"Don't you see, chief?" the special assistant asked. "We find a belief
in reincarnation on many time-lines, as a religious doctrine, but
these people accept it as a scientific fact. Such acceptance would
carry much more conviction; it would influence a people's entire
thinking. We see it reflected in their disregard for death--suicide as
a social function, this Society of Assassins, and the like. It would
naturally color their political thinking, because politics is nothing
but common action to secure more favorable living conditions, and to
these people, the term 'living conditions' includes not only the
present life, but also an indefinite number of future lives as well. I
find this title, 'Independent' Institute, suggestive. Independent of
what? Possibly of partisan affiliation."

"But wouldn't these people be grateful to her for her new discoveries,
which would enable them to plan their future reincarnations more
intelligently?" Tortha Karf asked.

"Oh, chief!" Verkan Vall reproached. "You know better than that! How
many times have our people got in trouble on other time-lines because
they divulged some useful scientific fact that conflicted with the
locally revered nonsense? You show me ten men who cherish some
religious doctrine or political ideology, and I'll show you nine men
whose minds are utterly impervious to any factual evidence which
contradicts their beliefs, and who regard the producer of such
evidence as a criminal who ought to be suppressed. For instance, on
the Fourth Level Europo-American Sector, where I was just working,
there is a political sect, the Communists, who, in the territory under
their control, forbid the teaching of certain well-established facts
of genetics and heredity, because those facts do not fit the