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Medical Times and Gazette – A curse produces paralysis
Identifier
026106
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
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 II. THE EMOTIONS.
CHAPTER VIII. INFLUENCE OF THE EMOTIONS UPON THE VOLUNTARY MUSCLES.
SECTION III.— Loss of Muscular Power : Paralysis.
In the " Medical Times and Gazette," May 23, 1868, there is a short report of a striking case of paralysis induced by Fear. It occurred at the Limerick Sessions, where two men were charged with having assaulted a relation.
"The prosecutor (Roche) summoned his own father as a witness. The mother of the prisoners, exasperated at the prospect of her sons being sent to prison on the evidence of her own relative, gave expression to her feelings in a malediction, praying that when the old man left the witness-box, he might be paralyzed ; and paralyzed he was accordingly, and had to be taken to the hospital. Such miraculous illness not yielding readily to ordinary modes of treatment, the old lady has been requested to remove her curse by spitting on the patient; but this she sternly refuses to do, and the man remains in the hospital."