Conan Doyle Replies to his Critics
Conan Doyle Replies to his Critics is a letter written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published in The Daily Mail (Brisbane) on 15 january 1921.
Conan Doyle Replies to his Critics
(To the Editor.)
Sir, — The letter of the Rev. Stanley Morrison deserves more attention than many comments upon the subject, because it is founded upon some thought and knowledge. We all admit the subconscious powers of the human mind, and that there are many psychic phenomena which do not require any extra-human hypothesis for their explanation. Many people have the power (especially in sleep) of projecting their etheric doubles and so learning what is going on at a distance. This may occur normally, and it is common in the hypnotic sleep. A case in point would be such a one as Mr. Morrison narrates, where the wife could see the danger that threatened her husband's ship. That is a recognised phenomenon. He recognises also that a person sleeping in England might manifest at a seance in Australia. This has occurred within my own experience, the medium saying, "I can see by the light of this form that the spirit is still in the flesh" — which was true, though she had no means of knowing it.
But above the cases which can be explained in this way there is another very large class which can in no way be covered by any theory of the subconscious mind. Spirit photographs, the proved extrusion of psychoplasm, materialisations, levitations, and many other phenomena which are absolutely proved cannot be thus explained. I have had friends return who reproduced the marked characteristics of their former earthly speech, although the medium had never known them. On one occasion my wife's maid was present. Her father, who had died some years before, had a peculiar throaty cough, with which we were familiar. He returned and spoke to her about family affairs, but he prefaced his remarks by this peculiar cough. It has often been remarked that on their return they resume the old physical conditions exactly.
Some of the most acute intellects of the human race have endeavoured to square our knowledge with the subconscious theory, but utterly in vain. How, for example, could Mr. Morrison attempt to explain the whole episode of Sir William Crookes and Katie King (of which I showed photographs) upon such a hypothesis? It won't do.
The gentleman who signs himself "Scientific Investigator" has evidently not investigated far into this matter. I would recommend to him Dr. Schrenck-Notzing's book on materialisation phenomena, with its 250 photographs of psychoplasm. He will find every detail there, and learn that it is a new exhibition of matter, with properties which open fresh scientific questions which may engage our attention for centuries. It does not exist as such inside the body, but seems to be a transmutation of what does exist with every special qualities of its own.
As to the gentlemen who quote texts, if we must venture into so insecure a region I would draw their attention to Acts II., 17-18. It says: "And it shall come to pass in the lats days, saith God, I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on My servants and on My hand maidens I will pour out in these days of My spirit, and they shall prophesy." These verses should cheer up your melancholy correspondent, and reassure him as to the source of psychic phenomena.
- Yours, etc.,
- Arthur Conan Doyle.
