Scully calls Doggett in the middle of the night, waking him up to fill him in on the killings. She asks him to meet Skinner on the scene in Pittsburgh -- she can't go because "something unexpected has come up."

This something is apparently medical in nature. When she gets off the phone, a nurse tells her the doctor wants to see her right away.

In Pittsburgh, Skinner shows Doggett the body of Leeds, found dead in his locked car. Preliminary forensic evidence suggests that the agent was killed in the car.

Skinner and Doggett examine the house. All the cult members are accounted for except the cult's leader, Anthony Tipet, who supposedly believes that hallucinogenic drugs are the key to a higher state of consciousness.

Skinner and Doggett report to Deputy Director Kersh. Skinner explains that Tipet -- who served twelve years in prison for the bludgeoning death of his wife -- is a proponent of the Via Negativa, the philosophy that the path of darkness can bring a person closer to God.

Doggett tells Kersh that the killer left no forensic evidence at any of the murder scenes. What's more, all the murder scenes were locked from the inside. Skinner suggests that Tipet achieved a drug-induced state of higher consciousness and committed the murders "psychically," a theory Kersh discounts.

We next see Tipet himself make a phone call to a laboratory. The man in the lab -- Andre Bormanis -- does not answer, but listens as Tipet leaves a message accusing Bormanis of being responsible for his condition.

When the message ends, Bormanis, terrified, picks up a razor blade and slices his forehead.

The forensics report indicates the victims were killed with an axe. Unfortunately, the wounds suggest that the murder weapon is a 1,000-year-old ceremonial axe on permanent display in a museum in Calcutta.

Doggett tells Skinner that he needs Agent Scully's assistance, only to hear that Scully is taking some personal time. He'll need to crack this case on his own.

A beggar asks Tipet for spare change. When Tipet looks at him, his third eye has manifested itself. The sidewalk turns to wet cement and engulfs the beggar. Tipet raises the axe, and then lets it fall.

Shortly thereafter, Skinner briefs Doggett about a new victim, a homeless man. An eyewitness places Tipet on the scene, so Skinner again suggests that Tipet committed the murders on the psychic plane.

However, Doggett demands hard facts so Skinner tells Doggett about Andre Bormanis, a drug dealer who served time with Tipet.

Bormanis admits that he provided Tipet with the hallucinogens he needed to achieve his higher consciousness. The agents ask about the X cut into Bormanis' forehead. He tells them it is a protection symbol. He then attempts to take some kind of drug, but Doggett stops him and takes him in for more questioning.

Later, Doggett watches Bormanis pacing in his cell, then finds a trail of bloody footprints in the corridor. They led to Tipet, floating in the lotus position in the middle of the hallway.

Doggett suddenly realizes that he is holding something in his hands. It's the bloody, disembodied head of Scully!

Skinner wakes Doggett from this dream. Coincidentally, Scully is on the phone -- she asks Doggett to trust his instincts and tells him she's going to put him in touch with some "friends of Mulder's."

Skinner has found out that the drug Bormanis tried to take was a super-amphetamine. They deduce he wanted to keep from falling asleep and so decide to have another talk with him.

Unfortunately, Bormanis sees Tipet standing outside his cell. The prisoner screams as hundreds of rats devour his body.

When Doggett and Skinner reach the cell, there is no sign of rats but Bormanis is on his cot, dead of the same axe wound as all the other victims.

Doggett finds the Lone Gunmen in his office going through the X-Files. Frohike tells Doggett, "You're in way over your head." They explain that Tipet found a way to open his mystical third eye and achieve a higher state of consciousness. Having reached that state, Tipet is trying to destroy his victims' third eyes.

The Gunmen compare Tipet's killings to a series of CIA LSD mind control projects from the 1950s. The CIA tried to create a psychic assassin, capable of reaching into people's minds and making their worst nightmares come true.

Doggett concludes that Tipet will need more drugs in order to continue his killing spree. As he leaves to investigate, Frohike concludes that Doggett is "not bad for a beginner."

Armed with Skinner, Doggett returns to Bormanis' lab, only to find Tipet standing over an active table saw. He tells the agents that he can't stop the killings, but that he saw what will happen if he doesn't stop them. The suspect then drives his forehead into the spinning saw blade.

The agents bring Tipet -- still alive -- to the hospital. When Doggett signs Tipet in, he sees Scully's name on the registration log. He goes to her room, but she's asleep.

Skinner and Doggett meet with Kersh. When Doggett explains Tipet's ability to make people's nightmares come true, Kersh praises the agent's work on the case. Although the facts don't add up yet, Kersh insists that the case is over.

Doggett leaves a message on Scully's answering machine, basically telling her what he told Kersh. It doesn't add up.

He looks in a mirror and sees Tipet standing behind him. He turns around, but there is no one else in the room. Doggett goes upstairs to bed. A man holding an axe steps from shadows and watches his ascent.

When Doggett gets dressed for work the next morning, his reflection in the mirror sports a third eye.

He meets with Skinner and tells the senior agent, "I'm not sure I'm awake." He explains that he dreamt of Tipet and suggests Stedman and Leeds had similar dreams that ended in their deaths.

Skinner sends Doggett home to get some rest.

Doggett gets off the elevator on an empty floor. He hears whispering voices. Tipet appears and says, "She's going to die. I'm not going to kill her. You are."

Our agent finds himself in Scully's apartment. There is blood on his hands. He enters Scully's bedroom. He raises the ceremonial axe over the sleeping Scully's head.

Doggett drops the axe back to his side. He raises the axe again and turns the blade toward his own forehead.

He awakens to the sound of Scully's voice. Doggett is in his own bed. He tells Scully that Tipet is in his dreams. She says that Tipet just died in the hospital.

Scully assures her partner that he just had a bad dream. He tries to share her certainty as he listens to the echoes of whispering voices in his head.