Building a Character

In my last post, I discussed the use of psychedelic drugs in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. A fascinating video featuring the late Dr. Richard Rockefeller, provides a great background on PTSD, how it affects those who have it and those around them, and how therapists treat the condition.

A key theme in the sequel to Revelation 11, tentatively entitled, Continuing Revelation, is the main character's reaction to the stress-inducing events described in Revelation 11. Dr. Rockefeller's description of PTSD gave me a roadmap for continuing to build the character of Ben "Trog" Davis.

Dr. Rockefeller noted that while many of us experience, post-traumatic stress, it only becomes a disorder when the brain fails to move the traumatic memory out of the amygdala, which largely processes current ongoing events, into the parts of the brain that store memories. He explained that PTSD sufferers continue to experience the trauma as an ongoing event. They literally see and experience the trauma again seeing the people and objects present at the original event as if it were occurring at that moment.

While virtually everyone experiences post-traumatic stress, not everyone develops PTSD. Dr. Rockefeller explained that those who had suppressed memories from childhood stress are more likely to develop PTSD as an adult. So soldiers who survive the same IED attack in battle may have very different reactions to the event based on their prior experiences.

To treat PTSD, therapists must get back to that underlying trauma and allow the individual to process it into memory. LSD, ecstasy, and other medications that break down the walls harboring these suppressed memories allow the PTSD sufferer to explore their painful past in a safe environment.

Of course, to a novelist safe is boring. Trog will not be safe. The drugs the therapists give him may reveal more truth than he can handle. The intervention he needs may come from agents of God, Satan, or humans. Trog will have to judge whether what he sees is real or not. He may suffer from supernaturally induced PTSD.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

I read obituaries. Specifically, I read the New York Times obituaries. These obituaries of famous people either remind me of long forgotten events or introduce me, posthumously, to fascinating people with whom I had been unfamiliar. Dr. Richard Rockefeller, sadly, fell into the latter category.

The famous name grabbed my attention, but his life’s story proved far more interesting than I would have guessed. Dr. Rockefeller was David Rockefeller’s son making him the great-grandson of the family scion John D. Rockefeller. Last week, Dr. Rockefeller took off in his single-engine Piper Meridian in dense fog and crashed into trees not far beyond the Westchester County, New York Airport runway.

In his 65 years, Dr. Rockefeller advised and oversaw many of his family’s philanthropic efforts and was one of the guiding forces behind Doctors Without Borders. Almost as a footnote, the obituary mentioned he spent his later years working on treatments for those suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.

A day later I was researching the sequel to Revelation 11. I plan to put Ben “Trog” Davis, the protagonist, through some serious trauma, as if a running gun battle, false imprisonment, and two concussions in Revelation 11 weren’t enough. In particular, I was researching the use of ‘psychedelic’ drugs to treat PTSD.

In the 1950s, Bill Wilson, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, claimed that LSD could provide the “ego reduction [that] makes the influx of God’s grace possible”. British psychotherapist, Ronald Sandison coined the term psycholitic therapy, which is the use of low to medium doses of psychedelic drugs, repeatedly at intervals of 1–2 weeks. Psycholitic, Sandison claimed, meant “soul dissolving”. For a novel where the protagonist must determine whether or not his troubles result from human conflict or spiritual warfare, these references were invaluable.

The final piece of the puzzle occurred when I went on the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies website and found a video featuring Dr. Richard Rockefeller discussing the use of MDMA or “ecstasy” for treating PTSD. “Trog” doesn’t know it yet, but he is about to have his consciousness expanded. If any of you are friends with Ben on Facebook , don’t let him know what the future holds. He is blissfully unaware of what God and Satan have in store for him.