The Irish standard., 1919-02-22
sls Sir Conan Doyle in Communication
3#5F With tho Spirits of the
Dead?

With the Spirits OF the
Oead7
85Sss - !; iii. t.
The third fallacy contained in Sir
Conan Doyle's reasoning is his conf
dent assertion that spirit-intercourse.
1 BY means of mediumship, will prove
4 Of immense benefit to mankind, es.
/ pecially at time of exceptional dis
& tress such as the present. This note
sof confidence pervades all his recent
n writings. He speaks of miracles in
] the form of psychic phenomena hap
i pening every day" and of the "tidings
Of great JOY" which they are proving
to many. These statements will no
doubt lead many reader to conclude
that these phenomena are dropping
\ down from heaven as gifts from God
upon distracted world and at time
4 of its bitter need. But greater mis-
conception of the real facts of the
case cannot be imagined. The phenom-
ena spoken of never occur spontae-
ousIy, but they are invited and invoked
and for their occurrence the initiative
has to be taken on the human side
by means of the entranced medium,
constituted etc. They have, therefore,
nothing whatever in common with the
miracles recorded in the Gospels. And
there are high scientific authorities
who are not at all convinced that the
beings responding to these invitations
are at any time the spirits of the dead.
But l will assume, for arguments
sake, that this is really the case
that occasionally at least the spirits
of departed human beings manifest by
these means. We are then, however,
inevitably forced to the conclusion
that they must be spirits of the low
est and most debased order-cheats
and liars and hypocrites, from con-
tact with whom every right-minded
man should abstain. Readers of the
preceding article will have seen that
it is, under the most favorable condi-
&iOns, impossible to be certain of the
identity of the communicators and
that, in countless instances, endless
misery, disappointment and disillusion-
ment await the enquirer. Experienced
spiritists tell us that "even where the
most convincing proofs have been CIV
en- we must be cautious" Il gained
the distinct impression" writes DIR.
Hereward Darlington, purely scien-
tif1c investigator, that instead of the
spirits Of the personages who claimed
to be present, was dealing with an
exceedingly sly, cunning, tricky, and
deceitful intelligence which threw out
chance remarks, fishing guesses, and
shrewd inferences, leaving the sitter
to pick them up and elaborate them
II he could If any thing could make
me believe in the doctrine of evil and
lying spirits it would be the sit
tings with Mrs Piper"
But apart from the question as to
the real nature of these spirits, around
which fierce controversy will beyond
doubt be turning shortly l maintain
that no departed human being who
has preserved his moral and intellect
ual integrity in the other world would
adopt means so disastrous to the living
as modern mediumship is known to
be-purely for the purpose of con-
veying the most trivial messages to
surviving friends. 1t is here where
the real difficulty lies and where de-
luded scientists are most certainly not
telling the whole truth to the public.
For what are the actual facts of the
case? l will, lest l be suspected of
religious bias, let experienced and
well-known authorities speak Re.
specting the physical effects of the
practice of mediumship, Sir VIM.
Crookes writes: after witnessing
the painful state of nervous and bodily
prostration in which some of these
experiments have left Mr.. Home-af.
ter seeing him lying in almost faintine
condition on the floor pale and speech.
less,-T could scarcely doubt that the
evolution of psychic force is accom-
panied by corresponding drain on
vital force" Mr.. Stainton-Moses,
LOT, I,,