Stories about belief
3 Buddhist wisdom stories about belief from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Edgar Cayce and the medicine on the third shelfStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Edgar Cayce, a devout Christian medium in 1930s America, would diagnose and prescribe in trance. Once he named a medicine no local drug store had heard of; back in trance he said…
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There was a medium, in United States between the 1st and 2nd World War called Edgar Cayce C A Y C E Many people claim all sorts of stuff but he was investigated a lot. He was a real deal. Cayce. Amazing stuff if you read some of his books. But he was a Baptists I think, a very devout Christian. This was 1930s. A very devout Christian and once he'd go in trance, and then he'd be able to diagnose all sorts of incredible treatments which were true. OK I will tell this one story which really blew my mind. People would come to him and say my grandma, she is very very sick He would go on trance first of all what can we help her with. Sometimes he says... you can't she is going to die. Other times, take this medicine. And this was not normal treatment it was weird medicines or weird combinations and doses which were not usual at all. So one day somebody took their son or somebody to see him when he was in a trance he said "Oh yeah that can be cured with this medicine" - gave the name. And then came out of trance, and when they went to the drug store drug stores in those days, United States. They said "we have never heard of that medicine". So they put him back in trance again. He said "oh you will find it in (this was in Virginia somewhere) "You will find it in a drug store in St. Louis, in Missouri I think is it in Missouri any way St. Louis on the Mississippi. So they didn't have email then and had telegram, telegraph. So they sent a telegraph, half an hour later the telegraph came back. We don't know that medicine anywhere in that drug store. Put him in trance again and he said: you'll find it in that drug store in the second room in the back third shelf from the left in the back--whatever it was. So they sent that telegraph. The telegraph came back half an hour later Found it! Incredible stuff this guy was up to. But one day they asked him in a trance "What is the most important law in the universe?" This was about 1932 or something. A devout Christian. And he said Kamma, the law of kamma. When he came out afterwards, that devastated him! I am a Christian I don't believe in Kamma but that's what he said in trance.
- He died of the blunt knife and the running tapStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Told as a famous psychology experiment: a condemned man in England is told his hanging is changed to having his throat cut; blindfolded, a blunt knife is drawn across his throat…
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a guy in jail in England over 100 years ago he was about to be executed by hanging And some psychologists, some scientists had permission to do this really gross experiment on him. They went to his cell the night before his execution and told him the law had been changed he still had to die tomorrow morning but this time not by hanging he would have his throat cut. And they let this poor man think about that all night. In the morning at dawn as happens with executions they came for him tied his hands securely behind his back put a blindfold over his eyes led him to the place of execution A priest gave him his last rites or whatever they did for him and then they took a knife and they cut his throat and he fell down and died. That's what he thought. He had his eyes blindfolded. What had really happened it was just the scientists and the prison governor or whoever it was, the superintendent took him to the wash rooms and one of them pretended to be the priest And when they finished reading out the sentence they took a knife which was so blunt you couldn't even cut butter with it and they drew it across his throat. He felt the steel on his throat. At the same time the other scientist just turned on a tap in the wash room, and he heard liquid coming out and he felt the steel on his throat and he fell down and died not a scratch on him. A very famous psychology experiment
- The blister from a cold nailStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: At a public demonstration of the Cambridge psychical research society, a student is hypnotised to believe a four-inch nail on a stick is red hot. It's at room temperature. When…
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hypnotized him and they had a piece of wood with a nail on the end, very simple equipment, didn't need much to buy a nail and a piece of wood and they hypnotized this guy to believe that the nail was red-hot. It was just room temperature and they touched the nail on this man's skin, he screamed in pain because he thought it was hot, you can understand that, but to see a blister come up on his skin, that was weird