SPIRITUALISM IN ENGLAND.

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13488, 19 May 1917, Page 3 (Supplement)

SPIRITUALISM IN ENGLAND.

A tremendous stir seems to have been created in England by the publication ot a book by Sir Oliver Lodge telling of from his son, Lieut Raymond Lodge, who nil iu battle a little ov.ri a Year ago. Per-

haps it was inevitable that the enormous death-roll of Europe •should stari a revival of spiritualism among chose who have lost loved ones, and the space given the book in the British Press betrays the hope that tills many bereaved hearts. It is "the most remarkable bcok the war has produced or is likely to produce," declares the London Christian Commonwealth, an organ of liberal and progressive religious thought, while the London Times devotes a rather non-committal column to it. Says The Commonwealth:

"The dead keep their secrets, wrote the author of the Dreamthrop essays, and added, somewhat grimly, that in a little while we, too, shall be as wise as they—and as taciturn. For many people this is the last word on the matter. To them the suggestion that beyond the grave there are active and alert men and women who are cooperating with men arid women on this side in a sustained and systematic effort to impart their secrets seems fantastic . . . 'Raymond; or. Life and Death,' by Sir Oliver Lodge, either proves this, or it proves that one of the greatest of living scientists, whose business is to weigh evidence, to verity the minutest facts, to reject every doubtful theory unsupported by, facts, however attractive it may be, is the victim of illusion or has been deceived by charlatans. If the book is not a simple chronicle of the evidences which have convinced Sir Oliver Lodge that his youngest son, who was killed in the war'on September 14, 1915, is communicating with him and members of his family 'from the other side,' and is being helped in thisi work by a group of Sir Oliver's friends' on 'the other side,' it is pathetic illustration of the, manner in which the ablest and strongest intellects can be misled by their hopes. In any case, the hook is a quite wonderful literary achievement, more impressive than any formal biography, more, intensely moving than any tribute of sorrowing affection in verso or prose. One's first impressions of the book can only be expressed in this antithesis; it is'either a simple, straightforward record of events that have actually occurred, or it is the story of a great scientist's credulity and self-deception." The Evening Standard (London) goes l through the book and gives some citations to show how he speaks from th "other side." "For the most part, allowing for the impediments (as one may excusably call them) of the methods of communications, he speaks like himself. We do not suggest that this is evidence of the truths Sir Oliver Lodge is trying to establish; but it is well worth noting. "He shows solicitude for his mother. 'Mother, don't go doing so much.' he pleads. 'I am very strong,' says Lady Lodge. 'You think you are.' he retorts 'but you tire yourself out too much. It troubles me.'

"Reminded by his father on another occasion that it is getting near Christmas, he says: 'I know, I shall be there. Keep jolly, or it hurts me horribly. Truly, I know it is difficult, but you must know by now that I Mil so splendid, i shall never be one instant out of the house on Christmas day." "He is anxious because his brother Alex 'can't hear' him. 'I do wish lie would believe that we are here safe: it is a place where there is life.'' "As the communications proceed ho grows happier. In one passage, placed by Sir Oliver Lodge under the heading of Tnvorifiablo Matter,' he speaks of going to a 'gorgeous place,' which he describes as the Highest Sphere. Tinfull account Sir Oliver omits; 'until the case for survival is considered established, s it is thought improper and unwise to relate an experience of the kind which may be imagined.' Rut something is given. 'I felt exalted,' says the supposititious speaker, 'purified,, lifted up. I was kneeling. I couldn't stand up, P wanted to kneel. Mother, 1 thrilled from head to foot. He didn't come near me .and I didn't feel I wanted to go near him. Didn't feel I ought. The Voice, was like a beJL I can't tell you what he was dressed or robed in. Al!> seemed a mixture of shining colors'."

Sir Oliver gives this general deduction from thought and experiment on the great mysteries: "Nor let us imagine that existence hereafter, removed from these atoms of matter which now both confuse: and manifest it, will be something so wholly remote and different as to be unimaginable; but let us learn by the testimony of experience—either our own or that of others —that those who have been, still are; that they care for us and help us; that they, too, are progressing and learning and working and hoping; that there are grades of existence, stretching upward and upward to all eternity; and that God 1 himself, through his agents and messengers, is continually striving and working to bring this creation of his through its preparatory labor and pain, and lead it on to an existence" higher and better than anything we have; ever known."

Mr Robert Lynd, of the Daily News, is of the opinion that the book contains little evidence that will convince the sceptical. One or two points, he admits have, when taken together-, "a certain evidential.interest." Thus:

"One is a prophecy of Raymond's death made ai a seance in America n month before lid died. 'Meyers says you take the part of the poet,' ran a sentence in the message, 'and he will act as Faunus. . . Ask Verra'll; she will understand.' Sir Oliver could not make: head nor tail of the message, and so he asked Mrs Verrall the moaning of it. She immediately referred Sir Oliver to that famous ode in Horace in which the poet speaks of himself as having been almost killed by the blow of a falling tree had not Faunus lightened tlvji blow. This interpretation reached Sir Oliver more than a week before the blow of his soiT's death fell on him. "Shortly after Raymond's death, Lad'v Lodge had an 'annoymnus' sitting with the medium, Mr A. Prout Peters, and messages came about the boy from a 'control,' or second personality, called 'Moonstone.' After 'Moonstone' had described Raymond and Riven 'identifying messages,' the trance-speech went on

Good God! how father will bo able to ?peak out! much more firmer than he lias over clone, because it will touch our hearts.' "At the same sitting, a group photograph of which the Lodge family knew nothing was mentioned, and at a later sitting with a different medium some details of this photograph wore given A eopv of the photograph of Raymond and several fellow officers ultimately came from the front, and confirmed, to some extent, the description given through one of the 'controls'."