Free The Field by Tracy Richardson

other in any way. One of you will be the ‘sender,’ who will be viewing images on the computer screen. A new image will appear every two minutes. The sender is basically supposed to look at the image and think about it and try in a very relaxed way to communicate the image to the other person, who is the ‘receiver.’ The receiver will have one minute to get impressions of what he might be receiving and one minute toregister what the impressions are on a brief questionnaire on the computer. The session lasts 30 minutes, so there will be 15 images in total. Don’t work too hard at it, but try to stay focused. Any questions?” We look at each other and shake our heads.
    â€œNope, I think we’ve got it,” says Will.
    â€œRight. Who wants to be the sender?” Stephen looks back and forth between us.
    â€œI’ll do that,” Will says. “It sounds like the easier job.”
    â€œSlacker,” I say.
    â€œThen you come with me first and I’ll get you set up,” Stephen tells Will. To me he says, “I’ll be back for you in a minute.” He practically leaps out of his chair and walks with a jerky, loping gait, gesturing for Will to follow.
    When he comes back for me, he takes me to a small, cubbyhole room with a desk and a laptop computer.
    â€œYour programs run separately, but we’ve got them both set up to run without your intervention. You just need to be in a receptive mode for one minute and then answer the questions when they come on the screen about your impressions. The screen will switch automatically. All set?”
    â€œI think so.”
    â€œGreat. See you in half an hour.”
    It’s really quiet in the room. I can actually hear my breathing. I just sit there, chilling for a few minutes, thinking that this is a pretty easy way to make twenty bucks. Then the computer screen lights up with the words, P ROGRAM B EGINNING IN 10 S ECONDS, and it counts down from ten to zero. When it begins, the screen is blank. This must be the first image I’m supposed to receive, so I try not to think of anything in particular and just look at the screen and try to visualize … something. The screen is blank, but I’m getting impressions of an ‘X’ or a cross andmaybe palm trees? Something tropical? I’m not really sure. After what seems like less than a minute, the questionnaire appears on the screen. I answer questions about whether the image I got was: straight or wavy; round, square, triangular or rectangular; in water or land; woods or prairie; and so on. Then I have to write a ten word description. Just as I finish, the screen goes blank and I guess I’m on to the next one. The time goes by pretty fast and before I realize I’ve done 15 images, the last questionnaire disappears and the screen says S ESSION C OMPLETED. I stand up and stretch. I didn’t really see any actual images during the session, but I did feel like I was getting something—general impressions that could have just been my own imagination, too. I have no idea if I really got anything or not. Stephen opens the door a minute later.
    â€œYou’re all done,” he says. Will’s behind him.
    â€œHow’d we do?”
    â€œYou’re the last two, so if you want to come back to the office with me and wait a minute, I’ll pull up your results.” I look at Will, who says, “Sure, I can wait, but if you don’t get an ‘A’ don’t be upset. You’re such an over-achiever.”
    â€œSomebody has to be,” I shoot back.
    We go back to the first room where we met Stephen and sit across the desk from him as he works on the computer.
    â€œWell,” he leans back in his chair. “Pretty strong results for your first time. You had a 33% accuracy rate. Most random pairs score 16% or less the first time, and bonded pairs usually don’t do better than 25% without any training. We’ll