CAN THE DEAD SPEAK?

Taranaki Daily News, 5 February 1917, Page 8

CAN THE DEAD SPEAK?

MESSAGES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE, WEIRD WAR PHOPHECY. All those interested in psychical re. search, and many others, will turn to Sir Oliver Lodge's book, "Raymond; or, Life and Death," wherein tiie distinguishes scientist submits the proofs he has had of conversations with'his dead son Raymond. Raymond Lodge, the youngest son. was born in Liverpool in ISS9, and lived there as a child. An amusing story is narrated of how, when a small boy at Grove Park, Liverpool, Raymond jumped out of the bath, ran downstairs with a. nurse after him, out of the front door, down one drive and up another, and was in the bath again before the horrified nursemaid could catch him.

He joined the Army in September. 11)14. was trained at Great Crosby, and vent to the front early in the sprim; of 1015. attached to the South Lancashire Regiment. He -was killed bv a shell fragment on Hooge Hill, on Sept< mber 14, 1015, at the ago of twentysix.

Raymond Lodge's letters home are included in the brief ski Icli of his life, ; n order, says the author, to create something of a nersonal interest for the reader, so that the subsequent records may not seem (on dull, as they might to an entire stranger. The impression gained from the letters is of a bright, intelligent young man, full of health and spirits.igiftcd in his profession, but quite normal in his beliefs and practices. The relationship established after death with his father and family is due, he says, ti the sympathetic attitude of belief which makes possible communications extremely difficult to hold under the most favorable circumstances.

"FAUNUS."' i The first messages from "beyond" cam" to Sir Oliver Lodge through a mediumMrs. Piper, of America—and was a classical allusion which required much elucidation. It transpired that a. person named "Myers," whom the scientist identifies as F. W. H. Myers, said to the medium that he would take the part ni Famms if Sir Oliver would act as the poet. This message bewildered the re. cipient until its classical allusion to an ode of Horace made it clear—Faunus was a guardian who lightened the blow which fell upofi the poet. This message came before. Sir Oliver Lodge's .son had been killed. The sequel eaine with the death of' Raymond, who communicated by table-rapping" to his mother, "Teil father I have met some friends of his." Asked to name them, he replied "Myers." Later, through a medium, Peters, be said, "Not only is the partition so thin that you can hear the operators on the other' side, but a big bole has been }li (ule"—a particularly significant statement in relation to a similar one made in his father's hook, "The Survival of ]vian." At the same sitting Raymond 'exclaimed, speaking of bis new state, "Hitherto it' has been a tiling of the bead: now I am come over it is a thing of the heart. Good God! Now father will be able to speak out much firmer than he lias ever done, because it will touch our hearts."