In October 2021, a Harvard-trained plastic surgeon underwent surgery on their brain tumor. Two-week later, she experienced the Red Grid Mark Phenomenon, which she associates with her surgery experience and recovery I worked with the experiencer in a dreamwork session modeled on hypnotic regression. It must be noted that hypnotic regression is a problematic source of knowledge, although it is personally meaningful, because it engages non-veridical and imaginal modes of experience. Their case is particularly interesting because of their medical training specifically related to skin and the level of medical intervention in their lives at the time. It is reasonable to assume that if a MD actively supported by a medical team could not explain the mark, then it is conventionally unexplainable. This experiencer had an intuition of meaning associated with the mark and turned to dreamwork as a mode of inquiry.
This mark is clearly part of the RGMP in its sudden and anomalous appearance, the diffusion pattern of the dot intensity, the regularity of the grid pattern, the proportions between the grid and size of dot, its generally nonharmful nature, and the intuition of meaning. There are several qualities of this mark that are unlike the typical grid mark (I have seen all these qualities as variations with other RGMP).
- Dots are solid, not pixelated. The typical mark appears to have pixilation in the skin that appears like the white-noise static pattern in red laser light.
- There is a bruise underneath the grid. Typical marks do not bruise and appear like burns, although they are not consistent in their physical condition.
- The color appears more purple than red.
- The dots are very consistent and there is no appearance of overlapping exposures. Some RGMP appear as if they were applied by light through stencils with multiple exposures such that there are overlapping dots in the same pattern and equal displacement. If we can apply the same metaphor, these appear to be a single and steady exposure.
