t just to put over an air of unconcern. He was perched on the
edge of an opposite work bench, swinging his feet, and hiding the
expression in his eyes behind the window's reflection upon his polished
glasses. I said even more.

"You know," I said reflectively, "I'm completely unable to understand
the attitude of supposedly unbiased men of science. Now you take all
that mass of data about psi effects, the odd and unexplainable
happenings, the premonitions, the specific predictions, the accurate
descriptions of far away simultaneously happening events. You take that
whole mountainous mass of data, evidence, phenomena--"

* * * * *

A slight turn of his head gave me a glimpse of his eyes behind the
glasses. He looked as if he wished I'd change the subject. In his dry,
undemonstrative way, I think he liked me. Or at least he liked me when I
wasn't trying to make him think about things outside his safe and secure
little framework. But I didn't give in. If men of science are not going
to take up the evidence and work it over, then where are we? And are
they men of science?

"Before Rhine came along, and brought all this down to the level of
laboratory experimentation," I pursued, "how were those things to be
explained? Say a fellow had some unusual powers, things that happened
around him, things he knew without any explanation for knowing them.
I'll tell you. There were two courses open to him. He could express it
in the semantics of spiritism, or he could admit to witchcraft and
sorcery. Take your pick; those were the only two systems of semantics
which had been built up through the ages.

"We've got a third one now--parapsychology. If I had asked you to attend
an experiment in parapsychology, you'd have agreed at once. But when I
ask you to attend a seance, you balk! Man, what difference does it make
what we call it? Isn't it up to us to investigate the evidence wherever
we find it? No matter what kind of semantic debris it's hiding in?"

Auerbach shoved himself down off the bench, and pulled out a beat-up
package of cigarettes.

"All right, Kennedy," he had said resignedly, "I'll attend your seance."

* * * * *

The other invited guests were Sara, Lieutenant Murphy, Old Stone Face,
myself, and, of course, the Swami. This was probably not typical of the
Swami's usual audience composition.

Six chairs were placed at even intervals around the table. I ha