1905
At a Shinto service recently performed in honor of the spirits of the dead who fell in the siege of Port Arthur the task of speaking the invocation (saimon) was performed by Gen. Nogi. He read the following:
"This day, the 14th of the first month of the thirty-eighth year of Meiji, I, Nogi Kiten, commander of the third army, with these my comrades, observing due ceremony, offer reverence to you, spirits of officers and soldiers of the third army who have died, for your country.
"More than 210 days have passed since the army landed on the Kwantung peninsula, and throughout all that time you bravely and stoutly fought. You gave your lives to the points of the enemy's weapons. Many a one of you perished amid raging waves and buffeting storms. But your valiant deeds were not in vain.
"If we have seen the enemy's warships completely destroyed in the harbors of Port Arthur, if we have seen his fortresses fall, it has been in truth through the might you left behind you. We, your comrades, who should have shared your fate, are the recipients of a most gracious message from his majesty the commander-in-chief.
"Here, entering Port Arthur, we stand on places overlooking the hills, the rivers, the fortifications that your loyal blood has dyed. Noble spirits with due rites of purification and offering we invoke your presence. Come among us, we pray you, and receive our reverence."
Showing posts with label dead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dead. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Ouija Board and Spirit Messages Are Additional Terrors to Death
1920
By GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
My mother was always having communion with the dead. She took it quite seriously. She was a wise and balanced woman, too.
The first planchette that ever came to Ireland came to our house. I used it incessantly till it became a deadly bore — as it does in about a week.
I have looked into the subject, but it has not convinced me. I feel much like a man I know whose dearest friend, a woman, was close to death.
"You are about to pass over, my dear," he told her with tears in his eyes, "and I want you to promise me solemnly that if it is possible for you to communicate with me from the other world, you won't do it."
Fortunately she recovered, but she has since died, and now my friend is scared stiff for fear she will come to him just for spite!
Fancy the poor dead having to spend their time tilting tables for people in this world! And ringing bells and sending messages. Why, it adds terrors to death.
By GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
My mother was always having communion with the dead. She took it quite seriously. She was a wise and balanced woman, too.
The first planchette that ever came to Ireland came to our house. I used it incessantly till it became a deadly bore — as it does in about a week.
I have looked into the subject, but it has not convinced me. I feel much like a man I know whose dearest friend, a woman, was close to death.
"You are about to pass over, my dear," he told her with tears in his eyes, "and I want you to promise me solemnly that if it is possible for you to communicate with me from the other world, you won't do it."
Fortunately she recovered, but she has since died, and now my friend is scared stiff for fear she will come to him just for spite!
Fancy the poor dead having to spend their time tilting tables for people in this world! And ringing bells and sending messages. Why, it adds terrors to death.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Death Merely a Transition is "Word" of Dead Boston Pastor
1921
While the experiences of Dr. Elliott and the Braintree business man have been advanced by British spiritists as valid physical proof of the existence of another world (involving a guardian angel and visions of the crucified Christ), psychic manifestations are still being reported in the United States as competent evidence.
In Boston, Mass., a series of lectures are being delivered by what is represented as the personalities of various men and women who have died, through the body of the Rev. F. A. Wiggin, pastor of Unity Church. The first of these lectures was given recently when Dr. George C. Lorimer, late pastor of Tremont Temple, who died in 1904, supposedly spoke.
There was nothing uncanny about this service. After congregational singing and a prayer, Rev. Mr. Wiggin stepped forward, closed his eyes and announced his text from the seventeenth verse of the seventh chapter of Corinthians — "As the Lord hath called every one so let him walk."
It was Rev. Dr. Lorimer who was now talking through Mr. Wiggin. As Dr. Wiggin lifted his head the whole gesture was undeniably reminiscent of Rev. Dr. Lorimer, according to those who knew that well known pastor.
But "Dr. Lorimer" made no reference to the unusual fact that he was addressing a Boston audience for the first time since he had died in 1904, nor that he found anything new and strange in the Boston of 1921, nor to the fact that the world had been through one of the greatest wars of all times. He "spoke" as he might have spoken in 1900, using such references and analogies in the application of his text and the development of his theme as were common at that time.
"Dr. Lorimer" did assure his hearers that death meant nothing except a sort of transition into another world, in which men continue the work of this world in much the same way as they had worked and lived here. And Christ was just as much of a force for good and just as much of a mystery there as here.
—Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Jan. 1, 1922, section 4, page 2.
Comment: That's a very interesting statement right at the end, that after the transition into another world Christ is just as much a mystery there as here.
While the experiences of Dr. Elliott and the Braintree business man have been advanced by British spiritists as valid physical proof of the existence of another world (involving a guardian angel and visions of the crucified Christ), psychic manifestations are still being reported in the United States as competent evidence.
In Boston, Mass., a series of lectures are being delivered by what is represented as the personalities of various men and women who have died, through the body of the Rev. F. A. Wiggin, pastor of Unity Church. The first of these lectures was given recently when Dr. George C. Lorimer, late pastor of Tremont Temple, who died in 1904, supposedly spoke.
There was nothing uncanny about this service. After congregational singing and a prayer, Rev. Mr. Wiggin stepped forward, closed his eyes and announced his text from the seventeenth verse of the seventh chapter of Corinthians — "As the Lord hath called every one so let him walk."
It was Rev. Dr. Lorimer who was now talking through Mr. Wiggin. As Dr. Wiggin lifted his head the whole gesture was undeniably reminiscent of Rev. Dr. Lorimer, according to those who knew that well known pastor.
But "Dr. Lorimer" made no reference to the unusual fact that he was addressing a Boston audience for the first time since he had died in 1904, nor that he found anything new and strange in the Boston of 1921, nor to the fact that the world had been through one of the greatest wars of all times. He "spoke" as he might have spoken in 1900, using such references and analogies in the application of his text and the development of his theme as were common at that time.
"Dr. Lorimer" did assure his hearers that death meant nothing except a sort of transition into another world, in which men continue the work of this world in much the same way as they had worked and lived here. And Christ was just as much of a force for good and just as much of a mystery there as here.
—Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Jan. 1, 1922, section 4, page 2.
Comment: That's a very interesting statement right at the end, that after the transition into another world Christ is just as much a mystery there as here.
Friday, April 13, 2007
French Astronomer Studies the Soul for Fifty Years
1922
FIFTY YEARS STUDYING SOUL
French Astronomer Presents Some Original Ideas
PARIS, June 5.— Conclusions of Camill Plammarion, the French astronomer, from the study of a few hundred cases along purely scientific lines, and apart from religious or spiritualistic viewpoints, are that the soul lives after decomposition of the body, and is endowed with faculties still unknown to science and can manifest itself at a distance without the mediation of the senses.
"I have spent fifty years studying the soul," the astronomer said, "and have applied to it the same rules as to scientific research. I excluded every example which would not stand the test of scientific verification."
Among the proofs offered by the astronomer are cases of dead physicians fulfilling promises and giving warnings of events which afterwards materialized, even such as the execution of vengeance for wrongs through mediums unaware of the wrongs done.
—The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, Nebraska, June 6, 1922, page 1.
FIFTY YEARS STUDYING SOUL
French Astronomer Presents Some Original Ideas
PARIS, June 5.— Conclusions of Camill Plammarion, the French astronomer, from the study of a few hundred cases along purely scientific lines, and apart from religious or spiritualistic viewpoints, are that the soul lives after decomposition of the body, and is endowed with faculties still unknown to science and can manifest itself at a distance without the mediation of the senses.
"I have spent fifty years studying the soul," the astronomer said, "and have applied to it the same rules as to scientific research. I excluded every example which would not stand the test of scientific verification."
Among the proofs offered by the astronomer are cases of dead physicians fulfilling promises and giving warnings of events which afterwards materialized, even such as the execution of vengeance for wrongs through mediums unaware of the wrongs done.
—The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, Nebraska, June 6, 1922, page 1.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Sir Conan Doyle Challenged to Produce Ectoplasm
1922
CHALLENGES SIR CONAN DOYLE TO PRODUCE PLASM
Bath, Me., April 29. — The fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is more believable than his facts, and the former will do the world more good, President Clifton D. Gray of Bates college told a meeting of the Sagadahoc Teachers' association.
"Let him write more Sherlock Holmes stories," he added.
"Sir Arthur's evidence of existence beyond the grave have a box office value, but they would stand a poor show in the laboratory," President Gray said. "When he can bring in a vial containing a bit of ectoplasm, it will be time to listen to him. It is a matter of test tubes. The laboratories of Bates college are open to him.
"When the father of Sherlock Holmes succeeds in doing for ectoplasm what Mme. Curie has done for radium, the colleges of the country will be no less ready to recognize his contribution to scientific knowledge than they were in the case of the little Polish woman."
PASTOR'S BODY FOUND IN RIVER
Peoria, Ill., April 29 — The body of the Rev. W. J. Leach, missing pastor of the Averyville Presbyterian church and former newspaper man, was found today by a fisherman, wedged between willows on the Illinois river.
—Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, April 29, 1922, page 9.
CHALLENGES SIR CONAN DOYLE TO PRODUCE PLASM
Bath, Me., April 29. — The fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is more believable than his facts, and the former will do the world more good, President Clifton D. Gray of Bates college told a meeting of the Sagadahoc Teachers' association.
"Let him write more Sherlock Holmes stories," he added.
"Sir Arthur's evidence of existence beyond the grave have a box office value, but they would stand a poor show in the laboratory," President Gray said. "When he can bring in a vial containing a bit of ectoplasm, it will be time to listen to him. It is a matter of test tubes. The laboratories of Bates college are open to him.
"When the father of Sherlock Holmes succeeds in doing for ectoplasm what Mme. Curie has done for radium, the colleges of the country will be no less ready to recognize his contribution to scientific knowledge than they were in the case of the little Polish woman."
PASTOR'S BODY FOUND IN RIVER
Peoria, Ill., April 29 — The body of the Rev. W. J. Leach, missing pastor of the Averyville Presbyterian church and former newspaper man, was found today by a fisherman, wedged between willows on the Illinois river.
—Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, April 29, 1922, page 9.
Mrs. F. Ward Brown Didn't Just Die; She Was...
Piqua, Ohio, 1919
SUMMONED BEFORE HER CREATOR
Mrs. F. Ward Brown Dies at Noon Today at Home On Vandemark Park
Mrs. F. Ward Brown died at her country home on the Vandemark pike, this noon at 12 o'clock, at the age of 64 years. Mrs. Brown had been an invalid at some time, but the shock of her death is felt by her host of many warm friends.
The deceased is survived by her husband, and two daughters, Mrs. V. S. Himelright, and Mrs. Guy Hill.
The funeral will be held on Monday. Further announcement will be made later.
--The Piqua Daily Call, Piqua, Ohio, May 16, 1919, page 4.
Comment: I like the headline and also the interesting phrasing: "this noon at 12 o'clock."
SUMMONED BEFORE HER CREATOR
Mrs. F. Ward Brown Dies at Noon Today at Home On Vandemark Park
Mrs. F. Ward Brown died at her country home on the Vandemark pike, this noon at 12 o'clock, at the age of 64 years. Mrs. Brown had been an invalid at some time, but the shock of her death is felt by her host of many warm friends.
The deceased is survived by her husband, and two daughters, Mrs. V. S. Himelright, and Mrs. Guy Hill.
The funeral will be held on Monday. Further announcement will be made later.
--The Piqua Daily Call, Piqua, Ohio, May 16, 1919, page 4.
Comment: I like the headline and also the interesting phrasing: "this noon at 12 o'clock."
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Sir Oliver Lodge Rushes To The Defense Of Spiritualism
1920
By United Press Leased Wire
London. -- The church should "cast off its hard shell of doctrine" and investigate, or at least keep an open mind toward discoveries of spiritualistic phenomena, Sir Oliver Lodge, famous British scientist, asserts in an article to be published in the next issue of the Hibbert Journal, leading British philosophical quarterly.
Lodge criticizes vigorously the attack on spiritualism which featured the Leister church congress. The church, he says already has discarded its old believes in the "fixity" of eternal fate at death or in two extreme regimes in the hereafter," but has not yet constituted for itself a new creed of equal strength.
The scientist recommends that the church investigate claims of communication with spirits, adding that if "ministers really open their minds to the evidence, if they examine the proofs carefully and without prejudice, they surely will be guided in the direction of truth."
"It will be the miracle of this generation," he asserts, "to find that by the kindly help of living persons who possess certain facilities" we may communicate with the dead.
"Our friend on the other side is not so far away from us," Sir Oliver continues. "He is removed from range of our animal sense organs, that is all. If the truth be as it certainly is -- that death makes no sudden change in personality or character, if existence is continuous and only surrounding conditions change, even that change being not nearly so great as had been anticipated, then there is nothing especially holy,or profoundly painful, or even unduly solemn in the thought of communicating with the dead."
While he recognizes the church is not free to explore new regions of thought, Lodge urges it to investigate and determine its attitude by proofs.
Only the widespread misery of war bereavements induced him to submit to publicity in defense of his belief in spiritualism, Sir Oliver said.
"Invaluably one communicates most by little traits," he said. "Special reminiscences give striking proofs of identify of the spirits," the scientist adds, declaring his own son Raymond, who was killed in the war, maintains close touch with his family.
Sir Oliver will soon leave for the United States on a lecture tour.
--The Appleton Daily Post, Appleton, Wisconsin, January 2, 1920, page 1.
By United Press Leased Wire
London. -- The church should "cast off its hard shell of doctrine" and investigate, or at least keep an open mind toward discoveries of spiritualistic phenomena, Sir Oliver Lodge, famous British scientist, asserts in an article to be published in the next issue of the Hibbert Journal, leading British philosophical quarterly.
Lodge criticizes vigorously the attack on spiritualism which featured the Leister church congress. The church, he says already has discarded its old believes in the "fixity" of eternal fate at death or in two extreme regimes in the hereafter," but has not yet constituted for itself a new creed of equal strength.
The scientist recommends that the church investigate claims of communication with spirits, adding that if "ministers really open their minds to the evidence, if they examine the proofs carefully and without prejudice, they surely will be guided in the direction of truth."
"It will be the miracle of this generation," he asserts, "to find that by the kindly help of living persons who possess certain facilities" we may communicate with the dead.
"Our friend on the other side is not so far away from us," Sir Oliver continues. "He is removed from range of our animal sense organs, that is all. If the truth be as it certainly is -- that death makes no sudden change in personality or character, if existence is continuous and only surrounding conditions change, even that change being not nearly so great as had been anticipated, then there is nothing especially holy,or profoundly painful, or even unduly solemn in the thought of communicating with the dead."
While he recognizes the church is not free to explore new regions of thought, Lodge urges it to investigate and determine its attitude by proofs.
Only the widespread misery of war bereavements induced him to submit to publicity in defense of his belief in spiritualism, Sir Oliver said.
"Invaluably one communicates most by little traits," he said. "Special reminiscences give striking proofs of identify of the spirits," the scientist adds, declaring his own son Raymond, who was killed in the war, maintains close touch with his family.
Sir Oliver will soon leave for the United States on a lecture tour.
--The Appleton Daily Post, Appleton, Wisconsin, January 2, 1920, page 1.
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