* * * * *
Telegram from Dr. Karl Thurn, Professor of Psychology at Laibach
University, to Professor Albrecht Aigen, in care of The Mathematical
Institute at Bozen:
Take tapes which produced answers Schweeringen predicted. Run them
through computer when he knows nothing of it. Wire result.
Thurn.
* * * * *
Telegram. Professor Albrecht Aigen, at The Mathematical Institute in
Bozen, to Dr. Karl Thurn, University of Laibach.
How did you know? The tapes do not give the same answers when run
through the computer without Schweeringen's knowledge. The only possible
answer is that the computer sometimes errs to match his predictions. But
this is more impossible than precognition. This is beyond the
conceivable. It cannot be! What now?
Aigen.
* * * * *
Telegram from Dr. Karl Thurn, University of Laibach, to Professor
Albrecht Aigen, care Mathematical Institute, Bozen.
Naturally I suspect psi. He belongs with my rat and she-dog. Try to
arrange it.
Thurn.
* * * * *
Telegram from Professor Albrecht Aigen, Mathematical Institute, Bozen,
to Dr. Karl Thurn, University of Laibach.
Schweeringen refuses further tests. Fears proof he causes malfunctioning
of computer will cause unemployment here and may destroy all hope of
hoped-for career in mathematics.
Aigen.
* * * * *
Telegram from Professor Albrecht Aigen, at Mathematical Institute, to
Dr. Karl Thurn, University of Laibach.
Terrible news. Riding bus to Institute this morning, Schweeringen was
killed when bus was involved in accident.
Aigen.
* * * * *
Telegram from Dr. Karl Thurn, University of Laibach, to Professor
Albrecht Aigen, care Mathematical Institute, Bozen.
Deeply regret death Schweeringen. When you come here please try to bring
all known family history. Psi ability sometimes inherited. Could be
tie-in his father's execution and use of psi ability.
Thurn.
* * * * *
Letter from Professor Albrecht Aigen, at Brunn University, to Dr. Karl
Thurn, University of Laibach.
My dear Karl:
I have first to thank you for your warm welcome and to express my
gratitude for your attention while I was your guest. Since my return I
have written many inquiries about Schweeringen's father. There are so
far no replies, but I have some hope that people who will not tell of
their own experiences may tell about someone else--especially someone
now dead. This may be a useful device to get at least some information
from people who so far have refused any. Naturally I will pass on to you
anything I learn.
I try to work again upon the task assigned me--to investigate the rise
and power of The Leader. I find it hard to concentrate. My mind goes
back to your laboratory. I am deeply shaken by my experience there. I
had thought nothing could be more bewildering than my own work.
Consider: Today I received a letter in which a man tells me amazedly of
the life he led in a slave-labor camp during the time of The Leader's
rule. He describes the attempt of another prisoner to organize a revolt
of the prisoners. While he spoke of the brutality of the guards and the
intolerably hard labor and the deliberately insufficient food, they
cheered him. But when he accused The Leader of having ordered these
things--the prisoners fell upon him with cries of fury. They killed him.
I had this information verified. It was true.
I cannot hope for a sane explanation of such things. But a sane
explanation for my experience seems even less probable. I am impressed
by your rat who levitates crumbs of cheese. But I am appalled; I am
horrified; I am stupefied by what I did! You asked me to wait for you in
a certain laboratory beyond a door. I entered. I saw a small, fat, mangy
she-dog in a dog-run. She looked at me and wagged her tail. I thereupon
went to the other end of the laboratory, opened a box, and took out a
handful of strange objects you later told me are sweetmeats to a dog. I
gave them to the animal.
Why did I do it? How was it that I went directly to a box of which I
knew nothing, opened it as a matter of course, and took out objects I
did not even recognize, to give them to that unpleasant small beast? How
did I know where to go? Why did I go? Why should I give those
then-meaningless objects to the dog? It is as if I were enchanted!
You say that it is a psi phenomenon. The rat causes small objects to
move. The dog, you say, causes persons to give it canine candy. I revolt
against the conclusion, which I cannot reason away. If you are right, we
are at the mercy of our domestic animals! Dog-lovers are not people who
love dogs, but people who are enslaved by dogs. Cat-lovers are merely
people who have been seized upon by cats to support and pet and cater
to them. This is intolerable! I shall fear all pets from now on! I throw
myself back into my own work to avoid thinking of it. I--
* * *
Later. I did not mail this letter because an appalling idea occurred to
me. This could bear upon my investigation! Do you think The Leader--No!
It could not be! It would be madness....
* * * * *
Extract from a letter from Dr. Karl Thurn to Professor Albrecht Aigen.
... I deplore your reaction. It has the emotional quality of a reaction
to witchcraft or magic, but psi is not witchcraft. It is a natural
force. No natural force is either nonexistent or irresistible. No
natural force is invariably effective. Psi is not irresistible under all
circumstances. It is not always effective. My rat cannot levitate
cheese-crumbs weighing more than 1.7 grams. My she-dog could not make
you give her dog-candy once you were on guard. When you went again into
the laboratory she looked at you and wagged her tail as before. You say
that you thought of the box and of opening it, but you did not. It was
not even an effort of will to refrain.
A lesser will or a lower grade of personality cannot overwhelm a greater
one. Not ever! Lesser beings can only urge. The astrologers used to say
that the stars incline, but they do not compel. The same can be said of
psi--or of magnetism or gravitation or what you will. Schweeringen could
not make the computer err when it had to err too egregiously. A greater
psi ability was needed than he had. A greater psi power than was
available would have been needed to make you give the dog candy, once
you were warned.
I do not apply these statements to your so-called appalling idea. I
carefully refrain from doing so. It is your research, not mine....
* * * * *
Extract from letter to Professor Albrecht Aigen from the Herr Friedrich
Holm, supervisor of electrical maintenance, municipal electrical
service, Untersberg.
Herr Professor:
You have written to ask if I knew a certain Herr Schweeringen, attached
to The Leader's personal staff during his regime. I did know such a
person. I was then in charge of electrical maintenance in The Leader's
various residences. Herr Schweeringen was officially one of The Leader's
secretaries, but his actual task was to make predictions for The Leader,
like a soothsayer or a medium. He had a very remarkable gift. There were
times when it was especially needful that there be no electrical
failures--when The Leader was to be in residence, for example. On such
occasions it was my custom to ask Herr Schweeringen if there was apt to
be any failure of apparatus under my care. At least three times he told
me yes. In one case it was an elevator, in another refrigeration, in a
third a fuse would blow during a State dinner.
I overhauled the elevator, but it failed nevertheless. I replaced the
refrigeration motor, and the new motor failed. In the third case I
changed the fuse to a new and tested one, and then placed a new, fused
line around the fuse Herr Schweeringen had said would blow, and placed a
workman beside it. When the fuse did blow as predicted, my workman
instantly closed the extra-line switch, so that the lights of the State
dinner barely flickered. But I shudder when I think of the result if
Herr Schweeringen had not warned me.
He was executed a few days before the period of confusion began, which
ended as everyone knows. I do not know the reason for his execution. It
was said, however, that The Leader executed him personally. This, Herr
Professor, is all that I know of the matter.