The Jacket

Jack London's classic novel from 1915 follows the story of Darrell Standing, a university professor who, while serving life imprisonment in San Quentino Prison for murder, is subjected to the torture of The Jacket, a straitjacket that induces angina by compressing the person's whole body. Standing discovers that he can go into a trance-like state to escape the pain, and in this state walks among the stars and re-lives events from past lives. It was published in the US under the title 'The Star Rover' and has had two cinema adaptations.