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tecnh
Concerning
the Dying II:
Scenes
from the Belief in Death & the Belief in Life (Part II)
October
1862
I
was called to see a young lady who was dying, as it is called. She
was seated in a rocking chair, and after sitting by her a few
moments, I knew she was about to leave the body, and just as I was
going to ask her if I should not lift her on to the bed, she said to
me, "Shall I now lay you on the bed?"
I
said, “Yes,” and took her in my arms and laid her on the bed.
She
then said, "Now I will place your head, so you will be easy."
I
placed her head on the pillow and she said, "Now I will cover
you up."
I
did as she said, and she then remarked, "I will now sit down by
you and make you quiet, so you can go to sleep."
So
I took my chair and sat down by her, and in less than five minutes,
she had ceased to breathe. This young lady was as much detached from
her body as I was, and she grieved for me, instead of herself. She
believed that I
was sick -
so her happiness was in helping me. But
her life was in her wisdom, for she knew she was alive and was trying
to comfort me, since I felt grieved to see her leave - as I had then
the same idea which the world has. This is one of the many cases I
might mention to show that when persons are leaving the body, they
have all their senses - but to those who are looking on, the person
appears insane.
I
was sitting by a patient whom I had put to sleep that she might have
a needle extracted from her arm, and while the surgeon was performing
the operation, she said to me, "Does it now hurt you?"
I
replied, "No."
She
said, "I
should think it would!"
Here
was a person awake to all that was going on; who at the same time
took my body and arm for the one in which the needle was.
When
I mesmerized my subject, if his nose itched, he would
say to me, "I wish you would scratch your
nose," and if I did, it would satisfy him.
I
will now say a word to those persons who are so anxious to have their
friends know they are dying. To me this is horrible, and if they only
knew what I know, they would never forgive themselves for the misery
they inflict on those who would like to stay with them. There is no
worse punishment I can inflict on a mesmerized subject than to
mentally carry him away and leave him among strangers. Everyone who
has ever mesmerized knows this fact. Now see how the dying like to
embrace their friends. The army nurses will tell you that the dying
man will get as near you as possible and that they like to have you
soothe them, till they are separate from our belief of life - for
that is what torments them. I have seen a great many when their
friends cut the cord that held them to their belief of life, and I
know how it acts upon them.
According
to the Christian belief, it is necessary to prepare the dying to go
to heaven. So the minister comes to create a heaven in his own mind,
far off - and to impress the dying man of it, and as he grows
nervous, he creates one according to his own belief and starts for
it, under the direction of his pious friend. The scene is as trying
as it is to tear a child from its mother and lodge it in some
dungeon, and then say good night. Both are as full of grief as they
can be - but the dying get to that pitch which grief cannot reach.
Then they become as marble, and their friends console themselves by
saying they are calm.
I
have seen all this many times. This is what I want to impress on the
friends. If you want the satisfaction of having your friends with you
- never even hint that they are going away, for you will drive them
from you. But sit by them, just as though you were all together, and
you will see a scene that you will always greatly remember - for you
will always feel this life of your friend or child mingling with
yours, not to be separated by a belief.
These
are the proofs of that wisdom which teaches me that my life, senses,
and everything near and dear to me in this world of solution, which
is God - and in it we all live and move, although by our belief we
all live without God and in bondage, through fear of death. I know
that every person, like the gold, exists in the solution, with all
his life qualities of wisdom and opinion - and is happy or miserable,
according to his life. The knowledge of this wisdom is the new birth.
Disease is a departure from this wisdom, which will dissolve the
error that holds the life in bondage, and set them free from death.
To be free and know it is to know this great truth, and put it into
practice. Therefore, to cure disease as I do, it is necessary to
believe this - not as a blind belief, but as a wisdom which is a
light that sees through the error of man's belief.
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