"I’m not sure how far over the edge she is, but I think you should see her yourself"
Ms. Kim was a South Korean college student living in Los Angeles and majoring in architecture, and had come to Israel on a sightseeing tour with her local church group. It had been an intense, uplifting trip so far, but when things were getting out of hand, her tour guide decided to give me a call.
“Maybe I’m too good when it comes to inspiring my groups,” joked Yisrael — a popular guide for non-Jewish groups and the brother of a good friend — somewhat nervously. “I need you to help this young lady before she ends up in a mental hospital.”
Yisrael was a veteran tour guide, and Ms. Kim wasn’t the first tourist he’d seen develop what’s commonly known as Jerusalem Syndrome, a type of religious mania in which tourists — or even longtime Jerusalem residents — become so overwhelmed with the spiritual symbols and power of the Holy City that they dissociate from reality and believe themselves to be biblical figures or handpicked emissaries for a Divine redemptive mission.
The characteristic lack of sleep, the intense messianic-religious obsessions, and the grandiose delusions are usually part of a manic or a psychotic episode that requires treatment with mood stabilizers and anti-psychotic medications. Yisrael told me he’d brought several tourists to the emergency room for some variation of the scenario over the past 26 years that he’s been leading groups of all faiths across Eretz Yisrael.
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