Reincarnation

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

Reincarnation is a letter written by Arthur Conan Doyle published in the Evening Standard on 7 june 1926.


Reincarnation

Evening Standard (7 june 1926, p. 4)

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE AND HIS BOOK.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writes to the "Evening Standard":—

"Sir, — In your critic's kindly notice of my 'History of Spiritualism' he makes a very reasonable point as to the difference between the French and the British schools of thought upon the subject of reincarnation. If the spirit people find they have to reincarnate, why do they not say so, and why should they disagree?

"The difficulty disappears, I think, when we realise that these spirit people are by no means omniscient, and that the matter concerns their future, which appears to be a subject for debate among them, as it in with us.

"Since, according to the French thinkers, there is a long — sometimes a very long — interval between reincarnations, and since this interval of centuries is passed in the spirit spheres, exactly as the ordinary spiritualist holds, there is practically no great difference in the result. I cannot see that the personality or individuality of the spirit is affected by the question. Call it by what earthly name you will, it is still the same.

"My own information is that in the more developed races reincarnation is a voluntary process. As I say in my book, 'when some special task has to be completed, or when some fault has to be remedied, the possibility of reincarnation may be one which would be eagerly welcomed by the spirit concerned.'"