The Project Gutenberg EBook of All In The Mind, by Gene L. Henderson

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Title: All In The Mind

Author: Gene L. Henderson

Illustrator: Paul Orban

Release Date: May 19, 2010 [EBook #32434]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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All in the Mind

By Gene L. Henderson

Illustrated by Paul Orban

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science
Fiction April 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: _When does life begin?... A well-known book says "forty". A
well-known radio program says "eighty". Some folks say it's mental,
others say it's physical. But take the strange case of Mel Carlson who
gave a lot of_ thought _to the matter_.]

Mel felt as if he were floating on clouds in the deepest, most intense
dark he had ever experienced. He tried opening his eyes but nothing
happened, only a sharp pain. Little bits of memory flashed back and he
tried to figure out what could have happened, where he was.

The last thing he could remember was the little lab hidden back in the
mountains in an old mine tunnel. Remote, but only an hour's drive from
the city. What had he been doing? Oh yes, arguing with Neil again. He
even recalled the exact words.

"Damn it, Mel," his partner had said. "We've gone about as far as
possible working with animal brains. We've got to get a human one."

"We can't," Mel had disagreed. "There'd be enough of an uproar if the
papers got hold of what we've been doing with animals. If we did get
someone in a hospital to agree to let us use his brain on death, they
would close us up tighter than a drum."

"But our lab's too well hidden, they'd never know."

"It wouldn't work anyway. The brain might be damaged for lack of oxygen
and all of our work would go for nothing. Worse, it might indicate
failure where a fresh, healthy brain would mean success."

"We'll ne