I've seen in this writer something prophetic. Some kind of insight. I did not know he was writing so contemporary; I thought he was writing in the eighteen hundreds. Generally, the reason why I'm so interested in it is the schema of a very normal delusion, that being a brain parasite of some sort that causes the illness of Schizophrenia.

So, this is what influenced my poem about the "Yeerk"; was I read this poem the Herb-Leech in my Barnes and Nobles' leather bound A Treasury of Irish Literature, and was like, "Well, I'm having really bad dreams, and have a lot of problems with xyz." And, there must be some mythological reference here to a mythology that Joseph Campbell once read. But the poem is talking about dreams, and the fact is that they have a reach into the person's mental health. When a delusion enters into the dream sphere, it begins to reach into the conscious and begins to be believed. And the mythology, literally here, is not so much being believed, but rather is manifesting in the dream.

But, the poem is definitely dealing with Schizophrenia. And "Schizophrenia" is often not having a filter in day to day activity. That means that everything is going to be interpreted as it is, and the brain is going to put all that information together. A good example of this is the rotating mask. The Schizophrenic sees it rotating the correct way, but the normal mind sees it with a filter which makes the illusion as if it span in both directions. So, Schizophrenia is a lack of having those filters.

At the end of the song, there's talk of the Murrain Stone. That right there, "Murrain" means sickness. It's speaking of mental illness, specifically, schizophrenia. Because anyone who believes, and I quote "All things on earth/to me are known" because of the "Murrain Stone", then it's obviously saying outright a man does not have omnipotence with this line. The poem is rather talking about Schizophrenia, with regard to an omnipotence delusion. It's impossible for a man to know all things, so the poem is talking about something else.

Which, seeing he got conflated with other religions---and this is why I really would discourage people from learning about religions other than Christianity---is that he must have picked up a delusion from believing in Folk Tales, giving him the "Murrain Stone." Or Schizophrenia. Because experience with the Mythological---as he puts it in an essay I was doing research on---is something I think ought not happen. There's only one God, that's Jesus Christ. And there's a ton of other religions that are not Jesus Christ. They have other revelations, and it is a sickness when they are revealed; that is, if the magic of the superstition reveals itself it is a sickness.

When I look at this, my mind thinks of the "Yeerks", as if they were some kind of schizophrenic pathogen. As if the mental illness of Joseph Campbell, by reading into Mythology too much---because that is where the pathogen takes root---is being likened to a Brain Leech of some kind. As if mythology can be a pathogenic cause of schizophrenia; which Campbell would not accept this thought, but I find it accurate. There are other pathogens, too, like the Truman Show, or generally speaking any source of literature that skews the mind from the one solitary truth, and that is Christ.

Which, now the poem makes sense, that the Herb-Leech is his Schizophrenia. It is a delusion he's dealing with, something similar to a Yeerk, and Schizophrenia can be metaphorically linked to this science fiction concept. Which, the way to beat it, and the path to a healthy lifestyle, are to overcome the illness with love. To simply love; that is actively work at becoming a better and more empathetic person. Because I believe it is something like the "Error of Balaam" as talked about in the Bible. He was a so called "Prophet" and named his prophecies, but it is was then reinforced when he saw a Donkey talk. Delusory tendencies, with research to back them up with schemas, then start manifesting in negative behaviors such as fortune telling, and then when some of those predictions might come true it can lead to OCD or Post Traumatic Stress. Which, ultimately brings the illness to a much worse standing when the things we've fortune told came true. It makes us believe we have power.

Which, seeing his mentions here of the different myths that must have spurred it on, I think his dreams are actually spurring on the mythologies. That maybe he has some latent understanding of them, forgets them, dreams them, and then finds them, reinforcing the schizophrenia. Which, external stimuli that proves a delusion drives someone mad, into the depths of Schizophrenic tendencies. It's imperative that one understand that, and try their best not to prove a Schizophrenic's delusions. Because external stimuli that proves a delusion, will only reinforce the delusion, making it stronger in the individual.

So, the Herb-Leech is Joseph Campbell's mental illness.

Campbell, Joseph. "The Herb Leech". A Treasury of Irish Literature. Sterling Publishing Co., Barnes and Nobles Classics Edition, 2017. Text.