EXCELSIS DEI

                   The mushrooms we take are to speak with the dead and to see our ancestors                                             in the spirit world - the spirit in this place is very angry.

The Excelsius Dei is a convalescent home based in Worcester, Massachusetts, and we open with two male nightstaff welcoming a third female member of staff onto the night shift. This staff member, Michelle Charters, goes to sort a room out in which a resident has recently died - however when inside the room the door appears to slam shut on its own and she is forced onto the bed by an unseen entity. The arm and leg straps tie themselves around her limbs and her screams can be heard down the empty corridors.

At FBI HQ Mulder watches a video sent in by Mrs Charters, showing bruising to her face and arms. She claims that she was raped and the abrasions and contusions contained within the medical report  are consistent with such a claim. However she states that she was raped by an invisible entity, a spirit being - yet what makes this case different is that she has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Government, and that she is certain as to who the spirit being was. The agents arrive to question her and she claims that the perpetrator is a resident, Hal Arden, who had been at the home for five years. When Mulder questions as to how she would know she explains that he had been making advances for a long time, and that she knew his smell. However Hal is a 74 year old male who appears fragile and harmless and Mulder feels that the investigation will be a huge waste of time - an unsubstantiated phenomenon on a substantiated crime.

They meet the manageress of the facility and she explains that the residents are all well looked after - and that they specialize in late life degenerative diseases inclusive of Alzeihmers and Parkinson's. She adds that Michelle had made insurance claims with previous employers. Meanwhile two of the residents, Stan and Hal, are in possession of unidentified tablets, which they squabble over and seem concerned about being detected with the substance. However shortly after gaining possession of this table Hal chokes and dies. It seems that these president are getting these tablets from another staff worker, Gung Bituen, who warns them that they must not use too much. Dr John Grago, who is the main GP, meanwhile sees Hal's death as a setback. He tells the agents that he has been treating residents with the experimental drug Deprinol, stating that prior to taking the drug Hal could hardly string a sentence together. Similar progress is visible in other residents, including an artist, Leo.

Scully believes that Grago's drugs are the cause of the problems experienced at the facility - and that too much induces a psychotic state very similar to schizophrenia. Meanwhile the residents are getting restless and want more of the capsules provided by Gung, and when another death of a staff member occurs the mystery thickens, particularly when another resident, Dorothy, tells the agents that she sees spirit beings around them. After discovering that the toxicology report requested brings up the presence of a type of acid in Hal's blood, which can induce hallucinations, Mulder begins to make enquiries about the Asian Orderly, Gung. Mulder looks further into this individuals whereabouts and finds a large room with stashes of mushrooms growing. Gung is later apprehended and tells the agents that he did not kill anyone, and that the mushrooms were grown for medicinal purposes, which makes the residents feel better. He adds that they have been used for centuries in his country, although something had gone wrong. He says that the mushrooms we take are to speak with the dead, to see our ancestors in the spirit world, although the spirit in this place is extremely angry, and that now it has been awakened it will take revenge for its previous mistreatment. He describes how the mushrooms are dried and put into capsule from for the residents - however his remaining capsules had been taken.

Mulder witnesses Michelle being thrown against a wall by an invisible force, and when he goes to help the door shuts and the room fills up with water - meanwhile Stan, another resident, is convulsing. Subsequently the door bursts open under the pressure of the water and Mulder and Michelle escape - leaving Dorothy to state that 'theyve all gone.'

In response to the incidents at the facility  the Department of Health has assumed all administrative authority. All of the residents tested revealed trace amounts of the acid highlighted above, and Grago has been replaced as head physician. Meanwhile for the manufacturing and distribution of substances Gung was sent back to Malaysia and no efforts were made to investigate the mushrooms.

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