THE SPIRIT LIFE. A Journey to the Other World. A Very Queer Experience.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 135, 2 January 1886, Page 3

THE SPIRIT LIFE. A Journey to the Other World. A Very Queer Experience.

Graphic Story of a Man Who Died, tout ; {-. ■' . was Afterward* Restored. '7 - ■ ypp Ijbelieye that there is an existence aftei? death ? tMost, assuredly, for I was dead myself ,©nee, and know that I retained my identity after the spark of life hadleftthe body; Don't ,look alarlned. ' I ,atn not crazy, and will; tell you my story if you care tojisten." i ,The,;person who had co calmly uttered the foregoing remarkable words had not (he appearance of an escaped lunatic. He was a, tall, spare man, past the meridian of life, grey-haired, and unmistakably agentleman. , His deep-set grey eyes "met the startled [gaze of a reporter, to whom, he had addressed 'himself, calmly and without wavering. , "It is a strange tale," he continued, " ani I sometimea think it all a dream, a mere fantasy, but the testimony of others assures me that ifc is a reality. In the spring of 187 — I was thrown from the back of a horse and dragged some distance over the frozen earth. Picked up unconscious, I was taken home and medical aid at once summoned. The physicians could discover no outward indication of serious injury, and applied various restoratives to bring me, back to consciousness, but in vain. I remained in a comatose condition bordering on catalepsy for several days. I have no recollection of anything that occurred during this period. The first sensation I experienced after being hurled violently to the ground on the day of the accident was that peculiar feeling one sometimes has in the transition between sleeping and waking. I tried to rouse myself, but could not shake off the delicious lethargy which bound me hand and foot Through half closed eyelids I saw my wife and a stranger — who, I have since learned, was the nurse —by the bedside. I spoke, but from the expression on the faces of the watchers I knew that my words were inaudible. Then a look of alarm spread ovor the face of my wife. 'He is dying,' I heatd her say, and she flew swiftly from the room. There was a sound of many foot3teps and much confusion in an adjoining chamber. A physician Avith whom I had long been on inti mate terms entered and came quickly to my ' bedside. In as emphatic a manner as possible I informed him that I was not only dying, but was feeling quite well. To my disgust and astonishment he paid not the slightost attention to what I said, and I asked, rather petulantly, if he and my family had entered into a conspiracy against mo and were trying to make it appear that I was dangerously ill. Still no reply. I was astounded. My wife and two daughters, my sister, the nurpe, and Dr. were all gathered about my bedside, and not one of them gave any evidence that my voice had been heard. Indeed, in all their faces I saw the most acute anguieh. My wife knslt by the side of the bod, and taking my hand in hers, wept aloud. My two daughters were on either side of her, both in tears. The physician, with his fingers on my pulse, regarded me sorrow-

tuny." Was it Death? "What did it all mean? A sudden thought flashed upon me—' 1 am dying and this ia death !' No, that wag impossible, for I was free from pain and was not conscious of any bodily diseomfoit. Sfcill that peculiar lethargic sensation puzzled me. It was entirely different from anything I had experienced before. And it was growing on me My whole body seemed to be lifted up and away from material objects. I could speak, but evidently my voice could not be heard, What cared lif this was death ? Dying was a pleasure ! Then all the events of my life flitted through my mind. The good,the bad, the indifferent stalked by in solemn procession, and I remember now that I was rather pleased to observe that the good deeds were irore numerous than I would have believed, * I can't ba such a very bad fellow, after all,' l murmured. But, oh! what an army of iniquities hailed me as their author ? I was a tremendous sinner, ' after all, I thought. Strange that I never thought of praying. The idea of God, or heaven, or eternal happiness or overrating damnation never came to me once. Now I began to realise that it was difficult for me to breathe. There eeemed to be a heavy weight on my chest and a buzzing in my ears. I struggled against this mightily. Then I thought myself falling -down, down, dotrn. I cleft the air like an arrow. If you have ever had the sensation of falling from a great height in ytur dreams you can realise how horrible it is. At last my descent was arrested ; I hovered in air as through I had the gift of wings. A shock as from a galvanic battery brought me to my senses. I was standing by an open window in my bedroom. There, in one corner, grouped about the bed, were the members of my family, the physicians and the nurse. Dr. rose " 'It is all over ; I think he is dead,' he said, and the physician drew the sheet over a still form stretched on the couch,"

Strange Experience. C( Was I really dead ? I could not believe it, and yet I folt that I was in some way very much changed. I walked acros3 the room, and, putting my hand on my wife's head, whispered words of love and consolation in her ear. She heard them not. I looked down on the face of the dead, which, though it was covered by the sheet, was perfectly visible to me. The features were composed, and only a deathly pallor told that life was extinct. Yes, it was dead ; there cowld be no doubt about that Bub I had expected a different reception upon my entry into the spirit world. Here wore no Elysian fields, no heavenly choirs, no golden cities with pearly gates. There was no one in sight even who wore wings I was in my own room in the very worldly city of ; nothing appeared to be altered save myself, and yet I had departed this life. I laughed to think of the utter absurdities that had been written in all ages about man's existence after death. This was different from anything I had ever read. "I walked down stairs and into the street. Now the scene changed. The houses, the streets, all the familiar surroundings taded away, aud instead there was enfolded to my sight a beautiful landscape. Under my feet was close velvet turf, dotted with bright flowers. Blue hills stretched far away, fair and vast, seemingly without end, 1 for there was no horizon. The air was laden with the soft perfume of flowers, and birds of gay plumage carolled pongs of heavenly eweetness among the nodding branches ot richly foliaged trees. This 1 was heaven, indeed, I thought, but. apparently a private heaven, for, as far as I could see, I was its only tenant. Far off in the distance I now saw what pleased me greatly, the forms of many persons. They drew nearer and nearer, and soon I Baw I was among them. They regarded me strangely, and as I addressed them. * answered me not, but looked puzzled, and ;, with averted faces passed hurriedly on. ] was ostracised!-, There were familiar faces , in • the throtig, friends whom I had kriowt 1 oh earth, but they did not recognise me now „ Surely 4here 'was something Aamiss here /Whatto.do I knew not. I could only wai . and 'trust; J I felt' that f^wus rioi siioh a;

hese were, but knew not' what the difference r mig_hs bef 4 f; JEjut tfpfa'taa I $>3k'e"df with' [ curious eyes* on this heavenly ,'gatfiering'l' became conscious that 'some potent influence was drawing me away, whither I knew not, .Slowly, the blueihillsjfaded jns'the distance, the,, my^terious^ multitude, .vanished, the, Songbirds* jceaaed $eir^ melody,. the* grass under*rny"feet' became hard 'and^stbnyi a strange chill' seized* me standing in my own yard oncjamore. A powerful influence drew me 'into the houae And into my own room; It, was as I <had left it. On the bed reposed a still form that I knew to be my mortal body, and iby its aide a neighbour, sat watching. I tried, to keep away from that couch of death, but an iron hand had me in its grip. ' .Desperately I ' resisted, feeling that gome terrible di&aster was impending, but my struggles were vain. I was close to the bed, and o^ercomeiwith horror I cried aloud and fell forward oh the cold form of my dead self. Then my senses left me." - -

Coming Back: to Life. " *He will live' were the first words that saluted me as I regained consciousness. I was lying on my own bed in my own room, surrounded by many persons, whom I but imperfectly recognised, yet knew were the members of my family. So I was not dead after all, and it had been all the dream ! My brains was too weary to grapple with th<=» subject, and I tried to forget the sceneß I had witnessed. How 1 suffered during the next few hours no human tongue can over tell. The agony of a lifetiaie was crowded into those moments. The rest ia soon told. I recovered in due courae of time and returned to my accustomed avocations, I afterwards learned that upon my apparent demise an undertaker had been called in to embalm the body, but that worthy, upon making an incision in the thigh for the purpose of injecting the embalming fl. »Ida was astonished to find that bright red blood flowed feebly from the wound. Physicians were hastily summoned, and after examinnation and consultation it was decided that, although I was dead to all appearances, it would be wise to po3tpoue further mortuary operations for a short time and wait developments. Watchers were placed at my bedside and a physician remained in the house ready for any emergency. On the afternoon of the second day the neighbour who was on duty at the time was paralysed with horror when what he supposed to be the corpse of his lamented friend suddenly rose up in bed with a frightful shriek. The dead had come to life. " l)o I really believe that I was dead at all ? I do, most assuredly, and I have a peculiar theory explaining the phenomenon. But there is a certain vital principle that animates nature, and call it what you may this principle is life. If under certain conditions then life is capable of existing, we have only to remove those conditions to destroy life This we can easily do, but no one has yet discovered how the some condition can be restored. When that is done we will live forever. Now 1 believe that when I apparently died the process was not com plete. That is, there still remained in the body certain elements which made it possible for the vital spark to return to its earthly habitat. The soul, or principle of life, gradually went out as the conditions grew lees favourable for life, but enough of that life principle was retained in the flesh to draw back the whole should the conditions become more favourable. In other wprds, I was nine-tenths dead ; just dead enough to be in the spirit world for a time, but not dead enough to stay there. Thus it was that the disembodied spirits I met in the other world recognised that there wa something strange in my appearance ; that I wa^ not not as they were. Hence I could not make myself known to them. And when the process of death was arrested in the body that I had left behind, the conditions became such that life was again possible, and the tiny sparks of vitality grew stronger and stronger, slowly reclaiming that part of itself which had wandered away, till at last the missing 'bioplasms' returned, and, reuniting the whole, took possession of of its former home, and the nine-tenths dead body became a living organism once more. I can realize now how times d ) 3 s not affect the next world ; for what seemed but a few minutes to me was in reality but thirty-six hours on the earth.' 1