I believe the field of Psychology arose in an attempt to solve a mystery.  Rational people fear the Irrational.  If there is one thing that drives Rational people crazy, it is when someone who has been competent their entire life suddenly behaves like a fool.  People who drive their car over their husband three times for example.  I suspect crazy stories happen more often than one would think.  In fact, crazy behavior is so much a part of the human condition that the fortune-telling system called Tarot contains a card known as 'The Fool'. 

The Fool depicts a youth who carelessly walks into danger.  If the Fool takes one more step, he will topple over a cliff.  Where has this man's common sense gone to?  There is a worried dog barking at the heel of the Fool.  The dog is trying to warn the man of the danger.  However the warning does no good because he is a Blind Fool who refuses to pay attention.  There is no explanation why the young man is so stupid.  Maybe he was born that way.  Or, if there is such a thing as Fate, maybe the Fool is ordinarily a sensible lad until the day comes when he is rendered blind.  If the Fool survives his fall, no doubt he will spend the rest of his life wondering why he became so stupid that he did not see the cliff. 

Sad to say, Victoria reminded me of the Fool.  Gosh, if she had just listened to me when I barked at her!  How many times had I warned Victoria to concentrate on her marriage instead of me?  On Doorstep Night, I agonized over what could cause a woman who had it all to do a stupid thing like throw away a good marriage in pursuit of a man who did not want her?  I was the man deemed inferior according to the Husband List, so why would Victoria want to trade Michael for me?  Good grief, Victoria didn't listen to Michael, she didn't listen to me, she didn't even listen to herself.  What prevented her from listening?

I suspected Cosmic Blindness, a theory that claims our common sense can be temporarily blocked at certain key points in our life.  I strongly believe there are two, possibly three moments in every person's life when they will make the worst, most stupid decision imaginable.  In the absence of the usual Warning messages we take for granted, we unwittingly do something so totally stupid that we will spend the rest of our lives wondering what the hell went wrong.  If you suspect I am referring to myself, you are correct.  I have spent my entire life thinking about Doorstep Night. 

Unfortunately, while Cosmic Blindness is an interesting theory, it lacks proof.  Unless the Reader has experienced a similar event where you feel like you lost your mind in the strangest of circumstances, my theory is easily dismissed.  So I asked if Psychology had an adequate explanation for Victoria's extraordinary mistake.  

Although Psychology has all kinds of theories to explain the cause of self-destructive behavior, when it came to diagnosing something as complicated as Doorstep Night, I was not sure Psychology was up to the task.  Typically when an otherwise intelligent person loses their mind, Psychology falls back on its favorite theory of the Unconscious Mind.  Only one problem.  There is no scientific proof that the Unconscious exists.  Fortunately, Psychology has learned other ways to explain self-destructive behavior (we will get to that shortly).

I once experienced a bout with an unusual form of mental illness known as 'Phobia'.  Most people do not take Phobia seriously since there is a simple solution.  If you are deathly afraid of being bit by a dog, stay away from dogs.  And what was my problem?  I was afraid of being bitten by a beautiful woman.  And what was my solution?  I avoided beautiful women.

You may think I'm kidding, but not this time.  After I got kicked out of graduate school, I returned to Houston in despair.  Living alone in an apartment, I did not have a friend in the world.  As a result I was very lonely.  Unfortunately, the tried and true avenues of finding a girlfriend were denied to me.  There was no woman in sight for me to date at my apartment project.  The women at my job were all married.  In order to seek a girlfriend, I had no choice but to visit a bar.  That would require the courage to approach women who were complete strangers.  Forget it.  I could not make myself do it.  Sorry to say, I stayed locked in my apartment after work for an entire month.  I was so terrified of a woman's rejection, the thought of approaching a woman I did not know made me tremble violently.

So what caused this problem?  Was it the Unconscious?  No.  During graduate school a woman named Vanessa had betrayed me in an unusually cruel way.  Making the first move with women had long been an issue of torment, but Vanessa's cold heart made my fear grow much worse.  By the time I was back in Houston, my fear of a woman's rejection had escalated to epic proportions.  Thrown from the saddle one time too many, I was like the cowboy who can't get back up.  Like an untreated infection, my fear of rejection had intensified from strong anxiety into full-blown Phobia, a condition typically associated with excessive fear of spiders, snakes, mean dogs and flying. 

"Phobia is a persistent, abnormal, irrational fear of a situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the conscious awareness and frequent reassurance from others that the new threat is probably not dangerous."

Is it possible to have a Phobia towards approaching women who are strangers?  I could make a case for it.  Of course I knew that pretty girls are not dangerous.  However, right now they were dangerous to me.  Once bitten, twice shy.  At the moment, the mere thought of some woman telling me to brush off made me sick in my stomach.   So what is my point?  There was nothing Supernatural about this.  Everything I had learned about neurotic behavior in graduate school was sufficient to explain the severity of my condition. 

Okay, Psychology had me covered in regards to Phobia, but what about Victoria's bizarre behavior?  What would cause her to obsess over a man she agreed was inferior to her husband?  What would cause her to risk damaging her daughter's well-being?  Why would she consider betraying a husband who had been incredibly good to her, a man who had done nothing to deserve this?  Why would a woman who had experienced a lifetime of success suddenly head for the cliff?  Why didn't she listen to the barking dog? 

I imagine I would have spent the rest of my life looking to Psychology for the answers except for one thing: Victoria's Destiny Letter.  This letter was a game changer.  For starters, it helped validate my Cosmic Blindness theory.  Victoria had openly admitted her obsession with me did not make a bit of sense.  In addition, she blamed Fate for her condition. 

"It's like no matter what happens, the Universe keeps pushing me in your direction and I can't seem to let go of you."

Her letter also led me in a different direction.  I began to consider the possible existence of Evil Spells.  Given Victoria's strange transformation from the Golden Sunshine Girl to Mistress of the Dark, I began to wonder if it was possible for Victoria to be the victim of a Fairy Tale curse.  Laugh if you wish, but I am completely serious.  Starting with her Tirade in early January, Victoria underwent an extreme change of behavior for the worse.  The woman who manipulated me on Doorstep Night was not the same person who had been my cheerful friend at this time last year.  Now, adding to the mystery, Victoria had just written a very touching letter to suggest her heart of gold was still beating underneath her deceitful exterior.  What could have caused this horrible transformation?

To me, Victoria's Dark Side was 'Uncharacteristic Behavior'.  She had once been a charming, delightful woman full of spark and goodness.  Now look at her.  What could explain Victoria's drastic transformation to the Dark Side?  Of course any time a person goes haywire, we are trained to look to Psychology for an explanation.  After all, the field of Psychology developed as a way to explain why otherwise intelligent people suddenly begin to act in irrational ways.  As it turns out, whenever the Unconscious Mind explanation fails to satisfy, Psychology has a backup strategy known as 'Blind Spots'.  This includes the well-known corollary, 'Love is Blind'. 

I think Evil Spells became a common feature of Fairy Tales because no one could understand why seemingly intelligent people go off the deep end from time to time.  As the Age of Science emerged, the Hidden World of Magical Beings was soundly denounced.  Consequently we now scoff at such things as witches and a Hidden World.  People love fairy tales, but no one takes them seriously.  Back in the old days people blamed uncharacteristic behavior on evil spells.  However, when someone goes off their rocker these days, we blame it on unconscious Blind Spots.   Personally, I think the theory of Blind Spots sounds like something similar to the Tarot.  Or Cosmic Blindness for that matter.  It seems to me that sometimes Psychological Theory comes dangerously close to sounding like Mysticism. 

As J.K. Rowling pointed out, the Curse of Mankind is our well-known tendency to make stupid mistakes.  But what about Madness?  Has it ever occurred to anyone that Blind Spots and Mental Illness might not originate from within?  Perhaps it is imposed upon us from beyond by Fate.  Hear me out.  Earlier I told the story of how my fear of rejection kept me locked in my apartment for nearly a month. 

There were valid Psychological reasons for my problem.  I had just undergone the trauma of being told I was unsuitable to become a therapist.  Which is another way of saying I was too sick to be of much help to someone else.  I took that as a shameful condemnation of me as a person, perhaps the worst rebuke imaginable.  In addition, the woman I loved had cheated on me, then lied about it for a month.  Having hit Rock Bottom on my return to Houston, I felt incredibly vulnerable.  Given that my self-esteem was shattered nearly beyond repair, of course I was terrified of taking even the slightest risk. 

Night after night I remained alone in my apartment trying without luck to work up the courage to go somewhere and find a woman to talk to.  Despite my woes, it never crossed my mind there might be a Supernatural purpose to my suffering.  However, I do recall pleading for a way to get myself going again.  One night I had a surprising idea.  Maybe there was a book that could teach me how to get a conversation started with a woman I did not know.  So I visited a bookstore.  Believe it or not, such a book existed.  It contained one very valuable suggestion.  It said, "The easiest polite way to get a woman in your arms that you do not know is ask her to dance."

I was very attracted to this idea, but there was a major problem.  Based on prior experience, I already knew that dancing did not come naturally to me.  If I were to commit to this idea, it would require a long uphill struggle.  But what choice did I have?  My back was against the wall and this suggestion was my first ray of hope since getting thrown out of graduate school. 

Here is my point.  My mental illness, or 'Phobia' if you prefer, served a purpose.  Under normal circumstances, if I was not so sick, I could have found a girlfriend and never had the slightest need for dance lessons.  Interestingly, the dance suggestion worked.  It took some time, roughly five years, but through dance I regained my self-esteem.  I also gained a career.  For this reason, I think it is very possible that my bout with Phobia had been imposed upon me from beyond as a way to lead me to my Destiny.

If so, was it possible that Victoria's obsession with me was imposed from Beyond as part of her Destiny?  She definitely thought so.

"I know too that our relationship has not always been easy, but I have always felt that our being together was Destiny.  It's like no matter what happens, the Universe keeps pushing me in your direction and I can't seem to let go of you."

What if Victoria was right?  Perhaps Victoria was at the mercy of the "Caprice of the Fates".  I certainly think so.  I firmly believe our tortured relationship was a Fated Event.  In that case, perhaps her weird behavior was imposed from beyond for a Fated purpose. 

I am not saying that Psychology is wrong.  What I am saying is that an atheist such as Sigmund Freud would have witnessed the same strange behavior as me and interpreted things from his Material World point of view.  However, sometimes abnormal behavior is so strange, I imagine Freud would be hard-pressed to find a good explanation.  At a loss for anything better, he invented the Unconscious.  And then I come along, see the same behavior and interpret it through the lens of Fate.  When Fate is involved, anything is possible. That very well might include casting an Evil Spell on Victoria as part of her Fate for this lifetime.  If this is true, who knows, Cosmic Blindness may very well be "The Unconscious" and "Blind Spots" by another name. 

So which interpretation of Victoria's struggle is correct?  That is for you to decide.

RICK ARCHER'S LIST OF SUSPECTED SUPERNATURAL EVENTS
 

Serious

Predestination
Cosmic Blindness

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER VICTORIA'S U-TURN?