The Three Christs of Ypsilanti - Milton Rokeach [110]
Then, at a private meeting, we coaxed Leon into opening and reading a final letter. It was addressed to “My dear Dung” and it came from his uncle, George Bernard Brown. Its purpose was to inform Leon of the change in personnel that was about to take place:
I shall overlook the fact that you hung up on me because you were not sure about my voice. Yes, it was me all right, and I am taking this means of finishing my conversation which I started with you by phone.
In addition to the things I told you on the telephone, I am using this letter to let you know also that a change is going to take place around the hospital. Mr. Mark Spivak, psychologist, is going to leave this hospital to go somewhere else. He will be replaced by another psychologist very shortly. I am sure that you will find that the new psychologist will be for you positively all the time.
This was the last letter that Leon was willing to accept from either his uncle or his wife, but the letters he had accepted and his responses to them were to affect profoundly the things he would do and believe for many months to come. They were, on the one hand, to shape the unique relationship he was about to establish with the new research assistant, Miss Anderson. And, on the other, they were to lead to still more changes in his delusional beliefs. These two sets of effects occurred simultaneously and were so intricately bound together that in the account which follows no attempt will be made to separate them.
October 3. At the meeting I introduce Miss Anderson, explaining that she will replace Mr. Spivak, who has taken a position elsewhere. Joseph asks if Miss Anderson will continue to give out the weekly quarters and I reply that she will. Leon says his uncle had informed him of the transfer in a letter announcing the change.
October 5. At the meeting, I ask Leon why he is sitting with his eyes shut. He replies that he is simply relaxing.
October 7. Mrs. Parker, the head nurse, reports that Leon asked her for an interview. This is most unusual. “When I came to the door of his room,” she relates, “he asked me to sit down, and asked if I would smoke a cigarette. He then told me that when I was eleven and he was five and a half, he met me on a street in Detroit and I told him I was God. At the time he did not believe me, he said, but he now realized he was wrong. He then went on to say that God was a morphodite and that he himself had both male and female attributes over which he had no control. He said he had had sexual intercourse with God, but also with Morphy Broadhurst in England in bilocation. However, he did not know it was she since she had a veil over her face. So he was still faithful to God, the Grand Morphodite Lady. When he realized who she was, he knew he had committed adultery and because of this, he was killed last night. He had regenerated himself today, however, and was ready to start all over again. He kept on talking about having intercourse with God and I asked him if he thought I was God. He said yes, he did. I then asked him if he was trying to tell me that he wanted to have intercourse with me and he said yes. I said that I was afraid this was impossible and he immediately jumped up and said: ‘Thank you, Ma’am, thank you for letting me get a load off my chest.’ He seemed quite relieved, as if he felt that since he had at least told me and as long as I had refused, he didn’t have to worry about it any more.”
Later in the afternoon, at the meeting, Leon announces to Miss Anderson that he was killed last night and got another body. Joseph disputes Leon’s claim, saying that Leon has the same body he had yesterday. “Pertaining to external appearances, yes,” Leon replies, “but pertaining to internal construction it’s a different body. I was shot by God Almighty and I dropped like a sack of shit.” Once again Joseph disagrees. The exchange between them continues:
“Sex is a basic factor of human behavior.”
“I’m not a