Campbell stared steadily at Epstein, his eyes bright and searching, then he let his feet fall to the floor and leaned over the desk.
‘You’ve actually seen one?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
‘I can’t believe that.’
‘I repeat: Stanford and I saw it together – and we didn’t imagine it. It was there a long time. There was an old boat beneath it. The UFO cast light and shadow on the boat. It was there. It existed.’
Campbell shook his head from side to side. ‘I can’t believe this,’ he said.
‘I’m not lying,’ Epstein said. ‘I don’t lie. You know I don’t lie.’
‘It’s too ridiculous,’ Campbell said. ‘And I don’tjust mean the UFOs. Richard’s whole story is like a dream – a typical dream.’
‘Typical? How?’
‘Because Richard was seeing it. He wasn’t involved in it; he was observing it. He was on the outside, looking in, observing his own dream. He’s not active in that narrative. He has no volition or will at all. All his actions are dictated by the other characters, and he never resists. He’s not really a participant. He’s merely an observer. At no point in the narrative does he display the slightest resistance to the men, or the creatures, he describes: what they will, he then does. It’s a denial of responsibility, a repudiation of his own will. It’s the classic dream of someone abdicating: the very heart of amnesia.’
‘And that’s all it is?’
‘Probably.’
‘Okay, let’s assume that it actually happened. Would his total lack of will, in such circumstances, be all that unusual?’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘James, one of the most common aspects of contactee cases is the apparent lack of will, or resistance, on the part of the contactee. Contactees frequently talk of how, though terrified, they felt drawn toward the aliens, felt that they were obeying the aliens – even when the aliens appeared not to have actually spoken. Again, just as in Richard’s case, the common denominator seems to be a feeling of remoteness, of divorce from the self, with the contactees invariably behaving like zombies. Now, in this particular case we have the same thing. The woman, for instance, is initially terrified, but then, as soon as the beam of light strikes her, she becomes remarkably, unnaturally, calm. Likewise with Richard. The beam of light that strikes the woman misses Richard and therefore leaves him unaffected. However, when the alien raises his hand, or his metal claw, another beam of light strikes Richard and temporarily renders him unconscious – and this time, when Richard awakens, he still feels fear, but he’s also dazed and a bit removed, without much resistance. Thereafter, whenever Richard feels frightened, the aliens simply wave a hand across his eyes and he immediately goes limp and feels remote again. Also, as with other contactees, Richard does what the men tell him to do, but believes that they’re not actually speaking to him… Now is that so impossible?’
Campbell folded one hand over the other, his cheeks slightly flushed, his gaze sombre, his interest increasing.
‘Are you suggesting a form of hypnotism?’ he asked.
‘Why not?’ Epstein said. ‘There’s nothing extraordinary about that
– and you know its effects. As you yourself have told me, once a person has been conditioned to accept the hypnotic state, a simple phrase or a gesture can be used to put him or her into a trance immediately. Thus, the alien, just has to pass his hand across Richard’s eyes to make Richard go into an hypnotic trance – but still awake, his eyes open.’
‘That’s possible,’ Campbell said. ‘And you think the beam of light was some kind of hypnotizing device?’
‘It could be,’ Epstein said. ‘There need be nothing especially magical about it. Bear in mind that light and sound can have remarkable mental and physical effects on normal people. For instance, a light flickering somewhere in the alpha-rhythm range, between eight and twelve cycles a second, can cause extremely violent reactions in the person exposed to it, including jerking limbs, faintness, lightness in the head, or unconsciousness. It is scientifically possible, therefore, that the beam of light described by Richard was some sort of laser beam that simply flickered on and off at the particular rate which affects the brain’s basic rhythmic patterns and encourages hypnosis. As for the strange humming, or vibrating, sounds that also appear to affect the listener, it’s a scientific fact that infrasounds, which are just below the limit of human hearing – hence Richard’s uncertainty about whether he heard or felt the noise – can affect humans in the same way as flickering lights. Indeed, certain low frequency sounds can lead not only to a change in the brain’s rhythmic patterns, but to actual physical changes, such as the breaking of glass or the killing of human beings by crushing their insides with pure vibration. Given this, I’m not being particularly farfetched when I suggest that the beam of light, combined with the vibrating sounds, could have led to the initial state of hypnosis.’
‘Yes, Frederick, that’s feasible.’
‘Good. Now while we’re still on the subject, there is one thing that repeatedly crops up in contactee cases and could possibly tie in with all this. Time and time again we’re told about how the so-called aliens pressed the contactee on the side of the neck – either by hand or with a metal device – and thereby rendered the contactee unconscious or temporarily without will. Could this be related to hypnotism?’
‘My God, yes, it could… In fact, it’s a standard form of hypnotism: the instantaneous technique, or the carotid procedure.’
‘Which is?’
‘Simple biology,’ Campbell said. ‘You merely apply pressure to a blood vessel near the ear, thus inhibiting the heart rate, interfering with the circulation of blood to the brain, and rendering the subject dazed and confused, susceptible to hypnotic suggestion.’
‘And is there such a thing as waking hypnosis?’
‘Yes. The subject is wide-awake, knows where he is and what he’s doing, but is actually doing what he has been told to do by his hypnotist. Incidentally, on the opposite end of the scale – and this could certainly apply in Richard’s case – the subject can be hypnotized when sleeping normally. You simply attract the attention of the sleeping subject with some sort of physical contact, hypnotize him by repeatedly telling him that he can hear your voice, have him perform what it is you require of him, then very gently put him back to sleep. He will later wake up, as per normal, and know nothing about it.’
‘That could have happened to Richard when he awakened on the strange bed and found the man called Wilson standing over him.’
‘Precisely.’
‘And what about posthypnotic suggestion?’
‘What about it?’
‘I just thought it interesting that according to Richard’s narrative he was told that he would remember nothing that had occurred – or at least that he might remember some of it, but that the little he recalled would be confused and probably not make much sense to him. That seems to be what’s happened: Richard still can’t remember it – it only comes back under hypnosis, but even there, it’s pretty vague and disconnected… And there’s still something missing.’
‘Well, sticking to our hypothesis, yes, that’s also quite possible. Assuming that Richard was hypnotized, any instructions to forget what had occurred would certainly make him forget.’
‘And there’s nothing particularly mysterious about this type of hypnosis?’
‘No. Quite routine.’ Campbell picked up his glass and had another sip of brandy, then licked his lips and set the glass down and folded his hands again. ‘You know, it is interesting,’ he said. ‘According to Richard, the man told him that he had a very strong will, great resistance, and that while most people forgot the experience, Richard himself might remember it – or at least parts of it.’
‘So?’
‘For a start, the remark confirms that the experience has been undergone by other people.’
‘Yes. Richard’s account certainly ties in with a lot of other such cases,
most notably the Barney and Betty hill affair of 1961 and the Pascagoula case of 1973.’
‘A great similarity there, certainly. I remember both cases.’
‘That was for a start. What else is there?’
‘Well, dear boy, still leaning on our hypothesis, it’s to be noted that when the woman was hypnotized by the beam of light – assuming, of course, that she was hypnotized – she went into what appears to have been a trance, a wide-awake trance, and apparently experienced no more fear. On the other hand, when Richard was likewise affected by the beam of light, he became more remote, but did not in fact lose his fear. Now this could account for that strange man’s assessment of Richard: that he had very strong will and great resistance. Accepting this, it is then possible that the woman, even if hypnotized, might not remember what had happened to her; whereas a certain kind of person – a person like our Richard – would remember a certain amount under hypnosis. In short, while your so-called aliens can apparently make abductees forget their experiences, their success in this field is rather limited.’
‘And Richard?’
‘Even with Richard, had he not come for hypnosis, he would never have remembered it at all.’
‘Yet his dreams were a sort of recall.’
‘Right,’ Campbell said. ‘Another clue to his resistance. Richard remembered some of the events in his dreams, but didn’t know what they signified. It’s also worth noting that his dream – and it was the same dream every time – involves a group of men standing around him while he’s lying on a bed, or operating table. From what he’s told us, that can only be when he was forced to lie down on the bed and they put the metal cap on his head – the experience he refuses to detail further.’
‘Refuses to detail or simply can’t remember.’
‘Okay,’ Campbell said, ‘Let’s assume that his captors actually existed and that everything we’ve discussed actually took place. The man called Wilson was obviously intrigued by Richard’s unusual strength of will and told him that he would have to come back. Let us suppose, then, that the metal cap was a stereotaxic skullcap, that it was used to implant a minute electrode in Richard’s skull to reinforce his inability to remember… Now, when one tries to force Richard to recall that particular episode in details, he not only displays considerable stress, but also clutches his head and shakes it with great violence – and later awakens with an extremely bad headache… Is it therefore possible that Richard has been programmed to feel pain and fear when he tries to recall that event? And, further, that they want him to return in order to check out the relative success or failure of the implantation?’
Epstein smiled with pleasure. ‘You’ve just come full circle,’ he said. ‘Now you’re the one asking questions. You’ve become a believer.’
Campbell grinned and raised his hands in mock surrender. ‘I accept defeat,’ he said. ‘Now you have me as curious as yourself: another obsessed man.’
‘Good,’ Epstein said. ‘I like to hear that. So, is it possible?’
‘Yes,’ Campbell said. ‘Implantation of electrodes in the brain has been going on for years – overtly in animals, covertly in human beings, with the latter experiments mostly kept secret. What we do know at this point is that electrodes implanted in the human brain have been used successfully to activate both paralyzed and artificial limbs, to control otherwise uncontrollable muscular spasms, such as in Parkinson’s Disease, to pacify violent mental patients and prisoners, and even to initial so-called thought control between a human controller and a computer. Now, given that any form of human brain manipulation can have frightening social and political possibilities – which is why, for instance, even the Society of Hypnotists is under constant government surveillance – a lot of the experiments on human beings have been conducted behind closed doors, most notoriously in mental institutions and state prisons. The results of such experiments are thus not widely known. Nevertheless, given what has already been accomplished, and what might have been accomplished in secret, it is safe to assume that the sort of programming we’re talking about is well within the bounds of possibility.’
‘How are the subjects controlled?’
‘Well, it’s on the record that the reflexes and appetites of various animals have been controlled at a reasonable distance by a controller sitting behind a computer-linked console. These animals can be made to stand up, sit down, eat or starve themselves to death, play, fight, collapse in terror – just about anything. Regarding human beings, we have, to date, only been able to stimulate specific areas of the brain, and do so, reportedly, under immediately visual control. Regarding longdistance control, it’s reasonable to assume that the particular response required would be programmed at the time of the implantation – fed into the brain via the computer – and would be limited to one or two responses only. To put it at its simplest – and taking Richard as our hypothetical case – yes, they could have implanted an electrode in his brain and programmed him to feel pain and terror each time he attempted to think of a particular incident. In other words, it’s quite possible that when I try to force Richard to recall the skullcap incident, the very thought of it might stimulate the terror and the crippling headaches – a terror and pain caused by the implanted electrode.’
‘Another form of hypnosis,’ Epstein said.
‘No,’ Campbell said. ‘Total mind control.’
‘You mean that by taking this technology to its ultimate limits we could steal a man’s mind?’
‘That’s right,’ Campbell said.
Epstein stiffened in his chair, suddenly charged with excitement and energy, feeling that he was standing on the edge of a precipice, about to leap across to the unknown. The possibilities were boundless, the implications awesome, and the truth was probably locked in Richard’s mind. They had to pick the lock, had to force the door open. The risk would be great, but the rewards could be greater: the final unraveling of the mystery that now teased the whole world. Epstein shivered, feeling feverish, his head light and bright, no longer drained by fear and depression and thoughts of his grim future.
‘We have to!’ he exclaimed. ‘We have to use the Pentothal! We have to use it during this coming session and find out what happened!’
‘I’m not so sure,’ Campbell said.
‘We have to!’ Epstein insisted.
‘It might be too early for that. Too early. Too dangerous.’
‘Damn you, James, it’s important!’
‘It’s not that important, Frederick. I mean, you’ve been at this game for thirty years – you can wait a bit longer.’
‘I can’t,’ Epstein said, and felt ashamed as soon as he said it. ‘I have cancer. I have two years at the most. I won’t live beyond that.’
Campbell stared at him, shocked. Both of them: shocked. They stared at one another for a long time, the silence enslaving them. Then Epstein looked away, keeping his eyes on the floor. He suddenly felt very old, very frail, as if in finally acknowledging what was happening to him, he had made it real.
‘I have to know,’ he said eventually. ‘I can’t die without knowing. As you say, I’ve been at it for thirty years, but now I believe I can solve it. It’s the most important thing in my life. A lot of others have suffered for it. I can’t come this close and let go… and every day it’s more urgent. It’s not just for me. It’s not purely selfish. It’s for Irving and Mary and all the others who were ruined trying to crack it. There’s something going on, James. It’s not an illusion; it’s real. Now my time is running out and I’m close, very close, and I can’t sit back and hope that Richard remembers… I have to know
now .’
Campbell sighed and stood up, turned away, stared out the window, turned back to face Epstein again, checked his wristwatch and frowned.
‘All right,’ he said. ‘I’ll give Richard Pentothal. After that, no matter what he tells us, I’ll have his head X-rayed.’
He sat down again. They stared silently at one another. The neat room was as quiet as
a tomb and neither knew what to say. They both sat there, feeling stricken. They kept checking their wristwatches. They both sat there for a very long time, but Richard never showed up.
Chapter Twenty
When did Kammler and Nebe die? It was a long time ago. They were gassed as they slept in their rooms, and then I had them cremated. I didn’t really have a choice. My implants were not perfected. We were still using the Death’s Head SS and their obscene forms of discipline. It was shortly after the war. Kammler and Nebe showed much resentment. Powers corrupts and they both had great power and started plotting against me. I could not let this happen. My life’s work was reaching fruition. Hidden deep in the immense, frozen wilderness, the colony functioned. Thus I had to get rid of them. Their room doors locked automatically. They never knew all the time they were there that the walls could spit gas. They died on their own beds. The room was aired and they were removed. They were taken to the crematorium in the base of the mountain, incinerated, turned to ash and smoke, leaving me independent.
How ironic was their death! It was a death befitting both. For how many had they themselves sent to the gas chambers during those nightmare years? I think particularly of Kammler. SS General Hans Kammler. Kammler planned the concentration camps, supervised the plans for Birkenau, was responsible for its four great gas chambers and its vile crematoria. A handsome, ruthless man. Energetic and decisive. His gross ambition, and his total lack of scruples, made him someone worth knowing.
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