THE SCIENCE OF ILLUSION AND THE MYSTERIES OF PERCEPTION PLUS THE WORLD'S HARDEST I.Q.TES onnrui VOL 7 NO. 7

EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT: KATHY KEETON EDITOR: GURNEY WILLIAMS III GRAPHICS DIRLC10R FRA\K DEVINO MANAGING EDITOR: PAUL HILTS

CONTENTS PAGE

FIRST WORD Opinion Jack Anderson 6

OMNIBUS Contributors S

COMMUNICATIONS Correspondence 12

FORUM Dialogue 16

SPACE Commeni Randall Black 26

' BODY Health Bill Lawren 30 - : -"i Astronomy Jeff Hecht 32

CONTINUUM Data Bank 35 THE SCIENCE OF ILLUSION EARTH Environment Pamela Weiniraub 20

MIND Er ; Patrick Huyghe 22

KINDLING COURAGE Article Peter Garrison 44

PERCEPTION ON AN ALIEN Article Ronald K. Siege! 52 SHORE

HYPNO ODYSSEY Article Paul Bagne 76

ILLUSIONAR1UM Pictorial Shigeo Fukuda 80

TRAPDOOR Ficiion Ray Bradbury 58

THE ART OF ANALGESIA Pictorial Phillip Harrington 62

IMMORTAL NIGHT Fictson Gregory Benford 70

MARVIN CETRON Interview Thomas 0' Toole 36

DEAD RUN Fiction Greg Bear 90

ANTIMATTER UFOs. etc 95

COMPETITION*' Hidden piciures 106

THE WORLD'S HARDEST Games Scot Morris 128 I.Q. TEST

VEINED VELVET Phenomena Dan Morrill 130

LAST WORD Humor Mitch Coleman 134

Kar.sa- €;/ ch biographer Michael Radenrjcn sr:d des'gnei Jay Hunt collaborated on

this picture. It was originally rendered lor Krg.h Brothers Real Estate for an advertising brochure and represents the conception oi a new project in the mind of an architect. 4 OMNI 3 — . s .'

. .,. 'I .i. ' ' : ' hSd' fiiiif \ m apyysofe tM ' ; i so i lafiohs to spa- .' : ity'^nhhemoobandy where such activities will become' '

'.' : : :ment bf Mars. Tneywil! '; harmless. Tf valuable

: te,fhe>.modnsof.Satbfi-i aneidDpifsri. . "minerais.'nPf pnty lo augment dwindling and ! ; nii,""': .: qi i sustain soclefes ii-spacc.

i U/ :::'.:!'. gf| | :. •T^it-ara astronauts will ier-mforrrdh'e' pi tfJiyG 'hrbug! ' d.i'v.: s yinvcorimonisoi' Mars add other bodies, rhes '>.: .:;; egiiklic melting permafrost Info llid-susiuining

asSeasidlenow'asiha.Apotomopn .. water and introducing pianfliio thai wilt, in

.. n-T i. in time:

!i-ii when ; ;V"«i i r a ;fheyw:h.dptspaeewith bright, domed' drawing board': Theouestlon'isnc:; Cat' FKlanoc of humanity laying ;.he foundation fiffi 'IpVIhe' survival of our species Hour planet !:. ' '> , Utirva;-e!y faces destrucrcn uithe-; from

--'.' Sac k say;N.AS'A may hobt'h&Jeaef-ai,' 1 cosmic events or home- grown wars.

'.- : riiaatftg:Js£rLfea'fot:Geiesi;a!ixaFW8ls^^^'/ While.todays soacc t r i j prepares-' j!-x\cjv ; :v;.:; fe WP sn hath- sub:;':*;:; ro open up future woiids. a also p-omo-'es

1 ;! i .. !.!> 'i I- I! .;: . e pop: I .'I'll , vail oft i

'

1 appropriations for' pork-barrel projects-, enrich or.' everyday life. Huben Humphrey

: I: : !i if ! usedto sayifiai the earfnly appiicauons

' "lord to bhase moonbeams. of ft -ifii-c yehavaijrrme-needs'.down..' advances we developed to penetrate

it -or- : FIRST arqumt has many years' space, dfealep ar more '.veaith than :

. space pace. and-itss. now ,.,i cosi i ihe fi'sl o!a E'his '"' 3 wisdom holds, even truer today, when LAJDRD ia.f tradiiiona' ;obs a-e dwindling as a^resurtob'

if But Is an.argument thai rests; an bad' . the deci he of heavy Industry.

: By Jad< Anderson :| ered ion riii one. . Such now

: lending man's. reach :nio-. eleotroniGS. ielecomn "i un lea io r s , robotics, ^For our children, his ,' i in andlnc krowf'edgs: " and I ma

1 - 1 ii 1 :. i . . space offers ha 1 ;r m i, .

'.:. ii act The ieoeral an. -orma! i n ?.< opportunities on a ' e times more and Ihp space program is .fhep'ee.mfnerif scale previously and inefficiency." ..--'. producefolif!:0!r:eflOi , unimagined—unless nan's future, v : A nafjohaioommifn > i.; ' , and we can enrich the present .; i .' , by doing so. an procv.i i i i

fail : ..' we them ': .:. ' n discoveries — dafurPmg way the Eighties has become a whether '.he opening of naw continents or jaded, flaccid time to be young. Ouragey :'. of new. vistas of knowledge— 'hat have seems besei by harmful diversions: pur --:

' been ihe dost antidotes to poverty sauator. 500161/. short on stimuii to vigor and- excel.- :

'

_.""- :'.:; and csse.as'e. n was me voyage o- ":: lence. But the young are fascinated with •ejected as impractical first space. The Young Astronauts program will Fohuga;, men by a Spanish allow them the real

i that -made becoming pioneers in space sose-nces end

most successful antipoverty will enable them to contribute to the large . r --:-'. 1. .p;oe am.in history -- . 1 in. the great migration A' !n of beslitaie peoples to tf e New Wend the successful implencntahon of the :.-- i 'v.ii.m.l: ;! b'-v-:; m program

': : .1';.; i him I i S ino ;y progm tosuct ?,s pays ;".: v. tally needed to arouse children's curiosity a no i

about spaoe; Formed ! lei iv d t e stars.

the White House and leading American Every generaiicn, sf It Is lo fulfill ;tseif.

i I i' . ; > . ''.::'. n iii i >:!!.... I I !!i...l|l ! II .I' ng ' .iH , I ,,0\.: I

bbys; and girls between ihe ages of s:k to ennoble it. The distant reaches of space !' :. soac ' ion act as such an incentive. No; since the time

Ariel .when Young Astronauts rets its stride by of Columous has the dawn of a new ago

. :•..« :.-.----,i I ;.. . . 1 million el expicratic \evy- y.

.':, thai Foi cur chrci'en, the epporiuoiiies wiil av.-siU.-s irv space. -.Here are a few. of the present theniseives on a scale previously

at r.a jnimagined-- : uniess we fail Lihem DO !ii:' nf ni.v i h l ,

!o ... vr Ill 003- unsbietdeddy any- atmosphere, nasbaoh ' ' exposed fpr;eofisft€|fadiafbn;fromfhe'.su'r :

:; Aa'-a resh!ty;ive;mdon.;s:an:,i(feats!je frorn ;;;.':. vvi'MCh'to study the mys'fehesof •he.eadh.hhe '' scry and Ihe stars-.

* : hidust.'la! opportunities will- 3ccn.pro!rie'a;e

IS; |ppb§|; Iffjpl&j StfS^R Earth beeomes "

CONTRIBUTORS Dnnrun

I ^\ I e live in a world oi illusion, a their subjects to perceive Ihe subtle ebbs explains the anomaly. "Because sound

Perce Ptuai extravaganza and flows of the inner body. travels slowly," Weinlraub says, "it shouldn't I .1 I J fc» *» created as our senses receive If people can perceive and influence the reach Earth until seconds after the fireball data from the universe at large. Dazzling body while under hypnosis, they should has passed overhead. But in this instance as our concept of reality may be. it is a be able to do so in other situations as well. the fireball is emitting electromagnetic limited vision, dependent upon the narrow And in this monlh's Mind column ("The energy that travels many times faster than band of energy our sense organs absorb. Awareness Factor," page 22). Patrick sound waves."' The human ear. for example, can pick Huyghe describes anesthetized patients The Earth column describes an aural up the booms and trills of a Beethoven who perceive—and respond to—encour- illusion, but in "lllusionahum," on page 80, symphony but not the high-pitched whistle aging suggestions during surgery. Huyghe, contributing editor Owen Davies profiles used to summon a dog. And the eyes who is currently on a fellowship in science ihe master of visual illusion, the Japanese are sensitive to only a tiny portion of the broadcast journalism at WGBH-TV in Boston, artist Shigeo Fukuda. Fukuda's work plays broad electromagnetic spectrum. We are believes that unconscious perception can with our perceptions, proving that what awestruck by the blazing blues and greens play an increasingly important role in we think we see may not always be real. in the world around us, but we can'i begin medicine. But. he laments, the medical Reality can be distorted in outer space as to fathom the splendor of gamma rays community is reluctant lo recognize the well. In "Perception on an Alien Shore" and X rays, the spectral vibrance of intrared. healing power of the mind. (page 52). UCLA psychologist Ronald K. As Isaac As mov said "Seeing is merely Some doctors, though, have begun to Siegel explains how we might perceive seeing, nothing more." He meant, of course, recognize lhal human physiology may extraterrestrial environments and life forms. that perceptions can be erratic, sometimes be subject to conscious control. In "Kindling Describing biirc ng Nashi-js. adject terror, reflecting the nature of the world we must Courage" (page 44), writer Pefer Garrison and hallucinations of faces from the past, negol mg our percep- explores firewalking— the new fad that has Siegel declares that astronauts must be tions into the schizophrenic and bizarre. thousands of people slriding across trained to deal with an onslaught of strange Whether one's perceptions are peaceful burning coals. Many dedicated firewalkers, perceptions. "Science-fiction writers have or maddening, though, they can often Garrison notes, feel no pain and sustain scripted the etiquetle for alien encounters," be studied and controlled. And in "Hypno not a single blister or burn. The participants, says Siegel. an avid SF fan, "But now that Odyssey" (page 76), writer Paul Bagne moreover, gain confidence because of such encounters may be possible, scientists describes a new generation of scientists the illusion that they have transcended the are also concerned." trying to understand the olio of illusion and ordinary abilities of man. In our own fiction this month. Ray Bradbury reality at the heart of consciousness. The Scientists agree that firewalking is feasible explores some homey perceptions: What's new-age hypnotists, Bagne explains, use if the walk isn't overly long. But when asked Ihe meaning of that funny scratching noise their techniques to pierce Ihe layers of about another hot phenomenon— the: overhead? "Trapdoor" (page 58) suggests human perception, proving that even when strange sound a meleor makes as it. unseltling possibir.ies. Greg Sear takes the commanded to feel or see an illusion, the plummets to Earth —they have long said, reader to hell and back in'"Dead Run" subject—on some hidden level—will know "impossible." In this month's Earth column (page 90). And on page 70, Gregory what's going on. Using that newfound ("Hiss of the Fireball," page 20), however, Beniord raises a question of medical ethics knowledge, the researchers have helped Omni senior ed tor Pamdci Weintraub in "Immortal Night."DO 8 OMNI BOB GUCCIONE editor & publisher LETTERS KATHY KEETON

OMNI PUBLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL LTD.

THE CORPORATION Bob Gucci.:;-'- ic>^;::n.in ,-w the board) CDnnnnuruicATorus Kathy Keston [president) DaviaJ Myers::;- wa; oei'jtjng officer)

EDITORIAL Editor fa Chief: Bod Gucdone Editor Gumey -Wil- liams ill. Man.93.Tio Ewe- Paul Hilts Senior EeMcrs: Pa!rice Adcrott, Doug 35 Coingan. Pamela Wain- Iraub, Fiction Editor: E 'en Dallow Humor Editor. Bill

1 Robert We- J-.-.:t'. t j Leslie Science Smarts No matter how barbaric these experi-

Congratulations on your sixth year of ments were, the fact is that they were done. publishing Omni. In a jungle of pulp, your And just as there is no way to justify or SteT en^Fo^Copy fr-.-o-f Bnan mSK ft*£ is light publication both a ray of and a excuse how they were done, there is also M.lMahr£dUBrtt/4s9iUMli toml MrtGnnay, breath of fresh air. Other magazines have no way to undo them. Michele Eaton; Games EdUOt Scdi Mon* Editor. Sao* Division: Rober' Wei-. Assisfan; £o,rDf Paler fried to copy your format, but none have If the research conducted during this .„-, JurXh succeeded. period can help save lives today, then Hooper. Kathles- McAuiii's. u- PstncK Moore, Rob- II was Kathy Keeton's First Word [October I can do nothing but hail people like ert Sheckley. Dava Sobel: Consu/rtng £rt'tor: Dick Robert Teresi Offices: 1965 Liioac 023- 1984] on the future of science illiterates Harnett for their efforts, it is almost 5965, Tel 1212; -ILit-fiirJO 7-;-. No 237138 that prompted me to write this letter. When poetic justice. ART

"r I was a child, science seemed so exciting. Wesley Nelson Sr. V.P.IGraoPh. - unw. = -i. "V,. .,;, s, Assoc

Ar.fD/r.AmySeissier. Ass; A,- r Dire; .'or Liz Si rota. Where did the dinosaurs go? What's a Portsmouth, VA Designer- Dwayne Firnchum. An ant) Pr>oro Editor: supernova? Vietnam diverted my energies Hiidegard Kwn Assoc P.noto EoHw . .haoiro. from interests, I In article ~ Hi these but as a layman. the "Nazi Science," the question Staff Photoqrsc net Pa- bM, ..: Me Assoc Staff Photographer. Randy Mayo'', a,-; fi.g.'i;; A-ztfor still enjoy the wonder of it all. Thank you for is raised as to whether researchers GWenn Lewis Norman: Arl Assl.: Pal'icia S. OS- youf contribution toward helping people should use the data obtained by unscrupu- ADMINISTRATION understand this world in which we live. lous Nazi doctors. On the preceding page, Executive 'IP.: David J. Mverson Sr VPIArtminiStra- Rusty Miller Bernard Malamud is quoted as saying, Tyler, TX "If your train's on the wrong track, every station you come to is the wrong station." •=-..' Dir 0! Ore " • '",-.; s °Oro- Kathy Keeton's First Word demonstrates Nuff said. valuable insights into a real problem. The Daniel Kline -" .' West Rggto, .... - - » Veivssiana public-education system fails to teach Cincinnati

".'- - three important concepts necessary to a Ss&? Successful scientist in our society: initiative, Mayans and Magnavox Pronw Wrcrtd - " Wjy M creative thinking, and the use and appreci- Bill Lawren's "Mayans From the Sky"

ibf Mftlg Seseard ofrons ation of the free-enterprise system. Consid- [Explorations, January 1985] was, on the Marcia.Schuii Wfliiam ering that our nation's teaching staff whole, accurate and well done. I would, consists mostly of individuals who have a however, like to correct one error concerning f-oretgn Ed'JWgr the educational system, staying there is as was stated in the article. ^ r the path of least resistance. Successful Stephen Prucha Sr »>rMctosst and Soutfttrri At£ Q^Pere^Goid- scientists do not follow the path of least Senior Geologist Sfl .e,- ..- j.i.^- an.AoVProd resistance, nor are the iraiis necessary to Earth Satellite Corporation .£" - » «! ? ' SSSS becoming a successful scientist likely to be Chevy Chase, MD 1965 Broadway Ne* Ybfk. NY 10023-5965. Tel (212) taught by those who follow that path. 435-6100 fete) No 237128 Midwesr. 303 East Gary Ellis Correction Fulton, MO Researchers at the Kalamazoo Child = Rca-I"a ; i20o'i 32c,-Sfi:"jB Guidance Clinic, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Scientific Ethics studied the effects of the drug methylphen-

I am writing in regards to Sherry Baker's idate hydrochloride—commonly called 9831, UK & Europe Pen- .-,& Cubs Lid.. 11 "' article "Nazi Ritalin learning- Wtntehoise aland Japan; Ban- Science" [Continuum, January —on hyperactive and

1985]. It's a shame that some people . disabled children in 1964. They found that Kanda 2-cnome Tado Chiyooa-K Tokyo 101 Tel cannot see the forest for the trees. By using the drug produced some positive effects FOREIGN EDITIONS the information obtained from the Nazis' on the children tested. Contrary to what was Sr. V.PJForeign Editions: John Evans: Japan.- Obun experimentaiion on concentration-camp stated in "Stuttering Cure" [Forum, inmates, scientists are not condoning September 1984], the experimentation to TgHvo 162. Gf-rrT^w Reaakuo-Onn, Wa tci ;>•;-, the used. are determine IngerPresseAG! Po^'acn C--B021. Zurich, methods They furthering whether Ritalin could offer a Switzerland modern medical knowledge. To paraphrase: cure for speech disorders and other handi- APRIL It we cannot learn from the past, we are caps was completed, and no further doomed to relive it. experimentation is expected. DO 2 OMNI DIALOGUE FDRUfUl

Omni we/comes speculation, theories, in man. Truly moral people don't need the Lawren is mistaken, "he Roman Catholic commentary, dissent, and questions from fear of eternal damnation to force them Church does not, and to my knowledge readers in this open forum. We invite you to behave morally! never has. insisted upon a literal interpreta- to use Ms column to voice your hopes Kurt Swasing tion of the Bible. The Church draws concrete about the future and to contribute to the New Hope. PA beliefs from the abstrsc parables of Christ. kind of informal dialogue that provokes A church with such provocative thinkers thought and generates breakthroughs. Please permit me to congratulate you for as the Jesuits could not be named among Please note that we cannot return submis- printing Bill Lawren's "Vatican Science" the fundamentalist sects of Christianity. sions and that the opinions expressed here [December 1984J, an excellent presentation Richard Chard are not necessarily those of the magazine. rendered with much fairness. We are not Keene, NH usually accustomed to giving this kind

Science and the Spiritual of approval. Your article is another indication As a loyalist to papal teachings and the

I would like to respond to the comments of the improvement in relations between papal office, I'd like to commend Omni and made about my letter "Religious Furor" science and religion. Bill Lawren for "Vatican Science." [Forum, September 1984], in the letters Rev. Peter Stravinskas The Vatican has always been the divine entitled "God and Science" [Forurh. East Coast Director office that Christ founded. Throughout

December 1984], First of all, please don't Catholic League for Religious the centuries, however, that office has been tell me about the harm "atheistic" nations and Civil Rights condemned because of the actions of have caused. Any philosophical position, Trenton the few ignorant and evil men who have including alheism, should be arrived at occupied and controlled its power and

through reflection. I disagree with all forms The ignorance displayed in "Vatican influence. In the past century there have of dogmatism, including the dogmatic Science" enraged me. As a Roman been some saintly and worldly wise persons atheism of Marxist philosophy, which has Catholic who is well versed in Church occupying that office. John Paul II is

I given rise lo religious oppression. history and science, I resent Lawrerfs certainly a worthy one. am delighted with My position regarding religion's influence referring to my church as a fundamentalist his blessing on scientific endeavors and on science is based on historical facts. body, "a church that recently insisted on would once again like to congratulate Omni " Anyone who is ignorant of this phase literal interpretation of the Bible for making the Church's scientific pursuits of history should read Andrew R White's understandable to laymen. classic book History of the Warfare of Al Ware Science With Theology in Christendom. Rogers, AZ

Actually, I am quite pleased that my letter drew some angry responses. We are at a I thought Omni was supposed to be a period in our history when it might be science magazine. Lately it seems to me wise to subject all our values to more rational that you are trying to become a religious

I religion scrutiny. I'm glad that I offended some magazine. know science and are people— if it made them think. trying to "mix," but give me a break! I Jeffrey Governale stopped believing in God just about the

Chicago time I stopped relieving in Santa Claus (or maybe a little bit before that). Articles

Stuff'-' I refute the letters in "God and Science" like "Vatican Science" and "Righteous detending religion and faith. How can [May 1984] don't belong in Omni. religious people be said to be seeking truth I don't really care what the Pope has to when those who question the faith are say about science. His views on other labeled blasphemers? Religion is a lazy topics that are important to me, like abortion, man's pseudoscience established for those give a clear enough picture of this man, who are afraid to think. How easy it is to who in my opinion is one of the most let the Vatican decide moral issues for you. reactionary popes we've had in a long time. Atheists are far more moral than believers Come on, Omni, don't preach at me. because atheists know why they hold their Oh, by the way, I did like the quote above values. We've worked to realize them the Pope's picture on page 58 of "Vatican — , we don't blindly accept what the Church has Science" about Genesis being a myth. decreed as the truth. By placing one's Elizabeth Dewey faith in God, I believe that one loses his faith PhiladelphiaDQ 16 OMNI .

HISS OF THE FIREBALL EARTH By Pamela Weintraub

was Novemoer 13. 1833 and the East that delusion was no! the case. "Reporl ItCoast was in the midst of perhaps tho after report.' says Keay. "paralleled the

most spectacular meteor shower of claims ol my own witnesses in Australia. If all time. While dozens of glowing firebars the reports were mere fantasy, how could streaked through the- atmosphere, people on Ihe phenomenon occur again and again at the ground detected a distinctive hiss. such widely divergent "jrnes and places Minutes after, they heard the roa- ct the around the world? Something more had to meteors' dive to Earth. be going on." Some 150 years later, in November '984. To figure out that something, Keay took a Ben and Jeannette Kilingsworth watched three-month leave of absence from his from their rural Galveston County, Texas-, job. heading for Ihe National Research home as the space shuttle Discovery Council, in Ottawa, Ontario. approached Earth. Streaking across the .Getting down to work, he theorized that predawn sky, the craft seemed to omit the mysterious phenomenon could occur

an unmistakable swish. The expected sound only if sound were somehow traveling ol reentry— Ihe sonic boom—came as fast as light. Since light is made of several minutes later. electromagnetic energy, the sound was Over the centuries, there have been probably induced by a form of electromag- hundreds of similar reports. People watching netic energy as well. Electromagnelic large, moving objects !«me& • c fireballs energy, of course, cannot produce sound have routinely reported swishes, whooshes directly. Buf as any radio engineer knows, crackles, and hisses And according to Keay reasoned, electromagnetic energy Danish meteorologist Vagn Buchwald. can certainly be converted to acoustical - lone; i animals have aj pi t \ -ieteel such k by their sincerity, energy by a loudspeaker or some other sounds as well Since gW waves travel d lo go back and transducer. Natural objects in proximity to thousands of li-ies taster than sound waves the observer, he knew, could serve that do, light radiating from such tar-off objects function well.

should reach the witness seconds before the This embryonic Iheory in place, Keay sound, But-in case after case, witnesses dug out an article by Arizona physicist and have perpeived both sound and image at fireball expert Doug Rc've- io. ReVelle the same time. reported that wner giant -'ireballs penetrated This anomaly has been the subject ol Ihe atmosphere, they produced a hot gas. scienlific inquiry ever since the 1780s, or plasma, generating Iremendous turbu- when Sir Charles Blagdon. secretary of the lence in ine.r rapic descent to Earth. Royal Society of London, studied a. large Latching onto ReVelle's information, fireball that reportedly hixi-od ;\s w-.v.k: ::-, Keay proposed thai Ihe plasma was turbu- descent more than 50 miles from observ- lent enough to literally trap the earth's ers on Ihe ground. magnetic field, But during the fireball's Blagdon was convinced by the sincerity desceni, the plasma would dissipate, of his witnesses, but he could not explain releasing the magnetic field in the form of their perceptions. Instead, he declared, he very low frequency elecfcmagnetic radia- would leave Ihe mystery "as a point to tion. That radiation would travel to Earth be cleared up by future observers." at ihe speed ol light, causing objects in the Future observers g'ic indeed contemplate vicinity of the observer to vibrate. Ihe phenomenon, proposing one theory Teslmg his hypothesis Keay placed after another. One scientist, for inslance, . subjects benealh an electrode that emitted suggested that energy emitted by the radiation similar to that given off by the fireball stimulated the brain directly, fireball. In a few nstances subjects heard bypassing the normal hearing apparatus in a whooshing sound. And those with loose the ear. Another proposed :hat the sounds clothing, steel-rimmed glasses, or frizzy hair,

were produced when tiny particles blasted which all vibrate readily, were most suscep-

off the meleor and flew close lo the tible of all, observer oh Earth. Keay's recent results are strengthened 20 OMNI "HE AWARENESS FACTOR nniriiD

By Patrick Huyghe

h my God.'' wisecracks one them. These episodes o- awareness under to his suggestion to make one hand warmer member of the surgical team, full anesthesia raise the question of than the other. "Even though they can

looking down at the obese woman whelher consciousness is necessary for .'h')/ ;;o,' ;.',;;.' ous.''/ fecal: :!. patients are under deep anesthesia, "they dragged awareness. Can perception occur in this responsiveto suggestion and are able lo another beached whale into our operating unconscious stale Does h p,-i:,enls noi vous acton it," he says. room." The jokes fly last and furious, but system continue to pick up environmental The idea that cognitive functioning is the woman's poor recovery later on won't be data under anesthesia? going on even when a patient is uncon- any laughing matter. "There's no reason to believe lhal scious is supported by some ingenious A week later the woman spontaneously perception is not functioning and processing animal research, University of California at recalls the comments, and within 24 hours meaningful information even under Irvine psycho biologists Norman Weinber- her mysterious surgical complications anesl'icsa. says — enry Bennett, a ger and Debra Sternberg, and Paul Gold, ot clear up. Noticing the change, her nurse psychologist currently on the faculty of Ihe Ihe University of Virginia, taught anesthe-

'hf.- checks with someone who was present at department ol anesihssidcyy a I tized rats to fear a noise. the operation and who remembers the University of California's Davis Medical The -rats were placed under heavy operating-room banter. Center, in Sacramento. "General anesthetics anesfhesia and presented with a series of

This true slory is typical of incidents do. not turn off the entire nervous system. tones followed by shocks. Some were

physicians describe as awareness under It is fairly well known that Ihe auditory given epinephrine, a stress hormone thought anesthesia. The term actually cowers a syslem, for instance, is remarkably resistant to play an important role in memory broad spectrum of reports, at one end of - to ihe eflecls of anesthetic agents." storage, while others received a saline which are slories of patients who have Bennett has beer able to demonstrate solution. A week later, the rats' reactions to been inadequately anesinet.zed and who that patients are sensitive to Iheir surround- the tones were tested during a water-

wake up in the middle of an operation. ings even under anesthesia and are able drinking task When me tones were At the other end are accounts of fully to respond to suggestions. In one instance, sounded, Ihose that had been injected with anesthetized patients who have no he instructed anosthet zed oaiients lo tug Ihe saline solution continued to drink, conscious memory of their surgery but on an earlobe di./'nc; ,- preoperative while those that had received the epineph- whose later behavior indicates they knew interview (9 of 11 people did so), and in rine ran into a corner and hid. something of what was happening around another experiment oaterts resoonood The experiment shows that memories

can form under anesthesia, and it helps explain some human-awareness episodes. "Since we know that epinephrine levels

rise in response to stress," says Gold, "it is my guess thai those patients who remem- ber things that went on during surgery are also Ihose who reacted lo their operation with this sort of hormonal response."

Because ol those f ridings. Bennett has begun looking for similar stress hormones

in the blood of anesthetized patients. "When you go under anesthesia you are generally in a very high stress siluation," he

says. And if these biochemicals work in people the same way they do in animals, he thinks he has a clue as to how people retain inlormation even when unconscious. Evidence of such awareness suggests that negative remarks and insensitive banter could have an adverse effect on a patient's recovery, whether or not the comments are consciously recalled. Such remarks as, "It's hopeless: this won't

work right" or "It may be cancerous" could spell disaster for some patients. Aneslhe- sthetized patients? tized patients may be vulnerable to upsetting

CONTINUED ON PAGE 104 SUN SEEKER

By Randall Black

Searing heal and radiation bake the precise measurements and communicate Jupiter and use the gravity of that planet to cone-shaped spacecraft as it with home. Add the demand that the brake its speed. Then the slowed craft plummets through fierce gusts of probe's 450-pound shield not contaminate will plunge toward the sun. arriving fewer superheated gas. The craft's mission, to the sampling environment with any more than four years after its launch from Earth. If explore a star close up for the lirst time, is than 3.5 milligrams of particulate debris it survives the first pass, Starprobe will far too dangerous lor a human. The pilot, a (smaller than a single grain of sand) per revisit the sun every four years, refining and robot, activates the ship's dormant sensory second, and the eng noer's |ob takes on a enhancing previous observations until equipment. On Earth, controllers wait nighimarish quality. one of its vital systems fails. while the heavily shielded probe undergoes Despite all Ihis, NASA is proceeding with Coming within 1,730,800 miles of the a literal trial by tire.-As the spacecraft tests of carbon- caibon shielding — the sun, the proposed spacecraft will pass 15 drops nearer to the incandescent surface, same type used on the nose, wings, and times closer than the present record holder: its computers record streams of scientilic tail of the space shuttle— at a unique solar the German spacecraft Helios. At this data, while its coding system strains to furnace in France. Sunlight, concentrated range, Starprobe's various telescopes can reject deadly heat. to mimic conditions Starprobe will encounter peer through a tiny hole at the apex of At its closest approach, a distance only in the solar corona, will roast the layered its conical shield and make unique obser- twice the star's diameter, the craft enters a carbon material while engineers measure vations in visible, ultraviolet, and X-ray gravitational field hundreds of times how many contaminants are released. light. By mapping the sun's magnetic field, stronger than any before measured. Once scientists master the shielding astronomers may gain a better understand- Einstein's theory of relativity predicts that "technology, Randolph says, the major hurdle ing of the structure and origin of solar time will slow down in this slrange region. will be behind them. flares— sporadic magnetic storms that

Before its trajectory takes it out and away After being launched from the space disrupt radio communication on Earth. into the cool of space, the now-glowing shuttle's payload bay, the spacecraft must Scientists are anxious to take a sampling of craft's cameras photograph the star's grainy, shed the velocity that keeps it orbiting the particles emanating from the sun, to spotted surface. And there is something at the same distance as the earth orbits the belter understand the region where the solar else. From the fires ot a star that mankind has sun. Because its Centaur booster lacks wind begins to accelerate. wondered at and worshipped for millennia, the power, to decelerate the craft directly. The mission also presents an opportunity the spacecraft swipes a small sample: Starprobe will first make a two-year detour to lo study gravitational effects undetectable a piece of the sun. anywhere else in the solar system, according In 1975 Giuseppe Columbo, of Italy's to JPL scientist John D. Anderson. By University of Padua, first suggested that carefully tracking how the solar gravitational NASA send an unmanned spacecraft to fly Held affects Starprobe's trajectory, physi- through the sun's corona. Since then. cists can infer important information about Project Starprobe has been studied by the sun's shape, rotation, and internal scientists.at NASA's Jet Propulsion Labora- structure. Such data can make or break tory (JPL). Just recently ihese scientists those theories [hat postulate a rapidly concluded that, once approved by rotating solar core, or even a small black Congress, the sun-grazing mission could hole, at the sun's center. be ready to fly sometime in the mid-Nineties. On an even more esoteric plane, the way They estimate that costs will hover at the Starprobe behaves while passing near Galileo mission mark—$500 million to the sun could play a role in ongoing $1 billion. "We wouldn't have considered competition between Einstein's theory of an undertaking like Ihis fifteen years ago." general relativity and rival relativistic theories says James Randolph, Starprobe study of gravitation. A superaccurate hydrogen manager at JPL. "It's not that we have the clock aboard Starprobe could measure technology in hand, but we do have the such effects predicted by general relativity confidence that we can develop it." as gravity's ability to slow time and to The technological obstacles are formida- shift light frequencies. Says Robert D. ble: to create a craft that's capable of Reasenberg. chairman of the Project withstanding solar radiation 3,000 times as Starprobe committee on gravity and relativity intense as that- on Earth and temperatures science, "Many of us think general relativity of about 2,500° Kelvin —almost half as hot is a beautiful theory, but as an experimen- the sun's surface. While as enduring this talist, I look for places to stick a pole in and hellish ordeal, the ship must also ta"ke Starprobe: Snatching a piece of Old Sol. crack it open. "DO -26 OMNI IE SODM

By. Bill Lawren

belonged to Broadway Joe treatments for knee ,ru es including new animals, this procedure has allowed blood

They ! Namaih. and they may have nc: been hea techniques "irarsp-ants. and to flow to Ihe m|ury promot ng what the most famous knees in the synthetic and organic parts. spare And appears to be full healing. So tar, the history of sporls. Battered by 13 years of researchers predict lhat in the not-too- technique has been tried on about 20 pounding trom gargantuan National Football distant future, we may see the most aston- human patients, and Warren is anxiously League linemen, Namath's knees were ishing knee replacement of all: a bionic awaiting long-term results. subjected to four major operations. knee grown from a human being's own cells. Warren's team is also working on menis- Narnath was the victim not only of the Right now. the developmenl of spare cus transplants in animals, using cartilage onslaughts of defensive ends but of a parts looks most promising. of One the most from the recently dead. Preliminary results in basic disparity between the design of the vulnerable and frequently injured parts of 15 dogs, he says, look "reasonable. As human knee and the physical stresses the knee is the meniscus, the half-moon- far as we can tell, the function appears to involved in the games people play. The knee, shaped pad that absorbs shock and keeps be normal." with its 150° mobility and its ability to the shin bone the thigh and bone apart. As far as Warren is concerned, these absorb lorces equal to three times a human Usually, Ihe repair wck ? performed results "at least suggest the possibility of body's weight, is perfectly suited for during microsurgery. But al New York's using transplants on certain patients"— those walking upstairs or strolling in the park. But Hospital for Special Surgery, a team led by with unstable ligaments, for example, or expose il to the extraordinary stresses ol orthopedist Russet Warren s trying to whose menisci have been removed. "In running, jumping, or pivoting, and this joint improve the haal.no. properties of the general," Warren says, "I think you're going begins to look like "two crowbars held meniscus. Unlike most body tissue, the to see more and more of this kind oi trans- together with rubber bands." inner two thirds of the meniscus has no plant in humans over the next five years. Nearly everyone who has donned shoul- blood supply and, thus, healing no We'll be able to use it not only for the der pads or running shoes has cursed capability. Once torn, it simply stays torn, meniscus but for some ligaments." the knee's basic frailty. Soon, though, Using surgical a new technique, however. This is good news for the thousands of everyone from the millionaire jock tothe six Warren and his colleagues have made people who have suffered another common o'clock jogger may benetit from what Los channels from the outer portion of the form of knee injury; stretching and tearing Angeles sports orthopedist Douglas mehiscus (which does have a blood supply) of the ligament, the fibrous "strap" that Jackson calls an "explosion" of pioneering to the inner area. In experiments on holds Ihe femur and tibia together. The knee's seven ligaments are extraordinarily lough but not especially flexible; a stretched ligament tends to stay stretched,

and it stretched beyond 6 percent of its

length, it snaps, leaving the entire knee vulnerable !o further injury. To treat this problem, some orthopedists are inserting tiny lattice structures made ol cloth or a biocM-gradable i.ispue known as collagen. When placed in Ihe space between a tear, the theory goes, the lattice will support and sustain the growth of new ligamenf tissue, which in time could rejoin [he two torn ends.

"Because the structure of the ligament is so complex and delicate," Jackson says,

"we have agreater chance of duplicating it

if we use living tissue." This technique has yielded no significant results to date.

"But, "says Jackson, "we're working on it," A similar technique involves replacing the torn ligament with strands of carbon fiber. Developed in the late Seventies by Andrew Weiss and Harry Alexander, of the New Jersey Medical School, in Newark, Ihe carbon fiber not only helps stabilize the

CONTINUED OM PAGE 106 — —

SWISS-CHEESE UNIVERSE 5TAR5 By Jeff Hecht

The universe is full ol holes. Not light-years. On that scale, galaxies like our doing computer analyses of celestial ordinary holes, but vast, nearly own are mere dots. By analyzing such observations they had made at the Kitt spherical voids hundreds of millions massive phenomena and by using informa- Peak Observatory, near Tucson, Arizona. In of light-years across and empty of galax- tion about them to build computer models, 1983 these men found something even ies. And where Ihere are no holes, there are astronomers hope to get a clearer picture of more impressive than a giant hole. Looking equally vast clusters o! galaxies, often on how the universe evolved. in the direction of the constellations the edges of these voids. The Swiss-cheese image of the universe Perseus and Pegasus, they found a stringy

Because 99 percent of the universe suggested itself in 1978. when University supercluster of galaxies 1 billion light- seems to be made of these holes, University of Arizona astronomer Steve Gregory began years long, the longest coherent structure of New Mexico astronomer Jack 0. Burns to find empty expanses of space measur- yet discovered in the universe. says the universe looks like Swiss cheese. ing millions of light-years across. Then How did such large-scale formations

that it He admits is not a concept many in 1981 , Robert R Kirshner, of the University come to be? Burns says they could have of his fellow astronomers are comfortable of Michigan; August Oemler, of Yale Univer- been the result of something called quantum with. Until recently many rejected this sity; and Paul Schechterand Stephen fluctuations, which are believed to have strange new view of the universe. But Schectrnan, of the Mount Wilson and Las occurred during the first 10 to 30 seconds in research performed the splendid isolation Cartipanas Observatories, went looking of the universe's history, when it was a of observatories and at the keyboards of in what they thought was an average region newborn speck of matter barely a millimeter computers has tended to support the of the universe— the constellation Bootes in diameter. As the universe expanded, theory that the cosmos is holey. as part of a study on the density of matter. gravity held the denser regions together. This is all the product of a young field of They expected to see approximately 10,000 Eventually matter became concentrated as observational cosmology that looks at galaxies in that area of the sky. Instead a scattering of massive clusters. what is called the large-scale structure of they found a mammoth spherical void about Other astronomers are turning to the universe, its colossal voids as well 350 million light-years in diameter. computers to simulate the processes by as its mammoth agglomerations—super- The discovery of this void stimulated a which early fluctuations evolved into the clusters— of stars. Typically its researchers search for other large-scale phenomena. At current universe. One such simulation, concern themselves with anything the University of New Mexico, Burns and developed by Joan Centrella, of the measured in tens or even hundreds of graduate student David Batuski had been University of Texas, and Adrian Melott, of

the University of Chicago, is able to play out the evolution of the universe only by oversimplifying some of the physics involved and by looking at the universe on a strictly large-scale basis. As a result, galaxies and even some small galactic clusters— are omitted. Still, each run of one of their models takes two to three hours on a Cray-1 supercomputer, one of the fastest number crunchers in the world. So far Centrella's computer work has produced simulated superclusters and giant holes that would stretch about 100 million

miles if they were real. Now that their models are starting to resemble reality, Centrella, Melott, and James Wilson, of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, are working on a more detailed simulation. The large-scale studies are in their early stages, and both the model makers and the astronomers admit they need more observational data and more sophisticated models. But they also point out that the evidence already presented is good enough to make former skeptics believe build models of ow Sw/ss-c in the Swiss-cheese metaphor.OQ —

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SCIENCE AND SCIENCE FICTO

0^ hen Omni was very young, I was accosted at a whether conscious of this faith or not. Albert Einstein said it best: H scientific meeting in Edinburgh by one of the "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibiiity." J world's leading astronomers, who said, as nearly To spend your life in scientific research, you must have the rock- universe that WJHF ^P' as I can remember: "One simply can't lake Omni bottom faith that the can be understood; one and very seriously, old boy, because you print science fiction in it!" one always add up to two; that hydrogen will behave the same billion Before I could remind him that scientists since Johannes Kepler way for you as it does on the other side of the cosmos, a have written science fiction and that a great many more of them light-years away. Science fiction mirrors that faith. Even in its dark- have enjoyed reading it, he scuttled away into the crowd. est, most foreboding stories, there is the underlying belief that the

In the intervening years, I have thought long and hard about the human mind can understand the universe— understand and even relationship between science and science fiction. Undoubtedly, alter the blind workings of nature. Whether it is ending the age-old without science— that organized and methodical pursuit of test- drought on Dune or boosting the intelligence of moronic Charlie, able knowledge about the physical world— there would be no sci- whether it is dealing with Asimov's robots or Heinlein's puppet ence fiction. But science owes quite a bit to science fiction, too. masters, the characters in science-fiction stories use their human The relationship has benefited both sides. intellects to bend the course of the universe to their will.

By science fiction, 1 mean tales in which some aspect of future Science fiction also shows that the end product of scientific re- science is so central to the story that without that scientific ele- search is exciting, fascinating, and fun. In an age when we wonder ment, the story would not exist. Think of that archetype of science how to get children to study science and mathematics, the impor- fiction, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Take away the scientific ele- tance of science fiction's message may very well be crucial. Sci- ment, and the story collapses. Fantasy does not require scientific ence fiction shows the results of science, the thrill of discovery that lore. You don't need physics or chemistry to produce a mytho- follows the tedious work of exploration. logical monster or a unicorn, merely imagination Tales of the fan- Science courses in school start with the very hardest parts of tastic are older, by far, than human history. But science fiction, as science, the monotonous yet important basics, the unglorious yet it is defined nowadays, began with the scientific discoveries of the necessary spadework. Science fiction shows what it's like when seventeenth century. That is when stories based on the new Co- the hard work pays off, when the magnificent invention actually pernican understanding ol the universe first appeared. works, when your starship arrives at Alpha Centauri, when you Today, science fiction is not only an accepted part of the con- defeal the aliens and save Earth from annihilation. temporary literary scene, it has become a mainstay of the best- Just about every man who has set foot on the moon started his seller lists and the big-budget movies of Hollywood. Thanks in career after reading science fiction as a youngster. Nobel laure-

large part to the public's awareness that we live in a high-technol- ates not only read science fiction, some of them write it. This does ogy world where scientific miracles fall like rain out of the sky, the not mean that everyone who reads science fiction will become a literature of science—science fiction — is extremely popular. scientist or astronaut. It means merely that science fiction is an But what does science get from science fiction? How do ticket excellent way to make young readers aware of science—its re- sales for 2010 relate to the size of NASAs budget? How does the wards, its dangers, and its central place in a modern technological readership of Omni affect the cutting edge of scientific research? society. Fruitful scientific research cannot take place in a society In two important ways. First, science fiction reinforces the fun- that is scientifically ignorant. That British astronomer who sniffed damental belief of science that the universe is knowable and that at science fiction owes his government grants, at least in part, to our rational minds can unravel its workings. Second, science fic- a society that has become favorably inclined toward science tion excites the imagination of young readers and encourages them through reading science fiction. BEN BOVA to become scientifically literate. Science fiction is the liturgy of sci- ence. It spells out the basic credo lhat every scientist follows. Ben Bova is the former vice president/editorial director of Omni. d

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them actually got inside LAUNCH ON WARNING

it. They'd walk right through the fence. Sometimes there' A Stanford University be twenty or thirty bears computer-operations spe- milling around, and Ihe gar- cialist has filed a lawsuit bagemen couldn't get out to block the United States of the truck." from hooking up a computer So Jacobs and his col- system that would automati-

leagues spend each fall luring cally launch nuclear missiles pesky bears into culvert in response to an incoming traps baited with seal meat, nuclear attack. then carting them off to Clifford Johnson argues

the slammer. When the bay that it is unconstitutional freezes, they're released to give war-making power to

on the ice. Only when the jail Ihe so-called launch-on- gets too crowded are the warning computer system. really hard cases flown out in Johnson recently suffered a helicopter slings and depos- legal setback when the ited as far as 200 miles up federal district judge declined BEAR JAIL There they sit, sometimes the coast. to render a decision. The in a foul temper induced by a Prisoners in Ihe bear jail's case will now go to the U.S. When the Danish navigator summer of fasting, waiting 20 cells are not permitted Court of Appeals in San Jens Munck first sailed into for the ice to freeze on the visitors because the conser- Francisco. the harbor al Churchill, bay, where they prefer to vationists don't want them "As I see it," Johnson says, Manitoba, Canada, in 1619, spend the winter dining on to grow too accustomed to "this lawsuit is part of a he was looking for an elusive unwary ringed seals. humans. Only the very young slow, long-term process to northwest passage to the The bear jail became or physically run-down extract people from the spice-rich Orient. What he necessary for several rea- adults are fed. "We don't want maze of nuclear technology. found instead were hundreds sons. For one thing, the them to get the idea that jail I'm loosening the first screw," of fearsome, shaggy white ice doesn't always freeze at is a good place to go to he says. "Then maybe some- bears. fhe same time every year. every fall," says Jacobs.

Churchill, which lies on the Even when it does, a warming Even so, recidivism is a windswept western shore southerly wind can break it problem. One 20-year- of Hudson Bay, 1,200 miles up and dump -the grumpy old bear named Linda has north of Chicago, calls itself, bears back on shore. When been locked up so many with ambivalent pride, "ihe that happens, they march times that she's famous in polar-bear capital of the into town seeking food, Churchill. Her various cubs world." No one who's been or head for the garbage have been shipped to zoos there would dispute that. The dump to the east. 'Marauding as far away as Mexico. They tiny settlement is at the bears can reduce an empty never find their way back, northern edge of a migration summer cabin to kindling but Linda does. path over which the great in minutes. According to con- —George Nobbe white bears have meandered servation officer Donald G. " for centuries. Jacobs, of the Manitoba "Maybe life isn't tor everyone. So plentiful have the beasts Department of Natural Re- —Larry Brown become that the Canadian sources, some of the craftier Wildlife Service has con- ones seem to know that "What will happen can't be " verted an old Quonset hut the law protects them from stopped. Aim lor grace. outside of town info a bear jail being shot unless they attack —Ann Beattie to handle some of the more someone, which is rare. obstreperous of the 1,200 "When we tried to use an "II you want to be true to lile, to 1,500 polar bears who incinerator instead of the start lying about it." troop into Churchill every lall. dump," he says, "some of —John Fowles 36 OMNI "

one after me will loosen subjects' reaction time to a But trial testimony of rela- another screw." light board as well as their tives established that the Although the United States visual-search ability (finding husband had wanted his wife does not yet officially have an e on a printed page full to bear their common child, the capability to deploy of f's, for example) and their even if conception occurred the launch-on-warning sys- skills in simple mathematical after his death. Sperm "is tem, the technology to do and time-estimation tasks. a human secretion," the Paris so Is definitely being devel- Performance speed among court noted, "that contains oped by the Pentagon, people wearing the special the seed of life and is des- Johnson claims. And, he heating helmet improved 6 to tined to create a human says, Secretary of Defense 13 percent, depending on being." By making his deposit Caspar Weinberger (who the task. at the sperm bank, the hus- is the defendant in the law- Hancock points out that band had created a "specific suit) has stated that the the correlation between body contract" for the safekeeping United States has not closed temperature and human and eventual return of his the door on the launch-on- performance is due to circa- sperm, concluded the court. warning option. dian rhythms, vestiges of (Mrs. Parpalaix was later Not only does Johnson mans early evolution. Such inseminated with the sperm tear that the launch-on-warn- rhythms may be liabilities of her late husband, but ing computer could some- THINKING CAP to modern man. a creature in fertilization did not occur,) how malfunction and start a the habit oi working at all Increasing numbers of men nuclear war, but he points Raising the temperature of hours of the day and night. are making sperm-bank out that the satellites and your head, claims a Califor- The heating helmet, he says, deposits, says attorney Lori radar that would warn the nia scientist, can improve promises io alter one such Andrews, author of New computer of an enemy missile your thinking performance. rhythm. It may even get rid Conceptions (St. Martin's launch could themselves Peter Hancock, an assis- of the age-old distinction Press). "These men don't sound a false alert, one that tant professor in the safety between "larks and owls." consider what happens to the the computer would be science and human factors morning people and night sperm if they die. In the unable to distinguish from the department of the University people.—Stephen Robinett United States," she says, real thing. of Southern California, has "sperm banks, unless so in* "To hook this system up in developed a helmet that "History is a thin garment, structed by the husband's peacetime is, in essence, gradually raises head tem- easily punctured by a knife will, normally don't give an act of war," Johnson says, perature 1°C. blade called Now." the sperm to the widow." "because there is a definite Hancock wanted the —Graham Swift Instead, she says, they just

risk of it going off acciden- potential benefits of heat "let ii defrost."— Eric Mishara tally."— Eric Mishara without its drawbacks, Rais- SPERM RIGHTS ing overall body temperature "A wondrous dream, a fantasy increases central-nervous- A Paris court recently incarnate, fiction completes system speed but also awarded a widow the right to us, mutilated beings bur- causes heat stress, an effect her late husband's sperm dened with the awful dichot- producing higher than nor- so that she could conceive omy of having only one life mal error rates on perfor- his child. The widow, Corrine and the ability to desire mance tests. So Hancock Parpalaix, sued a French a thousand." devised an apparatus to raise sperm bank when it refused —Mario Vargas Llosa head temperature without to give her the seed of her raising body temperature. late husband, Alain Parpalaix.

"If there is hope for men, it is Using the heating helmet He had made the sperm- because we are animals." along with a nonhealing bank deposit after being —Robert Ardrey placebo helmet, Hancock diagnosed for testicular can- conducted four preliminary cer, the disease that eventu- killed didn't "A nation . . . is just a society performance experiments ally him. but he for hating foreigners. on 50 people of varying provide for disposition of the —Olaf Stapledon ages. Hancock tested his sperm in his will. — —

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symptom of SIDS deaths. Santa Monica, California- PAIR POWER The new study hints that based Rand Corporation, this these very high levels of do- "space congestion" could On expeditions requiring pamine might cause apnea have dire consequences here long periods of isolation, male- and thus SIDS. on Earth. female pairs seem to per- Some people, though, are Rand's A. L Hiebert says form better and with less skeptical. Says Bonnie Nel- that when satellites are too stress than individuals do. son, a county health nurse in close together—for example, In a study that may have Washington State who coun- when they are shifted to implications for space expe- sels grieving parents of SIDS avoid hitting another object ditions, University of Virginia victims: "A lot of SIDS studies they can pick up radio trans- anthropologist Marianne don't have enough people missions that were intended George observed small- in either the study group for their neighbors. Their group dynamics during the or the control group." The new inability to sort out these sig- yearlong Frozen Sea Expedi- report is based on autopsies nals could lead to mass tion to Antarctica,

CRIB-DEATH CLUE of 13SIDSmfanisandfive electronic confusion. If some Led by physician, author, controls. crisis (say. a nuclear war) and explorer Dr. David Lewis, Sudden infant death syn- SIDS researcher Perrin is were to occur, military satel- the four men and two women drome, or SIDS. claims also caulious. The extraordi- lites would be overloaded were the first people in the lives of 6,000 to 7,000 narily high dopamine levels, with competing signals, nearly 50 years to intentionally babies each year in the he says, may themselves causing disruption of critical spend winter aboard a ship

United States. It's the leading be only an effect of the real— data transmission. in Antarctic ice. Part of the cause of death in infants and still unknown—cause So far 15,000 pieces of team traveled through 850 under one year old, and its of SIDS.— Joel Davis space junk have been identi- miles of sea ice by sled,

cause or causes are still fied, including more than observing break patterns and unknown. "Every thought is a feat of 1.200 active and inactive sat- collecting biological and " Now a new clue has sur- association. ellites. Since NASA is charg- weather data. faced. Canadian medical —Robert Frost ing $35 million to bring "The two male-female researchers led by Dr. D. G. down a single troubled satel- couples were highly stable Perrin have found a major "Money has proved the most lite, the cost of salvaging and effective working teams," difference in the levels of the dangerous o! man's the entire junkyard is ob- George says, while the two " brain chemical dopamine hallucinogens. viously prohibitive. unattached males "became in the bodies of infants who —Lewis Mumford But there are at least two have died of S!DS. The techniques that could keep victims had up to ten times "We do not know more about the problem from getting any as much dopamine in their mankind than ancient worse. One is to engineer carotid bodies, located philosophers did, although rocket fuel so as to avoid ex- next to the carotid arteries, we have more details" plosions, which create hun- as did infants who had died of —Eugene Weber dreds of small pieces non-SIDS causes. and problems— instead of The carotid arteries carry SPACE JUNK one large one. The second, blood to (he brain, and the and perhaps more promis- researchers call the tenfold That narrow band of space ing, is an international plan increase in dopamine near where satellites roam is currently under negotiation those arteries "particularly beginning to resemble an that would require all satellites striking." Earlier experiments alley on New Year's Day. But to carry enough extra fuel have shown that among instead of empty beer cans, so at the poini of "death" they other things, dopamine injec- space is crowding up with could be fired out of harm's tions in humans and animals its own special brand of way into a deep-space reduce breathing by acting debris: everything from graveyard.—Bili Lawren directly on the carotid bodies. burned-out rocket engines to

or cessation of satellites. In fact, ac- "Light is darkness, lit up. " Expedition: Apnea, dead \ The Frozen Sea /

breathing, is almost always a cording to a new study by the —John Bradbury I triumph lor mixed pairs. antagonistic to the expedi- matches seem to precipitate tion's aims." At one point, the a rise in the nafional homi- two men did not wash for cide rates. "Because boxing six months, and they slept rewards violent behavior," hours longer than other team Phillips says, "I wanted to see members. Eventually, they what happens lo homicide were relieved of many duties rates after heavily publicized and did not accompany events in which violent be- the sled crews. havior is punished." George believes sexual Correlating figures from trust ration was a minor factor the National Center for Health and attributes difficulties Statistics with "public punish- Phillips thai the two men experienced to At left, Etari Patz as he looked live years ago. At right, a ments," found personality and motivational computer-warped projection of what he might look tike today. "there is indeed an average problems. Although a lengthy drop of about ten percent trial sail did not foreshadow difficult aspects of the on- But the system has another in homicide rates during the the expedition's problems, going search is lhat Patz is application. New York plastic four days after publicized George said that simulations now eleven, with the facial surgeon Dr. Barry Weintraub harsh punishments." In "as close as possible lo features of a preteen. making is using a Burson setup to contrast, unpublicized harsh the real thing" might help his five-year-old photographs show patients how they punishments had no effect avoid similar trouble. hopelessly outdated. will look after cosmetic sur- on the murder rate, Noting that her study is Enter New York conceptual gery. "It can take the wrinkles For those who would herald without statistical validity, artist Nancy Burson and off your face," Burson says, these findings as proof of punishment's deterrent George said it is difficult to her Face Systems, Inc. In "shorten your nose, even capital reproduce the stress caused 1981 Burson patented an in- reduce your breasts. For effect, Phillips has a word by lite-lhreatening danger genious procedure whereby plastic surgeons, it'll be an of caution. "The heavyweight in simulations. a photograph can be ail-purpose tool." question," he says, "is, Both she and Lewis rec- "stretched" to predict what — Bill Lawren Does capital punishment ommend that "nominal quali- the subject will look like in the have a greater deterrent ef- fications should be a sec- future. In Burson's technique 'We have art in order not to fect than life sentences? rate ondary consideration on a TV camera scans the die ot the truth." I found that the murder pioneering expeditions. Inex- subject's face, then feeds —Friedrich Nietzsche dropped just as significantly perienced but positively that visual information to a after highly publicized life

it after exe- motivated people can ... rise digitizer, which translates it THE GILMORE EFFECT sentences as did to a high level of achieve- into computer language. cutions."— Bill Lawren ment."—Allan Maurer The computer then "warps" On January 17, 1977, the the face in a way that imitates state of Utah played the "Euphoria spreads over our the effects of aging. executioner's song for con- culture like the broad grin Law-enforcement officials demned killer Gary Gilmore of an idiot." immediately became inter- Apparently, the whole coun- —Robert Warshow ested, and Burson soon try was listening: Over the constructed updated com- four days following Gilmore's COMPUTERIZED AGING puter photos of three missing death by firing squad the children. A Burson photo of national homicide rate Five years ago. first-grader twelve-year-old Floridian dropped by a statistically Elan Patz set out to catch a Dee Scofield was shown on significant 5 percent. school bus in New York Cily's national television, resulting This "Gilmore effect" is fashionably funky SoHo in several sightings of the one of the highlights of a new district. But; a kidnapper ap- missing girl. These cases sludy by David Phillips, a parently intervened, and prompted the FBI's interest sociologist at the University Patz has not been seen since. and Burson's subsequent of California at San Diego. Law-enforcement officials involvement in the case of Earlier. Phillips had shown that find that one of the most Etan Patz. heavily publicized boxing " — "

CDfUTIRJUURJl

rhythm, harmony, and perfor- Classic Quimbaya. Until Valley. Donald Lathrap, mance— musicians, for recently, the only evidence of professor of anthropology at instance— tend to be left- its existence was a remark- the University of Illinois, faced, says Smith. People able collection of gold ob- believes the Quimbaya fled

with good speaking skills jects, the most elegant in the in all directions, bringing like politicians—tend to New World and by far the metal technology to the much be right-faced most technologically sophis- more primitive people in According to Smith, faced- ticated, made by a complex Peru, Central America, and, ness is genetic and appears casting process called the ultimately. Mexico. at birth, as opposed to lost-wax technique. Most of No one knows what else handedness, which may not the pieces are small con- they might have passed appear until the age of three. tainers worn around the neck on. The only information we Since perceptual develop- to carry the lime that South have about the Classic ment is intricately linked American Indians chew Quimbaya at present is that to lateral dominance and with coca leaves. they were brilliant metallurg- since infants begin to learn Archaeologists assumed ists who did coke. "This

speech almost immediately, that this technologically small area of a small town is

the study of facedness advanced society must have our first look under the ash." could lead to a better under- developed sometime be- says Lathrap, "so we're in FACEDNESS standing of dyslexia, speech tween ad 400 and 800. Now the position of trying to figure

disabilities, and other learn- it appears that date has to out what New York looks

I! you're an orator, there's a ing disorders. be pushed back a full millen- like with the evidence from good chance you're right- Smith sees facedness as nium. Graduate studenl an Illinois farmhouse." faced. If you're musical. the first "concrete, objective John Isaacson has discov- —Leah Wallach you're probably left-faced. basis for reading cerebral ered an ash -cove red town Facedness, a newly de- dominance. That's something whose inhabitants traded with "History contains no tacts fined feature of brain-hemi- that handedness could the Quimbaya. The town but those that are the most sphere dominance, is based never provide." was occupied from 1500 B.C. thoroughly improbable from on observations ol lip. tongue, —Paul Dusseaul! until it was destroyed by the standpoint of probability and jaw movemenls. Right- an eruption in 600 ac— 1,000 theory. faced people make more use "How narrow our souls be- years before the rise of the —Stanislaw Lem of the right side of the face. come when absorbed in any Inca and Maya. " While speaking, they raise the present good or ill! It is only The eruption that buried lis not too late tomorrow to right brow a bit higher than the though! of the future the newly excavated town be brave." the left, and [hey often turn that makes them great. was one ol a series that. —John Armstrong, in the head to the left when —Johann Paul Richter devastated the entire Cauca The Art of Preserving Health speaking to display more of the right side of the face. LOST CIVILIZATION For left-faced persons, these features are reversed. A great culture flourishes Karl U. Smith, emeritus in the volcanic Cauca Valley professor of psychology at region of Colombia and the University of Wisconsin- Ecuador centuries before the Madison, uses direct obser- birth of Christ. Then one vation and static clues to day, 2,500 years ago, the determine facedness. "In a mountains burst into explosive right-faced person, the violence, and all traces of jaw and the brow are closer this ancient people vanish. together on the left side It sounds like the premise than en the right," he says. of an Indiana Jones movie.

"The dominant side tends to which only shows that life be more open." sometimes foreshadows pop

People with an aptitude for art. The lost culfure is called 40 OMNI "

common industrial and Our brains retrieve informa- The memories are in the research solvent loulene, 75 tion like this: Let's see, uh, his pattern of the connections.

/ set of equations, percent fewer cancers oc- name started with an M , With a

. Hopfield curred than when a solvent think . , he was from La Jolla, has endowed a with neither a promoting or La Honda, or maybe it computer with the ability to nor inhibiting effect was used. was La Canada, something set up simple neural nets the the brain does, to re- The inhibiling effect was with a La in it . . . and anyway, way not permanent. "The toulene he kept a baby alligator in member and forget, free-as- had to be applied regularly," the bathtub, and one time it sociate, and even create Weiss said. Ironically, the bit his date, what's her false memories. "Every mem-

chemical is itself a mild pro- name—Donna—with the ory is embedded in many

moter. "Whether it's better pink Mustang—uh, uh. Maur- connections," explains Hop- field, "and each connection to be exposed to a weak ice . . . Maurice Quacken- promoter to avoid a strong bush! is involved in several memo-

one is something we can't Now, though, California ries." The result is a system answer right now," Weiss said. Institute of Technology bio- that can use incomplete But, he adds, the research physicist John Hopfield has information to find a memory. may point the way lo devel- written a computer program Of course, the brain's organic, oping substances that if that remembers like hu- neurons are whereas WASH-AWAY CANCER applied regularly would inhibit mans—sort of. He has built a those in Hopfield 's program cancer promoters without computer memory out of are mathematical/electrical. Someday you may be able such drawbacks. the mathematical equivalent Also, the Caltech program neurons; the hu- to buy an ounce of cancer At some point in the future, of neurons. Ihe brain's cellu- has only 100 brain has upward of prevention in a bar of bath Wei-s speculates, it may lar building blocks. man soap. So say Ohio Slate be possible to include can- "The system has one hun- 100 billion. University researchers study- cer-inhibiting substances dred 'neurons,' " explains Still, Hopfield has achieved of sorts ing multistage cancer devel- in soap or other cosmetics, Hopfield, "each of which at organic intelligence opment. Many cancers, though they would have any time has a value of zero in his computer. He's trained they believe, are caused by a to be chemically compati- or one. One means on, it to act like a limax, a garden conditioned Iwo-step process. First, a ble.— Allan Maurer firing. Zero means it's not slug that can be carcinogen alters a cell's firing. Some of the neurons to avoid potatoes, Judith Hooper chromosomes. "Still, the cell "We are at times too ready to are making inhibitory con- — may remain viable for years." believe that the present is nections to the off neurons to left explains Dr. Harold Weiss. the only possible state ol keep them off. Some make "Honesty's praised, then " Then, later, a " promoter" things." connections to the firing to freeze. substance kicks the trans- —Marcel Proust neurons to keep them firing. —Juvenal formed cell into wild, cancer- ous reproduction, A COMPUTER THAT- Though some carcinogens FREE-ASSOCIATES can act as their own pro- moters, Weiss thinks it is more Can a computer memory common (or a person to be be designed that would exposed to a carcinogen imitate human memory? once and then to a promoter A typical computer mem- at a later time, ory can be likened to a During their experiments, very tall, very skinny library the researchers discovered a of 100,000 floors, with one chemical that vastly inhibited book stored per floor. To get skin cancer on mice that information out, all we have had been exposed to both a to know is the floor it's stored potent carcinogen and on. This is known as "ad- promoters. When the pro- dressable memory." Bui our A futuristic. computer might think like this: "Square rootol moters were dissolved in the brains don'! work like that. sixteen? Six, right? No. roots are round. Wait! I've got il. Four!" coruTiruuuRJi

your gauges over oncoming TRANQUILIZING as insomnia, hypertension, traflic (an obvious safety MACHINE and "neurotic disturbances."

problem). ADD's heads-up (There is also speculation display would project them The researcher places a that the Soviets have an forward about 40 teet, and nervous cat in a metal box. advanced version of the ma- also downward, so that your Next to the box is an odd chine that can be used for speed and fuel level would machine, a collection of World mind control at a distance. appear beyond the front War ll-vintage tubes and See "The Mind Fields," edge of the car hood and wires. by Kathleen McAuliffe. Feb- down on the pavement. The researcher throws the ruary 1985.)

The 40-foot distance is im- switch, the machine hums, The concept of the Lida is portant, explains ADD's and within a few minutes the as simple as its tube technol- Chris Outwater, because the cat calms down and stares ogy. The machine broad- human eye focuses pretty transfixed at the walls of casts powerful radio waves

much the same for 40 feet as the box. It remains in this in Ihe 40-megahertz band.

it does for infinity. The prob- zombielike trance for as long These low-frequency waves lem with conventional instru- as 20 to 30 minutes after simulate the brain's own ment panels, says Outwater, the machine is turned off. electromagnetic emissions is not so much that the driver The Jerry L. Pettis Memorial during periods of deep sleep. HOLOGRAMS FOR has to take his eyes off the Veterans Hospital, of Loma When placed in proximity YOUR CAR road but that he must con- Linda, California, is testing to the Lida, a laboratory stantly refocus his eyes just such a device. The animal's brain waves, heart- Soon you may no longer to read the gauges. machine, called a Lida, was beat, and respiration slow have to take your eyes off the Outwater estimates that developed in the Soviet down. "It looks as though in- road lo read your car's in- the holographic dashboard Union and is on loan to the stead of taking a Valium," strument panel. Instead, displays could begin appear- hospital as part of a U.S./ says Dr. Ross Adey, chief of holographic images of your ing in high-end models of U.S.S.R. medical exchange research at the hospital, speedometer, tachometer, consumer cars within the next program. The Russian- "it would be possible to and fuel gauge will be pro- few years. language manual that came achieve a similar result, prob- jected out over the road, ADD's biggest challenge is with the Lida refers to it as ably in a safer way. by using in front of the car hood. to cut the cost of the system. a "distant pulse treatment a radio field." Heads-up instrument dis- Current military models run apparatus" for psychological The Lida has not yet been

plays are holographic-imag- about $70,000. Using new problems. It's used in Soviet approved for use on humans ing systems originally devel- methods to manufacture the clinics to treat such problems in this country. According oped so that fighter pilots holograms and simpler to Adey, however, the Soviets wouldn't have to take their electronic displays, the con- have been using it to treat eyes off the sky. Now several sumer version should add people lor perhaps 25 car makers in America and $500 to SI, 000 to-.lhe car's years.— Nick Engler Japan are investigating sticker price when Ihe first or developing this technology models appear.—Tim Onosko "If men were to become even for automobiles. uniformly mad, they might Advanced Dimensional "Artists never thrive in colo- agree tolerably well with " Displays (ADD), a Van Nuys, nies. Ants do. What the each other. California, company staffed budding artist needs is the —Francis Bacon by holographers formerly privilege oi wrestling with his with Wall Disney Productions, problems in solitude—and "The miracle is that the is working with the Ford now and then a piece of universe created a part of Motor Company on a flip- red meat." itself to study the rest of down holographic screen that —Henry Miller it, and that this part, in study- wouldmerge images from ing itself, finds the rest of an electronic display with a "God is lor men and religion the universe, in its own natural " view of the road ahead. for women. inner realities."

But rather than superimpose . —Joseph Conrad —John C. Lilly 42 OMNI ***<*«* ' »< ^**Vfc.»

^ I

KINDLING COURAGE

A firewalker's burning desire: to ga/n control or his wor '

tographers, a TV news crew, a fire marshal, perception of pair ic^poraniy blocked dur- two security guards, a maid, a maintenance ing the firewalk, only to surlace later? Or can man, one oi the hotel's managers, and sev- science explain —perhaps expose— the eral of Robbins's staff mill about. rite's mysteries? Omni's research into the "This is a particularly difficult group." says phenomenon suggests that where there is Richard Greene, Robbins's attorney and smoke, there is not necessarily lire. spokesman. Greene hangs close to the fire. Unlike levitalion, walking on water, or Suffering from the flu, he has just dragged spoon bending, firewalking occurs regularly himself driven from bed and to Palm Springs in public locations all over the world, and it (or the firewalk. "Tony's been having a hard has been observed by the sympathetic and time getting ready. them Some groups seem the skeptical. It has appeared in disparate to get the feeling quickly, but this has been cultures without evident points of contact: in one of the hardest." Greece and Bulgaria; in Spain; in Brazil and

A few minutes later a messenger emerges Belize: in Trinidad, Tahiti, and Japan; in Fiji, from the hotel, and two young men set to China, India, and Sri Lanka; and in many work with shovels. They load the uncon- places in the United States, from California sumed logs and about half the glowing coals and New Mexico to New York. into a wheelbarrow that 'hey park in a roped- Investigators have long challenged fire- off spot a short distance away. On parallel walkers' special abilities, In 1935 represen- beds of wet sod they spread the remaining tatives of the British Medical Association in coals two tracks about three feet wide by journeyed to Fiji to observe islanders troop ten feet long. They rake the coals evenly and about on handball-size volcanic stones that beat them flat with the back of the shovel, had been heated among burning logs. The sending explosions of sparks into the air. "He breathe noisily and carry one fist clenched might remain on his soles. Planting his legs of people. The coals darken. Soon incan- walk. There is a scintillation of strobes: His doctors agreed that the stones were hot, that doesn't want it too hot." one explains with at the end of a rigid arm. apart, he punches downward with his right descent lumps are the exception. Looking feel, turned by Ihe flashes to a corpselike the dancers indeed trod upon them, and that unexpected candor. Robbins leads a chant. "Repeat after me! hand and shakes himself. upward, some walkers start on a wrong blue, seem to dance jerkily across the coals. they neither took opiates nor donned any ." two fire tenders are still working I lirst The when As take the step . . A wild cheer goes up. heading and stray off the bed. Almost all walk But there can be no doubt: Anthony Robbins protection. Furthermore, the dancers' feet did the doors of the building swing open and a "As I take the first slep!" He stations himself beside the lirst person strangely: some stiffly, some leaning for- walks on fire. Many of his followers will say not burn. Immediately before the ceremony music pours followed ." wave of out, by Rob- will . "My body do . in line, and one of his staff takes the same ward from the waist, some almost running. he has changed their lives. They feel pow- and afterward, as a sort of impromptu con- bins his snorting, yelping and stomping, dis- "My body will do!" position at the other line. He towers over the Some walkers shout "Cool moss!' Others erful, euphoric, rejuvenated, cleansed. trol, the doctors applied burning cigarettes ." ciples, It's a mixed group: children, several it "Whatever takes . . neophyte, pouring a stream of encourage- whisper it. None linger on the coals. Professionals credit the experience with in- to the soles of a few iirewalkers. The Fijians elderly people, a liberal dose of yuppies, "Whatever it takes!" is, ment into her ear. "Now! Slronger than you've A young woman with a I ess- than -robust creasing iheir incomes; ihe elderly, with re- "reacted normally"—that they flinched middle-aged men and Their feel women. are "To protect itself!" ever been before! You have it!" he shouts, air balks once, twice: Robbins keeps at her Iiet from chronic forget lulness, nearsight- and their feet blistered. The doctors said that bare, and they roll their pants legs "To protect above itself!" And the young woman— fist raised, gaz- "You can! You have it!" She finally walks. A edness, backache, and their reliance on while Tantrist Hindu coalwalkers, whom they their calves. all Stripped of inhibitions, they Channeling the followers into two lines, ing upward, chanling "Cool moss!" and huge cheer goes up (She alone will later ^eciical aoctors. had also observed, go into a "trance," Fiji- prance and toss about. themselves Many Robbins then moves to the end of one pyre. slriding with a rigid, stanling posture she has admit publicly to having blistered.) "It turned my life around," says Charlotte ans do not. They could give no explanation Robbins raises his eyes, sucks in some air. probably never used before— crosses the By the lime the last disciple pads across, Hale, eighty-two, oi Los Angeles, "It's some- for the firewalkers' lack of injuries. his squares shoulders, and with a brisk, de- bed of coals into a net of waiting arms and only a few incandescent coals remain. Rob- thing greater than confidence; it's reassur- Decades later, the Fijians realized the Above: Firewalkers in Tahiti Hop) and Fiji (bot- termined walk, strides across the coals. He cries ot "You did it!" bins signals for fresh coals. is that anything is possible." commercial possibilities of their skill; in 1973 tom); Tony Robbins hotfooting it with John But- and "Wipe your feet!" A new bed ance 1 navigates the path in lour fington and Tee Pa_ssanante, two ot his stallers. or five steps. At The atmosphere is electric: The growing laid and smoothed. II glows an almost un- The primitive rite does seem miracu- they took their act on the road for 37 ap- Next page: A Greek liredancer prepares fiis the end. where two helpers wait with a crowd of those who have passed success- interrupted orange. He takes three or lour lous—alter all. there are no unguents, no pearances in hotels in Hawaii and Canada, stage (top), liredancer in a stale trance spraying hose, o( (bot- he wipes his feet on Ihe wet fully now shares the ordeal of each new ir deep breaths, exhales powerfully, and tricks, just flesh and coals. But is firewalking Another nest ol Iirewalkers exists in sev- tom): a Robbins disciple is urged on (far right). grass to extinguish any burning flecks that tiate. Shrieks go up as the ecstasy leaks out strides across the path with a measured really a victory ol mind over matter? Is ihe "eral villages in northern Greece. In the small 46 OMNI 47 lown ol Lankadas. rhey perform an annual edge thai one is n rv. no, '1-2 viOO an hour may hypnotic techniques are other psychother- rile that involves music, daecinc. [he sacri- have a stimulating effect,) Like tenderleet apeutic methods. Some therapists consider fice of a bull, and, lately, a sizable delegation shooting rapids in a raft, his clients have little this technique cancerousiv manipulative and

ot journalists, scientists, and curious on look- time to wonder where they are being taken question its iheerelical basis. But its more

ers. The lirewalkers complain ol Ihaeoiyl or why they agreed to go. modest practitioners say that its power is including burdens, he rs;ng cost oi suitable By overcoming their tear Of walking on exaggerated—that it's no more dangerous black bulls and ropes for crowd control, coals. Robbins says, clients will learn to call lhan .any other kind of knowledge and lhatit Thefirewalkers of Lankadas carry effigies upon hidden courage, This quality will per- is but dne of a number of valuable therapeu- of certain saints with them and are said to mit them to gain love, linancial success, and tic tools. spend half an hour or more on the coals. "personal power." Robbins is not modest Robbins's longer seminars include sev- They claim the saints protect them from about his own power. Using a jargon com- eral hours on diet and health. He mixes some burns, butthe iocal bishop, with a fairly sure posed oi words whose normal meaning he malernal-soundng prescriptions-— regular anthropological instinct, considers the activ- moones or disca'os. he claims Ta: after a exercise, deep breathing, lots of green veg- ity pagan and has "nod to discourage it. He's brief observation period, he can know the etables—with a bizarre theory of disease. been unsuccessful thus far. "syntax'' of a person's thoughts. In effect, he This stew he serves to his clients is sea- In antiquity, nrewa king was a rile of spring. claims to be able to duplicate that person's soned with vehemen! arguments against the Sir James Frazer suggested in Ihe Golden expertise or accomplishments. consumption of milk ("Cow pus! Do you want Bough that the idea was to warm the. god. He harps' upon the speed with which he to be a. cow-sucker?"), fermented toods effigies the walkers carried and thereby re- says he can change people, It usually takes ("They stink; they're rotten!"), and meat, mind the sun gods to warm the earth and 5 to' 15 minutes to eftect cures of various which he insists gets its flavors irom urea Ihe crops. Frazer ! s explanation is uncon- neuroses, phobias, and other behavioral and colonic flora that travel osmotically vincing: It would seem that merely lighting a problems—he is the "one-stop therapist," through the cadaver of the slaughtered ani- fire in front of a statue ought to have done Stubborn problems like coma or autism may mal ("Do you want to eat the urine and shit the trick. The exposure of human partici- require from 15 io 45 minutes. Robbins also of corpses?"). Denying the existence of in-

pants to the rigors of fire has a more obvious fection, Robbies odds :hat all oisease is due

purpose: It impaesihe magical power of the io environmental toxins, faulty mental atti- ceremony to humans. tudes, or improper nutrition. In the biblical story of Shadrach, Me- Robbins's rapl lislere-'s appear to accept shach, and Abednego, a mysterious fourth his assertions. And they soak up Robbins's »/n 1935 members of figure joins the three brothers o! Daniel in the enthusiasm. Vivdly cha'ismalie tie- works the fiery furnace. represents divine power. 1 He the British Medical Association crowd with untinng zos . and easy skill. Firsl Theill-temperec Nebuchadnezzar, who has he strides the stage like an athletic Mick went to Fiji to had them tossed into the fire, interprets their Jagger, delivering nis gag lines with the tim- indemnity as proof of their righteousness. watch islanders traverse hot ing of a stage comedian, then he murmurs They have passed the thai by fire. volcanic stones. confidences into a microphone while Trial by fire is having a renaissance, its re- slouching, for a rare rest, on a bar stool. He The doctors could give no ligious Irappings have been discarded. But leads the crowd in sing. eg. clapp'eg. 'lug- the movement has several prophets, of which reason for the ging, and dancing; he plays silly, congenial the most ambitious, conspicuous, and dra- parlor games with them; in a passage of in- Fijians' lack of injuries.^ matic is undoubtedly Anthony Robbins. spired hokeyness he slams his list karate Like Other firewalking ; nst motors in the fashion through a couple of pine boards. United States, Robbins claims to sell free- Many of his aliens consider Robbins to be dom from tear. He insists that' firewalking is sufficient testimonial for his prescriptions. ancillary—the advertisement, not the prod- Early in the session Robbins announces uct. But il has mace him somewhat famous asserls thai he halved the time spent by the lhat he will give the audience subliminal and quite rich, gotten him onto television and U.S. Army to train marksmen. commands that will enable them, when the into magazines, and impressed his name Some ol his cairns are as difficult to verify time comes, to "do the impossible"—to walk upon the minds of many people who do not as to believe. Spokesmen from the Penta- on fire. Laterhe conducts a full-fledged hyp- ordinarily take so t imprevomonl seminars. gon, Army Training and Doctrine Command, notic induction. His clients lie on Ihe floor in Robbins is twenty-four years old. He left and the Fort Benn.ng '"arksn ianship school the darkened room, their eyes closed, He Glendora High School, near Los Angeles, say iha; -.'airing times have recenlly been leads them, with a -corny recorded accom- shortly before graduating, resigning the increased, not reduced, and that they can't paniment (violins, running water, chirping posl— of which he is still proud — of student recall an Anthony Robbins. Robbins himself birdies, theme from Chariots ot Fire) that he body president. Hewasa"shrimp,"hesays, hints darkly that the Army wanlstoi keep his cues, with occasioea r-palo.n; gestures and when he started high school, but when he conlribution hush-hush. glances at his watch, while sitting in a pool left, he was a near-giant, six foot six with Robbins attributes his remarkable pow- of light. The lerg:hy sess oo's -ecurring re- huge, fleshy hands, size-16feet, and the big, ers io 'noiroii-'yusiic programming," or IMLR irain is llial Ihe pa-iidpants should go back clean-shaven jaw ol G.I. Joe. His propor- which he describes as a "technology" for Fn 'their minds to a time when they were en-

' tions work well on a stage, like the exagger- understanding ano hlljcncing others. He tirely loved and "comfortable, creative, con- ated masks ot No players. takes pleasure in describing how he can fident. curious — like a child." His seminars— they are really more like manipulate people's'behavior by giving them By midnight 100 people will be ready to revival meetings— are of various forms, and subliminal cues through his "physiology" and follow Robbins through fire; five or ten will

- sizes. to firewalking : He claims have taught through language. not, Those who follow mus . s gn a waiver. to 15,000 people, most of them through, a NLP was developed by a therapist and They also tread on a sheet of soaking-wet four-hour session called "Fear into Power: linguist and is 'based on the techniques of artificial turf before reaching the coals. Of

The Firewalk Experencc' ($ 100). About 100 .several famous psyohoTerapists: Milton Er- the 100 who try, a few may be burned, though people .attend each seminar. ickson, Virgina Sate. Gregory Bateson. and not seriously, despite Robbins's insistence

For $2,900 you can spend two weeks with Frilz Perls. Unlike some- of the more tradi- during the seminar that the coals could vir- him at a vacation retreat and become a tional psychotherapists, those touting NLP tually melt your feet off or even kill you. Burns,

"neurolinguistics professional," attach less importance to discovering the it is understood, will occur only if the walker Robbins conducts the seminars with an origins, or "content, "ofthe problem, prefer- is not "in state." How the mind will protect energy that is torrential, tidal. (The knowl- ring .to attack its "structure" directly through the feet is obscure, but lobbies -alks abool Research suggests that blue glows, pulsing figures, and faces from the past

will light our journey to the stars PERCEPTION ON AN

BY RONALD K.SIEGEL

their how future astro- Claude was an unlikely selection for Ihe first on a mission of own: learning contact mission. Short and fai, wearing an nauls might perceive alien environments and the orange suil that bulged with biomedical aliens Ihemselves. Their endeavor, part of the new equipment, he looked more like a whiskered pumpkin field of exopsychology, will help us understand than a highly trained observer. But strapped into how astronauts might react to unusual land and life his rotating pod. he continually scanned the viewing forms on worlds other than our own. Boldly going port for a glimpse of the alien. Watching the strange where no Homo sapiens had gone before, Captain creature and tapping his impressions onto computer Claude was both pilot and progenitor of our own keys. Claude nimbly encoded color and shape. journey to alien shores. He also watched a screen Hash pictures of Earth That journey begins with the simple but formidable animals for comparison. Finally, he compared the trait of curiosily. Like the cinematic apes in the living alien with the image of a tarantula, a beast he beginning of 2001; A Space Odyssey, all primates, had never actually seen. including man. share the basic drive to explore. After Claude had observed the alien for hours, the But research with monkeys like Claude indicates that pod door opened, and the creature crawled inside. different individuals will perceive novel stimuli in Claude's stubby fingers froze on the computer keys; different ways. Young monkeys will fearlessly reach he screamed and defecated as his suit automati- out to contacl alien objects placed in their midst. cally delivered a tranquilizer. Older monkeys, like Claude, with greater visual This surreal scene took place not in the reaches of experience, are more cautious about Ihe unfamiliar. a distant galaxy but in a laboratory at the down-to- And for reasons unknown but deserving of note earth campus of the Universily of California at Los by NASAs women astronauts, females are freer and Angeles (UCLA). The pod and suit were designed less overtly cautious in their forays than males are. by technicians Irom the space-biology program, Experiments with baboons, moreover, indicate that the same program lhal prepared nonhuman primates the ideal contacl mission would be a team of individ- for space before project Mercury. The pod was an uals including at least one female. In the experiments earthbound capsule programmed to roll, pitch, the primates were systematically exposed to an and yaw while powerful gyros simulated gravitational alien — a motorized mop that clicked, vibrated, and forces. The alien was a living tarantula. And Claude moved about their room. The baboons made more was a lovable, 20-year-old rhesus monkey, born team investigations thai" nciviciual investigations; and and raised in a laboratory that excluded all contact females consistently made more contact than "' with other animals. groups of males did. The scientists controlling Claude's voyage were But regardless of the composition of the contact

PAINTING BY CHRISTIAN BROUTIN team, dealing with aliens will not be easy. ation that Fmadelenlal've contact. When F where the eye may project images with or And the most forbidding of all aliens is likely grasped the satell te several limes during the without the presence of light. Neurons dis- to be the looming one. Our reaction to loom- fifth generation, G followed hisexample. By charging in the retina and visual cortex can ing aliens, creatures provoking terror in the seventeenth generation, everyone was make space seem gray rather than pitch monkeys and humans, is triggered when taking turns in playful scenes that would have black. These same neurons may induce approaching objecls create a visual pattern del gnled E.T.'s everywhere. spots, disks, streaks of lightning, glowing characterized by a rapidly expanding con- After a human contact team has been blue arcs, and even checkerboard patterns. tour. "that The alien oozed slowly out of a me- trained, Ihough, it will have to endure a long And blinking the eye's will not erase these teor iii The Blob invited interest, but the trek to the slars. And studies of modern-day patterns but only ilick them into rapid, right- creature lunging at the astronauts in Alien astronauts have already chronicled an ex- angle turns, not unlike the movements attrib- literally look their breath away. The tranquil- tensive list of perceptual p'oolems imposed uted to flying saucers. izer given to Claude might help astronauts by the rigors of space. The Space erivrcnmeri also makes it more to cope with such unexpected looming, but Perceplual difficulties, in fact, start during likely to detect images arising within the the stimulants carried by Gemini and Apollo launch, when gravitational forces exert structures ol the eye. The astronaut may see astronauts will only increase fear. pressure on the blood vessels of the eye. small dancing spots of light caused by the Despite the difficulties, primate studies The pressure produces phosphenes, spols shadows of red "floater" cells passing suggest that teams of astronauts can train of blue and gold light that could be inter- through retinal capillaries. He may see black new members to deal with aliens in increas- preted as external objects. As' acceleration lacework against a background of red, ingly effective ways. At Ihe Yerkes Regional increases, forces become so excessive that caused by blood vessels that cast shadows Primate Research Center, in Atlanta-. 17 suc- vision is dimmed or blacked out altogether. on photosensitive cells within the retina. cessive generations ol chimpanzees were Once in orbit, astronauts have even re- Other images could include bright spots

: ie;-'-i'. .- ;(j i c.j 'heir ability to 'Take contacl with a ported flashes o- light streaking by them. surrounded by a dark ring, caused by tear simulated satellite, a battery-operated plas- Apolb 14 pilot Edgar Mitchell, for instance, fluid or mucus on the cornea; a twinkling im- tic ball thai moved in irregular patterns and reported one Hash the: anneared "blue with age, formed when light is diffracted by ra- beeped. The first generation consisted of a a white cast, like a blue diamond"; and Sky- dial fibers of the eye's lens; and pulsating trio of the three oldest animals, labeled A, B, lab 4 pilol William Pogue reported "tadpoles figures, which result when blood vessels and C. In the second generation A was about three eighths of an inch long, at arm's distend onto underlying receptor cells. dropped, and a youngster, labeled D, was length." The tabloids cum ihese visions are On long missions in space, Ihese basic

added. The third generation consisted of C, UFOs. But as it turns out, the flashes are lights and images mark the first stage of the D, andf, and so on. Each trio lived together caused by cosmic nuclei interacting with the break with our ordinary concept of reality. for several weeks before a satellite landed human optical system. Like roadside beacons, they warn the trav- on the cage floor, Even without the presence of cosmic par- eler that up ahead lies not only the imagery The result? The first few trios avoided the ticles, the space environment can turn Ihe of 200Vs stargate corridor bul also the twi- satellite, and it wasn't until the fourth gener- visual apparatus into a miniature theater, lighl zone of hallucinations. FICTION After ten Peck had lived in the old "It can't be! How could I have years you know Elara house for some ten years been so blind? Good grief, (here's a house's every before she made the strange an attic in my house!" sound. So what do you discovery. Halfway upstairs She had marched up and down- do when you to the second floor, on the landing, stairs a thousand times on a thou- in the ceiling ... the trapdoor. sand days and had never seen.

1 hear something new, "Well, my God!" "Damned old fool.' stirring above? She stopped dead, mid-stairs, And she almost tripped going to glare at the surprise, daring down, having forgotten what she

BY RAY BRADBURY PAINTING BY EVELYN TAYLOR it to be true. had come up for in the first place. . . —" " " "

Before lunch, she arrived to stand under The patterns increased. The soft prowl- "Not sick? House ain't on fire?" the trapdoor again, like a tall, thin, nervous ings began to cluster toward an area above "No, no. No."

child with pale hair and cheeks, her too- and beyond her bedroom door. It was as if "Thank God. Silly me. Forgive?" bright eyes darting, fixing, staring. the tiny creatures, whatever they were; were "Forgiven."

"Now I've discovered the damn thing, what nuzzling another secret door, above, want- "Well, then . . . good night."

do I do with it? Storage room up there. I bet. ing out. Slowly, Clara Peck sat up in her bed. And ^Emma Crowley hung up. Well—" and slowly she put her weight to the floor, Clara Peck sat looking at the receiver for

And she went away, vaguely troubled, not wanting it to creak. Slowly she cracked a full minute, listening to Ihe signal, which feeling her mind slipping off, out of the sun. her bedroom door. She peered out into a said that someone had gone away, and then

"To hell with that, Clara Peck!" she said, hall flooded with cold light from a full moon, at last she placed the phone blindly back in vacuuming the parlor. "You're still only fifty- which poured through the landing window its cradle. She went back out to look up at seven. Not senile yet, by God!" to show her the trapdoor.

But still, why hadn't she noticed'? The trapdoor. It was quiet. Only a pattern of leaves, from

It was the quality of silence, that was it. Now, as if summoned by her warmth, the the window, flickered and tossed on its Herrool had never leaked, so no water had sounds of the liny, lost ghost feet above wooden frame. ever tapped the ceilings: iho nigh beams had rushed to cluster and fret at the rim of the Clara blinked at the ceiling. never shifted in any wind, and there were no trapdoor itself. "Think you're smart, don't you?" There were

mice. If the rain had whispered, or the beams Christ! thought Clara Peck, They hear me. no more prowls, dances, murmurs, or mouse

groaned, or the mice danced in her attic, They want me to— pavanes for the rest of that night. she would have glanced up and iound the The trapdoor shuddered gently with the trapdoor. tiny rocking weights of whatever it was arus- The sounds returned, three nighls later, But the house had stayed silent, and she tle up there. and they were larger. had stayed blind. And more and more of the invisible spider "Not mice," said Clara Peck. "Good-size

"Bosh] " she cried, at supper. She finished feet or rodent feet or the blown curls of old rats. Eh?" the dishes, read until ten, went to bed early. In answer, the ceiling above executed an

It was during that night that she heard the intricate cross-currenting ballet, without mu- first faint Morse-code tapping, the first graf- sic. This toe dancing, ol a most peculiar sort, fiti scratching above, behind the blank ceil- continued until the moon sank. ing's pale lunar face. Then, as soon as the light failed, the house midnight, Half asleep, her lips whispered. "Mouse?" ^Around grew silent, and only Clara Peck took up

And then it was dawn. she heard the mouse sounds breathing and life, again. By the end of the week the patterns were or the whatever- Going downstairs to fix breakfast, she fixed more geometrical. The sounds echoed in the trapdoor with her steady, small-girl stare they-were sounds drifting every upstairs room: the sewing room, the and fell her skinny fingers twitch to go fetch across her ceiling old bedroom, and in the library, where some the stepladder. former occupant had once turned Ihe pages like "Hell," she muttered. "Why bother to look milkweed ghosts and gazed over a sea of chestnut trees. at an empty attic? Next week, maybe." touching the lost On the tenth night, all eyes and no face, For about three days after that, the trap- with Ihe sounds coming in drumbeats and surfaces of the moon3 door vanished. weird syncopations, at three in the morning,

That is, she forgot to look at it. So it might Clara Peck flung her sweaty hand at the as well not have been there. telephone to dial Emma Crowley.

But around midnight on the third night, she "Clara! I knew you'd call!" heard the mouse sounds or the whatever- "Emma, it's three a.m. Aren't you sur- Ihey-were sounds drifting across her bed- and yellowed newspapers touched and rus-

room ceiling like milkweed ghosts touching tled the wooden frame. "No. 1 been lying here thinking of you. I the lost surfaces of the moon. Louder and still louder. wanted to call, but felt a fool. Something is From that odd thought she shifted to tum- Clara started io yell: "Git!" wrong, yes?"

bleweeds or dandelion seeds or just plain When the phone rang. "Emma, answer me this. If a house has an

dust shaken from an attic sill. "Gah!" gasped Clara Peck. empty attic for years, and all of a sudden She thought of sleep, but the thought didn't She felt a ton of blood plunge like a bro- has an attic full of things, how come?"— take. Lying flat in her bed, she watched the ken weight down her frame'to crush her toes. "I didn't know you had an attic ceiling so fixedly that she felt she could X- "Gah!" "Who did? Listen, what siarted as mice

ray whatever it was that cavorted behind the She ran to .seize, lift, and strangle the then sounded like rats and now sounds like

plaster. phone. cats running around up there. What'll I do?" A flea circus? A tribe of gypsy mice in ex- "Who?" sheened. "The telephone number of the Ratzaway odus from a neighbor's house? Several had "Clara! It's Emma Crowley! What's wrong?" Pest Team on Main Street is —wait. Here: been shrouded recently to look like dark cir- "My God!" shouted Clara. "You scared the Main seven seven seven nine nine. You sure cus tents so that pest killers could toss in hell out of me! Emma, why are you calling sorncil ling's in your attic?" killer bombs and run off to let the secret life this late?" "The whole .damned high-school track in the places die. There was a long silence as the woman team." The secret life had most probably packed across town found her own breath. — "Who used to live in your house, Clara?" silly, iis "It's I fur luggage and lied. Clara Peck's board- —1 couldn't sleep. had a hunch "Who—?" ing-house attic, free meals, was their new "Ernma^ "I mean, it's been clean all this time, right, home away from home. "No, let me finish. All of a sudden—I thought, and now, well, infested. Anyone ever die And yet . . Sara's not well, or Clara's hurt, or there?" As she stared, the sounds began again. Clara P.eck sank to the edge of the bed, "Die''"

They shaped themselves in patterns across the weighl ol Emma's voice pulling her down. "Sure, if someone died there, maybe you " the wide ceiling's brow: long lingernails that.- Eyes shut, she nodded. haven't got mice, at ail. scraping, wandered to this corner and that "Clara," said Emma, a thousand miles off, "You trying to tell me— ghosts?"

. of the shut-away chamber above. "you— all right?" , "Don't you believe in—" Clara Peck held her breath. 'All- right," said Clara, at last. "Ghosts or so-called friends who try 60 OMNI CO\'IINJ'_DONPAGE110 ,

THE ART OF ANALGESIA

3Y BRIAN McKERNAf

mind's-eye view of a headache, a particle

of Bayer aspirin (left)- y seems to explode in a storm of neural chaos. The branches '.).-

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: i intangible quality of :). L-a ---) /'.,- '' microscopeJ.he painkiller seems to ''. erupt and bum like fevers,. tfils medication helps to subdue FICTION

Resnick had almost everything— money, power, women. Now he's got something even better: the chance to live forever

BY GREGORY BENFORD

man who was going to live memories, though, and this one

Theforever looked happy. showed it. They called out to him, blew He came out of the hospital him kisses, clapped their gloved doors into the biting January hands wildly, jumped up and down to cold—a burly, tanned figure in a Wert- get a better look. meiler topcoat with the special cobalt Resnick gave the two-fingered V mist, textured sleeves, and black fur sign. They applauded more. mil. Walter James Resnick. a walking Some shoved and wriggled to get experiment. closer to the TV remote crew, mug- Ofl to the side, near the curb. Bren- ging for the cameras. The interview nan studied the crowd. Their faces was already in the can. shot inside, so jumped into prominence as the big the crew was just waiting, bored, for a lights went on, welcoming Resnick's tiller of Resnick leaving the hospital. exit, pinning him in kilowatts of bold Important people always had illumination. Resnick stopped, grin- crowds wailing outside. You had to ning — perfect teeth set against splice some of that into the footage: it smooth skin. There was no sign of the was part of the business. Otherwise, treatments, no washed-oui look how could you really be sure who was around the eyes, no thinning of the im- importanl? Brennan grinned humor- maculately combed black hair. He lessly. He had been a minor stringer waved with the casualness of habit. for the city's second-largest paper the looking at the mob without seeing it Herald, for thirty years. It had taught Resnick's advisers flanked him, him a lot about the chasm between basking in the spontaneous applause :he public and the private. and shouts. The crowd was in a good Resnick made a little speech that mood. The media had made Res- the wind caught and tore away. The nick's long battle with bone-marrow gusts brought light snow that llared cancer the stuff of legend—a lonely irto ex sience under the glaring lights struggle against apparently impossi- and then whirled away, darting under ble odds. the tires of traffic, making slush.

How had that commentator put it last A big snowflake stuck on Resnick's _ night? "The startling outcome capped cream shirt, next to the florid Demar- one of the most uplifting news events cus tie. The speech ended. It would ol recent memory." be ironic if the immortal man caught

Sure, if your memory was maybe pneumonia leaving the hospital. three weeks long. Mobs didn't have Resnick shook hands with the di- PAINTING BY ROBIN MULLER limo rector of the hospital and with the head sci- Another block. Brennan was getting wor- Mercedes away, and the was empty. toyer. Brennan entist for the research projecl, getting ried. JHis stomach started tightening up Beyond it was a big well-lit Resnick leaving the foyer through through the little ceremony lor Ihe cameras again. Tension always brought that on. That, could see as gracefully as possible. Then he ducked and the hot sensation lower down, like he some revolving doors. toward a black limousine. had to take a crap all of a sudden. Only he He followed, going past the attendant

It worked. Beyond the re- The crowd. cheered and surged toward never did, it just felt that way. Humiliating. He without a glance.

it, it still made his volving door was a sprawling inner garden, him. It was always that way with big celebs, had gotten used to but half the floor. It gave the but this time Ihere was a frantic edge to the lace burn. taking up ground excitement. He came to a big, glowing department impression of passing through a stand of gaily tinkling fountain halfway He's leaving, Brennan could imagine them store. It was closed, but the lights were still trees, with a before the thinking. Our brush with immortality, with' on. An ivory glow poured onto the street through. Brennan stopped just doors, be- something bigger than we are. The healthy, ahead. stone path reached large glass well-muscled frame bowed and slipped A grocery truck slid into the left-turn lane, cause through them he could see a guard on through the limousine door, not looking back.. clearing his view, and he suddenly saw the in uniform. An elevator door was closing Don't go, not yet. limo. He sped up. The limo pulled into the Resnick's party. Resnick went. The limousine pulled out. slow lane. Damn. He might be in there tor days. smart to Faceless assistants had slipped into Ihe front Brennan realized that he was going too There was probably some way Brennan couldn't seats. The darkened windows showed noth- fast to change lanes. He had to pass ihem, get past thai guard, but ing. Brennan couldn't even tell where Res- looking straight ahead. They turned right. think of any. over Ihe elevator. "When's nick was sitting. Not going to the Hilton, not unless the He walked to Brennan brushed by a man who was say- chauffeur was a complete moron. So much he coming down?" he asked the guard. "He doesn't tell me, bud." The eyes nar- ing to a woman, "I'll be able to say I saw the for the papers. rowed. "What you want?" first one, righl when he came out." Then again, maybe Resnick wasn't in any Brennan, reporter for the Her- The woman said, "Hey, did you see the particular hurry to get there. After all, Ihe man "I'm Herb a what a stringer was, way he looked? Like he'd just been to Flor- ald" People never knew in occasional pieces and ida or somethin'." that he just sent have steady newspaper work, so re- "Yeah, instead of lyin' around in a bottle didn't porter" went better. for three months." down "You got ID?" "News said he didn't even know it. Thought 6/\ big snowflake the little leather packet he'd been asleep overnight or somethin'." Brennan took out They both laughed. stuck on Resnick's shirt and unfolded to the Herald card. parked illegally halfway The man nodded. "No reporters inside, Brennan was right next to the down the block. The sudden snow flurry had that's the word." tie. speech " Brennan sighed realistically. "Yeah, print predictably jammed up traffic, so he kept . Demarcus The media are always the last." pace wi!h the limo. He lucked his hands inlo stopped. It would wouldn't let CBS follow him the pockets of his cloth overcoat and stud- "Hell, Resnick if immortal be ironic the man even that's what I heard. You got ied the building on his left. The driver never around, — to bitch." looked his way. got pneumonia no reason Brennan shrugged. "Yeah, maybe you're There was a parking ticket under his leaving the hospital* right. I wait here?" windshield wiper. He crumpled it up and Can "No way, man." The guard sucked on his threw it into the gutter. "Resnick's security people say no- Brennan slid behind the wheel of his teeth. allowed to wait inside the anonymous blue sedan as the traffic light body should be changed to green. building." they afraid I'm going to He edged out into traffic and gunned the now had all the time in the world. "Why not? Are It breathe engine. The light turned yellow before he Brennan turned into the next driveway. on him?" laughed. "Guess so. They even reached the corner. was a big sleel and glass bank, with a The guard outside in those trees, earlier. His stomach knotted. He tramped down, sprawling parking lot. He crossed the lot. At had their men hunching over the wheel. the far end there was a wooden barrier and Waiting for him." The sedan had no pickup worth speaking a ticket-taking machine. "Careful man." through. Trio off, "You bet." of. It bucked once and accelerated slug- He went wood snapped

it I wait outside?" gishly into the intersection. and a hooter slar'oo blaring behind him. He "Okay He nodded. "I guess so. Stay off the path- Red light. A horn blared to his left, frighl- turned right again into a side street. Down don't like people eningly close. Then he was through, and the hall a block, tires hissing on the glossy black. way, though. Management heater blocking the way." lanes were clear in front. He kept his speed, The warm, musty smell of the sedan's peering ahead through the water-speckled seeped intofhe air. "Sure." windshield." A red light here, coming up. He slowed, He went out. It had gone pretty well. Once This people who you were they looked right He closed his eyes and felt nausea, fear. looked both ways. Nobody to the right. knew could get your job His stomach wouldn't unknot. Ruby taillighis one looked like a long light. As he went into through you, and you coasted by ahead of him, but he could not the turn, he spotted ruby taillights a block done. on the street. He stepped back into the trees and tell which was the limo. away on Ihe left. Nobody else the guard for a while. The man didn't One block. Two. He went through the red light and swerved watched look out into the garden often, just sat at a Had they turned off? The papers said left, tires screeching. and watched a television. Brennan Resnick would go to ihe Hilton. Some movie He hit the gas hard. The ruby lights ahead desk fraction of the screen reflected and TV people were putting on a party for got closer, and then they turned ofi into a could see a in of the doors. him, welcoming him back, like he'd been driveway. It was the limo. one

It him several minutes to realize the away on a long trip or something. Resnick He stopped fifty yards Irom the driveway. took guard wasn't watching a TV program. Itwas hadn't made his money in the media, but he The tightness .in his belly rode like a stone the driveway and into a a security snooper, fed by cameras in the had friends in it. as he walked down for entrance of an apart- building. He glanced around nervously. But if he was going to the Hilton he should big turnaround the inconspicuous snouts hanging be right ahead, on Park Drive. That would ment building. There—two There was a parking attendant driving a near the foyer. And another one nearer, just be the direct route, .

3 PACE 102 72 OMNI OM Welcome to the world of the hypnotic trance, where anything

is possible

HYPNO ODYSSEY BY PAUL BAGNE

woman closes her eyes Theand drifts into another world; a toeiing of peace comes over her. The hypnotist,

fades away until he is just a quiet. IZJ? soothing, disembodied voice. O "In a few moments you are going to go back in time," psychologist Jean-Roch Laurence says gently. "You are getting smaller and smaller. When you reach age five, will you raise your index finger?" "Yes." "Where are you right now?" "At school." "Write your name for me." He watches as she picks up a pencil and works intently at printing out her name, one letter at a time. Later the woman describes' what was going on in her mind

during the trance: "I was two people, one standing off to the '''''^'e'l. side looking at the other. One was standing, saying, 'You can write your name. Why are you taking so long?' Yet the one writing was struggling to form those letters." The hypnosis session had <-* enabled her to relive some of her experiences and feelings as a

child. II also made her aware of being another presence observing the scene, She was describing a unique experience, the sensation of duality, a phenomenon called the hidden observer, PAINTING BY WOLFGANG HUTTER — — — .

"This research is bringing us closer to made inaccessible to someone in hypnoti- members of that group were convinced Ihey seeing consciousness as truly multilevel," cally induced amnesia. For example, a per- had been awakened by a noise that night. explains Laurence, of the University of Wa- son under hypnosis can be told to forgel the A week later Laurence challenged this re- terloo, near Toronto, where the experiment name of his best friend. Although the knowl- call by showing participants videotapes of

was conducted. "We may be observing an edge is there, the conscious mind cannot the hypnosis session. S:ill. s ; x of the subjects always aware and adaptive part of con- retrieve it. Hilgard therefore suggests that persisted. Said one, "I'm pretty damned sciousness, one that is present all the time." there are two control systems in the body certain — I'm posiliva.l heard these noises." Laurence's work is part of a new wave of thai there is a split consciousness at work. Comments like this show how using hypno- interest in a centuries-old discovery, that al- Now researchers al two- Canadian uni- sis to enhance a witness's memory can cre- tered state of consciousness known as hyp- versities, Montreal's Concordia and Water- ate fantasy as easily as it recalls factual nosis. With it, he and other scientists have loo, are taking some of Hilgard's findings one memory. Later, during a pain test, the six been making some strange new discoveries step further. Laurence and his colleagues people also showed the hidden observer at about perception—how we remember the have found that this two-level model of the work in their minds. This presented a prob- past and how we experience the present mind applies to much more than pain relief. lem to the psychologists. and about an untapped healing power in the "This multilevel processing goes on in "If we were to stick withHraard's idea that mind, a power that can influence even indi- everyday life," Laurence says. the observer is the part of the self that mon- vidual cells in the human body. In the course of investigating the value of itors reality, then those who have it should Mucti of the work done by Laurence and hypnosis for police work, they found that the be the ones to know the true source of the others has consisted of duplicating and ex- hidden-observer element can have surpris- noise—and to reject that memory, " explains panding upon the research done in the Sev- ing effects on how accurately hypnotized Laurence. Because the exact opposite was enties by psychologist Ernest Hilgard, now subjects remember. true, he now suggests that the hidden ob- professor emeritus at Stanford University. Typically, a forensic hypnotist may try to server does not confront reality so much as Hilgard discovered the phenomenon of the get a witness to review a crime by regress- interpret it. In the example of those who hal- hidden observer. ing him to the day of the event. The hypnotist lucinated sounds, Laurence says the sound It started when Hilgard was investigating seemed so vivid they weren't sure whether the well-known ability of hypnotized people they had heard it or not. In the end they re- to suppress pain. As long ago as the 1830s. solved the confusion by fixing it in their doctors used hypnosis as a painkiller in memories as real. childbirth and in dental and medical sur- Laurence thinks that what he's seeing Q was two gery. But because of the elusive nature of during hypnosis —and this is the thrust of his

hypnosis, it was hard to discern exactly how people, one standing off to the experiments — is one way people adapt in this worked. Unlike acupuncture, hypnotic side looking fife, by reconstructing the past to conform pain relief does not seem to come from a with present perceptions. Memory is "not like release .of endorphins at the other. —the body's natural , The one a tape recording," suggests Laurence. "It's painkillers —-or any olher compound. standing was a combination of what occurred and how it Hilgard had already discovered that the fits into one's perceptions —more in line with . saying, 'You can write your mind can function on two levels simulta- one's self-concept and way of looking at life!"' neously. In a typical test, he was able to get name. Why This multilevel way of processing infor- a group of hypnotized subjects to rattle off mation are you taking so long?V has also turned up in research done the names of the colors on a chart, unaware by Bowers. Intuition, he says, is similarly that at the same time one of their hands, complex. During the course of one three- shielded from view, was holding a pencil and year experiment, he presented a group of adding up a column of figures. people (not hypnotized) with forced-choice "We had been doing some automatic writ- tests. For example, they were shown two sets

ing to demonstrate how the mind can have may then tell I he subject to locus on a detail, ot word triads and asked to select the triplet

divided controls," he says. For his pain re- to zoom in on a license plate, for example. If that was made up of relaled components

search, he devised automatic talking, a vari- the witness did not see the license plate that is, which set was coherent. For exam- ation of that technique. "It says things that clearly, this reguest could become a pow- ple, a coherent triad would beraf, moon, and conscious awareness knows nothing about," erful suggestion to hallucinate an answer. blue, because each word relates to cheese.

Hilgard explains. "It's a little bit like talking in "The boundaries that gu : co us in every- If the test takers could not choose the coher- your sleep." day life do not hold in hypnosis," explains ent set by using logic, they were told to guess In one experiment, the hypnotized sub- one of the investigators, Kenneth Bowers, and to keep track of their guesses. Bowers jects were told thai one arm would be im- professor of psychology al Waterloo. "When wanted to find out whether intuition would

pervious to pain. Hilgard then applied a you age-regress people, some are able to guide them toward the correct answer, in this tourniquet and twisted it until it was tight. He reestablish contact with extraordinary viv- case, the coherent triad.

left it on for eight minutes. During that time idness. But there is no guarantee that it's true. "The answer is yes," says Bowers. In about the discomfort should have increased, yet You can get a Very convincing combination 60 percent of the guesses, his test takers when the hypnotized subjects were ques- offantasy and reality." Hypnotized wit- gave the correct answer. 'At some level there tioned, none reported any sensations of pain nesses may perceive fantasy as fact. is a preanalytic processing of information that or discomfort. In a. neat demonstration of this, Laurence allows one to sense where the coherence is

Then the hypnotist said, "When I place my and fellow psychologisi Canibell Perry, of before one realizes what it consists of." And hand on your shoulder, I will be able to talk Concordia, recruited a group of 27 highly that processing, he believes, is intuition. Rel- to a hidden part of you that knows things that hypnotizabfe subjects. They asked each evant experiences bob up from memory and are going on in your body." The subjects im- participant to pick one night on which thai unconsciously influence the guesser's de- mediately acknowledged the pain in their person knew he had slept soundly. They later cision. "The implicit coherence then snaps sore arms. "To the hidden observer it was a regressed each subject under hypnosis to into focus," he says. "This is often referred matter of fact," Hilgard recalls. "The pain was that night. and asxeci the suggestive ques- to as insight." registered, but it. was not available to con- tion, "Do you hear a loud noise?" Seventeen Only by acknowledging what Bowers calls scious awareness." group members claimed they did. During the the multilevel quality of human perception Hilgard suggests that the information trance, many went on to fabricate elaborate can we begin to appreciate the subtle com- about the pain is made inaccessible in much stories about strange happenings in the plexities of the mind, says Bower. In his work, the same way stored knowledge can be night: After they came out of the trance, 13 as a psychologist he uses -"ore traditional 78 OMNI CON I INULD ON PA.GL 1 12 — a

A master of Japanese design uses wry, good-natured humor to drop viewers through a trapdoor of surprise ILLUSIONARIUM BY OWEN DAVES

Humor, claimed writer James Thur sion, creating the life-giving sense of ber. who had reason to know, "is space where none is available.

it of Many of Fukuda's works are simple rious thing. I like to think of as one our greates! and earliest national re- whimsies that decorale his home— sources, which must be preserved ai triangular phonograph record, a three- all costs." One of Japan's most bladed scissors, or the plaster heads live sculptors, Shigeo Fukuda, would of cabbage and lettuce, draped with understand and agree. Fukuda is Ja- a huge Iried egg. Other undertakings pan's emperor of asobi, a concept thai are more ambitious. combines both play and space. Asobi In one of his creations, faces of holds a place in Japanese life that is Beethoven and Lincoln emerge from difficult to comprehend for anyone the tiled floor of a department store. In who has grown up in less densely the photograph at left, Fukuda fits his packed environs. Japan crams hall the profile into a sculpture based on the population of the United States into an famed illusion of a vase that suddenly area smaller than California. Three becomes two faces looking at each fourths of the country is so mountain- other when the viewer's attention shifts. ous that few can live there. Half Ihe In each, astonishment carries the Japanese live within a lew hundred viewer away from coniined surround- miles of Tokyo; more than 30 million ings for a lew precious moments. reside in the metropolitan area alone. Fukuda's best -known works, and An apartment with a living room, bedroom, kitchen, and probably his most ingenious, are sculptures that change c bath is often smaller than most American rooms: -one third from one object to another when roiated 90 . Many capture dl them are a scant 11 feet square. Relief from crowding is two facets of a single event or object, like his image of early impossible, yet necessary, given Japan's population swells. morning (left), a yellow sunrise united with a cup of coffee. Encore, violinist That is where Fukuda's asobi comes in. Fukuda creates It was two of these sculptures a who, a kind of visual humor that Iranscends crowding by rede- when rotated, is transformed into a pianisl, and Esroh, a fining space itself. At his house in Kamikitazawa, Fukuda's white horse that, when seen from the side, becomes a red technique soon becomes clear. Whal appears to be the one lying on its back— lhal brought Fukuda the first down front door opens to a blank wall. The real door is in the payment on his growing recognition in the United States. seemingly blank wall at the left. A life-size portrait of Fu- Recent works have continued to view the world from two kuda himself stands in front, Clearly he is a master of illu- sides at once. Witness the self-portrait (next page, left), PHOTOGRAPHS BY MALCOLM KIRK 9IW WQ* ^w

6He redefines space by twisting reality /ntoasobi*

which is transformed into Fukuda's first initial, the letter S (above), when viewed from another angle. Occasionally, though, the two images are unrelated, as in the woman who metamorphoses into a fork (right), or an ange! who turns into the word sample. As always, Fukuda's goal is to drop his view- ers out of the environment and through the trapdoor of surprise. Japan long ago learned lo cram the greatest utility into the smallest possible niche. No wonder, then, that Fukuda has won great honor in recent years. As concrete and hard-edged technology spread through the Japanese islands, the need for escape presses ever harder Asobi becomes better ap-

preciated each year, as does its good-humored emperor. DO " . —

Implicit in the idea thai mine; and will con- lure is something e'-se it s ar.aogous to "full- container can be filled by an KINDLING trol the world is the corollary that failure is ness." A small due not to overwhelming circumstances bul amount of waler that would barely wet a large CONTINUED FROM PAGE 48 to weakness of spirit-or to an unconscious one. Similarly, an object having little mass high "rearranging the molecules" of the feet. He desire to fail. It's one of the liabilities of fire- can be raised to a temperature by an heat energy that would barely also admits thai he bmsell has been burned walking: Those who emerge unscathed amount of massive. on two occasions. One time, the hosl o! a congratulate themselves, those who get warm something more other factors also' into play. talk show distractec Hobbirs during his walk; burned often feel crushed. Fire becomes, Two come recu.re less neat energy per another time, coals became lodged be- as in the Book of Daniel, the test ot right- Some materials temperature a tween hisloes. eousness. Predictably, several ol those who unit of weight to raise their than others; and heat energy Firewalking's oromisc is significant: Con- have blistered—and thus tailed the test given amount

but i: no; burn because it has very of two books on Ihe subject of sell-healing. "They come away irom this with unreasOn- does you therefore contains very little Cousins feels certain that the mind has the abe expectations little mass, and heat energy. The pan, of course, has a large power to affect "physical" processes. Bui Why shouldn't all other hurdles seem 9 of heat energy. If you touch it without he's candid about not knowing what mech- easy Haven't the "faithlul" achieved the im- amount is poor conductor of anisms are involved, and his uncertainty ex- possible? Not really. Several scient-le ox a potholder, which a get tends to firewalking. planations are being advanced as to why heal, you burned.

! can en hot coals.- Though the temperature of incandescent I hose peoo e waK "If I would have crossed, would have coals is at least they contain very lit- burned," Cousins says. "I, and people like 1200°F tle heat energy because they are not mas- me, live in the world of cause and effect." fluffy, spongy material,. as Not understanding what protects walkers sive: They are a the foot is massive, and from the fire.Cousins doubts he could have light as balsa. But physical properties maintained the necessary menial state. But Leikind suggests that its 6/f's one of are roughly analogous ic Those of water, he has little doubt that the menial state— upon the coals, he which he characterizes as "blazing deler- the liabilities of firewalking: When the foot settles thinks, the surface layer of the coals loses mination"— is real and has untapped cura- Those who its heat to the foot but heats the foot very tive potential. "There's something here," he congratulate little. This is because the foot is much more says, "that has to be taken seriously." emerge unscathed massive than the topmost layer of the coals. Shuttling between faith and skepticism. themselves; those Heat energy begins lo flow upward from the Cousins asks-, "Why is the bed only eight who get burned fee! crushed. lower portion ol the coal. But because feet? Why not twelve or sixteen feet? Why is hot carbon is a poor conductor, the heat moves it necessary to moisten the teel? Does it cor- Fire becomes slowly, and the foot is gone before signifi- relate to the short distance?" the test of righteousness.^ transfer has occurred. Robbins answered :hal lasl question when, cant Why, then, do some people get burned, on New Year's Eve of 1984. 150 people tra- even seriously burned? versed a 35-foot bed of coals—a "Guinness controlled experiment," Leikind Book of World Records firewalk," as Richard "It's not a says. "People-have different feet, different Greene proudly put it. physics at ways of walking and tnoy ;ake different paths Cousins is not alone in making a connec- Jearl Walker, professor of au- over the coals. It's not thai you cannot get tion between firewalking and healing. Rob- Cleveland State University and longtime it's just that it is not nearly as likely bins claims that remissions of cancer follow thor of Scientific American's Amateur Sci- burned; coals as it looks." participation in his sessions. And Or, 0. Carl entist column, used to walk on a bed of that sociological factor lor nis ;hysics classes. He slopped doing it Leikind suspects a Simontom the Fort Worth cancer radiologist | plays role in the low incidence of reported whose "imaging' therapy lor cancer has re- after getting burned once. But he still a

After ai . admitting to being burned ceived wide publicity, look Robbins's semi- plunges his bare hand into a pot of molten bums during a Robbins happening is admitting to nar, walked the coals, and endorsed Ihe ac- lead after wetting his skin with water. Both tne l.e den failure. Burn specialists add another argu- tivity in front of TV news cameras. acts are meant to demonsi'a-.e sole of the foot, they say, resists Simonlon says thai conventional thera- frost effect, whereby a liquid exposed to in- ment. The cornified skin. will instantaneously form an in- burning because of its thick, pies work only if combined with a confident tense heat what that same roughened sk.n makes it par- and combative mental stance on the part of sulating, boundar y layer of si earn This is And from. ticularly difficult for the layman to recognize the patient. He attributes the failure of pa- protects a drop of water on a hot skillet superficial burns. tients to recover to an unconscious "will to immediate vaporization: If skates on a filnri per- Leikind attended a Robbins seminar with die." His critics contend lhat his is a heart- ol steam. In Walker's view, vaporized friend. UCLA research psychologist Bill less position, particularly in light of the in- spiration insulates the fool in Ihe same way a McCarthy. They agreed to conduct an im- evitable lethality of some cancers. that a little saliva allows you to snuff a candle promptu experiment; Leikind would remain Many members of the medical commu- flame with your fingertips. Leikind outside to avoid the suggestions ol the sem- nity readily accept that the mind does affect UCLA plasma physicist Bernard importance of the Leiden- inar; McCarthy would take the seminar, Af- the body in certain ways. "I can believe that is skeptical o' 'he terward both walked, Leikind twice, the sec- mental states afiect immune responses or frost effect in firewalking; he views the coals ond time over a freshly laid bed of coats. even that a person could gain control of what themselves as the principal factor. He thinks Psychologist McCarthy noted that the we think of as local reflexes— ones that aren't they are neither su'licient'y dense and mas- Robbins firewalking :echniauo -turn your mediated through the brain," says Dr. Sherif sive nor si.il icionilyqcou conductors of heat eyes upward, clench your fist, breathe heav- Khattab, a burn specialist with the Los An- to burn the foot during briel contact ily, chant "Cool moss," and celebrate when geles County Hospital. "But that the mind Laymen, Leikind argues, usually don't the end involves a number of could prevent intense heat from coagulating distinguish between temperature and heat. you reach — pain. molecules is heat. Tempera- well-known stratagems for blocking protein —that's harder to believe." The motion of 84 OMNI These include repealing a ma'i:ralike phrase, looking away from the source Of pain, and focusing attention on an internal cue, in this case a Lamaze- ike breath irrj style. He thinks the hour of Ihe day plays a part, loo: Fire- walks usually occur after midnight, at a low

point in the cjrcadian cycle, when sensory

activity is generally dull. McCarthy did get burned slightly, but he felt no pain, nor even heat, at the time. Leikind fared better. "Once the coals had been spread out, they cooled rapidly," he says. "Incandescence is a simple gauge of

temperature. I saw dark footprints where

• people's feet had been. Robbins's people claim to be blocking the heat somehow, but lo me that meant that much of the heat in the coals was being absorbed by the feet. But people apparency we'en't getting burned,

so I knew there just couldn't be that much heat energy present." In defiance of Robbins's prescription, Lei- kind looked down, breathed normally, and

thought aboul ihe coals. (Jearl Walker, in his physics classes, took no mental precau- tions, either.) Robbins took Leikind's periormance in

stride. It simply shows, he says, that Leikind has a "belief system"— physics—in which he has total faith. He dicn't ge- ourned because he sincerely believed he wouldn't. Actually. Robbins says, Leikind was "definitely in state" during his walks. Leikind's walks were not a controlled ex-

r-y. : periment, and his success .'.as a : ,-\er-

tific proof; it merely put his hypothesis on an equal footing with the rnind-over- matter the-

ory. But it is a p-cfcaolc hypcrnesis, he says, because science does not seek farfetched reasons forthings that can be accounted for

by simple ones. Robbins is no scientist, nor are most of his supporters; the principles of scientists do not concern them. Norman Cousins would like his scientist colleagues at UCLA to investigate firewalk- ing ("How far," he asks, "can blazing deter- mination carry us?"). But he's' made little

headway, li seems unlikely thai extensive experiments will be carried out. The pro- moters of firewalking have nothing to gain by them, and most scientists, once presentee with a satisfy ng nypo:hes:s. will probab'y consider the issue beneath Iheir attention and perhaps even hazardous to their professional prestige.

The fire is out. The parking lot is nearly empty again. A barefoot man douses Ihe beds of coals with water, the TV crews col- lect their equipment. A maintenance man, crabbed and el- derly, shakes his heac o isa op roving ly over what he has seen. "They ought to keep an eye on that guy," he mutters. The fire ma.'shs- is get:irc; ready to leave He, too, seems disturbed. "I've been trained for years io keep people fro"i doing what all v these people jls: did. ol shouldn't play with

fire. Fire arrd 'people don't mix." And then he adds, as he buttons his uni- form jacket against the night air;' "But the

power of the mind is a beautiful thing. "DO In the next thirty years, our homes, jobs, schools, and very bodies will be transformed, but the human character will remain unchanged, says this shrewd forecaster who knows how to ask the right questions inJTER\yiEUll

e it during a television interview, a radio talk show, or the As UJJJ founder and president of the Arlington. Virginia, firm ol Fore- typically tree-form speeches he gives |^^^ to international casting International, Cetron conducts computer analyses of the wmmmJ corporate bigwigs, Marvin Cetron always gets asked the trends and indicalors that suggest the outcome of series of events. same questions: "What makes you a better long-range forecaster He forecast, for instance, the collapse of the government of the than anybody else? Why are you more accurate at predicting the Shah of Iran, the unrest and instability in Poland, the political up- future than those who call themselves futurists?" heavals in India, and the militarist stance of Iraq, Long before they "I'm not a futurist," Cetron always replies, "because futurists claim became realities, Cetron predicted no-fault divorce, the graying of we'll colonize space in fifty years, even though it's both unneces- America, new living arrangements between the sexes, and the rise sary and too costly to it. do Futurists prophesy [hat solar power ol conservatism in this country. will energize the world in the twenty-first century, despite the fact In his book Encounters with the Future, published in 1982, Ce- that solar energy costs twice what oil costs today. Futurists fore- tron predicled Reagan's landslide reelection in 1984 at the same cast what they hope will happen, because these fantasy scenarios lime that he foresaw the East-West German rapprochement. He are nice, neat, and clean; the fantasies don't penalize anybody too forecast declines in union memberships in the United States and much don't hurt and the environment, I deal with facis—with trends ihe parallel rise of industry in states thai have "right-to-work" laws. and computers. That's how I make my forecasts." Cetron predicted the emergence of the robot on the assembly line,

PHOTOGRAPH BY KIM STEELE - '

and Ihe creation oi :hr; oneckiess and cash- conducted the interview in Cetron's Arling- new industrial economy, but they have to

1 less socieiy. Because o'd people are living ton office, across the Potomac Rivci iron keep paying for it. They've got long-term in-

longer and more pc-oo e ol all ages are get- Washington and within ha ling distance of the dustrial loans out to 2004. They fell behind ling divorced, he prophesied the advent of Pentagon, whers Ceiror got Ins start r fore- in 1983 by 1.2 billion dollars, by Ghhstmas the extended American family. casting more than 30 years ago. 1984 they were echthundrec seventy-three In his booh, Celron envisioned the run- million dollars behind. Sheikh Yamani got away .success ot the pci sorai computer r Omni: Before any eoi lgraiuiaiions are made good grades at Harvard Business School.

; homes and businesses and its growing ac- on how well the orecas;s n Encounters With He knows that every time they fall behind,

ceptance in the country's school systems. the Future turned out, let's see what wasn't they pump more oil to make sure they get He also realized, as did few others, lhal forecast ano why. Whal d-d you mi's? their money back. The more they pump, the computers would p'ermii many people to Cetron: We missec the war in the Falklands more they create a glut, and the price keeps

work at home. Meanwhile, more (rouble in by a mile. Not only didn't I recognize that dropping. Yet, they have to keep pumping

the Middle East arc using unres". in South Argentina would invade Ore islands, I also more to pay their bills. No ihe price of oil will Africa make headlines just as Marvin Celron never guessed that Prime Minister Margaret not skyrocket at any time in the next fifteen

once said they would. Already having writ- Thatcher would engage in a war that would years. II anything, it will come down. ten Jobs oi the Future, Celron is now work- cost one hundred iilty thousand dollars for Omni: You deal wilh computers every day. ing on two other future looking books, ten every man, woman, and child living under What does the future hold for computers?

tatively titled Schools ol the Future and the British Hag in the Fakancs. Only ahe"- Cetron: The personal-computer business is

Bi il is- Women in the Twenly-Fir-1 Century. ward on 'oalizo loal Ihe 1 were really growing so fast that I think there will soon be

Cetron's current forecasts are made to- liglilinc lo' G'itrallai. tor I lory Kong. Im the more computers than television sets in

I" day the same way he's always done them, renel"' r New Caledonia. I he British went American households. The crossover point

"The bulk of our data is fed into computers, tcw-ai loi rst -or the Falklands but for all the will probably take place around 2010. but it

and the probability of an event taking place protectorates around the world. all depends on how guickly you get them

in the next five, ten. or twenty years is deter- '•Mr. also missed on Ihe house and Senate into schools. We spent one billion dollars on

mined. ' he explains "We look at ihe impact all textbooks during the past two hundred these events make in five, ten. or twenty years. We are going to soend one billion do years." He then looks at 200 trends as they lars before 1990 or computer-assisted ed- change and plots their points— up, down, or ucation. But only one third of all computers "wiggling"— on a graph lb extrapolate about used by kids will be bought by schools. The '•Sheikh Yamani a trend and correlate it to other trends, he rest will be boughl by :hc kds' parents, uses substitution models and growth anal- got good grades at Harvard Omni: What about the trend for people ogies. For instance, in a trend to replace working at home with their computers? Business School. metal in cars with plastic, he asks: What kinds Cetron: More and more people will work at of plastic will be substituted with what He knows every time the home using computers than will commute to

in cost, strength, function, weight, ' a job. By 2000. twenty-two percent of the changes • Saudis fat! behind and other factors? For a growth analogy he population will work at home, and twenty- in their loan payments, they 'II examines other substitutions ana how well five years later this will be the case for more they've done; synthetic ruooer to- real .\.ib- pump more oil lhan half Ihe country. There are, however,

ber; artificial sweeter -tvs for ':•>. k.:.';i' ~hei '>.- service jobs that can't oo done at home. Also, to get their money back 3 tron asks: "What has happened to these we'll still have to see people face to face in " 9 substitutions in the long run. ano why order to share ideas. I can see people work- "We use sixty-four indicates for stao ity ing alternate days—sharing the same desks iaclors. he continues. 'You've go: :o know but having their own personal filing cabi-

whattomea in;-;- mosi nets. As people start -working —ore at home,

important." Some of Cetron's indicators are .ons by a little. We thought, and rightl telemarketing will come in, You can use tele- Ihe sedrel ingred onts oi his torccasting rec- lat President Reagan would again b< vision, interactive cable, even a telephone ipe. But- there are two vitat ones he'll talk slid back into the 'White House, but v* with a WATS line lo call out and an eight hun- about: The first is unemployment among dred number to get incoming calls. The av-

young unmarriec men between the ages' of erage sales call wi I eesi between twelve and eighteen and thirty— the restless years. seventeen dollars instead of the two hun- These are Ihe men who will start a revolu- dred dollars it costs now. There should be tion. The second vital indicator is a compar- as many as eiyh: million people in telemar- ison of the top and bottom ten percent in keting in the next century We're talking ma- income in a given country. What's (he differ- food, drugs, ano agriculture. Although they jor jobs here. But when the husband and wife ence between the Iwo? In Scandinavia, the see Reagan as someone who wants what are both regularly working al home with

difference is only two and a half times, In the they want, they also eesire an opposition that computers, that's I ne I'mele look tor another

rest of Europe the upper ten oerceni — akes won't necessarTy go along .villi Ihe voice In- big increase in trie divorce rate, maybe even six to eight times mere money than Ihe lower Ihe While House Thai's lhok prolcchon a quadrupling of the present rate. You can't

ten percent. In Ihe United Slates, it's ten to and the reason why Republicans didn't be on top ot each other all Ihe lime: you need eleven times more for the upper tenth. "The shirttail their way into Congress wi:h Rea- a special place to go.

reason we were able to predict the crisis in gan. Omni: What do you flunk wi I become of the

Iran," he says, '"is that the income disparity Omni: Lei's tat'. .iho-..i! 'ho liruro ol energy. forty- hour workweek?

got out of hand. The lop tenth was making Energy was a big deal a low years ago: the Cetron: People will still work' staggeringly thirty oil embargo, easoino iros. hign prices, hours in York and Washington to about : eighl times more money lhan the Arab long New bottom tenlh." smaler cars, -as concern lessened? succeed. They will still take two and three Now that the dreaded 1984 has passed, Cetron: Saudi Arabia controls Ihe price of jobs when the thirty-two -hour workweek be-

it seems appropriate to ask Cetron to make o- .1 :ho -wore conserves energy, the Sau- comes standard You're gong to have Ihese

some new forecasts of the changes that may dis can produce enough oil to take care of type A personalities all the lime. I think we'll

1 transform thffUnited States —and the world. everyone—and that's wha . s been happen- go to a twenty-hour workweek by the year Cetron v ishmgton Post ing since 1975. Saudi Arabia has over nine 2000: so some people will have three jobs.

correspondent Thomas O'Toole, who coau- billion dollars invested n Ihe United Stales. I myself am a type A person. I'm doing three thored Encounters With the Future, O'Toole They're in the middle of developing a whole jobs right now: I'm publishing books, run- 88 OMNI V

1 1 " A

1 Ml r*\

IP

jng what — l itjHihas all these little empty

' r of the ei l "UB i W interesting. Truth to telt, once the ie dude was onMMthe right- squealed at the tap of ..., . Dwed. and the big

. that gut-deep di- Ich of shuddered-

! you heading?' He laughed and sf

4fc . . „_ irW' "'I!! " — — " "

someone else, and I found her name on a dow, and I watched the ocser: and faraway wondering if the engine was as bad as it list. The Low Road." sounded. When we were up to speed shacks go by. 1 said, just the mountains came looming up "I don't use any of those perks," eighty, eighty-five, no smokies on this road Soon him. "Folks in compressed on the road, es- to make it clear I couldn't help he asked, "How long you been hauling?" space seems trouble without me, I think desert and I sped back got enough "Two years." pecially once past the — noise the union went too far there." "Good pay?" up for the approach. There was some from the back. "Bet they felt you'd get lonely, need com- "It'll do," - get off work?" pany," Bill said quieliy. looking at me. "It don't "Benefits?" "What do you do when you hurt the folks back there. Maybe give them "We're union like everybody else." Bill asked. sleep." another chance to, you know, think things "1 heard about that." he said. "In that little "Go home and over. Give 'em relief for a couple of hours, a dump about two miles back." "Nobody knows you're on the run?" — 'Llust the union." break from the mash "People live there?" I asked. I didn't think of don't mean it with Daddy, until just "Listen, a couple hours anything lived along the road, "That's the way was didn't to make nothing in relation to eternity. I'm not so sure I mean "Yeah: Real down folks. They said team- before the end. Look, joining someday, and if that's you mad or nothing. I'd just heard about the I won't be ihem sters bosses get carried in limousines when — it pulling his the way it is I want smooth, nobody I thought " he swallowed, they go." perks, and apple bobbing. "Thought you might me out of a trailer and putting me back in." "Don't really matter how you get there, I Adam's

I I'll find "Yeah," he said. "Got you, man. know to help. I don't know how ever suppose. The trip's short, and the time after be able ." But she might be back there . where that's at. Sherill. Maybe back in the Annex. . is long." — in their right mind goes into the right now, and all you'd have to "Getting there's all the Fun?" he asked, "Nobody have to "Bad enough I'm driving this rig in the first one. yards by choice," 1 said. "And you'd trying for a grin. I gave him a shallow the subject. look through, everybody that's died in the last place." 1 wanted to change "What're you doing out here?" I asked a four months. They're way backed up." "Yeah. How'd that happen?" few minutes later. "You aren't dead, are you?" accidents, premiums went Bill took that like a blow across the face, "Couple of my I'd never heard of dead foik running loose or afford and up to where I couldn't payments looking quite as vital as he did, but I couldn't premiums, and finally they took my truck." imagine anyone else being on the road. Just "You coulda gone without insurance." and drivers. dead folks word "Not me," I said. "Anyway, some bad "No," he said. He was quiet for a bit. Then out. companies would hire me. I went to got No slow, as if it embarrassed him, "I came '•As I geared the to the union to see if they could help. Told find my woman." either get out of me I was a dead-ender, "Yeah?" Not much surprised me, but that truck down for the decline,

I couldn't trucking or-—" I shrugged—"this. was a new twist. "There ain't no returning, the noise in leave trucking, it's bad out there, getting you know." trailers got irritating. work. Lot of unemployed. Couldn't see my- "Sherill'sherna'-c, soei.ed like sheriff but the self pushing a hack in some big city." with two/'s." They could smell . "No, man," Bill said, giving me that whole- 1 "Got a cigarette?" I asked. didn't smoke, what was coming, I guess, body nod of his again. He cackled sympa- it later. He handed me the but I could use thetically. last three in a crush-proof pack and didn't like pigs stepping "They gave me an advance, enough for a say anything. with the knifed up to the man down payment on my rig." The truck was then, I "Haven't heard of her," I said. "But grinding a bit but maintaining. Over the don't get to converse with everybody I haul. mountains, through a really impressive pass And there are lots of trucks, lots of drivers." like from an old engraving, and down in a "I know," he said. "But I heard about them very rugged rocky valley, was the City. benefits." been "I don't think I'd better go on, "Bill said. "I'll 1 sorry I'd said it. "She's only He had a crazy kind of sad look in his eye and was "She don't belong hitch with some other rig, ask around." when he glanced at me, and that made me gone a week," he said. I'd belter if you rode with me stared straighl here." "Well, feel angry. I tightened my jaw and bulgrin. back out of here. Want my advice?" Bad ahead. I couldn't help not her. habit. "Go home." I belong here but She "You know," he said, "I heard some crazy "No, I mean, couple of months "No," Bill said. "Thanks anyway. Not with- stories. About how they use old trains for was in this car wreck a breath. "I'll try to messoc up. I'd dealed out Sherill." He took adeep China and India, and in Russia there's a back, got prelly badly to the High 1 stay, at first then fell in love with her, work up a trade. she goes Mexico it's old buses along roads, her dope and tramline. In down — she landed in the hospilal Road. That's the way the game runs always at night and by the time know, hooked on about four here, isn't it?" all the benefits," I said. she was, you "Listen. I don't use the rig over different things." At the top of the pass I pulled "I know some do, but I don't." the wheel. and let him out. He waved at me, I waved "Sure, got you," he said, nodding that ex- My arms stiffened on

it back, and we went our separate ways. I visited that aggerated goddamn young folks' nod, his "I tried to tell her when of big, for her to get anything, no The City looks a lot like a county full whole neck and shoulders moving along, it's wouldn't be good dope, but she begged me. What could white cathedrals. Casting against type. High all right, everything's cool. more wall around the perimeter, stretching as far "How you gonna lind her?" I do? I loved her." horizon but a vanish- the He wasn't looking out the window now. He as my eye can see. No "I don't know. Do the road, maybe ask his boots and ing point, the wall looking like an endless drivers." was looking down at worn

" turned on its side. As I geared the I highway "How'd you getin 7 hodding. "She begged me, man. So truck down for the decline, the noise in the 1 she took it all when He didn't answer for a moment. "I'm going brought her stuff. mean, trailers got irritating again. They could smell for folks they weren't looking. She just took it all. They to be here when I die. It's not so hard

I like pigs step- her out, but her insides were just what was coming, guess, like me to get in before. And ... my daddy pumped her being dead un- ping up to the man with the knife. I hear about was a driver. He told me the route. By the gone. didn't disembarkation terminal and that really burned me. I pulled in to the way, my name's Bill." til two days ago, her, they and backed the first trailer up to the holding I was the only one who loved and "Mine's John/' I said. her pen. Employees let down the gates and used I to room "Glad to meet you." didn't even tell me. had to go up weird kind of prod to herd them. I out at some We didn't say much to each other after and find her bed empty. Jesus. hung talked to These people were past mortal pain, and that for a while. He stared out the right win- Daddy's union hall. Someone gs OMNI "

i>lf the picture doesn't show people, a house, or a dog, Fotomat says there's nothing there.*

UFOs. says Ellen Crys- Pine Bush sightings tal!, seem to like her because good pho- And after dozens of tographs are hard to close encounters over come by 'The aliens a period of 14 years, seem to control who she's gotten to like can take pictures of ihern, too them," Crystall ob- Crystatl says she serves. "One person saw her first UFO In will get pictures, and

still another will get noth- 1971 , while a teen- ager, after her family ing. Usually, I get had mowed to Califor- pretty good pictures nia. "Our neighbors thai look like showers

talked about UFOs," ol sparks. I have to she recalls, "and after have them developed by a custom lab, a while I saw them, too. Soon they started though. II the picture coming closer And doesn't show people, house, or a dog, Fo- within a few months, I a tomat there's was so terrified that I says convinced my par nothing there." ents to move back to Better equipment New Jersey." might help, she b& When Crystall got lieves. "We'ie seeing back East, though, electrical discharges she continued to see UFD UPDOTE of some son and they the UFOs. And ne- give oft short-wave- cessity forced her to assimilate the strange shapes into length light that's blocked by Ihe glass of an ordin 3

everyday life. By 1981, in tact, she was searching for alien With a quartz lens, I might gel the spacecraft itself Gut a visitors in rural Pine Bush, New York. quartz lens costs $1,500—beyond the budget ol Conducting tier Investigation with utologist Harty Lebel- school musician working her way through New Yoi f son. Crystall spent evening after evening in the field. "We sity as a fill-in secretary. were going to Pine Bush nightly to photograph spaceships Despite such handicaps. Crystall believes she has landing in farmers' fields," she claims "In one greatly en- gleaned a few original insights into the nature of UFOs. "The craft to transparent," she says larged picture, I could even make out a group of live aliens metal on these seems be that looked like something out of the Star Wars bar scene." 'They also seem to be able to generate their own cloud The lights vanished Irom Pine Bush m November 1981, formations. One night, we saw vertical streaks forming, with but Crystall often went back to see whether they had re- moving lights in them. At the same time, a group about a turned Last August, she says, she found them. Since Ihen, mile closer heard a loud mechanical screeching. When you "I've taken a lot of people up there, and they've seen the photograph Ihern, you don't get what you see. The lights UFOs. too," she reports. "We go running through ihe fields don't show up in the pictures in the dark, and we've gotten close several times The UFOs The reason for that, notes UFO skeptic Robert Sheaffer, seem to hold their breath until you start to leave Then lights seems clear "What Crystall calls UFOs others might refer to is come on ten feet away and shoot straight up." as dimly lit planes or stars," he says. "The contusion more According to Crystall, she's had trouble substantiating the common than you might think."— OWEN DAVIES " i '

oul of a car wreck and begin work, the anthropologist comments. "The one I've lember Ango Brazil's studied most avoids deep- abled "surgeon of the rusty body operations." Instead, he knife" 9 His reputation was removes early breast can- tarnished as badly as his cers, skin tumors, and fleshy cutlery when investigators membranes over the eye. "He [ust tells the patient to removed from unbloody think of God, holds the membrane with a pair of for-

ceps, and ships it away with scissors," says Green-

field, "If he's working before a ge.on Amtm large audience, he always has come along caught fire. Her considerable Greenlield, of the Lin someone ihe was 60 pounds ol Wisconsin, has been and spit in the incision or .., ,- snove dirty finger into it, oyer weight—further led the (Iv "I a lust lo prove that it will heal Popular belief holds that Names. And i .,-. -, if not sterile" I even kept people can occasionally sensational versions the operation, patients I After . burn up without apparent event, the researchers con- . than did receive antibiotics and other cause, doing little damage to tend, "ob|ects in range or Ango conventional treatment, just as after con- the surrounding environment. the fire were damaged lertorrn ventional surgery. Cancer But now a new study indi- "Spontaneous human surgery. "he Be doctors. patients are given standard cates that the phenomenon, combustion is simi some are trained chemo- known as spontaneous necessary explanation. Bui thev bi treatment, including spirits of de- therapy or radiation. human combustion, is mere Mickell maintains. "If you contact the Greenfield has followed myth. According to former study the stories on a case- ceased physicians who op- a few patients, and detective Joe Nickel! and fo- by- case basis, you find irough them, with only never for longer than three or rensic analyst John Fischer. not just that they can be ex- skills noi a operate in four weeks. Most are up their two-year study links plained, but frequently that mg. They anesthetics or around the day after sur- acceptance ot the so -called the causes are fairly ob- state, without and gery, he says, and infections mystery to ignorance and vious— a victim's pipe is near antiseptics prar::, OwenDavies poor reporting the body, or there s Though the As part of their proieci, lamp next to the remains." In illegal, Brazil's psyct "In the deepest level ot the Nickel! and Fischer investi- a humber of instances, the geonsare not iaolal unconscious we find not gated a classic case, the bodies were found next or frauds preying on the fantasies, out telepathy 1951 burning death of a sixty- to fireplaces. credulous, Greenfiel —N. 0. Brown seven -year-old Florida Nickell's investigation did. Instead, they are Ca woman named Mary Reese. however, substantiate one members of a spiritual sect of members dubbed the cinder woman bit ol folklore—that many with millions by newspaper reporters. The victims are heavy drinkers in Brazil alone. A pi standard accounts, they Spontaneous-human-com- tenet ol Cardecism is (he found, were "long on mystery bustion advocates have need lor charily Thus Carde- over but shod on facts." claimed that the presence di cist federations all Brazil run network of hospi- The truth, Nickeliand alcohol may help the body a Greenfield reports, Fischer assert, is thai Reese ignite. But Nickell and Fischer tals that.

took sleeping pills and dozed point out that "a drunken may be even more i of Catholic ofl with cigarette in hand. person would be more likely than that the

The cigarette ignited the . to be careless with fire and Church. overstuffed chair on which less able to properly respond The healers specialize in seen she was sitting, and her to an accident." small operations. 'I've flammable mghtclothes —Jerome Clark one pull an accident victim 96 OMNI " " " "

Several years ago. artist Robert LenKiewicz, of Plym- Jane's Spacecraft Direc- outh. England, discovered a tory, the London-based en- quaint little man named cyclopedia ot spaceflight. Edward McKenzie living in a disclosed a fascinating an- metal tub stuck in some ecdote in its recent first tree branches. Lenkiewicz edition. Two Soviet cosmo- the tramp Diogenes, nauts, the compendium after the Greek philosopher, announced, decided to drink and the two soon became away their troubles on an fast friends. ill-fated space voyage in 197? But recently, when Di- Only the Soyuz 25 crew— ogenes died of cancer at age Valen Ryumm and Leonid seventy-two, a local under- Popov— didn't turn to booze. taker called the Plymouth Instead they saved their Health Department with some craft by drinking a huge, startling news. Lenkiewicz weightless blob of wafer Mexicans may hot be the was looking for a mortician to it all started when the cos- only illegal aliens sneaKmg embalm the Old man so monauts began watering a over our southern border de body could be group of plants they had According to Dallas geo- preserved and displayed brought along on the flight as physicist Lindy Whitehursf, in the artist's library. wicz hastens to explain, pari of an experiment But extraterrestrial craft based In Lenkiewicz s words Lenkiewicz says Diogenes when Ryumin and Popov ac- m the remote jungles o! Diogenes would essentially looked much like a "miniaiure cidentally spilled more than South America constantly become "something like Father Christmas" when he four pints of water, the mishap slip past our radar and a large paperweight was alive, in death, he adds, almost wrecked the Soviet into border states, from Texas Health officials quickly the hobo is "beautiful, haunt- space mission. Under to California,

11 moved to locate the old man's ing, and strange: weightless conditions, the The problem, Wi- '- remains "But," reports "He'd be smiling at all the water took on the shape of a says, is that those who

Plymouth environmental attention and concern he gigantic, wet globule, floating control American ra : health officer Robert Fox, "we is getting now. It's more than dangerously near vital equip- lantly scan northern regions were too late. The body he ever goi when he was ment and threatening to most vulnerable to Soviet had been released from a alive," Lenkiewicz says short-circuit controls. nuclear attack, but they hospital and embalmed pointing out that the old man There was only one thing generally ignore airspace in another mortician, fully of the artist's to resourceful the by and was aware do. The Rus- south As a rest I now we don't know where the plan to keep him on display sians placed themselves says, an enemy attacking corpse is bidden. Lenkiewicz in his library. on either side of the hovering from the south would be refuses to say where it is "That was fine with him," blob and drank it. immune to detection except that it is outside of Lenkiewicz adds. "He used to While no U.S. spacecraft But UFO skeptic Js

Plymouth, where we have no say, 'While you are alive has been similarly threatened, Oberg disagrees. "If Whue- jurisdiction." you can live in clover, but Terry White, of the Johnson hurst has noted craft crossing While investigators question when you are dead, you are Space Center, in Houston, Ihe border a' local people for clues to dead all over; points out that American says, "he may be detecting Diogenes s whereabouts, —Sherry Baker astronauts have had small airborne drug smugglers, not Lenkiewicz ia keeping mum water spills on Skylab and aliens from outer space." He argues that he is doing "It is not necessary lor the Apollo missions The crew," —Margaret Sachs nothing new because bodies public to know whether I am he says, "had fo fly by and have been kept as memen- joking or whether I am seri- swat the floating water with a "We are hunting tor rational tos for centuries. ous. as it is not — It "They iust necessary towel, or -if was clean reasons for believing in are reminders to the living of tor me to know it myselt. wafer— they had to drink it" the absurd their own mortality," Lenkie- —Salvador Dall —Sherry Baker —Lawrence Durreli -

the egg. Bui Schullerlin disagrees

believe tiiis was meanl to happen, to draw

:iled attention to the real meaning

. od.tolive. His even best ; better Id dream, ana " of all, mother, is to awaken

- Antonio Machadv

station videotaped a segment photograph definitely shows

March 3. 1984. started out showing Tina near a "flying" her pitching the phone a typical Saiur lamp When played back across the room."

Resell household in Co I urn in slow motion, the tape re- But Shannon resents But betore eve- vealed Tina using her hand to Randi's comments. "There

- its no hoax involved," . the lamp cord was I by , ning, what the family now move

i ioidur iree had made its proof, many Claimed. Ihat be says "Tina's powers are

I feared ian ly said lirsi appearance- Lights Ihe case of the Columbus frightening, and

. , ind oil by them- an i for her safety. .dim. The "Once, she was sitting on garbage disposal and micro- the arm of a chair with her wave oven went into opera- arms toward me when I saw tion. The shower began Foundation, in Chapel Hill. the sofa attack' her II slid

ng no one North Carolina, has studied eighteen inches, and I was

1'iinom. And the irpdrted psychic afraid it would pin her legs I fly at i sound although ll abilities and insists the teen- also saw the phone :dolf and the screen ager moved Ihe lamp be- leas! seven limes A couple

cause she wanted lo give the of times if hit Tina so hard became clear that television crew a dramatic she screamed."

• was connected end lor then report According to Tina's mother, isence ot fourteen- "I have observed Tina the past year has been the family her Over the closely," he said, "and I don't rough on and eral weeks, sheal- believe her claims are in daughter, now the obiect In . iade candlesticks any way part of a hoax" of teasing and ridicule tumble across Ihe room, Not everyone agrees, school. "She can do this stuff caused a phone to whiz however A group called at will." Joan Resch says. above the sofa and forced CSICOP (the Committee lor "But we've told her she can the hall lamp to swing Ihe Scientific Investigation do it only in the lab.There's Word ol the torce soon of Claims of the Paranormal) been a lot of damage lo flying i sent a team to Columbus our house from things says Tinas mother. Joan, to investigate the case. Al- around—holes in the walls more than 30 friends and re|- though not allowed in Ihe and doors Believe me, this is alives gathered lo watch Resch home, magician and nothing anybody would

\ .around the house CSICOP investigator James care to go through." Two religious groups at- Randi studied photographs —Sherry Baker tempted to exorciso the place taken by Columbus Dispatch bul were unsuccessful in photographer Fred Shannon, 7 fee/ as if I were parachuting quieting the seemingly para- which appear lo show a down, down, with no hope normal events. phone Hying through' the air of ever landing." in ABC -TV affiliate Randi's conclusion? "One —Jean Arp —

male in the Nineties Lower salaries for so- and far fewer at the top making all of it. The inJTERVIEUU called women's jobs will disappear'. Al- loopholes that allow that to happen are being CONTINUED FROM Pf though it's true that nurses, teachers, and eliminated. The most highly paid people in secretaries are pan: loss because those are the land will be writers, painters, musicians, actors, sculptors, professional athletes. ning a business. aiuJ speaking. Last year. I considered "women's jobs" and a second and made one hundred twelve speeches. Any income, this is nonetheless an anachronism. These people are unique: They can't be only one of l hose. activities could be a full-time Those careers constitute primary incomes. computerized or robotized. Because kids will to col- it, I think computer will allow twenty-live percent of our go it I otherwise the job. I do because enjoy Omni: Do you would retire. The most important thing is that people to feel more; like; individuals when they lege, we must create a good service econ-

you get a job you like and look forward to. If do their work? omy. We need plumbers and electricians,

you like it, you'll work sixty hours, and if you Cetron: Yes, not comp-eiey. but more so than most notably in the inner city, where we don't, you'll work twenty hours and feel like now. The reason we have more women in should instiiute a housing-rehabilitation pro-

each hour is an imposition. concert orchestras who are getting the same gram, such as paying a minimum wage to

Omni: Will the computer be a great equal- pay as men is that when they audition for lenanls who live in public housing. If they izer for women, helping them combine those jobs they go behind screens, they take can make their own repairs, it should come motherhood and their careers? off their shoes, and whoever plays the in- oil the rent. They could be trained as a group Cetron: Absolutely, without question. First of strument better—man or woman— gets the to do outside construction work as well. all. women will be able to work at home. In job. The same thing is true in high tech. High There was a lime when unions wouldn't per- 1980, forty-live percent of both spouses tech is equal. Any young woman who doesn't mit thai, but now they don't have the clout

worked full time. In 1983, it was fifty-one per- get trained in computers and expects some they used to. both cent. By 1990, it will be sixty-five percent, guy on a white horse to come and carry her Omni: You talk about an enormous city, and by 2000 it will be eighty-five percent. If away is one person away from being on wel- middle class and aboul the inner which we're going to a thirty-two-hour workweek fare. Half of those young women will end up suggests we'll still have poor people. Is this by 1990 and twenty hours by 2000, the av- getting divorced. a contradiction?

erage home will put in forty hours—twenty Omni: What's the future lor low-tech indus- Cetron: There will be a poor class, but I be- for the husband and twenty for the wife. tries in a high-tech world? Heavy industry lieve it could be a class of people trained to When that happens, the husband will no still makes up a large part ol our economy. do special jobs. They may not be reedu- longer come home, flop down in a chair, and Cetron: They'll slay, but fewer people will cated, but they will be retrained to do some- say, "Honey, have you finished cooking din- work there. We are headed for more auto- thing productive. There will be jobs available for skills, such as ner? If so, make up the bed, and do the laun- mation, especially in computer-aided de- people who haven't got centers, in service jobs, dry and the vacuuming." She's going to tell sign and manufacturing. I do not see the working in day-care him where to put the vacuum cleaner! We world polarizing into only two classes, a handiwork, things like that. In general, in-

are getting a blurring of sexual roles in the ..working class and a leisure class. What I do come levels will converge. home, the office, and even the factory, where envision is one great big middle class Omni: There appear to be too many lawyers twenty percent of the workforce will be fe- fewer people at the bottom not making it, and doctors in America, charging ever- higher fees. Will this continue? Celran: We'll move more and more toward paralegals, with computers doing more and more of the legwork—the briefing work. Many paralegals are competing lor legal work even now. The same job you pay a law- yer six hundred dollars to do can be done by a paralegal for seventy-five dollars. Law- yers are pricing themselves out of the mar- ket in some cases. I'm not agreeing wiih Sweden when they say lawyers are para-

sites, but I wonder sometimes about the contribution lawyers really make. There will be fewer lawyers, and they'll be paid less. The same goes for doctors. We are going to have more paramedics and emergency- medical technicians working much more in hospitals, clinics, and doctors' offices. Ompi: Let's talk about the future of the Sun- bell, Are all the jobs migrating to Florida, Texas, and Southern California? Cetron: That's only partly true. Jobs are also springing up in Allanta, North Carolina, and Silicon Valley, where unions are weaker and there are right-to-work laws. The jobs are also shifting to places that provide lor good vo- cational training, especially in high tech.

There will be other moves in the Nineties. If the findings of a study at the University of New Mexico—that salt water can be used to grow certain kinds of crops— prove ac- curate, then states like New Mexico, Ari- zona, Nevada, southern Utah, and northern Texas will benefit and start to grow in pop- ulation. The growth regions of the future must have a few things going for them. They need a right-to-work law because it's important for

100 OMNI corporations. They have to have good man life span will be out' hundred years ni tween jobs who need lo he letrained for their schools, good vocational training. That perhaps even a little more. Every three years next job. At the age of three or four, kids will means having computers in schools and and nine months, a child being born lives a start special courses to become computer paying teachers decent salaries. If you're year longer. My grandson, who is two years literate. At a leading university, I saw kids looking for biomedical engineering and old. can expect to live more than eighty years only two and a half using computers, partly bionics. Utah is the place to go. For elec- even if he enjoys only an average life span because they didn't have the coordination tronics and microcomputers, it's California. His grandchildren in 2050 will have an av- to write. They use shortened words like Ed

For manufacturing, then it's the rest ot the erage age of one hundred. for Edward, and Jim for James. The. com- Sunbelt— Florida and Texas in particular. Omni: Urban planners are quite worried puter says, good morning, ed. how are you Within these parts of the country there are about the future of our largest cities, espe- today? Two faces light upon the screen, and three kinds of industries that are expanding cially the oldes! and ihe biggest cities, such a smiling face reads fine, and a frowning faster than any others. First is health care, as Now York, which have lost jobs and pop- face, bad. If the child chooses bad, the com- bionics, biomedical engineering, and ge- ulation in the last five to ten years. What are puter says, I'M SORRY YOU'RE FEELING BAD. ED. netic research. Universities are important your thoughts on the subject? There's no question of age. All the kids toilet- here, since companies doing the work re- Cetron: I haven't got too much hope lor our need is to be able to walk and be quire access to professors and good grad- largest cities, especially New York—includ- trained. By the way, they had Saran Wrap uate assistants. These companies flourish in ing the borough of Manhattan. Cities with over the keyboards so Ihe kids wouldn't mess California. The second type of rapidly ex- populations of more than three million are in them up with candy or soft drinks. My wife, panding industries are robotics, computer- big trouble because the reasons we Origi- Gloria, teaches kindergarten, where you aided design, and computer-aided manu- nally built big cities no longer exist. Cities have to learn sixteen key words before the facturing. Florida is doing a great job in this used to be the places where we had good first grade. Words like run, see, in, and on. field, as is the Pittsburgh area, because of roads, and roads outside cities were dirt. One little girl said. "Mrs. Cetron, I can spell the involvement of Carnegie-Mellon and Now the only places in which you can't drive run." Gloria said. "Okay, go ahead and spell Westinghouse. The third area is telecom- are the big cities Cities used to have the it." The kid said, "R-U-N, carriage return." munications and artificial intelligence, es- The kid has a computer and is already on pecially fifth-generation and voice-actuated her way to becoming computer literate. computers. Here, it's Texas, most notably Omni: What do you see unfolding out there Austin, where IBM has set itself up. in the dark seas of space? Omni: Would you back up a step and talk Cetron: The first man to land on Mars won't imAbout about the future of genetic engineering? get there for al least another sixty years. I think travel agencies will get together with Cetron: I anticipate that we'll use genetic en- the year 2000, travel gineering gene splicing —very shortly to NASA by the turn of the century and offer — agencies will might called fix a deformed arm or leg. I think this kind of two-day shuttle trips, which be genetic engineering will be common by the" get together with NASA celestial weekends. It's technically feasible and politically acceptable now but not yet year 2000 or 2010, when it will become po- and offer two- litically and socially acceptable. The parallel economically viable. The first child will be day shuttle trips, which is women's rights. Women over tifty-five in born in space around 2010 or 2015. There station there general still feel their job is to slay home, take might he will be a space out on which care of the home, and bask in the glory of people live and work. As a natural part of called celestial weekends.^ their husbands. The woman .under twenty- living, it will happen. I doubt that men and five knows there's no job she can't have. The women will ever venture outside our own so- only job a woman won't have by the year lar system, for the simple reason that it is not 2000 is that of Catholic priest. Cloning hu- possible for any object to travel faster than man brains is another matter, as is cloning the speed of light. E still eguals mc". as a means of reproduction. Perhaps nei- -best schools; now the best schools are in Omni: Here's a final guestion that you might ther will ever become popular. The use of the suburbs. Cities used to be the best think is right off the wall: What's in the future cloning mechanisms implanted in embryos places to shop: now it's the mails outside for things like greed, lust, dishonesty, cor- lo keep viruses from entering, cells may, the cities. City offices used to be the only ruption, and power plays? Will mankind's however, become common shortly after the place for commerce, but now office work can basic character improve? beginning of the next century. At about lhal be done by telephone, interactive cable, Cetron: There is a dishonest streak in most same time almost all childhood diseases will connected computers, and swift connec- of us, and people will never change. When be eradicated, and half the cancers we know tions like Federal Express. Mew York City is there's enough money involved, you'll cor-

about will be under control. Skin, breast, and not as bad off a place as Detroit, but I rupt someone. It's that simple. Any individ- cervical cancer—we'll be able to cure all of wouldn't put much money into New York City ual's tirst step is to learn survival: food, cloth- these. And by 2010 or 2020 we'll have ninety Los Angeles sr.'i going to be as bad off as ing, and shelter. Then he or she takes a

percent of the forms of cancer under con- the rest because it is spread out, not up. higher step: education, professional devel-

trol. The tough ones will be the cancers that Houston also looks okay because it is, a opment. Step three is community relations, strike such vital organs as the liver, kidney, newer city and doesn't have a large concen- putting money into the United Fund, the hu- or pancreas. tration of the very poor. The city problems manities, helping the Salvation Army, and We're looking at the regeneration of fin- run deep on both coasts, from Boston down even joining a church group. The question

Seattle is, train the right people to do the gers and toes right now, and I think we'll ac- to Norfolk. Virginia, in the East, and Should we

complish this feat in the next thirty-five years. to San Diego in the West. right things at the right times? I doubt that The regeneration of human internal organs Omni: Going back to computers, when will Harvard Business School helps. They're al- won't take place until 2050 at the earliest. schools start using computers to teach chil- ways saying, "bottom line, bottom line," but

- Plastic surgery will be improved to the point dren basics.- the so-called three R's? that bottom-line business is killing us. Bot- where surgeons will reshape parts of the Cetron: The job-training partnership, the torn liners don't spend money for either re- body without scalpel and without pain. I'd federal government, and the computer search and development or for education say you're talking here about 2010 or 2020. manufacturers themselves will make com- and retraining. Look at China. China is grow- Omni: In Encounters With the Future, you puters available to the schools. The kids will ing because its loaders believe in long-term talked about people living as long as trees. use the computers in the daytime. At night growth and because they understand that

What's your forecast for the human life span? they'll be turned over to people lacking ad- the most important way to achieve that Cetron: Around about 2050, the average hu- equate computer skills or to people be- growth is to educate their people. DO . —

to buy a cure at that price.

And it would stay that way. The p IMMORTAL took dozens of specialists working three shifts a day, month after month. Nothing you

outside the doors. None in Ihe trees, as far could make copies of, like an artificial heart. as he could see. Labor. Expensive labor. So the Resnicks of

But he thought he saw something over the world could buy it. - beside the wall. A bulge in the shadows that And nobody else. moved every now and then, not swaying in Brennan sgueezed the revolver in his the slight breeze. A man, moving from one pocket. Is There an Invisible fool to the other. Across the garden, under a tree, another Influence Upon Our Lipes? An external guard, then. One of Resnick's shadow faded and then reappeared. An- men. Or a commercial cop hired by the other. They had guards everywhere. building. The guard would have seen Bren- He realized he had been standing still for Somewhere nan shoot the breeze with the elevator guard a long time, like he was hiding. Exactly the inside. He'd probably write him off as a per- wrong thing to do. Out There sisi.ori nobody. He paced out to the walkway, around some The hotness flooded through his guts bushes, and back to some nearby trees. He Are again. Burning coils crawled up through him, tried to look impatient and stamped his feet adding to the weight in his belly. to keep warm. He bit his lip. He was scared—sure. But The guard inside was just hired help, a Other Minds he had thought it over, and he couldn't hold rent-a-cop. He didn't have the checklist of

onto his self-respect if he didn't go through newsmen, probably didn't know there was Does man stand alone inthetideless with this. one.' If Resnick's main party had braced He shivered and thrust his hands deep Brennan, or the men in the shadows had ocean of space? Is earth the only into his coat pockets. Should have remem- stopped him, they would have known the habitat of intelligent beings? Cer- bered to wear gloves. On She other hand, Herald wouldn't send a stringer for this job. tainly the phenomenon of life is not a they 'd get in the way. Brennan had already seen Watkins, one of chance once. Somewhere in the He could hear his wristwatch ticking, it was the Herald's best front-page men, back at

. quiet. dropping away, the hospital. countless shining orbs are minds . that Seconds gone torever. Light snowflakes fell from the hard So until somebody in the know saw Bren- how puny by comparison in mental blackness above. nan and didn't recognize him, he was okay. and psychic stature we may be! That was how the TV guy had said it was The men in the garden had taken the ele- strange, inexplicable feelings Those for Resnick. vator guard's acceptance as good enough.

we have at times ... are they a tug- Spinning slowly in a tank in a drifting, aim- He was still safe. ging from the recesses of space upon less dream, the fluids filling his lungs, invad- But they would see immediately that our senses? Are they the effort of ing his tissues, finding the cancerous cells something was wrong if Brennan got too ex- and renegade chemicals, devouring them, cited, went for Resnick, tried to get in close. Cosmic beings to reach out—to find scraping away the cellular grime of a life- So it would have to be a long shot—and a of communication with earth? a bond time, subtracting years from Resnick's body good one. This FREE BOOK while he swam—erasing, healing, curing, his He hadn't fired the thirty-two in ten years skin silently shedding like snowflakes in a at least, had forgotten he had it until he was Explains night of spongy sleep. lying up in that hospital, watching the news, There are two ever exciting, un- At first the story had been that this was a trying not. to think about the tubes they had radical treatment for cancer. his ass and down his throat, plastic and solved mysteries— the nature of self new advanced up That Resnick was a hero because he put a wires and barium enemas and endless and our Cosmic connections. Let the lot of his own money into the research, year X rays; trying to find the bowel cancer, track- Rosicrucians, a centuries-old organi- after year, while his own cancer was chew- ing it down so they could cut him open again zation of learning (not a religion), ing at him. and again, running up the bills, shooting him think straight, send you a fascinating free book, the They held it off with chemotherapy and so full of dope he couldn't so

burned it out with radioactivity and all the he'd wake up sweating at night, the red fever MASTERY OF LIFE. It casts amazing time tried this new method— a cancer-seek- dreams swarming in his head, and next light upon these things. Find new ing molecule that would go for mutated cells, morning they'd make him collect his shit in achievement in this pleasure and comparing them with the body's own healthy a bag

unique knowledge. Use the coupon cells and killing them off if they didn't match. The elevator door opened. for your free copy. High risk. High cost. Resnick was looking straight out at him

And it worked. It aced out the bone-mar- through the glass, smiling broadly. The ROSICRUCIANS (AMORC) row cancer, and it erased a lot of other dis- Brennan felt hot oil sliding through his guts. 95191. U.S.A. San Jose, California eases Resnick might have, or was about to Resnick stepped out of the elevator, talk-

get, lying in wait down there in the cells. It ing to the bland-faced man next to him, nod- ' Scribe KAY he caught anything else or developed more ding to the guard. 1 Rosicrucian Order (AMORC) cancers, they'd pop him back in the tank for Smoking a cigarette. Grinning. Looking ' Rosicrucian Park, a while, clean him out, put him back on Ihe forward to the Hilton. ! San Jose, California 95191, U.S.A. street. The two shadows in the garden were [ Gentlemen:

oil, fella. And lube it. Ten mil- moving. Silhouettes melted from one tree to i Kindly send me a free copy of Ihe MAS- Change the

: it to cover TERY OF LIFE. I am sincerely interested in lion bucks? Put on the card. the next. Converging on the path, J

i the mysteries of self and of the Cosmic. Resnick volunteered for it, same as the Resnick when he came out guys who volunteered for artificial hearts and Well, Brennan wasn't going to give them kidneys and lungs. an easy target. He would stay where he was.

Only Resnick had bought his way in. spent fire from the darkness. hundreds of millions—because otherwise He had been a pretty good shot once. He nobody, not even the government, was going could get in two, maybe three before they o

knew who the hell he was. All (he cancer baths in ihe world couldn't fix up bullet holes. "THE BEST WAY TO SEE Resnick pushed open the glass door him- self, beaming. He was coming out, on his THE FAR EAST IS WITH THE way to the Hilton to meet all his famous. friends. - PEOPLE WHO KNOW There was a tall, leggy woman with him, twenty years younger than Resnick, bru- THE FAR EAST BEST." nette, her full, red lips set in an easy, supe- rior smile. High-heeled shoes and a while gown under the fur coat. She said something light and airy, and a murmur of conversation came across the Pearl has taken more travelere. for more years, chilled air. to more places in the Far East than any other Two guards walked in front. Breni craiseline in the world. sucked in a breath and held it, leveling the And that superior experience pays off for you. pistol on Resnick's outline, squeezing a little So youll enjoy bill ut sightseeing, smoother on the trigger already. Two-handed, hands arrangements and richer' experiences. in front, professional style. Waiting until there For more information about our various was a clear space between trees, enough two week itineraries, see your Travel angle for a clean— Agent. Or contact Pear] Cruises by coupon A shot boomed. A man in front shouted or telephone. something, and an orange flash came from across the garden. Pearl Cruises. 1700 Montgomery Street. Suite 320, San Francisco, CA 94111 Two quick explosions. (800) 338-1700 or (4 1 5) 391-7800 Screaming. A muzzle flash, then another. Name Brennan froze, his finger rigid. He hadn't Address . . fired. City_ Two figures were down on the walkway, My Travel Agency is^ and Ihe tall woman was stumbling back to- ward the elevators, a high, ragged scream coming from her. i PEARL'S FAR EAST A man ran into the trees, away from Bren- nan, and fired three limes at a shadow. It "Hurry, get a doctor! Get a doctor!" some- one shouted. A dark figure bent over the walkway and then jumped up and pounded into the foyer. Brennan walked silently past Resnick's Tlit blessings of nature, -, sprawled form. The eyes stared blankly up dash of divine inspiration. at Ihe falling white flakes. and a Two men were bent over him. trying to get some signs of life out of the body, bu! there was a big hole in the chest. A dark stain spread over the Wertmeiler topcoat, Nobody noticed Brennan. He walked to the first body under ihe trees and rolled it over. II was a man, emaciated, skin mottled. A pistol lay on the snow.

The second was a woman, still alive. She was about sixty years old, and a sour brealh came out of her, a smell he knew was not righl and would not get right. She had a shoulder wound. No weapon visible. He felt in her coat pocket. A kitchen knife. She blinked up at the night above, not seeing him. Her lips were moving, but no sound came out. Brennan didn't say anything to her. He walked away through the trees. It iliau liquet

Nobody tried to stop him. They were all running around and yelling. His gut didn't burn anymore, but he knew $ it would tomorrow. That didn't matter. What - F r a 1 i c made him feel good, really good, as he hit ge the cold, slick street, that n was there were other sick people in the world, millions of them, a lot more lhan there would ever be Resnicks.DO — "

thus suscepKbk-Hounpre-diolable reactions. PERCEPTION And without the benefit of exo psychologists, nniruD the aliens might be in even more of a quan- dary than we. In short! the potential for bad rhoir When boredom and fatigue are added to or lethal behavior on I'rsl contact will be great. remarks because coping mechanisms visual deprivation, the hungry brain may ea- One clue as to what rri'.c.h; happen can be are not functioning. gerly garnish the eye's glow ng creations with gleaned from the story of a U.S. medical team Conversely, deliberately olfering positive more complex pictures, including laces, making first contact with a group of Huichol suggestions during surgery may speed re- landscapes, fantasy creatures, and visions Indians isolated by the forbidding Sierra covery. Bennelt is now trying out what he from the past. In fact, when subjects in sen- Madre Occidental, a mountain raYige in calls' preoperative suggestions. On Ihe day sory-deprivation studies are confined to dark western Mexico, though the year was 1972, before an operation, he sits with a patient chambers, tank-type respirators, or moving the team had arrived on horses much as and suggests that certain Ihings will happen swings, optical images turn into elaborate Cortez had done. Even though the Ameri- to the individual's body during surgery. To a hallucinations in as little as ten minutes. cans had hidden all technology from view, woman scheduled for a hysterectomy, for Isolation and solitude can also increase the natives were alarmed by the alien pres- example, some of his' suggestions were: the need to search for visual signals, real or ence and ieac;eo with xenophobia. "Starting tonight and into tomorrow. Ihe blood imagined. After eight days in a dark pod, A widespread benaviora trait throughout is going to move away from your abdomen Claude willingly self-adminislered dimethyl the animal kingdom, xenophobia is defined and into your arms and legs. At the end ol tryptamine, a powerful hallucinogen that as intolerance and aggression toward your surgery, all the muscles in your abdo- mimics the effects of light on the retina and strangers. Claude's free-ranging simian men will be relaxed," is always shunned by primates with ade- counterparts in India would have repelled Bennett is concentrating on blood flow quate visual stimulation. In featureless envi- him with threats and direct attacks. And the because Ihere is ample evidence from his ronments not unlike deep space, explorers mild-mannered Huichols were antisocial as .own and other research that it can be di- sailing around the world or crossing Antarc- well. As the learn came onto the mesa, the rected. Also, it provides an objective meas- tica have frequently hallucinated imaginary Huichols lied to their huts, leaving a small ure of how effective suggestions are. "We've companions. Explorer Christiane Ririer, in the baby to sun in the yard. had encouraging results so far," he says. depression of the long polar nighl, searched The Huichols hid for four days, emerging Surgeons who aren't told which patients have for the noisy phantoms she knew were un- only to retrieve the baby each night. Mean- been given suggestions have been saying real. And the astronaut stranded on an alien while, the medica: loam's repeated contact things like, 'Hey! This guy is not bleeding plane! in Fredric Brown's story "Something with the infant eventually brought out the very much,' Green" talked to an imaginary alien that rode adult females. And the next team to visil Despite Ihe evidence, the medical com- munity remains skeptical, and the use of on his shoulder. If HAL is not around, it can an anthropologist and her infant daughter- be conjured up with the same ease that al- were fully accepied. Constructive suggestion under anesthesia lows children to make calls on toy phones. Psychologists have atYbi.ied this even- has yet to become as commonplace in the Such hallucinations become especially tual acceptance to what they call stimulus operating room as the scalpel is. intense when combined with life-threatening generalization, defined as the ease with Though this attitude may be prevalent in danger. Hostages, for example, report float- which one can see the familiar in the unfa- the medical community, there are excep- tions, is Dr. Bradley Cheek, a San ing or falling through tunnels of brightly col- miliar. II the alien resembles a familiar stim- One David gynecologist. His studies during ored geometric patterns, then emerging into ulus (the infant), it will generally be ac- Francisco a hallucinatory wonderland. A combat pilot, cepied. and a broad stimulus generalization the Sixties of surgical- pat tent recall inspired

" terrorized by a loss of pressure, fell he was is said to occur. When the alien is different Henry 'Bennett to conduct his own research. floating outside his plane amid lights and from a known stimulus (Ihe tarantula), the re- Cheek once recommended that every op- hometown friends. A window cleaner who action is fear, and a narrow stimulus gener- erating room, recovery room, and intensive- careful, barely survived a fall from a Los Angeles alization results When the gan" batiike al en care unit bear a sign that read: be skyscraper claimed that a UFO had res- in Arthur C. Clarke's novel Childhood's End THE PATIENT IS LISTENING. cued him from a tunnel of lights. cradled two human children .during ils lirst Another believer is Dr. Bernard Siegel, a Connecticut, with In some instances, fear may be great appearance, Ihe stimulus similarities over- surgeon in New Haven. 20 enough to catapult an astronaut into a mysti- shadowed the fear. years of experience. For the past five years, Siegel deliberately sooken of cal state of consciousness, a condition that If we are to turn terror into thanksgiving on has messages suppresses the ability to act. The astro- first contact, we will have to increase stimu- support to his anesthe:ized patients and has fewer complica- nauts, in fact, can be compared with the lus generalization by learning to relate to seen them recover with tions. "People are afraid of anesthesia," says "psychonauts" I studied at UCLAs Neuro- creatures that may seem bizarre. Through psychiatric Institute from 1972 through 1977. repeated trials with strange species, for ex- Siegel, "so before Ihe operation, I tell my pa- Trained to take highly controlled LSD flights ample, Claude acquired a concept of "alien" tients, 'Don't worry, we will still be in contact.' into inner space, these subjects could de- that allowed him to explore more freely and Then during surgery, I talk to their uncon- live things their scribe hallucinations in precise language, defecate less when presented with new en- scious. I tell them pes about

I toil defining a color, tor instance, to within a few counters. Training human contact teams, first problems; I ask them not to bleed; and millimicrons "of its spectral wavelength. Bui in the altered environmerr of spaceflight and, them Ihey will wake up comfortable, hungry, when confronted with bewildering halluci- ultimately, in anthropological and etiologi- and thirsty," nations and psychological fear of death, cal settings where perception can be And there are other encouraging devel- these specialists were unable to operate broadened and prejudices narrowed, will opments. Frank Guerra, an anesthesiologist computer keys or aircraft joysticks. Fiats help us see the star child at Ihe end of the and psychiatrist at Denver Presbyterian, has ol treated with hallucinogens at the Stanford corridor as one of our own. And on the day launched a newsletter, Human Aspects anesthesiolo- Research Institute failed to navigate familiar we slip info our pumpkin suit to greei our Anesthesia, which is sent to underwater mazes, even when survival was neighbors from beyond, we might recall gists, Its purpose, he says, is to make his realize they are doing at stake. Sensory bombardment may be a .Claude's experiences here on Earth. Re- colleagues that what life-inspiring mystical experience in the safety member: Don't crap in your pants, and send in the operating room has critical psycho- logical significance for their patients and that of your home, but it could be death-inviting out the women and children first. DO the patient madness for astronauts en route to the stars. "whether or not they believe that is going to have any kind of perception or Successful navigation through the per- Editors' note: Ronald K. Siegel is an experimen- says, "they should behave ceptual maze of spaceflight will bring us to tal psyenciogisi and psycnopharmacologist at memory," Guerra alien shores dissociated and confused and UCkAs Neuropsychiatry Institute. as if this were the caso."DQ 104 OMNI lattice to give the cells the correct placed? The Coses' IVig n existence is the special 'we're menisci structure. "In effect," Jackson says, Total Knee, an arf if icial joint in which producing test-tube ligaments now." Jack- articular cartilage are eliminated, and BDDM and ligaments son has implanted some of these the damaged ends of femur and tibia are knees, but the results have not been replaced by titanium or a chrome-cobalt al- in goats' knee by rejoining the femur and tibia but acts methods. ligaments are nor- as good as with more standard new connec- loy, (The patient's own as a. sort of scaffold on which of the pos- bones.) On the encouraging side, none three years mally used to join the iwo tive tissue can grow. During the cell disease, or having your brakes re- sible problems— rejection, been employed, pa- "It's very much like the operation has cancer-causing "invasion"— have material- says David Hungerford, of Johns tients—including a' semi professional foot- lined," pleased by the who developed one of ized. Jackson is sufficiently and several gymnasts—have Hopkins University, ball player work on animals to have gone on to the next the many versions of the Toial Knee. But be- been able to jog within seven months and ligament metal sur- step: successfully culturing human year. cause the cement that joins the resume full aciivity in less than a then be im- not hold tissue in solution. Can this tissue yes even faces to the face of the bone does One orthopedist who is saying human patient? "We're con- stress, Total Knee is planted in a of Wen- up under unusual the to pro athletes is Royer Collins, says. "Bui be- vinced that it can," Jackson used only for seriously crippled palients. alchee. Washington. Collins belongs to a convinced it, we first have to be Martin Altchek, a Middletown, New York, fore we do group of 20 physicians around the country done safely." it works and that it can be orthopedist who has successfully used aTo- that implanting artificial ligaments made . who are Hungerford views Jackson's work as a 73 arthritis patients, agrees. "I material called Gore-Tex. tal Knee in of a first step toward what might be in an athlete," he says. possible the same stuff they use in would never put one "It's a relative of called the Omega Knee—a joint grown en- Then what can be done for Joe"? "What we raincoats," Collins says. "It doesn't deform, tirely from a person's own cells. "Let's say we for people like thai," Hungerford says, and it's three times need if doesn't stretch out, knees, then cellular level make a model of Joe Namath's "is a basic understanding at the sironger than human ligaments." based on the model," he sug- parts of the knee are make a mold the Gore-Tex of how the various So far the group has used take some of Namath's cells, able to tell cells to gests. "Then we Only six made. We need to be ligament in 325 human patienis. say. 'Okay, guys, necessary to re- grow them in culture, and experienced complications. manufacture whatever Is people have that mold into articular carti- Namath's knees." This is not go to it Turn pleased," he adds. "With most habilitate Joe "We're very or ligaments, or whatever's needed.' In beyond the realm of possibility. 'After all," he lage, it takes year be- ligament reconstruction a grown, we take it program an E. coti a month or so, when its things. With says, "scientists can now fore people can start doing surgically implant in into Na- insulin." and- then we full ac- bacteria to make human Gore-Tex we've had people back to his knees normal. has al- math's knees. We make In Los Angeles the programming tivity in a month." have the information to do that During the last five years. "We don't about those people who require ready started. But what " Hungerford concludes. "But I believe Douglas Jackson and his colleagues have yet a whole new knee? Will there ever be a day goat ligaments, cultured when someone with an advanced and 'taken cells from chronic prob.e- ca" have the entire joint re- annrui cannPETiToru

-ador D.ali. has- peppered f. " —

Going downstairs, sleepless, at six in the Ihis way to him. He was studying the door. morning, she kept her eyes straight ahead, Then, curious, he stepped in. TRAPDOOR so as not to see that dreadful ceiling. "Up here!" said Clara. Halfway down she glanced back, started, She paraded through the hall, up the steps spooking me with Ihem? Don't call again. and laughed. to the landing, where she had placed a

Emma!" "Silly!" she cried. step I adder. " "But, you called me!" For the trapdoor was not open at all. She thrust her hand up, pointing.

"Hang up, Emma!" It was shut. "There's the attic. See if you can make Emma Crowley hung up. "Ratzaway?" she said, into the telephone sense out of the damned noises up there. In the hall at three-fifteen in the cold morn- receiver, at seven-thirty on a bright morning. And don't overcharge me when you're done.

ing, Clara Peck glided out, stood for a mo- Wipe your feet when you come down. I got

I to. steal ment, then pointed up at the ceiling, as if to It was noon when the Ratzaway inspec- to go shopping. Can trust you not

provoke it. tion truck stopped in front of Clara Peck's me blind while I'm gone?" "Ghosts?" she whispered. house. In the way that Mr. Timmons, Ihe With each blow, she could see him veer The trapdoor's hinges, lost in the night young inspector, strolled with insolent dis- off-balance. above, oiled themselves with wind. dain up the walk, Clara saw that he knew His face flushed. His eyes shone. Before Clara Peck turned slowly and went back everything in the world about mice, termites, he could speak, she marched back down inside, and thinking about every movement, old maids, and odd late-night sounds. Mov- the steps to shrug on a light coat. got into her bed. ing, he glanced around at the world with that "Do you know whal mice sound like in at- She woke at four-twenty in the morning fine masculine hauteur o! the bullfighter in tics?" she said, over her shoulder. because a wind shook the house. mid-ring, or the sky diver fresh from ihe sky, "I damn well do, lady," he said. You rats? Out in the hall, could it be? or the womanizer lighting his cigarette, back "Clean up your language. know She strained. She tuned her ears. turned to the poor creature in the bed be- These could be rats or bigger. What's bigger Very softly, very quietly, the trapdoor in the hind him. As he pressed her door bell, he in an attic?" stairway ceiling squealed. was God's messenger. When Clara opened "You got any raccoons around here?" And opened wide. the door she almost slammed it for the way "How'd they get in?" Can't be! she thought. his eyes peeled away her dress, her flesh, "Don't you know— your own house, lady? I The door fell up, in, and down, with a thud. her thoughts. His smile was the alcoholic's would think you Is! she thought. smile. He was drunk on himself. There was But here they both stopped. sound had from above. I'll go make sure, she thought. only one thing to do. For a come Wo.' "Don't just stand there!" she shouted. It was a small itch of a sound at first. Then She jumped, ran, locked the door, leaped "Make yourself useful!" She spun around and it scratched. Then it gave a thump like a back in bed. marched away from his shocked face. heart. Something moved in the attic. trapdoor "Hello, Ratzawayl" she heard herself call, She glanced back to see if it had had the Timmons blinked up at the and muffled, under the covers. right effect. Very few women had ever talked snorted loudly, "Hey!" Clara Peck nodded, satisfied, pulled on her gloves, adjusted her hat, watching.

"It sounds like—" drawled Mr. Timmons. "Yes''" "Did a sea captain ever live in this house?" he asked, at last. The sound came again, unmistakably louder, from above. The whole house seemed to drift and whine with the weigh! that was being shitted above. "Sounds like cargo." Timmons shut his eyes to listen. "Cargo on a ship, sliding when the ship changes course." He broke into a laugh and opened his eyes. "Good God," said Clara, and she tried to imagine that. "On the other hand," said Mr. Timmons, half smiling up at that ceiling, "you got a greenhouse up there or something? Sounds like plants growing. Or a yeast, maybe, big

as a doghouse, getting out of hand. I heard of a man who raised yeast in his cellar. It—" The front screen door slammed. Clara Peck, outside, glaring in at his jokes,

said, "I'll be back in an hour. Jump!" She heard his laughter follow her down the walk as she marched. She hesitated only once to look back. The damn fool was standing at the foot of the ladder, looking up. Then he shrugged, gave a what-the-hell gesture, and Scrambled up the stepladder like a sailor.

When Clara Peck marched back an hour

later, the Ratzaway truck still stood at the curb by her house.

"Hell," she said to it, "thought he'd be done "

by now. —Strange man tromping around, She ate dinner early, listening. swearing She washed the dishes, alert.

She stopped and. listened to the house. , She put herself to bed at ten o'clock, but Silence. in the old downstairs maid's room, tor long

"Odd," she muttered. years unused. Why she chose to lie in this "Mr. Timrnons!" she called. downstairs room, she did not know; she sim-

And realizing she was still twenty feel from ply did it and lay there with aching ears and the open front door, she approached to call the pulse moving in her neck and in her brow. through the screen. Rigid as a tomb carving under the sheet, 'Anyone home?" she waited. She stepped through the door into a si- Around midnignt, a wine passed, shook a lence like the silence in the old days before pattern of leaves on her counterpane. Her the mi.ee had begun to change to rats and eyes flicked wide. the rats had danced themselves into some- The beams of the house trembled.

• thing larger and darker on the upper attic She lifted her head.

decks. It was a silence that, if you breathed Something whispered ever so' softly in the

it in, smothered you. attic. She sat up. She swayed at the bottom of the flight ot The sound grew louder, heavier, like a Here's to stairs, gazing up, her groceries hugged like iarge but shapeless animal, prowling the at- a dead child in her arms. tic dark. She placed her feet on the floor and ?" "Mr, Timmons— sat looking at them. The noise came again, But the entire house was still. far up, a scramble like rabbits' feet, here, a

The portable ladder still stood waiting on thump like a iarge heart there. the landing. She slepped out into the downstairs haM But the trapdoor was shut. and stood bathed in a moonlight that was

Well, he's obviously not up in there! she like a pure, coo dawn [ iling the windows.

: thought. He wouldn't climb and shut himself Holding the banister, she moved stealthily in. Damn fool's just gone away. up the stairs. Reaching the landing, she She turned to squint out ai histruck aban- touched the siepladder, then ra sed her eyes. doned in the bright noon's glare. She blinked. Her heart jumped, then held

Truck's broke down, I imagine. He's gone still. For as she watched, very slowly the for help. trapdoor above her sank away. Itopened, to She. dumped her groceries in the kitchen show her a waiting square of darkness like V more, and (or the first time in years, not knowing a '^ine shaft going up, without end.

why, lit a cigarette, smoked it, lit another, and - '"I've had just about enough!" she cried. made a loud lunch, banging skillets and run- She rushed down to the kitchen and came ning the can opener overtime. storming back up with hammer and nails, to The house listened to all this and made climb the ladder in furious leaps.

no response. "I don't believe any of this! " she cried. "No By two o'clock the silence hung about her more, do you hear? Stop!" like a cloud of floor polish. At the top of the ladder she had to stretch "Ratzaway," she said, as she dialed the up into the attic, into the solid darkness with phone. one hand and arm, which meant that her The pest-company owner arrived halt an head had to poke halfway through. hour later, by motorcycle, to pick up the "Now!" she said. abandoned truck. Tipping his cap, he At that very instant, as her head shoved stepped in through the screen door to chat through and her fingers fumbled to find the with Clara Peck and look at the empty rooms trapdoor, a most startling, swift thing oc-

and weigh the silence. curred. As if something had seized her head,

"No sweat, ma'am," he said, at last. "Char- as if she were a cork pulled from a bottle, lie's been on a lew benders lately. He'll show her entire body, her arms, her straight-down up to be fired tomorrow. What was he doing legs were yanked up into the attic, here?" He glanced up the stairs at the step- She vanished like a magician's handker- ladder. chief, Like a marionette whose strings are "Oh," said Clara Peck, quickly, "he was grabbed by an unseen force, she whistled just looking at— everything." up. So swift was the motion, that the bed- "I'll come, myself, tomorrow," said the room slippers were left standing on the step- owner. ladder rungs. And as he drove away into the afternoon, After that, there was no gasp, no scream.

Clara Peck slowly moved up the stairs to lift Just a long breaking si erco lor about ten her face toward the ceiling and watch the seconds. Then, for ho seen reason, the trap- trapdoor. door slammed flat-down shut. "He didn't see you, either:" Not a beam stirred, not a mouse danced A year later, a new family bought and in the attic. moved into the silent house. She stood like a statue, feeling the sun- Finding the trapdoor, the children climbed light shift and lean through the front door. up, laughing, to throw wide the attic v

Why? she wondered. Why did I lie? dows and let the hot summer wind blow Well, for one-thing, the trapdoor's shutjsn't through all the empty spaces.

it?'And, I don't know why, she thought, bur / Then, giggling and shouting, they climbed won't want anyone go:ng ::p that ladder, ever back down to a tine luncheon of ham sand- again. Isn't that silly? Isn't that strange? wiches and soup. DO that the immune systems of unstressed mice cause they will elicit a gradual response from were able to contain Ihe growth of experi- the immune system. One group of subjects HYPNO ODYSSEY mentally implanted cancer cells. When he will be given the hypnotic suggestion lo de- stressed the animals, the tumors grew and press their immune response, another group,

techniques, but he confesses to liking hyp- the animals died. to enhance it. nosis a great deal. He says that the hypnotic Lesser ailments have also responded to Later, the team will microscopically ex- view of the mind is "like a smudged window hypnosis. Warts, a common skin disease of amine the areas where the subjects' skin was that's hard lo see through. Even so, we are viral origin, have been especially suscepti- pricked, and they wilf'count cells, look inside beginning to observe forms of thinking, per- ble. Theodore Barber, a psychiatrist at white blood cells, and measure changes. It ceiving, and feeling that are barely hinted at Cushing Hospital, in Framingham, Massa- will be the first time the influence of hypnosis

in conventional lines of inquiry." chusetts, and a longtime practitioner and will have been tested with such advanced

Bowers's work is still in its infancy, and chronicler of hypnosis, has listed sound sci- immunological techniques. If any difference none of the Canadian scientists are sure what eniific studies, going back to Ihe Fifties, is detected belween the two groups it will new information about the mind may come demonstrating that warts could literally be make a convincing case for a link between out of their continuing research. But at the hypnotized away, the mind and the body. very least, "intuition research and the work In his own work, Barber cites one remark- The difficulty in doing this kind of re- on the hidden observer will eventually able case of a woman whose body had been search, Frankel says, is determining whether warts for three years. After any changes observed are the result of hyp- . Ghange our way of looking at conscious- covered by 39 ness," concludes Laurence. two sessions ot hypnosis, during which she nosis or simply the ambience of the hypnotic In addition to using hypnosis as a valu- was told to imagine each wart tingling and setting. "You sit down with someone and able entree to the unconscious, researchers eventually vanishing, 37 of them disap- you're nice to him. You speak to him in quiet, tell are looking lo use it in a more concrete way. peared completely. soothing tones," he says.'You him to close At Pennsylvania State Unversity, psycholo- Hall- has also been experimenting with his eyes— to relax and imagine he is drifting gist Howard Hall declares, "I'm not all that other nonimmunological applications of off into another world. interested in what hypnosis is but in what "Sometimes just relaxing that- way makes feel call that pla- you can do with it. Can we alter various bio- him better. Some people a chemical ar eters?" he cebo. Bui whatever it is — expectation, re- asks. He believes we can. laxation —these are very important, cura- Among the things Hall has been trying io tive, therapeutic elements." 6/n one test a group do is see whether the brain can affect the And there is the problem of hypnotizabil- body's main line ot self-defense against dis- of hypnotized ity. Hall found that the more susceptible to Ihe immune system. In one test, he hypnotism a person is, the more dramatic ease, subjects rattled off the names took blood samples from 20 healthy people, was the immune response he could elicit. hypnotized them, and then asked them to of colors on a And not everyone is equally hypnotizable. visualize their white blood cells as sharks at- chart, unaware that one of Roughly one tenth of the population cannot tacking and wiping out cancer cells. be hypnotized at all. A third can achieve a their hands held Then he had group members learn self- drowsy- light state of hypnosis, another third, state. rest are capable of hypnosis. After they had practiced it at home a pencil that was adding a a medium And the for week, he took, a" second going into a deep trance, in which we can twice a day a column of numbers.^ blood sample. The results; The younger, respond to posthypnotic suggestion, am- highly hypnotizable subjects managed to nesia, or age regression. raise their white-blood-cell counts from Does this mean only highly hypnotizable 13,508 before hypnosis to 15,192 after prac- individuals can be helped? "I'm still strug- ticing self-hypnosis. Hall's conclusion: "The gling with that question," Hall admits. Al- mind can influence the body by changing hypnosis. One ininguing iesl he has done though he has not figured out how, he is the biochemistry of the blood." suggests that hypnosis can be used to pro- convinced that everyone can learn how to Hall's experiment was inspired by the work tect the hearing of a person exposed to loud exert some control over his or her body.

of Carl Simonton, a radiation oncologist, and. noises. It is a known medical fact that peo- "I believe we can do things with people Stephanie Matthews-Smonton, a psycho- ple who routinely work in noisy environments who are not high hypnotics," he adds. He therapist. The two had devised a visualiza- eventually lose some of their hearing. believes that what is really at work is a more tion/relaxation procedure that they used In his test Hall look two groups of people general force that he calls the psychology of along with traditional methods for treating and blasted each with loud (about 115-dec- healing, and that hypnosis is just one means cancer patients. Patients were asked to ibel) noise. The unhypnotized group- was of tapping into it. This concept is where Hall's imagine their, white blood cells as powerful asked to sit and do a crossword puzzle while main interest lies. "You know," he points out, creatures devouring weak, confused can- being bombarded with sound. The hypno- "the psychology of healing kept the human cer cells. The Simontons tested this tech- tized group was given the suggestion to race alive long before the advenf of modern nique on 159 "incurable" cancer patients. imagine themselves wearing earmuffs that medicine. Centuries ago, people took all

Two years later, 63 of them were still alive filtered out some of the noise, muting it to kinds of stuff— crocodile dung, tooth of and in improved health. One explanation for normal levels. When tested later, those who swine—that we now know to be pharma- what happened, the Simontons said, was that did the crossword puzzles suffered notice- cologically inactive. But they believed in it, these mental exercises enhanced immunity. ably more of a temporary loss in hearing than and they got better." A few short years ago. such an idea would the people with the imaginary earmuffs. Although clinical experience indicates that have been rejected by medical science as Others besides Hall have been intrigued hypnosis can help the mind perform re- preposterous. The immune system was by the medical potential of hypnosis. In Bos- markable feats —even influence the im- thought to operate autonomously. But re- ton, for example, psychiatrist Fred Frankel, mune system—there is as yet no absolute cent discoveries have shown that there is.an a Harvard professor and the acting director scientific proof, says Frankel. "But that

intimate and barely explored link connect- of the department of psychiatry at Beth Is- doesn't mean that we should stop using it. I ing the brain, the central nervous system, rael Hospital, is working with colleagues to would be the last person to want to throw it and immunity.-' see whether thoughts can alter the workings out. I've seen patients recover memory, During the late Seventies, Vernon Riley, a of the immune system. overcome fears, get tremendous relief from cancer biologist at the Pacific Northwest Re- The researchers plan to inject subjects suffering. It's produced some very dramatic search Federation, in Seattle, demonstrated with seven harmless antigens, chosen be- things; and it is not magic. "DO 112 ' OMNI " — —

see if Sherill was there or il anyone knew her. The black dudes came forward. A funny look in backed away. The RUN They mingled in the Annex, got their last so- got their eyes, and they cialising before the City. Someone might others parted, and a young woman walked

spoil your name?" I asked. know. Then if I saw Bill again out. "Howdoyoi,

! expression. She could I to help him? He She got a panicked i What? What do I didn't want to -irk aoou: what the employ- ees used to stimulate them. had screwed Sherill up royally, but then she'd spelled it. hesitating, looking to see if she

it that what Hell was connecting, making the grade. I felt hor- They unhooked the first trailer, and I had a hand in too, and was all about. Poor stupid sons of bitches. rible already. She wss a Cheryl. backed in the second. I got down out .of the was

shirt "Not I'm looking for," I said. cab, and an employee came up to me, a big I swung out of the cab, tucking in my who fellow with red eyes and brand-new cover- and pulling my s:raw hat do-.vn on my crown. "Maybe no! spocrica.ly." sne said, real soft. very pretty, with medium-size alls. "Good ones this load?" he asked. His "Hey!" I said, walking alongside the trailers. She was brealh was like the end of a cabbage, bean, Faces peered at me from Ihe two inches be- breasts, hips like a teenager's, legs not ter- and garlic dinner. tween each white slat. rific but nice. Her black hair was clipped Oriental. "I'm going to let you out. Just for a while. I short, and her eyes were almost I shook my head and held a cigarette out

bit," I told them. lor a light. He pressed his tingernail against need some information." "You can walk around a

"I'm letting out the first trailer now." I opened the tip. The tip flared and settled down to a "Ask!" someone screamed. 'Uust ask. side gates that one, and the people steady glow. He looked at it with pure want- goddammit!" the on didn't smell of anything, ing in his eyes. "You know you can't run away, can't hurt came down. They you're.all Understand?" didn't look hungry; they just all looked pale. "Listen," I said. "You had anyone named me, dead.

know," said another voice, .quieter. "Woman named Sherill," I repeated. No Sherill through here?" I spelled it for him. "We

Then I felt someone "Who's asking?" He oa.rnbled. still eyeing "Maybe we can help." one stepped forward.

It the cigarette. He started to walk away. "I'm going to open the gates one trailer at close'to me, and 1 turned. was the Cheryl "I'd like to sit front I to rear trailer first, took out woman, She smiled. up 'Uust curious. I heard you guys knew all a time." went the the names." my keys, and undid the Yale padlock. Then for'a while," she said. the white- "So?" He stopped. He had to walk around, "So would we all, sister," said otherwise his shoes melted the asphalt a bit haired old woman. The black dudes stood and got stuck. He came back and stood, off separate, talking low. Other drivers I swallowed, looking at her. lifting one toot, twisting a bit, then putting it real unsubstantial except at down and lifting the other. said they were 4/Wore people were "Couple of Cheryls. No Sherills," he said. one activity. That was the perk. And it was — said the hottest ones always ended up in "Now coming, and I was getting Hell. I handed him the cigarette. They loved the nervous, i stood my

I I for to it "No," said. motioned them get things.. "Thanks," I said. He popped into his mouth and chewed, bliss pushing over ground, trying to seem cairn, back into the trailers.

It had been a dumb idea all around. They his seamed face. Tobacco smoke came out. and the dead

I cab, his nose, and he swallowed. "Nothing to went back, and returned to the won- of gathered around me, looking dering what had made me do it. I shook my it," he said, and walked on. head and started her up. Thinking on a dead 1 took the empties back to Baker. Didn't at each other and

I in run was no good. "No," I said, "goddamn," Bill. Eight hours later I was bed, beer see then at me, looking eager* in hand, paycheck on the bureau, my eyes said, "good." wide open. Cheryl's face stayed with me. with longer than Shit. My conscience was working. I'd Cheryl's body stayed me the face. thought I was past that. But then I didn't use There is always something that comes up the perks, and I wouldn't drive without insur- life to lure a man onto the Low Road, I open, standing back a on a ance. I wasn't really cut out for the life. swung the gates little like there was some kind of infected not driving but riding in the back. We all have

something. I wondered what reason God had The next trip, it was cool dusk, and the wound about to drain.' like chip road crossed a bleak flatland of skeletal They were all naked. Butthey weren't dirty to give each of us that little flaw, a a crystal soul. You press the chip hard trees, all the same uniform gray as if cut from or unhealthy. Dead, they couldn't be. But all on sort of air about them indicating enough, everything splits up crazy. paper. When I pulled over to catch a nap had some

never sleeping more than two hours at a what brought them to Hell; not anything spe- I returned hauling empties and found my- this time outside a small town called stretch —the shouts of the damned in the cific, but subliminal. self

1 pulled truck into the cafe trailers bothered me even more than usual. Like, the three black dudes in the rear Shoshone. my

lot. The weather was cold, and I left They said silly things like: trailer, first to step out. Why they were going parking It eleven in "You can take us back, Mister! You really to Hell was all over their faces. the engine running. was about

half full. I look can!" "Stupid ass mo'fuck," one of them said, Ihe morning, and the cafe was "Can he?" staring at me beneath thin, expressive eye- a seat at the counter next to an old man with in his attacking "Shit no, mo 'fuck pig." brows. He nodded and swung his fists, trying maybe four teeth head with solemn dignity. "You can let us out! We can't hurl you!" to pound the slats from the outside, but the French toast downright hash juice, That was true enough. Drivers were alive, blows hardly made them vibrate. I ordered eggs and browns and truck. and the dead could never hurt those alive. An old woman crawled down, hair white ate quickly, 'and went back to my Bill stood next to the cab. Next to him was But I'd heard what happened when you let and neatly coiffed. I couldn't be certain what with a face like them out. There were about ninety of them she had done, but she made me uneasy. an enormous young woman wrapped in a filthy piece in back, and in any load there was always Then the others, young, old, mostly old. Quiet. a bulldog. She was it been one who'd make you want to use your perks. They looked me over, some defiant, most of plaid fabric, looking like had bunk, usl bewildered. snatched from a trash dump somewhere. I scratched my itches in the narrow Bill me?" looking at the Sierra Club calendar hanging "I need to know if there's anyone here "Hey," said. "Remember "Sure." just below the fan. The Devil's Postpile. The named'Sherill," I said, "who happens to know meet load became quieter as the voices gave up, a fellow named Bill." "I saw you pulling up. Wanted you to

1 The one after the other. There was one last 'That's my name," said a woman hidden Sherill. got her out of there." woman all expression of a brick. shout—some obscenity—then silence. in the crowd. stared at me with the there. Like a power fail- j'Let I waved my hand at them. "It's all screwy back It was then 1 decided to let them out and me see her" " "

Sherill it, no employees, just big carved- ureor something. We lsi weJkod out on the thanks. I found her!" He pointed at body on road, and nobody stopped us." and nodded his whole-body nod, and they lava barricades cu:tng across all lanes and which, Sherill could have had any number of werq ofi down the street, Sherill's plaid wrap beyond them a wall of yellow smoke, ' advised, weirdnesses beneath her formidable looks dragging in the dirt. the driver's unwritten instructions Baker, in front of meant absolutely no entry. and gone unnoticed by ordinary folks, but I I drove back to parked

I making noises. I didn't have any irouble picking out the big- my little house, and sat inside with a beer got out. The load was

it calendar for suddenly hated them, Least they could do gest thing wrong with her. She was dead, i while got dark, checking my run feeling very cold. Next wasgowithdignityand spare, me their mis- looked around to make sure that I was in the next day's and

I the truck, waiting for instruc- 1 to pick up another load ery. stood by World, and I was, and he wasn't lying. Clearly day was scheduled

indication of I was sup- something serious was happening on the at the Annex. Nobody called. If there was tions or some what Low Road. trouble, surely the union would let me know. posed to do, The load go! quieter after a

early morning. while, but I heard noises off the road, I the "Trouble?" I asked. showed up at Annex "Lots of escapes." He grinned at me. "Pan- The crossover from World lo work was as screams mostly-and far away. myself, "There isn't anything," I said to demon-ium." usual; I followed the route, and the sky mud- Bill's cigarettes even I on lighting up one of I blue to solder color, and was "That can't happen," I said, knowing was died from

I dragging deep, wrong. Sherill was trembling now, hearing the first leg of the road that leads to the An- though don't smoke and the yard's "anything worth this shit." Not job or dignity my voice. nex. I backed the rear trailer up.to run. or anything. I vowed I'd quit after this "He's a driver, Bill," she said. "He's one gate and unhitched it, then placed the for- behind the takes us there. We got to git out of here." She ward trailer at a ramp, all the while keeping I heard something come up

I closer to the cab steps. had that soul-branded air and the look o! a my ears tuned to pick up interesting conver- trailers, and edged of obscured things at first, pig that's Just escaped the slaughter seeing sation. The employees who work the Annex High wisps smoke dark four or five yards high the butcher again. She took a few steps look quite human. I took my bill of lading from but a shape red-faced, billiard-ball-eyed old guy. He plunged through and stood with one hand backward. Gluttony, I Ihought. Gluttony and a slats of the rear trailer. buried lust and a real ugly way of seeing liie, spit smoking saliva on the pavement, re- on the top

It little grunting noises. It was cov- inner eye pulled all out of shape by her bulk. turned my QL.e'y'irc, look s aniwise, and said made

it hitched with naked people, crawling all over, nothing. all settled. I ered "Tell me more." I said. Maybe was biting scratching and shouting obscen- "There's these folks running all over down L.p both full trailers and pulled out. and

ities. It fell to its knees, then stood again and there, holing up in them towns, devils chas- It was the desert again this time, only now — road. ing them the towns and tumbledown houses looked lurched off the bomb-blasted, like something big had come. I'd never seen an employee so big before, "Employees," I corrected:. "Yeah, every which way." through, flushing out game with a howitzer. or in so much trouble. The load began to wail

like banshees. I threw my cigarette and Sherill tugged insistently on his arm. "We No nevermind. Keep your eyes on the. down rig. ran -after it. got to go. Bill." . road. Push that Workers will tell you. Camaraderie ex- "We got to go," he echoed. "Hey, man. Four hours in I came to a roadblock. No-

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"Say what you like, 1 remain a reationist. tends even to these or the ;ob you don'l like. I headed back down the road. years. And I'd never seen him naked.

If they're in trouble, it's part of the mystique My load screamed like no load I'd ever "This is not the sort of job I'd expect one Martin to help out. Besides, the unwritten instruc- had before. I was afraid they might get loose, of my students to take," said. He laugh tions were very clear on such things, and but they didn't. I got near the Annex, and laughed the smooth he was famous I've never knowingly busted a job rule— not they were quiet again, too quiet for me to for, the laugh that seemed to take every- since getting my rig back—and couldn't see hear over the diesel. thing he said in class and put it in perspec- starting now. The yards were deserted. The long, white- tive. "The cat's away, John. The mice are in

Through the smoke and across great painted cement platforms and whitewashed charge now. I'm leaving, if I can."

unattended. long been here?" I asked. ridges of lava, I ran until I spotted the' em- wood-slat loading ramps were "How you ployee about ten yards ahead. It had shaken No souls' in the pens. The sky was an indef- "I died a month ago, I think." off the naked oeople and .va.~ standing with inite gray, and an out-of-focus yellow sun "You can't go," I said. The ice creeped up one in each hand, lis shoulders smoked, and gleamed faintly cf" the wh;e walls of the em- my throat. Martin said. "Still the scales stood out at all angles. They'd really ployees' lounge. I stopped the truck and "Team player," done a job on the bastard. Ten or twelve of swung down to investigate. screwball team player, even when the team (he dead were picking tnemselves off the There was no wind, only silence. The air doesn't give a damn what you do." lava, unscraped, unbruised. They saw rne. was Irosty without being particularly cold. 1 wanted to explain, but he walked away

The employee saw me. What I wanted to do most was unload and toward the Annex and the road out. Looking or over his shoulder, he said, "Get smart, Everyone came at me, grabbing. I turned get out of there, go back to Baker Barstow back and ran for the truck, stumbling over out- or Shoshone. John. Things aren't what they seem," I last all rounded the stretched arms and legs. My hair stood on I hoped that was still possible. Maybe saw him shaking his head as he end. People pleaded for me to haul them exits had been closed. Maybe the overseers corner of the Annex. out, whining like whipped dogs. closed them to keep any more souls from The dead in my load had pried loose some Then the employee got hold of me and getting out. of the ramp slats and were jumping off the were I rear trailer. in the trailer swung me up high out of reach. Its hand I tried the gate latches and found could Those forward the was cold and hard like iron tongs kept in an open them. I did so and returned. to the truck, screaming and carrying on, shaking ice-cream freezer. It grunted and ran toward swinging the rear trailer around until it was whole rig. my truck, opening the door wide and throw- flush with the ramp. Nobody made a sound. Responsibility, shit, I thought. As the dead

after Mr. Martin I both I unhitched ing me roughly inside. It made clear with wild "Go on back," said. "Go on back. You'ye followed gestures thai I'd better turn around- and go got more time here. Don't ask me how." trailers. Then I got in the cab and swung onto the in- back, that there was no way through. "Hello. John." Thai was behind me. I turned around away from the Annex

the rig an older man without any clothes coming road. "Sure as anything," 1 said, "I'm I started the engine and turned and saw

first. His going to quit." I didn't recognize him at eyes around, I rolled up my window and hoped on. the dead weren't substantial enough to finally clued me in. The road out seemed awfully long. I was scratch paint or tear up slats. "Mr. Martin?" My high-school history taking a route that I'd never been on before,

I. of if it would put All rules were off now. teacher. I hadn't seen him in maybe twenty and had no way knowing

I me where I wanted to be. But hung in there for two hours, running the truck dead-out on the flats. The air was getting grayer, like somebody

turning down the contrast on a TV set. I switched on the high beams, buf they didn't

help. By now I was shaking in the cab and saying to myself, nobody deservesthis. No- body deserves going to Hell no matter what

It getting colder. they did. I was scared. was

Three hours, and I saw the Annex and yards ahead of me again. The road had

looped back. I swore and slowed the rig to a crawl. The loading docks had been set on fire. Dead were wandering around with no

idea what to do or where to go. I sped up and drove over through the few that were on the road. They'd come up, and the truck's

bumper would hit them and I wouldn't feel a thing, like they weren't there. I'd see them in the rearview mirror, getting up after being

knocked over. Just knocked over Then I was away from the loading docks, and there was

no doubt about it this time. Hell. I was heading straight for The disembarkation terminal was on fire,

too. But beyond it the City was bright and

white and untouched. For the first time I drove past the terminal and took the road into the

City. It was either that or stay on the flats with

everything screwy. Inside, I thought, maybe they'd have things under control. The truck roared through the gate be- tween two white pillars maybe seventy or eighty feet thick and as tall as the Washing-

ton Monument. I didn't see anybody, em-

ployees or dead. Once I was through the

120 OMNI — " " " " "

ii me, looking at one another and then at me, dirt. I loved the din. find k; doan just passed pillars, and il came as a shock me by." There was no City, no walls, just the road looking eager. but myself," Pretty soon my tears were uncontrollable. winding along and countryside in all direc- "I never thought of. anybody truck, hiding interrupted with, "Man, I I kneeled down beside the my tions, even behind. one said. Another but they kept coming by and confess- The countryside was covered with shacks, fucked my whole life away,. I hated every-— head, ing. have passed, orderly, everything. I burned out Hundreds must houses, little clusters and big clusters. body and was quietly, gesturing with their hands. I talking I could pass Everything was tightly packed, people "I thought was the greatest. on everybody— Then they stopped. Someone had told working together on one hill, people sitting judgment goddamn you them to back away, that they were too much on their porches, walking along paths, turn- "I was the stupidest woman

I took face out of hands, and I farrowed kids for me. my my I pig. ing to stare at me as the rig barreled on ever saw. was a sow, a no guidance. a young-seeming 'allow stooa looking down through. No employees—no monstrosities and let them run wild, without or "You all right?" ne asked I to hurt me. I stupid cruel, too. of any sort. No flames. No bloody lakes or was and used like I nodded, but'my insides were broken rivers. things—"

"Never cared for anyone. Nobody ever glass. With every confession I had seen my- This must be the outside part, I thought.

self, and with every tale of sin I had felt an cared for me. I was left to rot in the middle Deeper inside it would get worse. answering echo. Another hour of driving through that calm of a city, and I wasn't good enough not to rot." "Someone's going to be taking me here landscape, and the truck ran out of fuel. I

I The young fellow helped lie I about soon," mumbled. I after coasted to the side and stepped down from "Everything did was a was — to my feet, and he cleared a way the cab, very nervous. twelve years old me up truck. leaned against "Listen to me, Mister, because it hurts, it around my I lit up my last cigarette and — "Yeah, but not yet," he said. "You don't be- the fender, shaking a little. But the shaking hurts so bad fruck. were long here yet." He opened the door to my was running down, and a tight kind of calm I backed up against my They lining up now, getting organized, not like any cab, and I got back inside was replacing it. "I don't have any fuel," I said. I thought they be- The landscape was still condensed, mob. had a crazy were He smiled that sad smile they all had and crowded, but nobody looked tortured. No stood the step, up close to my ear. "One screaming, no eternal agony. Trees and on of the employees is bound to get around to shrubs and grass hills and thousands and you after they take care of the. distur- thousands ot little houses. bances," He seemed a lot more sophisti- It took about ten minutes for the inhabit- were all 4f/iey cated fhan the others. I looked at him maybe ants to get around to investigating me. Two a little queerly, like there was some explain- men came strolling over to my truck and naked, but they weren't ing in order. Both of them were middle- nodded cordially. dirty. Each had "I "Yeah, I know all that stuff," he said. was aged and healthy looking, just like they were some sort of air about a driver once. Then I got promoted. What alive. 1 nodded back. are they all doing back there?" He gestured "We were betting whether you're one of them indicating up the road. "They're really messing things the drivers or not," the first, a black-haired what had brought them to up now, aren't they?" fellow, said. He wore a simple handwoven

"I don't know," I said, wiping my eyes and shirt and pants. "That so?" Hell; not anything cheeks with my sleeve. "I am." specific, but subliminal.^ "You go back, and you tell them all that "You're lost then." this revolt on the outer circles, it's what l ex- tell just I agreed. "Maybe you can me pected. Tell them Charlie's here and "that I where I am?" warned them. Word's getting around." "Hell," said the second man, younger by "Word?" a few years and just wearing shorts. The way having better than any people on Earth, but 'About who's in charge. Just tell them he said it was like you might say you came

knows and I warned them." Irom Los Angeles or Long Beach. Nothing these were the damned. Charlie passed to people I closed my eyes. Some shadow big, nothing dramatic. An ex-cop told me what he did over. The young fellow and everybody else "We've heard rumors there's been prob- in jails. An ex-Jesus freak told me that

seemed to recede. I felt rather than saw my lems outside," a woman said, coming up to knowing Jesus in your heart wasn't enough. like toy. it, man, I truck being picked up a I should join us. She was about sixty and skinny. She "Because have made In the cab in the parking lot of a truck stop looked like she should be twitchy and ner- should have made it." pulled it in Bakersfield, I jerked awake, my cap vous but she acted rock-steady. They were 'A time came and I was just broken by really. Just kepi stepping away from my eyes, and looked around. It all rock-steady. all, broke myself hall in myself making all the wrong deci- was about noon. There was a union "There's some kind of strike," I said. "I don't on and — truck sions Bakersfield. I checked, and my was know what it is, but I'm looking for an em-

diesel, l started her up and drove to I began to cry. full of so ployee to tell me," They confessed me, and to the union hall. "They don't usually come this far in," the Their faces'-were so clear and so pure, yet

the office. I confessing, and except I knocked on the door of went first man said. "We run things here. Or rather, here they were, specific like the fellow in and recognized the old dude who had nobody tells us what to do." maybe for things— after given the job in the firs! place. I was tired, "You're. alive?" the woman asked, a curi- who had killed Ukrainians the Second me

I to get it all they didn't and I smelled bad,, but wanted ous hunger in her voice. Others were com- World War in Russian camps— of done with now. ing around to join us, a whole crowd. They sound any worse than the crazy sons their lives He recognized me but didn't know my didn't try to touch. They stood their ground bitches I called friends who spenf run I told him. "I can't work the and stared and talked. in trucks or bars or whorehouses. name until

it. I l said. "I'm not the one for don't were all recent. I got the impression anymore," I They "I can't take you back," said. "I don't know

the older the feel right driving them when I know I'm go- how to get there myself." the deeper into Hell you went, ing to be there myself, like as not." "We can't go back," the woman said. damned became, which made sense; Hell "Okay," he said, slow and careful, sizing "That's not our place. Maybe you could just just got bigger, each crop of the damned got outer circles. me up with a knowing eye. "But you're out. listen to us, youknow?" bigger, with more room on the driving, it," said. "Youknow You're busted then. No more no more More people were coming, and I was get- "We wasted someone work for us, no more work for any union we trying greatest sinwas? I was dull. Dull ting nervous again. I stood my ground, what my support. It'll lonely." I only be I saw to seem calm, and the dead gathered around and cruel. never saw beauty. 122 OMNI : "I'll i take thai k m. of tjnely any day," 1 said. bravery. We've had some reports from the keeping the land clean. Sort of a giant san-

"Okay." That seemed to be that. I headed . . . uh . . . field, and we're hearing nothing itation squad, you people keep the scum for the door and stopped with my hand on but'good about you." He smiled like that fel- away from the good folks, the good and the knob, low on TV who's always ask'ny Ihe audience obedient workers. Now we know that driv-

"One more thing," I said. "Why there's so to give him some help. Then his face got ing's maybe the hardest job we have in the

much trouble in the outer circles. I met Char- sincere and serious. I honestly believe he company and Hat not everyone can stay on

lie. He says to tell you word's getting around was sincere; he was also very well trained the Low Road indefinitely. Still, we'd like you about who's in charge, and that's why," in dealing with nol-very-bright people. to stay on. Not as a driver— unless you really The old dude's knowing eye went sort of "I hear you have a report for me. From wish to continue, for the satisfaction of a glassy. "You're the fellow ended up inside?" Charles Frick." tough job. No, if you want to move up—and

I nodded. "He said his name was Charlie." I told him you've earned it by now, surely—we have a "You wait a minute. Out in the office." the story. "What I'm curious about, whaf did place for you here. A place where you'll be

I waited and heard him talking on the he mean, this thing about who's in charge?" comfortable and—"

phone. He came out and was smiling and "Charlie was in organization until last year. "I've already said I want out. You're acting put his hand on my shoulder. He died- in a car accident, I'm shocked to like I'm hot stuff, and I'm just shit. You know

"Listen, John, I'm not sure we should let hear he got the Low Road." that, I know that. Down there they all started you quit so easy. Word is, you stuck around He didn't look shocked. "To tell the truth. Confessing to me like they was Ancient Mar-

and tried to helpwhen 1 iners or something.

everybody else ran. What is going on?" The company appre- His face hardened ciates that. You've STIFF UPPER LIP. AND ALL THAT on me. been with us a long "It isn't so easy up time, reliable driver, here either, buster." maybe we should ar- The "buster" bit got

gue with you a bit, me. I pushed up from

I know what mean? Englishmen live the chair. When I Give you some incen- imperturbably with stood, he held up his tive to stay. I'm send- hand conciliatory-like their relentlessly wet ing you to Denver to and pursed his lips as weather. But they also talk with a fellow, an he nodded. important fellow." invented the trench "Sorry. There's incen-

The way he said it, I coat and the rolled tive, there's certainly intuited there wasn't umbrella. And gel along just swimmingly. a reason why you

too much choice and , should want to work Unflappable Englishmen still dress for

I'd better not fight it. : here. If you're so con- dinner in climates so sweltering that the

You work union long 1 vinced you're on your idea seems self-punishing. But by enough and you know ! way to the Low Road, 8 when to keep your savoring a tall, iced Beefeater and you can work it off, mouth shut and go tonic, they manage to keep their you know." cool. I along with them. "How can you say The English, you see, believe in They put me up in a 1 that?" keeping a stiff upper lip in the face of

motel and fed me, and ! Bright smile. "Char- adversity. But they're equally good at by late morning I was lie told you something on my way to Denver. keeping adversity to a manageable about who's in charge

. I was in a black union here." level. Which probably explains why they |

car with a silent driver Now it was getting invented the trench coat, the rolled ]

I and air conditioning : dangerous. could umbrella, and the Beefeater Gin and and some News- smell it, like with the tonic. | weeks to keep me union boss. company. "He said that's why 8 Saturday morning, BEEFEATER GIN. there's trouble." bright and- early, I "It comes every now The Crown Jewel of England!" stood in front of a very and then. We put it

large corporate build- down gentle. I tell you

ing with no sign out ' we really need good

front and with a bank on the bottom lloor. I he was a bit of a troublemaker here. Maybe people, compassionate people. People who went past the bank and up io the very top. I'm shocked but not surprised." listen to even the damned. We need them io A secretary met me, pretty but with her He smiled bngh-iy again, and his eyes got nelp with the choosing."

hair done up very tight and her jaw grimly large, and there was a little too much ani- "Choosing?" square. She didn't like me. By her looks she'd mation in his face. He had on these Mac- "Surely you don't think the Boss does all be friendly only to insurance salesmen and Arthur wire-rimmed glasses too big for his the choosing directly?"

visiting preachers. She let me into the next eyes. I couldn't think of a thing to say. office, though. "What did he mean?" "Listen, the Boss—let me tell you. A long

I'd seen the fellow before, 1 wasn't sure 'John, I'm proud of all our drivers. You don't time ago, the Boss decided to create a new where. He wore a narrow tie and. a tasteful know how proud we all are of you folks down kind of worker, with more decision-making but conservative, small-checked suit. "His- there who are stuck doing the dirty work. abilities. You and me and all the rest of man- shirt was pastel blue, and there was a big Hauling in sinners." kind." Smile. Fable time, kiddies. "Some of Rembrandt Bible on his desk, sitting on ihe "What did Charlie mean?" the supervisors disagreed especially when glass next to an alabaster penholder. He "The abortionists arc Demographers, the the Boss said we'd be around for a long, long shook my hand firmly and perched on .the hustlers and muggers and murderers. Athe- time. We'd have immortal souls. When the edge of the desk. ists and heathens and idol worshippers. Boss got his program going strong, giving "First, let me congratulate you on your Surely there must be some satisfaction in us the freedom to choose between good and " . "

; thrKS of shil-canning or "Not the Boss. f that's wl iai you're getting evil, it was inevitable that a few would choose Only management management thinks in terms at, John, It's been kind of traditional. You may evil. You could think' ot it as waste—nuclear welfaring. Only there waste. There are benefits to the program- of human waste. have heard about me. I'm the one, when good people, hard workers. And there's gar- "The Boss feels the project half suc- was all this talk about after-death experi- seeing bright light bage, too; poison, toxic garbage. The gar- ceeded, so He doesn't want to dump it com- ences, and everyone was beauty, I'm the one who wondered why bage builds up after a time—those who don't pletely. But He doesn't want to be bothered and

.the other side. I found wan! to go along, not good workers; you with all the pluses and minuses, the book- no one was seeing died seen might say. keeping." people who had almost and had

cool- Hell, I turned their lives around. The "You're in charge," I said, my blood and "A few turn out lo be . . . chronically un- management in the company decided a fel- employable. Can't find it in themselves to go ing quickly. low with ability could do good work here. I before. my along with the program. Gei out of line. What And I knew where had seen him

I'll it wasn't do you do with them? Can'i dispose of them On television. And so I'm here. And tell you,

I wish we had a little more by just making them go away; the rule is, God's right-hand man. easy. sometimes guidance, they're immortal. Poison, but they last for- And human. Flesh and blood. help from the Boss, a little more — to it." ever. So We ran Hell. but we don't, and somebody has do "Chronically unemployable''" He was He nodded, "Now, that's not the sort of Again the smile.

being mighty -clever. And what do you do thing we'd like to get around." I put on my mask,

' and you let the drivers "Of course," I said. I hoped that a gradual with nuclear waste? You shit-can it Put it in "You're in charge, — take their perks on the loads, you let increase in piety would pass his sharp-eyed the biggest, deepest shit can. . . .

if I didn't, muster, "The damned. You're a union man. Think I stopped, instinct telling me that trail with 'And you can see how this ail makes you I would soon be on a no of what it must feel like to be out of work , . rugged valuable to the organization." forever. The Boss's work is very important turnaround. much more

I let light dawn slowly. there's no denying that. He's got big plans "I'll tell you the truth, John, 1 have only been in for year, and predeces- "We'd hate to lose you now, John. Not when for us all, and ii the Boss can't use you, then charge here a my working nobody can." sor let things gei out of hand. He wasn't a there's security, so much security,

religious man, John, and he thought this was for us. I mean, here we learn the real ins and I knew the feeling, both the way he meant like any other, where you could com- outs oi salvation." it and the reality behind the comparison. a job until a! his I let him talk at me he looked What do you do with the chronically unem- promise now and then. I know that isn't so.

here, we'll watch, and all the time I nodded and consid- . . and ployable? You put them on welfare . for- There's no compromise tried to think of the best ploy. Then ever. So what was Hell, shit can or welfare straighten those inequities and bad deci- ered and

turnabout. I did some sions out very soon. You'll help us, I hope. I eased myself into a dump? I go! the impression this fellow con- problems than confessing until his discomfort was stretched sidered it a shit can. You may know more about the keeping him from an impor- But a good union man knows there isn't we do." too far— 1 was conclud- anybody who can't do some sort of work, "How do you qualify for a job like this?" I tant appointment—and made my statement. can't be persuaded to be useful some way. asked. 'And who offered it to you?" ing

"I just wouldn't feel right up here," I said.

"I've been a driver all my life. I'd just want to keep on, doing my bit wherever I'm best suited." "Keep your present job?" he said, tapping his shoe on the side of the desk. be. "Lord, yes," I said, grateful as could He Then I asked him for his autograph.

smiled real big and gave it to me, God's right- hand man, who had prayed with presidents.

I'm on the road again. I'm talking to peo- ple here and there, being real cautious.

Maybe I'll get caught.

When it looks like things are getting

chancy, I'll take my rig back down the road.

Then I'm not sure what I'll do.

loose. I I don't want to let everybody But want to know who else is ending up on the Low Road who shouldn't be. People unpop- ular with God's right-hand man. My message is simple. The crazy folks are running the asylum. in- Maybe I'll start hauling trucks back out

stead of in, Christ was supposed to be the last person to do that, He went to Hell and Hell, rescued the righteous . , . harrowed

that's what they had always called it in my $*r&4*r(vr~~) t. Bible school classes,

If I" don't make it, if they're too powerful

and too sly, then I'll end up riding in back, not in front. But until then, I'm doing my bit. It's not as

if I'm asking for help by telling you this. But you're a union man, aren't you? We could

shut it down, you know. Truck drivers har- rowing Hell. Isn't that a thought?Dd — ?

The one-in-a-million l.Q. test GAnnES By Scot Morris

your advantage to guess whenever you are Mosi intelligence (or l.Q.) tests are designed like l.Q. tests, Hoeflin split his original long- unsure of an answer. so that average people get average form test into two parts of 48 questions 5. FEE. For basic $5 scoring fee, you scores, clustered around the midpoint l.Q. each. One part appears here, published a other part will receive a scoresheet listing the number ol 100. The tests are most powerful at for the first time anywhere; the of questions you answered correctly their middle ranges, where the difference appears in the Omni l.Q. -quiz book, (broken down into raw scores within each between an l.Q. of 100 and 105 may be complete with answers. that test printed of the- subtests), your corresponding I.O. a matter of several questions on the test Hoeflin estimates the in floor of (which means that if score, and its estimated percentile itself. But a! their upper ends, the tests here has a 122 the general population. don't seem' to discriminate nearly as well you get no questions right, your l.Q. is For an additional $5 ($10 total), you will the five-point difference between l.Q. somewhere below 122) and a ceiling of 184. that receive a ien-page statistical report, "The scores of 145 and 150, say, may translate The test's atmosphere is so rarefied whatsoever in testing Meaning ol Mega Test Scores," which into raw-score differences ofonly one it has no validity is shows how scores on the Mega test relate or two test questions. people of "normal" intelligence. This test of collabora- to scores on other recognized high-I.Q. In recent years there has been an interest "the. result of almost two years At our tests, the procedures for applying for in devising tests that make fine distinctions tion between Hoeflin and Omni. administered to more membership in other high-I.Q. societies, in the intellectual stratosphere. The idea request the test was of the and their addresses. is to make a test so difficult that geniuses than 150 people— all members societies, in to show, 6. SCORESHEETS. Send to Omni-Mega will get average scores, ^and only major high-I.Q. order score Test, Box 7430, New York, NY 10116. Allow supergeniuses will be able to achieve the for example, that Mega members weeks for processing. highest scores. higher than members of Prometheus, who eight The Omni l.Q. Quiz Contest, published score higher than members of Triple Nine, this month by McGraw-Hill, is offering and so on. VERBAL ANALOGIES $10,000 in prizes for the highest scores on Of the test's 48 questions: 8 correct the cutoff for For the first 24 problems, write the word a test printed in the book. Prizes include corresponds to an l.Q. of 134. or prefix that best completes each analogy. a $5,000 cash grand prize, a one-week trip membership in Mensa; 22 right, an l.Q. (is in the For example, in the analogy TASTE ; to Barbados for two, a Genesis telesystem of 150. qualifies one for membership the to) GUSTATORY ;: (as) SMELL : (is to) ?, from AT&T, an Atari 800XL home computer, Triple Nine Sociefy; 33 or above, corre- answer would be OLFACTORY. In and a Casio Data-Bank watch. sponding to a 164 l.Q,, qualifies one for best :: the analogy of HOT ; COLD PYRO- : ?. Contest and book author Marilyn Mach membership in the Prometheus Society; 42 would be CRYO-. vos Savant (who as a child scored a 230 right, or an estimated l.Q. of 176. is the the answer

:: : ? Society. 1. NIGHT : DAY NOCTURNAL on a Stanford-Binet l.Q. test and is listed in cutoff for joining the Mega admission 2 HEEL: ACHILLES:: BOX: ? the most recent edition of the Guinness This test alone is suitable for COBBLER:: BARREL:? Book of World Records under "Highest to all of the above societies except Mensa. 3. SHOE: 4. UNCERTAINTY; HEISENBERG :: l.Q.") also writes about six high-I.Q.

UNDECIDABILITY : ? organizations that have been established INSTRUCTIONS . 5. 14 :.SEMI :;1 '/;::? in recent years. or all of 6. BILLION: BILLIONTH:: GIGA-:? Mensa, the most famous group, is open 1. ANSWER SHEET. Print type on single 8V2- by 11-inch 7. TEETH: HEN:: NEST:? to one person in 50—that is, people in your answers a LENIN: PSEUDONYMOUS:: the upper 2 percent of the population (I.Q.'s sheet of paper. At the top, give your name, 8. LENINGRAD;? above 133, or SAT or GRE scores above address, age, and sex. plus— optionally— 9. PAIN: RUE -BREAD:? 1250). The Triple Nine Society has a 1- scores from any previous l.Q. or aptitude

10 FEEL : PALPATE ;: LISTEN : ? in-1,0.00 cutoff (the 99.9th percentile, hence tests you might have taken. :: : ? 11. : AQUEOUS SNOW the name). And the Prometheus Society . 2. TIME LIMIT. There is no enforceable WATER LITTORAL:: RIVER:? limit, it is suggested that you 12 SEA: shoots for 1 in 30,000. But the most restric- time but

1 :: ? : month. 13- THITHER : HITHER TRANS- tive group is the Mega Society, which is limit yourself to no more than one ::BRACHY-:? 3. ASSISTANCE. You are encouraged to 14. WIDE: NARROW theoretically limited to one personin a .

:: : ? 15. CIVIL ; PAPAL AMBASSADOR (the 99.9999th percentile). Mega is use such reference aids as.dictionaries, million ^MELAN- recognized by Guinness as the world's thesauri, and pocket .calculators. A slide rule 16. BLACK: YELLOW

all numerical answers CHOLIC : ? most exclusive- l.Q. society. At present it has is discouraged since

17. FOUR-SIDED POLYHEDRON : only 26 members. must be exact! Any assistance from other TETRAHEDRON ;: FOUR-DIMENSIONAL The founder of Mega and author of one persons is prohibited.

for HYPERCUBE : of its admissions tests is Ronald Hoeflin, of 4. GUESSING. There is no penally 18. WINTER: HIBERNATE;: SUMMER:? New York. Knowing how Omni readers wrong answers or guesses, so it is to 126 OMNI — —

19. GOD : THEOLOGY :: WHY. IF GOD could touch, including A and B. if the knight them. If each group el :hree dots has a flat

EXISTS, THERE IS EVIL:? makes only permissible moves, does not surface pass through it and extend an 20. 100: PERCENTILE:^:? touch any square more than once, and infinite distance in every direction, what is

21. LOGIC : SOPHISTICAL ;; FEAST : ? does nol go outside the 16 squares shown? the maximum number of ti fferen; lines

22. RUTHLESS : MYRMIDON :: IMITA- at which these surfaces may intersect one

TIVE : ? another? 23. IS: OUGHT:: ONTOLOGY:? ID 24 60:59::NEO-:? 34.' Suppose that each side of a cube is painted a single uniform color red, blue, SPATIAL PROBLEMS — or yellow—such thai any two sides painted For each of Ihe next (wo problems, four red are chromatically indisihguishable, of Ihe five figures have some basic, common as are any iwo painted blue or any two feature lhat the fifth figure lacks. Indicate ' 30. Draw the fourth figure in this series: painled yellow. When all six sides are with the appropriate letter the figure that visualized simultaneously, they constitute a does no! belong with the rest. color pattern for the cube. Two color patterns are mutually indistinguishable 25. (A) (B) (C) (D) (E) whenever one can be made to coincide with the other by suitable rigid rotations, For example, there is only one distinguishable color pattern consisting of one blue side 31. Several cervical cubes' afefused to and five yellow sides. How many distin- form a. solid object. Given the following guishable color patterns can a cube have,

five views'of such an object, draw the sixlh. counting all six sides n cacti pattern and assuming that .each side must be painted red, blue, or yellow?

27. What is the minimum number of 35. A cube of butler is sliced five times square sheets of paper sufficient to repro- 32, If 27 itierrical cubical chunks of by a butter knife. Into how many pieces duce the pattern below if the sheets cheese are piled together to form a cubical at most can the cube of butter thereby be unfolded, uncut, unmarked, and opaque stack as depicted be lew. what Is the divided if each knife srokc s perfectly are placed flat on top of one another such maximum number of these cheese chunks straight (i.e., planar) and the pieces of butter that each line shown corresponds to the through which a mouse of negligible size are never rearranged? The figure below edge of some square insofar as it is not could munch before exiting the stack, illustrates three slices, yielding eight pieces. occluded by any overlapping square? assuming that the mouse always travels along Ihe grid of 27 straight lines that pass through the centers of Ihe chunks parallel or perpendicular to their sides, always SB makes a 90° turn at the center of each chunk, 5S»1 and never enters any chunk more than once? ss 36. What is ihe maximum number of completely bounded volumes that can be

28. If three mutually intersecting rectan- formed by three interpenetrating cubes, gles are drawn on a flat surface, what is considering only the surfaces of the cubes the maximum number of bounded areas that as bounds and counting only volumes can thereby be formed, considering only that are not further subdivided? Ihe sides of the rectangles as bounds NUMERICAL PROBLEMS and counting only areas that are not furlher subdivided? - 37. A modified version of the dice game A craps is played with two regular (i.e., 29. In going from square A to squareB 33. Five dots are arranged in space so perfectly symmetrical) dodecahedrons. in the figure below, what is the maximum that no more than three at a time can Each die has its sides numbered from 1 to number of squares that a chess knight have a single flat surface pass through 12 so that any sum from 2 to 24 would CON'HNUED'ONPAGE 132 129 PHERJDnnEruM

gifts of nature—the scalloped

Michigan—are united by photographer lonplace coleus. with caught Morrill's Lincoln Park C. graphed the velveteen leaf one day and the lakefront. Later he brought the t..^

i further illustrate their contrasts. "I wanted to show \ photographer, who has a degree in zoology.

is, which, by the way, is actually i va." To take the photographs, Morrill

n was Ektachrome 64.DO .

one cubic meter and a weight of two long tons. A group of terrorists render the lock to the EARTH EArVlES inoperable and attach a time bomb cu"viir-;-;Er_'Ffio- -jagf ,: side of Ihe barge set to go off in three hours. moving by the work of Allen Frey, a biophysicist and be showing on ihe lop surfaces of the iwo The barge contains elevators tor quickly to the deck, but the crew is technical director of Randomline Inc., a dice after each throw. If a player gets the barrels firm in Hun- to roll the heavy barrels up basic-research and 'consulting sum 13 or 23 on his first throw (a natural), he too shorthanded Pennsylvania. Frey has been an inclined plane in the time allotted. The tington Valley, wins. If he gets the sum 2, 3, or 24 (craps), not by giant fire- is only ten centimeters below the top studying sounds generated he loses. If he gets any other sum (his point), deck barrels could balls but by the relatively weak electromag- he must throw both dice again. On this or edge of the lock, from which the with radar, micro- dry land. If no water is entering netic fields associated any subsequent throw, the player loses if he be rolled to the lock, many barrels, at a waves, and radio waves. gets the sum 13 and wins if he gets his point or leaving how to the would need to be rolled into the Applying his physiology background but must throw both dice again if any other minimum, raise the level of problem, Frey discovered that such fields, sum appears. The player continues until he water in the lock in order to in the out- its would be even while too weak to cause vibration either wins or loses. To the nearest percent, the barge so thai deck stimulate the in- slightly above the top edge of the side environment, somehow what is the probability at the start of any with or remaining barrels could be ner ear itself. Although unsure of the exacr game that the dice thrower will win? lock so that Ihe suggests that rolled to dry land? mechanism involved, Frey these very weak fields might be affecting the 38. Illustrated below is a simple scale for chemical bath that surrounds the ear's weighing objects. The scale consists of a acoustically sensitive membrane. Somehow lever resting on a fulcrum with weighing pans that electrochemical reaction may be trans- at each end of the lever equidistant from the lated to sound. fulcrum. Suppose that the objects to be While Keay's theory about vibration of the weighed may range in weight from 1 pound surrounding environment makes sense, Frey to 100 pounds at one-pound intervals: 1. 2, adds, giant fireballs are most probably stim- 3 98, 99, 100. After placing one such the diagram be- ulating the internal environment—the inner- object on either of the two weighing pans, 42. As one can see from series ear membrane— as well as the external one. one or more precalibrated weights is then low, the sum of the infinite "You don't have an either/or situation," he . . + 'A + Vb + Vie + . placed in either or both pans until a balance Vs sources of the sound will vary is 1. is the sum of Ihe infinite series notes. "The is achieved, thus determining the weight of What of the i/ ( depending upon Ihe exact frequency le- 3 + 14 + Va + /bi + .--? the object. If the relative positions of the electromagnetic wave." ver, fulcrum, and pans may not be changed Both Frey and Keay insist that better un- initial set of and if one may not add to the 1 derstanding of the phenomenon will have a precalibrated weights, what is the minimum sizable payoff. Learning exactly how elec- number of such precalibrated weights that tromagnetism reacts with the ear, says Frey, would be sufficient to bring into balance any will give us greater insight into the human of these objects? auditory system. how fireballs gener- For each of the following number series, what And understanding new vis- number should come next? For example, in ate sound, says Keay, could open tas for scientists studying geophysics, elec- the series 1 4 9 16 25 36 ? the best answer astronomy. And perhaps would be 49. tromagnetism. and even more important, current work could 39. A crystal cons.siso: "OO.OOO.OOOlay- ' researchers perfect a 43. 15 52 99 144 175 180147? conceivably help of atoms such that there is 1 atom in the ers technology known as 44. 3 23 229 2869 43531 ? promising new energy first layer. 3 in the second, 6 in the third, 10 in which hot 45. 0588235294? magnetohydrodynamics, in Ihe fourth, 15 in the fifth, and so forth, as fireball, gen- 5 180 195189 5? plasma, like that created by the illustrated below. Exactly how many atoms 46. 1421 132 electromagnetic power. 47. 6858407346? erates are there in the entire crystal? In the past, Keay notes, a concerted study 48. 1 3 8 22 65 209 732 2780? of the fireball hiss has been almost impos- around ihe world, This concludes the test.OO sible. At any given site there are only three or four giant meteors a

century. It's impossible to know when one of CREDITS there simply "' these projectiles will arrive, and ..< " J i v '-S - aren't enough of them to justify a long-term 40. To the nearest percent, the probabil- :....-.- .',: pats* A wait, complete with recording equipment and ity that any one person selected at random s d£paXn?'cvV>',. SyOeatio a trained scienliiic staff. was born o"n Monday is 14 percent. What is "of Naf'ameSjurc But that issue, he adds, may now be ac- the probability, to the nearest percent, that Sygma- page 38 top, Ujs ademic. A new, predictable kind of fireball— persons chosen at random, ex- of any seven . page 3B bottom, M as much the space shuttle— produces actly one was born on Monday? . ,. plasma and noise as do fireballs dropping

in from the cosmos. 41 A certain lock for raising and lowering space shuttle offers a golden op- ii "The : !. barges from one river level to another is a portunity for any young researcher- with a rectangular parallelepiped 200 meters long, X-::'". 'iLm^uS tape recorder, an amplitier, and a bit of time," 50 wide, and 20 deep. A barge is floating in contends. "Scientists who know when :..:: .. . Keay ,,,:l nurn: page 47 right ,:.: , Ms** lock that is also a rectangular parallele- the tor its arrival. it will pass can simply lie in wait meters long, 25 wide, piped measuring 80 of the .'',:<.- By getting the whooshes and hisses 5 deep'.""The barge, containing 3,0.00 and signal on tape, we can learn 97 lei page 97 electromagnetic barrels of toxic chemicals, displaces 8,000 H )e .,.;i.; 1 I.,,;;:-,--:, pagesetop, : exactly how this kind of energy is converted .. <* ftat- water has a density fi;,.: !s long tons of water. The that's ga Spiegel; oage^lW to sound. We'd be solving a mystery of one long ton per cubic meter. Each barrel 'Sh° haunted us for two hundred years. "DQ of chemicals is watertight, with a volume of

132 OMNI © ART CUMINGS

I have never seen a more, realistic expression of -the human condition

How are you at maps ' 3 ; " :

- ;d hnise-i :<':«\ ., on !. okoop this venerabk Dr. By: ' nst .eheioopt S j!-!y & tylized. or d pecjl=ar : y annovina '!' ked ike a ii-iroc DO! :' 0< presson. "Were just

=ei: X*. ; learn wh at makes them fall int; : ; It's a :ilqij! lizei darl :,' hesaic

Si: OUti;d a iso of the i -r-Ji em down keep .7 bt :'.,.'.'.',' i- emd( 'or a bo' Dav-i ^'^i I he oar: into -the rifle

. ;.' !;.' the ::i- i nr.ed In h is arms and . . :oih tj£ \mi A ioi" V ! y unharmed.".

•d-RS patrols g rf below, o abruptly and -.$ to the pilot Toe

I had been wall LMST topped dead s UUDRD

. By Mitch Coleman . The sharp pop cUhe nid hue noise of the ro;; ipawes is one of more than •

rM i:rooi mat tl a dozen behavioral researchers patrolling U.S. cities-- as part of an effort r- hohCOO- Caii'.iOUS s so^enr-n He load-

: to control the proliferation of - iq so- " lie-move a new urban parasite—the street mime ., toe. Sailed :hc prey was ne pulsed out a tape measi dictating information'tome

storm. "While. Male/'he ir

;pmg Irks a baby We s:ari:e a :.ao -o ghts and then—' ddenly Daviess ooooc '.aeries. A loch- ock moved -acres ia Ns face, and men ^eswelled.vyflftt ears, fine mimes well, had teardrops ,y nd&r them as but

apt to climb arv ir rag nary sadder

dv. Jerry.' Two years

ne dropped out iof dental school to bo

lokl Bring me a radio co^r; 'DO