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FILE 059 · VOL X · You Already Said Yes
He Was Hypnotized in 1943. He's Still Waiting for the Word.
You may already be carrying something. You would be the last to know.
Based on: Hypnotic Couriers and Secret Programming
Intake record
| Recovered from | Assisted living facility, Hartford, Connecticut; a resident's personal effects |
|---|---|
| Contents | Military discharge papers (1946), a postcard with no message, a psychologist's 1971 magazine article (clipping) |
| Finder | Facility social worker |
| Status | The resident died in 2009. The word was never spoken to him. |
Recovered file
Edward Maloney was nineteen in 1943, a radio operator in the Army Signal Corps, recovering from a broken ankle at a military hospital in New York, when a civilian psychologist came through the ward asking for volunteers for a study on memory.
There was a small payment. There was a promise of an early release from the hospital. There was nothing else to do. Edward volunteered.
He remembered the first session clearly, for the rest of his life. A small, quiet room. A man with a calm voice and thick glasses. A pocket watch on a chain, swinging, which Edward thought was funny, like something from a movie. The man told him to relax. To breathe. To listen only to his voice.
He did not remember the second session, or the third, or any of the eleven that followed. He was told afterward that he had been an excellent subject.
He was discharged in 1946. The psychologist shook his hand and thanked him for his service. As Edward was leaving, the man said something odd. He said, "If anyone ever says the word to you, you'll know what to do." Edward laughed and asked, "What word?"
The man smiled. "You'll know," he said.
The rest of this file is sealed. The ending, the sources and the archivist's note unseal with the file.
Unseal File 059 ($2.99) · its volume · everything ($49.99)
Built on real, cited records. The stories are dramatized. Disclaimer · If you are in crisis in the U.S., call or text 988.