Improvement Era, June 1929

Improvement Era Vol. XXXII JUNE, 1929 No. 8 Seven Minutes in Eternity The Amazing Experience that Made Me Over By William Dudley Pelley [ This startling story by William Dudley Pelley should be read by every- one. The edition of the "American Magazine" for March, in which it origin- ally appeared, is exhausted, and we therefore asked and received permission to re-print it in the "Era." Our readers are indebted to the editors of the "American" for this courtesy. The final installment of the story will appear in the July number. The sub-headings in the article are our own. — EDITORS. 1 IN THE Sierra Madre Mountains, near Pasadena. California. I own a bungalow. When I want seclusion in order to complete a knotty job of writing, I lay in a stock of provisions, bid adieu to acquaintances, motor up to this hide-away, and work there un- disturbed. My only companion is Laska, a tawny police dog. In the month of April, 1928, I was living in this bungalow while writing a novel. The work had gone well and was nearing completion. I was untroubled mentally, feeling physically fit, writ- ing six to eight hours a day, with plenty of evening recreation. One night toward the last of the month I returned around ten o'clock and lay reading in bed till midnight. The book bad nothing to do, I am convinced, with what subsequently happened. It was a ponderous volume on ethnology, a subject that is something of a hobby with me. I felt drowsy around midnight, laid the volume aside, pulled off my glasses, and extinguished the bed-lamp. I had gone through a similar routine on a hundred other evenings: the day had been no different from a hundred other writing days spent in the bungalow. My sleeping chamber was located at the back of the house and was perfectly ventilated, with two casement windows opening toward the mountains. Laska curled on the floor at the foot of my bed — her accustomed sleeping place — and that she did not externallv motivate the phenomena in any way, I am positive. When it ended, and I was back in my body. I stumbled from the bed and my voice awoke her, bringing her over beside me. where she thumped her tail on the rug and sought to lick my wrist. * * *