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Science File Information:
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In this episode, the FBI raids the compound of a religious cult, "The
Temple of the Seven Stars," led by a madman named Vernon Ephesian who is
convinced that he's a reincarnated prophet. A.D. Skinner compares
Ephesian's followers to Jim Jones'
People's Temple
in Guyana and David Koresh's
Branch Davidians
in Waco, both infamous cults who committed (or may have committed) mass
suicide. The phenomena of cults is one that is hotly debated by social scientists;
some sociologists feel that religious movements pejoratively deemed "cults" by some
can be considered distinct religions in themselves.
Jeffrey K. Hadden, a sociology teacher at the
University of Virginia,
maintains an exhaustive site on the
Sociology of Religious Groups.
It includes an thorough essay on the social science and controversy of cult groups, at
http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~jkh8x/soc257/cultsect/cultsect.htm.
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The agents interview Melissa Ephesian, one of Vernon's seven wives,
about abuse at the compound. In the middle of the interview, she begins
talking like an old man, says Harry S Truman is president, and answers to
the name "Sidney" -- the same name as the mysterious informant whose tip to
the Feds kicked off the raid on the compound. Mulder thinks Melissa is
reliving a past life, but Scully argues that she's more likely suffering
from a controversial condition known as Multiple Personality Disorder or
Disassociative Identity Disorder. Patients with MPD/DID manifest separate
personalities of varying ages and genders. Though MPD/DID's very existence
is questioned by some doctors, it is generally believed to be caused by
childhood abuse.
Official information on MPD/DID is hard to find on the 'net,
but you can read a fairly thorough article on the controversy surrounding
it at
http://slt.pobox.com/revenge/mpd.html.
See also the Skeptic's Dictionary
entry for MPD at
http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/go/btcarrol/skeptic/mpd.html.
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A voice spectrogram matches "Sidney's" voice on the phone call with that
of Melissa Ephesian, proving they're one and the same. Voice spectrograms
use computers to make visual patterns out of the sound vibrations created
when we speak.
For a basic overview of voice spectrograms, see the Eastern
Virginia Medical School's Voice Center's
page at
http://www.voice-center.com/spectrogram.html.
For more in-depth information on spectrograms, their history, their use in
forensic science, and their admissibility in court, see a text-heavy report
by a trio of private investigators at
http://www.acfe.com/forensic_articles/ aural_spectrographic/fulltext.html.
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During a tour of the Seven Stars compound, Melissa manifests more
personalities, including a woman from the Civil War who claims to know the
location of Confederate bunkers behind the compound where Ephesian is
hiding his weapons. In an attempt to discover where the weapons are hidden,
Mulder and an ever-skeptical Scully subject Melissa to hypnotic regression
therapy, taking her back to a "past life" during the 1860s. Hypnotherapy --
unearthing memories supposedly hidden in the subconscious mind-- is also a
common treatment for people who claim they've been abducted by aliens.
Scully herself undergoes this kind of therapy in THE RED AND THE
BLACK.
For more information on hypnosis itself, read the official
FAQ of the alt.hypnosis newsgroup at
http://www.hunter.holowww.com/HYPNOFAQ.html#BM1.
The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance's
site has an impressive section on hypnotherapy at
http://www.religioustolerance.org/rmt.htm,
including a list of official medical organizations'
opinions on its
reliability.
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Surrounded by FBI and ATF agents, Ephesian gathers the cultists together
and passes out cups of poisoned fruit drink -- just like Jim Jones did on
November 18, 1978. Mulder is too late to stop Melissa from drinking the
poison, and hopes perhaps that a better life awaits her the next time
around. The episode doesn't make clear what kind of poison Ephesian used,
but Jones used cyanide in his lethal punch. Cyanide -- also used in gas
chamber executions -- kills by attacking the lungs. Harmless trace amounts
of cyanide can be found in the seeds of fruits like apples.
See the National Safety Council's
fact sheet on cyanide compounds at
http://www.nsc.org/ehc/ew/chems/cyancmpd.htm.
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