This is a book that I read in the 60s or early 70s. I checked it out of the local library. It was science fiction. It was fairly thick - 300 pages plus, as I remember. It had a dark cover. I don't remember the title or the author (I have some vague notion that the author was a woman, but I can't be sure).
The story was about a man who was a prisoner in a prison. I don't remember what he was locked up for. He was beaten regularly, though with no explicit descriptions of the beatings. He is told by another prisoner of a way to "escape" the prison by stopping his heart after being beaten (at least that's what I remember). This frees his mind from his body.
The man does so and in so doing re-lives past lives that he had. The other prisoner says that never happens to him, he just is able to escape the prison and project himself in the current time.
I don't remember if I finished it. I think I was 12 or 13 at the time, which would be about '69 or '70.
I would like to re-read it now. I think it might have been above me at the time.
Thank you for any help you can provide.
The story was about a man who was a prisoner in a prison. I don't remember what he was locked up for. He was beaten regularly, though with no explicit descriptions of the beatings. He is told by another prisoner of a way to "escape" the prison by stopping his heart after being beaten (at least that's what I remember). This frees his mind from his body.
The man does so and in so doing re-lives past lives that he had. The other prisoner says that never happens to him, he just is able to escape the prison and project himself in the current time.
I don't remember if I finished it. I think I was 12 or 13 at the time, which would be about '69 or '70.
I would like to re-read it now. I think it might have been above me at the time.
Thank you for any help you can provide.