PIRITUALISM.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 17017, 14 December 1920, Page 6

PIRITUALISM.

I ; CLERGY'S REPLY TO SIR A. CONAN DOYLE. (SPECTAT, TO "THE TKZSS.") AUCKLAND, Iteoernber W.J Spiritualism and Sir Conan Dqyl«'e lectures came in for considerable •*■ , t«ntion in tho AucUand churches laafl evening. . » Preaching at St. MarsV Oathedrtf r the Anglican Bishop (Dr. Arorill) said the Lambeth Conference, in dealfog with tlhe revival of so-called Spiritual* ism, for it w,ls nothing new, had deajß with tho movement, because w had realised that it was a rocoU frtia! soul-deadening materialism and the exaggeration of some aspects of truta wliich €xo science of chol <S reveal in due time. realised," he said, "that tho present) movement was to somo extent the outcome of tho Church's failuro to town clearlv and autJhoritatively the . t . ull meaning and. comfort of the doctrine of the Communion of Saints, which assures us of our continual fellowejup with the 'departed, and of the fact that) death is the gato to fuller life." JW Conference recognised the honesty or the Psychical Research Society and »s endeavours to winnow tho chaff from the wheat, but. strongly deprecated ttoo modorn tendency to mako a cult or . roligion of Spiritualism, for Sp>"t ual " ism as a religion was anti-Christian, denying tho great truths of tho Incarnation and Redemption. "Spiritualism is purely in the experimental stage, declared the Bishop, "and it is worse* than folly to accept its pronouncements as established facts, and wjhen the s?ieneo of the mind, and especially the effects of self-hypnotism and uienw suggestion arc more clenrly understood! it pcems almost certain that they will explain all tho phenomena which Spiritualism claims from tho spirit world. Tho Confercnco soys such scientific researches have confessedly not reached an advanced 6toge, and \yo are Buppqrted by tho best psychologists in warning our. peonlo against accepting ns> final theories "which further knowledge may disprove, and still more _ -against the indiscriminate, and undisciplined exercise of psychic powers and t'he habit of recourse to seances, seers, ani mediums '' One of the most interesting attacks upon Spiritualism came from tho Her. J. "W. Shaw. Concluding his remarks at the Mount Eden Presbyterian Church, he said: "When you remember that tfifi alleged spirits toll us nothing about the lif* they now lead, but only of earthly things; that the mediums wh<> ! are tho high priests nnd priestesses of the. cult almost all suffer moral degeneration as tfrcy oxerriss? their wicred office; that ere. the strongest minds lose their bainneo (as uitnc-n Sir _ Conan l>oylo'.s idea T.iat we have in our spiritual being a series of skins like . an onion, and shod one at every great emotional crisis, the skin becoming-a, chost); when' you remember-that to the average mind dabbling in Spiritualism produces a wild unrest 'font all too often ends in tho lunatic asylum, you will consult your own interests, and the interests of your friends, best by not worrying your mind over the business. Our dead are safe with Christ. C'liild you believe in i\ universe controlled by the God Jesus revealed, in which our dead arc ahv-iys striving to get into touch with ik nnd cannot except through some medium? ,, '