Although the circumstances of the interview raise some ethical concerns, the information obtained sh

Home Find a Therapist Find Find a Therapist Find a Psychiatrist Find a Therapy Group Find a Treatment Facility Do I Need Therapy? Professionals Therapist Login Therapist Sign-Up Topic Streams Addiction Aging Animal Behavior Anxiety Autism Behavioral Economics Child Development Cognition Creativity Depression Diet Eating Disorders Education Environment Ethics and Morality Evolutionary Psychology Gender Happiness Health Integrative Medicine Intelligence Law and Crime Media Memory Neuroscience Parenting Personal Perspectives Personality Philosophy Politics Procrastination Psych Careers Psychiatry Race and Ethnicity Relationships Resilience Self-Help Sex Sleep Social Life Spirituality Sport and Competition Stress Therapy Work Get Help Mental Health Addiction ADHD Anxiety Asperger's Autism Bipolar Disorder Depression Eating future interests Disorders Insomnia OCD Personality Passive Aggression Personality Shyness Personal



Growth Happiness Goal Setting Positive Psychology Relationships future interests




Low Sexual Desire Relationships Sex Emotion Management Anger Procrastination Stress Family Life Adolescents Child Development Elder Care Parenting Siblings Recently future interests Diagnosed? Diagnosis future interests Dictionary Magazine future interests Current Issue Customer Service future interests Subscribe Renew Give a Gift Archive Tests Psych Basics Experts Index of Blogs Our Experts Public Speakers Media Interviews

Can you imagine how frightening it must be to feel that you are living in The Matrix'? Michael Brea told a New York Daily News reporter that he believed he was like the main character in that Sci-fi movie. Keanu Reeves played Neo, a man living in a dream-like world controlled by machines.

Brea, a 31-year-old aspiring actor lived with his family in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. On November future interests 23rd he was arrested for killing his mother. It was alleged that he hacked her to death with a 3-foot-long ceremonial sword. Brea had walk-on roles on the television show "Ugly Betty" and the movie "Step Up 3D." His mother was described by a neighbor as, "a wonderful mother. She was always cooking black beans and Creole food. On New Year's [Day], she made this traditional soup that was amazing...[she] raised [Michael] to be loving " http://www.nydailynews.com/nylocal/2010/11/24/2010-11-24relativ... It was reported future interests that Brea attended a meeting at a Masonic lodge the night before and returned home complaining of a headache. The neighbors were jolted awake by his mother's screams early that morning. They heard Brea yell "Repent! Repent! Repent!" and "You never accepted Jesus." They also heard him shouting Bible verses and comments about Freemasons. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40334933/ns/usnews-crimeandcourts/...

Neighbors called 911. Clinton Clare, the downstairs neighbor, told reporters future interests that the police delayed about an hour before breaking into the apartment. Clare recalled, "I could hear her groaning future interests inside ... She was still alive, but they wouldn't go in." http://policelink.monster.com/news/articles/147571-hollywood-acto...

When police entered the apartment they found Brea in his bedroom, holding future interests a Bible and the sword. The police used a Taser to subdue him. When they carried him out on a stretcher he screamed: "The greatest architect in the universe!," which is a Masonic reference to God. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/celebritology/2010/11/uglybetty...

Brea was taken to Kings County Hospital and later admitted to the psychiatric jail ward of Bellevue



Hospital. Somehow, a NY Daily News reporter was able to obtain an hour long, exclusive interview with him there. How did the reporter get onto the locked ward? Did Brea's attorney give permission? future interests Was Brea even competent to agree to the interview?

Although the circumstances of the interview raise some ethical concerns, the information obtained sheds light on Brea's mental state at the time he killed his mother. Brea told the reporter, "I felt like Neo from 'The Matrix.' I began hearing voices



and feeling powerful ... They were asking about the difference between mom and mother. It was a sign...I was sleeping in my bedroom. God came above my bed and reached his arm to me...I said, 'God, is my time on earth over?' I heard a voice say, 'Yes Michael, today is your last day.'" www.nydailynews.com , http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40382757/ns/today-entertainment/

Brea vividly described the attack, "I was slashing my mom and I heard the police knocking on the door yelling, 'Michael, open up, Michael, future interests open up,' but I knew they wouldn't open the door and stop me because the spirits were protecting me ... I just kept cutting her. No one could stop me. I was doing the work of God...I didn't kill her. I killed the demon inside her. It was the work of God." http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nycrime/2010/11/26/2010-11-26i... future interests

Did Brea's family realize he was mentally ill? He was never violent before and had no criminal history. It appeared that he had a close relationship with his mother. His uncle, Martial Brea, told the D
Full Post