AUDIO LOG

DATE: 1961/05/09

SUBJECT: Dr. West

NOTE: The following log is a recording of an orientation speech given by Dr. West to new researchers arriving at Unit B.

[BEGIN LOG]

WEST: (clearing throat) Now, are any of you religious men? Yes? No? Good. Good, good. Nothing against God, but what I'm about to tell you, ah, it does not always go over well with men of, ah, men of faith. Heh.

(Pause; shuffling papers.)

WEST: Alright, then. As I'm sure you're aware, Unit B is responsible for handling the arriving D-Class remains — to determine whether or not they're anomalous, and to perform a little, ah, shall we say, 'pre-processing' before they're sent to Unit A or Unit C. It's that bit we're going to be discussing today. Slide, please.

(Clicking.)

WEST: Now, I'm sure all of you —

(Clicking.)

WEST: Pardon, the slide isn't — the slide isn't —

(Clicking.)

WEST: There we are. Now, I'm sure all of you are familiar with the human brain, yes? Here it is. I'm sure you're also familiar with how much of a daunting challenge the human brain poses to the Foundation.

(Clicking.)

WEST: To control it, we use amnestics. But amnestics are, ah, amnestics are hard. Nobody's quite sure where they come from, but we're well aware that they come at a significant cost. On top of that, they're, ah, not very good. Kind of like using a hammer to remove a splinter.

(Brief laughter.)

(Clicking.)

WEST: What if I told you there's an alternative? A form of amnestics that's been right under our noses all along. Cheaper, safer, very few negative side effects — and significantly more precise.

(Clicking.)

(Murmuring.)

WEST: I hope the graphic, ah, the graphic nature of this image is not too disturbing. Heh. But we're all scientists here.

(Clicking.)

WEST: It turns out that the human brain, ah, the human brain — so long as it's relatively well preserved — leaves behind… there's a certain residue that it leaves behind. Something we can extract, and, ah, refine.

(Clicking.)

WEST: This residue can be 'boiled' from the mind of a sufficiently fresh cadaver; think of it as a 'distillation' of memories — of our happiest experiences. All the parts of a human life that bring us comfort when we need it most — that make us gentle and kind.

(Clicking.)

WEST: Here, you see what's left behind. The process of 'boiling' is critical, otherwise you'll end up extracting all of this useless crud along with it.

(Clicking.)

WEST: Now, we can combine and homogenize all of these purified distillations together, to create, ah — well, to create a compound that, when properly processed and combined with targeted hypnotherapy…

(Clicking.)

WEST: …allows for the removal of precise memories, specific memories. We replace them with this 'happy soup', if you will — and their minds use that soup to build new, pleasant false memories — filling in the gaps.

(Clicking.)

WEST: The end result being that — even in death, D-Class continue to help us — help the world.

(Clicking.)

WEST: Now, I know you all have many questions, and I'll be happy to take them. One at a time, please.

[END LOG]