Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 71 — page 107: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

r4iF B® (7009) ros ~ x AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION : _ the hampering barriers of - reality. What Sam imagined he would experience, people- ing his world with creatures of his own imagination. He could commit murder in that dream world, be a king, a slave, = anything he chose. It was better than drugs, better than sleep, better than any other stimulus which had to be applied through the senses. For this stimulation came from the subconscious itself, was caught, amplified, fed back . in such strength that the vague imaginings became seeming reality. He was secing, hearing, feeling the amplified stimulus of his own imagina- tion. The left wrist twitched. The skin began to redden, to show roughness, to display the ghosts of sores and cal- louses to be expected when rasped by a heavy iron fetter. John cut the power. “Three minutes,” he said, when Sam had swung back the helmet. “The psychoso- matic affinity is still too strong.” 106 “Damn!” Sam sat and rubbed his left wrist. Even as he rubbed the markings faded back to clear, healthy skin. ““We seem to be licked every way we try,”’ he said bitterly. - “Too weak a feed-back and there is no result. Too strong and the imagined world has a direct bearing on the physi- cal well-being.” “Are we still using Carl’s new circuit?” “No, that was too strong. { put in a moderation, but it isn’t much better.’”’ He stared thoughtfully before him. “We've got to keep trying, John. The machine, as it is, is too much like holding a tiger by the tail. We daren’t release it and it’s too good to forget. If we can only lick this problem of too great a psychosomatic aflinity be- tween the physical and the mental worlds we’ve got some- thing which will revolutionise the treatment of the insane. In fact, it will be the only treatment necessary.” John nodded. He had heard all this before. Take a patient, Comicbooks-com)