"Would it be possible to do that with this record?"
Tom studied the record silently. "Any cyclic electric impulse can be applied as a stimulus to the brain. Certainly, this one can. My question still remains, however, what kind of a creature generated these pulses? If it is so alien you can't even identify it, we can't really be sure that these are brain waves. I can only say they may be."
"That's good enough for me," said Jim. "How about setting it up so that we can see if these tell us anything."
"I think I ought to make you tell me where you got these, first."
"Afterwards, please, Tom."
It took the rest of the day to transcribe the record to the format required by Tom's light-intensity reader. They set the following day for the experiment.
Both Sam and Jim were to participate. Tom applied eight electrodes to the skull of each man. They reclined in deep sleep-back chairs, and Tom suggested they close their eyes.
Jim began to feel a sense of apprehension as he heard the first faint whine of the equipment. He knew the transcribed tape was unreeling slowly beneath the photo-electric scanner. The resulting fluctuating current was being amplified, filtered, gated to the proper level, and applied to the electrodes on his skull. He felt nothing.
"Just like a ride on the merry-go-round," he said in disappointment.