Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-07-26
WHAT THE DEAD DO
BEYOND THE GRA We
Nessages From Slain Soldiers Report They Remain on
the Battlefield to Help Others-Souls of Negroes
Said to Be "the Pale Pink OF Sea SheHs'
DEL1EF in life after death is with


- most persons matter of faith
They admit that proof is difficult, If not
| impossible. If it could be demonstrated
with mathematical certainty no faith
would be needed. We know that the
sum of the angles of triangle is equal
to two right angles because the geome-
triCans can prove it to us beyond the
shadow of doubt. and the reasoning
is so clear and simple that it convinces
every intelligent mind.
But when an attempt is made to prove
that death does not end all, recourse is
| had to reasoning of an entirely diff
fcrcnt character. The priest falls back
upon the authority of the Bible and
says "it is written" The spiritualist
falls back upon the testimony of me
diums" through whom the dead are said
to have communicated with the living
But, unfortunately, the honesty of the
mediums is open to doubt. They have
been caught in deception. Then have
delivered messages in good faith which
are known to be untrue. They have
oven been charged with reporting what
goes on in their subConscious minds and
with reading the minds of those who
wish to communicate with the dead and
representing it as a message from the
other world.
Yet many men of education and in
tcligcnce and of standing in the world
l.. Alpt tln,r hox,
received undOubted word from those who
are no longer alive. One of the most
recent converts to belief in communica
ton between the living and tho dead is
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sir Oliver
} Lodge. principal of the University of
birmingham, has published book in
(which he gives messages received from
his son Raymond, killed in the war.
| He believes they are genuine. II. &.
Wells ridiculcs them, and professional
psychologists fail to find in them any
/: evidence that they originated outside of
the consciousness of Sir Oliver or of
his friends.
The literature on the subject is grow
ing rapidly, both the volume of messages
and the reports of the scientific study
Of the whole problem. Five books have
recently been published containing cx-
tcnsivp communications from dead SOL
dirrs and others telling of their expert
cnccs in dying and of the manner of
life beyond the grave. Some are anony-
nous and others are put forth with
the name of the medium through whom
the messages were received and the name
Of the disembodied spirit. Most of them
Il & N w
one form or another. and they are sur
prisingly fluent, as though 1t were ABOUT
as easy for the dead to communicate IN
writing through the hand of another as
for the living to write letter. Ihcre
is also a curious similarity in the gen
cral tenor of the reports made OF the
conditions after death, and a suggest
ing disagreement with the usual ortho-
doy Christian teachings.
., One of the most interesting of the
ANONYMOUS books is "Thy Son Liveth, y
containing messages to his mother from
n soldier killed in Flanders. The boy
had learned wireless telegraphy at his
home near Tarrytown on the Hudson,
and his mother, in order to amuse him,
had acquired facility In receiving wire
less messages. One day she received
J letter from him, describing his ex-
l pcriences at the front in France She
r took il to her room to read, when
= the wireless instrument began to signal.
g She listened and received sixty -hve-
i word message announcing that the boy
8 had been killed near Lens. Other wire
less messages came, and later the boy
began to use his mothers hand to write
what he wanted to say. He reports
that he wears clothes, but that he did
= not need food or sleep at first. lie
y saws that there are marriages among
the dead in which the two spirits are
INCORPORATED in one form, but he cannot
= cxnlain Just how. The spirits of dogs
e are with the spirits of men and live
u dogs can enter the spirit world and
e leave it. When he ,7'>d he did not
d leave the battlefelds, but he and his
g companions remained there to help tho
r others who died and he finds Christ also
o ministering to the dead, to the Germans
- as we'll as to the Americans, French
e and English. The publishers explain
that the book is vouched for as truth
e by an author of reputation.
3 Mrs. Kelway Bamber, an English
ir woman. whose son was killed. put!
g her name to "Claude's Book, " in whicl
= she reprints long series of messages
1T received from him. He reports tina
N he was in hospital" for a long tim
l. after he died. When he recovered h,
1t was taken to house where he had
bedroom, a sitting room and den, will
piano and sofa and armchair. I'll
house stood in a delightful garden. II
devotes many pages to descriptions o
n what goes on and INDUCES in orthodO
y remarks about Christ and His incarna
tion. The communications were mad
through a-medum. Sir Oliver Lodge
g. who writes an introduction, says tha
the messages represent at worst psy
Geological phenomenon; while at bes
they convey the impression of an cage
newcomer on the other side. He
frankly nonCommittal as to their a,i
- thenticity.
H. There comes out of Buffalo a seri,
n of letters or messages from an unnamt
nd physician who died in 1915, and WI
by assigned after death TO go to France
work on the battle fields in assisting Il
ed spirits of the killed to escape from the
h. mortal bodies. When alive he had bee
,e. skeptical about the possibility of CON
e. municating with the dead, but he u.s.
e. two friends still alive as the mediu
mt through which TO let the living kno
or what is happening to the dead soldier
His testimony corresponds in gener