Observations placeholder
Muldoon, Sylvan - Bradycardia and strychnine
Identifier
000475
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Sylvan Muldoon wrote a seminal book on out-of-body experiences, helped by Dr Hereward Carrington, which was published in 1929. The book is a riveting read and made special because Muldoon is desperate to know why these experiences are happening. He not only describes his many strange experiences in the book, but comes forward with no end of theories as to why it worked – some of which are used today and which do indeed work. But deep in the heart of the book, we find that the main reason why Sylvan Muldoon had out of body experiences was because he suffered from bradycardia, read on……
A description of the experience
Projection of the Astral Body – Muldoon and Carrington 1929
Being of an inquisitive nature, after experiencing several conscious projections, I concluded that there was a cause, that the seeming miracle could not possibly happen unless behind it there were certain factors which promoted it ; and within myself I was annoyed, since I could not at once find the cause.
Several prominent Spiritualists, to whom I wrote, informed me that no one knew any specific causes for astral projection ; that it was a gift! that the Hindus were especially gifted with the ability etc
So, after retiring at night, I would wonder if I should go out in that phantomous body! I remained awake for hours, thinking of this strange reality upon which no one could enlighten me. I would drift into the hypnagogic state, visualizing projection, thinking projection; in fact the experiences which I had encountered seemed to have gripped my every thought after I went to bed at night.
And to experience such a reality and yet find no one who would believe me-that was the dismaying part ! My associates - even members of my own family - ridiculed the very suggestion of such an ‘impossibility’ as they called it. I was pronounced a "dreamer," and said to be "off in the upper story”.
The scorn which I received from others hurt me. I would cry, often, after going to bed, to think that no one would place any credence in my claims. If I could find the causes, I reasoned, and could make them known, perhaps others would believe in the phenomenon. So, within me, arose a determination to learn what brought about the projections. You have already been made familiar with some of the findings which I then made. This is how I made the discovery that "incapacity” of the physical body is essential.
One night I lay awake in bed and had been concentrating in a quiet mental mood, upon different parts of my body. My mind came to rest upon my heart. I noticed that it did not seem to be beating at the speed it should, when normal. Next day I went to the doctor and had the organ examined. It was beating but forty-two times per minute, but was steady. He gave me a box of strychnine [sic] - a cardiac stimulant - assuring me that this would correct the condition. He added, however, that occasionally in his practice he had come upon similar cases – one man, whom he named, having a pulse which was in the forties also.
Now, for almost a year prior to this, a week seldom passed by that I did not experience a projection in some form; and every night I could notice the astral-body rising out of the physical, in the hypnagogic state, causing me to “jump”. I believe I mentioned once before that persons who have been troubled with sinking, sliding, rising and falling sensations and “jumps” (repercussions of body) are relieved when their physicians give them a remedy to regulate the heart's action……….
………. before taking the cardiac stimulant, which I procured from my doctor, I had experienced a projection in some form almost every week, and the primary stages of projection every night. No sooner had I begun to take the heart stimulant than all trace of the phenomenon disappeared – even the primary stages.
I stopped taking the pellets. In a few days I observed that the rate of my pulse was dropping, and it was not long before I was again experiencing the things I had formerly experienced.