ltogether possible that you may have no more than barely heard of
telenosis--its technical details are among the most closely guarded
secrets of our time. So I'll go over some of the high spots of what I
told Newell.

Mind you, I'm no authority on the subject, and it has been a full seven
years since I have done any research on it. However, I learned all I
know from Dr. Homer Reighardt, who, at the time, was the world's
outstanding authority.

Telenosis, nowadays, is confined almost exclusively to use in
psychiatric hospitals and corrective institutions. It's used chiefly on
neurotics. In cases of extreme dementia, it's worthless. In fact, the
more normal you are, the more effective the telenosis.

Roughly--without going into any of the real technicalities--it's this
way:

Science has known for a long time that electrical waves emanate from the
brain. The waves can be measured on an electroencaphalograph, and vary
with the physiological and psychological condition of the individual.
Extreme paranoia, for example, or epilepsy, or alcoholism are
accompanied by violent disturbances of the waves.

Very interesting, but....

It wasn't until 2037 that Professor Martin James decided that these
brain waves are comparable to radio waves, and got busy inventing a
device to listen in on them.

The result, of course, was telenosis. The machine that James came up
with, after twenty years of work, could not only listen in on a person's
thoughts, which are carried on the brain waves, but it could transmit
messages to the brain from the outside.

"Unless the waves are in a state of disturbance caused by alcohol or
insanity or some such thing?" Newell commented.

I nodded.

"The word 'telenosis' comes from 'hypnosis,' doesn't it?"

"Yes, but not very accurately," I said. "In hypnosis, you need some sort
of visual or auditory accompaniment. With telenosis, you can gain
control of a person's mind directly, through the brain waves."

"You say 'gain control of a person's mind,'" Newell said. "Do you mean
that if you tell someone who is under telenosis to do something, he's
got to do it?"

* * * * *

"Not necessarily," I said. "All you can do with telenosis is transmit
thoughts to a person--counting visual and auditory sensations as
thoughts. If you can convince him that the thoughts you're sending are
_his_ thoughts ... then you can make him do almost anything. But if he
knows or suspects he