Interplanetary voyages -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space and time -- Fiction
"I don't believe so," said Clawly slowly. "His precautions were
thorough. Moreover, it wouldn't fit with the reluctance of the dreamers
to describe their nightmares."
"Also," Tempelmar continued, "we still aren't a step nearer the
underlying cause of the phenomenon. It might be anything--for instance,
some unpredictable physiological effect of subtronic power, since it
came into use about thirty years ago."
"Precisely," said Clawly. "And so for the present we'll leave it
at that--vastly more frequent nightmares with strangely similar
landscapes, cause unknown--while I"--he again gauged the position of
the dawn-line--"while I hurry on to those matters which I consider the
core of our case: the incidence of cryptic amnesia and delusions of
nonrecognition. The latter first."
Again Conjerly seemed about to interrupt, and again something stopped
him. Clawly got the impression it was a slight deterring movement from
Tempelmar.
He touched the box. Some hundreds of yellow dots appeared on the World
Map, a considerable portion of them in close clusters of two and three.
He said, "This time, remember, we can't go back any fifty years. These
are such recent matters that there wasn't any hint of them even in last
year's Report on the Psychological State of the World. As the experts
agreed, we are dealing with an entirely new kind of mental disturbance.
At least, no cases can be established prior to the last two years,
which is the period covered by this projection."
He looked toward the map. "Each yellow dot is a case of delusions of
nonrecognition. An otherwise normal individual fails to recognize a
family member or friend, maintains in the face of all evidence that
he is an alien and impostor--a frequent accusation, quite baseless,
is that his place has been taken by an unknown identical twin. This
delusion persists, attended by emotional disturbances of such magnitude
that the sufferer seeks the services of a psychiatrist--in those cases
we _know_ about. With the psychiatrist's assistance, one of
two adjustments is achieved: the delusions fade and the avowed alien
is accepted as the true individual, or they persist and there is a
separation--where husband and wife are involved, a divorce. In either
case, the sufferer recovers completely.
"And now--cryptic amnesia. For a reason that will soon become apparent,
I'll first switch off the other projection."
* * * * *
The yellow dots vanished, and in their place glowed a somewhat smaller
number of violet pinpoints. These showed no tendency to form clusters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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