The Atticus Institute Page #2

- I'm not married.

- Have you ever been?

Okay. How many siblings do you have?

- One.

- Are your parents still alive?

- Judith, are your parents still alive?

- No.

Okay. Are you right-handed

or left-handed?

Judith's behavior was always odd.

Even from the first day she arrived.

But in our field, it wasn't uncommon

to encounter odd people.

So we didn't give it much thought.

Ms. Winstead?

Right-handed.

And when did you first realize

you had certain abilities?

Are you... are you all right, dear?

You're bleeding.

Oh, my God.

- Here's some...

- Give her some towels.

Oh, tilt your head back, okay?

It's not her nose, it's her hand.

Her hand is bleeding.

What? Did you... did you bite yourself?

Why?

Susan, let's get her...

get her to the ladies' room, please.

As long as you're okay with it.

- That's all right. Just take...

- Just take care of her.

Judith?

What is she... no, no, no.

What is she doing? Stop.

- Just stop. Calm down.

- Let go.

Ms. Winstead. Judith, stop, please.

Well, for starters,

Judith came to us in an unusual way.

Most times, we learn of someone

and seek them out.

We had no idea Judith

was even out there.

Nevertheless, she tested beyond

what any of us thought was even possible.

There was no measure.

Truly no measure for her abilities.

If you can, try for seven this time.

Any combination.

Three and four.

One and six.

Three and four.

One and six.

Two and five.

Judith, what I'd like you to try to do

is to move the wheel

without actually touching it.

Try to concentrate your mind.

Focus your thoughts.

She outperformed every subject

we'd ever studied.

There was no comparison to be made.

I understand how peculiar it might seem

to hear her abilities described in this way,

but they were godlike.

Okay, Judith, what do you see this time?

- Judith?

- Star.

- And this time.

- Square.

And what do you see this time?

Judith, are you all right?

Are you all right, Judith? Do you...

can we continue with the exercise?

- I think she's...

- Judith?

I think she's okay. All right,

let's resume. Judith, what...

- The card bent.

- What?

- That card bent. We're taking a break.

- What do you mean?

Dr. West?

Looking back, I...

I guess I should've known better.

I mean, yes, we'd seen...

witnessed amazing things in the past.

But nothing like that.

Nothing, nothing like that.

Inverse square law.

Conservation of momentum.

These were well-established laws

of physics that were being violated.

The second law of thermodynamics.

All of these.

We should've been scared.

Someone with that much power would...

but we were too excited to be scared.

We finally had the proof...

not another hoax...

that we'd been seeking for years.

We had our Nina Kulagina.

What I remember, she was due to...

stay overnight in the lab

through the weekend.

We did this quite often with subjects

because anomalous events

sometimes occur

during the deep-sleep cycle.

And we monitored the subjects through

the night using various recording devices.

During Judith's first overnight, we only had

one staff member present. Kenneth.

I don't ever think I knew his last name.

He was a graduate student

at the time. Nice, quiet kid.

Came from a farming family.

I remember that because so do I.

He was...

he was alone with Judith that night

sitting not far from her bed.

I don't even think he knew

that he was being recorded

because you can see him smoking which

he wasn't supposed to be doing in the lab.

Nothing happened for hours.

Nobody ever found out what happened.

But whatever did...

that was it for him.

Never came back.

We tried contacting

Judith's sister, Margaret.

We couldn't reach her.

She'd disconnected her phone.

It became clear at that moment...

that Margaret had abandoned her.

The decision now was

what we were gonna do.

I could tell that Lawrence was already

reaching a bit of a breaking point.

It was obvious.

It wasn't so obvious with Dr. West.

Not to me anyway.

We simply made the decision that we were

going to continue our testing with her.

But after that night,

it became extremely difficult.

It was so unnerving.

Her behavior. It was so incredibly...

She... she would say things

and do things that made you...

She would scream in that voice.

Grab her!

It wasn't hers.

It was like an animal.

Henry seemed most affected by it.

He tried his best to shield

the others from that.

I knew him well enough to know that

he was deeply affected.

I watched my father change firsthand.

And I have no doubt whatsoever

that what happened in that lab

caused that change.

I remember being

in the seventh grade years later,

and other kids making fun of me.

Call him crazy. They'd say I'd be crazy.

Back then, it was different

than it is now.

Now everyone has a therapist.

They go for anything...

stubbed toe. But back then,

you went if it was something bad.

And especially if medication

was involved.

And in my husband's case, it was.

- Why do you say that, Henry?

- You don't understand.

Okay.

- I see what's happening.

- At work?

I can't help you if you don't tell me

- what you think is happening.

- I can't tell you.

What are you so afraid of, Henry?

I know it's very trying,

but we would really like to continue.

- Can you please stop that, Judith?

- Can you please stop that, please?

We'd really like to continue...

We had about 10 different

degrees between us.

Including one in medicine,

three in psychology.

And we knew...

that was not normal.

Judith was not a typical test subject.

She had made that

abundantly clear by that point.

And I felt we needed help.

I received a file from another analyst.

It was something he thought

I should take a look at.

We started a program

to investigate psi in the early '70s.

Psi-related phenomenon. About five years

after KGB conducted similar studies.

I didn't have the highest

expectations going in.

I felt we'd already been down that road.

And it proved to be a waste

of time and money.

But Marcus was a friend

of a friend, and so I went.

It's difficult to explain.

But you could feel something...

a weight, an invisible weight.

The whole lab took on that feeling

the minute he stepped through the door.

It was if he represented a challenge

to her, to her power.

Everything we had seen

up until that point,

everything Judith had done,

everything we'd witnessed,

it barely compared

to what happened after he arrived.

I assumed they'd run through

the usual battery of psi tests.

The cards, the elaborate devices

with the numbers, but they didn't.

They told me that those tests

weren't right for her.

This here's a way to convince anyone.

Easiest and simplest way

to begin the demonstration.

Now you understand

why we've called you in here.

That can't be accounted for

through any known rational explanation.

And she's able to repeat it

with a variety of different materials.

Breaking the third law

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