INTERVENTION (50 page)

MEDIUM SHOT—REMILLARD, UNCLE ROGER, FEMALE FAN Remillard's CONVERSATION with his Uncle, who has brought over a fresh supply of books for autographing, and the young Female Fan is audible at LOW VOLUME under MORENO V.O.

MORENO (V.O.)

Yes ... it's true. Vouched for by no less an authority than the President of the United States. Not only is Professor Denis Remillard a distinguished psychic researcher, but he also possesses extraordinary mind-powers himself!

REMILLARD

(looks up from book to Fan)

Well, it's not the kind of thing one brags about or shows off in bars. But ... yes, I am what we call metapsychically operant.

FEMALE FAN

(hesitantly)

Do you mean ... you can
read my mind!

REMILLARD

(laughs)

Certainly not. Not unless you deliberately try to project a thought-sequence at me. However, I
am
aware of the general emotional tenor of your mind. That you're not hostile, for instance. That you're fascinated by the idea of higher mind-powers.

FAN

Oh, I am! It would be marvelous to do things like soul-traveling or telepathy or that mind-over-matter thing ... whatchacallit?

REMILLARD

Psychokinesis.

FAN

That's it. Just imagine being able to go to Las Vegas and
clean up!

The rest of the CUSTOMERS laugh and murmur at this.

REMILLARD

(patiently)

But I can't, you know. Even if I were dishonest enough to try to manipulate slot machines or dice or a roulette wheel with my mind—how long would it take the casino owners to catch on? I'd be tossed out on my ear ... at the very least.

More laughs and murmurs from CUSTOMERS.

FAN

But ... then what
good
are the powers?

REMILLARD

You might ask Professor Jamie MacGregor that ... Actually, I find my own metafaculties most useful in conducting experiments. I can compare my own reactions to those of the test subjects in psychokinesis training, for example.

FAN

(interrupts, gushing)

Ooh, Professor, do you suppose—? I mean, would it be an awful imposition if you
showed usl
I mean, I've seen it done on TV by those Russians, but to see you do it
live...

CUSTOMERS

(ad lib exclamations)

Hey! ... Wow! ... Would you?...Super! ... Please!

REMILLARD

(indulgently)

And Mr. Carlos Moreno told you to ask me—right?

FAN

Uh ... I'd really appreciate it.

CU REMILLARD looking sardonically into camera. For the first time we see that his eyes are effulgent blue, almost glowing within their deep orbits.

REMILLARD

Your camera crew is quite ready?...Well, PK is one of the least significant metafaculties, so I guess I don't mind doing a small demonstration. After all, we can't let the Scots and the Russians garner all the kudos ... Why don't I use these copies of my book?

MEDIUM SHOT. Remillard takes a volume, turns it so that front cover faces camera. He balances book precariously on one corner of its cover, takes hands away, and leaves book poised sur la pointe.

Now it's impossible to balance a book like this, right? Defies the law of gravity.

He balances another book on top of the first, also on its corner. The books do not tremble or totter; they are rock-solid.

And if we balance another book on that ... and then a third ... and then a fourth...

He does so.

... You know I must be either holding the books up with mind-power, or else I'm some kind of a [BLEEP]ing magician. And if I then extract the bottom book ...

He does so, leaving the three upper books hanging in thin air.

...and the top trio remains there, then you have to be positive that something rather out of the ordinary is going on.

CUSTOMERS

(ad lib exclamations, applause)

How about that!...Sheesh!...Eat your heart out, Houdini!

Remillard shrugs. The three books in the air tumble to the table with a clatter. His UNCLE ROGER, the bookshop owner, a beanpole with graying hair and a youthful face, steps forward looking humorously indignant. Camera CLOSES ON HIM.

UNCLE ROGER

Is that any way to treat books? All you have to do is write them. I have to sell them!

He extends his hands and beckons solicitously. All four books fly off the table to him. He grasps them and forms them into neat stack.

CUSTOMERS

(ad lib shouts, a feminine squeal)

God!...Holy [BLEEP]!...You see that?...Sonuvagun!

UNCLE ROGER

You didn't know? Sorry. My nephew should have told you that it runs in the family.

[SCRIPT PAGES OMITTED]

TWO SHOT—STEADICAM FOLLOWING MORENO AND REMILLARD

Emerging from TELEPATHY EVALUATION CHAMBER, they walk down HALLWAY toward Remillard's OFFICE, continuing conversation begun in chamber.

REMILLARD

Only persons who already possess strong latencies for metafunctions can reasonably expect to develop into operants after training. It's like any other kind of talent: singing, for example. One must first be bom with a proper set of vocal cords. Then the person might become a talented amateur without training. Usually, however, the voice must be trained. The singer practices for years, and with luck a great singer might result. But nobody can make an opera singer out of a person who lacks the right vocal cords, or who is tone-deaf. And you can't make a really competent vocalist out of someone who hates to sing, or who suffers from terminal stage fright....It's a similar thing when you work to raise a latent metafunction to operancy. Some will fail to make it, and some—we hope!—will sing at the Met.

MORENO

(frowning)

Then all human beings don't have the potential for developing these higher mind-powers?

REMILLARD

Of course not—any more than all people can become great opera singers. This is why my proposal to test all Americans for latent mind-powers is so important. The powers are a national resource. We must discover who among our citizens have the potential for becoming operant—then give them proper training.

MORENO

Sort of like the Astronaut Program?

REMILLARD

Yes ... but enrolling both children and adults. Let me try to clarify the concept of latency for you. Our studies have shown that everyone is metapsychically latent to a certain extent. The strength of the latency may vary from power to power. Dick may be strongly latent in telepathy and weak in the healing faculty, while Jane is just the opposite. With hard work, we may make an operant telepath of Dick and an operant healer of Jane. But their weaker latencies may never amount to anything.

MORENO

Suppose I was a latent telepath. Could you make me operant?

REMILLARD

Maybe. Keep in mind that there's no hard and fast line between latency and operancy, though. Maybe you're a natural—what we call a suboperant. All you need is a bit of practice and you're able to broadcast telepathically to the Moon. But suppose your potential is weak. We might train you till your skull warps—but discover that your operant telepathic radius is only half a meter in diameter. Or you can only broadcast at night when the sun's ionization of the atmosphere is minimal, and even then only when you're completely relaxed and rested. You'd be an operant, technically speaking, but your metafaculty wouldn't be very useful. Except possibly for pillow talk.

MORENO

(smiles briefly)

You mention factors that can inhibit operancy, like ionization. Does this mean that there are ways to screen out telepaths—or stop them from using their powers?

REMILLARD

We're only beginning to discover ways to do this. It's very hard to foil the ultrasenses, such as excorporeal excursion and telepathy, that don't seem to require much expenditure of psychic energy. Things like psychokinesis, on the other hand, can be rather easily frustrated by external factors. And
internal,
subjective factors can be even more inhibitory.

TRACK INTO REMILLARD'S OFFICE

Angle favoring door as Remillard ushers Moreno inside. The office furniture is old, academic-shabby. Extensive wall bookcases overflowing with books and papers. Computer terminal. Wall hologram of human brain. Painting of Mount Washington, New Hampshire. And everywhere—on desk, shelves, brackets, floor—PLANTS growing luxuriantly.

MORENO

(looking around)

Quite a conservatory you have here, Professor. You must have a green thumb.

REMILLARD

(examining droopy plant on desk)

Actually, it's more like a green mind, I guess. Now this poor little Paphiopedilum really needs mental TLC, so I keep it close by and let it share my aura as well as the occasional healing thought.

He sits down and motions Moreno to a seat.

MORENO

(puzzled)

Your aura?

REMILLARD

(seeming vaguely annoyed with himself)

The bioenergetic field that surrounds my body—and that of every other living thing. Plants included.

MORENO

(nods, as if suddenly recalling)

It seems to me I've read that certain people can even
see
the aura that surrounds others ... Can you see auras?

REMILLARD

Yes. If I concentrate on it.

MORENO

What do auras look like? What does
mine
look like?

CU REMILLARD

He is cupping his hands about the sick orchid plant and staring at it with mild intensity.

REMILLARD

Auras look something like glowing, colored halos that pulse and change. Healthy plants usually have a golden halo. Animals and people have more varied colors. Operants have halos that look bright to another operant who concentrates on viewing them. Since you're latent, Mr. Moreno, your aura is quite faint. It's reddish, shot through with flashes of violet.

MORENO (V.O.)

Does the color of a person's aura have any significance?

REMILLARD

We haven't worked out precise correlations yet. The individual aural coloration tends to vary according to mood, health, and the kind of mental activity being engaged in.

MORENO (V.O.)

Any particular significance to my red and purple?

REMILLARD

(looking blandly into camera)

I'd prefer not to comment on that today.

TWO SHOT—MORENO AND REMILLARD

Favoring Remillard and taking in the striking hologram of the brain.

MORENO

(in brisk mood switch)

We were discussing things that can inhibit the operation of the higher mind-powers ... I suppose things like liquor, drugs, fatigue, illness—they'd all have an adverse effect on operancy, wouldn't they?

REMILLARD

Oh, yes. If anything, the higher faculties are even more sensitive to such things than the lower ones. But there are all kinds of other factors that can diminish one's operancy as well. For example, what the lay person calls mental blocks.

MORENO

Can you clarify?

REMILLARD

Let's take a more common mind function like memory. We've all experienced forgetfulness. Suppose I'm sitting next to a lady at a dinner party and I can't remember her name. Now why is that? Am I eighty-seven years old—in which case my forgetfulness is to be expected? No, I'm young and compos mentis. But no matter how much I exert my will power, I just can't remember. A psychoanalyst might come up with any number of reasons why. Perhaps the lady is an old flame who jilted me many years ago. Perhaps her name is the same as that of my Internal Revenue Service auditor! Or perhaps the problem is simply a very difficult foreign name that I failed to concentrate on when the lady and I were introduced. Any one of those rather subtle factors could inhibit memory. Metafunctions can be inhibited similarly.