The usual attitude is one of reserve or
scepticism. There is no necessity for it. Records exist of cases
where vital functions have been practically suspended, with no
food and little air. Every day science is getting closer to the
control of metabolism. In the trance the body functions are so
slowed as to simulate death. You have heard of the Indian fakirs
who bury themselves alive and are dug up days later? You have
doubted it. But there is nothing improbable in it.
"Experiments have been made with toads which have been imprisoned
in porous rock where they could get the necessary air. They have
lived for months in a stupor. In impervious rock they have died.
Frozen fish can revive; bears and other animals hibernate. There
are all gradations from ordinary sleep to the torpor of death.
Science can slow down almost to a standstill the vital processes
so that excretions disappear and respiration and heart-beat are
almost nil.
"What the Indian fakir does in a cataleptic condition may be
duplicated. It is not incredible that they may possess some
vegetable extract by which they perform their as yet unexplained
feats of prolonged living burial.
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