ABSTRACT
At his ordination the author lay prostrate before the altar, aware that he looked on the event from outside himself. He experienced the dissociation Janet described as the core pathology in hysteria. Years later, in an attempt to leave his vocation, he could not lift his arm to sign the employment contract before him. In therapy, he was challenged to make a simple change from one chair to another, something he said he wanted to do. Paralysis set in again, this time in both legs. It took everything in him to go the five feet to the other chair.
