Jack Havig:
briefly bilocates as a baby (see Temporal Changeling);
disappears;
enacts histories of visionary worlds in Morgan Woods;
develops remarkably quickly both physically and mentally;
describes a visit to an Indian camp and a journey on a propellerless "jet" airplane with his "Uncle Jack";
calls an army to his aid when attacked by two bullies;
knows that his father will be killed in the war.
None of the other characters recognize evidence of time travel.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Jack Havig "develops remarkably quickly" because of the TIME he spent away from home time traveling. E.g., when people in Senlac thought he was only twelve, he might actually had been fourteen due to the time he spent in other years and eras.
But of course you knew that!
Ad astra! Sean
Evidence gets filtered ar a subconscious level to fit the observer’s worldview. It’s extraordinarily hard to overcome this; hence the elaborate evidentiary protocols the sciences use, and even so they often fail. A threat to one’s worldview is a threat to the sense of identity and as such is fiercely resisted.
A shift in worldview threatens social integration at the day-to-day level, and in the context in which we evolved social isolation often meant death and the extinction of one’s genes.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree we have all of us experienced that filtering of evidence at subconscious levels so that it will fit an observer's world view. The comments you and Paul have made were very useful to bringing that home to me. Most of the time I might not even think of that kind of "filtering," but it's useful to have knowledge of that phenomenon in my mental "files."
Ad astra! Sean
What is remarkable is that, despite subconscious filtering, science has been built and debate is possible. A fellow graduate philosophy student who went into the Presbyterian ministry was always able to discuss his beliefs rationally so he and I remained fellow philosophers. I said to him that there are Christians with whom dialogue is impossible and he replied, "I know."
Kaor, Paul!
And recall how Anderson believed a true science arose partly because of Christianity. The Catholic Church does not believe scientific truths can contradict revealed truths. The kinds of Christians you and this other gentleman had in mind seem to belong mostly to the "evangelical" branches of Protestantism, wedded to a rigidly literal hermeneutics for interpreting Scripture.
Ad astra! Sean
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