"The Doctor": you are right, it was based on a real experience. I remember first hearing this song at the Essex Folk Festival 1968 (in a tent at the back of a pub in Collier Row near Romford). Dave Cousins introduced the song as being inspired by an encounter he had had in shop where a man had walked in and claimed to be Jesus.

I agree with Dave MacKenzie: whichever way you interpret it (psychology/theology) it is a brilliant song. It made a big impression on me at the time and I have never forgotten it.

- jeanie