DO THE DEAD LIVE?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18673, 30 September 1922, Page 16

DO THE DEAD LIVE?

A CAMPAIGN FOR TRUTH. The following is the first of a series of articles Irom (ho pen of M. Paul Henze, on the subject of spiritualism in the London Daily 1 degraph. They have been translated by ivlr J, Louis May, of the Anglo-French .Society, with the' special permission of the author, and will appear simultaneously with their publication in trance. It is a delicate task to which I am here setting my hand; a delicate task to give an account of certain events which have taken place during the eight months that have elapsed since the appearance of my modest ‘‘lnvestigation into the present position of psychical research,” down to the recent sensational experiments at the Sorbonne, and to tell of what I have done, and why and how I did it. I am then under no illusion as to the formidable nature of the work before me, but the report has been asked for, the public are waiting for it, and now there is a risk that, after all, they Will exclaim: ‘‘What; is this all he has to tell us?” Then, again, I shall have to speak a great deal aDout myself. However modest the tone that 1 shall endeavour to adopt, my readers will agree that my position is not an enviable one. From the point of view of their contents, the pages which are about to follow might have been, indeed, ought to have been, entitled, ‘‘The Memoirs of a Liaison Officer between Science and Ectoplasm,” and, as such, they might have been entertaining enough. Unfortunately, as we now know, though science readily answered my appeal, ectoplasm has. up to the present, been conspicuos by its absence. What, therefore, I have to record is merely how and under what circumstances this vain attempt at a rapprochement was carried out. For the last eight months I have, as my readers may well imagine, lived a queer sort of existence. I have been sniped at from all sides, by the champions of every party. I have seen' some weird people and witnessed some amazing scenes, some with, some 'without, “phenomena.” Nevertheless —let me has.ten to reassure my friends—neither my sang-froid nor my sleep has been in the least degree disturbed. I am con-' scions of having retained my independence of outlook completely unimpaired, and I shall write this book in o spirit of perfect calmness. “At all events,” I hear my readers exclaim, “you will tell us everything.” Alas, I am afraid not. That would take up ten vohnr.es, and involve mo in a dost of fords ■ that would serve no useful purpose. I should be compelled to introduce the names of a number of people whom I have no desire to offend. I dual I, therefore, limit myself to recording what is absolutely essential to my purpose. One of my confreres wrote as follows concerning my researches: Monsieur Pau Henze, torch in hand, is now fain to make his way into the shadowy cavern. It is necessary that he should realise that those who dwell within it at present, in a twilight propitious to their works of mystery, will inevitably hurl themselves upon him in the attempt to deny, him entrance. . . .

That sounds somewhat gloomy. Let me say, however, that in this, as in every other human undertaking, certain personal interests have been involved. These have been the occasion of some lively disputes, from which, I repeat, I have emerged entirely unperturbed. Be it therefore understood that I am not going to record everything. 1 shall merely rotate just as much as I think necessary, but that much I shall set,down without any reservation; I shall be open; I shall quote tho people whom 1 ought to quote, I shall offend some susceptibilities, but that- cannot be helped. The whole question is such that the public interest must take precedence over private interests. The reader must judge, m due time, whether or not I have performed a duty. A LOOK BACK. Now, before I go any further, I should like to make this perfectly clear. I never intended to plunge, in thq wake of many far more competent than myself, into a study of these problems in themselves,' nor was it my endeavour to form and express a personal opinion of my own, which, palpably, conI<;1 have had no interest for anyone. It was merely my desire to fulfil, to the best of my ability, the part of the faithful historian. Such, I solemnly repeat, was my sole ambition. Those who regard that as an' easy task, and one devoid of any literary merit, are welcome to their opinion. , Seeing tho difficulties which beset me, I know how hard it will be for mo to keep everything in its due perspective. Nevertheless, I shall attempt the task, showing no bias to one side or the other, and, above all, evincing no shade of ill-humour. To begin with, T shall ask the reader’s leave to cast a look behind over ground already traversed, arid to offer a word ir two of comment regarding the incidents provoked by my previous work. I had no quarrel with the spiritualists, but they—whether rightly or wrongly we need not now discuss—deemed that an attack had been made, on them in Volume I of my book, “Les Morts, vivent-ils?” That being so they had a perfect right to defend themselves, and, on the whole, they have done sc£ with a sort of clean hitting and dignity of style which—why should I not avow it?—implies no small compliment to myself. The principal spiritualist organ, the Revue Scientifique et Morale du Spiritisme, has been markedly fair and dignified in the tone of its replies. This, however, occasiond me no surprise, since its editor is the magnanimous and upright Gabriel Delanne, whom I regard with profound respect. Psychica. too, has always displayed in controversy an unfailing sense' of proportion combined with a high degree of vitality and insight. Similarly, in the Dre Nouvelle, Louis Lormel has always successfully endeavoured to keep the discussion within the domain of ideas. Only, a few minor publications, such as the Revue Spirite, the Bieniste, the Sphinx, the Vie Nouvelle, etc., have descended to invective and insult. I merely shrugged my shoulders. As for tho

Revue Metapsychiquc. that is a special case, and 1 shall deal with it at greater length hereafter.

Wtih regard to the Revue Spirite, the matter is very simple. ‘ T have been carrying on a campaign!” that is the allegation, and, of course, “the Church is at the back of it.” Beware of the priests! Well, to ail that I did not think it worth while to reply. Why go over the old ground again and repeat what I have already said? Whv, if I had been anxious to carry, on a campaign I certainly need not have put myself to so much trouble. I need only have published a volume made up of certain extracts from the principal works on spiritualism and there would have gone lip a mighty shout of laughter. A campaign? Well, so be it; but my campaign has been undertaken solely and wholly m the interests of the truth, and had I found that spiritualism wa,s one with truth no one would more gladly have proclaimed it to the world. So little am I actuated by hostility towards spiritualists that, shocked at the sorry position in which they had contrived to place their great loader, Gabriel Delanne, I endeavoured to assist Louis Lormel—and I imagine I need not bo ashamed to confess it—to establish his venerable master in a position of genuine independence. The enterprise came 10 naught owing to the death of Louis Lormel. Louis Lormel died on March 3, 1922. and I salute his memory. Ho was a redoubtable adversary; he laid on and spared not. But he was a chivalrous soul, and I am convinced that, spiritualism. and its doctrines apart, wo were destined to bring to a successful conclusion the praiseworthy task to which we had set our hands. FANTASTIC STORIES. But “came the blind fury.” . . , The Bionieto is in a different category. My interviews in “Les Morts, vivent-ils?” it alleged are largely fabrications. This demanded an answer, and I gave it m the following terms: In my previous book I reproduced the opinions of 10 persons. M. Gabriel Delanne, Dr Galey, Professor Charles Richet, Mine. Curie, Professor Branly, Camille Flammarion, Father Mainage, Mme. Bisson, M. Maurice Maeterlinck. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Now I would here observe that, throughout, I was in total disagreement with M. Camille Flammarion. This disagreement, however,, was not to be wondered at, and terminated, so far as he and I are concerned, without my having to change a single word of my interview. As for M. Camille Flammarion himself, I certainly thought I should hear more of him. 1 had ventured, incidentally, to explode one of his most celebrated stories —the one concerning the premonition of Lord Dufferin—and I was most eagerly awaiting his reply. I contest that I was most anxious to see how M. Camille Flammarion, who, we know, has sufficient psychic force to stop a train by a mere mental injunction, would get out of the difficulty. At length, in May last, there dawned on the world the famous Volume 111 of “La Mort et son mystere.” I do not propose to enter here into a detailed criticism of this further collection jof fantastic stories, but, so far as I am personally concerned. I think it my duty to set down without comment the passage in which I am referred to: , ' “For example,” writes M. Camille Flammarion, “I have seen doubt cast upon the narrative recorded on page 231 of my second volume —which, by the way, wag not a scientific report but a mere recollection. But the fanatics who propose to reject it on this account, and try to convey the impression that the necessary lack of detail in this case is typical of all the others, are careful to make no -mention of the apparition described on page 382, where names, place, and exact time are all clearly stated; or of the case recorded bn page 402 and a hundred others besides. That is not playing the game; it is a systematic attempt to hinder the discovery of the truth. A person who relates something ho has seen does not necessarily draw up a 'technical report or carefully note every single detail. In the case in point (Lord Dufferin) there may' have been confusion as regards place and date, but the fact in itself is established, and that is what struck the writer.” And that is all—absolutely all. GHOSTS AND THEIR CLOTHES. As touching the question of clothes, thousands of M; Camille Flammarion’s readers were feverishly awaiting the result of 'his excogitations on this important question. Everybody knows that the ghosts of the dead always appear with their clothes on. That involves a problem which is not easy of solution. This, however, is the luminous explanation advanced by the author of “Apres la Mort” (page 241): “Among the other difficulties winch confront us in admitting the objective reality of these manifestations,” says M. Camille Flammarion, “the chief one is the matter of the clothes observed by the witnesses of (hem. , ' , “If we allow that dead'person, being in the condition of an invisible spirit and immaterial shadow inaccessible to our physical senses, is nevertheless there, close by can also admit that th© dead person exercises a spiritual on our own spirit and that this action is revealed to us in a form which we can perceive. So-and-So is there, and influences our brain by unknown psychical waves, This impression is recorded in ns by the image of the individual with whom we were once familiar. The spectators behold him as they formerly knew him. The ghost may be real and invisible, and he may become visible to us, take on a shape for our own ipind, our own optical nerves, and our own retina, by putting certain cerebral fibres into operation, and at the same time remain invisible f° r other brains not adapted to these vibrations. . . “The apparitions' of living people probably come into the same category. When Mrs Wilmot went to see her husband on a ship, after a tempest, and was seen by hfm and his cabin companion. William Fait, it was only her spirit that had crossed the sea and was present there; nevertheless they both saw her attired in her nightdress. (“LTnconau,” page 488.)” Hero again I make no comment; only if anybody understands the explanation I hope he will let me know. To, take matters in j their chronological order, my book appeared on November 1, 1921. It was, purely on. account of its. subject (I am under no illusion about that), a great success from the book-selling point of view. It was followed by very little of a polemical nature, since the Spiritualist press had already had its say, while with regard to the newspapers throughout the whole world I 1 may mention that nearly all of them (that is to say, between 280 and 300 journals) greeted my work with entire approval. There was one exception, and that was a loading review, the Mercure de France, whicli assailed me with poisoned arrows, without, however, compassing my death. . Lecturers, doubtless, had their say against mo hero and there from time to time, but they attracted no great attention. I was beginning to think that the controversy was pretty well over, when I received a surprise from another quarter, and that surprise was the attitude taken up by the official representative of the melapsychical fraternity, Dr Gustave Geley.