LOOKING BACK |
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Arthur Findlay “I was born on May 16, 1883, at one o’clock in the morning. This happened without my being aware of the fact and, moreover, my consent was not asked beforehand.” So begins Arthur Findlay’s autobiography. Baptised a Presbyterian, Mr Findlay graphically describes his childhood in Scotland. One can almost see the horse-drawn carriages and taste the peaches and grapes he picked as a child. We hear of his trips abroad and his stormy passage to Norway, resulting in a vow never to cross the North Sea again. Mr Findlay – a Freeman of the City of Glasgow – became a leading stockbroker. However, his first duties at a firm of shipowners, ship brokers and insurance brokers were “humble but strenuous”. Later, Mr Findlay’s father died from blood poisoning following an attack of acute appendicitis. “I wonder,” he asked the surgeon, “what death means. Does it mark the end of life or the beginning of another?” The surgeon replied: “The end, to be sure. There is no life after death. Your father only lives on in you and your brother.” Subsequently, Mr Findlay’s wife became ill. To be near her, he stayed in Glasgow. Strolling one Sunday evening, he encountered a Spiritualist church. At that time he was “unaware that such a denomination existed”. The following night he attended a séance and received not only dramatic survival evidence from his father, but his parent’s business partner also. So it was that over the next five years he attended 39 séances with the direct voice medium John Sloan. Over 80 spirit voices spoke to him and friends. In this book Arthur Findlay gives details of his life at Stansted Hall, Essex, often described as “Spiritualism’s stately home”. Looking Back is a truly remarkable, important and absorbing volume detailing the life, times and beliefs of one of the world’s most articulate pioneering Spiritualists. (495 pages) |
