Elder Matthew Cowley Raises a Dead Man in a New Zealand Village — “Life Came Back Like a Blanket Unrolling”

“I was called to a home in a little village in New Zealand one day. There the Relief Society sisters were preparing the body of one of our Saints. They had placed his body in front of the big house, as they call it, the house where the people come to wail and weep and mourn over the dead, when in rushed the dead man’s brother. He said, “Administer to him.” And the young Maoris said, “Why, you shouldn’t do that; he’s dead.” “You do it!” This same old man that I had with me when his niece was so ill was there. The dead man’s brother got down on his knees, and he anointed this man. Then this great old sage got down and blessed him and commanded him to rise. You should have seen the Relief Society sisters scatter. He sat up and said, “Send for the elders; I don’t feel very well.” Of course, all of that was just psychological effect on that dead man. Wonderful, isn’t it—this psychological effect business? We told him he had just been administered to, and he said, “Oh, that was it.” He said, “I was dead. I could feel life coming back into me just like a blanket unrolling.” He outlived the brother that came in and told us to administer to him.”

— Matthew Cowley, “Miracles,” BYU Speeches