THE VITAL MESSAGE
BY
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
PREFACE
In "The New Revelation" the first dawn of the coming change has been
described. In "The Vital Message" the sun has risen higher, and one
sees more clearly and broadly what our new relations with the Unseen
may be. As I look into the future of the human race I am reminded of
how once, from amid the bleak chaos of rock and snow at the head of an
Alpine pass, I looked down upon the far stretching view of Lombardy,
shimmering in the sunshine and extending in one splendid panorama of
blue lakes and green rolling hills until it melted into the golden haze
which draped the far horizon. Such a promised land is at our very feet
which, when we attain it, will make our present civilisation seem
barren and uncouth. Already our vanguard is well over the pass.
Nothing can now prevent us from reaching that wonderful land which
stretches so clearly before those eyes which are opened to see it.
That stimulating writer, V. C. Desertis, has remarked that the Second
Coming, which has always been timed to follow Armageddon, may be
fulfilled not by a descent of the spiritual to us, but by the ascent of
our material plane to the spiritual, and the blending of the two phases
of existence. It is, at least, a fascinating speculation. But without
so complete an overthrow of the partition walls as this would imply we
know enough already to assure ourselves of such a close approximation
as will surely deeply modify all our views of science, of religion and
of life. What form these changes may take and what the evidence is
upon which they will be founded are briefly set forth in this volume.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
CROWBOROUGH,
July, 1919.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I THE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS
II THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT
III THE GREAT ARGUMENT
IV THE COMING WORLD
V IS IT THE SECOND DAWN?
APPENDICES
A. DR. GELEY'S EXPERIMENTS
B. A PARTICULAR INSTANCE
C. SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY
D. THE CLAIRVOYANCE OF MRS. B.
THE VITAL MESSAGE
CHAPTER I
THE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS
It has been our fate, among all the innumerable generations of mankind,
to face the most frightful calamity that has ever befallen the world.
There is a basic fact which cannot be denied, and should not be
overlooked. For a most important deduction must immediately follow
from it. That deduction is that we, who have borne the pains, shall
also learn the lesson which they were intended to convey. If we do not
learn it and proclaim it, then when can it ever be learned and
proclaimed, since there can never again be such a spiritual ploughing
and harrowing and preparation for the seed? If our souls, wearied and
tortured during these dreadful five years of self-sacrifice and
suspense, can show no radical changes, then what souls will ever
respond to a fresh influx of heavenly inspiration? In that case the
state of the human race would indeed be hopeless, and never in all the
coming centuries would there be any prospect of improvement.
Why was this tremendous experience forced upon mankind? Surely it is a
superficial thinker who imagines that the great Designer of all things
has set the whole planet in a ferment, and strained every nation to
exhaustion, in order that this or that frontier be moved, or some fresh
combination be formed in the kaleidoscope of nations. No, the causes
of the convulsion, and its objects, are more profound than that. They
are essentially religious, not political. They lie far deeper than the
national squabbles of the day. A thousand years hence those national
results may matter little, but the religious result will rule the
world. That religious result is the reform of the decadent
Christianity of to-day, its simplification, its purification, and its
reinforcement by the facts of spirit communion and the clear knowledge
of what lies beyond the exit-door of death. The shock of the war was
meant to rouse us to mental and moral earnestness, to give us the
courage to tear away venerable shams, and to force the human race to
realise and use the vast new revelation which has been so clearly
stated and so abundantly proved, for all who will examine the
statements and proofs with an open mind.
Consider the awful condition of the world before this thunder-bolt
struck it. Could anyone, tracing back down the centuries and examining
the record of the wickedness of man, find anything which could compare
with the story of the nations during the last twenty years! Think of
the condition of Russia during that time, with her brutal aristocracy
and her drunken democracy, her murders on either side, her Siberian
horrors, her Jew baitings and her corruption. Think of the figure of
Leopold of Belgium, an incarnate devil who from motives of greed
carried murder and torture through a large section of Africa, and yet
was received in every court, and was eventually buried after a
panegyric from a Cardinal of the Roman Church--a church which had never
once raised her voice against his diabolical career. Consider the
similar crimes in the Putumayo, where British capitalists, if not
guilty of outrage, can at least not be acquitted of having condoned it
by their lethargy and trust in local agents. Think of Turkey and the
recurrent massacres of her subject races. Think of the heartless grind
of the factories everywhere, where work assumed a very different and
more unnatural shape than the ancient labour of the fields. Think of
the sensuality of many rich, the brutality of many poor, the
shallowness of many fashionable, the coldness and deadness of religion,
the absence anywhere of any deep, true spiritual impulse. Think, above
all, of the organised materialism of Germany, the arrogance, the
heartlessness, the negation of everything which one could possibly
associate with the living spirit of Christ as evident in the utterances
of Catholic Bishops, like Hartmann of Cologne, as in those of Lutheran
Pastors. Put all this together and say if the human race has ever
presented a more unlovely aspect. When we try to find the brighter
spots they are chiefly where civilisation, as apart from religion, has
built up necessities for the community, such as hospitals,
universities, and organised charities, as conspicuous in Buddhist Japan
as in Christian Europe. We cannot deny that there has been much
virtue, much gentleness, much spirituality in individuals. But the
churches were empty husks, which contained no spiritual food for the
human race, and had in the main ceased to influence its actions, save
in the direction of soulless forms.
This is not an over-coloured picture. Can we not see, then, what was
the inner reason for the war? Can we not understand that it was
needful to shake mankind loose from gossip and pink teas, and
sword-worship, and Saturday night drunks, and self-seeking politics and
theological quibbles--to wake them up and make them realise that they
stand upon a narrow knife-edge between two awful eternities, and that,
here and now, they have to finish with make-beliefs, and with real
earnestness and courage face those truths which have always been
palpable where indolence, or cowardice, or vested interests have not
obscured the vision. Let us try to appreciate what those truths are
and the direction which reform must take. It is the new spiritual
developments which predominate in my own thoughts, but there are two
other great readjustments which are necessary before they can take
their full effect. On the spiritual side I can speak with the force of
knowledge from the beyond. On the other two points of reform, I make
no such claim.
The first is that in the Bible, which is the foundation of our present
religious thought, we have bound together the living and the dead, and
the dead has tainted the living. A mummy and an angel are in most
unnatural partnership. There can be no clear thinking, and no logical
teaching until the old dispensation has been placed on the shelf of the
scholar, and removed from the desk of the teacher. It is indeed a
wonderful book, in parts the oldest which has come down to us, a book
filled with rare knowledge, with history, with poetry, with occultism,
with folklore. But it has no connection with modern conceptions of
religion. In the main it is actually antagonistic to them. Two
contradictory codes have been circulated under one cover, and the
result is dire confusion. The one is a scheme depending upon a special
tribal God, intensely anthropomorphic and filled with rage, jealousy
and revenge. The conception pervades every book of the Old Testament.
Even in the psalms, which are perhaps the most spiritual and beautiful
section, the psalmist, amid much that is noble, sings of the fearsome
things which his God will do to his enemies. "They shall go down alive
into hell." There is the keynote of this ancient document--a document
which advocates massacre, condones polygamy, accepts slavery, and
orders the burning of so-called witches. Its Mosaic provisions have
long been laid aside. We do not consider ourselves accursed if we fail
to mutilate our bodies, if we eat forbidden dishes, fail to trim our
beards, or wear clothes of two materials. But we cannot lay aside the
provisions and yet regard the document as divine. No learned quibbles
can ever persuade an honest earnest mind that that is right. One may
say: "Everyone knows that that is the old dispensation, and is not to
be acted upon." It is not true. It is continually acted upon, and
always will be so long as it is made part of one sacred book. William
the Second acted upon it. His German God which wrought such mischief
in the world was the reflection of the dreadful being who ordered that
captives be put under the harrow. The cities of Belgium were the
reflection of the cities of Moab. Every hard-hearted brute in history,
more especially in the religious wars, has found his inspiration in the
Old Testament. "Smite and spare not!" "An eye for an eye!", how
readily the texts spring to the grim lips of the murderous fanatic.
Francis on St. Bartholomew's night, Alva in the Lowlands, Tilly at
Magdeburg, Cromwell at Drogheda, the Covenainters at Philliphaugh, the
Anabaptists of Munster, and the early Mormons of Utah, all found their
murderous impulses fortified from this unholy source. Its red trail
runs through history. Even where the New Testament prevails, its
teaching must still be dulled and clouded by its sterner neighbour.
Let us retain this honoured work of literature. Let us remove the
taint which poisons the very spring of our religious thought.
This is, in my opinion, the first clearing which should be made for the
more beautiful building to come. The second is less important, as it
is a shifting of the point of view, rather than an actual change. It
is to be remembered that Christ's life in this world occupied, so far
as we can estimate, 33 years, whilst from His arrest to His
resurrection was less than a week. Yet the whole Christian system has
come to revolve round His death, to the partial exclusion of the
beautiful lesson of His life. Far too much weight has been placed upon
the one, and far too little upon the other, for the death, beautiful,
and indeed perfect, as it was, could be matched by that of many scores
of thousands who have died for an idea, while the life, with its
consistent record of charity, breadth of mind, unselfishness, courage,
reason, and progressiveness, is absolutely unique and superhuman. Even
in these abbreviated, translated, and second-hand records we receive an
impression such as no other life can give--an impression which fills us
with utter reverence. Napoleon, no mean judge of human nature, said of
it: "It is different with Christ. Everything about Him astonishes me.
His spirit surprises me, and His will confounds me. Between Him and
anything of this world there is no possible comparison. He is really a
being apart. The nearer I approach Him and the closer I examine Him,
the more everything seems above me."
It is this wonderful life, its example and inspiration, which was the
real object of the descent of this high spirit on to our planet. If
the human race had earnestly centred upon that instead of losing itself
in vain dreams of vicarious sacrifices and imaginary falls, with all
the mystical and contentious philosophy which has centred round the
subject, how very different the level of human culture and happiness
would be to-day! Such theories, with their absolute want of reason or
morality, have been the main cause why the best minds have been so
often alienated from the Christian system and proclaimed themselves
materialists. In contemplating what shocked their instincts for truth
they have lost that which was both true and beautiful. Christ's death
was worthy of His life, and rounded off a perfect career, but it is the
life which He has left as the foundation for the permanent religion of
mankind. All the religious wars, the private feuds, and the countless
miseries of sectarian contention, would have been at least minimised,
if not avoided, had the bare example of Christ's life been adopted as
the standard of conduct and of religion.
But there are certain other considerations which should have weight
when we contemplate this life and its efficacy as an example. One of
these is that the very essence of it was that He critically examined
religion as He found it, and brought His robust common sense and
courage to bear in exposing the shams and in pointing out the better
path. THAT is the hall-mark of the true follower of Christ, and not
the mute acceptance of doctrines which are, upon the face of them,
false and pernicious, because they come to us with some show of
authority. What authority have we now, save this very life, which
could compare with those Jewish books which were so binding in their
force, and so immutably sacred that even the misspellings or pen-slips
of the scribe, were most carefully preserved? It is a simple obvious
fact that if Christ had been orthodox, and had possessed what is so
often praised as a "child-like faith," there could have been no such
thing as Christianity. Let reformers who love Him take heart as they
consider that they are indeed following in the footsteps of the Master,
who has at no time said that the revelation which He brought, and which
has been so imperfectly used, is the last which will come to mankind.
In our own times an equally great one has been released from the centre
of all truth, which will make as deep an impression upon the human race
as Christianity, though no predominant figure has yet appeared to
enforce its lessons. Such a figure has appeared once when the days
were ripe, and I do not doubt that this may occur once more.
One other consideration must be urged. Christ has not given His
message in the first person. If He had done so our position would be
stronger. It has been repeated by the hearsay and report of earnest
but ill-educated men. It speaks much for education in the Roman
province of Judea that these fishermen, publicans and others could even
read or write. Luke and Paul were, of course, of a higher class, but
their information came from their lowly predecessors. Their account is
splendidly satisfying in the unity of the general impression which it
produces, and the clear drawing of the Master's teaching and character.
At the same time it is full of inconsistencies and contradictions upon
immaterial matters. For example, the four accounts of the resurrection
differ in detail, and there is no orthodox learned lawyer who dutifully
accepts all four versions who could not shatter the evidence if he
dealt with it in the course of his profession. These details are
immaterial to the spirit of the message. It is not common sense to
suppose that every item is inspired, or that we have to make no
allowance for imperfect reporting, individual convictions, oriental
phraseology, or faults of translation. These have, indeed, been
admitted by revised versions. In His utterance about the letter and
the spirit we could almost believe that Christ had foreseen the plague
of texts from which we have suffered, even as He Himself suffered at
the hands of the theologians of His day, who then, as now, have been a
curse to the world. We were meant to use our reasons and brains in
adapting His teaching to the conditions of our altered lives and times.
Much depended upon the society and mode of expression which belonged to
His era. To suppose in these days that one has literally to give all
to the poor, or that a starved English prisoner should literally love
his enemy the Kaiser, or that because Christ protested against the lax
marriages of His day therefore two spouses who loathe each other should
be for ever chained in a life servitude and martyrdom--all these
assertions are to travesty His teaching and to take from it that robust
quality of common sense which was its main characteristic. To ask what
is impossible from human nature is to weaken your appeal when you ask
for what is reasonable.
It has already been stated that of the three headings under which
reforms are grouped, the exclusion of the old dispensation, the greater
attention to Christ's life as compared to His death, and the new
spiritual influx which is giving us psychic religion, it is only on the
latter that one can quote the authority of the beyond. Here, however,
the case is really understated. In regard to the Old Testament I have
never seen the matter treated in a spiritual communication. The nature
of Christ, however, and His teaching, have been expounded a score of
times with some variation of detail, but in the main as reproduced
here. Spirits have their individuality of view, and some carry over
strong earthly prepossessions which they do not easily shed; but
reading many authentic spirit communications one finds that the idea of
redemption is hardly ever spoken of, while that of example and
influence is for ever insisted upon. In them Christ is the highest
spirit known, the son of God, as we all are, but nearer to God, and
therefore in a more particular sense His son. He does not, save in
most rare and special cases, meet us when we die. Since souls pass
over, night and day, at the rate of about 100 a minute, this would seem
self-evident. After a time we may be admitted to His presence, to find
a most tender, sympathetic and helpful comrade and guide, whose spirit
influences all things even when His bodily presence is not visible.
This is the general teaching of the other world communications
concerning Christ, the gentle, loving and powerful spirit which broods
ever over that world which, in all its many spheres, is His special
care.
Before passing to the new revelation, its certain proofs and its
definite teaching, let us hark back for a moment upon the two points
which have already been treated. They are not absolutely vital points.
The fresh developments can go on and conquer the world without them.
There can be no sudden change in the ancient routine of our religious
habits, nor is it possible to conceive that a congress of theologians
could take so heroic a step as to tear the Bible in twain, laying one
half upon the shelf and one upon the table. Neither is it to be
expected that any formal pronouncements could ever be made that the
churches have all laid the wrong emphasis upon the story of Christ.
Moral courage will not rise to such a height. But with the spiritual
quickening and the greater earnestness which will have their roots in
this bloody passion of mankind, many will perceive what is reasonable
and true, so that even if the Old Testament should remain, like some
obsolete appendix in the animal frame, to mark a lower stage through
which development has passed, it will more and more be recognised as a
document which has lost all validity and which should no longer be
allowed to influence human conduct, save by way of pointing out much
which we may avoid. So also with the teaching of Christ, the mystical
portions may fade gently away, as the grosser views of eternal
punishment have faded within our own lifetime, so that while mankind is
hardly aware of the change the heresy of today will become the
commonplace of tomorrow. These things will adjust themselves in God's
own time. What is, however, both new and vital are those fresh
developments which will now be discussed. In them may be found the
signs of how the dry bones may be stirred, and how the mummy may be
quickened with the breath of life. With the actual certainty of a
definite life after death, and a sure sense of responsibility for our
own spiritual development, a responsibility which cannot be put upon
any other shoulders, however exalted, but must be borne by each
individual for himself, there will come the greatest reinforcement of
morality which the human race has ever known. We are on the verge of
it now, but our descendants will look upon the past century as the
culmination of the dark ages when man lost his trust in God, and was so
engrossed in his temporary earth life that he lost all sense of
spiritual reality.