Findlay, J. Arthur (1883-1964)

Prominent British Spiritualist who wrote extensively on finance, economics, and psychic subjects. He was a justice of the peace for the counties of Essex, England, and Ayrshire, Scotland, and in 1913 received the Order of the British Empire for his organizational work for the Red Cross during World War I. In 1920 he was a founder and vice president of the Glasgow Society for Psychical Research and took a leading part in the Church of Scotland's inquiry into psychic phenomena in 1923. He was chairman of Psychic News, a leading British Spiritualist periodical, and was well known as a speaker, lecturer, and researcher. For five years he made a special study of the direct voice phenomena of the medium John C. Sloan. His book An Investigation of Psychic Phenomena (1924), which was followed by On the Edge of the Etheric (1931) and The Rock of Truth (1933), explains how the direct voice is produced and discusses the subject and teachings obtained by this mediumship.

On the Edge of the Etheric ran into 30 printings within the first year of publication. Findlay argues for the claims of Spiritualism on the basis of the growing extension of physics. He proposes that the universe is a gigantic scale of vibrations of which the physical is in but a small range. As mind constitutes the highest range of vibrations, so individual consciousness consists of the interaction of mind vibrations with physical vibrations. When we discard our physical bodies, says Findlay, our minds interact with etheric vibrations through the etheric double. The book presents teachings based on data recorded at direct voice séances describing the etheric world, upon the philosophy of which Findlay's The Rock of Truth further enlarges. This book also contains a lucid review of the various world religions, including Christianity, and Findlay claims a common origin for all religious beliefs. He also argues for the development of Christianity out of the beliefs prevailing in countries adjoining Palestine during the first 300 years of the Christian era. Find-lay's conclusion is that religious instinct originates in man's psychic structure.

Findlay died on July 24, 1964.

Sources:

Findley, Arthur J. The Curse of Ignorance. 2 vols. London, 1947.

——. An Investigation of Psychic Phenomena. London, 1924.

——. Looking Back: the Autobiography of a Spiritualist. London: Psychic Press, 1955.

——. On the Edge of the Etheric. London: Psychic Press, 1931.

——. The Psychic Stream. London, 1939.

——. The Rock of Truth, or Spiritualism, the Coming World Religion. London: Rider, 1933.

——. The Unfolding Universe. London, 1935.

——. The Way of Life London, 1953.