Desempeños en habilidades cognitivas y sociales

close to me. His father said it was the first time his baby had kissed anyone.

'Notice how Karma worked in this case,' Daskalos said in concluding his story. 'He once shouted at me that I was not a Christian and ordered his men to kill me. In this life I assumed part of his Karma, I cured him and became his Godfather in Christ.'

'Some poetic justice!' I exclaimed.

'You bear the Karma of your fellow man only when you want to,' Daskalos repeated.

Then in his characteristic manner Daskalos began to recount another experience he had had as an illustration on how a master can assume the Karma of another.

'Six years ago a relative of mine was to have his hand amputated. He had a wife and four children. Just before he was about to have the operation I experienced a strange pain in my arm. Theophanis, who was in Paphos, felt my pain, got into his car and came to see me. Again I had gangrene, this time in my hand. Following the blood tests the doctor concluded that it had to be cut. Theophanis left his job and sat by my bedside day and night. I remember one day, when the wife of the British High Commissioner was at my house (she used to come because of the case of one of her relatives), and while I was lying in my bed, there was a knock on the door. A Turkish woman came dragging in her body, she could not walk properly. She said, "I heard Spyro Efendi [master in Turkish] very sick and came here to have him cure me before he dies." They tried to send her away but when I was told about it I asked them to let her in. She climbed the steps with difficulty and came to my room. I put my hand over her and asked her to stand up and walk. She did as I told her and started walking upright. "Efendi," she said, "now I am fine. Now you can die if you wish," ' and Daskalos roared with laughter as he was reminiscing over the incident.

'As soon as the Turkish woman left,' Daskalos continued, 'I asked Theophanis to cover my hand with the white sheet. Then I placed the good hand over the sick and began my own cure. First I prayed to the Logos. Then I kept passing the good hand over the sick one, over and over.' Daskalos demonstrated to us

how he did it by passing his left hand over his right hand. i kept dematerializing and rematerializing tissue after tissue until I created an entirely new hand. Then I removed the sheet and showed the hand to Theophanis. My hand was completely cured. Theophanis began to cry, he knelt down and kissed my arm. The next morning the doctor came. He looked at my hand and shook his head. "You've done it again," he said, not knowing what to make of me. My hand was not cut. The Karma had been paid off and my relative's arm was saved.'

After Daskalos finished telling us these stories he mentioned that he was planning to take up another Karma that may cost his life. I protested. He said to me, 'Were you to know who that person is, you would understand. I'll tell you later,' he said, inferring that he did not wish to talk to me about it in front of the others.

We stood up to leave, thanked Daskalos for the lesson, and began walking toward the door. As we were coming out he asked me to stay behind because he had something to tell me. I did. The others were already in the car waiting for me. Daskalos said the person he was talking about was his son-in- law. The doctors discovered a liver ailment that could cost his life. His son-in-law, Daskalos went on, got this illness from a friend of his. This friend, who was living in London, called him on the phone and begged him to help him because he was having a serious liver disease. His son-in-law, Daskalos said, told his friend reassuringly on the phone, 'Don't worry. We'll do everything we can to save you and if we can't, then I'll take up your Karma!'

'I was listening to their conversation,' Daskalos said, 'and when I heard him say this I yelled at him to shut up but it was too late. Now do you realize,' Daskalos continued, 'why I must take up his Karma? I can't allow my daughter to become a widow so young and let my grandchildren become orphans. My son-in-law is thirty-six years old. I am sixty-six. It makes more sense that I go should there be a choice.' Daskalos looked sad at the prospect of seeing his daughter a widow. He said he had already begun the prayers in the Sanctum.

'Hopefully,' he continued, 'Yohannan will take up this burden and I won't have to go as yet.' Then Daskalos implored me not to mention anything to Iacovos lest he try to stop me by

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