JONES, ELIAS HENRY. Road to En-Dor. il $2 (2c) Lane 940.47
20–7946
This book, “being an account of how two prisoners of war at Yozgad in Turkey won their way to freedom,” (Sub-title), is incidentally an exposé of spiritualism. The author, in conjunction with a brother officer and prisoner, Lieutenant Hill, began his experiments in spiritualism in good faith, but soon saw a possibility of escape through skillful manipulations. They came to the conclusion that spiritualism has a most deplorable effect even on people whose mental powers one admires, causing them to lose hold of the criteria of sane conclusions. “The messages we received from ‘the world beyond’ and ‘from other minds in this sphere’ were in every case, and from beginning to end, of our own invention.” Yet through them it was possible “to convert intelligent, scientific, and otherwise highly educated men to spiritualism, by means of the arts and methods employed by ‘mediums’ in general.” Although the incidents described in the book may seem preposterous, the author vows for their truthfulness. The book is illustrated by Lieutenant Hill and has a postscript and appendices.
“To have made such an exposure at the present time is to have done a real and lasting service.”
+ Ath p195 F 6 ’20 100w
“Interesting as a war narrative, though told somewhat too much in detail. Also interesting propaganda for anti-spiritualists.”
+ − Booklist 16:308 Je ’20
“The book abounds in excellent and vigorous writing.”
+ N Y Times 25:28 Jl 4 ’20 430w