Table of Contents
Floor Plan
Chapter 6
“Thank you,
Dr. Rogers. I appreciate you coming here this weekend,” Archer said. “As you
said, I grew up in Cleveland.
As a child, the Franklin Castle fascinated me. I wanted to live here. Everyone
thought I was crazy. A few months ago, I worked in Silicon
Valley, and I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with the
rest of my life. I saw a real estate listing about this house. I jumped at the
chance to purchase the house,” he said with a sigh. “And now, everyone is
certain I’m crazy, after recent events, so do I.”
“Mr. Ryan, here is our process,” Dr. Fran said. “As
I’ve alluded, this is a scientific study, along with our psychologists and
observers. Team members will have little contact with each another. Every
fifteen minutes, members write in their journals with precision everything they
did and experienced during a fifteen minute period.”
“What will that accomplish?” Archer asked.
“One person may hear tapping on the ceiling. They
will write their actions in a journal. A garden-variety ghost investigation will
claim this as proof of the existence of ghosts. However, in the case of our
investigation, another person writes in their journal during this same period
of time they were bouncing a tennis ball on the floor. We read about this following
the investigation, and discover the person who heard the noise was in the room
beneath the person who bounced the tennis ball, and voila. We have just proven
the noise was not a ghost. That is scientific, and validates what we believe.”
Terry propped his feet on the table and rubbed his
temples with his fingertips. “So, what happens if you can’t connect the noise
with an incident in a journal?”
“That’s a good question, Terry,” Dr. Fran said. “Dr.
Baer, would you elaborate?”
“Certainly, Dr. Rogers,” Dr. Baer said, as he stood
up and stroked his grey beard. “The second set of proof is in our equipment. In
the lab we will set up in the ballroom, we have a tremendous array of tools. In
the case of this example, we have motion detectors and sensitive digital sound capturing
devices. We will be able to pick up any sound made in this entire house.”
“And if the machine does not pick up the sound?”
Terry asked.
“Then nothing happened,” Dr. Baer said in a terse manner.
“I see,” Terry said.
“It’s as simple as that,” Dr. Fran said.
“Let me pose this question, Dr. Baer,” Terry said.
“Can your equipment see or hear what I’m thinking?”
Dr. Baer wrinkled his forehead. “Well, no,” he said.
“Then according to your theorem, since the machines did
not detect my thoughts, we can conclude I’m not thinking, correct?”
“Terry, I believe you’re oversimplifying this,” Dr.
Fran said.
“No, I believe you are oversimplifying,”
Terry retorted.
Terry held eye contact. After several moments, Dr.
Fran lowered his eyes.
“How long have you owned the house, Mr. Ryan?” Terry
asked.
“Two months,” he said. “After what happened on the
first day, I don’t even sleep in the main house. I know the legends. I heard
them for years growing up here. Something terrible happened the first day I
lived here, I don’t even like to talk about the incident. Now that I’ve bought
this house, I’d like to know what is going on.”
“Let’s not go
into too much detail about the legends, as we agreed Mr. Ryan,” Dr. Fran said.
“We do not want to bias our research.”
“A good investigator should be able to be objective
enough to hear all the evidence without worrying about being compromised by
it,” Terry said.
“This is a scientific investigation, Terry, not a
criminal investigation,” Dr. Fran said. “I don’t expect you to fully understand.”
“Yeah, but this isn’t truly a scientific study, is
it? You’re not studying particle acceleration in a vacuum or molecular
nanotechnology in a lab where the readings are everything,” Terry said. “I know
you think you’re studying a phenomenon here, but in reality this investigation
is about the study of people. It’s like investigating a murder and not
interviewing a single person because their perspective on the matter may not be
objective.”
“But, this is not a murder case,” Dr. Fran said.
“Besides, I can think of many cases in which science alone convicted someone of
murder, without interviewing a single person.”
“I won’t disagree science can be very powerful and an
important aspect to an investigation. But, it is only a single aspect of a good
investigation. Prosecutors presented overwhelming scientific evidence against
OJ Simpson, but still not sufficient to convict him,” Terry said. “A popular
conception of police investigation and a public trial is to identify and punish
the criminal. To an extent that is true. However, a deeper necessity of the
system is to gain a clearer understanding of events. Why did Person A kill
Person B? What was going through Person A’s mind at the time? How can we
predict this behavior? How can the crime be prevented? How can we learn and grow
as a society about these events. An investigation is about knowledge and
understanding. Is this investigation about finding ghosts?”
“Hmmph,” Dr. Lyman mumbled. “There are no such things
as ghosts.”
“Is that the attitude of the whole team?” Terry
asked. “With this preconception about the existence of ghosts, I would think the
focus would be even more on the victim. If the preconceived notion were ghosts
do not exist, then I would surmise this investigation is entirely about the
human aspects of the incident. Why else would are psychology professionals
here? And well respected at that.”
The room was silent.
“Okay. Then just what is the goal for this weekend?”
Terry asked.
“We’ve found our cultural wastes so much time on the
topic of the supernatural,” Dr. Fran raised his voice. “I want to show
unequivocally there is not any proof of the validity of the supernatural. I
want people to stop believing the charade.”
“Why does that upset you so?” Terry asked.
“What?” Dr. Fran stammered.
“We’ve just seen you get upset and raise your voice
to me,” Terry said. “This is very out of character. Why are you upset? It is
not because of my questions. You and I have engaged wonderful discussions about
our opposing viewpoints, and you never raised your voice to me. Are you bothered
by how the media treats paranormal experts with more respect than scientists?”
Dr. Fran looked down.
Terry nodded. “You don’t have to answer. I can understand,
Dr. Fran. And I can say, for the most part, I agree with you,” Terry said. “I understand
why it’s upsetting to see Yuri Geller on the Today show, and how they treat him
like a celebrity. I’m just worried you’re becoming the opposite extreme of
him.”
Terry walked around the table.
“I find it interesting there are psychics on the
team,” Terry said. “But, you don’t believe their powers exist.”
“I do believe they are more perceptive than most
people,” Dr. Fran said. “And that is important to me on this team.”
“But, you don’t really believe Mr. Silver can see
the future or Ms. Maeder can read my mind, do you?” Terry said.
Dr. Fran exhaled. “No, I don’t.”
“Well, help me understand here,” Terry said. “In a
simplistic statement, we can agree the human brain transfers thoughts and
feeling by way of electrical impulses. Is that correct?”
“Agreed,” Dr. Fran answered.
“Many materials have the potential to contain
electrical currents,” Terry said. ”And electric passes through some material as
if they are not substantial. For example, a piece of metal does not stop
electric. If I touched a golf club without a rubber handle, and you attached an
electrical charge to the other end of the club, I would get electrocuted,
correct?”
“Yes, that’s correct,” Dr. Fran said, knitting his
eyebrows together.
“Can we agree the human skull, skin, and muscle will
not stop electrical currents from escaping from the human brain?”
“I don’t understand?” Dr. Fran said.
“Does bone, muscle, and skin stop electrical
impulses or will they pass through?” Terry asked.
“They pass through,” Dr. Fran said in slow terse
words.
“So, I’m sitting next to you at the table. Some of
the electrical impulses created in my head, which hold my feelings and thoughts,
are floating in air around us both…potentially,” Terry stated.
“Sure, I suppose they are,” Dr. Fran said.
“So, if we can receive these electrical impulses in
the air, and if I learn to interpret them, I may be able to understand them.”
“Hmmm,” Dr. Fran stammered. “Perhaps my brain views your
impulses as a foreign object and does not see them as thoughts at all.
Therefore, they would be gibberish to my brain.”
“Excellent,” Terry said as he slapped his palm on
the table.
“What?” Dr. Fran said. “I’m not certain what point I
just proved.”
“You have just explained why everyone can’t do it,”
Terry said. “Another person’s thoughts in the air would either be undecipherable
or simply ignored. But, is it possible a very perceptive brain, like Ms.
Maeder’s or Mr. Silver’s, could receive those impulses and understand them?”
“I don’t know,” Dr. Fran said. “Wait, no, it is
impossible.”
“That flicker of doubt tells me otherwise,” Terry
said.
“Ah, someone who believes in what we do,” John
Silver said. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.
Terry turned to John. “Your ability has quite a
reputation, Mr. Silver. You are legendary.”
“Thank you, sir,” John said.
“Your run in predicting the stock market is
unparalleled. Truly amazing.”
“And you’re theory hit the nail on the head,” John
said. “I’ve never heard a better explanation.”
“Is that right?” Terry asked. “However, my theory
doesn’t explain your success.”
“What?” John asked.
“Your success doesn’t fit the mold of traditional
reading of minds. Tell me, whose mind do you read to predict the stock market?
The experts barely understand the market enough to predict it, so you are not
reading their minds. And I know quite a bit about your success in Vegas. In
viewing the surveillance tapes, casino security had fewer problems with your success
and more issues with your obvious use of accomplices warming the tables and
signaling you.”
“You know about that?” John said.
“It’s my line of work to know about things,” Terry
said. “You made your winnings at Black Jack. If we believe your ability, you
did not read the dealer’s mind, because the dealer doesn’t look at his cards
until after you’ve played. You had accomplices, so you could have been counting
cards, but your background and profile does not show enough proficiency in math
to do this. You may have used a different ability I don’t know about, so I
can’t refute your claims.”
“Thank you,” John said.
“But, your stock market picks are something else
amazing. Naturally, the SEC investigated you. They don’t believe in ESP,” Terry
said. “Their job is to be suspicious. Your last huge gain was with Invesco
Corporation, right?”
“That’s right,” John said. He swallowed hard.
“You had the foresight to sell their stock for a
massive profit the day before their earnings conference call,” Terry said. “At
that meeting, Invesco announced huge losses for the quarter and the potential
fraud indictment of several key sales reps.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Two days before you exercised the stock, you had
dinner with Steve Trammel, the President of Invesco.”
“How did you know?”
“It’s my job to know things,” Terry said. “You got
close to him, because he was fascinated by what you can do.”
“He didn’t tell me anything about his company,” John
said with a defiant tone.
“No, I don’t suspect he did,” Terry said. “I know
Steve fairly well. He’s an honest man. He would not reveal inside information
to you or anyone. The charges of fraud upset him considerably, he decided to do
the honorable thing and take responsibility. You see, in the months prior to
the allegations, Steve received weekly chemotherapy that made him sick as a
dog. He found himself unable to run the company during that time. Things
quickly got out of hand. He did a very honorable thing, even if that meant a drop
in the stock price and diminished credibility of the company.”
“You see, even you agree with me,” John said.
Terry paused. “But you did read his mind, didn’t
you?”
John fingers stroked his goatee beard. “I told the
SEC I used my psychic ability to pick the stock. And technically, I did. Yes, I
did read his mind. I was on the up and up.”
Terry winced for a moment. “Except--“
All eyes looked up at him.
“You used your ability to find out information you
were not allowed to see. That’s the same as if you broke into Invesco’s
headquarters and rummaged through their files and stole the information.”
“But--" John stammered.
“In using your ability to read his mind, you
committed a crime,” Terry said. “Plain and simple.”
“I didn’t hurt anybody,” John said as he bowed his
head.
“Only the investor’s who bought the stock from you,”
Terry said.
“Are you going to turn me in?” John said.
“No,” Terry said. “Like I said, the SEC doesn’t
believe in ESP and they would never accept that as an explanation. In many
ways, they are very much like this investigation team. They have one way of
investigating something, and they aren’t open to alternate avenues.”
Terry sat down next to John. “It’s funny,” Terry
said.
“What is?” John asked.
“You have an amazing ability, you can read a CEO’s mind
and invest or divest in his company,” Terry said. “However, I surprised you.
That means you couldn’t read my mind or know what I was going to say, could
you?”
John shook his head. “No, you felt foggy to me.”
“Interesting term,” Terry said. “Twenty-five years
ago the CIA funded Project Yuri. This was a project to explore using psychics in
espionage. The results on the espionage front turned out to be very sketchy. The
psychics had to be too close in proximity to the subject in order to work. When
the subject was the head of state, they found getting close surprisingly
difficult. The project produced some interesting side results. We learned how
to protect ourselves from psychic attacks and espionage. I just had a little
time to research the results in preparation of coming here, so I’m just
scratching the surface. I would love to spend time with you all later to test
this further. A defensive strategy against psychic intrusion is to lower the
waking brain activity to a beta state. The studies found psychics experienced a
lower rate of success reading the minds of people in lowered state of consciousness.
I’ve spent the last few weeks reading and practicing their research. And
apparently it works.”
“Interesting, something I never thought of,” Dr.
Fran said.
“Back to the topic of investigation tools,” Terry
said. “How do you feel after your interrogation, Dr. Fran and Mr. Silver?”
“What interrogation?” Dr. Fran said.
“I’ve been interrogating you for the last ten
minutes,” Terry said.
“You’ve just been talking with us, and being
something of an argumentative pest, I must add. But not interrogation,” Dr.
Fran said.
“But it was,” Terry said. “And I learned a great
deal about both of you. I know what buttons to push on both of you. After I
found your anger buttons, I found the keys to take you back down and engage you
into cooperation. You didn’t even know I was doing it. That just shows an
investigation doesn’t have to look and feel like a standard investigation to
produce results.”
“I’ll give you points, Terry,” Dr. Fran said. “You
sure know how to be convincing. I propose we do something a little different. I
would like Terry to conduct his own investigation, using whatever means he
wants to, while we proceed with ours. At the end, we’ll compare the results.
Does that sound fair?”
“That works for me,” Terry said.
“I honestly don’t think you’ll succeed,” Dr. Fran
said. “But, good luck anyway.”
“Well then, I had better pick my team and get
cracking,” Terry said.
“Okay,
everyone,” Dr. Fran said. “Let’s get setup, and you know the drill.”
“I have a last question,” Terry said. “This has
bothering me for the last few minutes.”
“What is it now?” Dr. Fran asked.
“If I were Mr. Ryan here, I would be a little upset
regarding the course our conversation has taken over the last half hour,” Terry
said. “Dr. Fran, you and Dr. Lyman have all but said that anyone who sees a
ghost or believes in them is deluded. I would take offense to that if I was
you, but you seem to be taking your opinions in stride. Why is that? Did Dr.
Fran tell you about his hidden agenda on this matter ahead of time? I would be
surprised if he did.”
Archer cleared his throat. “No, he didn’t tell me
about ahead of time.”
“So, the turn of events of this conversation is not
a surprise to you?” Terry said.
Archer smiled. “No, it’s not. Like you, I like to
know a little bit about people before I invite them into my home. I did some
research of my own, and discovered this is how they do business.”
“Then why invite them?” Terry asked. “I doubt they
are going to return a ghost to you. And they aren’t the least bit interested in
why you have a ghost here.”
Archer looked up at Dr. Fran and smiled.
“I’m curious as well,” Dr. Fran said.
“Mr. Ryan, I think you let us all know the bad
news,” Terry said.
Archer stood up, before he spoke, a knock came to
the door into the dining room. Archer opened the door.
A man walked into the door with a flourish. His long
silver hair flowed with his motion. With gloved hands, he removed his long
black cape revealing a black suit.
“Welcome to my home, Sir Nolan,” Archer said.
