A REMARKABLE CASE OF TRANCE.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 198, 19 March 1868, Page 3

A REMARKABLE CASE OF TRANCE.

The people living in the vicinity of Whiteland, Johnson County, Indiana, have recently been excited over a matter which, to say the least, is very strange. Several weeks since Miss Van Arsdale, a young woman about seventeen years old, living at the house of a family near Whiteland, in the capacity of a servant, was taken sick with something like hysterics. She had been confined to her bed a little over a week, when, to all appearances, she died. The body, however, did not entirely lose its warmth, and a very slight pulse remained. The people with whom she was living, supposed that she was dead, and were making preparations to bury her, when the physician interfered, forbidding any such step. After remaining in this state twelve hours, consciousness returned, and the girl pronounced herself much better. She then went on to describe her sensations and experiences during the trance, averring that she had visited heaven and hell, and had conversed with the Saviour, and many persons whom she had on earth. She spoke of seeing persons in both places who had recently died; in heaven, a young man named Quinn, who, although at one time a professor of religion, had in the last year or two of his life led a bad life; in hell, the two men, Hatchell and Patterson, who were lynched at Eranklyn on the night of October 31, far the murder of Lyons, at Greenwood. Miss Van Arsdale sent for a number of persons in the neighborhood, and not only imparted to them news of lost friends, but told of sins committed by them, supposed to be unknown to any one. Amongst others was a man who had participated in the execution of the men named above ; she told him that he had been there that night (which he acknowledged), and had in the sight of Q-od, committed murder. Previous to this, the names of the band had been kept a profound secret, and this man had not even been suspected. She narrated a good many strange things, relating mainly to individuals both in this world and the other, many of which it would have been almost impossible for her to have invented. But the strangest part of the story is yet to come. A few hours after the expiration of the first trance she predicted she would have another, and told to a minute the time at which it would commence, and when it would end. Everything turned out as she said; at the exact time she fell into the same state. In an ordinary trance, or cataleptic state, respiration is not

suspended, but in this case breathing could not he observed. She was to all appearances dead; but the pulse beat faintly, and the body was not cold. All sensation was goue. The physician made numerous experiments, pricking the body, opening the veins and so forth, to discover if there could be any deception. In the end he was perfectly couvinced that there was none. Attho expiration of the time set by herself she came to, and in a few hours was well enough to leave her bed, and go about the-bcruse. The! story of her experience in the second trance was similar to the first one, and was confined wholly to individuals. She seemed unable to describe the places she had been in, but gave histories of persons and events with remarkable minuteness. She also said that she would never have a recurrence of the trance unless she should commit some flagrant sin; herauthority for this prediction was, that the Lord himself had told her so.

This is certainly a strange thing. The girl is uneducated, and has lived about as a servant ever since she was able to work. She has always borne a good characte for truthfulness, and is a member of a church. She is almost the last person in the world to have manufactured such stories, and one thing especially noticable is the fact of her sending for persons to whom, before her illness, she would have been afraid to have spoken, and conversing with them without the least restraint;'; and telling them stories and facts not the most palatable to worldly people. She was visited by a great many people, some of them eminently respectable, who vouched for many of the statements of her illness. The physician in attendance is positive as to her condition during the whole time, and hadit not been for him she would have been buried alive.—lndianopolis Herald.