EIGHT DAYS IN DEATHd-LIKE TRANCE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6812, 16 January 1929, Page 5

EIGHT DAYS IN DEATHd-LIKE TRANCE

Woman Restored by Music

PUZZLE FOB PHYSICIANS

Scientists and students of the occult are puzzling over the strange case of Mrs. Ethel Baldwin, of Long Beach, California, whose apparent death and seemingly miraculous resurrection recently startled the attendant physicians. The very manner of Mrs. Baldwin’s decease —if decease it was —seemed remarkable. Her husband, Roy Baldwin, had been ill with pneumonia. He was a patient in a hospital at Long Beach. Mrs. Baldwin sat at his bedside. That morning a report on Mr. Baldwin’s condition had been serious. Toward late afternoon he showed signs of improvement. Then he had a sudden sinking spell and died. His wife was at the bedside when the end came. On the very instant that Baldwin breathed his last fluttering breath, his wife lapsed into a death-like coma. All efforts to rouse her proved futile. Electric current applied to her body had no effect. Vigorous pinching produced no visible reaction. Her face was the colour of marble, and when physicians lifted her eyelids the glassy eyes refused to respond even to strong lights thrown into them. Every method known to science was used to rouse the woman. Her two children were brought to her side and sat by her for hours calling her name. She continued in her death-like trance after she was taken home. _ Investigations into the lives of Mr and Mrs. Baldwin revealed that their marriage had been an ideal one. They had never been separated for a night in the sixteen years they had been man and wife. They loved the same books, sports and amusements. Never had they known even a trivial quarrel, and never had an unkind word passed between them. Many times they had talked over of what would happen when death came. They had prayed to pass away together; neither one eared to survive the other. Physicians acquainted with these facts realised that it would be a tremendous task to bring her out of the apparent cataleptic state. “The desire to live,” they said, ‘is essential to the recoverv of the majority of patients.” Mrs. Baldwin probably had suffered collapse because life held little interest for her after her husband bad passed away. Therefore, on the chance that sho might awaken on her own accord, her children were warned to .stay in or near the house. “We are certain,” the physicians said,that if consciousness returns -we can renew the patient’s interest in life by having the children talk to her.” And so for eight long days -and nights the two children sat by. the bedside, calling her, and took only short periods of rest. Young Thurman Baldwin, to keep himself awake at night, would play his violin. , He is quite a good musician, and his chum George Do Ramee, came to the house to keep him company. Do Ramee is a pianist, and together the boys would while away the weary hours playing the violin and banjo. ‘Holy Night.’

It was on the eighth day that the boys wore -playing some of the favourite airs of Mrs. Baldwin. They had just struck up the first solemn bars of ‘Holy Night,’ when those at the bedside noticed a faint fluttering of Mrs. Baldwin’s eyelids. The nurse, quick to realise that this change might be traceable to the effect of the music, bade the young men to continue their playing. The boys played as if inspired. Young Thurman realised that upon his playing might depend the life of his mother. On and on floated the beautiful Christmas melody. Doctors summoned by the nurse were speeding to the house. The alert nurse and Mrs. Baldwin’s daughter watched eagerly for further indications of life. Suddenly the long, pale fingers of the woman began to move faintly. The watchers saw that they were beating a feeble rhythm to the-music, and convinced the nurse that tho music must continue until the doctors came. The movement of the fingers gained strength as Thurman repeated the carol several times to the accompaniment of his chum. Probably no musician ever felt a greater inspiration. Eventually the doctors came, and after a quick examination of the woman hastened to the next room where Thurman was playing and told him to continue. "Don’t let anything stop you,” they dema'nded. Then they returned to the patient. The sleeper was now trying to stir in the bed. It seemed to the people at the bedside that life was fighting to creep back into the body that had for days laid rigid. The eyelids continued to flutter and tho white hands gained strength. As the chords floated in from tho adjoining room in increased tempo, the fingers kept time. The boys kept playing for more than an hour and were almost exhausted. Then the woman, who had been in a trance for more than a week, slowly opened her eyes. " ‘Holy Night,’ ” she whispered. "I cannot, yet I must —I must go back to him.” Then her murmurs drifted of into unintelligibility. Those who watched witnessed one of the strangest battles ever seen by human eye. It was if the soul of Mrs. Baldwin, was being pulled back into space by unseen hands on the one side, and on the other the forces of earth were trying to hold it. Agony was depicted on the ashen face of the victim. Slowly, but surely, however, the call of life apparently drew the woman’s soul back to earth, and soon she opened her eyes, alight with consciousness. ‘I am so tired,” were her first words. ’ ’ Informed of her long sleep, Mrs. Baldwin was amazed. There was a wide divergence of opinion concerning; the remarkable awaV

ening of Mrs. Baldwin. Psychologists say that the trance was the result of hysteria. Physicians expressed the opinion that such trances may result from great shocks. But students of the occult insist that Mrs. Baldwin’s soul fled when her husband died, and that she was called back to life by the strains of her son’s music.