«Just a minute,» interrupted Shea. «Do you mean that a complete shift would actually transfer a man’s body into one of these other worlds?»
«Very likely,» agreed Chalmers, «since the body records whatever sensations the mind permits. For complete demonstration it would be necessary to try it, and I don’t know that the risk would be worth it. The other world might have such different laws that it would be impossible to return.»
Shea asked: «You mean, if the world were that of classical mythology, for instance, the laws would be those of Greek magic instead of modern physics?»
«Precisely. But —»
«Hey!» said Shea. «Then this new science of paraphysics is going to include the natural laws of all these different worlds, and what we call physics is just a special case of paraphysics —»
«Not so fast, young man,» said Chalmers. «For the present, I think it wise to restrict the meaning of our term ‘Paraphysics’ to the branch of knowledge that concerns the relationship of these multiple universes to each other, assuming that they actually exist. You will recall that careless use of the analogous term ‘metaphysics’ has resulted in its becoming practically synonymous with ‘philosophy’.»
«Which,» said Shea, «is regarded by some as a kind of scientific knowledge; by others as a kind of knowledge outside of science; and by still others as unscientific and therefore not knowledge of any kind.»
«My, my, very neatly put,» said Chalmers, fishing out a little black notebook. «E. T. Bell could not have said it more trenchantly. I shall include that statement of the status of philosophy in my next book.»
«Hey,» said Shea, sitting up sharply, «don’t I even get a commission?»
Chalmers smiled blandly. «My dear Harold, you’re at perfect liberty to write a book of your own; in fact I encourage you.»
Bayard grinned: «Harold would rather play cowboy. When I think of a verbal pearl, I don’t go around casting it promiscuously. I wait till I can use it in print and get paid for it. But to get back to our subject, how would you go about working the shift?»