Good News From The Other World — Day 23
Genre: Science Fiction / Psychological Thriller / Horror
Plot: The patients of a mental hospital in the Arizona desert have been going haywire for weeks. The staff is at wits end, and none of the doctors or visiting specialists can figure out what's wrong. As a last ditch effort, they reach out to a local Navajo medicine man and shaman who specializes in mental illness, Dominik Redcloud. Middle aged with striking looks, Redcloud is both salty and wise, like a Native American cross between Dirty Harry and the Dali Lama.
From the moment he is called upon by the hospital, the local Navajo tribal council protests. Redcloud is an outsider's outsider, and does not represent the orthodoxy of the Navajo healing arts. Choosing to go beyond service to his own Navajo people, Redcloud has spent the last 20 years traveling the world studying with other indigenous shamans and deepening his spiritual practice, and only recently returned to Arizona. While in Africa he received a vision that he would be needed in a great contest and must return home to prepare to be called. Now shunned by the Navajo, he has returned to discover that he is truly a man with no nation.
During his travels and field studies, Redcloud has specialized in mental illness. Like the Dagara people of Africa, Redcloud has come to believe that mental illness is a kind of a spiritual crisis, and should be regarded as "good news from the other world," signaling "the birth of a healer." Mental illness, as he has observed it, is actually the result of an entity of the spirit world trying to bond with a human being. The person going through the crisis has been chosen as a medium for a message to the community that needs to be communicated from the spirit realm. If the integration can be assisted, a person of higher consciousness can be born—a new healer. But If the two energies can not be reconciled, then the person suffers as the spirit tries to force the merge, and ultimately both human and entity can be lost. The shaman's job is to try and smooth the integration, and as a result, save lives and produce more shamans / healers.
So when Redcloud walks into the hospital ward, what he sees stuns him. In the worst case scenario, for a patient in extreme pain and emotional distress, a single entity may be impatiently trying to force integration. But in this ward, all around each patient are multiple entities desperately trying to claw their way into the person and integrate themselves. It looks like a feeding frenzy.
Of course, only Redcloud has the eyes to see what is happening, so he must be careful what he says to the hospital administrators. But he offers that he can indeed help, and after several hours of cleansing spiritual practices in the ward, many of the patients start to calm down as Redcloud builds a physic buffer allowing each patient a bit of respite from the onslaught by the entities. Though the hospital staff are dubious of the man and his unexplained methods, they are thrilled with his results. Redcloud has calmed the patients for the first time in almost a month, and so the hospital asks the eccentric healer to stay on for a few weeks to see if he can make the fix stable and lasting.
Redcloud agrees for his own reasons. Something is terribly amiss in this small corner of the Arizona desert, and Redcloud intends to find out what is setting these bizarre forces in motion and help as much of the ward's patients as he can. He suspects he has found the great contest that his vision told him he must return and face.
One by one Redcloud sits with each patient over several days, keeping their tormenting spirits at bay, asking questions and soothing each patient as he tries to get to the bottom of what is causing all of this. None have direct answers for him. But all seem to have the exact same time frame for the onset of their distress: the spirits descended en mass and the patients' agony collectively began 21 days ago.
Finally, after making his way through all of the highly agitated patients, there is only one man left, sitting quietly on the far side of the room. Redcloud has not even noticed him until now, because the man has been eerily quiet and sedate during the healer's time at the ward. Even more puzzling, the man does not seem to have any spirits circling around him. Redcloud can't see the man's aura or get a reading on him from across the room, so he approaches the man to attempt a better look into his spirit. But a sharp look by the silent man lets Redcloud know it would be unwise to approach much further, and stops him in his tracks.
Instead, Redcloud leaves to talk to the hospital staff. Who is the man? They don't know. He was found in the desert naked and hasn't said a word since he was brought in. The other patients for the most part seem to avoid or ignore him. When was he brought in? He was found one month ago, and brought to the ward 21 days ago. Redcloud's mind clicks in recognition. The timing can not be coincidence. Whatever is happening to the patients, the silent man is somehow an important piece of the puzzle. Redcloud plans to stay the night and observe the silent man and the ward over the closed circuit video as they sleep.
In the middle of the night, Redcloud decides to take a closer look while the silent man is sleeping. He enters the darkened ward, approaches and gets close enough to stare into the silent man's spirit. And for the first time in his life, Redcloud experiences true terror. The man's black eyes pop open and he sits up in bed, just as Redcloud sees a truth about him: the man HAS no soul. Only a dark malevolence swirling in a sea of unintelligible thought. Redcloud falls backwards on to the floor in surprise and fear. Suddenly, every single patient bursts awake as the entire ward screams in a chorus of extreme agony. Redcloud kicks his way backwards and runs out of the room as the silent man slowly rises out of bed and watches him run.
Redcloud struggles with the terror of what he now knows. The silent man has no soul because he is not a man. And he has no earthly spirits trying to merge with him, because he is not of the earth. The silent man is an alien being. One of pure evil and malice. Redcloud is convinced that the swarm of spirits torturing the patients are in fact trying to warm them, and mankind, about the danger that has descended into its midst.
But what is the silent man after? Is he simply the first scout of a broader alien invasion? And how can he be stopped? Now that Redcloud has unmasked the silent man, he knows he is in true danger. And neither the hospital staff nor his Navajo people are inclined to believe or aid him.
Redcloud must find help. He seeks out the most revered orthodox Navajo healer, but the man will not see him. As Redcloud turns to leave in defeat, he meets the healer's 22 year old granddaughter. Though she does not practice medicine, Redcloud recognizes that she has deep power within her... And most importantly, a mind that is still open enough to be an ally in the spiritual battle ahead. They agree that saving the patients is the key to battling and defeating the silent man, and together the duo set out to defend both mankind and the spiritual realm of earth from the alien evil in their midst.
Background / Inspired by: This article:
http://earthweareone.com/what-a-shaman-sees-in-a-mental-hospital/