CONAN DOYLE'S MESSAGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 293, 8 December 1920, Page 8

CONAN DOYLE'S MESSAGE.

THE "LIFE HEREAFTER,

SAYS HE HAS PROVED IT. DEFENCE OF SPIRITUALISM. ■Whether you arrive at the same conclusions that he does i- another matter, lull there is no doubt that Sir A. Conan Doyle is very much in earn.'-:, ami tliat li,. believes he ha- a mes-age lvi -orr..wii.g people. The fact tlnil I"' • barges sm much per head l.i hear !';■■ message ; - of eoiir-e unfortunate i"i- ihc object mi hi, purpose, bin ii.- wu- careful to explain to the great crowd which Rocked to the Town Hall la.-l irght tliat lie pti nothing out of it. All the money goes towards spreading the news of Spiritualism. There i- nothing even .-nu-'-Uing ihe uncanny about tinfamous man's led nre. il i- most unatter of fad. ami anyone who cxjiecU'd to hear something eerie and j>. Hike would be sadly disappointed. itiiilt on the lines of Mr. Masscy, with ll look ot Kite.luner abiuil Ihe eyes and tortoi.-e shell, there is nothing of the long-hi.ireil mystic about I'onun Doyle. As might have been r\[ ted there was Hot a vacant seal in the large Town Hall last night, when lie opened his brief New Zealand campaign. There was v surging throng round llie duors at a very early hour, uutl as the place is one of the most awkward ever dc-igm-d for dealing with a crowd, il would lie a kindness if ihc (Ircy Street dour.- were used for Idling in the people who have tickets for the ground Hour. A- it is everyone has io enter by the narrow Queen Street culnnices, and for about an hour the staircases are overwhelmed with slow-moving humanity.

Sir Conan Doyle began by saying that the .subject of his let-tun-, "Dentil and tho Hereafter: The Now Revelation," was the tnost important in the world, ami people might ask what.right ho had to discuss it—what were his credenl ials': jn reply be would say he had studied the subject' of Spiritualism sim-i- 188(1, nnd if thirty-four years did not make an expert he did not know how long it took to manufacture one. He had read up the subject enormously, lie had written about it a good deal, had never lost an opportunity of experimenting upon it. and had sat with most of the great living mediums. On top of that lie had such degree of science as is usually possessed by a doctor of medicine, and he was popularly supposed to know a little about detective work—this last phrase being the signal for a round of applause, On top of that ho was a pretty good judge of evidence. In support of this claim he mentioned the famous case in ■whioh he discovered a flaw in the evidence against a man in England who got seven years, and eventually effected his release after having to fight the whole police and law. After tracing the beginning of spiritualistic phenomena at a little hamlet in the United States of America abjut 72 years ago, he enumerated well known people who had investigated and become convinced of the genuineness of the manifestations, even though they had at lirst been sceptics in come cases. He mentioned such names as Professor Hare, Professor de Morgan, Professor Mayo, Challis the astronomer, Russell Wallace, ' the great zoologist, Lombroso, the Italian scientist, Sir Oliver Lodge, and others. He had the records of .13 professors 041 the subject, who gave their testimony in different degrees to the reality of the phenomena. Sir Oliver Lodge, their great leader, had devoted himself to trying to make people realise that there was no such thing as death; that death very often brought the dead very much closer to those they loved than ever before. That wns the work he (Sir Conan) was trying with "ad's help to do, and had done. At this Btage\ he quoted a letter from a bereaved mother, expressing the conviction that Gou. would bless him for the help be had givtn. One letter like that, said tho lecturer, made up for fifty of the other sort—and Jit- could tell them tliat be did get the other sort as well. (Laughter.) Referring to the large number of men who had admitted the reality of spiritualistic phenomena, he said "they must be either insane or liars, or else the thing was true. HIS OWN EXPERIENCE. Coming to the personal aspect of the matter he said he was originally a materialist, but he had a patient who asked him to help in some spiritualistic experiments. They had the usual results. A table used to raise one leg and come down on a letter of the alphabet and spell out messages that made sense. He was puzzled, and began to investigate tbe matter, and studied the evidence of Sir William Crookes. Then there came the war, when people got more earnest, and many lost relatives. In the Doyle household they had ten dead. It was then that he thought of Spiritualism, and felt what a wonderful thing it would be if they could define where their dead had gone. There came into bis household a lady who had developed automatic writing, which was most dangerous unless perpetually checked, as it was so easy to deceive oneself —it might be one's own sub-conscious self that was working. She had lost three brothers, and his wife had lost her brother. This lady began to receive written messages, and from the names and language used Sir Conan was convinced it was these boys who died in Flanders, and were trying to communicate with their relatives. Sir Conan here explained that the apparently unintelligible 'knockings, wrappings, etc., thai? were received at some seances we're really the departed trying to communicate with the living. They meant nothing in themselves. The spirits were only trying to attract attention. After explaining that the table turnings and rappings and other manifestations were nothing, the message from the dead being everything, Sir Conan said Christ merely performed his miracles to call attention to His teaching. Curing a fow loperg did not matter, but the 'Sermon on the Mount did matter a great deal. TALK WITH DEAD SOX. After the auto-writing episodes Sir Conan experimented with a reliable medium, aud advised others to do the same. The result was that 00 of them out 0f.72 said they got messages through from the dead. He then told how two years ago at a seance at Southsea he lirst met his dead son, who had been killed in the war. It was essential to sit in the dark to get phenomena, as the psycho-plasm, which, was the basis of all manifestations, dissolved when exposed to the light. They tied up the medium, and soon they heard a voice, which waß the voiye of the lecturer's dead son. He said. "Father, pardon." Be had been a deeply religious lad, and there had never been anything to forgivt?. The only thing was that he did not. ijiopt his fathers views on Spiritualism, and the very first words ho uttered when be got jtnfco touch with the living were to ask _tef.4g__i_e

spirit of his son that he had been quite right in using his own judgment, "and the next moment I felt his strong hand on my head, and his lips touched my brow," said Sir Conan. Asked if he was happy, the dead son said he was quite happy. Others at the seance corroborated what passed, and the facts were published. MESSAGE FROM A BROTHER. Another case occurred at a seance at a little obscure village in Wales, where the people could not have known the names of people that were used. His brut her was a general in the Army, and when the spirit was asked who it was it gave a nickname that was known only i i ihe family. When Sir Conan menliuiie.l the case of his 'brother's widow the spirit said that a certain course of treatment suggested would kill her, and mentioned 1 he name of a certain man to whom she should be sent. Xo one knew ihe name, lint it was afterwards discovered to be the name of a magnetic healed ill Copenhagen, the town where

.Ie wiilnw was then staying. If that was not his brother watching over the interests of his widow, said Sir Conan, what was it? it was experiences like that, that made them know Spiritualism was true. There was a great difference between Spirituarlism anil other i reeds. One believed and the other know. Till-: AFTER LIFE. The lecutrer devoted the latter part of his lecture to an explanation of the messages lie said had been received from the spirit world concerning death and the hereafter. According to them the physical body had an etherie body, which was its counterpart, and after death this passed to the spirit world, where it met ihnsc it most hoped to meet. The great bulk of the spirits went straight to happiness, and when asked to describe tiiat happiness the spirits said no words could describe it. Compared with their lite, t!u- life on earth was a "mud bath.'' The spirits made their own congenial circles of friends, and lived in different households. Asked about (\eiA, the spirits said He was so infinite that they would not presume to define Him. Christ was to the spirits the highest thing of which they themselves hud any knowledge. Some claimed to have seen and met Him. This evening Sir Conan will give an address on "Pictures of Psychic Phenoment," and will throw on the screen the much-discussed photographs.