After pausing for a minute to allow me to digest what he had just explained, Kyran went on, “And when we have all of these three qualities – the ability to think, to question, and to appreciate – what will emerge naturally is freedom, which empowers us to act as we wish.”

“Can’t animals do what they want?” I asked.

“No, animals don’t have this privilege because they are programmed to be controlled by the Creator,” he answered.

“Then why do some animals harm others and kill them for food?” I asked.

“Animals don’t act with consciousness,” Kyran answered. “They live their lives driven by their instincts, like a built-in program that determines their actions and their feelings. In any given situation, they can only react as they have been programmed to do, and they cannot change this.”

“Some of their actions may seem bad in your eyes, but actually they only comply to the process they have been pre-programmed to act on. They hunt for food because they have been programmed that way. Hunting is a natural act for them, which, in terms of energy, doesn’t negatively impact the mechanism of the world because they aren’t emitting any negative energy. So, this instinct is the reason why they don’t need to have the ability to think, to question, and to appreciate,” Kyran explained.

“What about the people on Tuengra, do they have freedom?” I asked.

“As I’ve already mentioned, Tuengra’s electromagnetic field is four times stronger than that of Gaia. Hence, we operate under different conditions. People on this planet are free; they are able to think, question, and appreciate as well. But because they have more knowledge, they are more intelligent. Being more intelligent, they can foresee the effects of their actions in a much deeper way,” Kyran said.

“For example, people on this planet don’t strive to make technological inventions with the goal of making their life easier, except for tools that make their work more effective, like knives, hoes, shovels, or spoons. It’s not that they can’t invent new things, but if an invention could cause even a small problem, they wouldn’t make it. For instance, they wouldn’t build a motor vehicle because this would hurt both ourselves and the environment,” he went on.

“Hurt ourselves? How can this affect us?” I asked.

“When you use a motor vehicle to travel faster, you wouldn’t be using the natural strength of your body. Gradually, your body would become weaker, and that’s why you are less athletic than us,” Kyran answered.

“But wouldn’t this give us more free time to do other work more efficiently? For example, if a faster way of transportation allows us to commute to work in half an hour, instead of half a day, wouldn’t that be useful?” I asked, openly expressing my opinion.

“Living a slow life will lengthen our life, while living fast will shorten it,” Kyran replied. “There’s no need to hurry in our life, and we don’t need to be rushing all the time. We don’t need to compete with time because no one wants time to pass any faster. Your freedom has led you to the situation that you now have today. However, the real reason for this lifestyle is rooted in fear. You are afraid of being at a disadvantage, of getting less than others, of being late for everything, and so on. That’s why you always create new problems.”

“Here on Tuengra, everyone can do what they love and what they want,” Kyran went on. “No one has ever been forced to work, so they all do their work voluntarily.”

“If you change the way you think about freedom, your physical form will soon change as well.”

“Perhaps, this is a good time to take a break and enjoy some fruits?” Kyran said while handing me an apple.

“Thank you,” I said.

“What you said is true, Kyran,” I said to him between bites. “We eat fruits only as a supplementary food. I’m so full that I can only eat one for now. From my next meal onwards, I will try to change my dietary habit.”

“Every day, you use up a bit of your life energy,” he replied. “You get exhausted very easily and become weak after you have used up your energy. Unlike you, the people here don’t get fatigued so quickly, and they don’t need to regain their energy immediately, even when they have worked very hard.”

Kyran then suddenly changed the subject and said: “So, Tim, today you will finally see our city. I will go with you two, since I have several new knives I want to bring to the market.”

“Hurrah! Grandpa is coming with us,” shouted Koharu.

“Sounds great, I’m very excited to see your city,” I said.

“Let’s prepare for our trip. We should start off soon so that we can arrive a bit earlier,” Kyran suggested.

I didn’t feel anxious anymore because I had learned so many things. I felt I had learned more in one day than in the previous thirty years of my life. When I thought about it, all the knowledge that I had acquired in my life only served me adequately to find a job and earn a living. It wasn’t the kind of knowledge that brought me happiness. Now I have discovered that the only thing that I, and perhaps everyone on earth, really need is happiness. But happiness doesn’t always mean the same thing for everyone. All of us have different goals in life. Some people believe that owning a house, or a car, and achieving economic stability will make them happy. Others might say they would be happy pursuing their careers or other interests. Everyone is still chasing happiness, but it seems that very few people have found true happiness yet.

I also realised that this place provided a standard of living that could make us truly happy. Nobody seemed to have to fight for anything. Everything looked so simple and nothing looked complicated. I thought to myself that this was the life I had always longed for, a life without worry, without fear, and without the need for security.