Summary

1. Perina’s narration moves swiftly over the journey he, the other scientists, and the dreamers made to America (for much of which the dreamers were drugged), and the living circumstances into which the dreamers were placed (a small concrete room, half-heartedly disguised with plant leaves): he explains that those details were explored in more detail in the books written about him. He describes receiving funding for his research from some mysterious source (Kubodera’s footnotes outline a couple of possibilities); the assistance he received from a mostly silent graduate student; and, most significantly, the rapidity with which the mental and emotional states of the dreamers deteriorated. Their physical health, however, remained robust. He also describes how he began his experiments with the opa’ivu’eke, which had to be kept secret from Tallent because...