Observations placeholder
Saint Augustine - De Civitate Dei volume 5 – Describes a man who could go out of body and appear dead
Identifier
026167
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
I apologise for the translation, Google Latin does its best, but the scanning in the original text we used appears to have errors
A description of the experience
As described in Illustrations Of The Influence Of The Mind Upon The Body In Health And Disease, Designed To Elucidate The Action Of The Imagination - Daniel Hack Tuke, M.D., M.R.C.P.,
PART III. THE WILL.
CHAPTER XIV. INFLUENCE OF THE WILL UPON SENSATION, THE VOLUNTARY AND INVOLUNTARY MUSCLES, AND THE ORGANIC FUNCTIONS.
SECTION III.— Influence of the Will upon the Involuntary-Muscles and the Organic Functions.
St. Augustine gives a case of voluntary trance in the "De Civitate Dei" (Opera, Edit. 15G9, vol. v, p. 796):
Jam illud multo incredibilius, (piod plerique fratres memoria recentissima expert! sunt. Presbyter fecit quidam nomine Pestitutus in paroccia Calamensis ecclesise, qui quando ei placebat (rogabatur autcm ut hoc faceret ab eis qui rem mirabilem coram scire cupiebant), ad imitatas quasi lamentantis cujus . Libel homines voces, ita se auferebat a sensibus, et jacebat simillimus mortuo; ut non solum vellicantes atque pungentes minime sentiret, sed aliquando etiam igne ureretur admoto, sine ullo doloris sensu nisi postmodum ex vulnere ; non autem obnitendo, sed non sentiendo non movere corpus, probabatur, quod tanquam in defuncto nullus inveniebatur anhelitus : hominum tamen voces, si clarius loquerentur, tanquam de longinquo se audisse postea referebat." |
Now what may seem much more incredible, As if he was dead and hardly breathing |