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I never dreamed that I would be subjected to an MRI or a CAT scan or other sophisticated diagnostic system that enables medical specialists to see detailed tomographic images from inside your body.

For both of these devices, the patient lies on a flat surface and is inserted in a tube-like scanner. They both make conspicuous noises all the while you are inside of them, and that is a normal part of their function. The CAT scan makes clicking, buzzing, humming, and whirring sounds. The MRI is stranger. You feel like you're going in a long winding, curving tunnel. The one I was in made me think it had white brick walls interspersed with red glazed bricks. I was a bit afraid that I would go so deep inside that I might never come out.

The whole time I was inside the MRI "tunnel" — as a matter of fact, I think I barely went anywhere; I was just imagining that I was going somewhere — I heard whelps and whoops.…