During my Psychiatry rotation I met a 65yo caucasian male who truly, wholeheartedly, believed that he was a tragic time traveler-- with a mechanism of time travel that was particularly gruesome. In a level-headed and heartfelt conversation he implored me to listen to his story with an open mind:
He said that he was born in the mid 1700's and was a relatively unknown boy living a simple,albeit slightly impoverished life. He worked at many odd jobs from a young age, until his penchant for tinkering led him to he invent a special type of eye-wear that he dubbed " the spectacles." Excited, he looked for someone of import to promote his invention and through a stroke of luck befriended a charming man named Benjamin Franklin. Franklin took him in and reassured him that he would help promote his invention. Unfortunately, after learning everything about the spectacles, Franklin betrayed him and claimed the invention was his own.
That scumbag Franklin kicked him out into the streets with nothing and acted as if he'd never met him. It was his word against Franklin's and not even his close relatives believed that he was the real inventor of the spectacles. In a last ditch effort, he went before The Founding Fathers and begged them to hear his side of the story. They listened to him with what appeared to be empathetic faces. They asked him to wait in a room alone while they discussed the matter amongst themselves. Little did he know, that snake Franklin had already gotten to them. They entered the room again, this time with Franklin, armed with axes and knives. He attempted to escape, but they pinned him down chopped him up alive...and ate him.
Screaming in pain, he was suddenly transported to 1930's Germany. In this life, he became very close with a man named Adolf Hitler who became the Fuhrer and always kept him in his inner circle. He was set to wed Hitler's sister, but at that time discovered that he had gained a strange new power...he could heal anyone he touched. Excited, he delayed the wedding and journeyed all through Germany healing the sick helping the Germans become the master race they were meant to be. The delay of the wedding upset Hitler's sister and subsequently upset Hitler himself. Adolf accosted our patient and demanded that he proceed with the marriage at once, but he declined and stated that he had a greater duty to heal the German people.
This infuriated the Fuhrer who, in an uncharacteristic fit of intense madness, drew a blade, pinned him to the ground, and began slashing him to pieces...and ate him. The last words he heard from the Fuhrer was that the world would pay for his insolence and refusal to marry his sister.
This transported him through time and landed him in our modern day and age and specifically in the strange land that was our psych ward...and this time without his healing powers. It was at this point that he became overcome with intense grief and began sobbing inconsolably. I waited for him to calm down and asked what made him so sad all of a sudden (he was quite composed until this point). With great pain in his voice, he told me that he truly believed that his not marrying Hitler's sister is what led the Fuhrer to go mad and carry out the Holocaust. He felt personally responsible for the Holocaust and every ounce of misery the Fuhrer had wrought upon the world. He meant well, he wanted to the heal the German people, but his carelessness led to more death than he could have imagined.