MESSAGE OF HOPE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 227, 17 November 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

MESSAGE OF HOPE.

WAR DEATH AND SURVIVAL.

MESSAGES ACROSS THE GULF.

By Sir OLIVER LODGE, in the "Weekly Dispatch."

And how can man die better Than facing feaiiul odds, For the ashes of his fathers And the temples of his gods;

And for the gentle mother Who dandled him to rest, And tor the wife who nurses His infants at her breast.

So sings the poet concerning thi heroic defence of ancient Rome; anl so has come the call to us in modern England; to fight for the womenfolk, .is always, and, this time, fo ran exceptionally large and noble cause. In this conflict we are all engaged, directly or indirectly, for the iron machinery if war has turned out to be as essent'al as the muscles and sinews to wield ;t. Some are called to sacrifice leisure and home and occupation; some are calljJ on for their lives. But there is no !v:k of response, for we know that we are passing through one of the greatest crises in the human history of th*s planet.

It has been expedient that many men should die for the nation, and not for this nation only, but for the whole cause of free civilisation and Chirstianity. An organised system of deviln'i morality had reared f its head in Europe,, had deceived the unfortunate people who had succumbed to its specious promises and t* mptations, and had seemed to be justified by success.

that the body which they study is tho whole of man. And that when man's material machinery is irretrievably damaged and discarded there is nothing lott. Well, without furthei examination of specific psychological facts, it might seem so. but when we come to grips with tlif! facts we find that it is not so. The whole personality persists: the memory, the character, the affections aiv all unchanged. The individual soul, if so it may he called, has entered another region of service, and has some different perhaps ethereal —mode of manifestation : one that does not appeal directly to our senses at all. so that the animating spirit seems tj have gone altogether beyond our ken. Beyond our ordinary physical ken, yes; but a mental link remains. The power of thought, the immaterial method of communication that is called telepathy, continues, and this can be utilised and developed. By this means messages have been re reived across the gulr, and the barri?r is opaque no longer. It never was really opaque; there must have been far moro personal intercourse than tho world in general has been aware of, but now the facts —the messages which come—are being examined in a scientific age, and to anyone who will really study the facts, for a few strenuous years, cloubt is no longer, in my judgment, reasonably possible.

A conflict was inevitable sooner o: later —a conflict in which the forces of evil must .be thoroughly vanquished, that it may be known by bitter experience that they lead to destruction after all. A nation cannot sefi its soul to the devil w'th impunity any inoru than can an individual. Wickedness may flourish like a green bay treee, but in the fulness of time it is cut down, dried up, and withered . An object-fesson in morality, a ven table crusade, this war has been call id. and the nomenclature is just. Our gal lant troops are agents of the powers of good, as truly as ever wore hunnn agents called to a specific work. In the highest cause they have been called upon to suffer, and, if need be, to die. But the suffering is far wider spread, the bereaved and sorowful are in piteous case, and it is on their behalf that an opoprtunity has been given me of saying a few words of comfort and hope. For what is death? A natural process through which all Jjving things must pass, a stage in the journey of existence. An important station, truly, we do more, on arrival, than change to another line. Death is more like a port of departure, where we take leave of land conveyance and launch out on a new medium. In that senjj only can it be likened to a terminus. Death is a great adventurej it is in no sense a termination of existence.

The evidence requires Yes, truly, it does. All scientific evidence requires study. Is the general public expected to examine the records of scientific societies before it can receive information at the hands of thosi who have worked at the subject of which they treat? Certainly not. Yet some idea of the evidence ought to be given. It is not possible to convey any adequate idea of the evidence f.i an article, it needs at least a book, and a book I will write —indeed an> writing; but I have lately communicated three incidents of the most recent evidence to the Society for Psychical Research whos- business it is to criticise these things, and in a forth, coming issue of its proceedings they will appear. While in the previous volumes of proceedings will be found ;i large accumulation of previous ev.deace.

By too many death has been thought of as the end, a cessation of existence, a sudden and complete stoppage 1 . It is not so; but it was a natural mistake to make, because it has been singularly difficult to get messages back. Away the emigrants have sailed, on the ocean of a new life, and had no means of sending word of their progress tj mourners on the shore. They havo found means now. The silence is no longer unbroken. I doubt if the silence was ever quite complete, but >t served. It was more than sufficient to cause despair and to constrain people to think of their loved ones as buriil in the earth or sea, and to lament their fate hopelessly and wildly. This horrible blunder need no more be made.

But I cannot expect people in general to understand it ; I. cannot expe t people to deduce conclusions from anv record. They can realise that a case for inquiry has been made out; th?;. can regard the possibility with inspect and interest; but for conviction I am sure that most people must depend 011 some first-hand experience of their own. And what that experience may be, what form it may take, is not for me to say. Meanwhile, I coii'isel an open and yet critical mind. anJ the reception of such immediate comfort as they can receive from the assurance that I and a few other students fairly familiar with the whole j' the evidence have been convinced.

The pangs of separation are bnJ enough without this added torment, which is both gratuitous and false. was torment on both sides, too. For, though we mlg'it be out of touch with them, they were not wholly ignorant of us. They might know very little of what we were doing, but affection is a strong link, and they could feel and be distressed by our hopeless sorrow. They do not wish to be mourned .'i that way; they feel strong and vigorous, active and usefeul; they ought not to be lamented unduly. Sorro.v that is natural and human is their due; but it should be full of love and hope and sympathy, as theirs is for us. 1 heir messages tefl us that they are we!!, that they are happy, that life is keenly interesting, aiul even more exhilarating than when pent up in the bodily mec-hanism from which they "have been liberated.

Those who prefer to be guided I y speculation and hypothesis as to what is likely must continue their attitude of negation, which is based on nothing more substantial than their inability to comprehend how these things can be true; especially how mental activity wtihout the accustomed organ which we call brain is possible. As a matter of fact, they have no real theory '.f how it is possible with the brain. Wa have grown accustomed to that fact, and find it hard to imagine any other : that is the strength of their position. The connection between mind an 1 matter is a puzzle. Mind without matter is not a whit greater puzzle. It "• not a case for theory, but for examination of fact. The facts at present recognised by orthodox science must be enlarged, and in due time a theory mav follow.

Yet bereavement is painful; death in the prime of life is tragic, the premature loss of an earthly phase of existence is a great deprivation. True; but without sacrifice is no remission; the sacrifice is their glory and honour and patent of nobility. The cause being worthy, they are happy in the opportunity of their death. And we that are left behind must rejoice with them in their fruition and eager helpfulness, and must temper our sorrow with abundant hope. It will be asked : How do I know >o positively, so assuredly, that death is not the end, that it is only a transition, a change of conditions, n quitting of the material life, and an entry into another mode of existence under different conditions? Though I have reason to think that, for ordinary people, the ne v surroundings will be not altogether dissimilar to the surroundings here. Not by religion, not by faith, have I been guided to this knowledge, but by simple following of fact. Speculative thought might easily suggest the contrary in my case at one time it did—but my business as a scientific man has been not to speculate but to grope, to examine all manner of facts, and to fellow the light faithfully whithersoever it might leal. Denials, negations, assumptions ~f impossibility are easy to make, but unless they are well founded they a*'» misleading. The restricted outlook ->f those who have limited their study to bodily structure and functions is quite natural and readily understood. I lie living body is a beautiful piece of mechanism, full of physical and chemical laws in entirely noimal activity. Given a suitable stimulus, everything that can happen ill the inorganeworld can be traced working in the same way in the fabric of animals and plants. And those who have discovered this and are still working at its deta'Js sometimes get carried away by their enthusiasm and add to their splendid sheaf of positive information the gratuitous surmise, the baseless hypothes's.

The theory may do difficult; it certain'}- is tar from clear at present. Suppostious explanations can be suggested, but to them no weight can attached. We do not pretend that the whole rationale of the process of communication is clear. That is what we arc engaged in studying. If thero were no difficulty, the human race would have known all about it long ago. It is because of the difficulty that such careful record and eximination of fact has been necessary. Because of it als > much profound scepticism lias been quite legitimate. But r.ow that there arc facts demonstrating personal sur 'al to be studied, it is futile to add 1 e the difficult? of expla'nmg them as an argument against them. If they will not fit int.) our preconceived theories, then tlios.' thorics must sooner or later I>.> enlarged. The realm <)• science is n.,t necessarily limited to a study of 'h.material basis of existence; it will hav. 1 to include something more like oxis f - Mco itself. There must bp a theory not of eatth-lifc alone, but of life itself —something much larger and fuller. of winch earth-life is but an episode. XO REAL BREAK. Th.'ii T venture to anticipate that wo shall find that we are one family all the time, that there is no real break discontinuity in existence, that what s called "th" next woriT' is a condition of things fully as real and interesting

and full-bodieu as this world. That .t is no strange land to which our frienii have gone, but a home-country commensurate with thj brightest of our reasonable hopes. Meanwhile we must be satisfied to do our work here, not shirking anv i f this life's duties, and making onrselve? worthy of the reunion which will come in good time. The readiness is all. Nor have we altogether to wait til. the future for our partial communion. Even the most stricken may be enabled to endure to the end if thqr can learn from time to time a channel ,» open for their thoughts and aspiration to be felt; still more if by patience, in ways at present unsuspected, some reasonable foundation for personal conviction of reciprocal interest and affection is vouchsafed to them.