MESSAGES FROM THE DEAD.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 95, 24 April 1907, Page 7

MESSAGES FROM THE DEAD.

: —«. _.. i STRANGE STORY OF A SPIRITUALIST'S RETURN. "TOO STUFFY ON EARTH." \ NEW YORK, Feb. 24. The protagonists of psychic research iin America are intensely excited over .a message, which one of them, Professor James Jb.yslop, late of the ■ Columbia University, claims to have received from Dr. Richard Hodgson, who, in December last, suddenly de- ' parted to that bourne whence no traveller is supposed ever to return. Dr. Hodgson was secretary of the Society of Psychical Research. Some time before his death he made a faithful promise to Professor Hyslop, as well as to Dr. Isaac Funk, the head of a publishing firm, that he would, if possible, return from the " other side," and acquaint them with his experiences. I)r. Funk has now written a 'MS? ™lum6 > entitled "The Psychic ' Riddle," on the efforts Dr. Hodgson made to fulfil his promise . According to Dr. Funk, the dwellers in Spirit-land inhabit astral bodies and iind^the, utmost difficulty in breathine in the stuffy atmosphere of the earth; Hence Dr. Hodgson was unable to remain long in the vicinity of Dr. Hyslop owing to difficulties of respiration. ' He succeeded, however, through. Mrs Piper, a celebrated " medium," of Boston, in writing several messages to his terrestrial friend. He informed him that it was pleasant to die, that the severing of the soul from the body was accompanied by a shock which knocks everything out of the spirit-mind for a' brief time, and that the voyage beyond was a delightful journey through ethereal atmosphere. . Dr. Hodgson prayed that Dr. Hyslop would be able to understand him so as ,to help on the work of the society. Then he broke off the conversation owing to, the intolerable stuffiness; Dr. Hodgson expressed the hope that his successor as secretary of the society would be a marl who put more stress on,the spiritual side than he did, while not neglecting the scientific side. Dr. Hodgson declares that his present life is infinitely more satisfactory than his life on earth. Dr. Funk and Dr. Hyslop are both ■ convinced that the messages from Dr. Hodgson are a stupendous achievement constituting a scientific demonstration of a future life. , They are quite unconcerned at the triviality of the greater part of the messages which attribute Dr. Hodgson's respiratory afflictions to the terrestrial atmos- , phere. Moreover, Dr. Hodgson promised them to confound all scoffers by reappearing at a later period, when his soul is attuned to a higher key of spiritual existence.