Conan Doyle Says: Spiritualism Is Only Hope of World Salvation!
Conan Doyle Says: Spiritualism Is Only Hope of World Salvation! is an article written by Milton Bronner published in The Berkshire Evening Eagle on 6 march 1925.
Editions
- in The Berkshire Evening Eagle (6 march 1925 [US])
- in Owensboro Inquirer (15 march 1925 [US])
Conan Doyle Says: Spiritualism Is Only Hope of World Salvation!
Portrait of Arthur Conan Doyle by E.R.H.
LONDON, March 6 — "Spiritualism, and spiritualism only, supplies the way for the universal church of which men have dreamed throughout the ages. It alone furnishes the means by which Jew and Gentile, Catholic and Protestant, and yes, Buddhist and Moslem, can come together and dwell in religious harmony."
The speaker was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the immortal Sherlock Holmes, who is at present devoting so much of his time and study to spiritualism. His latest venture is the most unique bookshop in the world — one devoted entirely to the collection and sale of often rare books on phychic subjects. We had been talking about America, which he knows so well and where he has delivered so many lectures on these matters.
"People tell me," said Sir Arthur, "that America, rich, busy and prosperous, is turning away from jazz and bootleg whiskey and paying more attention to real religion and to true spiritual things.
"It was high time.
"Indeed, it is high time for all the civilised world to do so. Religion, as we know it today, has utterly failed in its effect. If the present religions of the world had sufficed, they would have prevented the World war. They would now be killing the seeds of future wars. But they are doing nothing of the kind.
"At this very hour, in their chemical laboratories, men of science are preparing new gases to poison thousands of men in the next war. The very talk of the next war, the very issuance of books upholding the justice of using poison gases, is an indictment of religion as practiced today.
"What religion needs today is a freshening up.
"It needs reviving.
"It needs reinvigoration from the fountain head.
"Two thousands years ago there was a great impulse from Galilee. Now men need a new impulse. You start a railway locomotive off with its furnace full of coal and it will go to a considerable distance, with a full head of steam. But if you don't replenish the fuel, the engine will slow down and finally stop.
"It's the same way with religions. We are today seeing the slowing down process. The thing that divides men is creeds.
"What separates Jew from Gentile? Dogma.
"What separates Catholic from Presbyterian? Dogma.
"What separates Methodist front Presbyterian. Dogma.
"Now spiritualism, which means direct communion with the spirit world, is the great invigorator of religion. If you could make a church 100 per cent spiritualist you would have the ideal thing. But even if it adds only 50 per cent spiritualism to its own tenets, it is tremendously improved and freshened. But today you see the singular phenomenon of the church fighting spiritualism. The greatest enemy of religion is materialism. You would think the churches would turn to spiritualism for help, for support. Nothing of the kind. They are blind.
"The churches say to the materialist that they have faith in after-life.
"The materialist denies it, or is agnostic.
"The spiritualist says to the churches, as well as to the materialist, that he knows there is an after-life and can prove it.
"The spiritualist presents facts about it.
"And it is these facts that, once accepted. will break down all barriers erected by dogmas and creeds. Suppose a Jewish mother and Catholic mother have both lost their only son, and suppose both through spiritualism get in touch with their lost ones and receive messages from over there? The messages will be very similar. They will relate to the same facts. And in those messages there will be no religious hate, or bias, or prejudice.
"And the same thing applies to the Catholic mother and the Methodist mother. Spiritualism can bring us all together because it alone can bring us into intimate touch with the loved ones we have lost from the present life that we know. And over there, beyond the barriers, there are no hates, no prejudices, but just men and women who realize the errors of this world and who realize now the way to higher and better living.
"Cut out all dogma and get back to the simple fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. That is the message which we get from beyond.
"Thus we excise the cause which has led in the past to wars and tortures and hatreds, and still in the present holds mew apart. You can twist the letter this way or that, but the spirit of Christ's teachings lies in the advice which reaches us from beyond.
