‘The beautiful thing is that whether it’s the Bhagavad Gita, or Golgotha, or Mara v Buddha under the Bodhi Tree, we can totally nail the journey with a combination of the scans we’ve already made and the VR from Avatar – which, by the way, turns out to be helping with the schizophrenics they designed it for.’

‘Yes, I was happy to see that,’ said Lucy. ‘I mentioned the good results to Martin Carr last week, Olivia’s dad, and he thought that exposing patients who are radically confused about what is real to an experience which is designed to seduce even the most robust realist might not be what is making them feel better.’

‘Maybe it helps precisely because it’s a known unreality,’ said Saul.

‘I ran the same sort of argument past Martin, but he was sceptical that the beneficial effects were taking place at that kind of cognitive level. He’s worked for years with paranoid schizophrenics and knows that if one of them, for instance, is terrified of getting on to a crowded train, that taking them into a basement, attaching heavy equipment to their heads and inducing hallucinations of simulated train passengers could easily be experienced by them as a satanic ritual designed to drive them mad.’

‘So, why the good results?’

‘Because often these patients have been so maltreated and are so frightened that being taken seriously, treated sympathetically, told there is a solution, looked after by experts, encouraged to share their responses, and so on, has a strong salutary effect.’

‘Another placebo,’ said Hunter.

‘Yes,’ said Lucy, ‘in the widest sense that we were talking about earlier: being cared for by people who know what they are doing. Once that trust is established, then all sorts of other things might come into play: the simulation could act as a way to externalise an inner voice, to place it in a narrative, letting out the evil element and projecting it safely.’

‘You’ve got to nail this Open Placebo thing,’ said Hunter.

‘I’m on it,’ said Saul.

‘I’m in it,’ said Lucy.

‘How about the known benefits of an early lunch, before Saul leaves for the airport?’

‘Perfect,’ said Lucy, swinging out of the hammock with a sense of gratitude at being looked after so well and at the same time with a bruise of sadness about the cloud encircling this peak of kindness and goodwill in her life.

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