Falling

Death by falling from great heights is pleasant--provided the smash-up at earth is thorough. Professor Heim of Zurich, who stated so last week, once fell off a precipice of Mount Saentis. He lit on his head and distinctly heard the thud. Stout, he recovered; introspective, he recalled his falling sensations. Delicious music soughed by his ears. He was very calm. Only after an hour from his rocky landing did he feel the pain of his broken bones.

The experience set him researching. He questioned Alpinists who had tumbled over precipices. He talked with people fallen with disabled airplanes, with foiled suicides. From all he got a concurrence of testimony: that their thoughts were lucid and followed each other with weird swiftness, that they were fully aware of, and resigned to death, that music sounded. Some felt as if they were passing through rosy clouds. None felt pain immediately upon striking earth. Such too are symptoms of asphyxia. People who tumble from great heights are slowly stifled unconscious, dead.