The Osceola times., 1875-12-25
OsCEOLA ARKANSAS SATURDAY DECEMBER 25 1875

Hemans on her death-bed said that no
pen could describe or Imagination con
ceive the visions that passed bfeore her
mind, and made her waking hours more
delightful than those spent in repose.
Rev. William Tennent, Of. Free
hold, New Jersey, was an overworked
student, and was supposed to be far
gone in consumption. In pro-
tracted illness he apparently died,
and the preparations were made for
his funeral. Not only were his friends
deceived in his case, which was one OF
coma, but he himself was doubly illu-
stoned, for he both thought that he was
dead and that his spirit had entered
paradise. His soul, as he thought, was
borne aloft to celestial attitudes, and
was enraptured with visions of the
Deity and angelic hosts. He seemed
to dwell in an enchanted region OF
limitless light and inconceivable splen.
dor At last an angel came to him and
told him that he must go back. Dark.
ness, like an overawing shadow, shut out
the celestial glories, and, full of sud
den horror, he uttered deep groan.
This dismal utterance was heard by
those around him and prevented him
from being buried alive, after all the
preparations had been made for the re-
moval of the body.
In certain forms Of physical pros
tration, the mind seems to the patient
to be capable of unusual freedom; to
be in and out of the body at the same
time, to be able to make impressions
at distance, and to have a knowledge
Of itself and of events transpiring
around it quite beyond the usual range
of the faculties. In analyzing these
seeming powers, it is impossible to
separate the imaginary from what may
be real, and to determine the exact
limit of mental action. Plutarch re-
lates that certain profigate and pro-
fame man, named Thespesius, fell from
a great height and was taken up ap-
parently dead. He remained in a
state of seeming insensibility for three
days, but on the day appointed for the
funeral unexpectedly revived, and from
this time remarkable change was
observed in his moral conduct and
character. On inquiry being made as
to the cause of the sudden reformation,
he said that in hisstate ofapparent insen-
sibility, he had been made so clearly to
see the relation of mind to matter as
to be convinced of the future existence
of thr soul. After his injury he had
supposed himself to be dead, and his
spirit to be separated from the body.
He had seemed to float in an abysm of
One of the latter at last announced to
him that he must return to the flesh
again, when he suddenly seemed to
reappear on earth, as a being from an
other world. In 1888, Johann Schwer-
zeger, after a long illness, fell into
comatose state, from which he recov-
cred. He said that he had seen as in
vision his,chole life pass before him, even
events which, before his sickness, he
seemed to have quite forgotten. He
further stated that he thought he was
about 10 enter a state Of rest and hap
piness, when he was recalled to the
world; that he was sorry to have come
back, but that he should remain here
two days. His death fulfilled the pre-
diction.
But perhaps the most remarkable OF
all phenomena of this pature is a Ger.
tain power a few patients have seemed
to possess of Withdrawing from sensa-
tion," of becoming at will insensible to
pain, and of producing a resemblance
of death. Colonel Townsend, an Eng
lishman, who died at the end of the
last century, had in his last sickness
the extraordinary power Of apparently
diving and returning to life again. 81
found his pulse sink gradually wrote
DR. Cheyne, his medical attendant, $50
that could not feel it by the most ex.
act or nice touch. DIR. Raymond could
not detect tne least Inotioii Vi thc ho"i y,
nor DIR. Skrine the least soil of the
breath upon the bright mirror held to
his mouth. We began to fear that he
was actually dead. He then began to
breathe softly" The colonel tried thi'
experiment a number of times during
his illness, and was able to render him
self insensible at will.
DR.. Brown-Sequard, in a cours'
of lectures before the Boston-Lowel
Institute, last winter, illustrated man,
like remarkable powers of mind il
mental and physical disease, by case
which had come under his own oh
servation. From such cases it woul,
seem that the mind is largely depend
ent on physical conditions for the exel
cise ofits faculties, and that its strengt
and most remarkable powers, as well
its apparent weakness, are often mos
clearly shown and recognized by som
inequality of action in periods of dii
turbed and greatly-impaired health.