Page #58
Q: But it is very hard to transmit, right?
MA: Mostly. Mother to unborn infant, heterosexual sex, homosexual sex, blood transfusions and needle sticks are avenues for transmission - but on balance you would have to say that outside the human body it is a very fragile bug. However once it gains entry to the human body, via any means, it is all but invincible.
If you think of the thin layer of atmosphere that protects the earth and keeps us from looking like the moon - the human immune system is very much akin to that layer.
Were it not for that immune system we would all be "bubble boys" needing an artificial system of protection to keep the world from killing us. There are a multitude of bugs and fungi that would kill us very rapidly without that internal system of defense.
And therein lies the dilemma. HIV lives to destroy that system.
Q: Why can't we kill it?
MA: Think of all the changes that have occurred in science and medicine since 1980. Yet HIV remains untouched. If you have enough resources then you can afford treatment to greatly prolong your life - however the virus remains undefeated - only waiting.
Q: But can't we eventually find a way to kill it?
MA: Perhaps if there were time. Child do not underestimate this virus. Having obtained a foothold in our species it used air travel to gain access to the developed world. In this continent it traveled in the underworld of gay sex to spread from East to West.
Then again using air travel it continued in its march to geographical saturation until it now resides in over 30 million bodies - in every corner of the globe. Think of those 30 million poor souls as independent laboratories, each producing uncountable reproductions and mutations daily - with only one goal.
Q: And what would that goal be?
MA: To break out.
Q: You mean to be more virulent, don't you?
MA: Yes, it has only one purpose, only one drive and only one effect - it kills human beings.
This bit of malevolent RNA has now colonized the planet earth and is working on a scale that you cannot imagine to move from host to host more efficiently. As it now exists, it is very difficult for it to pass from host to host. That being so, any mutation that allows it more access to a wider number of carriers will be highly beneficial to the organism and its relentless attack on our species.
Q: I can understand that. But it has not evolved in that arena yet, why do you believe that there is a likelihood of it becoming more transmittable?
MA: There are really not that many potential outcomes.
1. We find a way to kill it.
2. It continues to be a manageable chronic illness.
3. It becomes more virulent.
Page #59
Q: Yes but that has always been the situation. Why now would it change?
MA: Oh there is that question isn't there. I have spent the last few years teaching you the very best science and understanding that we have on this subject and now we come to a departure in that protocol. Are you certain you would like to go in that direction?
Q: I have worked for a long time, changed the direction of career and will forever be incomplete if I do not. So the short answer is yes.
MA: Then perhaps we better have a cocktail.
Q: Thought you would never ask....
Mother Abigail set about to make our favorite afternoon delights. Being that it is winter I prefer Crown on the rocks and MA normally has Frangelico and tea.
I have been building to this conversation for the last two days and now I feel we are about to go into the arena that MA has, thus far, excluded me from.
The afternoon has drifted away but the fire is warm and I yearn to be back in that odd place that I drift into when she is so spellbinding with her discussion.
MA: One thing before we continue. You need to draw a line between our prior conversations and this one. All the information and discussion prior to this has been as accurate and documented as is humanly possible. There are things that could change tomorrow, but I have tried to be fair and scientific in my presentations to you. Do you understand that?
Q: Sure MA, I will do just as you ask but I believe that everyone knows by now that what your thesis is well founded in science and I have never had one person dispute the data that you have laid out.
But it is going to be different now isn't it?
MA: Yes, very different.
Q: Good.
Q: You see things don't you?
MA: No. I simply have hunches, premonitions and occasionally I know about future events. "See" is the wrong verb, feel would be closer to the truth.
Q: Did you "know" about SARS?
MA: I would say it was a very strong premonition. I am always watching for outbreaks and when I heard the first little blip about the "unknown pneumonia" in China it gave me that feeling that this was serious and would grow to be dangerous. "Knowing" is a bit different.
Q: Are you ever wrong?