THE SPIRIT WORLD

Southland Times, Issue 20641, 13 November 1928, Page 15

THE SPIRIT WORLD

GREETING FROM THE DEAD. EARL HAIG’S LONG MESSAGE. REQUEST BY JOSEPH CONRAD. London, September 13. A congress of the International Spiritualists’ Federation, with 150 delegates from 42 countries, concluded ita session in London to-day. The delegates came to inform each other of the progress of the study of psychical science in the different countries of the world, and papers on experiments and conveying newly-discovered knowledge, were read, covering every branch of supernatural phenomena. The addresses, by well-known spiritualists, were translated, sentence by sentence, by fluent interpreters. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, president of the Spiritualist National Union, to which over 500 spiritualist churches throughout the country belong, presided at the opening meeting. Much discussion took place on a paper by Monsieur A. Marcy, of Paris, dealing with the influence of sunlight and atmospherics on the intensity and frequency of rappings. The conclusion arrived at by the author was that the phenomena had a scientific foundation. He suggested that the electron was the element used by the spirit folk. Science and spiritualism, he continued, should carry on joint investigations. “Super-Normal Voices.” Mr. J. B. Mclndoe (Glasgow* read a paper on direct voice phenomena or “supernormal voices.” He described in detail experiments with telephone transmitters in a cabinet, trumpets and deaf appliances, and the “unconscious whispers” that eman- • ated from mediums with scarcely any movement of their lips. His hypothesis was that telepathic impulses of some kind were received by the medium and that the structure of their throats was ectoplasmic. Sir Richard Paget, he stated, had recently produced many varieties of human speech by artificial voice-boxes. He required one box for each sound. “It is just a step.” he added, “to visualize the possibility of com bining these in one instrument composed of living matter actuated and controlled by intelligence.” Mr. E. W. Oaten, editor of Light, stated that a small private amateur circle of eight persons in Lancashire had recently made astonishing developments with direct voices. Hitherto they had been getting only whispers, and generally in the dark, but an electrician suggested the use of a microphone and three-valve amplifier. The result was that they had to put cotton wool in their ears and close the doors to prevent the neighbours coming to see what was the matter. They could hear the voices all the way down the street. Memget From The Spirit World. A startling declaration was made by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the delegates at the Queen’s Hall. He said:—“Within three days of his death Earl Haig sent me a very long message from the spirit world.” While he was making his declaration he showed a photograph taken by a press photographer of Earl Haig's funeral, in which a human face closely resembling that of the late Field Marshall appears above the coflin. “I can reveal to you now,” said Sir Arthur, “that Earl Haig was a spiritualist. I only knew two or three days after bis death, when he sent me a very long mes sage, which had every sign of being evidential and truthful. I sent it to his nearest relatives, but I received no reply, and I cannot help feeling very much for him in the circumstances. I have ako received a

message from Joseph Conrad asking me to do something for him. It seemed as rf his spirit was uneasy, and he wanted to link up with the world once more.” Sir Arthur showed what he claimed to bo a unique collection of psychic pictures. “I am breaking new ground,” he said, “and shall stray away a little from some of the ordinary psychical photography. Eight ' years have passed since the public were first shown fairy photographs, and nothing has occurred since to shake the evidence.” “Fairy Having a Bath." Proceeding to show some delightful pictures of fairies and gnomes, some of them taken, Sir Arthur said, by girls in their ’teens, he explained the method of investigating the authenticity of such photographs. Both the positive and the negative are carefully examined, and the negative, if passed, is then submitted to recognized experts. The people taking the photographs are also examined, and the circumstance in which they are taken are investigated. One picture showed elves dancing, while another was of a fairy having a bath in the sunshine in a sort of eocoon. “The children who see these fairies,” Sir Arthur said, “talk of their colour, and say they have a lovely irridescence. The fairies are separated only by a slight vibration from ourselves, and quite a number of people can see them, although many are ashamed to say so because of the incredulity their remarks may excite. As for myself, I believe they are objective, but, if anyone says they are thought-forms, I will Dot quarrel with them.” During the winter Sir Arthur Conan Doyle will conduct a propaganda tour of South Africa.