Scripture is built like the ark, on three levels, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken: the physical level here, the psychological level, and the spiritual level. Neville says he has broken this cord - is convinced of it - and reads each character on all three. The distinction that matters is this: all the stories are literally true on the spiritual level, and it is only on the psychological level that something different happens. There a man stands in one place, assumes he is elsewhere, sees the world as he would were he standing there, and then opens his eyes shocked to find he has not moved; on the third level there is no such gap.