electricity," I said speculatively. "Not that we know psi
and electricity have anything in common, other than some similar
analogies, but we don't know they don't. Both of them may be just
different manifestations of the same thing. We don't really know why a
magnetized core, turning inside a coil of copper wire, generates
electricity.

"Oh we've got some phrases," I acknowledged. "We've got a whole
structure of phrases, and when you listen to them they sound as if they
ought to mean something--like the phrases you were using last night.
Everybody assumes they do mean something to the pundits. So, since it is
human to want to be a pundit, we repeat these phrases over and over, and
call them explanations. Yet we do know what happens, even if we do just
theorize about why. We know how to wrap something around something and
get electricity.

"Take the induction coil," I said. "We feed a low-voltage current into
one end, and we draw off a high-voltage current from the other. But
anyone who wants, any time, can disprove the whole principle of the
induction coil. All you have to do is wrap your core with a
nonconductor, say nylon thread, and presto, nothing comes out. You see,
it doesn't work; and anybody who claims it does is a faker and a liar.
That's what happens when science tries to investigate psi by the
standard methods.

"You surround a psi-gifted individual with nonbelievers, and probably
nothing will come out of it. Surround him with true believers; and it
all seems to act like an induction coil. Things happen. Yet even when
things do happen, it is usually impossible to prove it.

"Take yourself, Swami. And this is significant. First we have the north
point effect. Then those two little beggars trying to get out the door.
Then the ones which are bobbing around up there. Without the cylinders
there would have been no way to know that anything had happened at all.

"Now, about this psi framework. It isn't something you can turn on and
off, at will. We don't know enough yet for that. Aside from some
believers and those individuals who do seem to attract psi forces, we
don't know, yet, what to wrap around what. So, here's what you're to do:
You're to keep a supply of these cylinders near you at all times. If any
psi effects happen, they'll record it. Fair enough?

"Now," I said with finality. "I have anticipated that you might refuse.
But you're not the only person who has psi ability. I've wired General
Sanfordw