Born in France during the Hundred Years War, Joan of Arc began to hear "voices" from God at an early age. The voices progressively told her to go liberate France from the English. After convincing the court of King Charles VII concerning her divine mission, Joan inspired victory after victory. Ultimately, however, she was captured and put through a lengthy trial for heresy and witchcraft. Joan consulted her voices daily, which eventually led her to being burned at the stake in 1431. In contemporary eyes Joan's most serious crime was claiming direct contact with angels and saints. In this book Preston Russell examines the three trials of Joan; Joan's transformation in history and literature; and, as a physician, the evolution of insanity from antiquity to current brain research, presently probing the origins of consciousness to higher sources--opening up avenues that a few decades ago would have been dismissed as scientific madness. Does God speak to certain individuals in direct and very real ways? Are some human beings born with such a keen intuitive power that they can communicate with supernatural beings? And, does God use otherwise ordinary people as the conduits for his miracles? Preston Russell provides a startling conclusion that reconciles science and religion, the physical and the metaphysical.