There seems accordingly to be no doubt that telekinesis (the control of inanimate objects by thought) does frequently occur. But how are we to reconcile this conclusion with centuries of human experience of the obdurate intractability of certain material objects, in particular buttered toast. As the old poem says:
I never had a piece of toast,
Particularly tall and wide,
But fell upon the sanded floor,
And always on the buttered side.
The explanation undoubtedly lies in Dr. Rhine's apparatus. It will not have escaped the incisive intelligence of my readers that the total of the numbers of the opposite sides of the two dice is also 7. It is now clear that the apparent success of the sub ject's will is totally an abject failure: THE SIDES ON WHICH HE WAS CONCENTRATING ARE ACTUALLY UNDERNEATH.
It is not however necessary to conclude that material objects are activated by a malign intelligence. Indeed the apparent anomaly we had discovered provides us with a valuable clue to the mode of operation of the telekinetic faculty. Its effect is appar ently to increase the gravitational inertia, or weight of the object concentrated upon. Thus, the butter on the toast, which has, for the entire period of its fall, been assailed by the whole power of the human mind, in agonized concentration, acquires e nough extra weight to turn the piece completely round in mid-air. I need hardly add that the same force acting on molecules of water easily explains the delay in the boiling of a watched pot.
DR. E.E.SMITH
WAS SOMETHING OF A MYTH
DISILLUSIONMENT IMPENDS
AFTER 'CHILDREN OF THE LENS'
Data entry and page scans provided by Judy Bemis
Data entry by Judy Bemis
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