Valley Hill Mental Hospital

Psychiatrist: Dr. William Branton

Patient: Kevin Taylor

Date:11Mar

Prep Notes

In a surprising result, I have been able to locate nearly 40 similar cases to Mr. Taylor and Mr. DeWitt. My search was limited to psychiatric hospitals within the United States due to other countries not being connected to our computer database. Sadly though many of those individuals have either passed away or are in a near vegetative state, leaving only about 4-5 others who are as functional as my patients.

With my previously listed 3 search criteria I can claim at least 2 of these apply in every case while all 3 apply in the majority. Due to the nature of the search, in order for me to be able to group these cases together I placed an emphasis on the missing person portion. From there I tried to isolate those with afflictions as well and read up on their personal accounts of what happened.

The details in each case are strikingly similar. Multiple people grouped together near the ocean (some on the beach, cruiseship, etc) all experience a similar distortion in reality, a mass delusion. The details of each hallucination vary widely so I will not dwell on them however by the end of it they all claimed that a person had gone missing. Be it a loved one, friend, or a simple acquaintance seemed to vanish. These missing people also never existed.

After these events, each of the individuals also experienced a wide range of health problems, both mental and physical. Some were unable to walk while others experienced hypersensitivity to their senses. Again, the ailments vary to such a large degree I will not bother listing them all.

It is astonishing really. Each of the cases have about the same formula of events. The patient goes out to the ocean with someone else, there is a strange supernatural event where sometimes the patient noticed what I have started referring to as the ‘reality crack’, followed by the patient returning to their life but without the other individual and accompanied by some disorder.

Elizabeth did some digging on her own and came to the same conclusion as myself, that these must be related by some common factor. However we have not been able to isolate any common denominator. Age, gender, race, location, background, education, and more are all vastly different.

In the end, this is only a side note on the specifics with my patients.

Since the hypnotherapy Mr. Taylor has changed. Having awoken his memories of the event he is now quite lethargic, yet calm and complacent. Where once he was very animated and often heated during discussions, he is now just the opposite and apathetic to almost everything to the point where it would seem he is in a deep depression. The only positive to come from the session is that he has removed his blindfold and no longer seems bothered by his eyes. He now prefers to sit next to the window and gaze outside at any moment he can. He has no longer tried to harm himself so he is allowed more freedom than before but monitoring has remained, for obvious reasons.

Meeting Minutes:

Note that Mr. Taylor is no longer restrained and no longer in a wheelchair. Elisabeth led him into my office and helped him get seated with no problems. Mr. Taylor appears normal however retains his new apathetic and indifference to everything around him, glancing around without even the slightest interest in anything. The only time there was even a measurable amount of curiosity was when he looked out the window in my office, but even then that was only a fleeting moment.

Myself: Good morning Mr. Taylor. How are you today?

Mr. Taylor: I am well, thank you.

Myself: You look well. And it is good to see you without your blindfold. What changed?

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Mr. Taylor: Shrugging. I realised there is nothing to be afraid of.

Myself: That is good. Can you tell me what you were afraid of to begin with? And how you came to overcome that fear?

Mr. Taylor: I would see things that I could not explain, and that lead to fear. He looked away from me and back out the window. But fear itself is irrational, is it not?

Myself: Fear can be very helpful in the right context. It can help you distinguish danger and allow you to have a natural aversion to things that can do you harm. But yes, it can also debilitate you if you let it.

Mr. Taylor: That's why I say that it is irrational. Fear is meant to stop us from getting hurt, however it simply causes us more pain.

Myself: Go on.

Mr. Taylor: If you were to walk into your office in the pitch black dark, would you feel safe? Probably not. Whenever people lose their sight the instantly feel afraid and panic. Even if it is a room where you have been frequently for years, that you set up yourself and know better than anyone else. As soon as you lose your sight it is now a strange foreign place to you. Most people even in their own home after turning off the lights walk a bit faster to the next room.

Myself: That is a fair point, but it is instinctual. For those who grow up with sight, it allows us to analyse and assess threats, predators. In the dark we cannot assure our own safety therefore we get ‘spooked’.

Mr. Taylor: But instead of your office what if you found yourself in a lion’s den. Would you prefer the lights be on or off? If the light is on then the odds of the predators seeing you are exponentially higher than if they are off. If the lights are off they may not even notice your presence.

Myself: That is quite the riddle. Mr. Taylor looked as if he wanted an answer before continuing so I contemplated it for a while. I would have to say I would prefer the light turned on. Even if the Lions would have a better chance of seeing me, I would at least be able to defend myself.

Mr. Taylor: But what if you had been blind your entire life? Would you feel the same way?

Myself: Well in that situation I may want the light to remain off in seeing that the light would not provide me with any benefit and only increasing my odds of an attack.

Mr. Taylor: That is why fear is irrational though. Your assume your best odds are in the dark yet the dark is exactly what scares you, not the lions. You would prefer to fight the lions in the light because you assume your odds would be better, when in fact you are already screwed either way. Light, dark, all you are is lunch. The only difference is if you can see your death approaching you.

Myself: So, Mr. Taylor, what are your lions?

Mr. Taylor: With a sigh. We are all trapped in a room with lions, we just don't know it. I was able to get a small glimpse of the lion when I was in that plain, and all I wanted was to just turn off the light as quickly as possible. But ever since then I have been stuck in a room with a flickering light, allowing me to see only occasionally. But it is irrelevant if the light is on or off, because we are all trapped anyhow.

Myself: Can you see things that other people cannot?

He seemed to struggle with the words for a while so I gave him time to think about it.

Mr. Taylor: I can see my own mortality and how laughable our own attempts at surviving are.

Myself: Mr. Taylor, are you thinking about hurting yourself?

Mr. Taylor: Actually laughing. There are a million things already trying to kill me. Why would I do the job for them? I am just acutely aware of the struggle of life now, I haven’t actually given up on life.

Myself: That's good to hear, although you sound depressed so I am concerned for you. I hope you understand.

Mr. Taylor: Of course. But once you understand what we are up against you cannot help but feel depressed.

Post Meeting Notes:

The sharp turn in Mr. Taylor’s personality is striking however he does seem to be improving. Fear of one’s own mortality can be tough to overcome but this is easy to overcome in a loving environment. If Mr. Taylor continues to improve over the next few weeks and has no more episodes of attempted self harm then we may be able to release him back home to his wife and children with medicine to help combat his depression.

Seeing everything he has been through psychologically it is easy to understand the reason for his shift. Those memories (real or otherwise) were traumatic. He no longer seems to mention his missing friend, Jerry. So either he accepts that there is no Jerry or has simply moved past the delusion. Either way it is another improvement.

Mr. Taylor’s medication has been reduced and as long as these improvements continue he may be off of them completely very soon. My only true concern for Mr. Taylor is self harm still. I feel that the pendulum may have swung too far the other direction. Where as before he would have violent outbursts of anger that resulted in him hurting himself, his apparent depression could result in more intentional injuries. Only time will tell though and he will remain under observation for the time being.

Elizabeth mentioned an interesting proposal to me today. Her and her boyfriend are going deep sea fishing over the weekend. She offered to take a camera with her and take pictures while out at sea to show the patients, and try and see if that can help jog something else out of them. Her and her boyfriend make this trip about once every 3 months or so and are experienced on a boat, otherwise I would have been against it. Either way, she would be doing this anyway regardless of the patients.

Anyhow, it's late on Friday and I need to get home to my growing family.