What is POSAT?

In Short

When three disparate individuals—an unemployed pharmacist, an eccentric cat lover, and a skeptical research physicist—respond to a mysterious advertisement for the Perpetual Order of Seekers After Truth (POSAT), they step into a hidden world. Donald Alford discovers that POSAT is not a mere scam, but a four-century-old society founded by a Renaissance super-genius to safeguard advanced scientific knowledge until humanity is mature enough to wield it. As society stands on the brink of atomic self-destruction, POSAT deploys a revolutionary science of human motivation to save civilization.

The Story

The narrative opens in 1953 with a recurring magazine advertisement for the Perpetual Order of Seekers After Truth, known as POSAT, promising mastery of all knowledge. Most readers ignore it, but three individuals take the bait: Bill Evans, a desperate unemployed pharmacist; Miss Elizabeth Arnable, an eccentric woman devoted to her cats; and Donald Alford, a methodical research physicist who is initially tickled by the resemblance of the POSAT emblem to the Bohr atom. Each mails a coupon and receives a voluble booklet requesting personal details. Bill fills his out with quiet desperation; Miss Arnable writes an enthusiastic multi-page autobiography; Donald answers with characteristic precision, listing his motive simply as curiosity.

Subsequent mailings diverge sharply. Bill receives vague metaphysical pamphlets alongside news that he has mysteriously landed a job next door to the POSAT offices. Miss Arnable receives a gold-and-black enamel pin, a demand for five dollars in monthly dues, and literature about sacred Egyptian cats. Donald receives a complex psychological questionnaire testing ethical dilemmas, such as how one would handle a newly discovered virulent poison. Intrigued and slightly alarmed, Donald answers the test and soon receives a formal invitation to an interview with the Grand Chairman of POSAT at a specific time and date—sent to his secret laboratory address, which he never provided.

Driven by suspicion and the uncanny realization that POSAT knows his workplace, Donald visits the headquarters, located behind a sprawling, windowless concrete warehouse. After passing a mundane receptionist, he enters a luxurious room adorned with Renaissance masterpieces. When he accidentally dislodges a fluorescent lighting tube, he discovers it is completely wireless, cool to the touch, and powered by radioactive principles his own laboratory is currently struggling to harness. Panic-stricken, he pockets the tube and tries to leave, only to find the door locked. The secretary calmly guides him further inward, out onto a balcony overlooking a vast, advanced underground laboratory housing an operating atomic reactor.

There, Donald confronts the Grand Chairman, who is none other than Dr. Crandon, his former university professor and mentor. Dr. Crandon reveals the astonishing truth: POSAT is an ancient secret society established over four hundred years ago by a Renaissance polymath of superhuman intellect. This founder independently derived calculus, relativity, and nuclear binding energy centuries before modern science. Recognizing that the sixteenth-century world was too politically fractured to handle such dangerous power safely, he gathered brilliant contemporaries to preserve the knowledge in strict secrecy until humanity could use it without destruction.

When Donald challenges this mission, pointing out that humanity has already developed the atomic bomb and stands on the brink of ruin, Crandon leads him to a massive computing machine dedicated to the newly developed science of human motivation. POSAT has spent centuries working on how to change human behavior to prevent global self-destruction. Having analyzed Donald through their questionnaires, Crandon invites him to join their urgent effort. Recognizing the validity of their vision and the reality of their success, Donald willingly accepts enrollment, joining the clandestine struggle to save civilization.

How It Unfolds

The advertisement appears A recurring magazine coupon for an ancient secret society catches the eye of three very different readers, each of whom decides to mail an inquiry out of desperation, eccentricity, or idle scientific curiosity.

The questionnaires arrive POSAT responds with booklets demanding detailed personal information, prompting vastly different replies ranging from desperate confessions and joyful autobiographies to cautious, minimal answers.

The divergent responses The society sends tailored follow-ups, giving Bill a minor job lead, welcoming Miss Arnable into dues-paying membership with cat pamphlets, and confronting Donald with a rigorous psychological questionnaire about ethical dilemmas.

The mysterious summons Donald receives a formal interview request addressed to his secret laboratory, compelling him to visit the organization's remote headquarters hidden behind an industrial warehouse.

The hidden laboratory Inside a luxurious antechamber, Donald discovers an impossible, wireless radioactive light tube, and looking beyond, he spots an advanced atomic reactor operating on the balcony below.

The grand revelation Dr. Crandon greets his former student and explains that a Renaissance super-genius founded POSAT four centuries ago to safeguard dangerous scientific secrets until humanity was ready.

The ultimate choice After witnessing the society's colossal computing machine built to study human motivation, Donald overcomes his initial panic and chooses to join the secret effort to save human civilization.

The People

Bill Evans is an unemployed pharmacist at the end of his rope, seeking supernatural or superhuman intervention to alter his bleak life. Initially disappointed by POSAT's vague pamphlets, his situation improves when he unexpectedly finds a job right next door to the society's headquarters, finding quiet stability through their unseen influence.

Miss Elizabeth Arnable lives a sheltered life with her radio and her beloved cats, whom she views as reincarnated loved ones. Thrilled by the chance for autobiographical expression, she eagerly pays her monthly dues and embraces POSAT’s eccentric literature, remaining a faithful outer member content in her own world.

Donald Alford is a methodical research physicist whose intellectual curiosity drives him to investigate POSAT. Initially suspicious of a potential spy ring or scam, his scientific skepticism completely shatters when he encounters impossible wireless lighting and a hidden atomic reactor. Challenged by the discoveries, he transitions from fearful resistance to dedicated collaboration.

Dr. Crandon is Donald's former university professor and the Grand Chairman of POSAT. Calm, gentle, and intellectually formidable, he bridges the gap between modern science and a four-hundred-year-old heritage, guiding the society's monumental mission to master human motivation and rescue a fractured world.

In Its Own Voice

Of course coming events cast their shadows before, but this shadow was 400 years long!

The narrator introduces the vast historical timeline of the secret society right at the outset.

"You can alter the course of your life!"

Bill Evans reads this enticing promise in an abandoned magazine ad, finding a spark of hope in his despair.

"Could they be a spy ring? Subversive agents?"

Donald Alford and his wife Betty ponder the alarming implications of receiving mail at Donald's classified laboratory address.

"Will it really work? Can it actually tell you how to motivate the stubborn, quarrelsome, opinionated people one finds on this Earth?"

Donald asks the crucial question about the massive computing machine and the ultimate mission of POSAT before committing to join.

What It's Really About

The book explores the ethical burden of scientific discovery and the dangerous gap between technological capability and human wisdom. It questions whether humanity can survive its own rapid material progress without a parallel advancement in the science of human motivation. By framing scientific breakthroughs as historical inevitabilities discovered by exceptionally brilliant individuals rather than random chance, the story examines how knowledge must be carefully stewarded. Ultimately, it argues that society’s greatest threat is not a lack of technical innovation, but our stubborn, quarrelsome nature, suggesting that true salvation requires understanding and altering human behavior itself before technology destroys the world.

Why Read It Today

Readers who love classic mid-century science fiction infused with intellectual mystery and philosophical depth will find this novella deeply engaging. Reading it feels like stepping into a classic twilight puzzle where everyday mundane life collides with hidden, staggering vistas of science and history. The atmosphere blends the cozy realism of 1950s daily routines—buses, cats, and modest jobs—with the breathtaking vertigo of secret underground laboratories and Renaissance polymaths.

While modern readers might notice the mid-century period attitudes, such as traditional gender roles reflected in characters like Betty washing dishes while her husband investigates mysteries, these elements ground the story in its historical charm rather than detracting from its pace. What stays with you long after finishing is the haunting meditation on human nature and the unsettling idea that history's greatest technological leaps might have been quietly charted centuries before we caught up to them. It is a thought-provoking, tightly constructed piece of speculative fiction that rewards careful attention and lingers in the imagination.