The Blue Island

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I found the narrative most interesting and helpful. I have no means of judging the exact conditions under which it was produced, or now far subconscious influences may nave been at work, but on the surface of it, speaking as a literary critic, I should say that the clear expression and the happy knack of smiles were very characteristic of your father. We have to face the difficulty that the details of these numerous descriptions of next spheres differ in various manuscripts, but, on the other hand, no one can deny that the resemblances far exceed the differences. We have to remember that the next world is infinitely complex and subdivided—"My Father's house has many mansions"— and that, even in this small world, the accounts of two witnesses would never be the same. If a description were given by an Oxford don, and also by an Indian peasant,

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xll Letter from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

their respective stories of life in this world would vary much more than any two accounts that I have ever read of the world to come. I have specialized in that direction—the physical phenomena never interested me much—and I can hardly think that anyone has read more accounts, printed, typed and written, than I have done, many of them from people who had no idea what the ordinary Spiritualist scheme of things might be. In some cases the mediums were children. Always there emerges the same idea of a world like ours, a world were all our latent capabilities and all our hidden ambitions have free and untrammelled opportunities. In all there is the same talk of solid ground, of familiar flowers and animals, of congenial occupations— all very different to the vague and uncomfortable heaven of the churches.

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