The abundance of leisure time is due in no small part to the high level of productivity, thanks to which all the necessary goods and services are provided in abundance, to high standards of quality, and at progressively reducing cost. This results in part from the pervading spirit of goodwill, cooperation, dedication to service and fair trading. But the underlying economic systems make their own significant contribution to material prosperity, to the relaxed business climate, and to the continuous striving for excellence.

In 'days of old' the whole subject of economic planning proved a continuing source of contention. On the one hand, if it made sense to organize workers in a business so that everyone was effectively employed, then this principle should logically apply to the economy as a whole. But 'planning' could so easily become heavy-handed, as the Socialist Bloc countries during the latter half of he 1900s clearly illustrated. It has now been found possible to provide overall coordination and full employment of the economy, while not conflicting with the creativity and initiative of individual enterprises.

Economic activity is continuously reviewed through Community Planning Councils in villages and towns, then coordinated up to County and Regional level. These Community Planning Councils are not government institutions.

They are groups of interested people: representatives from service or production companies, educators, community administrators, people with new ideas, consumers who want a new product or service. Some attend meetings regularly, others may come occasionally to raise some specific point. It is in these meetings that people discuss new products or services that may be needed, new ideas which can be tried, new services for the town, improvements which can be made, or perhaps products or services which are running down so that new employment opportunities must be sought and developed. Advisors can also be called in when required from one of several non-government Employment Monitoring or Commercial Development Services.

Local initiative ensures that local needs are provided and that local people are employed; coordination through upper levels ensures that there is collaboration where necessary. For example, if a local community decides to promote tourism for some scenic natural attraction, then transport, accommodation and advertising can be coordinated with neighbouring communities and at County level. Coordination also provides an order of priorities where labour or capital is scarce, so that resources can be apportioned productively.

A local Community Planning Council meets regularly in the County Town whose atrium and terraced apartments we have recently explored.

In the most recent debate a representative of management from a local manufacturing plant discussed new trends in electronics which must be incorporated into their design and production processes; this in turn would require that a new training program be developed for local education. A speaker from the local Hotel Management Group advised that tourism in the area is increasing, requiring more overnight accommodation and some additional walking paths, developed in conjunction with existing transit lines.

Another item debated concerned a local industry which is running down because its major product has been outdated by new technological developments; what can be done to replace the potential loss of employment? An advisor from one of the Economic Monitoring Services suggests that contact be made with a firm in another part of the County which has ideas for expansion but lacks available workers due to full employment.

In these meetings, the Performance Audits of local infrastructure services are also reviewed. A senior member of the 'Blue Line' Transit Management Team, a small group which operates four Rural Lines in coordination with the overall County Administration, has been invited in so that her Team may be congratulated on producing the best Performance Audit in the Region for the fourth consecutive quarter.

Thus business and the community together establish an on-going plan of action and priorities. Community Planning Council decisions are also used as guidelines for the investment of 'public credit', a term which may require brief explanation.

A credit facility or system of accounting (what used to be called 'money'!) still remains an economic necessity for maintaining a record of the amount of creative energy or labour each individual has either contributed or taken from the community effort. It also serves the traditional purposes of facilitating trade in goods and services, as well as facilitating saving and investment. Without some kind of a credit system trade would revert to barter, while saving, and thus also investment, would be seriously impeded.

But credit-creation is now regarded for what it really is: a privilege and a responsibility conferred upon the banking system by the general consent of the community at large, a Community Resource which should therefore be directed in the broad interests of the Community.

Indeed historians looking back to the early days of the twenty-first century find it difficult to believe that an entire nation's financial and monetary system was openly treated by the major banking institutions as 'pocket money' to be used for gambling, placing leveraged bets on wild and highly risky devices the complexity of which often challenged the best financial minds.

Thankfully the Banking System is now viewed as a part – an essential part – of the nation's infrastructure, and thus required to direct credit in ways which will ensure the continuing development and productivity of the economy, and provide the facilities necessary to enjoy its resultant prosperity. This requirement and approach produce a much closer cooperation between bank and business in the best interests of both parties and the economy as a whole.

Individual Banks will call upon independent experts to assess all new business loan applications. New businesses will be assisted where necessary to ensure that their projects, pre-planning and projections are viable; regular subsequent monitoring ensures that the business performs according to its projections so that remedial action can be taken promptly when necessary.

An important feature of business loans is that the total project, from design through production and management to sales, becomes the loan collateral, rather than the personal assets of individuals. Hence the need for extensive pre-loan research and subsequent monitoring. Thus creative collaboration ensures that each new business is securely established and runs according to projections; bankruptcies are wasteful, disrupting, and are not considered an acceptable option.

Banks also direct credit according to an order of priorities for which the Banking Sector relies on the Community Planning Councils. The 'interest rate' charged to borrowers remains unchanged at a low rate which reflects only the cost of administering the credit loan.

The Central Bank of each Region is responsible for regulating the overall quantity of credit circulating through the regional economy. More specifically, it is required to maximize credit availability within the productive capacity of the economy, or in other words, to ensure full employment. For everyone wants and expects to contribute and develop their creative talents in a rewarding job of work; if just one single person was unable to do so it would be considered degrading, a waste of talent – and a reflection of unacceptably poor economic management!

Full employment was always considered impossible to achieve since economic as expansion reached anywhere near full employment it was inevitably accompanied by inflation. As the economy expanded, so wholesalers and retail shops slid their prices up, while employees, seeing that labour was no longer plentiful, began demanding higher wages. More pay for the same amount of work, a higher price for the same goods... a once-familiar pattern. Indeed inflation was an integral part of everyday life. Economics textbooks told their students that 'money acts as a store of value'; yet money which loses 5% of its purchasing power every year is hardly a store of value for one's valuable savings – indeed it was about as useful as a cask with a hole in the bottom for storing vintage brandy!

Fortunately this is no longer a problem, for pay and prices are based on the evaluated labor contained in a product or service and are therefore stable and not subject to inflation even in conditions of full employment. This condition of total monetary stability is ensured by the familiar combination of goodwill and a well-organized system.

The approach to pay and prices is influenced first and foremost by the more enlightened attitude of people towards one another. As to their pay, the preoccupation of most people is not to get as much as they can out of each other, but rather that they should not take from society more than they give. The same rule applies to prices: no one would want to feel that their asking price for a product or service was unfair or excessive.

The pay for the job, or the price of a product or service should be a fair reflection of the work and skill involved; in this way everyone can be sure that trade in all its aspects is fair and equal, value for value.

To achieve this objective, a standard Pay and Price Evaluation system, constantly reviewed and whenever necessary updated, is used to measure work in all its forms and at all levels, taking into account everything from training and responsibility to job satisfaction or concentration. By means of this system a fair remuneration can be established for each job, avoiding both the need and the embarrassment of having to argue – or horror of horrors, strike over it.

Similarly, prices are established by taking the total outgoing expenditure on materials, remunerations, overheads and appropriate capital repayments, then apportioning this total over the products or services rendered. This is calculated on a yearly or half-yearly basis.

Of course this price-calculation process cannot always be precise, so firms may inadvertently make profits at the end of the year, or sometimes losses. Losses are held over to next year and remedial steps taken. Modest profits, this being more generally the case, are apportioned according to formulas set by law and by custom. Part goes to an emergency reserve fund; part goes to the Company for research and development; part goes to the co-workers at all levels in recognition of the success of their collective enterprise. Any surplus is regarded as an excess taken from the customers, and a downward adjustment of future prices would be made.

By this apparently simple yet precise system everyone is satisfied that they are paid in relation to the work they contribute, and prices fairly reflect the work which the goods and services 'contain'.

Thus workers and consumers can be confident, without ever having to think about it, that without any fuss or argument there is a fair remuneration for every job and a fair price for every product and service. Indeed economic and social historians now look back with horror at the strikes and lockouts, often violent, which so often accompanied the historic process of 'free collective bargaining'!

Another major advantage of a universally established Pay, Profit and Price Evaluation system is the resultant monetary stability. The universal use of a stable evaluation system eliminates the possibility of inflation – a concept now consigned to the history books. Thus it is no longer necessary to put the economy into recession and maintain a permanent condition of unemployment in order to check potential or actual inflation.

This being the case it is now considered quite normal that there should be a rewarding job of work available for everyone who wants one. Youngsters can easily find part-time work to provide some independent income or to complement their studies. No one lives under a cloud of fear that they might be made redundant if their product or service is in decline, for alternative employment is easy to find.

And 'retirement' in the sense of enforced idleness as a penalty for maturing years is a thing of the past; as people get older they retire gently, doing a little less each year but retaining their skills and continuing to make a useful contribution to society and their community, perhaps in a teaching or advisory capacity.

And money at last lives up to its requirement as a store of value. Yes, put it under the mattress, no problem. It not only retains its value, it grows in value. For the constant aim to increase productivity ensures that the overall price level of goods and services falls as productivity increases – more and better goods tomorrow with less labour that yesterday.

Full employment opportunity coupled with locally based planning ensures that everyone is able to find work in their own community whatever its size. Physical access to work is also made easy by the compact design of communities, as exemplified particularly in the hilltowns. Within each hilltown access to offices, design studios, and factory control rooms is always within easy walking and elevator reach of one's residence, and 'commuting' time is rarely more than a pleasant five minutes' walk or elevator ride.

The production of physical goods and appliances differs from the old days when globalization was the catchword and large factories produced centrally for distribution over a wide area.

It is no longer considered efficient to move large quantities of physical goods from one part of the planet to another, and there is not the motive of profit or self-aggrandizement, nor the pool of poverty willing to work for a pittance, which previously encouraged the spread of global corporations.

Technology, designs and technical expertise are indeed developed regionally or globally for use on a wide scale to achieve economy and excellence; but designs and informational systems are then licensed in the form of computer programs for use by local businesses. Detailed programs transmitted electronically can be fed directly into automated machines for local manufacture of products moulded in 3D to the most sophisticated designs.

A typical manufacturing facility can be found in the industrial area of our local County Town. It produces a variety of kitchen appliances, such as food processors and whole-grain grinders, mainly for sale in the towns and villages of the local County. These products are all based on various well-known, world-class designs which have been licensed from one of the many specialist industrial design companies whose function is to develop new products or ideas, and continuously refine and improve existing ones.

Within the factory's translucent white walls and double-height ceiling, lit by a soft, evenly spread form of electroluminence, fully automated machines are silently filling computer-generated moulds with a liquid material based on the abundant resource of clear or pigmented water. The liquid is pumped into watertight moulds and irradiated in the mold with specific high frequency rays to alter its molecular structure, in effect permanently 'freezing' the water into a diamond-hard crystallized form.

This material has an almost infinite variety of uses in products large and small. It can be left clear for glass walls and windows where light is wanted and privacy is not required, or for other glass-like products such as elegant goblets and other items of tableware. Opaque forms of the material are obtained by including a pigmentation; this is used for virtually all large structures and buildings, as well as for manufactured goods, such as machinery, household appliances, transport vehicles and their trackways, even the translucent marble-like pathways that people walk on in the parks.

Once the 'diamond-crystal' material has been hardened, components are automatically ejected from the moulds, and by making use of the various built-in moulded connection points, they can be rapidly assembled by automatic machinery.

The whole process can be remotely monitored with the help of computers and video cameras from offices in a high gallery overlooking the central atrium. Apart from a few maintenance personnel in occasional attendance as required or on a short-shift basis, the only other signs of humanity in the factory itself might be a few curious explorers or a party of schoolchildren on an educational trip in the visitor galleries.

The manufacturing and assembly facilities, located on the lower levels below the central Atrium and the terraced housing, have direct access to the automated underground goods delivery system using the large containers of the County-wide freight system, or the smaller containers of the autodelivery system for local delivery.

The large containers, twelve feet square by twenty-four to thirty-six feet long, magnetically levitated and individually propelled by linear-induction coils, travel between communities totally underground in tunneling. They are destination-coded and can be computer-directed to any part of the County or Region. Except in the case of extra-large sized shipments, such as for a major piece of machinery, these large containers are filled with smaller containers in several modular sizes; the consolidated load travelling between Counties can then be broken down at its destination, and the smaller containers delivered locally by the autodelivery system.

There is a considerable flexibility in labour work schedules. Actual working times are arranged in several short shifts to ensure continuity of service to the customers. Individual time worked is arranged between small groups of working colleagues to suit personal convenience and the overall requirements of the business. The spirit is easy-going and relaxed; but reliability in relation to one's work commitments and colleagues is always scrupulously observed. No one is ever late in honouring a commitment, and last-minute changes are always agreed with colleagues.

Holidays too are arranged to suit mutual convenience. A few days may be taken here and there for some special personal or family occasion, and people will often take a week's break for an extended visit or a country ramble. The average annual 'long' holiday is one to two months. Even longer holidays to distant places or other planets are taken every two or three years. Another popular option is temporary job-trading; people doing similar work in different areas will trade jobs and accommodation with one another for a change of scene.

There are no 'statutory' holidays, though everyone by common consent takes several days off to celebrate the changing of the year from old to new. At this time all non-essential services shut down and everyone enjoys the holiday spirit.

The atmosphere at work is friendly and informal; yet this conceals a high standard of organization. Whether in production or services, the correct quantities of components and materials required are always on hand when they are needed; work-flow is properly organized; working conditions are pleasant. Participants in any commercial enterprise at all levels take their responsibilities to their colleagues and customers very seriously, and the highest degree of professional competence is a matter of pride and prime importance.

Every business has an Executive Supervisory Board representing the business's 'stakeholders': those who have a direct interest in its success. This includes the staff at all levels whose jobs depend on the good management of the business; the Bank responsible for the financial investment; the local community which depends on the business for its prosperity; the business's 'significant suppliers' or distributors; the consumers who use the products or services; and the local educators who see the business as a vehicle for the talents they have encouraged and developed in their students. This Executive Board oversees and monitors the firm's overall business activity, reviews performance and future trends.

Companies still have 'Managers' but they are not considered superior or privileged in any way, financially or otherwise. They simply have a role to play like everyone else, their role being to take an overall view of production and operation, and to coordinate the different functions or departments. Managers will often trade with workers in other fields, and worker-flexibility between different jobs is also encouraged. This provides the opportunity for change, and helps people understand one another's needs so that work can flow more smoothly.

Managers are also responsible for introducing improvements suggested by operatives and for the adoption of any new Standards which may be appropriate to the business. The Standards concept and the high status which it is accorded contributes significantly to the continuous improvement in design, systems and general productivity.

Research companies work constantly to improve designs and work systems, using their own in-house research, and listening both to workers and consumers. Their findings are thoroughly tested and new or improved techniques, ideas and designs are incorporated into the Regional Quality Standards Database.

Every business is required to be conversant with the latest Standards additions and amendments, and to ensure that any relevant improvements are adopted as soon as possible. It is also considered important to 'contribute to the flow', and businesses and their workers take a pride in making continuing improvements large and small in research, design, production and management methods which if found effective are then communicated to the Standards Database for additional testing and promulgation.

Every business must also produce and publish a monthly, independently audited TPA, or Total Performance Audit detailing its financial performance, together with statistics on many other factors such as customer satisfaction, response to queries, faults, quality, workplace conditions, response to and adoption of Standards improvements, and so on. The list will vary for each business. The TPA is reviewed by the Executive Supervisory Board and any shortcomings are quickly rectified.

Goodwill prevails; but the systems are in place and are strictly monitored. The Community Planning Councils provide a forum in which local business activity can be reviewed, new services can be planned and full employment ensured. This in turn guides the flow of credit into productive investment. Pay and Price Evaluation, combined with a high standard of management and pleasant working conditions ensure a stable industrial and business climate.

Designs, production systems and services are continuously improved, backed by the assistance of centralized Standards.

As a result, bankruptcies and business failures are virtually non-existent; and quite unknown is any form of industrial dissension. Everyone enjoys their work, taking a pride in excellence, and pleasure in service to their colleagues and customers. The resultant prosperity, quality of life and available leisure time in turn provide the foundation of material wellbeing allowing mankind to concentrate on artistic, intellectual, and spiritual development.

Chapter 6 – The Rewards of Leisure

In mankind's previous phase on Earth, much of the world lived in conditions of extreme poverty with little or no hope of improvement. Even in the more developed nations, unemployment, wasted talent, aggressive competition and strife occupied much energy, diverting it from more productive uses, while incompetent and often corrupt government took some 50% of the gross national product, delivering perhaps a scant 20% of consumable value. A small minority managed to accumulate great wealth, far in excess of any contribution they might make to society, but the vast majority put in long hours of hard work to satisfy the basic needs of life.

Physical sufficiency, the higher spiritual energies, and the universal spirit of cooperation now combine to provide a high standard of living with physical prosperity and an abundance of cultural and intellectual facilities, set amidst the beauties of a cleansed and refreshed environment. Against this background there is leisure time in abundance. And since leisure is not needed to recuperate from the stresses of work, competition and commuting, it can be used for more rewarding ideals and activities.

Leisure begins at home. Every home can be connected to a great web of communication offering a wealth of knowledge, exploration and entertainment.

This is the World Wide Web of old, yet much wider, much faster, even more intuitive in its search-and-find capabilities, and individual reception is optionally three-dimensional and holographic, so that armchair travel can be a truly 'live' experience.

For outdoor recreation, the countryside is ever present, with paved walks and rural pathways available for walking or cycling. In the town centres, the choice of activity is almost limitless. Around the central atrium or in the many smaller squares and courtyards you can stroll, sit, watch the world go by, read or work, attend meetings or concerts large or small, listen to or give an impromptu lecture, consult astrologers and natural therapists, learn ancient Chinese mind-control exercises, swim in one of the glassed-in tropical-garden pools set into the outside surface, or find a quiet corner in the surrounding parkland where you can sit for several hours and hardly see a soul.

In the evenings people still like to 'dress up' for one of the many musical concerts, dramas, comedies or documentary displays.

The evening outing may be preceded or followed by a more formal dinner in a pleasant setting along one of the high galleries overlooking the Central Atrium with its myriad soft lights splashing the tropical plants and trees with color. There are also some smaller, more intimate restaurants secreted in the surrounding parkland, where diners have a choice of indoor or outdoor dining.

To our readers who may be wondering if 'dining out' can be much fun when all you can eat is virtually a fruitarian diet... the answer is that only when you have tasted for yourself our fruits, nuts and grains, so much more varied and so much richer in flavour and nutrition, only then will you begin to see that even with very little preparation every meal can be a taste sensation.

And our chefs certainly know how to prepare the finest, freshest ingredients in an unending variety of ways, using subtle flavours and seasonings, drawing upon the many culinary traditions of the past or creating new taste sensations. Whether presented as a buffet display or on individual plates, dishes are always a visual delight, arranged with the utmost care and an eye for colour and texture.

Nor should it be forgotten that one of the great benefits lies in the after-effects our food doesn't have! No one ever gets up after a meal feeling over-stuffed or lethargic, nor is there the longterm damage to health once only too familiar.

Health education teaches that 99% of all illnesses suffered in the old days was caused by fats blocking the body's channels, from the larger arteries pumping blood around the heart, to the many tiny capillaries in the body such as those that serve the brain cells and which when blocked can cause a stroke or partial memory loss. As our nutritionists put it very simply: none of your bodily channels will ever get blocked by the cleansing qualities of pure fruits!

Good health is considered a pleasure to be cultivated and enjoyed, and the physical body is always maintained in top condition. The focus in the New Age is very much on spiritual development and evolution, and as people often like to observe, "the body is the vehicle for the spirit".

Though relaxed and plentiful outdoor exercise is generally preferred, there are gymnastic facilities in every town and village, where people go for a combination of exercise and physical tune-up. It is quite usual for people to look in regularly at their local Health Centre for an 'aura-scan'.

A popular alternative is a deep, relaxing manipulative massage followed by a hot steam bath and a cold dip. This not only tones up and rejuvenates the body, it also allows the expert masseur, whose art combines that of the osteopath or chiropractor, to check over the physical body for any minor dislocations, stress areas, or other abnormalities which can then be quickly rectified.

If there is any deeper unease, perhaps resulting from an unresolved fear or reaction to some traumatic past event, a Healer similar in qualifications and function to the ancient Egyptian Seer Priests will look into the patient's personality and history for the original cause. Quite often the remedy will involve reviewing one's personal Akashic Records then going back under hypnosis to a specific place and time which the Healer has indicated in order to re-live some inappropriate action, confront it, and absorb it, thus nullifying its after-effects.

On the rare occasions where there is some physical problem with the body, herbal remedies will be used, or treatment in which a form of magnetic energy is directed to the affected area. Surgery, that is to say physical operations on the bodily flesh, is no longer practiced.

While organized games are still popular, competitive sport is not played quite the way it used to be. People play purely for pleasure, and games van often seem somewhat chaotic since good nature and having fun take precedence over tiresome rules and there is less inherent desire to compete.

With short and flexible working times there is plenty of opportunity for every kind of leisure pursuit either day-by-day or as part of a longer holiday break.

There are so many ways of taking a holiday; many people simply travel around on the fully integrated transit systems, usually taking the slow Rural Lines as much as possible. One can travel to a planned route, or simply 'browse the system', taking whatever line and whatever direction looks appealing!

On all transit vehicles it is possible to check accommodation at the next stop on the computer screen available to each individual seat; databases can be readily accessed giving descriptions and illustrations of local accommodation options, as well as descriptions of the surrounding area and things to see. Reservations are confirmed instantly through the computer terminal. Paying a deposit on a booking is unheard-of; but it is equally unheard-of to make any kind of a reservation whether for transport, restaurant, hotel or whatever, then not turn up! Notice of cancellation is always meticulously given, together with an explanation and a sincere apology, when reservations cannot be honoured.

Popular for shorter holidays, especially with families, are the Country Resorts of which there are quite a few in the outlying wilderness areas of every County, located in various scenic spots such as lakesides, large forest clearings or mountain areas. They are always located on, or within a short walk of one of the Rural Lines.

A typical resort might be a low semi-circular building in three sloping terraces of self-contained holiday apartments, with a green lawn, perhaps, sloping gently down to the lake in front. A café/restaurant serves the residents and passing walkers.

Life here is peaceful and relaxing, the days' activities consisting of mountain climbing or forest walking, perhaps returning tired and hungry – though bodily toned-up and spiritually refreshed – by the Rural Line transit. Early morning swims in the lakes are also popular, perhaps followed by a brisk half-hour walk before breakfast.

Despite the low profile of resort buildings and the relaxed, 'communing-with-nature' pleasures enjoyed by their visitors, the accommodations would be considered luxurious by old standards. Each apartment is a tastefully furnished suite, comprehensively equipped and immaculately maintained, fronted by its own private terrace-balcony. This is no exception but quite normal given the greater prosperity, and affordable for everyone, large families included.

Here, one can 'stay put' for a couple of relaxing weeks, or make a tour of several resorts. Advance booking is simple by computer, and luggage can be sent forward by the autodelivery system so that one can enjoy an unencumbered walk to the next resort along the well marked woodland trails.

One very popular recreation is known as the 'wilderness experience'. The typical County consists of its County Town at the hub, with its dependent towns, villages and neighbourhoods surrounding and linked to it, the density gradually becoming thinner and the character more 'laid-back' and rural, the farther one gets from the Centre.

Though the County is adequately spread to allow plenty of natural environment between habitation areas, it is nonetheless relatively compact overall. Between Counties, there is always a substantial area of wilderness. This gives identity to the County, and provides breathing space for Nature, as well as recreational space for those seeking solitude.

The 'wilderness experience' gives humans a chance to commune intimately with Nature in all her aspects. This was of course a fairly common practice in the old days, but today 'communion with Nature' takes on a different, and a much deeper significance. It is now possible to communicate with animals, birds, even trees and plants on the higher, spiritual level. This is partly an aspect of the general awareness that all Creation is One – this being understood as a very practical fact, not a matter of high-sounding words!

People are fully aware that they as individuals are an integral part of the whole of Creation, an attitude which makes it very easy to identify 'self' with every aspect of the natural surroundings. In the case of animals and birds, communication can be more direct; this is speech on a mental level and can reach considerable depths of mutual understanding particularly through those humans willing to give of their time and patience.

Even for ordinary walkers and hikers it is quite common for animals and humans to exchange greetings and routine information on such topics as the weather or the condition of the trail. Animals may also approach humans for help, perhaps to remove a stone lodged in a hoof or a thorn in the side. On the rare occasion when a walker or climber may have a serious physical accident it would be quite normal for animals to come instinctively to the rescue, to run for help or to keep an injured body warm while waiting for the rescue party.

The wilderness is wilderness. So the expression goes, and although there are cleared trails, signs put out where necessary, and small hospitality cabins provided, these intrusions are all kept very rustic in character, designed and located to minimize their impact on the natural scene. This is done out of respect for Nature, and for the humans too, for those enjoying the spirit and atmosphere of the wilderness will not want to be confronted at every turn by human artifacts!

The small hospitality cabins are freely available for individual or family use. If you're carrying a 'personal communicator' you can check a map of the area, with red or green spots indicating cabins that are free or occupied. Otherwise you take pot luck! If you want a cabin and find a free one, it's yours, for a day or a week. There is only one important rule, unfailingly observed: always leave the cabin clean and tidy.

The cabins are well spaced out to maintain the feeling of human isolation and wilderness communication, though the occupants are generally happy to welcome passers-by for refreshment and conversation.

Hospitality is a great tradition; its arts are even taught in schools! The two main rules of hospitality are first that the host should offer it freely, generously and with love; the second is that the guest should never abuse the privilege. As the saying goes, "always leave your host wishing you had stayed longer!"

The 'wilderness experience' provides an opportunity for self-refreshment and a mutually enriching communion with the 'wildlife'. But it is also practiced more seriously as a unification of self with the whole of creation, and as such it is seen as an important contribution to the individual's training and evolutionary progress.

For a change of setting and tempo another popular option is a cruise in one of the large circular air-cruise ships which travel silently around the planet, presenting their passengers with a new and different scene every day.

These air-borne cruise ships have exterior-facing suites right around the outer perimeter. For their 'ports of call' they are capable of floating offshore on water or alighting on dry land, allowing them to visit remoter areas where there is no existing accommodation.

And for 'something completely different' the more adventurous can travel in the interplanetary spaceships to see different ways of life on other planets. These spaceships depart from several Interplanetary Ports around the globe, directly connected to the nearest Regional Capital and thence, via the Inter-County grid, to every County Town.

Learning is also considered a leisure activity. Everyone enjoys their work, as well as the pleasurable sensation of contributing to the society of which they are a part. Work is there for everyone, it is productive and pleasant. There is thus an ever-present incentive to gain and improve skills, to develop talents to the full, and this is undertaken at all ages with considerable enthusiasm.

Even in their later years people do not retire, they simply work shorter hours as they get older and continue to pursue their educational interests, to improve their skills or keep up with the latest technological developments.

The needs of knowledge are richly provided for in the extensive Halls of Learning complete with libraries and archives. The Akashic Records can also be accessed to delve into history, or to explore the remoter corners of Earth or other planets through the medium of multi-dimensional 'virtual reality'.

Learning is a pleasure, an on-going process that starts early and never really finishes, as youngsters embark on the great journey of knowledge, and people of all ages expand their skills or merely seek to satisfy their insatiable curiosity.

Humanity is no longer engaged in strife and conflict, no longer embroiled in battles for personal prestige or national supremacy. The motivations of individual enterprise, initiative, growth and development remain as strong as ever; indeed these features are enhanced by the pleasure and satisfaction of their own rewards. But they are tempered by the limitation of respect for others; growth comes through collaboration with others, not at the expense of others.

With conflict replaced by collaboration, energies find new directions: in culture, beauty, creativity, the arts, nature, and the simple pleasures of friends and community. When a rock is removed revealing a plant struggling for growth, that plant will suddenly flourish and blossom.

So with humanity. When the rock of conflict is removed, spiritual and intellectual growth can begin, destined to reach new heights of intellectual, cultural and spiritual development.

So I thank you for taking this Journey with me. I hope that it will give you both inspiration and a vision which will help bring you to this New Time. For although it already exists, the distance you will need to travel to reach it is in your hands.

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