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 I raised the gun. "That's the story," I said, "but not the truth. I'm no neurologist, but I do know that the actual source of memory-patterns has never been definitely located in the human brain. You can't deliberately 'erase' memory, as you claim, without irreparable damage to actual cellular tissue and structure. Many external physical agents can bring about temporary amnesia, partial or complete—but unless there's widespread permanent deterioration, memory returns. You can't do what you claim to have done, physiologically. So your erasure must have been accomplished psychologically, instead. In my case, and in the case of all the poor victims of your 'advanced' therapy, you seized upon a temporary lapse in orientation and recall and made it permanent. And there's just one way in which you or anyone else could do this—through suggestion, through hypnosis. And you installed those permanent memory-blocs yourself; did so deliberately."

"All right," Wagram said. "I'll admit that. But there was a reason, I've already explained it to you. By suppressing the memories, I could suppress the sources of psychosis and prevent any recurrence of aberration. That was the theory, the basis of my techniques—"

"Perhaps it was, originally. But then you found that your hypnotherapy, administered to stunned and literally infantile personalities, gave you complete and utter control over your patients. You could actually order their present and future existences as you willed. And the temptation was too great, wasn't it? You began to think about ways of using that power. Of what it would be like to send supposedly cured patients back into the world who were actually under your eternal command. You could install a series of hypnotic controls, insure just the reactions you desired. Oh, it wasn't quite that simple, I realize that; it wasn't just a matter of sitting at some sort of psychic switchboard and pressing buttons at will, or being able to hold all the tangled strings and making the puppets dance. You needed other help, and you got it."

"Clermer told you this?" Wagram murmured.

"He told me enough so that I can guess the rest. I know about last night, for example. You were planning to take a THE SCREAMING PEOPLE