Free He Who Shapes by Roger Zelazny Page A

as anyone can be in these matters."
    "Mm-hm," said Bartelmetz. "Tell me, do you find her
    excessively strong-willed? By that I mean, say,, perhaps an
    obsessive-compulsive pattern concerning anything to which
    she's been introduced so far?"
    "No."
    "Has she ever succeeded in taking over control of the
    fantasy?"
    "No!"
    "You lie," he said simply.
    Render found a cigarette. After lighting it, he smiled.
    "Old father, old artificer," he conceded, "age has not
    withered your perceptiveness. I may trick me, but never
    you.Yes, as a matter of fact, she is very difficult to keep under
    control. She is not satisfied just to see. She wants to Shape
    things for herself already. It's quite understandableboth to her
    and to mebut conscious apprehension and emotional accep-
    tance never do seem to get together on things. She has become
    dominant on several occasions, but I've succeeded in resuming
    control almost immediately. After all, I am master of the
    bank."
    "Hm," mused Bartelmetz. "Are you familiar with a Buddhist
    text Shankara's Catechism?"
    "I'm afraid not."
    "Then I lecture you on it now. It positsobviously not for
    therapeutic purposesa true ego and a false ego. The true ego is
    that part of man which is immortal and shall proceed on to
    nirvana: the soul, if you like. Very good. Well, the false ego, on
    the other hand, is the normal mind, bound round with the
    illusionsthe consciousness of you and I and everyone we have
    ever known professionally. Good?Good. Now, the stuff this
    false ego is made up of they call skandhas. These include the
    feelings, the perceptions, the aptitudes, consciousness itself,
    and even the physical form. Very unscientific. Yes. Now they
    are not the same thing as neuroses, or one of Mister Ibsen's life-
    lies, or an hallucinationno, even though they are all wrong,
    being parts of a false thing to begin with. Each of the five
    skandhas is a part of the eccentricity that we call identitythen
    on top come the neuroses and all the other messes which follow
    after and keep us in business. Okay?Okay. I give you this
    lecture because I need a dramatic term for what I will say,
    because I wish to say something dramatic. View the skandhas
    as lying at the bottom of the pond; the neuroses, they are
    ripples on the top of the water; the 'true ego', if there is one, is
    buried deep beneath the sand at the bottom. So. The ripples fill
    up the the zwischenwelt between the object and the subject.
    The skandhas are a part of the subject, basic, unique, the stuff
    of his being.So far, you are with me?"
    "With many reservations."
    "Good. Now I have defined my term somewhat, I will use it.
    You are fooling around with skandhas, not simple neuroses. You
    are attempting to adjust this woman's overall conception of
    herself and of the world. You are using the ONT&R to do it. It is
    the same thing as fooling with a psychotic, or an ape. All may
    seem to go well, butat any moment, it is possible you may do
    something, show her some sight, or some way of seeing which
    will break in upon her selfhood, break a skandhaand pouf!it
    will be like breaking through the bottom of the pond. A
    whirlpool will result, pulling youwhere? I do not want you for
    a patient, young man, young artificer, so I counsel you not to
    proceed with this experiment. The ONT&R should not be used
    in such a manner."
    Render flipped his cigarette into the fire and counted on his
    fingers:
    "One," he said, "you are making a mystical mountain out of a
    pebble. All I am doing is adjusting her consciousness to accept
    an additional area of perception. Much of it is simple trans-
    ference work from the other senses.Two, her emotions were
    quite intense initially because it did involve a traumabut
    we've passed that stage already. Now it is only a novelty to her.
    Soon it will be a commonplace.Three, Eileen is a psychiatrist
    herself; she is educated in these matters and deeply aware of
    the delicate nature of what we are doing.Four, her sense of
    identity