Weird People

When we consider the evidence for suspended animation, as usual with the majority of claims for the paranormal, anecdotal, it is obvious that even within the strange realms of psychic abilities and mind power, cases of suspended animation provoke more incredulity than other ‘paranormal powers’.

It has been claimed that many Eastern yogis, fakirs and shamans are known to be able to control physiological activities such as the heartbeat, body temperature, blood pressure and breathing, using mind power alone. There are reports that the Egyptian Tahra Bey (c1925), could increase his pulse-rate to 140 beats a minute, or slow it down to 40, and sometimes even stop it completely. Another Egyptian, Hamid Bey, who was investigated by three physicians, could control the pulse-rate in his wrist and cause it to differ from the rate of his heart-beat. Such was the power of his mind that in one experiment the left wrist recorded a pulse-rate of 102, the right 84, and the heart 96. All should normally be close to the average of 72.

Suspended Animation in the East

Taking this psychic or mind power a significant stage further, seemingly well beyond the powers of western mediums, psychics and healers, we have those in the east who, it is claimed, can enter into a state of suspended animation. Here the physiological activities of the whole body are seemingly stopped, and a person shows all the signs of physical death, with no detectable heartbeat or respiration. Sometimes this occurs without warning, and a person thought dead will, after a trance lasting some hours, or even days, unexpectedly come back to life.

There was a recent example in a village in the Indian southern state of Tamil Nadu, reported by ABC News Online on 13 October 2003, where an 80 year old man was thought to have died of old age – his sister-in-law describing him as being ‘like wood’ when she found him. He was only woken by being given the traditional cold water bath minutes before he was due to be placed on the funeral pyre.

Mind Power & Voluntary Trance

More extraordinary and much rarer are extreme cases of what is known as ‘voluntary trance’, where suspended animation is apparently achieved by will, sometimes as part of a mystical ordeal. Examples of this occur mainly in cultures with a tradition of severe physical control such as India, West Africa and Egypt. In 1974 a jujuman from Togo in West Africa was buried in a coffin covered with concrete slabs and layers of mortar. After a couple of hours the large crowd who had gathered to observe the event started to panic, and begged the authorities to let him free. Suddenly the jujuman burst out through the concrete and the soil – leaving his nailed coffin undisturbed. His secret, he said, was meditating for long periods underground.

The Egyptian Rahman Bey is said to be an expert in this type of phenomenon, and there are other records from 19th century India of yogis or fakirs suspending their breathing or decreasing it to such a degree as to be undetectable, and, if accounts are to be believed, subsequently allowing themselves to be buried alive for days at a time. However, in the last 30 years or so there have been so many fatalities among inadequately trained holy men attempting this feat that the Indian authorities have stopped it completely.

19th Century Mind Power Cases

Two extraordinary 19th century cases of suspended animation involved a Colonel Townshend, and an Indian fakir who allowed himself to be buried alive for nine months.

Colonel Townshend could seemingly ‘die’ whenever he pleased. Using the power of his mind he would stop his heart from beating; there were no signs of breathing, and his whole body would become as cold and stiff as death itself. His features were shrunk and colourless, and his eyes distant and cold. He would remain in this state for many hours and then slowly revive. According to his doctor, Dr. Cheyne, Colonel Townsend’s own description of the phenomenon was that he could ‘die or expire when he pleased; and yet by an effort of both mind and body, or somehow, he could come to life again’.

On one occasion three medical men witnessed his phenomena, one of whom kept his hand on the Colonel’s heart, another held his wrist, and the third put a mirror in front of his lips. They found that all traces of breathing and pulse gradually stopped. So convinced were they that he was in fact dead, that they were ready to leave the room when they noticed some signs of life appearing, and slowly he revived.

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