Doctor Perez took his time about answering.
“It would be hard for me to say. I don’t really subscribe to that theory myself.”
“The theory being?”
“The theory she refers to is one that suggests that there is, within the human mind, the capacity to have memory of events that a person had not experienced. Events that are experiences of the human race, but not experiences of the individual. Dr. Vassar, because she studied at the Burghölzli, probably was influenced by Jungian theory and may have reached for that conclusion. Dr. Vassar was not herself actually a Jungian, but it may have been her only way to explain this behavior, since there is no way to explain the reenactment of events a person had not experienced in life unless, of course, you believe in reincarnation.”
There, it was said, Janice thought. For the first time that day, the word was actually said. And strangely, the first to bring it up was the man of science.
“In your opinion, does Jungian theory extend toward reincarnation?”
“No, I don’t really think so. What I think Jung believed was that the experience of generations of prior individuals created a kind of inheritance of memory. Just as earlier experiences leave genetic traces physically, he believed they left genetic traces on the memory. But I don’t think he believed that individuals literally had a prior existence.”
“What do you believe, Dr. Perez?”
“What?”
“Do you believe in reincarnation?”
A startled laugh escaped from the witness.
“No,” he said. “I do not.”
Brice Mack’s confident smile successfully shielded the concern he felt at hearing the tenor of Perez’s answer and noting the jurors’ smiling faces. Still, there would be moments of high drama aplenty soon to come, he was certain, that would bring the jury back to his table.
Velie continued.
“Dr. Perez, are there many people in the world today, to your knowledge, who believe in the supernatural?”
“Yes, of course.”
“From a psychiatrist’s point of view, what is the basis of this belief in the supernatural?”
“Well,” Perez said soberly, “we are most of us terrified at the thought of death, the sense of finality of death. And if one is religious, one may avoid accepting death as final by believing in an afterlife. But the fear of death and the fear of not existing lead many people to try to find something that will give them a feeling of continuity. That is one aspect. Another aspect is that there is so much about human behavior that is mysterious, unexplainable, that presumably has some rational explanation, but that we can’t explain now. And people, just by the nature of human curiosity, are driven to try to find explanations for things that are mysterious and supernatural to them. But I as a scientist assume there is no such thing as the supernatural, only things about nature we as yet do not know.”
“But you do not think that reincarnation is one of those things?”
“No, I personally do not.”
“Thank you. That is all.”
Brice Mack, rising, bowed his head to Scott Velie and approached the witness.
“Just a few more questions, Dr. Perez, if you don’t mind. I believe you were prevented from amplifying on your answers to several of Mr. Velie’s questions. Specifically, the one concerning hypnosis as a means of inducing a subject to perform feats beyond his normal capabilities. In your opinion, does this suggestion, in any way, apply to, or explain, the behavior of Ivy Templeton as reported in the entries on January 18 and February 20, 1967?”
“No, of course not. I was going to say that the nature and conditions of a hypnotic trance and a somnambulistic form of hysteria are entirely different. Under hypnosis a subject is entirely under the control and is responsive to the examiner who is conducting the experiment. In a hypnotic trance a subject will make an overwhelming effort to obey all commands given by the examiner and even display physical dexterities that go beyond a subject’s skill during the wakened state, but only on command of the examiner. In the somnambulistic state, however, a subject is under no such influence and is either recapitulating or expressing behavior of an earlier, deeply repressed traumatic experience. In each case, the conditions are entirely different.”
Brice Mack accepted his explanation soberly, then steered the witness toward the issue of reincarnation.
“Although you expressed a disbelief in reincarnation, Dr. Perez, to your knowledge, are there scientists who do believe in reincarnation?”
“Yes, I suppose there are.”
“Do you suppose there are qualified doctors, psychiatrists, who believe in reincarnation?”
“Yes, there probably are some.”
“And is it possible, notwithstanding your opinion, that they are right and you are wrong?”
Dr. Perez shrugged.
“I guess that’s a possibility.”
Mack sent a sweeping glance along the jury box before turning back to the notebook.
“Oh, yes.… Dr. Perez, you previously testified that it was possible that the coldness of a window during a blizzard might be sufficient to hurt a person’s hand and might account for the kind of behavior described by Dr. Vassar. I now ask you, in your opinion, is that likely?”
“No, the reaction of the child, the quick, reflexive drawing back from the glass pane, indicates that the magnitude of the painful experience was greater than ice could produce. This, plus her word-stream babbling of ‘hothothothot,’ suggests to me conclusively that it was a fire situation.”
“Thank you, Dr. Perez. That is all.”
As the witness started to rise, Velie swiveled about in his chair and his head jerked around.
“Just a second, Dr. Perez, you’re not through yet.”
Perez turned a languid look on Velie as he sat back down.
“Was Dr. Vassar a hypnotist?” he loudly asked from a seated position.
The crude manner in which the question was put seemed momentarily to fluster the witness. A droll and skeptical smile came to his lips.
“Dr. Vassar was a psychiatrist. She was adept in the use of hypnosis as a therapeutic tool, as are most psychiatrists today, including myself.”
“I see,” Velie said. “Then she was a hypnotist. Thank you.”
The objection from Brice Mack came in a swift, businesslike way.
“I move that Mr. Velie’s remark ‘Then she was a hypnotist’ be stricken from the record, Your Honor, since he’s characterizing the answer of the witness. It is no more true that a person who’s adept in hypnosis is a hypnotist than a man who’s adept with a hammer is a carpenter.”
“Objection sustained.”
There was a momentary impasse during which Dr. Perez remained seated, not knowing whether he was to leave the stand or not.
Assuming his most weary expression, Judge Langley asked both attorneys if they were finally finished with the witness.
“For the time being, Your Honor,” Velie said. “I’ll probably want to ask him more questions later, however.”
Judge Langley instructed Dr. Perez to keep himself available for possible recall and excused him. As the psychiatrist hurriedly escaped the courtroom, Judge Langley turned to Brice Mack and told him to call his next witness.
All eyes in the courtroom shifted expectantly to the door. However, Mary Lou Sides did not appear through the door but rose instead from a seat in the middle of the courtroom and walked down the aisle to the witness stand, causing a light flurry of nervous giggles among the spectators who had been taken unawares.
Janice stared at the big, heavyset, seemingly shy girl who couldn’t have been more than twenty-five, as she raised her right hand and was sworn in by the bailiff. Looking at the straight cornsilk hair and the well scrubbed, smiling face flushed with health, Janice was reminded of the Swiss milkmaid on the Baker’s Chocolate boxes. Shifting her gaze to Hoover, she discovered that he, too, was staring at the girl and was smiling and that Mary Lou Sides returned his smile as she sat, which meant that they were probably acquainted.