Edgar Allan Poe's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" is a very interesting tale about a doctor who has become fascinated by mesmerism. The doctor is curious to see what would happen to an individual put under hypnosis while dying. Would it stave off death? Would dying make hypnosis impossible? A friend named by the narrator as M. Valdemar agrees to be the subject of this experiment. Seven months later, the doctor is called to the dying man's bedside. As the patient's breath and heartbeat slow, the doctor successfully hypnotizes him. The dying man feels no pain and responds to questions without rising from his trance. He asks the doctor not to wake him, but to let him die without pain. The next day, the patient's eyes roll upward, his cheeks lose their color, and his mouth falls open. The man is apparently dead, but as...