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From: garys@bunkerb.UUCP (Gary M. Samuelson)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: ST/Tomorrow People
Message-ID: <621@bunkerb.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Mar-86 10:44:09 EST
Article-I.D.: bunkerb.621
Posted: Thu Mar 27 10:44:09 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Mar-86 06:11:57 EST
References: <179@bucsb.UUCP> <4345@dartvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: garys@bunkerb.UUCP (Gary M. Samuelson)
Organization: Bunker Ramo, Trumbull Ct
Lines: 24
Summary: 

In article <4345@dartvax.UUCP> markv@dartvax.UUCP (Mark F. Vita) writes:

>This sounds like it was lifted from Alfred Bester's novel "The Stars
>My Destination" (also known as "Tiger! Tiger!").  In this book,
>certain people have the ability to teleport themselves over short
>distances through sheer mental effort.  It's definitely presented as a 
>purely natural ability.  In the novel, this ability is referred to as
>"jaunting", named after the first person to demonstrate the ability,
>some French dude named Jaunte.  (As I recall, the way they got him to
>do it was by locking him in an airtight tank and slowly filling it with
>water...)

Close.  He first demonstrated this ability when a fire suddenly started,
threatening his life.  He "jaunted" to the location of a fire
extinguisher, more or less by reflex -- i.e., he didn't intend to jaunt,
didn't know he could, and wasn't trying to -- he just had this sudden
urgent desire for a fire extinguisher.  Later, researchers decided
the only way to get him to do it again was to put him in another life
threatening situation.  So they put him in an airtight, shatterproof
tank, filled it with water, closed the valve and smashed it in his sight.
Fortunately, he did it again.  Eventually they learned enough about the
process to teach people how to do it under less urgent circumstances.

Gary Samuelson