The High Priestess: A Voice in the Silence
Once upon a time, a respected alienist examined a woman who turned out to have no brain inside her head and no heart within her chest.
“This is surely some charlatan’s psychological trick, Madame! An Indian rope trick where consciousness arises with naught upon which to hang!”
She explained to the stunned medical man that, whilst most people require a brain and heart to think and feel, she required only Spirit and Soul.
“You see, Sir, the sky only appears void to those who cannot feel the air move, a bottle empty to those who cannot smell the perfume it once held, a fine wine like any other to an untrained palate, and the silence mute for those who cannot hear its voice.”
“Your spiritualist ideas hold no weight with me, Madame. Both science and society move on.”
“Please, Sir, if you would but listen…” and to prove what she said she sang a most beautiful song.
However, the doctor simply replied, “Bah! Yours is a disease of the brain Madame, not of the heart,” and without further ado promptly consigned her to an asylum, dating his final decree the year of Our Lord 2021.
“This is surely some charlatan’s psychological trick, Madame! An Indian rope trick where consciousness arises with naught upon which to hang!”
She explained to the stunned medical man that, whilst most people require a brain and heart to think and feel, she required only Spirit and Soul.
“You see, Sir, the sky only appears void to those who cannot feel the air move, a bottle empty to those who cannot smell the perfume it once held, a fine wine like any other to an untrained palate, and the silence mute for those who cannot hear its voice.”
“Your spiritualist ideas hold no weight with me, Madame. Both science and society move on.”
“Please, Sir, if you would but listen…” and to prove what she said she sang a most beautiful song.
However, the doctor simply replied, “Bah! Yours is a disease of the brain Madame, not of the heart,” and without further ado promptly consigned her to an asylum, dating his final decree the year of Our Lord 2021.
Originally published in: (2021) Asylum: The Radical Mental Health Magazine, 28, 2, 11. Subsequently re-published in (2023) Consciousness Unexplained: Stories, Poems, Theories, and Art by Students of Consciousness, 1, 36.