i was very influenced by the book called the bell jar and the butterfly by john dominique debow be who had the locked in syndrome where you are totally conscience and you have your mental facilities but your brainstem is paralyzed. i had that book and i bought the book and it sat around three or four months before his brave enough to read it but it's really beautiful. that there was this incredible person inside this sort of shell of a body. >> host: yeah. i remember learning about that in medical school when we had a patient. it is frightening. >> guest: you had a patient? >> host: yeah, with that. >> guest: what was it like? >> host: you can't help imagine what this think would be like it sounds terrifying. back to you. you worked in a hospice for a bit. you don't continue to do that. was that part of the research for the book? >> guest: not really. i was always interested and it wasn't totally relevant to the book and i didn't see the relevance to the bug. it's just that i wanted to do it. hospice opened up a block and a half from the house so i went down there and they were happy t