Homunculus: The tiny man or woman once thought, for thousands of years before the spermatoza had been seen with the microscope, to be contained in the vital bodily fluids of male ejaculum, and cause pregnancy. The female's roll in this senario was only as a provider of the vessal - the womb - to carry the imaginary baby furnished by the male. And for thousands of years, she had little or no say in this process.
Imaginary Baby: The imaginary child or baby that many very young children carry in their arms and cuddle and kiss and talk to. Most children outgrow the delusion of, and the need for, imaginary babies and imaginary friends by age 5 or 6.
Unborn Children: The imaginary babies that radical "Pro-Life" militants, who picket doctor's offices and Planned Parenthood clinics, think occupies the womb of every woman entering an abortion care facility. Many adults, e.g., murderers like Paul Hill, Michael Griffin, James Kopp and John Salvi, never overcome these delusions of imaginary babies, and become certifiably insane, performing violent criminal acts as a result of their delusions.
I know two beautiful little girls, 4 and 5, whom I will call Snow White and Goldilocks, who currently are reminding me of the radical "Pro-Life" pickets that sometimes march up and down in front of my office, but assault patients entering other facilities on an almost daily basis.
Snow White, the 5 year old, is one of the kindest, most sensitive, gentlest and loving children I have ever known... except sometimes, when she is playing with her little sister, 4 year old Goldilocks! Goldilocks, at 4, has an imaginary baby. Not unusual for a 4 year old (and certainly NOT a sign of impending insanity like it might be in a 20 year old.)
Goldilocks, when not involved in play with her sister, makes up games, creates her toys from what ever she finds on hand. A pan becomes a hat, a Tupperware dish becomes a drum, a stick becomes a guitar and a towel a cape, a dress or a shirt. She is everything her sister is, but is a little more creative. And her sister sometimes resents Goldi's creativity and will reach out and grab whatever Goldilocks is playing with and use it for her own play. Sometimes, such theft leads to a minor skirmish or at other times, to major warfare. And most of the time, Snow White ends up crying to her mom that Goldilocks has pinched or punch or scratched her. Goldilocks is very strong and can be quite aggressive and dangerous when provoked.
But when she is playing with her imaginary baby, it is a totally different story. Often at these time of baby play, Snow White will sneak up on a preoccupied Goldilocks, and snatch her imaginary baby! At this point, instead of kicking and scratching, Goldilocks goes into a total meltdown, falling on the floor, kicking and crying and screaming, "Mommy, Mommy! Snow White has taken my imaginary baby!"
And now, mommy has to come to the rescue of the imaginary baby and restore it to the rightful owner, or there will be hell to pay by someone, usually all concerned!
Back in the 1980s, when I used to have anywhere from a few to many hundreds of delusional "Pro-Lifers" marching up and down in front of my office, some singing hymns, others praying loudly, and still others crying and screaming for all the world as though they, like Goldilocks, had lost their imaginary babies, I used to wonder just what made grown men and women act like that. And now I know. They have delusions of imaginary babies. And on the subject of imaginary babies, more than a few of them are certifiably insane!
Who can predict when one of them, like the "good Christian boy John Salvi", or the former Presbyterian minister, Paul Hill, exposed to the constant drumbeat of murderous "Pro-Life," rhetoric and extremely inflammatory images like the short film, Hard Truth, will decide to "defend" his delusions of "imaginary unborn babies" by murdering real, living, breathing men and women in one of these facilities?
It has happened before. It's only a matter of time before it will happen again.