Power of Karma

Author(s): Alexander Cannon
Publisher: Rider and Co

Page 68

THE POWER OF KARMA A correspondent from Penang, Straits Settlement, after reading an article concerning me in The Sunday Express, sent me the story given below, under the title: "When Imagination Kills”. Although there is no indication that the young planter in this narrative was the victim of a sorcerer's malevolence, it affords an illustration of the power of imagination obsessed with a particular idea, whether implanted by another or by one's self.
Over 30 years ago, a young farmer from Aberdeenshire, splendidly built and fit, and with money behind him, came out to Malaya in the sugar-cane days before rubber cultivation. He was a magnificent specimen of home-breeding, and endowed with health and strength and high spirits. For some reason he announced that he had typhoid fever. The sugar estate doctor examined him and said he had nothing of the sort, and was perfectly fit and able to carry on his work. A month or so passed and again the young planter said he had typhoid and again the doctor examined him and denied that there was anything wrong with his health-the planter was absolutely well, the doctor told the estate manager. Again a period went by, with the young planter enjoying life and out at work seemingly sound as a bell, but always talking