A clergyman of the Church of England and later a convert to Spiritualism, George Vale Owen (1869-1931) is most remembered today for his four volume work titled The Life Beyond the Veil (The Lowlands of Heaven, The Highlands of Heaven, The Ministry of Heaven, and The Battalions of Heaven), the first volume of which was published in 1921. He authored a number of other books, including Facts and the Future Life (1922), The Kingdom of God (1925), Problems which Perplex (1928), and Body, Soul, and Spirit (1928).
Born in Birmingham, England, Owen was educated at Midland Institute and Queen’s College, and ordained in 1893, serving in Seaforth, Fairfield, and Liverpool, before being appointed curate-in-charge of Orford, Warrington in 1900, where he served for 20 years. After some of his early automatic writing scripts came to the attention of renowned publisher Lord Northcliffe, they were printed as a series in the Weekly Dispatch, the result being that Owen was forced to resign from the Church of England. He was persuaded to put the scripts into book form, The Life Beyond the Veil going through many reprintings in the English-speaking world and translated into French, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and Portuguese. After a lecture tour in the United States, Owen became the pastor of a Spiritualist church in London. Continued
