “If I already have all of the answers, why do I need you?” “Excellent question. In theory you don’t need me at all. There have been many cases where people simply stumble into enlightenment without even realizing it.” “Enlightenment?” “I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.” “You’re right, I don’t believe you.” “You need to, and pretty quickly. Being around me, even for a short period of time, has been shown to accelerate the growth process. Th is will put you at risk.” “Just being in your presence is all it takes, huh? No shortage of ego, I see.” Walker smiled but didn’t answer. “Ok, I’ll play along… what kind of risk?” “Thought is thought. There is no good or evil. A negative thought carries the same moral authority as a positive one. You’re in the early stages, and have not yet learned to control your emotions or how to protect yourself from thoughts you don’t want. Emotionally charged negative thoughts tend to be more strongly felt than positive ones. You run the risk of manifesting something that you really don’t intend or want for yourself or those around you. You need to be very careful.” “So think nothing but happy thoughts.” 56 Rod Pennington & Jeffery A. Martin “Well, preferably positive ones. Especially ones involving uplift ing emotions such as love, peace, or joy.” Obviously Walker was sarcasm challenged. “Or just think, ‘cancel, cancel’ after a negative thought.” “Cancel, cancel?” “Yes.” This interview was not going at all as she had expected. Th e few questions she had asked and the off the wall answers she had gotten in return had already caused her mind to begin to create a long list of additional questions. She was starting to understand the senator’s warning about him being exasperating. “Positive thoughts; cancel cancel, got it.” Penelope was starting to feel like she had fallen down a rabbit hole and was now having tea with the Mad Hatter. Then something occurred to her. “Is the uncontrolled acceleration of the, what did you call it, the growth process, what happened on the Hermes Project?” A broad grin spread across Walker’s face as he nodded his approval. “What?” “Excellent deduction. That is exactly what happened on the Hermes Project. We inadvertently allowed people to develop too quickly.” “What happened to them?” Walker’s shoulders slumped and his face grew dark. “It was bad, but I’ll explain that in due course. Why don’t we get to the questions you really want to ask?” “O............