The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
Page 24
The mood this aroused soon gave way to another. As the two tiny droplets approached the halfway mark down his cheeks, Leon neatly scooped them up with his index finger, first one, then the other, and sucked them into his mouth.
—What are you doing?—
“Tears are the best antiseptic there is,” said Leon. “There’s no use wasting tears.”
He began to examine the dollar bill, turning it over from one side to the other.
“I haven’t seen one of these for years. I mean, to handle.” He read the name of the Treasurer of the United States and the serial number.
—Does the letter make you happy or sad?—
“I feel somewhat glad.”
—Is there something the matter with your eyes?—
“Oh, they’re smarting, sir, so I’m enjoying some disinfectant, sir,—the best in the world: tears.”
—Are you crying?—
“No, my eyes are smarting because of some condition.”
—You say you feel somewhat happy?—
“Yes, sir, it’s a pleasant feeling to have someone think of you. But there’s still a tugging against her and I don’t care for it.”
—Do you want to disobey her?—
“No, no! I don’t! That’s the point! I don’t care for the temptation against her.”
September 9. At the group meeting, I ask Leon if he would care to tell Clyde and Joseph his news. He announces that he got a letter from his wife, God Almighty, and that she sent him a dollar.
“I don’t see how a woman can be God Almighty,” says Joseph, “I think it’s fictitious. Maybe it’s been arranged before—might have been prearranged.”
After some further discussion, Leon announces that he intends to spend his dollar on refreshments and a ball-point pen. He gives the cheap, taped-at-the-middle pen he already has to Clyde, who had expressed a desire for it, but then takes it back, saying he needs it until he buys a new one.
After the meeting, I wait at a strategic place to see whether Leon will go to the store. A half hour passes. Then I see him walking purposefully down the street and entering the store.
September 11. Leon asks the aide to let him go outdoors after lunch. He says he is going to visit God. When asked if this means he is going over to the chapel, he replies that he may go over there too.
September 12. Early in the morning an aide sees Leon outside the the chapel, a place to which he never goes. First he kneels for awhile at the entrance and then tries to go inside. Finding it locked, he walks away.
Later, in a private interview Joseph mentions that three days ago, when he was in the store, Leon came in. We ask him what happened, and after a few efforts at evasion, he says: “I’ll tell you what he did. He came to the store and he went to the last counter, got a bottle of ginger ale, and bought a ball-point pen for thirty-nine cents. He gave his other pen to the old man.”
An hour or so before meeting time, an aide delivers another letter to Leon.
My dear husband,
It gives me great pleasure that you followed my wishes and enjoyed yourself at the store on Friday afternoon.
I know that the meetings have become a little dull and I think that you might enjoy them better if you would start the meeting with a new song, such as Onward Christian Soldiers or some other suitable hymn. Please request the other members of the group to join you in this new hymn.
It makes me very happy to know that you are a righteous-idealed man. You will hear from me in the very near future on other matters pertaining to my plans for your well-being.
Your loving wife,
Madame Yeti Woman
P. S. Do not divulge the contents of this letter to anyone. Please!
At the meeting Joseph, who is chairman, announces that they will open the meeting with the first verse of America. Leon makes no effort to suggest another song, and as usual they sing America. Joseph then offers Leon one of our ready-made cigarettes. Leon refuses it. Joseph says: “Mr. Dung went over to the store so I thought he broke the habit of not accepting things. I saw him at the store the other night, very rare, very unusual affair, because I never saw him there before.”
Here Joseph has pointed to a sharp contrast in Leon’s behavior —related obviously to his attitudes toward two different sets of referents. When his wife, a positive reference person, offers Leon money, he accepts it. When we and Joseph, negative reference persons, offer him cigarettes, he refuses them.
When I ask Leon about the letters, he makes no mention of the one he has just received but talks freely about the one that came three days before. Since I now know he had bought refreshments, cigarette paper, tobacco, and a ball-point pen, I ask him what he did with the change. He replies that he went to the chapel and placed each of three dimes on the altars of the Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish chapels. I commend him and suggest a motion to this effect. Joseph demurs. “I am against it. I can’t be for it. That’s just one time. One time is very insignificant. You’ve commended him sufficiently. I’d disregard it. I have given thousands upon thousands to charity.”
When the conversation returns to the letter, Joseph remarks: “I’ve been having it in my mind that he hasn’t got a wife.” Leon replies: “My wife is within me. She’s also my father and mother.”[2]
September 13. Leon is chairman today. What song will he choose? For a whole year now the three Christs have been opening and closing their meetings with America, rejecting all our suggestions to vary the songs.
After signing the Chairman List, Leon asks Clyde and Joseph to stand. “I move we sing the first verse of Onward Christian Soldiers,” he says. When they have finished the song, he tells us his wife suggested it.
September 14
My dearest husband,
It fills me with joy to know that you are carrying out my instructions with so much pleasure and good faith. I want to continue telling you things that will make you happy and increase your enjoyment of life.
I am sending you another dollar so that you might supply yourself with much refreshments and anything else you want to buy. In a charitable way you should treat Joseph and Clyde to a double cola.
I will write you again at the earliest possible moment.
Your loving wife,
Madame Yeti Woman
Some time later, Leon approaches an aide and asks him to change a dollar. He then gives Clyde and Joseph each a quarter, and spends the rest on himself.
September 16
My dear husband,
Your obedience to my wishes for your happiness gives me great pleasure. It is proof that you are a worthy person and husband. I am sure that you will share my satisfaction at the righteous-idealed plans that I am making for your life.
I want to wish you a truthful and happy weekend. You will receive another letter from me on Monday. As I mentioned in my last letter, I plan to write you very often in order to bring you as much happiness as I possibly can.
With love,
Madame Yeti Woman
Leon, as chairman, opens today’s meeting with Onward Christian Soldiers, and closes it with America.
September 17. Clyde and Joseph spend most of the day outdoors. Leon stays in the sitting room by himself and becomes upset when another patient wanders in; he says he is praying and doesn’t want to be bothered.
At the meeting we ask Leon about the letter he received today. Could I see it, I ask, since I continue to find it difficult to believe he has a wife?
“No, sir!” he exclaims. “And that’s an example right there of trying to lead my life. I don’t go for it!”
—You don’t like to be asked questions?—
“I believe that if your wife wrote you a letter and I asked you, I believe you’d give me a more affirmative answer!”
September 19. In the early afternoon Leon is handed a letter. He says to the aide: “Thank you, sir, it’s from my wife.” After the usual salutation and expressions of affection, support, and concern for his well-being, it continues:
&nbs
p; It also pleases me very much that you have seen fit, through your positive-idealed free will, to follow my suggestions about the offerings I sent you and about the song. I must say that I certainly enjoyed hearing you all sing Onward Christian Soldiers and confess that I have been somewhat tired of the song America which you have all sung so many, many times. I find Onward Christian Soldiers inspirational and I also enjoy hearing other songs and hymns as well. Perhaps you would be willing to ask for a song book from the librarian so that you will be able to sing other songs and hymns as well in your daily meetings. Variety is the spice of life, even cosmic life.
You should also know that I plan to continue my contacts with you, my dear husband. You will hear from me often and I want you to know that everything I will write you and suggest to you will be for your redemption and well-being.
Farewell for now, my dear husband. In the meantime, be of good cheer, for I am squelching the interferences, and spread good truthful cheer wherever you may go.
Truthfully yours,
Madame Yeti Woman
Immediately after reading this, Leon rushes to the library and comes back with a hymn book. An hour later, in a private interview, he reiterates that God is both male and female, but he now adds some significant ideas: “There is sanity in God and insanity in God. I spoke against the insanity that God Almighty knows and does support, and now I have to acknowledge that God Almighty does have insanity pertaining to his knowing negativism. I’m accepting things that were hard to face for a while. Now that I’ve accepted them, I see the truth of the matter and I’m in accordination with it.”
—What have you found hard to accept?—
“Concerning the divinity of God Almighty in human shape and the fact that God Almighty wants to be loved and that God Almighty is my wife, and the particular intimacies with others, and I had to face the fact that it’s so whether I like it or not.”
—What intimacies?—
“I’m referring to the fact that when you speak about physical love you mean sexual intercourse pertaining to a creature with its Creator. Ruth of Boaz was other than a person in human form. So I figure that Ruth was God Almighty in human form in those days too.”
—Is Ruth an hermaphrodite?—
“Yes, she’s God and she does have both sexes. I mean God has two sexes. She is my wife, my father, and my foster woman. I am the offspring of morphodite Eve and she in turn intercoursed God, carried these seeds until fertilized cosmically. Her feminine side is still the Old Witch and Mary Gabor.”
I bring up the subject of the letters containing money that Leon has received. He says that his wife told him to treat Clyde and Joseph and to spend the rest as he wishes. I tell him that I don’t believe he has a wife and that I would find it easier to believe if he produced a letter from her.
“Sir, when you mention your wife, I don’t ask questions. I take it for granted. If you don’t accept my word, that piece of paper doesn’t mean a thing.”
—I have to agree with you. You are saying in the final analysis that I have to have faith in you.—
As the interview draws to a close, Leon is asked if the impositions have increased, decreased, or stayed the same since we came, over a year ago. He replies: “It has decreased, sir. However, there are large temptations sometimes.”
Later in the day, at the meeting, Leon, as chairman, opens the proceedings with the hymn book before him. They all sing Onward Christian Soldiers. But he makes no effort to have them sing other songs during the course of the meeting. From past experience, I suspect this is due mainly to the fact that Leon has difficulty carrying a tune. They close, this time, with Onward Christian Soldiers.
From this day forward, the three men open and close their meetings with Onward Christian Soldiers every third day, whenever Leon is chairman. On the other days they sing America. This pattern does not vary.
By now it had become clear that our attempts to control and reshape Leon’s behavior had been successful far beyond our expectations. As a result of suggestions purporting to emanate from his wife, he had now done a number of things we had never seen him do before—most of them things he had explicitly refused to do when the suggestions had come from us.
He had gone to the Store, to the chapel, and to the library—three places he had not visited before.
He had accepted money, handled it, and carried it around with him, something he had not done before.
He had cried.
He had spent money on himself.
He had given money to Clyde and Joseph.
He had changed the song used to open and close the meetings.
All these changes were potentially of great therapeutic value. Leon had varied and broadened the range of his behavior. He had allowed himself to feel, to express, for once, a human emotion. His fierce need to punish himself had let up sufficiently to permit him to enjoy a few small pleasures which money could buy. And Leon had been charitable—he had shared his money with two other persons in need.
Nevertheless, our success had not been complete. In telling us that it was his wife who had suggested the singing of Onward Christian Soldiers, he had failed to keep secret the contents of her letter of September 12, as she had requested. And he had failed to ask Clyde and Joseph to sing from the hymn book during the meetings. But because these failures seemed so minor at the time, we overlooked their possible significance, as we did the meaning of the changes that were occurring in Leon’s delusions about Madame Yeti Woman, now God Almighty—namely, that she was male and female, sane and insane, positive and negative. In our enthusiasm, we minimized not only these developments, but his statements that he was distressed by his wife’s tempting him, and that he was having trouble with her, and despite these signs of ambivalence in him, we decided next to explore the extent to which he could be persuaded to give up the name of R. I. Dung.
September 20. A letter arrives for Leon:
My dear husband,
Thank you very much for your sincere and truthful reactions to my last letter. I am very gratified by it and it strengthens my desire for your well-being and redemption.
You will notice that in my letters to you I address you as “my dear husband” and never as “my dear Dung.” To tell you the Truth, I do not feel that it is quite proper for a person in my station to address a person in your station in this manner. Therefore, I will continue, in the letters which follow, to address you as “my dear husband.”
I have always respected your free will in this matter and I vow to continue to do so. But to tell you my truthful feelings, I would much prefer it if you would call yourself Domino from now on. Domino has a truthful and humble sound to it. Rex is acceptable too and I would not object if you prefer Rex. But personally I prefer Domino.
Let me say once again, my dear husband, that no matter how you may prefer to call yourself—Domino or Rex or Dung—you will continue to be “my dear husband,” and that first and foremost I will be for you 100 percent.
Even if you prefer to call yourself something other than Domino (or Rex or Dung) this will be all right. I am still for truth and for you 100 percent.
Truthfully yours,
Madame Yeti Woman
September 22. Absolutely nothing has happened since the last letter was delivered to Leon. We interview him in the hope that he will tell us what is going on in his mind.
“I believe in the sanity of God,” he tells us, “and the best thing to do is to tell God you don’t care for his craziness or her craziness. The sanity of God is the Ten Commandments. My uncle is protecting me from the insanity of God.”
Later, at the meeting, he says he has found a double meaning in the story of Ruth of the Moabites, “Wife of the Dead,” chapter 4, verse 5. One meaning is that her husband has passed away. The other is that she could be the wife of those who have “died the death.” This means, he says, that Ruth (viz., Madame Yeti Woman, viz., God) has many husbands.
September 24. An aide hands Leon another letter. He opens it, with
the aide watching, and reads. The letter makes no mention of the suggested change in name. It contains a dollar, along with the suggestions that he buy a package of London Dock tobacco, and that he give the change to Clyde and Joseph. Leon asks the aide for change, after which he finds Clyde and Joseph and gives each a quarter. He then goes out—and returns with a package of London Dock.
September 26. At the meeting the conversation turns to tobacco. Leon says that his wife told him to buy some London Dock, and that he spent fifty cents for it and gave away the other fifty cents. He goes on to say that there were “some complications” yesterday, “due to the insanity of God.”
“God is not insane,” Joseph objects; “you’re crazy!”
“God requested that I commit adultery with twelve girls in Guinea and I refused,” Leon insists.
“It’s too crazy,” says Joseph.
Leon then tells an incoherent tale about God who is first a male and has intercourse with Princess Margaret; then a female who has intercourse with Prince Philip. Then Prince Charles has intercourse with Princess Anne. Finally, Leon has intercourse with his wife, God.
Joseph moves that they adjourn the meeting.
September 27
My dear husband,
I am very happy to see you enjoying the London Dock tobacco so much. The reason why I told you to get this brand is because of the aroma. I deliberately wanted you to get aromatic tobacco because it was a good way to reduce the interferences at that time. This, of course, is because I am always thinking of your welfare and your redemption. As always, I am for you 100 percent.