The Vital Message
()
About this ebook
Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician. He is the creator of the Sherlock Holmes character, writing his debut appearance in A Study in Scarlet. Doyle wrote notable books in the fantasy and science fiction genres, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels.
Read more from Arthur Conan Doyle
Ghostly Tales: Spine-Chilling Stories of the Victorian Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Keinplatz Experiment: and Other Tales of Twilight and the Unseen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The History of Spiritualism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Weiser Book of Horror and the Occult: Hidden Magic, Occult Truths, and the Stories That Started It All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mysteries and Adventures Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Horror of the Heights: & Other Tales of Suspense Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection (Mahon Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales for a Winter's Night Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Seasons Edition--Spring) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBig Book of Christmas Tales: 250+ Short Stories, Fairytales and Holiday Myths & Legends Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Sherlock Holmes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Classic Tales of Science Fiction & Fantasy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gothic Classics: 60+ Books in One Volume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Arthur Conan Doyle Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe New Revelation Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to The Vital Message
Related ebooks
The Vital Message Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Vital Message, An Essay: “I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVital Message Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Refuge but in Truth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Believe in Satan's Downfall: The Reality of Evil and the Victory of Christ Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOur Master: Thoughts for Salvationists about Their Lord Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsModern Saints and Seers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeretics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsImmortality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTowards the Great Peace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Destiny of Man Viewed in the Light of His Origin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Law of Love and The Law of Violence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writings of the Prince of Paradoxes - Volume 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Next Step in Religion An Essay toward the Coming Renaissance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWinds Of Doctrine Studies in Contemporary Opinion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bulwarks of Unbelief: Atheism and Divine Absence in a Secular Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCivilization in the 5th Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Arian Controversy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeretics and Orthodoxy (Annotated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChrist in the Church: A Volume of Religious Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Native Religions of Mexico and Peru (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): The Hibbert Lectures Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMainlining Christianity: 95 Theses for the 21St Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTHE BOOK OF FOURS A Postmodern Christian Theology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Tyranny of Shams Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSearch of the Perfect Code Discovered Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOriginal Christianity: A New Key to Understanding the Gospel of Thomas and Other Lost Scriptures Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDistress of Nations, A Sign of End Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuddha at the Apocalypse: Awakening from a Culture of Destruction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistory of Civilization in the Fifth Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Religion & Spirituality For You
The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mere Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Grief Observed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Course In Miracles: (Original Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Love Dare Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Gospel of Mary Magdalene Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Abolition of Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Be Here Now Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Complete Papyrus of Ani Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Buddha's Guide to Gratitude: The Life-changing Power of Everyday Mindfulness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Warrior of the Light: A Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Were Born for This: Astrology for Radical Self-Acceptance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5NRSV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible: Bringing to Life the Ancient World of Scripture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dangerous Prayers: Because Following Jesus Was Never Meant to Be Safe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer: Summary and Analysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Every Day I Pray: Prayers for Awakening to the Grace of Inner Communion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Vital Message
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Vital Message - Arthur Conan Doyle
THE VITAL MESSAGE BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
Published by Seltzer Books
established in 1974 as B&R Samizdat Express, now offering over 14,000 books
feedback welcome: seltzer@seltzerbooks.com
Non-fiction by Arthur Conan Doyle available from Seltzer Books:
The Great Boer War
The War in South Africa
A Visit to Three Fronts
The New Revelation
The Vital Message
Round the Red Lamp
PREFACE
CHAPTER I - THE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS
CHAPTER II - THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT
CHAPTER III - THE GREAT ARGUMENT
CHAPTER IV - THE COMING WORLD
CHAPTER V - IS IT THE SECOND DAWN?
APPENDICES
A - DOCTOR GELEY'S EXPERIMENTS
B - A PARTICULAR INSTANCE
C - SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY
D - THE CLAIRVOYANCE OF MRS. B.
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.
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