Observations placeholder
Mr L Hymans has an OBE at the dentist’s and in a hotel room
Identifier
027935
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Revue Métapsychique (1930, pp. 191-3) sent to Prof. Richet by Mr. L. Hymans in June 1928:
«... I think it is useful to share with you a phenomenon that has happened to me twice and that seems to prove that consciousness can function autonomously of the brain.
Two times, in a state of consciousness, I saw my body inanimate, with the feeling that it was an object outside me. I don't want to try to explain how I saw without eyes, I'm just stating a fact.
The first time it was in a dentist's chair. While I was anaesthetized, I had the feeling of waking up and a feeling of floating atop the room, from where I watched, with the greatest astonishment, the dentist who was treating my body, and the anaesthetist on the side. I saw my inanimate body as distinctly as any other object in the room. Everything felt like a living painting to me. It lasted only a few seconds. I lost consciousness again and woke up in the chair with a very clear impression of what I had seen.
The second time, I was in London, in a hotel, waking up in the morning a little sick (my heart is a little weak) and a little while after waking up I fainted.
To my surprise, I was at the top of the room, from where I watched, amazed, my body inanimate in bed, with my eyes closed. I unsuccessfully tried to get inside my body and concluded that I was dead. I started thinking about what the hotel people, my parents, my friends, would say about this, whether there would be a criminal investigation, what would happen to my business. Certainly, I had not lost my mind or consciousness of myself, I saw my inanimate body as a separate object; I was able to look at my face. However, I could not leave the room; I felt almost chained, immobilized in the corner where I was.
After an hour or two, I heard knocking on the door (locked) several times, without being able to give a sign of life. Shortly afterwards, the hotel doorman showed up on the balcony (served by an escape staircase). I saw him break into the room and anxiously look at my face, then open the door. Soon the hotel manager and others came in. A doctor came, I saw him shake his head by listening to my heart, then put a spoon between my lips. I lost consciousness and woke up in bed. All this lasted at least two hours..."