Mysteries of the vital element in connexion with dreams, somnambulism, trance, vital photography, faith and will, anaesthesia, nervous congestion and creative function : modern spiritualism explained / by Robert H. Collyer.

  • Collyer, Robert H.
Date:
1871
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mysteries of the vital element in connexion with dreams, somnambulism, trance, vital photography, faith and will, anaesthesia, nervous congestion and creative function : modern spiritualism explained / by Robert H. Collyer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    hitherto a sceptic, goes as quickly as possible to the spot and finds three persons there, who had been there, they assured him, for more than fifteen minutes, and that no other person had been about there in the meantime. In a somnam- bulic journey to the lower room in the Temple, being questioned by Dr. C. as to how many persons there are there, he says, Five. In fact there were four—but Dr. C. asks, Did you count yourself? and he answers, Yes. Dr. C. puts the following by request : '' What has one of them in his hand ? He replies, foot. It is reported that the thing held up was in fact a chair, and that it was held by the foot of it. Dr. C. now asked the patient what foot it was he meant, and he said, of a stool. At fourteen minutes before six, Dr. C. commences the upward passes to awake the patient. At twelve minutes before six he begins gradually to move his head, and at ten minutes before six has it erect against the chair, sighs deeply, shrugs the shoulders, and presses the hands against his face and eyes, rubbing the latter, and stretching as if just waked from a deep sleep. Thus his sleeping lasted for an hour and ten minutes, during all which time every part of him, unless moved by persons present, was perfectly composed as in sleep, except so far as was necessary to perform the acts above described, and except that a clapping of hands at his ear produced a motion of the head, and did the same on repetition. Mr. , gradually recovering himself, begins to remark that his arms were quite stiff and sore from rowing yesterday, when he came here, so that he could not bend them, but are now limber and free from soreness, and his back, which was quite stiff and sore when he came here, has now but little of soreness. Asked by the Rev. Dr. Greenwood— How long do you think you have been asleep? He says, About ten minutes—I recollect I saw Dr. Collyerandno one else. [Dr. G. says this must have been when he was in the semi-state.] I feel just as if waked from a natural sleep—I felt no one handle or touch me during my sleej), nor recollect any visions or dreams, or of hearing any noises. The Rev. Mr. Gannett says to him, You pressed your chest and crossed your arms against your breast when waking, as though pained. Did you feel any pain during the last four or five minutes ? He replies, Not at all. He says he tried not to go to sleep, and thought of everything he could to keep awake. Never saw any magnetizing till he saw it lately here by Dr. Collyer, and that he always calls the leg of a chair the foot of it. Voted, That each of the sub-committee be requested to state his opinion upon the facts observed. Dr. Storer— I was hitherto entirely sceptical, and consider this last as the only satisfactory experiment I have seen. I have now no doubt that Mr. was in an unnatural state. Dr. Lewis—I have had no doubts of the other subjects having been in the unnatural state, and of course, have none that this was so. Dr. Morrell states substantially the same as Dr. Storer. Dr. Adams— I feel obliged to say, Ithink the patient was in a very strange and unnatural state of nerve. /. W. James, Esq_.} concurs generally in the foregoing statements.