When I began to hallucinate, in 2005—first hearing a voice, and then seeing what wasn’t there—my mother suggested that these symptoms might not be pathologies but rather spiritual gifts. According to Chinese superstition, initial hallucinatory experiences may be indications that one is meant to become a “soul reader,” a skill akin to a fortune-teller or medium. “People use it as a career,” she told me, “so don’t be scared.” No one else had tried to give me a perspective on my symptoms beyond that of mental illness.
