Serie E brev nr 10

Magazine Overview

Title: BREVCIRKELN.
Issue: 10
Volume: E
Date: 1919
Publisher: BREVCIRKELN.
Country: Sweden
Language: Swedish
Cover Headline: DEN MYSTISKE LÄKAREN. (The Mysterious Doctor)

The Mysterious Doctor

The article recounts a personal experience of the author, W. Tudor Pole, from 1919. While living on a houseboat on the Nile, he contracted a severe fever and became critically ill. His Egyptian servants could not understand his requests to fetch a doctor from Cairo.

On the seventh day of his illness, a man entered his cabin. The man resembled an English gentleman, dressed in a suit and carrying a hat and cane, despite the hot weather. The author, initially confused by the visitor's attire, realized he was a doctor sent to him.

The doctor examined the author without speaking and then instructed him to send a servant to Cairo for a specific herbal medicine from a shop he named. The medicine was to be dissolved in hot water and taken three times a day. The author was also advised to drink lemon juice but to avoid solid food.

During their conversation, the author noticed something peculiar: when the doctor placed his hat and cane on a small table in front of a mirror, the author could see through the hat as if it were transparent. This led him to realize that the doctor was not physically present in the conventional sense.

When asked who he was and where he came from, the doctor stated he was a general practitioner in England. He explained that for some time, he had made it a practice to close his consulting room door for an hour each afternoon, enter a state of meditation, and ask to be sent where his help was most needed. He rarely remembered his journeys but always knew if he had been successful. He assured the author he would soon recover, which he did. The doctor then departed.

Uncertain if the doctor had been physically present, the author asked his servant if he had seen the doctor disembark. The servant was astonished, stating that no visitor had come aboard all day. The author's cook was then sent to Cairo, where he successfully found the specified shop and obtained the prescribed medicine.

The author remains unsure whether his recovery was due to the medicine and instructions or the doctor's presence, but he acknowledges that the visit saved his life.

Subsequent Investigations

In the following year, after returning to London, the author made numerous attempts to locate the mysterious doctor but was unsuccessful. The BBC later featured the story in a program called "The Strangest Thing I Have Experienced."

Some weeks later, the author received a registered letter from a general practitioner in Scotland, who was by then deceased. This doctor revealed that he occasionally had the ability to leave his body and travel "wherever he was sent." He had no recollection of visiting Egypt during these travels but mentioned a colleague in Belfast who shared a similar ability, and they often compared their experiences. The Scottish doctor requested that his account be treated with strict secrecy to protect his medical rights.

When the author visited Scotland again, he sought out the doctor's address but found he was no longer there. A later letter to the doctor's son confirmed his father's death. The son seemed unaware of his father's supernatural experiences, leaving the author to conclude the matter.

Recurring Themes and Editorial Stance

The article explores themes of unexplained healing, spiritual or psychic abilities, and the nature of consciousness and presence. The author presents his experience as a genuine, life-saving encounter with a mysterious entity, leaving the reader to ponder the limits of conventional understanding of reality and medicine. The editorial stance appears to be one of open inquiry into paranormal phenomena, as evidenced by the inclusion of the BBC program and the author's own investigation into the doctor's abilities.