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Mesmeric Revelation
The death of Edgar Allan Poe on October 7, 1849, has remained mysterious: the circumstances leading up to it are uncertain and the cause of death is disputed. On October 3, Poe was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance", according to the man who found him, Joseph W. Walker. He was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died at 5 a.m. on Sunday, October 7. Poe was never coherent enough to explain how he came to be in this condition. Much of the extant information about the last few days of Poe's life comes from his attending physician, Dr. John Joseph Moran, though his credibility is questionable. Poe was buried after a small funeral at the back of Westminster Hall and Burying Ground, but his remains were moved to a new grave with a larger monument in 1875. It has been questioned whether the correct corpse was moved. The 1875 monument also marks the burial place of Poe's wife, Virginia, and his mother-in-law, Maria. Theories as to what caused Poe's death include suicide, murder, cholera, rabies, syphilis, influenza, and that Poe was a victim of cooping. Evidence of the influence of alcohol is strongly disputed. After Poe's death, Rufus Wilmot Griswold wrote his obituary under the pseudonym "Ludwig". Griswold, who became the literary executor of Poe's estate, was actually a rival of Poe and later published his first full biography, depicting him as a depraved, drunk, drug-addled madman. Much of the evidence for this image of Poe is believed to have been forged by Griswold, and though friends of Poe denounced it, this interpretation had lasting impact.
24 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1844
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About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
10.7k books27.9k followersThe name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
January 22, 2022
Es uno de los relatos que menos me ha gustado de Poe ya que se trata de un diálogo entre hipnotizador y hipnotizado. Abarca conceptos metafísicos muy abstractos y de difícil comprensión durante la lectura. El alma, los órganos, la sustancia, la indivisibilidad, Dios, ... Hay mucho más. Es más bien un texto sobre filosofía.
Es verdad que el final es auténticamente Poe, pero el resto es pura filosofía.
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This is one of my least favourite of Poe's stories because it is a dialogue between hypnotist and hypnotised. It covers very abstract metaphysical concepts that are difficult to understand while reading. The soul, organs, substance, indivisibility, God, ... There is much more. It is rather a text about philosophy.
It is true that the ending is authentically Poe, but the rest is pure philosophy.
Es verdad que el final es auténticamente Poe, pero el resto es pura filosofía.
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This is one of my least favourite of Poe's stories because it is a dialogue between hypnotist and hypnotised. It covers very abstract metaphysical concepts that are difficult to understand while reading. The soul, organs, substance, indivisibility, God, ... There is much more. It is rather a text about philosophy.
It is true that the ending is authentically Poe, but the rest is pure philosophy.
May 6, 2019
The nineteenth century witnessed an explosion of imagination.
After centuries dominated by church religion and the eighteenth century’s age of reason, men and women began exploring new ways of looking at and experiencing the world, including the world of the unseen.
Esoteric psychic practices such as séances, channeling and hypnosis were used to directly contact realms beyond the material. Incidentally, nowadays we say hypnosis but mesmerism was the term used back then, coming from the Austrian physician, Franz Anton Mesmer, who employed this technique in his treatment of willing patients. Is it any wonder Edgar Allan Poe, master of the fantastic, wrote this tale about a doctor dialoging with his hypnotized patient?
Reading Mesmeric Revelation, I was struck by how Mr. Vankirk, the man under hypnosis, speaks of God and the afterlife not in biblical or religious terms, but in the scientific language of his time; and using this scientific language, his experience parallels an entire range of other philosophical and spiritual traditions. To provide examples, below are several passages from the story coupled with my comments:
The doctor (P.) asks the patient (V.) questions.
“P. What then is God ?
V. [Hesitating for many minutes.] I cannot tell.
P. Is not God spirit ?
V. While I was awake I knew what you meant by "spirit," but now it seems only a word — such for instance as truth, beauty — a quality, I mean.”
P. Is not God immaterial ?
V. There is no immateriality — it is a mere word. That which is not matter, is not at all — unless qualities are things.”
-----------The patient’s inability to use language to speak of God and communicate his experience reminds us of mystics such as Meister Eckhart who tells us when we experience God directly all of our language and concepts fall away.
Answering further questions, the patient shifts his explanation. Toward the end of his detailed account, we read:
“P. You assert, then, that the unparticled matter, in motion, is thought?
V. In general, this motion is the universal thought of the universal mind. This thought creates. All created things are but the thoughts of God.
P. You say, "in general."
V. Yes. The universal mind is God. For new individualities, matter is necessary.
P. But you now speak of "mind" and "matter" as do the metaphysicians.”
---------- The doctor/narrator is spot-on in citing how his patient is describing the world of the philosophers – recall how the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras conceived of ultimate reality as "Mind" (Nous) and how Plotinus and other Neoplatonists maintained that "the One" is the absolute first principle.
The patient’s explanation shifts again as he experiences a different phase in his altered state of consciousness:
“There are two bodies — the rudimental and the complete ; corresponding with the two conditions of the worm and the butterfly. What we call "death," is but the painful metamorphosis. Our present incarnation is progressive, preparatory, temporary. Our future is perfected, ultimate, immortal. The ultimate life is the full design.” ----------- This section of the tale is quite remarkable. We hear echoes of the Bardo teachings from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.
Rather than continuing with quotes, suffice to say the patient takes more shifts as he continues to answer the doctor’s questions. One might ask if there is any mention at all from the Western monotheistic tradition. Actually, the answer is "yes." At the very end of the tale, the doctor makes an observation and alludes to “Azrael’s hand”, Azrael being the "Angel of Death" from Muslim and Jewish legend.
June 16, 2019
Not interesting at all. This is a story where a man who is close to death is put in a state of sleep-waking. He and the narrator discuss the universe, God, and other mysteries. At the end, we are left to conclude if the man was really sleep-waking or just talking from beyond the grave.
May 4, 2017
هل تتذكر فيلم العتبة جزاز، حيث العصابة التي يواجهها فؤاد المهندس تجعل عملائها المخفقين ينتحرون فقط بالتنويم المغناطيسي
"فرافيرو ، انا جي"
جيلنا، منذ الصغر، التنويم المغناطيسي بالنسبة له هو أن يجعل المنوم النائم القيام بحركات لا أراديا دون تردد ، كما قيل لنا في الافلام والكوميكس والروايات البسيطة التي تربينا عليها
لكن ليس في هذه الحالة
ايضا لأجيال عديدة وحتي الان يشغل ذهننا دوما الاسئلة الوجودية...ماذا بعد الموت؟ كيف كل شئ بارادة الله؟ وكيف كل شئ بارادة الانسان الحرة...ما وراء السماء حقا؟
ما وراء الحياة الاخري للروح ؟ وما سبب حياتها الاولي بالجسد؟
هنا السيد بو -في هوس أخر اخر اكتشفته عنه- يقدم تجربة مثيرة علمية عن التنويم المغناطيسي ستغير من فكرتك عنه تماما
يقول السيد بو هنا ان الانسان في حالة التنويم المغناطيسي يفتح العقل الي افاق اثيرية بلا حدود
يزيد من ادراكه الحسي والعقلي بدرجة عملاقة
-بعده بقرن ونصف تقريبا كتب ستيفين كينج في رائعته "المواجهة" نموذج لمتأخر ذهنيا يصبح اكثر ذكاءا وادراكا في حالة تنويمه بشكل مثير-
وهنا المنوم مغناطيسيا في حالة خطيرة..قد تفتح تلك العملية ادراكه علي ما وراء الموت
الاثير... المادة والروح
العقل
بل ويتطرق للذات الإلهية
والارادة الحرة
القصة هنا هي مقدمة كتحقيق صحفي اخر ، ولا انكر ان الاسلوب هنا كان مملا بالنسبة لي، لانه ملئ بالتفاصيل العلمية عن ذلك العلم الذي نسبة كبيرة مما وصلنا أليه مازال يعتبر كعلم غير حقيقي
ثم يتحول المقال إلي حوار بين المحاور "ب"، والسيد "ف"، الذي يرقد علي فراش الموت
لا انكر ان القصة غير ممتعة علي الاطلاق بالنسبة لي.. ربما لمحبي العلوم والخيال العلمي ، وقراء ستيفين هوكينج
يمكنك ان تري كيف عالج وفكر واجتهد بناء علي الدراسات البسيطة وقتها في 1844 قام السيد ادجار الان بو بالحديث عن الاثير والعقل بشكل ممتاز وتفصيلي
بل وحتي فرضيته بخصوص الفرق بين ارادة الله والارادة الحرة كان ممتازا وان لم افهمه كلية ، بل وضح ايضا شئ من التخبط الطبيعي بخصوص بعض النقاط في ذلك الجزء
ولكن ينتهي الحوار بشكل مثير للجدل، قرأته كثيرا باساليب مختلفة، الا ذلك الاسلوب العلمي العجيب الممتاز
يجيب بشكل فلسفي جميل عن لماذا خلق الله الحياة ولماذا نتألم فيها اذا كانت الغاية اننا سنتخلص من الجسد في النهاية في الابدية، لماذا الألم ولماذا الظلم طالما في النهاية سيكون العدل المطلق؟
يقول لك السيد بو قبل ان يأتي السيد العالم الجليل مصطفي محمود أن السعادة في الحياة الاخري لن تكون ايجابية سوي بعد ان تجرب الروح الالم في الحياة الفانية العضوية، بوجودها في الجسد البشري
حكاية عجيبة وتأملات وجودية فلسفية آلهية قدمها بو هنا بشكل عجيب
من خلال التنويم المغناطيسي الذي حتي الان لم نعلم منه سوي قشور
عجيب انني عندما شرعت في بداية الريفيو كنت مقررا نجمتان لتلك القصة القصيرة الغير ممتعة
لكن ما خرجت به منها يستحق نجمة اكثر، أليس كذلك؟
وتنتهي القصة البسيطة الغير ممتعة بفكرة ما، بموت المنوم مغناطيسيا اخيرا أثناء العملية...ولكن هذا ينير فكرة ما أخري لبو عن التنويم..سيتحدث عنه في القصة التالية
ولكن لهذه مراجعة اخري
محمد العربي
في 16 ابريل 2017
"فرافيرو ، انا جي"
جيلنا، منذ الصغر، التنويم المغناطيسي بالنسبة له هو أن يجعل المنوم النائم القيام بحركات لا أراديا دون تردد ، كما قيل لنا في الافلام والكوميكس والروايات البسيطة التي تربينا عليها
لكن ليس في هذه الحالة
ايضا لأجيال عديدة وحتي الان يشغل ذهننا دوما الاسئلة الوجودية...ماذا بعد الموت؟ كيف كل شئ بارادة الله؟ وكيف كل شئ بارادة الانسان الحرة...ما وراء السماء حقا؟
ما وراء الحياة الاخري للروح ؟ وما سبب حياتها الاولي بالجسد؟
هنا السيد بو -في هوس أخر اخر اكتشفته عنه- يقدم تجربة مثيرة علمية عن التنويم المغناطيسي ستغير من فكرتك عنه تماما
يقول السيد بو هنا ان الانسان في حالة التنويم المغناطيسي يفتح العقل الي افاق اثيرية بلا حدود
يزيد من ادراكه الحسي والعقلي بدرجة عملاقة
-بعده بقرن ونصف تقريبا كتب ستيفين كينج في رائعته "المواجهة" نموذج لمتأخر ذهنيا يصبح اكثر ذكاءا وادراكا في حالة تنويمه بشكل مثير-
وهنا المنوم مغناطيسيا في حالة خطيرة..قد تفتح تلك العملية ادراكه علي ما وراء الموت
الاثير... المادة والروح
العقل
بل ويتطرق للذات الإلهية
والارادة الحرة
القصة هنا هي مقدمة كتحقيق صحفي اخر ، ولا انكر ان الاسلوب هنا كان مملا بالنسبة لي، لانه ملئ بالتفاصيل العلمية عن ذلك العلم الذي نسبة كبيرة مما وصلنا أليه مازال يعتبر كعلم غير حقيقي
ثم يتحول المقال إلي حوار بين المحاور "ب"، والسيد "ف"، الذي يرقد علي فراش الموت
لا انكر ان القصة غير ممتعة علي الاطلاق بالنسبة لي.. ربما لمحبي العلوم والخيال العلمي ، وقراء ستيفين هوكينج
يمكنك ان تري كيف عالج وفكر واجتهد بناء علي الدراسات البسيطة وقتها في 1844 قام السيد ادجار الان بو بالحديث عن الاثير والعقل بشكل ممتاز وتفصيلي
بل وحتي فرضيته بخصوص الفرق بين ارادة الله والارادة الحرة كان ممتازا وان لم افهمه كلية ، بل وضح ايضا شئ من التخبط الطبيعي بخصوص بعض النقاط في ذلك الجزء
ولكن ينتهي الحوار بشكل مثير للجدل، قرأته كثيرا باساليب مختلفة، الا ذلك الاسلوب العلمي العجيب الممتاز
يجيب بشكل فلسفي جميل عن لماذا خلق الله الحياة ولماذا نتألم فيها اذا كانت الغاية اننا سنتخلص من الجسد في النهاية في الابدية، لماذا الألم ولماذا الظلم طالما في النهاية سيكون العدل المطلق؟
يقول لك السيد بو قبل ان يأتي السيد العالم الجليل مصطفي محمود أن السعادة في الحياة الاخري لن تكون ايجابية سوي بعد ان تجرب الروح الالم في الحياة الفانية العضوية، بوجودها في الجسد البشري
حكاية عجيبة وتأملات وجودية فلسفية آلهية قدمها بو هنا بشكل عجيب
من خلال التنويم المغناطيسي الذي حتي الان لم نعلم منه سوي قشور
عجيب انني عندما شرعت في بداية الريفيو كنت مقررا نجمتان لتلك القصة القصيرة الغير ممتعة
لكن ما خرجت به منها يستحق نجمة اكثر، أليس كذلك؟
وتنتهي القصة البسيطة الغير ممتعة بفكرة ما، بموت المنوم مغناطيسيا اخيرا أثناء العملية...ولكن هذا ينير فكرة ما أخري لبو عن التنويم..سيتحدث عنه في القصة التالية
ولكن لهذه مراجعة اخري
محمد العربي
في 16 ابريل 2017
June 9, 2019
This seemed like an earlier version of M. Valdemar.
December 18, 2022
An existential interview with a dying man being hypnotized. It was a hard to follow and make sense of.
December 12, 2020
Of these latter, those who doubt, are your mere doubters by profession - an unprofitable and disrepurtable tribe.
That sentence is dripping with scorn and I love it.
I'm not a historian. I know general historical facts and ideas, but I can't tell you specifics. I do know that mesmerism was a fad around this time period. It's not that surprising that Poe would be interested in this, given his taste for the strange and unknown.
What's most interesting to me, is that Poe chose to have the doctor and his mesmerized patient talk about God, and not a spiritual God, but a scientific God. Reading through Poe's stories, I feel that I'm understanding him a bit better and what I get is that he was often troubled and always searching. His stories reflect whatever thoughts arrested his attention at the given time.
Many of the ideas were deeply profound and it was obvious that Poe put a lot of time into this story and pondering things out. While I don't pretend to understand all that was said in this story and a lot of it was odd and hokey, it still gave me much to think on.
The mesmerized patient describes how God is matter, but not in the way we normally think of matter.
...there can be no two ideas more essentially distinct than that which we attach to a metal, and that which we attach to the luminiferous ether.
I thought this was fairly brilliant. If there is a God, he has to follow the laws of the universe, but in a way that we might not understand.
The truth is, it is impossible to conceive spirit, since it is impossible to imagine what is not. When we flatter ourselves that we have formed its conception, we have merely deceived our understanding.
I don't know about God. I don't know if there is one. A small part of me hopes there is, but it's nothing I can attest too. What I deeply wish is that I could have a conversation with Poe about what he believed. Poe never hid from his feelings, he sought to uncover and disect them, and he did it publicly, through his stories.
Even though I don't understand Poe, and even though I find some of his writing dull as dirt, I find myself, with each story, becoming ever more enchanted with the man.
...divested of corporate investiture man were God.
V: What we call death is but the painful metamorphosis. Our present incarnation is progressive, preparatory, temporary. Our future is perfected, ultimate, immortal. The ultimate life is the full design.
P: But of the worm's metamorphosis we are palpably cognizant.
V: We, certainly - but not the worm...our rudimental organs are adapted to the matter of which is formed.
The mesmeric state: When I say that it resembles death, I mean that it resembles the ultimate life;
I know I'm just adding quotes willy-nilly, but these were ones that stood out to me. My own religious views lend more to the agnostic, with a hope that there is more than this life, and if there is, I imagine that it would be something like this:
To be happy at any one point we must have suffered at the same...The pain of the primitive life of Earth, is the sole basis of the bliss of the ultimate life in heaven.
After all of this philosophy, I found myself chilled (goosebumps and all) with this closing question:
That sentence is dripping with scorn and I love it.
I'm not a historian. I know general historical facts and ideas, but I can't tell you specifics. I do know that mesmerism was a fad around this time period. It's not that surprising that Poe would be interested in this, given his taste for the strange and unknown.
What's most interesting to me, is that Poe chose to have the doctor and his mesmerized patient talk about God, and not a spiritual God, but a scientific God. Reading through Poe's stories, I feel that I'm understanding him a bit better and what I get is that he was often troubled and always searching. His stories reflect whatever thoughts arrested his attention at the given time.
Many of the ideas were deeply profound and it was obvious that Poe put a lot of time into this story and pondering things out. While I don't pretend to understand all that was said in this story and a lot of it was odd and hokey, it still gave me much to think on.
The mesmerized patient describes how God is matter, but not in the way we normally think of matter.
...there can be no two ideas more essentially distinct than that which we attach to a metal, and that which we attach to the luminiferous ether.
I thought this was fairly brilliant. If there is a God, he has to follow the laws of the universe, but in a way that we might not understand.
The truth is, it is impossible to conceive spirit, since it is impossible to imagine what is not. When we flatter ourselves that we have formed its conception, we have merely deceived our understanding.
I don't know about God. I don't know if there is one. A small part of me hopes there is, but it's nothing I can attest too. What I deeply wish is that I could have a conversation with Poe about what he believed. Poe never hid from his feelings, he sought to uncover and disect them, and he did it publicly, through his stories.
Even though I don't understand Poe, and even though I find some of his writing dull as dirt, I find myself, with each story, becoming ever more enchanted with the man.
...divested of corporate investiture man were God.
V: What we call death is but the painful metamorphosis. Our present incarnation is progressive, preparatory, temporary. Our future is perfected, ultimate, immortal. The ultimate life is the full design.
P: But of the worm's metamorphosis we are palpably cognizant.
V: We, certainly - but not the worm...our rudimental organs are adapted to the matter of which is formed.
The mesmeric state: When I say that it resembles death, I mean that it resembles the ultimate life;
I know I'm just adding quotes willy-nilly, but these were ones that stood out to me. My own religious views lend more to the agnostic, with a hope that there is more than this life, and if there is, I imagine that it would be something like this:
To be happy at any one point we must have suffered at the same...The pain of the primitive life of Earth, is the sole basis of the bliss of the ultimate life in heaven.
After all of this philosophy, I found myself chilled (goosebumps and all) with this closing question:
January 5, 2017
So I don't know what to think. Kinda liked it. Kinda didn't. Even when I don't like his stories much, I still like his brain. So there's that.
November 20, 2018
Though I think he did it better in The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, the premise of this story is great. The idea of mesmerism/hypnotism used in such a macabre way tickles the imagination. Someone needs to try this for real and see what happens.
August 31, 2020
If you were to enjoy this story, first you have to have an intrigue to see the world in 1800's glasses and have an inclination to philosophy, because this story is just that. Or at least how I see it, a journey in the time portal of philosophical lineage. In this story/philosophical telling of Poe, he delves in the depths of his cynical mind, where he attempts to entertain the concept of metaphysics in its broadest sense and to reflect, through practical reasoning and cynicism, his viewpoint on the self at his time.
Some notes to help get into the story:
in the 1800's atoms were thought of to be of a minuscule balls constituting everything, like marbles. That of course was due to the shortage of the scientific discoveries at the time, so they followed Dalton's viewpoint of atoms. They weren't aware of the modern theory of the duality of matter by Einstein, matter simultaneously exist as a wave and a solid object. Also, they didn't know of electrons.
And if you don't know anything about metaphysics, this is going to go over your head :/
and near the end where he spun the tale to turn it horrific by introducing the metaphysical angel of death, he somewhat affirms his viewpoint of afterlife, and there's some sense of Irony and a call for pondering in this ending. As if saying, bet ya thought after all these cynic passages that I wouldn't bring in the divine, didn't ya?!
Some notes to help get into the story:
in the 1800's atoms were thought of to be of a minuscule balls constituting everything, like marbles. That of course was due to the shortage of the scientific discoveries at the time, so they followed Dalton's viewpoint of atoms. They weren't aware of the modern theory of the duality of matter by Einstein, matter simultaneously exist as a wave and a solid object. Also, they didn't know of electrons.
And if you don't know anything about metaphysics, this is going to go over your head :/
and near the end where he spun the tale to turn it horrific by introducing the metaphysical angel of death, he somewhat affirms his viewpoint of afterlife, and there's some sense of Irony and a call for pondering in this ending. As if saying, bet ya thought after all these cynic passages that I wouldn't bring in the divine, didn't ya?!
October 9, 2020
Poe era un gran aficionado al Mesmerismo, una doctrina propuesta por el médico austriaco Franz Mésmer (1734-1815), según la cual los humores o fluidos de los cuerpos sólidos provocan en el sistema nervioso movimientos de atracción o repulsión.
De esta manera escribe dos cuentos similares: este y "La verdad sobre el caso del señor Valdemar" en donde une sesiones hipnóticas con muertos o personas en el umbral de la vida y la muerte.
De esta manera escribe dos cuentos similares: este y "La verdad sobre el caso del señor Valdemar" en donde une sesiones hipnóticas con muertos o personas en el umbral de la vida y la muerte.
December 1, 2020
Mesmeric Revelation is another story in which Poe – as the title suggests – takes us on a journey involving the fad of the time of writing – mesmerism. This one started in such a way that I was curious. However, it quickly descended into a philosophical discussion. I’m perfectly fine with philosophical discussion, but it’s not what I expected from this one. It was set up for a creepy little read and went in a different direction, leaving rather disappointed.
If you’re looking for an interesting read from Poe about mesmerism, I’d recommend The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar instead.
If you’re looking for an interesting read from Poe about mesmerism, I’d recommend The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar instead.
January 20, 2024
Read upon the 19th January as it was Poes birthday.
A short read that is a little complicated in its narrative, but it does have that Poe mystery to it that I think this authors fans love.
A short read that is a little complicated in its narrative, but it does have that Poe mystery to it that I think this authors fans love.
October 13, 2017
قصه فلسفيه مرعبه
تبدأ بالتنويم المغناطيسي للسيد فالديمير
ثم يبدأ الرعب عندما يسأله بو هل مازلت تشعر بألم فى صدرك سيد فالديمير بتكون الإجابة:
لا ألم...أنا أموت
ونتحول من التنويم المغناطيسي الى الموت
ويظل لو يطرح الأسئلة والسيد فالديمير يُجيب
رغم موته!
تبدأ بالتنويم المغناطيسي للسيد فالديمير
ثم يبدأ الرعب عندما يسأله بو هل مازلت تشعر بألم فى صدرك سيد فالديمير بتكون الإجابة:
لا ألم...أنا أموت
ونتحول من التنويم المغناطيسي الى الموت
ويظل لو يطرح الأسئلة والسيد فالديمير يُجيب
رغم موته!
September 21, 2013
A sick & dying man is hypnotized, a state which is halfway between life and death. In this state, he's able to view & understand things that he wouldn't otherwise be able. With this enhanced understanding, the man answers questions about God, the universe, and spirits.
January 23, 2021
Short story. A dying man is hypnotized. Philosophical. Enjoyable.
December 11, 2020
"The framing of the story as the report of a scientific investigation was so convincing that it was reprinted as an authentic scientific report in the September 1845 issue of the American Phrenological Journal. Poe was upset that the journal editors had taken his writing as fact and that they failed to realize, as Poe stated, 'The story is fiction from beginning to end.' Critics suggest that The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar is a sequel to the present story. . . . Poe became familiar with the concept [of mesmerism] when he attended a series of lectures given in 1838 by the French magnetist Charles Poyen: he also attended a series of similar lectures given by Andrew Jackson Davis in 1845 in New York." Sova, Dawn B. (2001). Edgar Allan Poe, A to Z : the essential reference to his life and work. New York: Checkmark Books. (154-5)
"Sidney E. Lind, writing in the 1940s,* said of the mesmeric lexica of nineteenth-century America: 'It is safe to say that the terminology of mesmerism was bandied about in much the same manner as the language of psychoanalysis was to be eighty years later, and with, in all probability, as little real comprehension on the part of the public.' . . . Lind allows that Poe might not have been hoaxing readers in writing about mesmerism. 'Mesmerism as a theme for fiction,' he explains, 'was, like metempsychosis and the exploration of the realm of the conscience, so well suited to Poe’s principles of literary composition that it was natural for him to work this new field, to attempt to achieve the sensational without deliberately attempting to mislead.' More than simply avoiding misleading commentary, Poe might have been dissertating with the hopes that, one day, scientists would look on his fiction as a catalyst for new and innovative practices. While not aspiring to complete verisimilitude, Poe’s stories about mesmerism are highly sophisticated tracts, informed by trendy scientific theories (and their counter-discourses), and very probably marked with the faint expectation that their subjects, though fictional, might somehow contribute to future systems of knowledge." https://allenmendenhallblog.com/tag/s...
*Lind, Sidney, “Poe and Mesmerism,” Publications of the Modern Language Association (Dec. 1947), 62:1077-1094.
"Sidney E. Lind, writing in the 1940s,* said of the mesmeric lexica of nineteenth-century America: 'It is safe to say that the terminology of mesmerism was bandied about in much the same manner as the language of psychoanalysis was to be eighty years later, and with, in all probability, as little real comprehension on the part of the public.' . . . Lind allows that Poe might not have been hoaxing readers in writing about mesmerism. 'Mesmerism as a theme for fiction,' he explains, 'was, like metempsychosis and the exploration of the realm of the conscience, so well suited to Poe’s principles of literary composition that it was natural for him to work this new field, to attempt to achieve the sensational without deliberately attempting to mislead.' More than simply avoiding misleading commentary, Poe might have been dissertating with the hopes that, one day, scientists would look on his fiction as a catalyst for new and innovative practices. While not aspiring to complete verisimilitude, Poe’s stories about mesmerism are highly sophisticated tracts, informed by trendy scientific theories (and their counter-discourses), and very probably marked with the faint expectation that their subjects, though fictional, might somehow contribute to future systems of knowledge." https://allenmendenhallblog.com/tag/s...
*Lind, Sidney, “Poe and Mesmerism,” Publications of the Modern Language Association (Dec. 1947), 62:1077-1094.
November 12, 2021
This would be a 4 star rating but I'm giving it three just because of that rambling Poe does
October 9, 2022
What even was this? Just a bunch of "transcripts" and "medical" jargon. Hard pass
June 6, 2024
“Does the idea of death afflict you?”
Two men, one sleeping one awake, discuss God, the afterlife, and the immaterial.
Two men, one sleeping one awake, discuss God, the afterlife, and the immaterial.
June 14, 2024
Ok……. Sure… speak your mind I guess
June 21, 2021
Interesting ideas but a bit convoluted by the hoity toity-ness of the language. It's essentially the 19th century equivalent of two dudes sharing a bong and talking about our soulssss, man.
May 14, 2020
It’s a good thing I read this before bed because this will put me right to sleep. I liked the narrator’s question on whether he was talking to a man who was already on his way to ‘the other side’ at the end of the story. But, honestly, I think the part that helps me give this a two instead of a one is the line ‘To be happy at any one point we must have suffered at the same. Never to suffer would have been never to have been blessed.’ Great line. Pretty much it’s only redeeming quality about this story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 17, 2023
Philosophical, pseudo-scientific, or metaphysical musings mostly in the form of a narrative regarding a conversation with a mesmerized man who might have died somewhere in the middle of the conversation. A dry run for "The facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" or a sequel of sorts? Same year of publication so I'm not sure which came first.
December 15, 2014
Interesting philosophical discourse, dabbling into (unknowingly, of course) quantum-physics (higher dimensions?) - at least in my interpretation.
August 3, 2015
He's talking about spiritual stuff, how he veiwed man's relationship to all that is and his conception of god. Its really sweet.
July 21, 2017
EAP explores metaphysical questions in this account of a man under hypnosis. EAP fast becomes the king of bullshitters in my eyes, thus further explaining his mastery of the fiction form.
December 31, 2016
I don't like sciences...
September 2, 2019
I have arranged my takeaway thoughts into a haiku:
"One ponders the trance,
Because when sleep quells one's mind,
What's jagged smooths out."
"One ponders the trance,
Because when sleep quells one's mind,
What's jagged smooths out."
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