Spirits Married, Says Conan Doyle
Spirits Married, Says Conan Doyle is an article published in The Morning Oregonian on 11 april 1922.
Spirits Married, Says Conan Doyle
Weddings in Next World Declared Childless.
REAL AFFINITY THEN IS MATE
"Paradise" Only Slightly Removed From World.
HEAVEN HARD TO ESCAPE
Sir Arthur Says Any Decent Person Cannot Help But Go to Higher Plane on Death.
SPIRITS SAID TO MARRY
NEW YORK, April 10. — (Special.) — The latest news radioed to spirit land was transmitted to the newspaper reporters by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at his rooms in the Hotel Ambassador today. In response to numerous questions he revealed several unsuspected conditions in the nether world:
Marriage is on a higher and more spiritual plane than here, and in reality is merely the mating of affinities, who are always happy.
No babies are born, but the spirits as they go about their daily tasks keep a watchful eye on earthly matters and are extremely interested in the births here.
There is a plane called "paradise." where normally respectable persons go upon death, and this "plane" is only slightly removed from our own mundane sphere.
Sinners Reach Paradise.
Bad people, when they die, are transported to a plane considerably lower than that tenanted by respectable ones, and they continue to sink lower and lower unless they repent.
Once a sinner becomes contrite for his earthly infractions, he or she, as the case may be, begins to ascend, and after a considerable probationary period, climbs into paradise.
On the average the length of time spent in paradise is about 40 years. after which one floats to higher, higher and still higher planes.
There is a very complex serial scale in the higher planes, further complicated by the fact that those above can descend at will to lower planes while those below haven't permission to go up whenever they wish.
Everybody in the upper realms is busily occupied, mostly doing good toward one another while "rest" is obtained by reading. The best sellers were not specified by Sir Arthur.
Heaven Hard to Escape.
The celebrated English creator of "Sherlock Holmes," who has come to America to lecture on matters psychic, said that the great agreement among spirits of various nationalities as to life in the spirit world will be one of the strongest proofs of the existence of such life. He added that the spirit world was all about us but that it was expressed in colors and sounds which our senses were too gross to understand. Sir Arthur said that some ministers taught that it is hard to get into heaven, but said a normal decent person could not keep from going there at his or her death.
Troubles Not Escaped.
Asked about a suicide, Sir Arthur said that one could not force the hand of Providence and that a suicide would have to bear in the spirit world the trouble that had caused him to end his life. He said that the object of life was to spiritualize ourselves and that riches and successes here did not count against that.
"The spirit has to obey material laws when it comes within their sphere,"
he explained.
All mediums have "guardian angels" to whom they are especially subject, but they can communicate with other spirits, the "guardian angel" acting as a sort of master of ceremonies upon such occasions.
Sir Arthur specified Mrs. Wreidt of Detroit and Miss Bessinot of Toledo as among America's most successful mediums. He said mediums are born "gifted." Climatic conditions affect their communications with persons living beyond the horizon. Mediums, because of atmospheric surroundings, can work better in one country than in another.
Power Is Explained.
Asked what gives the medium power to communicate with the spirits, Sir Arthur answered, "It is through the ectoplasm."
"Note — The Standard Dictionary describes 'ectoplasm' this way: The denser outer protoplasmic layer of a unicellular organism or cell without a cell wall, as of an amebra or of certain eva. Now, isn't that clear?"
Sir Arthur's description of "ectoplasm" was: "This is a substance emanating from the medium. At first it is a vapor or a gas which becomes glutinous or puttylike, and which in this stage can be felt. I have felt it myself. It can be photographed. I have a number of photographs of it which I use in my lectures.
"It has been analyzed by Dr. Schrenk Netzing in Germany and also by Parisian scientists, has a physical basis and comes from the medium's body. It has been found to contain phosphates, carbonates and sulphates and some other substance which is not determined. It is only in ectoplasm that a spirit can materialize. A spirit passing through it becomes visible to the medium."
Dead Mother Declared Seen.
Sir Arthur very solemnly proclaimed that he once saw his dead mother's face "in the ectoplasm of a medium."
This was a few months after her death. He added: "There is not the slightest question about that. It was while I was in Austria, The face seemed as solid as in life. My mother wrote me a letter through a medium and signed a pet name which could not have been known to the medium."
Communication through a medium was also established by Sir Arthur with his dead son in 1919, a year after his demise. He remarked: "There was no question about it having been my son, either."
Sir Arthur was of very serious mien all the while he talked about. happenings beyond the ken of all earthly censors. He was not questioned about the most famous of all his own mediums and the one which brought so much entertainment to millions — the suppositious Sherlock Holmes. He seemed delighted that eight of the writers who interviewed him were women, remarking that when he came to America to lecture 30 years ago only one woman was among the newspaper folk who talked with him.
Incidentally, 30 years ago, when Sir Arthur didn't lecture on spirits, he recalled he was permitted to have a bottle of whisky on the table at his lectures. Sir Arthur's first lecture on "The New Evolutions" will be given at Carnegie hall Wednesday night.
SOME PEOPLE WOULD BE MORE INTERESTED IN THE OTHER KIND.
LECTURES ON SPIRITUALSM
SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
— "Just over from England and a specialist on "Spirits"?!!! I want an introduction!!!
— Don't get excited — it's another kind of spirits.
