Life in Spirit World told by Conan Doyle

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

Life in Spirit World told by Conan Doyle is an article published in the San Francisco Chronicle on 3 june 1923.


Life in Spirit World told by Conan Doyle

San Francisco Chronicle (3 june 1923, p. 8)

Wicked Live in Gray Circles, Brooding Over Their Condition, He Says

HAPPINESS DESCRIBED

No Sorrow. No Pain. No Ugliness, Everything Sacred, He Declares

To an audience of about 3000 persons at Dreamland Anditorium last night. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, noted author and exponent of spiritualism, told of personal psychic experiences, of the causes leading up to his espousal of spiritualistic beliefs and gave a description of the world and life which he believes exists after death.

"Every human being has two bodies — the spiritual and the natural," Sir Arthur said. "In appearance, to every hair of the head they are alike.

"After death the spiritual body leaves the natural body and passes into the world beyond. According to all messages from the spirit world death is painless. There is a beautiful languorous feeling and the spiritual body passes on.

PUNISHMENT DESCRIBED

"The brain, the soul and the intellect all go with the spiritual body. If you are an inferior person intellectually in this world you will be the same in the next.

"The first thing the spirit body sees as it leaves the natural body is the loving hands of relatives and friends, stretched out to give it succor. Here the punishment of the wicked begins. It the person who has died has made no real friends or has severed ties of family there will be few to offer succor.

"There is no hypocrisy in the next world — everything is genuine. Hence, the wicked seem lost, they do not know what to do. When they realise their grossness is the cause of this condition, then they begin to develop their spiritual side and gain the happiness of the World after death."

ALL HAPPY IN NEXT WORLD

More than one hundred accounts of what transpires at death which he has received in psychic messages assert that ordinarily it is two or three days before the spirit body is led into the new life. Sir Arthur declared. All are very happy in the next world and none want to return, he said.

"Everything in this world has a counter-part in the next," he said. "There are hills and dales, lakes, rivers and fields, the same as we have here. The spirit bodies fit in naturally in their esthetic surroundings.

"Life in the next world is an exceedingly busy one but everything that is done is congenial. They quickly find their friends and homes, living in communities with those most congenial."

READ MESSAGES

Sir Arthur read a number of what he said were messages from the spirit world that told of the beauty of children, the "glorious beauty" of the spirit world. There is no sorrow, no pain, no ugliness there and everything is sacred, he asserted.

"Everything we have in this world that is intellectual — drama, music, literature and science — really belongs to them." Sir Arthur said. "We have only the inspiration. They have complete knowledge and there the community gets the full benefit.

"It is a very complete life; they have much to do but there are no misfits. Everyone does what they are best fitted to do, receiving no payment of any kind except the enjoyment they get.

MUCH INNOCENT JOY

"A large share of their work is missionary. They spend much time trying to lift up lost spirits from the lost sphere. But a large part of their time is devoted to pure and innocent joy.

"The question of wickedness in the world has been greatly exaggerated by theologians and others for their two ends," Sir Arthur declared in dealing with punishment of the wicked after death. "The average person, after struggling through the troubles of life, wants and receives the compensation of rest and joy in the next world through the mercy of God.

DESCRIBES PURGATORY'

"But the really wicked learn better on the other side. They find themselves in what we call the 'gray circle,' some of which are very close to the earth. They are unable to lift themselves up and are very miserable and lonely. They brood until at last they realise they are being justly held there, and then they develop spiritually and pass up. But they spend a long, dark time in the 'gray circles.' They send messages to us here, asking for knowledge of how to lift themselves up, and in some cases we have succeeded in raising them up. There is no hell, no fire, no physical pain, because there are no nerves, but there is a terrible loneliness and anguish of soul in the 'gray circles.'"

All worldly success is lost at death, the spirit body taking only the intellectual and spiritual gains of the natural body, Sir Arthur said.

Tonight Sir Arthur will lecture on "Personal Psychic Experiences," and Wednesday night on "Recent Psychic Evidence," both lectures at the Dreamland Auditorium.