Mind Games (2 page)

I am surprised to discover I am a little bit interested in this project. I think of many questions I would like answered, such as which is better—Coke or Pepsi? And why must people grow old and die? And why is it always cloudy in Maryland?

When one week has passed and we again see Mr. Ennis, he asks us to write down one science mystery and hand it in without putting our name on the paper. I cannot write enough English for my idea, so I do nothing.

Mr. Ennis reads aloud from each paper.

"Does God exist?"

"Are dogs smarter than cats?"

"Hallucinogenic drugs and the blood-brain barrier."

"Solution of a seventeen-variable polynomial."

"Computation of the Hubble constant."

Mr. Ennis coughs. "I don't think all of us have turned in an idea," he says. "And I think one of us has turned in several."

We all look at Ben. He smiles like he knows he is important.

I raise my hand. "Mr. Ennis," I say, "I am not able to write my idea."

"That is fine, Marina," he says. "Can you tell us, then?"

I think Coke-Pepsi and cloudy weather do not sound so good after this Hubble constant. Therefore, I say, "Why must people grow old and die? Oh—but that is two questions." I feel myself growing flustered, and all the English words fly from my brain.

"How about dying without getting old?" Brandon kicks the desk with his nice basketball shoe.

"Claire didn't give you a question," Kathleen sings out, and she is glad to say something bad about her sister. This is very plain.

Claire's face turns pink and white, like a rabbit's.

"I know what her question would be," Kathleen says. "She wants to solve the mystery of how to make my ... situation disappear."

Claire's face is now pinker and whiter than even a rabbit's. It is like a watermelon, the type with the white seeds. And her freckles are the dark seeds.

"But I don't want anyone experimenting on me," Kathleen says. "Anyhow, you can't fix it. So it wouldn't make a very good science project, would it?"

I think this will be another time for the tissues, but I am wrong.

"Kathleen, you have made an excellent point," Mr. Ennis says, and Claire pats her on the shoulder.

Kathleen beams, showing many straight teeth.

"If you are going to solve a scientific problem, you must be able to carry out an
experiment.
The Hubble constant? Seventeen-variable polynomials? Maybe someday when you are astrophysicists and mathematicians. For now, let's think realistically of what we can do. And please—no hallucinogenic drugs, either, regardless of their effect on the blood-brain barrier. The school board might frown on that kind of experiment."

Ben frowns on Mr. Ennis. "Geez," he says, "I was kidding. Doesn't anybody have a sense of humor around here?" The bell rings. Ben lifts his giant backpack onto his shoulders. "I hate this class," he murmurs as he races from the room. No one seems to hear him but I.

Brandon shakes his head. "Homework. Reading. I knew I was gonna hate this class."

"Me, too," says G.

"Us, too," say Kathleen and Claire.

"I guess we're all on the same wavelength," G says.

I have said nothing. Therefore, I do not know if G feels my opinion does not matter, or rather if she knows my opinion even though I do not speak. But I, too, am on the same wavelength. Now that I know what this means, I can say it for certain.

And that is when it happens.

"That's it!" G shouts. "I've got a great idea for our experiment!"

The next week, Mr. Ennis writes the subject of our experiment in big letters on the chalkboard. I later discover that we are solving the great mystery of ESP. And what this is, I have then not the least idea.

T
ASK
: Examine my horoscope for five days. Record what really happens. Count how many things come true (i point per correct prediction).

A
MENDMENT
: Also count how many things are too vague to count (o points each).

P
URPOSE
: To see whether astrology can accurately predict the future.

My parents subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. It doesn't have a horoscope section, which is okay, because my parents are Presbyterian and therefore anti-horoscope. However, we do receive the
Waverly Times
. My parents have no choice because, horoscope or not, this paper is delivered free every week.

Ben Lloyd says the horoscope writer for the
Waverly
Times isn't even a professional astrologer but a plain old reporter disguising her name out of embarrassment. As editor of the school newspaper, I tried not to take "plain old reporter" as an insult. I asked Ben how he knew this information, and that was the last I heard from him on the subject.

Because I was forced to use a weekly paper, evaluating five horoscopes took much longer than five days. (Sorry, Mr. Ennis.) Here are the results:

Excerpts from "Sun Signs" by Cassidy Richards
The
Waverly
Times (Aries section)

October 8
Persist in your favorite pursuits despite obstacles that may present themselves
.
¹
Focus on group work
.
²
Make new friends, but keep the old
.
³

A
NALYSIS
(10/15):

1. Shopping and socializing are my favorite pursuits, according to my parents. They are already expert obstacles to my doing anything fun, but I am experter at getting around them. Another thing I like to do, I guess, is sing. However, I quit the church choir a few weeks ago—and I wouldn't want to persist, no matter what this horoscope says. I am still in the choir at school, and we have auditions this Monday for the winter concert. I am planning on getting a solo (assuming God does not punish me for reading this horoscope and maybe even believing it). P
REDICTION CORRECT
? ½ point.

2. Since you are reading this, you will see that I am focused on my Mad Science "group work." P
REDICTION CORRECT
? 1 point.

3. Friends are very important to me. I made lots of new ones when we started middle school last year. Claire, unfortunately, did not. But that's okay. She's still my friend. In terms of making friends this year, I've only met two new people—Brandon and Marina. Brandon seems to know one sentence, which is I don't care. Marina knows a few more, but they all seem to be about food and the weather. Therefore, I'm not sensing good friendship material here. P
REDICTION CORRECT
? ½ point.

October 15
Romantic prospects are encouraging
.
¹
You will receive good news regarding a worrisome situation
.
²
In your busy state of life, friendships may suffer
.
³

A
NALYSIS
(10/22):

1. Romance? Yeah, right. My parents won't even let me date until I'm sixteen. I'm tempted to give negative points for this one. P
REDICTION CORRECT
? 0 points.

2. If this counts, I did get that choir solo—not that I was so worried. I usually try to leave the freak-outs to people like my parents and Claire. So the only thing really bothering me right now is this week's prediction #3. P
REDICTION CORRECT
? ½ point (I guess).

3. My friendships are doing pretty well, I have to say. Therefore, I want to believe very much that this prediction deserves: P
REDICTION CORRECT
? 0 points.

And it had better not have anything to do with Claire. Also of note—October 15 was Claire's birthday (and her sister, Kathleen's). The entry for "If today is your birthday" read as follows:

Your day begins on a high note. Brisk exercise will do wonders for your constitution. You will clear a major hurdle this week. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

A
NALYSIS
:

In choir (second period), Kathleen croaked on a high A and cried into the piano; after exercise (but not hurdles) in P.E., she threw up chocolate cake on the track; she enjoyed the clown at her party on Saturday, although she did not enjoy my being invited. (She did enjoy my arriving late due to Katie Baird's party being on the same day.) Furthermore, she neither sat nor relaxed. Except when she is petting her dog, I have never seen Kathleen relax.

On the other hand, Claire sings alto when she sings at all (hardly ever), but she did start first period on a high note by getting a 92 on the algebra test everybody else (including me) failed; she had no bad effects from brisk exercise in P.E., and she did not enjoy the clown show so much. But she stayed relaxed even when Kathleen blew out all the candles and stole her birthday wish; I guess she's used to that (and to the spit on her cake) after all these years.

P
REDICTION CORRECT
? This is too complicated to score in my opinion, but if the same horoscope is supposed to apply to Claire and Kathleen (not to mention Katie Baird), that's enough evidence to persuade me that astrology is totally inaccurate.

October 22
Cash in on your popularity. Keep your head on your shoulders when confronted with a tricky situation. Speak your mind—you will be appreciated for it.

A
NALYSIS
(10/29):

I cashed in—we won the lottery. As for the rest of the prediction, it doesn't matter since I will not be doing any further work on this project.

F
OR THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROJECT
, I
HAVE READ SIX
books about parapsychology, two books about science fair projects (see Sources), and various other materials too numerous to list.

So that you might try to understand the subject of my discussion, I am providing you with the following:

D
EFINITIONS

Clairvoyance: Uncanny knowledge of other living things and/or events that is not gained through telepathy (see below).

ESP (Extra-Sensory Perception): The process of accumulating knowledge that cannot be gained by the use of our five known senses (such as why this topic was chosen for our science project).

Paranormal: Phenomena outside the realm of "normal" experience.

Parapsychology: The (supposedly) scientific study of ESP.

Psychokinesis (P.K.): The influence of the human mind on inanimate objects.

Telepathy: The ability to know another person's thoughts.

E
VALUATION

A comprehensive review of (so-called) scientific literature pertaining to these topics reveals that conclusive results have not been achieved in any previous study conducted under valid testing conditions. Demonstrated instances of ESP have not been readily reproduced under controlled observation. Ever.
¹
Furthermore, anecdotal evidence of supernatural occurrences thus far is totally insufficient to convince a self-respecting scientist that science cannot satisfactorily explain the world around us. Indeed, the "fortunetellers" my mother used to hire at her holiday parties routinely made such predictions as a long and happy marriage for my parents and great scientific achievements for me. While we still await the verdict on my scientific accomplishments, the assertion regarding my parents' marriage proves that ESP is certainly not an exact science—and probably not a science at all.

One more noteworthy thing. Claire and Kathleen Phelps, members of our investigative team, are homozygous twins.
²
Twin studies are mentioned several times in parapsychol
ogy literature, so I felt this area warranted further investigation on my part.

In the ongoing debate of nature versus nurture, it is thought that identical twins who were separated at birth and raised in different families can provide good evidence about which is more important—genes or upbringing.
³

I read several interesting cases about twins who had never known each other before meeting during the study, only to discover that they'd each married a woman named Anna, had a child named Sam, and liked to eat a bowl of butter pecan ice cream with pretzels while watching I Love
Lucy
before bed.
⁴

After examining the literature, I suggested to my research team that perhaps nature versus nurture would make a more interesting topic for our project. I am very interested, for example, to know whether my science aptitude comes from my inheritance of my father's astrophysicist genes or is instead a result of having
Scientific Weekly
read aloud to me at age four. Brandon dismissed this idea by saying that I'm destined to be a science geek either way, and who cares why? I nobly refrained from pointing out that he's destined to be a science zero either way, and who cares why? Due to a general lack of interest on the part of my fellow group members, I was forced to abandon once again a potentially fascinating topic. But I remain curious. After all, my mother, who was never a geek and in fact was once a cheerleader, got a D in high school chemistry and during her days as an aspiring magazine writer was an avid reader of such periodicals as
Cosmopolitan
and
Glamour.
Half of my genes are hers. Is this not strange?

Of course, Claire and Kathleen have the exact same genes, and Claire is in honors classes
⁵
while Kathleen is in special ed. One wonders where brain damage counts in nature versus nurture.

Besides shedding light on nature versus nurture, the twin studies also highlighted several "psychic" events involving twins who were separated at birth. For example, one woman had an attack of appendicitis. Her sister was rushed to the hospital at the same time with a sharp pain in her side, but the doctors could find nothing wrong with her. At the time, neither woman knew she had a twin.

Is this convincing proof of ESP? No. Is it semiconvincing proof of ESP? No, because ESP is not the only possible explanation of these events. For example, the second twin's pain may not have been caused by the first twin's attack of appendicitis. It may have been caused by the bad lasagna she ate the night before.
⁶