In 1957, Dr. Jorge Adoum, better known as Mago Jefa, underwent an extraordinary experience that profoundly impacted his life.
For twenty days, the doctor and writer was struck by an illness that led him to what he described as the "World of the Dead," a dimension where he shared life with spirits and beings of another nature. His experience was so powerful that it became the subject of a book, Twenty Days in the World of the Dead, where he narrates the details of this enigmatic period. However, it is important to note that he could not reveal all the details, as, after his illness, Adoum passed away shortly after finishing the account of fourteen of those days.
The story begins on a calm April day, shortly after Dr. Adoum returned to his hometown following a trip to Argentina. He met his friend Ana de Mezey, and together they decided to have lunch at an Arab restaurant on Senhor dos Passos Street, in a welcoming and relaxed environment. After the meal, the idea of going to the cinema came up as a way to pass the time.
The film was not very interesting, but it served as a distraction. However, around 3:40 PM, something strange occurred. Dr. Adoum began to feel intense discomfort, with a headache, nausea, and a sense that his body no longer responded as it should. His right hand and leg moved involuntarily, and to his surprise, he became temporarily blind. His eyes could only perceive a distant red light, and for some reason, he saw the world through a "window" that appeared limited and opaque, with a distorted view of reality.
Despite feeling unwell, Dr. Adoum tried to hide his symptoms to avoid alarming his friend. However, she noticed something was wrong and suggested they leave the cinema. Dr. Adoum, now struggling to move, asked her to call a taxi, and soon they headed to Ana's house, where he was welcomed and cared for. There, she laid him in a comfortable bed while she called a doctor to evaluate him.
Soon, Dr. Adoum began to experience something strange and mysterious. Whenever he closed his eyes, he found himself in another dimension, where deceased people, some of them long gone, appeared to speak with him. Curiously, he also saw people he had corresponded with recently. One friend he had written to in Argentina, for example, appeared in this "world of the dead" days before Dr. Adoum learned of his death.
In the following days, Dr. Adoum experienced a series of symptoms that intensified. Whenever he closed his eyes, he found himself among the dead; when he opened them, he returned to the world of the living. One of the most striking visions was of a kind of coexistence between the living and the dead, where he could see both familiar and unfamiliar beings, even animals. What stood out the most was his perception that all, both the living and the dead, had luminous bodies, but with different colors. He noticed that the "good" beings had lighter and brighter colors, while the "rough" ones were enveloped by darker, murkier hues.
This mysterious and surreal experience led Dr. Adoum to reflect on the nature of life and death, something he could only understand after living through this interaction with another plane of existence. He believed that this experience was not merely an illusion caused by his illness, but a glimpse into a deeper, unknown reality.
The fact that he was only able to report fourteen of the twenty days he spent between the living and the dead added to the mystery. Dr. Adoum not only underwent an extraordinary physical and spiritual experience, but this experience may have, in some way, been a premonition of his own death, which occurred shortly after his recovery.
