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Brian made a circling motion with his hand. "This brings me back, David, to your original question concerning the differences between myself and various Native groups. Although I admire the efforts of those individuals who are trying to revive indigenous sciences, and while I have no doubt about the wisdom inherent in those sciences, I feel their work is misdirected in several respects.

"First of all, even if these people are successful in their project, nevertheless, as I indicated to you earlier, David, I believe there are very important limitations concerning the extent to which those sciences can help us uncover the full potential of spiritual nature. Knowing the sciences that deal with the spirit and power realms associated with the minerals, plants, animals, and so on, of Mother Earth will not permit us, I believe, to fully realize our true spiritual identity, nor will this kind of wisdom unlock the secrets of our essential capacity.

"Secondly, almost every religious or spiritual community is very resistant to recognizing, understanding and appreciating the historical fact that the formal manner through which spirituality manifests itself changes over time. These formal aspects go through a series of stages: from appearing, to ascending, to declining, and, sometimes, to disappearing completely.

"The Essence of spirituality is always what that Reality is, but the modalities of outward expression change. These outward modalities serve a purpose and are not incidental, but the historical and social circumstances that they were intended to address change, and a new, formal mode of manifestation comes to minister to those changes.

"The essential nature behind these formal changes is one, but people come to identify with the form and begin to assume that Essence must, of metaphysical necessity, be limited to that form. Thus, formal differences come into conflict with one another, each believing it alone gives expression to, embodies and serves the essential truth.

"People tend to forget that the whole process of transition in formal characteristics itself is a manifestation of Essence. There are Divine reasons for this history of transition in formal expressions of spirituality.

"One makes a mistake when one tries to hang on to the form and, in the process, one fails to recognize the new form or forms through which Essence is being manifested and to which Essence is calling peoples of ensuing generations. Having said this, however, one should not construe what is being said to mean that everything which purports to be such a new modality of the expression of Essence is what it claims to be.

"The individual must exercise discretion and try to discern the real from the counterfeit. Nonetheless, one also needs to understand there can be more than one genuine currency in circulation that is backed up by the spiritual equivalent of a gold standard capable of ensuring the redeemable value of any of these genuine currencies.

"Many Native traditions constitute genuine forms of spirituality and, as such, they assume a rightful place among a number of other genuine forms of spirituality, but, in my opinion, these Native forms, like a number of other spiritual traditions both now and in the past, are, and have been for some time, on the downward slope of their life-cycles. Yet, at the same time, as long as these forms of spirituality retain their correct, original forms, various genuine modalities of Native spirituality always will constitute legal spiritual tender which will be honored by the Exchequer of the Central Bank.

"Notwithstanding the foregoing remarks, I believe that trying to rejuvenate forms of spirituality which are in the last stages of their life-cycle is like trying to make an old man young again. Both swim against an extremely strong current that has other destinations and priorities in mind.

"A third reason behind my tempered enthusiasm for the attempt of some people to revive certain forms of Native spirituality is that I feel there are, currently, a great many forces, both internal to Native communities, as well as external to those communities, which are actively aligned in opposition to the successful completion of these attempts to revive Native spiritualities to their original grandeur. Native spirituality has not gone into decline because there is something that is necessarily inherently wrong with indigenous sciences per se. Rather, there is a powerful array of political, religious, historical, educational, social, economic, technological and environmental forces which have effectively marginalized, if not destroyed, the teaching, learning and practice of many aspects of Native spirituality.

"As a result, in many respects, I believe indigenous sciences are a spent force as far as their capacity is concerned to be a major factor shaping the unfolding of events in North America." When he said the word "major", his voice, eyes and body all gave stress to the word.

As a sort of addendum to his body language, he said: "The embers of Native spirituality may continue to glow and may, from time to time, flare up a little. Nevertheless, I do not believe these fires, except in isolated cases, will be either sustainable or of central importance, although they may continue to serve as a source of important kinds of wisdom and inspiration for some people."

A smile appeared on Brian's face. The smile, together with the rest of his facial expression, conveyed a sense of irony.

"You know, David," he said, as he scratched his arm, "my use of the term 'fires' in this context is quite interesting. It has a lot of significance and resonance within Native spirituality, especially given the nature of what I'm talking about."

Brian ran both of his hands through his hair and, then, stretched. When he was done, he began again. "There are Native prophecies and legends that speak of the lighting of the seventh fire. Among other things, this fire symbolizes the advent of a future time in which certain Natives and non-Natives will join together to help protect Mother Earth, as well as to help inaugurate a period of spiritual purification."

He smiled again. "I often am reminded of these prophecies by people from within the Native community. These prophecies are offered as rebuttal to my, shall we say, pessimistic views concerning the revival of indigenous sciences.

"As I have explained to people in the Native community on many occasions, I also believe in the prophecies and legends about which they speak. However, unlike many people in the Native community, I do not automatically assume that the coming together of Natives and non-Natives at the time of the seventh fire will be under the banner of some form of Native spirituality.

"In fact, the details of the coming transformation are entirely absent from most of the Native prophecies and legends with which I am familiar. The prophecies of the elders say that certain events will happen and they describe some of the surrounding circumstances, but much is missing from those accounts.

"The elders may have known more - and for reasons best known to themselves - chose not to speak about what they knew. On the other hand, their knowledge of these future events only may have gone up to a certain point, and beyond that they did not know and, therefore, could not say anymore than they did. Very few individuals living today know which is the case.

"I believe there are good, decent, humble, courageous, compassionate, sincere, committed, generous, kind, tolerant, patient, forgiving and loving people among Native peoples. I believe there are people with similar qualities among non-Natives.

"I believe these kinds of individual will, at the appropriate time, all seek one another out, as well as be brought into contact with one another. However, the spiritual forces which will bring these respective peoples together in order to work in harmony for a common cause are, for the most part, I believe, hidden from these groups at the present time.

"People, both Native as well as non-Native, often tend to interpret prophecies according to their own interests and desires. We tend to read into, and read out of, such prophecies whatever is consistent with, or inconsistent with, our particular beliefs, values and aspirations.

"A prophecy has its own reality and truth. On the one hand, our task is to discover that reality and truth. On the other hand, once discovered, this reality and truth should be incorporated into the way we live our lives.

"My counsel to people in the Native community, my counsel to people in the non-Native community, has been that one should not discontinue, prematurely, one's search for the truth and reality of things. Unfortunately, many of us often act as if we have arrived at journey's end when such is not the case.

"Due to the foregoing ideas, some people in the Native community have interpreted my remarks as an attack on Native spirituality. They believe I have turned my back on my spiritual tradition. They feel I have allowed myself to be corrupted by white, western influences, and, as a result, some of them refer to me as an 'apple'.

"The odd thing in all of this name-calling and finger-pointing is that I've never advocated Native people should stop practicing or pursuing our spiritual traditions. Moreover, I've never recommended that Native people should embrace Christianity. In fact, I believe what is coming at the time of the seventh fire is going to be as much a surprise to many Christians as it is to Native peoples and to other spiritual traditions as well."

Brian extended his arms out to the sides, elbows bent, palms up, and shrugged slightly, as if to say: 'what's a body to do?' His expression changed quickly to one of apology, as he folded his arms across his lower chest area. "Sorry, David," he said, "I really hadn't intended for things to go on quite so long, but once I got started, one thing sort of naturally led to another. You've been very patient."

I was silent for a bit longer. Brian had given me a lot to think about, and I wasn't going to be able to digest it all today.

In my mind, I began to go back over some of what he had said. Suddenly, I realized I had left Brian's apology hanging without any sort of response. This prompted an apology of my own. "Quite frankly, Brian, your answer to my question has intrigued me to such an extent that I got caught up in thinking about it and forgot to tell you that you really have nothing for which to apologize."

I rubbed the fingers of my hand across my forehead a few times. "Interestingly enough, irrespective of whatever other effect your explanation may, or may not, have on me in the future, there is one effect it already has had which, for the most part, has little to do with the original question you were addressing."

Looking at Brian in a very direct manner, I said: "This may be of absolutely no use to you, Brian, but I believe you are innocent of the crime for which you were convicted." My feeling was not rooted in the facts of his case, but in the fact of the man before me.

I had an intuitive, gut feeling about him. I only had been interacting with him for a short while, and, consequently, my observations of his words, attitudes and behaviors were a very limited sampling of his life. Therefore, I was surprised to find within me such a strong feeling concerning his innocence.

If my relationship with Brian were a professional one, then, out of commitment to the principles of sound professionalism, I probably would have resisted my feelings more strenuously. But, my relationship wasn't a professional one, so I went with my feelings.

As a psychologist, I knew very well how much feelings could cloud judgement and distort perception. Sometimes, however, feelings see more clearly, and deeply, than does reason. I believed this was one of those times.

Brian extended a smile of gratitude and appreciation to me. Making a gesture with his head which alluded to the surrounding walls, he said: "As far as getting me out of here, you're right, David, your belief in my innocence is likely to be quite useless. Yet, your words do a lot for my inner sense of freedom, and such freedom is a precious commodity within prison."

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