Chicken Little: The Inside Story (A Jungian ... - Inner City Books

108 Chicken Little: The Inside Story
pursuit. Norman, please go on.”
If we get this far, Adam had said, it’s all up to you.
“It is a curious fact,” I said, “known to anyone working in the
field, that if a holographic plate is broken, the original image can
be recreated from any piece of the broken plate. The resolution
isn’t so good, of course, but with a series of optical filters designed
especially for the purpose, the clarity can be boosted to something
very close to the original.”
“From a fragment?” asked Rachel. “A bitty piece?”
“Yes,” I said, “it’s all there.”
“Hard to believe,” said Arnold.
“And there I’m with you!” said Adam, clapping Arnold’s shoulder.
“But it’s true, I’ve seen it.”
“So have I,” said D.
Adam nodded at me.
Now came the truly ticklish part. I spoke slowly.
“Given these basic facts,” I said, “it is possible that under the
right circumstances, and looked at in the right light, one might also
discern a virtual image—in the aura of the hologram, so to speak—
of what the object was once part of.”
That was it, the end of my notes.
There was dead silence, during which I wondered if the significance
of my little speech had sunk in.
D. stroked his cheeks.
“That isn’t in Pethick’s book.”
“It is still a hypothesis,” I admitted.
“What is a virtual image?” asked Rachel.
“Something that isn’t really there,” said Arnold laconically.
“True enough,” I agreed, “yet we see it as if it were.”
“Let me get this straight,” said D. “Are you saying that a hologram
of Adam’s stone might provide a picture of the complete rock
—the larger whole it was broken off from?”
“Yes,” I said, feeling a sudden surge of belief.
“Precisely,” said Adam. “Recreate the past.”
Arnold held his head. “I think I’d like a drink.”
D. looked at Rachel.
“Well, lover, what do you think? Is it a crazy idea?”