CONVERSE WITH DEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20650, 23 August 1930, Page 8

CONVERSE WITH DEAD.

SPIRITUALISM ON TRIAL. SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE. TWO MESSAGES TO WIFE. [from our own correspondent.] i I LONDON, July 17. According to the News-Chronicle, Lady Doyle has "received two messages from her late husband, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Liuly Doyle is reported to, have said:—"We have had wonderful evidence in our Homo nt Crowborough of his presence with us."' "All 1 have received from my dear husband so "far," said Lady Doyle, "is private and sacred. I liavo rcasou to believo /that now he has passed into the upper life he will carry on his work and will be of enormyus help to people. There 13 no doubt that ho will keep in touch with the various psychic centres down here with which ho was associated. "The messages I have received from him may be given to the world one day, but the time for making them known will depend upon his wishes. I think it is possible that ho will send us a lot of information that he may wish us to make public to help people." There has been a good deal of discussion regarding a demonstration of "clai/voyance" by Mrs. Lstelle Roberts at the spiritualist meeting at the Albert Hall on Sunday night. On several occasions ilrn. Roberts addressed individual • members of the vast audience and gave them "messages" containing the Christian and surnames of their friends. In on© case she gave three or four such elaborate names to a woman who signified that they were right. " One of Two Things."

" Sceptic," writing to the Daily Mail, says:—"Now this was either one of two things. It was either an amazing proof of communication with the dead —or it was the most cold-blooded and cruel fraud. The third —that of an unequalled demonstration of mental telepathy—l think we may eliminate in view of the fact that Mrs. Roberts was surrounded by 9000 active, thinking minds. ' " I do not think that many of the nonspiritualist members of the audience grasped the significance of the demonstration—realised that the giving of several doublo and even treble names accurately to an individual, was far beyond any possible coincidence. Neither the medium herself nor any other speaker emphasised this 'miracle' in any way. In fact, the medium's smiling 'Correct?' when she was successful, passed over an amazing feat (if genuine) as though there were nothing remarkable in what sh| had done. " It, should be emphasised, too, that the medium showed little sign of strain, seemed no way in a trance or abnormal state, and rattled o5 these names and descriptions to different members of the audience with apparently the greatest of ease. 7 „ , "Now, such a demonstration calls for the closest scientific examination and consideration, in view of the fact that it pi-oveS or goes far to prove a truth about which the whole world is in doubt and perplexity. I will not express my own opinion of the demonstration, because merely an opinion based on superficial observation, and, to some extent,, on instinct —an intruding factor which should be utterly discountenanced in a scientific examination. _ ... "There was, I assert, in the exhibition given on Sunday, spiritualism on trial in a remarkable way, and I might suggest that your paper, as a beginning, might call upon those in the audience who were gften; these names of friends to come forward,- and explain how, in their opinion, the medium received those names and Christian names which were called out to them with such, almost casual ease.'/ Another Correspondent's View. "Is spiritualism real ?" asks another correspondent of the Mail. Is there not a staggering reply in the affirmative in the 10,000 at the Albert Hall last Sunday, with the many hundreds who could not gain admission ? "With the intelligentsia of the civilised including its most brilliant scientists, satisfied beyond any of the reality of psychic phenomena, with the 10,0.00,000 adherents to spiritualism—are we all cleluded and credulous fools ? There are thousands, daily communing with the departed and without the slightest taint of 'commercialism,' but with the deepest reverence. "There are no deeper truths and no nobler comforts than th.oso associated with spiritualism, and Lady Doyle's hope of communion with her husband is certain tJ bo realised in due course through one of the many channels available for intercourse', channels open to all who undertake investigation with reverence and sincerity."