SIR OLIVER LODGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20625, 25 July 1930, Page 16

SIR OLIVER LODGE.

SCIENTIST'S 7STH BIRTHDAY. VIEWS OF HUMAN LIFE. Sir dlivor Lodge, the famous scientist nn<l spiritualist, was 79 on Juno 12. Ho was born at I'enkhull, Staffordshire, and is now living at Lake, near Salisbury. 1 am no longer interested in birthdays," ho said. "I am going up to London, though, to give a talk over the wireless, but apart from that I tlunk the day will bo quite uneven! fui."

Yet in his long life there have linen few uneventful flays, for no one has delved nioro than lie has into the mysteries of life, both from the scientific and spiritual point of view.

Bir Oliver said: We arc only at the boginning of things and hardly civilised yet,. It is an intensely interesting period, and sometimes I wish 1 were young enough

to take a full and vigorous part, instead of only admiring what other people are doing. We talk too much about death and the grave. 1 am absolutely convinced that human existence is not limited to the material body and does not cease with tho death of the brain. We make too much of tho brain. It is the mind, and not tho brain, that designs and plans. I know by direct experience that those whom we call dead are not dead, but have just been separated from their bodily mechanism 1 have been in touch with the minds of certain people who have parted from their bodies and yet have preserved their memories, characters and affections.

Sir Oliver remarked Chat a spirit communication with his son Raymond, who was killed in the war, was tho moans of finding a lost will. People ought to live at least TOO years. The old Psalmist has done a lot of harm by talking about three score years and fen In those days I hero was no sanitation, but with the improvement of medicines, sanitation and the more wholesome habits of life, we ought to be quite young at seventv

Sir Oliver suggested as one of the means of prolonging life (hat. all the. merely mechanical things ought to be clone by machinery, but for any artistic or thoughtful work human hands alone are suitable.