Voices

My guess is that throughout history there have been many super-normal people burned at the stake, incarcerated, isolated in asylums, put on life-long medication. To be fair, I should immediately state the corollary: there have probably been many sub-normal people who have been accepted as saints and prophets. Without waxing philosophical any further, I'll conclude by saying the proof of the pudding is in the eating. That is, what difference does it make what claims or hullabaloo there is about people; they either pull off miracles or they don't.

This does not mean that Jason Shell was a prophet or a quack, a saint or a sinner. All I can say is that he was a beautiful, gentle man who heard a great many voices. And fear not: I am not going to ask that you decide or accept Jason's state of divinity. I include him here simply because he and his voices were often both entertaining and fascinating.

Having said that, let me repeat what I've said before so you will know beyond a reasonable doubt that I am not making fun of any one nor suggesting that imbalances are valid targets for laughter. Even though we may be amused by an inebriated sailor staggering down a street, when we talk about him we're not ridiculing him any more than we're condoning drunkenness, right?

Jason was a well-trained mathematician/mechanic. He could rattle off detailed measurements as easily as Marvin Picker could airplane engine stats. He could work math problems in his head faster and more accurately than many math majors could on paper. And his ability to judge

precisely the thickness of a piece of steel or which wrench to use was uncanny. When he focused on the Bible, he was equally exacting. Place and people names, which book such-and-such occurred, he was a walking concordia. While these were all most admirable, occasionally it drove his audience up the wall.

When Jason began talking he invariably assumed that his listeners were as interested in the exact facts as much as he was. This made any so-called discussion more like listening to him read out of a technical manual. This was fine as long as the subject was interesting to the listener, but the truth is that only one person, Marvin Picker, even understood the man. The rest of the Residents and Staff found Mr. Shell someone to avoid. That is, unless he spoke about what one of his voices had told him.

While it's true that Jason Shell first heard voices after he had a hundred-and-six degree fever and fell off a two-story building, it's also true that more than one clairvoyant has gained paranormal abilities after a traumatic experience. Whether Jason was able to receive information telepathically or not, his accounts of inner conversations with people from the past, from distant parts of the world, and those not yet born, were spell-binding.

I especially found his description of life on Atlantis almost breathtaking. Not prone to using his imagination but precise mathematics, I couldn't help wonder where Jason came up with his "facts and figures." Exact measurements of columns and pyramids. Of weights of technology we haven't heard of. Once he said, "Some day scientists will find the physical ruins. Then they'll know I'm speaking the truth. Until then, I've written down everything my voices have told me. That way, when our technology is sophisticated enough, they can read through my journal for instructions on how and where to find the lost continent. For now, it doesn't bother me

that people think I'm off my rocker. Especially at Sugar Loaf where you'reexpectedto be batty."

The messages that bothered Staff were not what they considered hallucinations or psychological fantasy but the ones dealing with Jason's medication. More than once he claimed that he was told not to take what the doctors prescribed but only part of a dose. Legally and ethically Staff could not force a Resident to take his Meds. All they could do was record what the Resident did or did not take and his behavior during and after. If his conduct was really off the wall he would be referred to a specialist or transferred to another facility. But if his behavior was stable after refusing Meds, all Staff could do was record it and hope he wouldn't rock the boat. In Jason's case, it is interesting to note that on several occasions his voices seem to have directed him well: that by altering his own Meds he seemed healthier and more stable than when following orders. It raised more than one Sugar Loaf eyebrow and is the reason I include his story.

My notes tell me that Jason Shell naturally slid into the Sugar Loaf Circuit, living at one facility for a year or two, followed by the next. There were too many Residents coming and going so I couldn't follow his progress closely. Staff usually got wind of only the wildest cases such as suicides or phenomenal cures. So Jason blended in with the average mentally diseased and I never heard of him after he left our Health Center. And in one sense I'm glad, because I didn't want to know if his voices got the best of him and he turned religious fanatic and tried to save the world or initiate a 21st Century Armageddon. By not knowing what happened to him I am left in a quandary about his voices. But I needn't be over-concerned, because whether they were paranormal or not, at least the man lived with them well while at Sugar Loaf. He never let them overshadow him. My Journal's final remark about Mr. Shell reads: "Isn't that what

life is all about --- living successfully with whatever you're given?"