In the Deadlands Read Online Free PDF Page A

but soon,” she reassured me.
    â€œOh,” I said.
    We sat there in silence. After a bit, she cleared her throat. “I think...” she began slowly, then she trailed off.
    â€œThat’s nice,” I said, but she didn’t hear me.
    â€œ...I think that the world exists only as a reflection of our minds. It exists the way it does only because that’s the way we think it does.”
    â€œ I think—therefore I exist,” I said. But she ignored me. She told me to be quiet.
    â€œYes, you exist,” she confirmed. (I’m glad she did—I was beginning to be a bit worried—and this was the wrong day for it. The last time I looked this was Tuesday.) “You exist,” she said, “because you think you do. And the world also exists because you think it does.”
    â€œThen, when I die—the world ends with me...?” I asked hopefully, making a mental note not to die.
    â€œNo—that’s nonsense. No sane and rational man believes in solipsism.” She scratched at her eyeball with a fork and went on.
    â€œWhen you die— you cease to exist,” she said. “But the world goes on—it goes on because everybody else who’s still alive still believes that it exists. (The only thing they’ve stopped believing in is you.) You see, the world is a collective figment of all of our individual imaginations.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” I said stiffly. “I do not believe in collectivism.” I unbent a little so as to sit up. “I am a staunch Republican.”
    â€œDon’t you see?” she said, ignoring my interruption. “This mass hallucination that the world is real just keeps on going because of its own momentum. You believe in it because that’s the way it was when you first began to exist—that is, when everybody else first began to believeyou existed. When you were born, you saw that the world followed a certain set of rules that other people believed in, so you believed in them too—the fact that you believe in them just gives them that much more strength.”
    â€œOh,” I said. I lay there listening to her, trying to figure out some way to leave gracefully. My eye was starting to hurt, and I couldn’t see the ceiling any more. The fog was rolling in again.
    â€œLook at the church!” she said suddenly.
    â€œHuh?” I said.
    â€œLook at the church!” she said it again, insistent.
    I tried to. I lifted my head and tried to look at the church, but the fog was too thick. I couldn’t even see my toes.
    â€œLook at it,” she said. “ Faith is the basic precept of religion—faith that what they’re telling you is true! Don’t they tell you to have faith in the church, that faith can work miracles?!! Well, I’ll tell you something—it can! If enough people believe in something, it becomes reality!”
    By now, my eye was throbbing most painfully. I tried to sit up, but her strong hands held me back. She leaned closer and whispered intensely, “Yes! It’s true. It is.”
    â€œIf you say so,” I nodded.
    She went on. “Fortunately, the church long ago abandoned miracles in favor of conservatism—now, it’s fighting to preserve the status quo! The church is one of the last bastions of reality—it’s one of the few things holding back chaos!”
    â€œChaos?”
    â€œYes, chaos.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œThe world is changing,” she explained. “Man is changing it.”
    I nodded. “Yes, I know. I read the newspapers too.”
    â€œNo, no! That’s not what I meant! Man is changing his world unconsciously! More and more people are starting to believe that they really can change their environment—and the more they believe it, the more drastically it changes. I’ll give you an example—fossils!”
    â€œFossils?”
    â€œYes, fossils. Nobody ever discovered any fossils