The Parable of the Hospital

[Unsure]

http://zelphontheshelf.com/parable-of-the-hospital/

This piece of writing personally resonated with me. It wasn't written concerning the Lord's Recovery, but is actually analogy for leaving the LDS Church. Nevertheless, parts of it I found familiar.

One day, another patient begins arguing with the staff. He claims the doctors are guilty of malpractice. As the conversation grows more heated, the staff tries to convince him that his illness is clouding his judgment.

Once other patients begin gathering, the staff declares the man’s condition is so severe and so contagious he must be forcibly removed from the grounds.

"This is strange,” you think. “If this is the only hospital that can treat his illness, why would they make him leave?”

Like its own germ, the fear of catching the man’s sickness spreads through the facility. The patients know if they are infected, they will be removed, and without the hospital’s exclusive treatment, will surely die from the plague outside. Some patients suspect those around them are infected and promptly inform the doctors, who, almost without exception, respond by immediately expelling the accused.

This of course only heightens the already palpable tension. As questions, expulsions, and protests increase, you become more and more concerned that your symptoms are worsening. Overwhelmed by the fear of being released, you start looking for ways to improve your health before the doctor’s next visit.

One day, you visit the hospital library. As you look for recommendations for self-recovery, you are startled to find that the medical books’ suggestions completely contradict what the doctors have been telling you.
Confused, you take your concerns to a nurse you have come to trust. Their reaction shocks you. Rather than sympathy, the nurse reacts with terror. They are convinced you are infected with the dreaded plague. They forbid you from reading any more medical books for fear that the mental strain will only worsen your condition.

You panic. You wish you had never gone to the library. You begin to feel more sick than ever. From then on, you commit to following the doctor’s orders exactly.
But no matter how faithfully you take your medications, your condition worsens. You wonder if the books were right after all. The anxious curiosity gnaws at you incessantly. In a moment of desperation, you return to the library.

After a short perusal, you notice a book hidden under a stack of papers in a far corner. Brushing the dust off the cover, you realize it contains the hospital’s history. You hesitantly open it and begin to read.

What you read knocks you to your knees in a sense of piercing dread. The hospital in which you have been interned was founded by a notable fraud. Guilty of plagiarism, forgery, and malpractice, the man had been completely discredited by the medical community.
This information is almost too much for you to process. You want to stop reading, but you can’t. You have to know.

As you read of legal disputes and unethical conduct, one thing grows increasingly clear — you are not in a hospital at all. The sudden awareness of your situation seems to rip through the very tissues of your heart.

The doctors who are treating you are not real doctors. They don’t have degrees. They don’t have licenses. The nurses attending you, though sincere, have no real medical training. The expensive medications you have been taking are not only ineffective, but also dangerous.
Anxiety washes over you. You fall to the floor, quaking with emotion. Hot tears flow down your cheeks as your lungs’ desperate search for air is interrupted by involuntary sobs.

Incessant questions attack your mind like a swarm of wasps. How can I stay here? What will happen if I leave? Will my sickness get worse? Will I die like the others who were released? Where else can I find treatment? Am I really sick at all? If I am not sick, why do I feel so terrible? What if the doctors are right and my illness has distorted my perception of reality? What if the book lied? But the hospital staff wrote the book. Why would they tell lies about themselves? Who can help me sort this out? Who can I trust to tell me the truth?