(Found) 1960-1970? Alternate dimension

[Pliable Moose]

Don't remember title or author, hardback book, novel, probably from public library (I spent a lot of time in public libraries as a child).

Government research project sending subjects to another dimension but when they return they have lost their mind. One person comes back is able to retain his sanity but is not able to be of any help to the scientists as all he can relate is complete incomprehension of the environment. He retains the ability to pass back and forth after leaving the project (I think unknown to the researchers).

The main character has a child and starts taking him to the "other side" as a baby. The little boy grows up with a much better perception and ability to function in this alternate environment and is aware that there are sentient beings there.

The beings on the other side start trying to communicate with this child (young adult?) because they think he can help them with a serious problem.

That is all I can remember about the book other than remembering that I enjoyed the story. I moved a lot as a child and this book could have been in a public school library somewhere in Idaho, where I also read a lot of Tom Swift books.

 

[otistdog]

Alan E. Nourse's The Universe Between (1965), or possibly the novella of the same title which was part of this fix-up novel.

 

[Pliable Moose]

That's it!
I read the story "The Blade Runner" by this author (Has nothing to do with the movie).
How do I mark this thread as found?

 

[otistdog]

One of the moderators will come along to do it soon, I'm sure.

 

[Orcadian]

I read this book over and over again as a young teenager; I longed to experience this and be able to slip into and out of another dimension at will. Nourse wrote two other fabulous YA books that blew me away: Rocket to Limbo and Star Surgeon. I have all three of these books on my shelves today.

 

[sueelleker]

Only thing you got wrong is that the original subject was a teenage girl.