electrocardiograms, palpated all cavities, ran urinalysis, and about everything
else he could think of. He checked very carefully for indications of brain
lesions, and asked me many questions relating to motor action of various
parts of the body. He arranged for an EEG (brain-wave analysis), which
evidently showed no unusual problem. At least he never reported any to me,
and I am sure he would have.
Doctor Gordon gave me some tranquilizers, and sent me home with orders to
take off weight, smoke less, get more rest— and said that if I had a problem,
it was not a physical one.
I met with Doctor Bradshaw, my psychologist friend. He was even less helpful
and far from sympathetic when I told him the story. He thought I should try to
repeat the experience if I could. I told him I wasn't ready to die.
"Oh, I do not think you'll do that," Doctor Bradshaw stated calmly. "Some of the
fellows who practice yoga and those Eastern religions claim they can do it
whenever they want to."
I asked him "do" what.
"Why, get out of the physical body for a while," he replied. "They claim they
can go all over the place. You ought to try it."
I told him that was ridiculous. Nobody can travel around without their physical
body.
"Well, I would not be too sure," Doctor Bradshaw replied calmly. "You ought to
read something about the Hindus. Did you study any philosophy in college?"
I said I had, but there was nothing I could recall about this traveling-withoutthe-body business.
"Maybe you did not have the right philosophy professor, that's what it seems to
me." Doctor Bradshaw lit a cigar, then looked at me. "Well, do not be so closedminded. Try it and find out As my old philosophy professor said, 'If you're
blind in one eye, turn your head, and if you're blind in both eyes, then open
your ears and listen.'"
I asked what to do if you were deaf, too, but I did not get a reply.
Of course, Doctor Bradshaw had every reason to be casual about it. It was
happening to me, not him. I do not know what I would have done without his
pragmatic approach and his wonderful sense of humor. It is a debt I shall
never be able to repay.