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Wednesday, July 31, 2024

More Early Accounts of Out-of-Body Experiences and Near-Death Experiences

In the January 1894 edition of the publication Borderland, page 257, George Wlyde M.D. states the following:

"It has been long known that persons who have been all but drowned, so as to appear actually dead, but who—it may be after hours of manipulation—have been restored to consciousness, have sometimes declared that the process of drowning, after the first struggle, was mot agonising, but actually pleasurable. These individuals have sometimes said that the entire history of their lives has flashed before them as if photographed instantaneously, and that then they have seemed to ascend to heavenly regions and celestial felicity."

Wlyde then gives us an account of his personal experience of having an out-of-body experience. 

"The same results have often followed the use of chloroform, and I myself, one day, in the year 1874, while inhaling chloroform as a relief to the agony of passing a small renal calculus, suddenly, to my great wonder, found my ego,  or soul, or reasoning faculty, clothed, and in the form of my body, standing about two yards outside my body, and contemplating that body as it lay motionless on the bed. "

On the next page, Wlyde states this"Mr. Stodart, dentist, told me he had met with many analogous cases, and at the Dental Hospital they told me that the patients under gas often saw visions and spoke of being out of their bodies." On the same page we read of this striking case reported by a Mr. Duguid:

"My wife’s mother, Mrs. Arnot, left us for the higher existence on Feb. 5th, 1880. There is a married daughter living at Banchory, three miles from this town; Mrs. Arnot died at eleven o’clock in the forenoon. The married daughter was very ill in labour, and the doctors in attendance thought it wise to administer chloroform... She passed under the influence thereof at twelve o’clock, noon, and while doing so told all those present that her mother was dead, for she saw her, and that the baby was with her mother. No tidings of the mother’s death reached the daughter’s house till four o’clock in the afternoon, and on no account was she told after coming from under the influence of the chloroform. It is noteworthy that she spoke of having seen her babe in the spirit world as well as her mother, which was quite consistent with fact, as the infant died in the doctor’s hands, and was in the spirit world while the mother was still under the influence of chloroform."

1n 1932 Mary M. Schulz wrote an account entitled "One hour and five minutes in eternity."  She stated this on page 22 of the June 1932 Forum of Psychic and Science Research:

"Many have had experiences 'in eternity.' I spent one hour and five minutes in the world eternal, where there is no death. It was on Sunday night, January twenty fourth, nineteen hundred and thirty-two, that I transcended the mystery of the grave. I was greatly worried over a lawsuit in which I was involved and could not sleep. I had been praying to the great Invisible for help when suddenly a strange 'quiver' went over my body and the next instant I was standing looking at myself. Then I heard the voice of 'something' say, 'Let’s go'.  And yet I could see my body and also the body of a friend who was sleeping soundly. Suddenly I found myself floating in space accompanied by a spirit friend who had come for me. It was a thrilling journey filled with varieties of scenery and climates— storms, ice and cold, and then miraculously, warmth and sunshine. We were surrounded by hundreds of planets, as it were. The guide bade us stop at one in particular which he said was 'Mario'. Its inhabitants were very cordial to us and made us welcome. But it was not for us to linger there. Our chief destination was the plane which is really the clearing house for all souls released from earth life. It was there I gained conclusive evidence that while mourners weep and say goodby to the soul claimed by death, friends 'over there' are greeting us and us and welcoming our spirit to its new home where life is eternal....This 'place' was peopled with the departed of earth— our dear ones—-and everything was similar to the planet earth, except more beautiful. Everywhere I saw happy faces free from the lines of worry and money problems. From my friends I learned that when the end of our earth experience occurs, through what is known as death, certain of our spirit friends and guides are told and are commissioned to come for us."

A similar tale was told in 1929 by a person who claimed to have spent  "minutes in eternity" after having what felt like a heart attack. He states, "I know that for a limited time one night last year out in California my spiritual entity left my body and went somewhere -- a concrete place where I could talk, walk about, feel and see; where answers were returned to questions addressed to physically dead people, which have checked up in in the waking world and clarified for me the riddle of earthly existence." 

In 1897 William H. Hamby told an account of a near-death experience and out-of-body experience, at a time when such terms were not in common use.  On page 71 of the June-November 1897 Metaphysical Magazine (Volume 6),  Hamby states the following:

"Early in the evening I had started to return to our cabin, but. soon discovered that I had completely lost my bearings. I had been feeling very cold, but seemed to be perfectly comfortable when I sank down behind the tree to rest, before again trying to reach camp....Soon the world seemed slowly fading away. I could hear thousands of the merriest silver bells ringing away off in the forest. Nearer and nearer they came until they were all around me ringing in the strangest, wildest way. Then I began to rise and without feeling the least surprise glanced downward and saw my body sitting by the tree. I felt perfectly content and considered the circumstance a matter of course. Then suddenly and without effort I saw my companions two miles away hunting for me-and could hear them talking. Neither did this seem in the least strange; I was conscious of them without any special effort. I watched them-or thought of them rather-until they found my body, and heard one fellow say, ' He is frozen.' They rubbed and worked desperately with my body for some time. Then the other said- ' It's too late, I fear, but let's get him to the camp.'....I was placed on the bed. Again I heard one of them say: ' He's dead.'  'I hope not,' replied his companion; ' maybe we can bring him to.'  They piled snow all around me, built up a large fire and continued to rub my hands and face. After a little they forced my mouth open and poured some brandy down my throat. Suddenly there was a flash of lightning, followed by a moment of keen pain; then I knew no more. About three hours later I became conscious of being on a very wet bed, with two scared men still pulling and hauling at me."

On page 237 of the June-November 1897 Metaphysical Magazine (Volume 6),  we have a similar account by another author.  W. A. Laufman tells us this:

"My strange experience dates from about two years ago when I took sick in Mankato. . . . On December 26, at I I o'clock in the morning, the doctor pronounced me dead and my body was turned over to M. Maui's undertaking establishment for preparation for shipment. My brother, C. H. Laufman, of Des Moines, Ia., was telegraphed for and came on to take charge of my remains.  

On that fatal morning I was suddenly aware of an indescribable sensation, beginning at my feet and snapping clear through my frame and out at the top of my head. I was then conscious of something like a ball of cotton released and spreading out, in form the size of a man at least three feet taller than myself. I was standing in the centre of the room and plainly saw my dead body lying on the cot. I started to leave the room and met one of the doctors. I wondered that he did not say something to me, but as he made no effort to stop me I went out on the street. 

I walked down Fourteenth street to the corner toward California avenue, and there met an old acquaintance from Mitchell, S. D., named Milt Blose. I attempted to strike him on the back by way of salutation, but my arm passed right through him. I did not speak to him, but struck at him again with the same result. I utterly failed to attract his attention., although I followed him at least a block. I distinctly saw him walk across the street and gaze at a miniature Ferris wheel in a window." 

After leaving Blose I went up to the hospital to see the body. I found the door closed, but as I could see into the room I passed through the door and gazed at myself for a while. I then went out and found the doctors and heard them discussing my case. I hung around with them until the arrival of my brother. I went in with him and the doctors and watched his anguish as he looked at my dead face. He remained at the hospital that night, as it was very late, and I went into the room with him and watched until he fell asleep.

I was laid out dead exactly thirty-seven hours and fifty-eight minutes. I stayed around with the doctors and my brother during all of the time, and heard and remembered every word spoken by them. The doctors wanted to make a post-mortem examination, but my brother objected.

Of course, you want to know how I got back into my shell, and it happened in this way: One of the specialists wanted to try some experiment with a new electric apparatus. My brother consented to it, and I accompanied them to my deathbed to watch the operation. The instruments were attached to my feet, and I distinctly felt the sensation while standing out in the centre of the room. I was next conscious of excruciating pains all through me, and I knew I was in my body again."

The link below takes you to a 1972 story that appeared before Moody's 1975 book was published:

https://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm%3A2962401?solr%5Bquery

We get the account shown below (click on the image to read it more easily).

early near-death experience

The headline in the story is "BOY 'CAME BACK FROM DEAD' SIX TIMES." We read this:

"At no stage was the boy in the presence of the doctors and nurse other than when he was in a deep coma or clinically dead...His father...told Litchfield: 'It was if he had been watching everything from afar, as if another world. He was aware of everything those doctors had done for him, without anyone telling him.' " 

It sounds like another case of a veridical near-death experience, like those described in my post here

out-of-body experience

A typical account in a near-death experience

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