“WAIT A MINUTE!” SAID Fenwick. “Even supposing this could happen as you describe it, other programs could be selected out of the great number you have described.”
“Quite true. But do you know what happens to an adult human being when the program on which his entire life is patterned is destroyed?”
Fenwick shook his head. “What is it like?”
“It’s like it was in the beginning, in that moment of first awareness of the external universe. He is aware of the universe, but has no understanding of it. Previous understanding—or what he thought was understanding—has been invalidated, destroyed. The drive to keep living, that was present in that first moment of awareness, has weakened. The strongest impulse is to escape the terror that follows awareness without understanding. Death is the quickest
