Can death be postponed by the power of the human mind?
Fascinated by mesmerism and determined to test its limits, an unnamed experimenter proposes a disturbing question: What would happen if a dying person were placed under hypnosis at the precise moment of death?
His willing subject is M. Ernest Valdemar, a terminally ill man whose physicians believe he has only hours to live. As midnight approaches, the mesmerist begins his work while doctors and witnesses carefully document every change.
Valdemar’s breathing stops. His pulse disappears. His body takes on the unmistakable appearance of death.
Yet he remains suspended in the trance.
For seven months, Valdemar exists in an impossible state—neither fully alive nor permitted to die. When questioned, he responds through a voice so unnatural and horrifying that those present can scarcely endure it.
Eventually, the experimenter decides to awaken him.
What follows is one of the most grotesque and unforgettable conclusions in all of Edgar Allan Poe’s fiction.
Written with chilling clinical detail, *The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar* blurs the boundary between scientific report and supernatural horror. Originally published in 1845, the story was presented so convincingly that some readers believed Poe’s fictional experiment to be a genuine account.
A disturbing classic of mesmerism, suspended death, and forbidden experimentation.
Narrated by Gid Newell.
