"Rog Phillips - The Yelllow Pill" - читать интересную книгу автора (Phillips Rog)

"Not yet," Cedric said.

"Uh, why don't you describe your office to me, Dr. Elton?" Jerry said. "Let's make a game of it. Describe
parts of things and then let me see if I can fill in the rest. Start with your desk. It's genuine walnut? An
executive-style desk. Go on from there."

"All right," Cedric said. "Over here to my right is the intercom, made of gray plastic. And directly in front
of me is the telephone."

"Stop," Jerry said. "Let me see if I can tell you your telephone number." He leaned over the desk and
looked at the telephone, trying to keep his balance in spite of his arms being encased in the straitjacket.
"Hm-m-m," he said, frowning. "Is the number Mulberry five dash nine oh three seven?"

"No," Cedric said. "It's Cedar sevтАФ"

"Stop!" Jerry said. "Let me say it. It's Cedar seven dash four three nine nine."

"So you did read it and were just having your fun," Cedric snorted.

"If you say so," Jerry said.

"What other explanation can you have for the fact that it is my number, if you're unable to actually see
reality?" Cedric said.

"You're absolutely right, Dr. Elton," Jerry said. "I think I understand the tricks my mind is playing on me
now. I read the number on your phone, but it didn't enter my conscious awareness. Instead, it cloaked
itself with the pattern of my delusion, so that consciously I pretended to look at a phone that I couldn't
see, and I thought, 'His phone number will obviously be one he's familiar with.' The most probable is the
home phone of Helena Fitzroy in Mars Port, so I gave you that, but it wasn't it. When you said Cedar, I
knew right away it was your own apartment phone number."

Cedric sat perfectly still. Mulberry 5-9037 was actually Helena's apartment phone number. He hadn't
recognized it until Gerald Bocek told him.

"Now you're beginning to understand," Cedric said after a moment. "Once you realize that your mind has
walled off your consciousness from reality and is substituting a rationalized pattern of symbology in its
place, it shouldn't be long until you break through. Once you manage to see one thing as it really is, the
rest of the delusion will disappear."

"I understand now," Jerry said gravely. "Let's have some more of it. Maybe I'll catch on."

They spent an hour at it. Toward the end, Jerry was able to finish the descriptions of things with very little
error.

"You are definitely beginning to get through," Cedric said with enthusiasm.
Jerry hesitated. "I suppose so," he said. "I must. But on the conscious level I have the ideaтАФa
rationalization, of courseтАФthat I am beginning to catch on to the pattern of your imagination so that when
you give me one or two key elements I can fill in the rest. But I'm going to try, really tryтАФDr. Elton."

"Fine," Cedric said heartily. "I'll see you tomorrow, same time. We should make the breakthrough then."