Medicine: My Heart Stood Still

The poets and songwriters have always felt it. The doctors knew it too, but have just got around to proving it with scientific gadgetry. Emotional people who claim that "my heart skipped a beat," or "my heart stood still" are probably stating a literal fact. Last week Dr. Ian P. Stevenson of New York Hospital (and his associates) proved it by tracing the heart's action electrically on an electrocardiograph.

When the patients were hitched up to the electrocardiograph, the doctors deliberately stirred up their emotions. Examples: one patient developed a noticeable arrhythmia (irregular beating) when the doctor mentioned his in-laws; a woman...

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