• "I tried to keep my mental illness a secret as best as I could, but it was scary. It started to control my body, my words, my relationships. From behind my eyes, I would watch him pick out clothes and talk to therapists. I had no say in anything, like a young prince confined to his chambers while the priest rules the country on his behalf. Sometimes I'd feel him take control of conversations, and enter the muscles in my body, squaring up my shoulders and lowering my voice, saying something I utterly detested but had no way of preventing. I sometimes wondered if this was what exorcists were for." -Page 67

This is the true story of being possessed by a shadow planted in the brain during childhood, back in an Appalachian town steeped in Evangelical Christian super faith. While the author's body is firmly rooted in the 'real' world -- such as a summer camp that prepares children for the end of the world, or a psychiatric hospital, or self-isolating in the woods thousands of miles away from home to perform a self-exorcism -- most of this story takes place in the dissolving landscape of the author's mind, like carefully written journal entries from a time when the sky was falling down.

• "[...]Sometimes it was hard to tell when I was awake or asleep, for days at a time. I was also the only observer of the events during this time (I think?) - bunkered alone in a mountain cabin, or living out the back of my car - so I can't get anyone to corroborate my version of these events. My memories of this time are like flipping through an M.C. Escher calendar. Unfortunately, this is also the time when the Answers reveal themselves. So we can't detour around it. We have to sit in it for a while - take a tour of the madhouse. I'll show you around, because there's nobody else who can do it. Just keep in mind that your tour guide also lives in this place." -A Disclaimer from the Author, pg.ii

All rise for: IDENTITY CHURCH.