In Touch with the Dead (article)
In Touch with the Dead is an article published in the Daily Mail on 30 july 1920, including some quotes by Arthur Conan Doyle.
See also his letters about the same topic: In Touch with the Dead (6 august 1920) and In Touch with the Dead (12 august 1920).
In Touch with the Dead
PLEDGES BY 200 SPIRITUALISTS.
SIR A. CONAN DOYLE'S MISSION.
"Will those who swear they have been in direct touch with the dead stand up?"
In a moment all but a few of the 250 spiritualists who heard this appeal by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were on their feet.
"That's the most wonderful demonstration I have ever seen in London," was Sir Arthur's fervent comment.
This expression of faith took place at a farewell luncheon given to the novelist and his wife at the Holborn Restaurant before their departure to New Zealand and Australia on a mission of spiritualistic hope.
It was an assemblage of mystics. Passionate sincerity was stamped on every face. There were few whose dress or appearance was odd or peculiar; rather were those present conspicuous for their high, broad fore-heads and rather deep, sunken eyes. The women were vigorous in type; the wraith-like dreamer was missing. One of the rare picturesque figures was the Rev. G. Vale Owen, who is relating in The Weekly Dispatch spirit messages which he says he has received from the worlds to which we pass at death. His thin, ascetic face and tall monastic figure seemed strangely spiritual.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, one of the most striking personalities, was all that a "wanderer in the middle mist" would not be expected to be. He was English almost to an incredible degree. He spoke with slow, powerful conviction. "Wherever I go," he said in ringing voice, "I meet with opposition. It is nearly always the same. There are two great types of critics. One is the materialistic gentleman who insists on his right to eternal putridity. The other is a gentleman with such a deep respect for the Bible that he has never looked at it.
"TALKS" WITH DEAD FRIENDS.
"I am going to devote the rest of my life to this work. I was counting with my wife yesterday the number of friends with whom we have spoken since their death. There are 11, and we have spoken to them direct — as we did when they were in this world.
"The whole world needs comfort, and all of us here have got comfort to give it. We are the only people who have, as far as I can see. This is the real new revelation, which casts a searchlight from Heaven on the dark roads of the earth."
Speaking of Sir Arthur, to whom he presented an illuminated address from the spiritualists of the United Kingdom. Mr. Barry Engholm said that, observing the careful and critical way in which he examined spirit photographs. "I have realised that Sherlock Holmes is still with us — a more spiritual Sherlock Holmes."
