Page 40 of Splintered
“Yes. Have you witnessed this?”
Did you see my priest?He blinked, exhaling before he opened his eyes. “He asked me once, in that weird voice that doesn’t sound like him, if I had seen ‘his priest.’”
“We’ve never met before. And you had no idea who I was when I arrived,” Father Mathew said.
“No. He never mentioned you. But that day when he asked me that, I had gone to the store, and on the way I had a panic attack in the car. I pulled over. I was screaming. Crying. I just needed to let it all out. And… I parked across the street from your church.” He looked into Father Mathew’s eyes. “I watched you mow the graveyard. And an hour later Evan asked me if I’d seen you.”
Father Mathew blanched as his eyes widened. He shared a long look with Dr. Kao. “Troubling information,” he finally said, his voice roughened like old wood fracturing under years of strain. “But it helps us further understand the full picture.”
“You really think Evan is possessed?”
“We think there is a strong case to be made for demonic possession, yes,” Father Mathew said.
Ben’s head cratered into his hands. He closed his eyes as a thousand thoughts somersaulted through his mind. Possession. By a demon, or by the Devil himself.
No! That wasn’t possible. Not in the twenty-first century, in the world of science and man. They could look inside an atom, stare into the eye of a black hole. If there were demons in the world, there would be proof. Hard proof, something he could see, grasp, touch. Hold on to. Know.
“Ben, we’re basing our opinion on a combination of scienceandfaith,” Dr. Kao said. Her voice cradled his fracturing thoughts, his devastation. “My specific area of study is the neuroscientific divide between mental illness and religious experience. I’ve studied thousands of people undergoing spiritual experiences across many different faiths. Religious ecstasies. Meditations. Prayer. Visions. In each instance, I’ve mapped the regions of the brain that are neurally engaged while they are in the throes of their mystical experience. Across the board, all religious experiences I have studied engage the whole mind. They are not, for example, experiences that exclusively activate the temporal or frontal lobe, or confined to an area where we would expect to see auditory or visual hallucinations emanating. In study after study, there has been no overlap between authentic religious and spiritual experience and the experience or symptomology of psychosis.”
“Mediation is very different from possession.”
“Yes it is.” Dr. Kao nodded. “And in this specific case of understanding a potential possession versus a potentially devastating psychiatric emergency or emerging psychosis, we are trying to pinpoint the source of Evan’s symptoms. Is Evan experiencing hallucinations that are organic to his mind? What parts of his brain are engaged when he is experiencing these hallucinations? Or when he is under the effects of the second, different personality? Or when he is having a violent outburst?”
“You’ve been able to study him that way? Scan him while he’s…”
“We have.” She didn’t elaborate.
“The ultimate question for us is: are Evan’s symptoms rooted in his own mind or are they coming from outside of himself, outside of his soul, even? Is he experiencing a biological or neurological emergency, or is he under attack? Is he being invaded? Is this a possession?”
“MRIs can tell you this?” Ben whispered.
“Not in whole. That would be too easy.” Dr. Kao smiled sadly. “It’s a delicate negotiation between science, medicine, and faith. In essence, we are trying to find the boundary between a child’s make-believe friend and a child speaking to a true ghost or demon. Something completely outside of themselves. It’s the same with Evan: what is causing his behavior? His mind? Or something else, something darker?”
“First Thessalonians teaches us the tripartite nature of man,” Father Mathew said. “That man is made of body, soul, and spirit. If God has made us in such a way, then He would also make things that attack us in such a tripartite way. Illness. Sickness. Disease. All of these things must be able to attack all three parts of a man, yes? Today, we can fight diseases of the body and the mind. But sickness of the spirit? In today’s world, where do you go for that?” He shrugged. “Too many people turn to fleeting desires for comfort. To chasing things that will only bleed our spirit even more. But when a man is suffering from a broken spirit, and when he loses his sense of purpose, his sense of meaning, and when he feels broken in the heart of his life, the cure can only be found in what has broken: the spirit.”
“You mean through faith? And God?”
Father Mathew nodded. “And if a man’s spirit has broken due to a demonic attack, the cure is an exorcism.”
“But you can’t make anactualdiagnosis of possession, can you? You can’t know forsure?”
“There is no clinical diagnosis for possession,” Dr. Kao said gently. “Generally, we consider possession when we see a cluster of symptoms without a pathological etiology. Frankly, when we see cases like Evan’s, where we cannot find a physical cause for his behavior and his symptoms are too varied to fit into any clinical diagnosis. His symptoms exclude many of the diagnoses we initially suspected, at least right now.”
“What are his treatment options?”
“Broadly, there are two. We don’t know yet if Evan will be released from his psychiatric hold on Monday. He might be placed on a fifty-two-fifty hold: a longer, fourteen-day hold. There is no guarantee he won’t have another violent incident, no matter how much we try to prevent one. Evan was on a staggeringly high dose of quetiapine on Friday night, but his hallucinations have been breaking through his anti-psychotic medications, even at those high doses. That is a major concern. His nighttime behavior under our observation is concerning. He has episodes of rage and uncontrolled behavior. He lashes out. He’s verbally violent and threatening. Here at home, his violent and unsettled incidents have been at night. Releasing him to a home without supervision might endanger others with him. It’s a factor we’re considering, and we’re currently focusing on managing his nighttime outbursts.
“Ongoing treatment for his condition might be best served by placing him in a long-term care facility that specializes in difficult mental health diagnoses. He needs close monitoring of his symptoms and his behavior. Is this early stage schizophrenia? A form of psychosis? Or a form of dementia with paranoia? Lewy Body Dementia can sometimes present with this cluster of symptoms, though it is rare, and very unusual in someone so young. One of my recommendations would be to place him in a psychiatric care facility where he can be monitored and treated for his symptoms as they occur until we can formulate a holistic treatment plan that can fully address his condition.”
“You mean put him in an institution. Are those even a thing anymore?”
“There are several private psychiatric hospitals that could provide this level of inpatient treatment. One is in San Francisco at UCSF.” The University of California, San Francisco. “And the other is in San Diego.”
“San Diego? That’s almost ten hours away! How would I ever see him?”
Dr. Kao tried to smile. It came out like a grimace. “It would be very difficult. But their program represents the best fit for his needs if you chose a medical management treatment route.”
“What other option is there? You said two. He needs help. He can’t just come back here, and…” Ben stared at the boxes of Evan’s belongings he’d packed. “Or go to his parents’ house like this. He probably shouldn’t come back here. Not after Friday night. But he can’t go home to his parents if he’s violent, either.”
