DO THE DEAD SURVIVE?

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3563, 16 November 1926, Page 4

DO THE DEAD SURVIVE?

SIR OLIVER LODGE’S CONVICTION. London, November 12. A striking appeal to disregard death was made by Sir Oliver Lodge in a lecture at the Memorial Hall. He said: “We should think about the grave as little as possible. I have never seen my boy’s grave in France. He has asked me not to. He says: “I take no interest in that grave. I never was in the grave in my life.” If people could only get over the trouble about interment, said Sir Oliver Lodge, and the mediaeval superstition of lying there for centuries awaiting the general Resurrection, they would begin to regard death as an episode and not be afraid of something that was bound to come. Cold science sooner or later would find itself seriously bound to face the question of survival. The few people who felt that they had communicated with friends on the other side learnt that the appearance of those friends was not greatly changed. They still had bodily manifestations. “I may be asked, ‘How do you know?’ ” Sir Oliver Lodge continued. “The reply is that I cannot doubt it because I am in occasional touch with them. By evidence I have gradually become convinced and to the best of my scientific belief I assure you that what I am saying is the truth, namely that life is a permanent thing, which interacts with matter for the time, then leaves it and goes on to other surroundings. Whether these are happier I am unable definitely to say.”