 What is the significance of the conference that Dr. Lessing is invited to?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, August 1957. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] MOTHER GOOSE Dr. David Lessing found Jack Dorffman and the boy waiting in his office when he arrived at the Hoffman Center that morning. Nobody's been able to get near him for three weeks, and now at six o'clock this morning he decides he's leaving the Farm. "So you bring him down here," said Lessing sourly. Lessing nodded at Dorffman and stepped into an adjoining room with him. "Full psi precautions?" asked Dorffman. The first was from Roberts Bros., announcing another shift of deadline on the book, and demanding the galley proofs two weeks earlier than scheduled. As director of psionic research at the Hoffman Medical Center, he had long since learned how administrative detail could suck up daytime hours. And now, as the book approached publication date, Lessing wondered if he would ever really get back to work again. It bore the letterhead of the International Psionics Conference: Dear Dr. Lessing: In recognition of your position as an authority on human Psionic behavior patterns, we would be gratified to schedule you as principle speaker at the Conference in Chicago on October 12th. "A Theory of Psionic Influence on Infant and Child Development." And the more they struggled, the thicker and more impenetrable the bramble bush became— But now David Lessing had discovered a pathway through that jungle, a theory to work by— At his elbow the intercom buzzed. Dr. Peter Melrose was tall and thin, with jet black hair and dark mocking eyes. He offered Lessing a bony hand, then flung himself into a chair as he stared about the office in awe. "If you've come here to be insulting," Lessing said coldly, "you're just wasting time." "I think you'd better wait before you do that," Melrose said sharply, "because I'm planning to take you apart at the Conference next month unless I like everything I see and hear down here today. "I want to hear this fairy tale you're about to publish in the name of 'Theory'," Melrose said. "I want to see this famous Farm of yours up in Connecticut and see for myself how much pressure these experimental controls you keep talking about will actually bear. "If the papers you've already published are a preview, we think it's false as Satan." "We haven't been energetic enough to find an orthodox approach that got us anywhere.
 It serves as an opportunity for Dr. Lessing to publicize his book
 Invitations are the primary source of imposter syndrome for scientists in this field  It shows that Dr. Melrose has more control in the field that we realize  It offers a chance for Dr. Lessing to get feedback on the parts of his theories he's not certain of  It serves as an opportunity for Dr. Lessing to publicize his book