Unseen. The Great Slumber Escape

  • Eugene Borodulin
‘The Great Slumber Escape’ is the second animated illustration in series called “Unseen”.
The soul's ability to leave the body at will or while sleeping and visit the various planes of heaven is also known as "soul travel".
“The soul of a sleeper is supposed to wander away from his body and actually to visit the places, to see the persons, and to perform the acts of which he dreams. For example, when an Indian of Guiana wakes up from a sound sleep, he is firmly convinced that his soul has really been away hunting, fishing, felling trees, or whatever else he has dreamed of doing, while all the time his body has been lying motionless in his hammock.”
“It is a common rule with primitive people not to waken a sleeper, because his soul is away and might not have time to get back; so if the man wakened without his soul, he would fall sick. If it is absolutely necessary to rouse a sleeper, it must be done very gradually, to allow the soul time to return.”
“There is a German belief that the soul escapes from a sleeper’s mouth in the form of a white mouse or a little bird, and that to prevent the return of the bird or animal would be fatal to the sleeper.”
“The Golden Bough”, Sir James George Frazer.