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  “Of course not,” Coyote reassured him. “I wouldn’t harm you or Bess for anything in the universe, not to mention the affection I have for my own hide. But—”

  No. He decided at once that further talk would be ridiculous. After the strongarm mental tactics he had already used, a little more was not going to hurt RK and would scarcely be noticed. He turned a single thought toward the bed… sleep now… and RK was lost at once, as deeply asleep as if he had been drugged.

  Poor young one. Coyote covered him carefully and stood over him a moment, apologizing in advance for what he must do, trying to think if there could be any reason why it would not work.

  The comsystems of Furthest were primitive, manually operated by keyboard instead of voice-sensitive like those of the Inner Galaxies. He was reasonably sure that so long as he did not insert an offworld credit disc he would be safe. Why not? On a planet where offworlders were rare as green swans, why take elaborate precautions against them?

  Knowing RK would not wake up for hours, he went to the table that stood by the bed, and where lay the small synthovelvet pouch, purple striped with deep blue, that held RK’s personal things. He opened it and took out the boy’s credit disc, closed it and laid it carefully back on the table. He didn’t like doing this, but he disliked it a good deal less than what he had already done to his young friend, and it would at least be painless. Unless there was some safeguard mechanism about which he did not yet know anything, no one would suffer from what he was about to do.

  What could a mindwife be?

  Whatever it was, it was mighty nice. He could still feel her in his mind, that sensation of almost unendurable pleasure that was a sort of constant, whole, and total orgasm, of the body and mind and spirit. That was a mindwife, eh?

  He smiled, thinking of his previous conception of Bess as a cold, sexless Scenic Wonder. It showed how little he knew… but who would ever have thought of such a thing as this?

  He had too many questions, and they wouldn’t wait. But he was going to have to phrase them carefully. Even with the Furthester credit disc, if he came on bluntly at three-thirty in the morning with a straight “What is a mindwife?” the computers were likely to think something curious was going on and send the police to check him out. He couldn’t risk that. He would have to sacrifice some time, in spite of his raging curiosity, to the devising of a suitably subtle phrasing, one that would not bring tragedy down upon them all. Probably the most casual possible approach would be the best, but he must be very careful.

  Thinking again how goddam good he felt, all over, he folded his hand around the little credit disc and went back to his room.

  Mindwife, eh? Roses and waves and golden spirals and an unending continuum of pleasure?

  CHAPTER NINE

  “Frustration is a wholesome part of education, and a necessary one, but it must be the frustration of not knowing what one is eager to know. The child for whom all the answers are always PROVIDED may well develop the ability to memorize, but unless he is very unusual he will never learn how to think. Education by spoon-feeding is less trouble for the adults involved, but useless and destructive for the learning child. Teaching must be a matter of ALLOWING—not of forcing—a child to learn.”

  (from the Devotional Book of Tham O’Kent)

  Handbook for the Elders of the Holy Path:

  On the Training of Mindwives

  The training of a mindwife is a sacred office. It is not to be taken lightly. With the exception of the mindwife herself, there is no higher status to be attained among our people. If at any time you should find yourself looking upon this holy work as tedious, as a tiresome and ordinary task, you are to go at once to your chambers and pray for illumination. If the feeling does not pass in three days, you are to surrender your post irrevocably. For one who has failed in the nurture of a mindwife charged to his care, or caused harm to any mindwife in the care of any Elder of the Ahl Khres’sah, the penalty is death. Beware that you do not neglect any aspect of the training set out in this manual because you feel that it is trivial or because you personally dislike it; the training of mindwives is a part of our sacred history, and no smallest portion of it may be changed or eliminated. You are to follow the dictates of this manual as you would follow the Book of the Holy Path, from which its instructions are taken.

  The mindwives will reach you no younger than two and no older than four years. A child whose training is not begun by the age of four can never achieve full mindwife status.

  These children will be of a uniform personality type—they will be headstrong, willful, brave to the point of folly, selfish, opinionated, and completely undisciplined. This last is the case because, from the moment the potential for mindwifery is discovered in the child, the parents are forbidden to attempt any sort of discipline, however mild, except in those cases where it is necessary to prevent actual physical injury. If a girl is brought to you gentle and docile she is spoiled for mindwifery; she is to be sent home, and her parents must be brought before the Elders of their city for judgment and discipline.

  Before beginning the detailed instruction in the training of these sacred children, it would be well to review in a general way the basic stages through which they go, as follows:

  FIRST STAGE (Be’naq’qal)

  The first thing done is to administer, by hypodermic syringe through the front of the throat, a chemical which inhibits the activity of the vocal chords to such an extent that no speech is possible. In order that the child may not move her hands in an attempt to communicate by gesture, her hands are manacled behind her back. In order that she may not vent her fury physically upon the other little girls in the room, she is strapped into a chair and restrained. This is done, by groups of six to ten girls, day after day, for the full length of the day. It is continued until the child either goes mad or discovers the telepathic channels of the mind. (The madness rate, we are proud to say, is exceedingly low, less than eight percent.) This may take no more than a week; it has taken as long as six months on some occasions. No sympathy is shown the children, and no tenderness—lest this seem cruel, it should be understood that anything which lessens their frustration and rage will only lengthen the time that must be spent in this state by the child. It is therefore the seeming kindness that is really cruel. You will find complete instructions for the heightening of this frustration at a later point in the manual.

  It is of course possible to hasten this stage and the breakthrough as well, by administering a number of drugs, in particular the juice of the waterweed known popularly as Heaven’s Ladder. However, such a technique is resorted to only in those cases in which it has become apparent that the child is not going to achieve breakthrough by herself; it is to be considered a last resort. Maximum mindwife strength can be achieved only when the child accomplishes the communications goal without artificial aids; mindwives trained by use of drugs are inevitably less strong and thus less effective.

  The inevitable question is, of course, what disposition is made of that eight percent of the children for whom the end of our training is with total madness, in this first stage. It is right that you should ask this question, and its answer should be further indication to you of the grave responsibility which you bear. Since we know that it is the Most High, and not ourselves, who chooses the mindwives, and since it is not possible for the Allknowing to err in His choice, it follows that a girl who goes mad is our failure and ours alone. Thus, when everything has been tried and madness is its result, the child is secluded in the Temple of Tiba Ness, there to be cared for to the ultimate limits of our ability until the natural end of her life. These are the Holy Madwomen of Tiba Ness; they are to be treated with tenderness and with our deepest love, for we have failed them. Because of our inadequacy they have been denied the opportunity to fulfill their destiny as the chosen of the Most High, as sacred mindwives.

  SECOND STAGE (Tazh Hari)

  At this second stage we attempt to make up to the little girls to some extent for the seeming
brutality of the first stage. We introduce discipline, slowly but surely. We begin the training in all of those arts and skills which are expected of an accomplished woman of the Ahl Kres’sah. The little girls are now taught to play the paliss, the harp, and the flute. They are taught to read and to write, to practice the Five Sciences and the Seven Disciplines. They are given the education that would be given any wealthy young girl of our people, with the difference that it is even more intensive, that these girls always and without exception have the very best teachers and facilities that are at our command.

  We have learned that the skill of telepathic communication is basically different from most skills in one respect; i.e., that enforced practice during the period of learning and unfamiliarity is not required. We have learned that once the non-vocal channels are established the individual will always prefer them. It is therefore no longer necessary at this stage to continue the vocal inhibitor medication. We have never seen a girl revert to vocal communication as the preferred medium once the mental channels were opened to her. The factor of frustration is therefore much less at this time.

  It is of course the case that the children hate us to the very depths of their beings by this time. That is quite all right; it is in fact desirable. It is of great help to them in learning that love is not a necessary ingredient for social functioning, and that the three qualities of respect: compassion, and patience—plus good manners—will do very nicely as a basis for most relationships. It does happen that occasionally a little girl of an affectionate nature will attempt to show that affection by such manifestations as climbing into your lap, patting your hand, calling you by pet-names, and the like. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that all such manifestations are to be met with THE MOST TOTAL REJECTION AND COLDNESS YOU CAN MUSTER. These are appealing children, and it will be a temptation for you to respond to their overtures in kind, but you absolutely must not do so. You must remember that their successful functioning as mindwives will be wholly dependent upon their being forced to find a mental channel for their sexual needs just as they did for their speech needs; this can only be achieved if they are met with complete frustration of their every attempt to employ normal sexual channels. As was true in the case of speech, seeming kindness on your part can only lengthen the time of their frustration. Therefore, the children are met at all times with coldness, in order that they may be broken of any tendency to normal sexual activity.“

  During this second stage the children are exposed to the most intensive training in color, pattern, and form perception that we can offer them. They are surrounded by beauty, in order that as mindwives they will have at their mental disposal the greatest possible variety of images. It is at this time that the use of drugs is begun as a standard measure for all the girls in order to increase their ability at mental imagery; there is no hazard now, so far as we can determine, that any girl will develop that dependence upon the drugs in every situation of stress that is so unfortunate a tendency when they are begun too soon.

  No formal training in the use of their unusual mental capacities is practiced at this stage. This is first of all because of the extremely heavy curriculum of other materials which they must learn. Secondly, much of what they must know cannot be taught them properly until they have reached puberty. Psi training is therefore confined to our hearty encouragement of their use of telepathic communication and to a large number of games which are made available to them and which are designed to strengthen their psibilities without formal instruction.

  And finally, of course, the children are given intensive religious instruction just as are all our children. We must never forget that these sacred children are as much in need of the Holy Path as any of the rest of us, and that it is our responsibility to insure that their spiritual development is not neglected. Any failure here will be sure to cause us trouble at a later date.

  THIRD STAGE (Kehl Be’aff)

  The third stage begins at the time of puberty, whenever that may be for each girl. (In any case in which puberty has not been attained by the twelfth year it is artificially induced by injection of hormones.) By this time each girl should have the basic elements of her education, in the general sense, and it should have become evident what sort of talents each one has. At this point it should be possible for you to decide what would constitute a suitable specialty for each girl under your tutelage, and further education should be in the specialty rather than the broad spectrum training which has been given up to this point. The most common specialties for mindwives are Instrumental Music, Water Dancing, Poetry, and Theology, although others are possible.

  There is a very great danger at this point, a matter of balance and proportion, that requires fine judgments on the part of the Elders. It must be remembered that the mindwives are expected to function as the most intimate companions of our greatest men. Such men are not going to be satisfied with a merely charming woman, no matter how beautiful she may be; therefore, it is necessary that the mindwives should be educated far in excess of the amount generally provided for the women of the Ahl Khres’sah. However, since normal channels of affection have been totally cut off in these girls, there is a tendency for them to substitute for such affection an all-encompassing dedication to their specialty. This must be precluded, since a mindwife must be devoted to mindwifery first and above all; she cannot place her sacred functions beneath her absorption in one of the arts or sciences. However valuable might be her contributions to our people otherwise (we refer you to the case of Mindwife Beness T’al Qylthr’a, whose work in the isolation of sensory areas in the brain, although the source of major medical breakthroughs on this planet, was a great handicap to her in the exercise of mindwifery) it must be emphasized that no value may be set above that of mindwifery itself.

  This creates an elemental dichotomy, very naturally, since we are in a manner creating what we must destroy. Therefore we take upon us the unpleasant task of furthering in these girls a tendency that we would discourage in our women under any other circumstances. That is to say, at this stage, along with training in the specialty, the girls are exposed in heavy saturation to every sort of censored stimulation we are able to provide, UNDER CONDITIONS WHICH INSURE THAT THEY WILL BE ABLE TO FIND NO CHANNEL OF EXPRESSION FOR THAT STIMULATION. This means that they must sleep in a room kept fully lighted at all times, a room so warmed that no bedcoverings are required, and a room that is under guard. This guard is provided by servomechanisms which are of course themselves immune to censored and are therefore not the hazard to the girls that would be the case with any other arrangement. (We can only look with admiration upon the holy asceticism of those Elders who were charged with the task of guarding the mindwives in those primitive days before efficient servomechanisms were available.) This condition of constant frustration without possible outlet has as its primary function the preparation of the mindwives for telepathic sexual communion. The analogy with the earlier forcing of telepathic speech should be apparent. The frustration which is induced in the mindwives at this point is so severe, however, that we now find an additional three percent of the girls succumbing to madness, and this a madness of so repulsive an aspect that total erasure is the only measure possible for dealing with it. (This is of course therapeutic rather than punitive erasure.)

  We suspect that the reason the madness rate is so low at this stage, in view of the intensity of the frustration, is that the girls, who now are in total control of telepathic communication, are able to combine their efforts in discovering a solution. We also suspect that an unfortunate byproduct of this combined effort is telepathic homosexual relationships among the mindwives. Unfortunately there is no surface evidence of any such relationships, and we have no way of checking on our suspicions. We must rely, therefore, upon their religious training and the principles which have previously been instilled in these girls to prevent any such unnatural developments.

  At this point, once the frustration level of any given girl gives us reason to believe that she has di
scovered the proper channel for telepathic sexual communion, it is necessary that she be removed from the other girls and prepared as rapidly as is possible for her final status as mindwife. She must be provided at once with an Elder who will serve as husband-surrogate for the exercise of her abilities during this final stage of training, in order that she learn to prefer a male partner. (Reference to the previous paragraph should make this more clear.)

  FOURTH STAGE (Leth)

  It is our suggestion that you very carefully consider the following paragraph. At this time you will be associated as Training Elder with perhaps as many as four girls at a time. Although you are sworn to celibacy, both physical and mental, it will be your sacred duty to serve as object of the mental attentions of these four girls. WE WARN YOU SOLEMNLY: You will be subjected to the most intense ecstasy that it is possible to produce in a human being—direct mental stimulation, and exceedingly skilled stimulation, of the pleasure centers of the brain. You are to look upon yourself as no more than a training mechanism, a physical object, upon which the novice mindwives may practice their holy skill. IT IS FORBIDDEN FOR YOU TO DERIVE SEXUAL ENJOYMENT FROM THIS FUNCTION OF YOUR OFFICE AS TRAINING ELDER. Should you find that censored, should you find that constant prayer is not enough to prevent you from perverting this sacred function for personal pleasure, you are to go at once to your Chief Elder and request that you be relieved of your duties, as unfit. The penalty for ignoring this rule is death.

  Assuming, as we do assume, that you will be able to fulfill your role in an appropriate manner, your work now consists in helping the mindwives in your care to further refine their techniques. You must discuss with each of them the particular characteristics of their performance. You must tell them if you find their attentions sterile, devoid of imagery, unsatisfactory in any way. You must help them polish and perfect themselves in the exercise of mindwifery to the utmost limits of your ability. At the end of this fourth stage each girl will be formally wed to a man of our people who is of sufficient value to the Ahl Khres’sah to merit such a reward, the highest reward that we can give. She will have no further opportunity for training, and she must not disgrace us. It is our proud record that in an the history of our people only two mindwives have ever been returned to us by their husbands as unsatisfactory. You must use this last period of training to perfect, to polish, to intensify, to instruct. The specific techniques which are to be employed are described in detail in the later chapters of this text.