The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-07-06
AGED Renew YOUTH IN SPIRIT
WORLD, SAYS A. CONAN DOYLE,
TOLD BY GH0STLy SHADES

London. July 1.-Spirisuallsn1 II q
very living thing - SIR Arthur Conan
Doyle. the noted writer. ln a lecture
on Death and the Hereafter" he de-
serioed the process of his conversion
from the ntaterialis,7t with which he
left the university as a young doctor
thirty three years 50 10 a complete
faith In srirttualisrn and the reality OF
saediumistic communications with the
next world.
Sir Arthur said there was only one
way - convert r. materiaiist, ana that
was by showing him material things
which he could not cxplaia, IN hi4
early days when he had read Judge
E;dmunds, Russell Wallace. ara Flam-
marion he had been very hard to con-
vince.
Il was the early experiments of
Crooks in invest igating the work Of
mediums which had finally overcome
shis Scenticism, ard he was satisfied
that the real scientific attitude was
that of Crooks himself. and not that o.
his opponents when those opponents
refused Crooks invitation to examine
the evidence. In much the same way
that the churehmen of the middle
ages had refused To look through
Galileos telescone because they
knew" that what he said he could see
was not there.
He was convinced at that time. Sir
Arthur said. that the physical phe
nomena reported were true. cut he
could not see what they led TO. and
dismissed the matter from his mind.
But the war had taught all OF US
more earnestness, and with the COM
ing OF the war he began to see why
God had sent this tremendous Gift
into the worid. These phenomena In
themselves were nothing at all. yhey
were the empty ringing OF n tele-
phone hell-what mattered was the
message that was coming through.
People had been quarreiing about
whether the bell rang or not instead
OF taking down the receiver and get
ting the message. Yet the messages,
which had come in many ways, agreed
very closely In detail. They had come
by writing mediums and by trance
Misunderstanding and often
through mediums who told OF facts
which they themselves could not pos
sibly have known.
Death and the Hereafter.
The messages always claimed to
come from the dead; they had been
thoroughly tested. and theirs was not
a man who had really tested them
genuineness Of the phenomena
During the war he had referred
many hereaved people to a medium.
Mrs. b. whom he had himself
tested. and he had received great
heaps of letters fun Of the most ex-
travagant descriptions of the results
they had obtained.
When people got in contact with
''the other side" they naturally asked
about the conditions under which the
dead were living, and the reply
could be described as the very hap
piest message which mad ever been
sent to the human race.
The messages described death as
painless and, indeed, rather pleasant
feeling. as were all natural functions.
..hey spoke OF the etheric or spiritual
body as the exact counterpart OF the
body that was left behind. The
etheric body found itself at once In
touch with these to whom II was most
hound by sympathy and .ove. Ac-.
counts OF the conditions under which
sources, many OF them from people
II lived had come from all sorts OF
who had been killed IN the war. and
when compared they agreed with one
another In the most extraordinary
manner.
The life beyond appeared to be one
OF great happiness, yet OF great home-
illness. In the evolution OF nature one
stage was very like the stage It sue
ce6ded. and the dead" found them
this one that sonae OF them had dim !!
Guilty ins peranadi themselves that
eAsy rsetlY ygere deAd. u
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