Let's just have another look at that article. The thought dragged
Michael Darnby away from the Space Shuttle back to psionic amplifiers.
He turned the page and re-read the article. Then he
looked out a sheet of centimetre graph paper. Calling himself a gullible idiot, he copied the circuit of the psionic amplifier, scaling it up to the recommended working size, using a ruler and a pencil to make a sketch that could be inked in when it was correct.
He completed the diagram by making six large dots at the
ends of three open connections, which the author termed gates. The
one at the bottom labelled INPUT was the Power Input Gate. The
operator had to touch its terminals (the large dots) with his index fingers when he attempted to use the amplifier.
Up at the top on the left was COMP, the
Comparator Gate, a second, optional input, where the operator could place an
example of the desired treasure to reinforce his own input signal. If everything went according to plan, untold riches would appear at the Output Gate in the top right corner, which was labelled OUT.
This is strictly for fun, Darnby told himself when
the ink was dry on the final version. But I've got to admit, the idea's daft enough to work.
He folded his one and only £5 note twice and placed it
across the big-dot terminals of the Comparator Gate. He unplugged his
headphones from the hi-fi and put them on. Then he touched the dots of the
Input Gate with his index fingers and closed his eyes.
The article had told him that the body is dominated by
the logical, reasoning, conscious mind, which inhabits the left-hand lobe of the brain. Artistic talent and psionic abilities come from the dark realms of the subconscious, which lurks in the right-hand lobe of the brain. In order to use the psionic amplifier, he would have, somehow, to open a channel of communication between these two normally separate entities.
In practice, that meant slowing everything down to the
leisurely crawl of his subconscious. He had to prevent the conscious from
over-loading the blend with a torrent of information from his senses. Wearing headphones to exclude external sounds and closing his eyes would take him some way in that direction.
Getting the idea of placing the £5 note across the
comparator gate was a stroke of genius, in Darnby's humble opinion. People
lose money every day of the week. They drop coins, which vanish almost
before they hit the ground. Other coins sneak out of pockets and search out
dark crevices for their disappearing act. Banknotes also vanish into thin air. It was this rich vein of hidden treasure that Darnby hoped to tap.
As he pressed his index fingers to the terminals of the
Input Gate, he thought of pound notes slipping out of careless fingers, fivers flying away on grabbing breezes, tenners and twenties tunnelling down grids, and fifty-pence pieces burrowing busily into the sands of holiday
beaches.
Just like the ink-on-graph-paper circuit diagram of the
psionic amplifier, the £5 note at the comparator gate was just a symbol, a
suggestion. Michael Darnby concentrated on the thought of lost money and
willed it to appear at the Output Gate. The form - note or coin - didn't matter. If he could open a channel to the nation's vanished riches, sheer quantity would make up for low value. If necessary, he was willing to take treasure-trawled ten-pence pieces to his bank by wheel-barrow.
He concentrated for about ten minutes, aware that he had
not the slightest idea how to go about teleporting lost money from its hiding places to his home. More or less as expected, nothing happened. His Output Gate remained visible and uncluttered by piles of tarnished coins or a mound of wrinkled banknotes.
The author of the article had warned that success with his
Treasure Trawler might require patience and practice. One half of Darnby told him optimistically that, if he kept trying for long enough, he might make a breakthrough. His pessimistic left-brain called him a deluded idiot.
Feeling dry, he took the headphones off and retired to the
kitchen to make himself a mug of tea. The psionic amplifier, resting in lonely state on the dining table, re-captured his attention when he returned with a steaming mug...
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Created for Romiley Literary Circle by Henry T. Smith Productions, 10 SK6 4EG, G.B.
sole © Philip Turner, 1980.