I was jolted awake by an incoming phone call at 3:00 AM. Not recognizing the number, I ignored the call, rolled over, and went back to sleep. My rising time on week days, after all, is 4:30 AM, and I had no intentions of curtailing my rest by responding to a possibly wrong number.

This morning, a former student sent me an urgent text-message and asked if he could call me. It was he who desperately tried to reach me at dawn. His elder son, who apparently had been bothered by elementals from an early age, was having very serious problems that now included somatic manifestations. My former student consulted a practicing spiritist (who prescribed very drastic measures) and an another practitioner (who prescribed the exact opposite), both to no avail.

It is quite annoying to be called in when nothing else works and everything seems too late--and when I need to be in bed early every night and leaving for Tacloban over the weekend.

I had to prescribe interim measures. My former student will see his son this noon. I asked him to ask the boy two questions. My response now entirely hinges on the boy's answers to those questions.