Psichopath

by Randall Garrett

One way to hide an ex-officio agency of the United States Government was to label it truthfully -- The Society For Mystical And Metaphysical Research. In spite of the fact that the label was literally true, it sounded so crackpot that no one but a crackpot would bother to look into it. As a consequence, better than ninety per cent of the membership of the Society was composed of just such people. Only a few members of the "core" knew the organization's true function and purpose.

A classic Randall Garrett tale . . .

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction

34 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 2010

About the author

Randall Garrett's full name was Gordon Randall Phillip David Garrett. For more information about him see https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?239

He was married to Vicki Ann Heydron

His pseudonyms include: Gordon Randall Garrett, Gordon Aghill, Grandal Barretton, Alexander Blade, Ralph Burke, Gordon Garrett, David Gordon, Richard Greer, Ivar Jorgenson, Darrel T. Langart, Blake MacKenzie, Jonathan Blake MacKenzie, Seaton Mckettrig, Clyde (T.) Mitchell, Mark Phillips (with Laurence Janifer), Robert Randall, Leonard G. Spencer, S.M. Tenneshaw, Gerald Vance.

Reviews

[Julia Leporace · Rating 5 out of 5]

" TOTAL understanding, in one sense, would require that a person actually BECOME another person -that he be able to feel, completely and absolutely, every emotion, every thought, every bodily sensation, every twinge of memory, every judgment, every decision, and every sense of personal identity that is felt by the other person, no more and no less.
Such totality is, obviously, neither attainable nor desirable. The result would be a merger of identities, a total unification. And, as a consequence, a complete loss of one of the human beings involved."

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

A government program sponsoring psychics to develop anti-gravity? And they know most of them are crackpots. Yep. The Society for Mystical and Metaphysical Research just could work.

Please see the full review here.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoy Randall Garrett's writing, but this one was a dud.