SIR CONAN DOYLE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 67, 13 December 1920, Page 6

SIR CONAN DOYLE

TOWN HALL LECTURE

CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM COMMUNICATION WITH THE DEPARTED ■Sir' Arthur Conan Doyle's spiritualist , lecture on Saturday night was attended ~by.' as.'.mauy people as the Town Hall could accommodate. The lecturer spoke powerfully arid earnestly, and the big ■audience followed his words with tho closest attention. Sir;Conan Doyle said he believed that spiritualism would have tho effect in tho future of entirely revolutionising human ideas- upon tho inost important matters, and would enormously enlargo humanity's mental horizon. Theso were tho dark ages, and, tho'end- of them would 'come when the new flood of light was universally discerned'. He had studied '■ spiritualism: for 34 I years, and ■ had brought to tho task tho o.uolifications of a doctor of medicine and of a judge of evidence. When spiritualistic phenomena had first come to be spoken of, they had naturally excited- much criticism. Pro'fossof Hare, professor of chemistry at Pennsylvania University, was the original investigator, and 1 he began by announcing that the whole thang' was an imposture and that he was going to show it ■ up. About 1852 he presented his report, and that report ought to have been final. It would have been so hut for prejudice, especially ' religious prejudice. It ended •by announcing that there was not tho slightest question in'the world that the phenomena were true. Scientific Authorities. A long succession of other scientific men had sinco reported, and thero was no minority report whatever. There had never been a scientific man who went into the matter with tho same gravity and care as he would give to any other scientific problem and reported adversely. Professor do Morgan had said 1 : "The spiritualists beyond a doubt are on the track which has led l to all advance in physical science. Their- opponents are 4ho representatives of those who have striven against progress." Russell Wal- ' lace,, tho great naturalist, had said: "These facts do not require further con■:firmation. They are proved quite as well as any other facts in other sciences, and it is not denial or quibble whioh can disprove them." The great Italian, Lombroso,> after years of experiment, ,had given this testimony: "There can he no doubt that genuine- spiritual phenomena are produced by intelligences totally independent of the medium and of the parties present at these seances." Sir Oliver Lodge had said: ''I say that certain dead friends of mine exist, because I have talked to them." And Sir Oliver lodge was one of the most cautious men the lecturer had met in his life, Prom the war spiritualism had gained increased l significance on account of the number of mothers who had lost their sons, and were finding consolation • in., its' message. Tho lecturer had brbusht tho message to Australasian mothers. 1 and with the help of God he would get it "across to them'. .-..- Many more authorities than those named! above were adduced, by the lecturer in support of his casq;>and Sir Conan Doylo challenged scepticism with the words: "What do you think of all these ; authorities? Either they are mad or ; are liars, or the thing 1b true!" •The'lecturer told how by observation and reading ha hod been convinced of 'the • genuineness of spiritualism. "I began, as a. materialist," ho said. "... But at last I found the weight of testimony.so tremendous that I felt I would be a 'mental sloven and a moral coward if. I did not admit I had been in the wrong. I took refuge in reading the other side,-but there-was no:other side. Huxley said, that even if it was true it ' interested him no more than the gossip of curates in the Cathedral City. Darwin said, 'God help us if we have pot 'to believs things like this.' That did , not seem to me a very scientific way of approaching the question." Personal Experiences.

-Sir Conan Doyle proceeded to describe •some of the spiritualistic phenomena that ha himself had -witnessed. "During »:the jwar," he said, "a lady who 'lived with;ns developed: automatic writing. I 'watched! her for months. She had lost three brothers' in tho lions retreat, and ■my wife had lost her brother. These 'lour hoys were writing through and signing their names. When I canio to examine these documents- week after week--.- . . there came a time when I eould''nq longer doubt that the boys were writing-. It bec'amo more, impossible to doubt when the communications took a. prophetic form. Wo had prophecies that were accurate in detail. On the quostion of time, they wero absolutely hazy . . . but on any question of ■ absolute fact I cannot recollect any mistake which came through that medium. "At last I saw the. enormous importance of the question. I got the pattern •■■qf-jthe. whole thing. I saw that all these phenomena, puerile as they often are, are really signals from' the other side in order to draw our attention. What wero all, these rappings but kneckings at the door of humanity? I recognised that the human race had. as it were, been listcningvto the bell of the telephone, arguing abont the bell, and all the time wo •ought lo have been taking down tho receiver andi puttingl it to'oik' ears, be.;causa it was the messages that were important.

••./'These messages were a new revela--1 . .tion supplementary to, not contradictory .of, the old one. The revelation filled in .the blank spaces, improving the map of ," the human mind as regards religion, and giving religion a solid basis. We know ■something which is stronger than faith: that is, knowledge." "Pardon, Father I" Sir Conan Doyle told tho audience that at a seance given by Evan Powell, a v; medium, he mot his dead son. Powell .xwas bound so securely in an armchair -. " as to require afterwards to bo cut loose. . .||We sat in the dark," said the lecturer, ."because all physical phenomena must ;. occur in the dark. It is a question of ■ chemical, physical law. If all depends '. on psychoplasm, which is tho raw material they work with, and it is soluble in light. . . . Suddenly I heard a voice quite close to my face, and I heard my wife cry out: 'It's Kingsley!' I said: 'Is that you, Kingsley?' Next moment I heard a voice say/. 'Pardon, father!' , That boy had nover in his life done anything to ask pardon of me for. There ■ was just one thing. He did not nnder- .; stand spiritualism, and he had not helped me in my work. Here he was using the very means to come baclf which lie himself had ignored. I said: "My dear boy, you were quite right to use your own judgment. Why not?' Next moment I felt a heavy.hand on my head. ■ My head was bant forward, and I felt his lips on my brow. All this time the medium was in the corner, breathing heavily. I said: 'Aro you happy?' and my boy said in a whisper, .'So happy!' and tho voico seemed to die away.' The Lund Beyond the Grave.

Next' Sir Conan Doyle told how ho met. his dead brother; and how once, at a seance where he andl throo others were singing "Onward, Christian Soldiors!" an angelic fifth voice joined in-tho music. Then ha explained tho beliefs of tlie 6piritualists regarding a future life. Each human being, according to wnat the spirits said, possessed two* bodies, tlie first the physical body and tho second the spiritual; Tho lattonwas a facsiniilo of the former, and at death it went forth, containing within it the intellect, ■. the memory, tho conscience, and all the higher functions of the lruman being'. Upon its emergence from the physical body'tho first thing it was aware of was the ldving faces of those whom of all persons it would most wish to be met bv. Love and sympathy were the great bonds of attraction in tho other world, and a. terrible loneliness wruld be vjsitcd upon those .who on earth had been ■cold-hearted and cruel. Suoh would wati-'-'Bei''Out r *Jnto the"groy : mists till at last perhaps someone had mercy upon them. Tlie land just beyond tho grave was, like ■this earth, but happier, more ethereal. It was not tho final abode of tho spirit, but a preparation for tho conquest of • greater glories. . ... . The evil would go through a ohajstening process. But ho* many truly rtjl people

wcro there? "I think," said the lecturer, "that this story of evil has teen largely built up by the theologians, and ha? no foundation; but what I do think is that there are a great many people spiritually dead, or liable v to become so. . . . Never on earth was any man born to be damned. It would be blasphemy to the Great God to. say eo. Every man wins his way to the highest light at last, though it may take a long time to do so. Spiritualism drives nobody mad. It is broraing on hell firo and predestination that makes peoplo ill, but nobody in this world was ever tho worse for being told ho wac to be enormously happy after this life."