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Herodotus - A case of curing via Fear
Identifier
026183
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.,
CHAPTER XVI. INFLUENCE OF MENTAL STATES UPON DISORDERS OF SENSATION, MOTION, AND THE ORGANIC FUNCTIONS.
SECTION II.— Influence of Mental States upon Disorders involving Excessive or Defective Action of the Voluntary Muscles.
Herodotus relates that
" during the storming of Sardis, a Persian meeting Croesus was, through ignorance of his person, about to kill him. The king, overwhelmed by this calamity, took no care to avoid the blow or escape death ; but his dumb son, when he saw the violent designs of the Persian, overcome with astonishment and terror, exclaimed aloud, 'Oh, man, do not kill Croesus!'
This was the first time (?) he had ever articulated ; but he retained the faculty of speech from this event as long as he lived " (also quoted in Mental Hygiene. By Dr. Sweetser. 1844, p. 27).