The Prophet Motive by Eric Christopherson Page B

unnoticed, such as the loss of critical thought and judgement, while later symptoms—dizziness and euphoria were quite common—would be considered inconsequential or pleasurable. Chanting was an ancient and powerful physiological mind persuasion technique.
    “Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love!”
    During a brief pause in the chanting, The Wizard cried out, “New York City!”
    “Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love!”
    Holding Bob Marsh’s hand made it difficult for Marilyn to cheat—to chant at less than full lung capacity.
    “Louder, Marilyn!” he said. “Say it like you mean it!”
    And so she chanted louder for a time before reducing her volume again. But the exchange with Bob repeated itself several times, and she fell dizzy, and her mind began to wander. What they were all doing reminded her of something she vaguely recalled reading about. In the late nineteen sixties or thereabouts, some hippies had tried to levitate the Pentagon using only the power of thought . . .
    “Rio de Janeiro!”
    “Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love!”
    Marilyn began to sweat profusely, but it wasn’t due to the rising heat of the sun. The Wizard had kept his new recruits overbreathing long enough by now for more pronounced symptoms of respiratory alkalosis to emerge. Her ears began to ring, and then her heart began to pound.
    The others would be feeling much the same. Their symptoms, if at all discussed, would be interpreted to serve cult purposes. Using another mind persuasion technique, known as reframing , The Wizard would, in some manner, explain to the new recruits that what they were feeling was evidence of his own mystical powers, or else magical manifestations of spiritual enlightenment.
    “Bucharest!”
    “Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love!”
    Marilyn prayed for the chanting to stop soon. Extremely prolonged and exuberant overbreathing would eventually and inevitably cause painful symptoms of respiratory alkalosis, such as severe muscle cramps or chest pains. And for those with certain medical problems or predispositions, heart irregularities or convulsions could be induced.
    “Moscow!”
    “Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love! Love!”
    The Wizard stepped away for a private talk with Tom Mahorn. Without leaving Marilyn’s side, Bob took control of the group.
    “We need a new thought bomb, people! Who has one?”
    “Peace!” Kira said.
    “Barcelona!” Bob said.
    “Peace! Peace! Peace! Peace! Peace! Peace! Peace! Peace! Peace! Peace! Peace! Peace! Peace! Peace! Peace!”
    “Tokyo!”
    Sometime later—it seemed to Marilyn hours later, but time for her was hard to track now—The Wizard called an end to the chanting, and the group, sweat beading their skin head to toe, retired to the blankets beneath the oak trees. In Marilyn’s ears, a steely buzz saw whirred, and she felt mildly euphoric.
    The naked Wizard stood before them, his back to the pond, and commenced another jeremiad on the state of the environment. Marilyn uncharacteristically had trouble focusing at first, but soon recognized The Wizard’s topic: chemical pollutants.
    “These pollutants,” he said, “enter the biosphere through hundreds and hundreds of industrial sources. They result from the use of PCB chemicals in the manufacturing of electronics. They come from the pesticides used in commercial farming, from the manufacturing of the plastic bottles and jugs containing our food and our drink, from the chlorine compounds used to bleach our paper and clean our backyard pools. These pollutants are virtually everywhere now. In the sky, in the water, in the soil, and in ourselves. Human beings absorb them every day, simply by