TALKS WITH THE DEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20114, 27 November 1928, Page 12

TALKS WITH THE DEAD.

! AN ACTOR'S EXPERIENCES. VISIT FROM SHAKESPEARE. [ KKo.M oril OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, Oct. 10. Sir Frank R. Benson, the well-known theatrical manager and Shakespearian actor, has drawn attention to his beliefs by writing a foreword to a book, "Telepathy and Spirit Communication." In this iio says:— "I have seen, touched, and spoken with the risen dead. I have had frequent communications, with and without mediums, with most of my friends who have passed on. lam not aware that I have any niediumistic power. I am only ono of many who daily live in close contact and sympathy with thoso whom we wrongly call dead." Interviews have followed in which Sir Frank has affirmed that he has spoken with Shakespeare. This, in his own words, is how it happened. "A voice—(hat of Shakespeare—spoke to mo through a trance medium, saying: 'I know that you are engaged with my plays. I ain glad. Go on. "1 asked no questions 'but. lislcned for the next voice. It was that of Aeschylus. Aeschylus said: 'lt, was I who sent you to work on tho stage before my great successor. Our work is on the same lines.' By 'his successor' Aeschylus meant Shakespeare, and the explanation is this. I went on ttie stage in consequence of the success of (he 'Agamemnon,' which we played at Balliol while I was an Oxford undergraduate. lam perfectly satisfied that the communications wero genuine. That Aeschylus spoke to me in English was but natural. Thought has no language. Words are symbols." Sir Frank said that his first experience took place many years ago at tho hour ofbis father's death, when a being in the shape of his father came to him, kissed him on the forehead, and said, "Farowell." i A lalei experience was at, (lie front I during tho Great War when Lady Ben- j son and himself wero serving with the French Red Cross. "I was," said Sir Frank, "140 miles south of where my son was on the Western Front. I was just going off to sleep when midway between the ceiling and the floor I saw a light, and in the midst of that light stood my son. I sprang up and half got out of bed. "I exclaimed, 'My God, Eric, I thought you wero dead.' 'Dad,' said my boy, 'von know we have always agreed that there is no such thing as death.' 'Of j course, said I, 'what «i fool I am. Howare things going with you?' 'Oh, line,' he replied 'Everything is going well. Good night, dad. God bless vou,' and (hen the vision faded away, f at once turned on the elcctr'c light, looked at my watch, j and took a iiole of the time." i Sir Frank adds that next day he read j in the papers that his boy's regiment had j been in action. Three days afterwards j | came a telegram saying that he had been ' I killed nil the afternoon of the day on which he appeared to him. j