MESSAGES FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXIV, Issue 17640, 15 August 1919, Page 9

MESSAGES FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD.

CAN >YE COMMUNICATE WITH

OUR LOST ONES ?

By the RT. HON. SIR JOSEPH COMPTON-RICKETT, P.C., D.L., M.P.

(Sir Conan Doyle, Sir Oliver Lodge, and Ella Wheeler Wiicox, are three of the eminent people who firmly believe that we can communicate with the dead. "1 say that there is survival after death. I say that I have had proofs of it," says Sir Conan Doyle. In this striking article Sir Joseph Coznpton-Rickett adds further testimony to "the power of voices from the departed.")

> Can friends in trouble thousands ot ) miles a\yay impress upon the minds of their friends at home vivid impressions of the dangers by which they are surrounded ? It is said they can by thought transference as an occult power. Its importance is growing, and its claims have been multiplying during the "War. For some years it has been subjected to competent inquiry, and now awaits further investigation to, confirm its position as a branch of science. Such, i inquiry is of the highest importance bei cause'it is bound to have reference to - clairvoyance, thought-reading, and sor called spiritualism. 1 It has. been surmised that " spiritism" s is thought influence from the mind of i the living on the living. It may be I more. 'There is nothing in the phenom--1 fena which forbids the inclusion of super. - natural impressions upon human - thought. Here are some instances which have reached me personally from trustworthy sources. AN AMAZING CASE. A British shipowner.had sent a large sailing-ship to Australia." A few days before the ship was due to arrive at the Australian'port, the mother of a young eaiJor came into the office of the firm nnd tearfully declared that her son had leen drowned. She said that on the previous night she had distinctly seen her son standing in the bedroom with A'ater dripping from his hair and clothing. He looked at her most earnestly for a few seconds, and then disappeared. The manager.'tried to console the woman with the assurance that it was .'•.only a dream," and finaiily one of the partners intervened and promised as ioon «s the ship arrived to ascertain whether an accident had happened to kny one of the crew'during the voyage. At the ekpected time of arrival the message was sent and a reply was received—"all safe; no one missing." This nas communicated to the mother, with the advice to spare herself needless pain on future voyages. tßut some two months later themother received a letter frmn her son telling her that in reefing a sail he had slipped fi'om the yard-arm into xhe sea. He gave himself up for lost, and concentrated his thought upon .his mother during those last moment sof consciousness. As it happened, the ship was "brought to," a boat lowered, and the man rescued. The date and time corresponded with the vision which the mother related, but in the southern hemisphere it was daylight. WAS IT A GHOST? A cultured man, well known in the political world, had a son—an Array .doctor—serving in the late South African War. The father, who lived in London, went to visit his two sisters, who lived in a country cottage m -the' Midlands. He arrived late o na Saturday evening, and was j met by the astonishing announcement that his son had been seen in the dusk that same evening. - The cottage was of an ordinary type, wtih a passage-way in the centre from the front to the back. The upper part of the door, which opened into the garden, was filled with glass. The sisters alleged that Tom, their nephew, looked through the glass at them, and then disappeared They unbolted, the door and went into the garden, but could not find him. _i BAD NEWS: They assured their brother that they were not mistaken, and wished to search-the whole premises;.but this he declined to do. The father waited until Monday, and then went direct to the , War Office. Upon his arrival an official expressed his satisfaction that he had come, but bade him braoe himself jgainst bad news. , He told the father that his son had lied of typhoid fever on the previous Saturday evening, giving the address of the hospital to which the son was attached, and where he died. The value of the first story is in the transmission of a vivid picture of the son to the mother, at a time of power, ful nervous impulse in face of death. As no death ensued, there can be no question of the disintegration of personality and the visit to the mother of a ghost. # POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS. It is probable that the impression ot the nephew's visit, in the second 'story, preceded actual death. That being so, both stories must be thought transference : and in each case the picture of tfte relative was formed subjectively in tiie mind, and given visual effect. ' This may bo an explanation of a whole class of ghost stories. Another set may be due to the expectation of a a appearance which a tradition excites — an auto-suggested apparition. A third class may be due tt> some influence attached to a particular pla.ee—a ragged remnant of circumstances long past, but still aWe to affect the senses, like n neculiar odour, a faint sound, or a »ange outline. VOICE FROM THE BATTLEFIELD. To take-one more instance almost nt random : The wife of a Free Church clergyman was sitting on the pai*ade of a large seaside town in tbo early part of last summer. The afternoon was ■warm and the lady grew drowsy, becoming scarcely conscious of her surroundings. She was suddenly restored to the full use of her faculties by a voice in her ears exclaiming : "It is all right, mother —don't you worry—it is all right." It was her own son's voice. He was on service in France. Some time nftor she was informed of his death anj, as nearly as possible, identified the hour.