Arthur Conan Doyle: The Consummate Spiritualist
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Consummate Spiritualist is an article written by Alvin E. Rodin, Jack D. Key and Roy Pilot published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 4, 1993).
This extensive scholarly study examines Arthur Conan Doyle's lifelong commitment to spiritualism, tracing its historical origins, his personal conversion, global evangelistic tours, major writings, and posthumous manifestations. It situates his beliefs within contemporary scientific, religious, and cultural debates, assessing both his zeal and the controversies surrounding his advocacy.
Arthur Conan Doyle: The Consummate Spiritualist
Arthur Conan Doyle's interest in spiritualism began about 1885 and became an all-engrossing activity during the last twelve years of his earthly existence. During this period, from 1918 to 1930, the spiritualistic movement was quite prominent, but began to decline in the 1930s. Before discussing spiritualism it is important to define several related words. The occult and the supernatural have similar meanings influences or phenomena that are beyond the realm of human comprehension, such as the mysterious and the miraculous. The word spiritualism has both non-specific and specific meanings. In general, it may designate a basic principle or essence as, for example, any philosophy, doctrine, or religion which emphasises the predominance of the spiritual rather than the material.
The more specific definition of spiritualism is the one directly relevant to any discussion of Conan Doyle's life the belief that the spirits of the dead can communicate with the living by making their presence known to them in some way, especially through a medium. Another word for communication between the dead and the living is spiritism. A spiritualist or spiritist is one who believes in and engages in such activities. Psychic, as an adjective, refers to extra-sensory, non-physical processes such as extra-sensory perception and mental telepathy. As a noun, psychic is another word for a medium. Another term used interchangeably with spiritualism is clairvoyance, although it is more generally defined as the supposed power to perceive things that are out of the natural range of human senses.'
The Origin and Development of Spiritualism
Spiritualism has ancient roots. (1) Primitive shamans communicated with the spirit world, while mediaeval cases of diabolic possession were considered by some to be due to disagreeable spirits. There are several schools of thought in respect of the history of modern spiritualism. One faction traces its origin back to the eighteenth century, relating it to mesmerism, named after Franz Anton Mesmer, a German physician who settled in Paris. (2) Mesmer postulated that a person may transmit universal forces to others in the form of 'animal magnetism'. This was achieved by having several patients sitting around a large vat of sulphuric acid and holding hands or iron rods protruding from the vat. These supposed forces were not conceived as being spirits from the other world. (3) However, because some patients fell into a trance (became mesmerised) and uttered strange things, it was felt that they were speaking to the dead. (4) Mesmer met with considerable opposition from the medical profession, and others, and his method fell into disfavour. The term mesmerism, however, has persisted to the present as being synonymous with hypnotism.
Conan Doyle, in his The History of Spiritualism, (5) considers several individuals and events to have been the progenitors of modern spiritualism. Their activities took place during the second half of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries. Emanuel Swedenborg, who died in 1772, was a Swedish mining engineer, astronomer, anatomist and Biblical student. Some thought he had the gift of clairvoyance, which permitted him to visit the other world, which he described as utopian. Also thought to be clairvoyant was an American, Andrew Jackson Davis, who heard gentle voices in the fields and had visions of a lovely land. Edward Irving was a Scottish pastor, some of whose flock began speaking in strange tongues. This has been considered by some, including Conan Doyle, to have been a psychic phenomenon. A related event was the 'obsession' of about sixty American Shakers by North American native Indian spirits.
A more popular view of the beginning of modern spiritualism takes as its site of origin an old farmhouse in Hydesville, a small hamlet of New York State, into which the Fox family had moved in 1847. The key individuals were two young daughters, Kate and Margaret, then eleven and fourteen years old, and later an older daughter, Leah. (Fig. 1) On 3 March 1848, rappings were heard within the house. (6) According to Conan Doyle, previous tenants had heard similar noises, but the sisters carried these incidents further: they challenged the unseen power to repeat snaps of their fingers, which it did instantly. Their mother asked questions which were answered with two raps if the response was 'yes'. Investigation revealed a body and a peddler's tin buried in the basement of the farmhouse, presumably the body of the spirit which was responding. Neighbours, and soon others from further afield, heard of these events and came to marvel at being able to communicate with the dead.
Conan Doyle considered that modern spiritualism arose from this seemingly isolated event: his justification for elevating this experience was that 'for the first time, it occurred to a human being not merely to listen to inexplicable sounds, and to fear them or marvel at them, but to establish communication with them.' (7) In 1850, two years after the first rappings, Mrs Fox and her three daughters began public sittings in New York, and their seminal spiritualistic activities soon spread further afield throughout the United States. Various individuals with mediumistic powers came forth and received messages through rappings, and by direct writing, while in a trance. Another early feature of seances was the appearance of spirit lights and materialised hands. Within a few years, seances were being held throughout western civilisation, and most avidly in Britain.
Spiritualistic sittings drew large audiences to witness these 'special' communications. At times even the dead were visualised, as, for example, over a coffin. Mediums developed many psychic events at seances, which included, among other things, a darkened room, a closed cabinet in which the medium sits, a sitting with hands on a round table, movement of the table, levitation of the medium, and even the appearance of a ghostly person. Another feature of seances was the appearance of so-called ectoplasmic mass exuding from the medium's nose or mouth, and sometimes containing images of deceased individuals. 'Tea and Table Moving' became a popular home diversion. (6) Messages from the dead have also been sought through the Ouija board, the name being derived from the French and German words for 'yes'. (8) Any messages pointed out by movement of fingers of the participants are considered by some to be influenced by the dead, but by others as being due to subconscious thoughts and emotions. Conan Doyle purchased a Ouija board during his 1923 tour of America. (9)
There were many prominent individuals, including scientists, who avidly embraced spiritualism long before Conan Doyle did so. For example, Alfred Russell Wallace, the co-discoverer of evolution, published a book in 1875 titled On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism. In the same decade, Sir William Crookes, the discoverer of cathode rays, railed against scientists who 'refused to investigate the existence and nature of facts asserted by so many competent and credible witnesses.' (5) Sir Oliver Lodge, a prominent physicist, became intensely interested in spiritualism and tried to reconcile it with science. Conan Doyle met Lodge while both were waiting to be knighted by King Edward VII in 1902. (10)
Spirit healing became an important spiritualistic activity, one in which Conan Doyle believed despite its being contrary to his medical education at the University of Edinburgh. (11) The basis of this belief was that those who cared for the sick during life develop new curative powers after death, the reason given being that spirit doctors can see much more clearly how a patient can be helped than can their living counterparts. One example given is Joseph Lister, the famous pioneer of prevention of surgical infection. (12) The spirit doctors reached the 'ailing' through healing mediums. However, some mediums merely deal with the sick by sending them letters containing the therapeutic information. (13)
Only a small, but prominent, minority of physicians and scientists were positively inclined towards the psychic, many being indifferent or antagonistic. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the prominent American physician, poet and author, evinced a strong negative reaction in 1859:
- You don't know what plague has fallen on the practitioners of theology? Well, I will tell you, then. It is SPIRITUALISM. While some are crying out against it as a delusion of the Devil, and some are laughing at it as a hysteric folly, and some are getting angry with it as a mere trick of interested or mischievous persons, Spiritualism is quietly undermining the traditional ideas of the future state which have been and are still accepted ... (14)
In 1870 William Hammond, one of America's most prominent neurologists, attributed some psychical phenomena to suggestibility, some to organic mental disorders, and others to sleight of hand. (15) He believed that the excitement of spiritualism caused a change of blood flow in the brain and thereby produced hallucinations and delusions. (16) Weir Mitchell, a physician and author who also wrote ghost stories, unmasked psychic frauds. (17) Luther Vose Bell, an alienist (an old term for psychiatrist), considered that information given by mediums was obtained by thought transference. (18) Michael Faraday, who discovered electromagnetic induction, and John Tyndall, who elucidated the nature of light, strongly attacked the psychic movement. In addition, there was considerable antagonism and ridicule of the spiritualistic movement, especially in the British press. There was even some discussion of rescinding Alfred Wallace's Fellowship in the Royal Society because of his beliefs. Conan Doyle, however, considered such negativity to be the result of unscientific studies of the psychic phenomenon.
In spite of extensive ridicule and antagonism, spiritualism spread quickly throughout the world, and gained many adherents from all walks of life. Although the number of dedicated spiritualists began decreasing in the 1930s, there were still public figures and scientists who were dedicated followers. For example, William Lyon Mackenzie King, who was Prime Minister of Canada intermittently from 1921 to 1948, used a medium for numerous seances, albeit somewhat clandestinely. (8) In Winnipeg, a leading paediatrician and an outstanding surgeon of the same period were ardent devotees of spiritualism.
It seems incredible that spiritualism spread so quickly throughout the world and gained so many believers from all walks of life. This was in spite of the fact that in 1888, decades after the seminal events, both Kate and Margaret Fox, who were by then alcoholics, confessed at a public meeting that the mysterious raps that shook the world were fabricated. (6) They were produced by Margaret Fox's big toe, which had an abnormality which accentuated its rappings on the floor. However, such a demonstration and admission did not result in the general disrepute of spiritualism, possibly because they withdrew their confession one year later. (19) Today one no longer sees vituperative newspaper articles and letters concerning the pros and cons of spiritualism. There is, however, an increase in the amount of interest and number of participants. According to one spiritualist publication, there were more than one hundred million spiritists worldwide in 1987. (20) Not evident as yet is a modern evangelist for spiritualism of the calibre of Conan Doyle — one who would again spread its gospel throughout the civilised world, as widely, as emphatically, as convincingly as he did.
Spiritualism: Conan Doyle's Grand Religion
Some claim that Conan Doyle did not become actively involved in spiritualism until World War I. (21) However, one biographer suggests that his interest in spiritualism began as early as 1879 while a medical student at the University of Edinburgh. If so, this may relate to his open rejection of the Roman Catholic faith of his family at the time of graduation. Recent studies indicate that Conan Doyle participated in spiritistic activities while a general practitioner in Southsea from 1882 to 1890. He was quite aware of the existence of spiritualism in 1885: in his farcical short story 'The Great Keinplatz Experiment', (23) the ambition of the professor was to build a new exact science which should embrace mesmerism, spiritualism, and all cognate subjects.'
It was in 1887 that Conan Doyle became actively involved in spiritualism. (24) On 27 August of that year, the spiritualist journal Light printed a letter from Conan Doyle, in which he labelled himself as a spiritualist. (25) In it, he considered the movement to be a pro tanto truth in the abstract — in other words, true as far as could be known at the time. He did, however, object to the support and employment of those mediums who 'degrade and prostitute a religion in order to put a few dishonest dollars in their own pockets.' It is significant that even at this early stage of Conan Doyle's interest in spiritualism, he considered it to be a religion, and thus disliked 'the commercial element of mediumship'. (26) He was, however, hampered somewhat by the fact that he himself had no psychic powers. Consequently, he had to rely on the honesty of mediums.
Conan Doyle's orientation to spiritualism was more historical than scientific. (27) He tended to draw conclusions that were more compatible with his own theories. That his approach was more subjective than that of a researcher is evident from an entry in one of his Southsea notebooks: (27)
- The end aim of spiritual intercourse is to give man the strongest of all reasons to believe in spiritual immortality of the soul, to break down the barrier of death, to found the grand religion of the future.
Conan Doyle was greatly influenced by Major-General Alfred W. Drayson, who had served his country well in various colonies before retiring to Southsea in 1883. (24) Drayson stated that the fundamental truth of spiritualism is 'that every spirit in the flesh passes over to the next world exactly as it is, with no change whatsoever.' Conan Doyle attended many seances at Drayson's home. These consisted of tappings of the leg of a table surrounded by six participants. He was, however, quite sceptical at first, suggesting that the table movements may be due to 'our own wills [which] were concerned in bringing down the leg at the right moment.'10 When medium-oriented seances were held, he initially felt that the so-called spirit messages could be explained as telepathy.
Conan Doyle had begun writing fiction while a medical student, and continued it at Southsea. His literary output greatly increased after leaving Southsea, especially after discarding the practice of medicine for full-time writing in June 1891. A significant number of his fictional works, written between leaving medicine in 1891 and becoming a more active proselyte for spiritualism in 1917, had the supernatural as their central theme. Such fictional writings on the occult have been included by some under the rubric of spiritualism, (27) although most are not compatible with its basic definition — the communication of the dead with the living.
The following are some examples of Conan Doyle's occult fiction which are not in accord with the foregoing definition of spiritualism:
- 'Lot No. 249' (28) (1892), in which an Egyptian mummy comes to life.
- 'The Parasite' (29) (1894), in which a woman controls a professor by mesmerism, i.e., hypnosis, because he has rejected her love. It has been considered, erroneously, as Conan Doyle's first book related to spiritualism. There is one character who is a psychic researcher, but the story does not include spirits of the dead.
- 'The Japanned Box' (30) (1899), in which an alcoholic widower is kept from further drinking by listening to a phonograph recorded by his wife before she died.
- 'The Brown Hand' (31) (1899), in which a house is haunted by the ghost of an Indian whose hand had been amputated by the owner of the house.
- 'The Leather Funnel' (32) (1900), which is based upon psychometry, the power of certain sensitive individuals to visualise the history of objects by touching them.
- 'Through the Veil' (33) (1911), in which a couple visit the excavations of a Roman fort. On returning home, the husband has a vivid dream in which he is part of a Celtic tribe attacking a burning Roman fort. He saves his wife and then slays a Roman soldier who turns out to be his wife's other-life husband.
- 'How it Happened' (34) (1913), in which a motorist meets a deceased friend after a major car accident, and then realises that he, too, has been killed.
These examples of the occult indicate that Conan Doyle maintained an orientation towards the unnatural and related activities in general, and spiritualism in particular, after he left the practice of medicine in 1891. In 1893 he became a member of the Society for Psychical Research and began reading its transactions. (27) He engaged in correspondence with several leading spiritists of the day, including F. W. H. Myers, one of the great psychic investigators, and Sir Oliver Lodge, who was one of the founders of the Society.
For a few years, Conan Doyle was also interested in Theosophy. It was established in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky, who based it upon mystical and occult comprehensions of the universe, with some overtones of spiritualism. (35) Conan Doyle soon rejected it because he required 'severe proof rather than unquestioning faith. (10)
World War I had a great impact on Conan Doyle, an ardent patriot who had even organised a Volunteer Home Force. He was the first to suggest the life vests and protective armour, which saved many thousands of lives, both during and between wars. But the war took a devastating toll on his family. Either killed, or dying of the consequence of injuries, were his nephew Oscar Hornung, his brother-in-law Malcolm Leckie, his younger brother Innes Doyle, and, the hardest blow of all, his youngest son Kingsley, who had begun training for a medical career. Conan Doyle could not believe that the tens of thousands of young men slaughtered in the war were gone forever. Thus, by 1918, he greatly increased his spiritualistic activities, in part to find solace for himself and others by contacting their deceased loved ones through mediums. In the process, he became one of spiritualism's most active and best known evangelists.
Conan Doyle attended innumerable seances after World War I and began to investigate possible psychic phenomena, even though he became embroiled in many unrelated activities, as he had since the turn of the century. In addition to a large number of literary publications, he served in the Boer War as a military physician, was president of the Divorce Law Reform Union, championed individuals whom he considered wrongly accused of crimes, ran unsuccessfully for Parliament, and lectured on many subjects. Conan Doyle's second wife, Jean Leckie, whom he married in 1907, at first discouraged these spiritualistic orientations. However, her outlook changed during World War I, possibly as a result of the death of her brother Malcolm.36 Thereafter, she became a strong supporter of her husband's activities and accompanied him on his spiritual proselytising journeys to several continents.
Spiritualistic Evangelism on three continents
Conan Doyle made four major voyages for the express purpose of espousing the nature of spiritualism. (9) The first to Australia and New Zealand in 1920, was followed by two to North America in 1922 and 1923, and one to South Africa in 1928. These lengthy tours of three to six months each were at his own expense, and consisted of many lectures throughout these countries, and even on board ship. Wherever he spoke, it was to crowded houses, with audiences of up to 4,000. Conan Doyle published detailed books on each of these expeditions, with considerable discussions of the validity of spiritualism in each. His motivation was that of an apostle for what he considered the only hope and salvation of mankind. A synopsis of his four voyages provides an overview of the extent, intensity, belief, zeal and commitment.
AUSTRALIA (1920): Conan Doyle's longest sea voyage was to Australia in 1920. It is described in detail in The Wanderings of a Spiritualist (37), written during the time abroad. Accompanying him were his wife, three children, a maid, and his secretary, Major Wood, who was a friend since practice days in Southsea. Before leaving London for Australia he was given a farewell luncheon at the Holborn Restaurant, which had a sold-out crowd of 290 people. According to Conan Doyle, 250 of the guests rose as testimony that they were in personal touch with their dead, a fitting farewell for one who was undertaking the proselytisation of a continent. The family left for their six month expedition to Australia on 13 August 1920 aboard the Naldera.
The first leg of this journey was on the Atlantic, then through the Straits of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean. Major Wood provided the restless children with work and discipline. When the ship was south of Crete, Conan Doyle addressed two hundred of the first class passengers, including a Bishop and various races, on the psychic religion. He was told by one traveller that 'there has never been so much religion talked on a P & O ship since the line was started.'
The ship entered the Suez Canal at Port Said. Conan Doyle considered the Canal to be 'one of the most magnificent of the works of man.' He was, however, appalled because it was flanked by huge advertisements for various brands of whisky which he considered to be shameless and intolerable. Conan Doyle's account includes support of prohibition, which he called 'the noble example of America... opposition to which is a disgrace.' The trip down the Suez Canal continued with weather so hot that several stewards collapsed and one passenger died. Nonetheless, Conan Doyle addressed the second class passengers on psychic matters.
From Bombay, the ship progressed through the Indian Ocean to Colombo, from where it travelled south-east without stopping. The ship passed to the west of the Cocos Islands, to reach the port of Fremantle and Perth on the more southern part of the west coast of the Australian continent. The family continued aboard ship for a thousand miles through the dangerous southern seas of the Great Australian Bight, to disembark at Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It was here that Conan Doyle ended his six week trek to Australia and where he began his spiritualistic evangelism.
The Wanderings of a Spiritualist also contains a considerable amount of geographic, scenic and cultural information, as well as comments on politics, religious and psychic history, and philosophy and contains several lengthy discussions of Christ and Paul. ACD's first lecture was in Adelaide's City House, in which 'every seat was occupied'. According to the Register, 'Many of the intellectual leaders of the city were present... Nothing approaching a theatrical presentation marred the discourse. It was a lucid, illuminating discourse.' A few days later, Conan Doyle followed up his lectures with exhibitions of psychic pictures and photographs on a screen. He also attended seances.
From Adelaide, Conan Doyle visited Melbourne, where spiritualists filled the auditorium. He was welcomed by Sir Joseph Cooke, the Federal Chancellor of the Exchequer, and made several presentations in surrounding small towns. Before leaving, he gave a final address in the Town Hall, in which he objected to the fact that the newspaper, the Argus, had 'refused to publish a word I said.' The stop after Melbourne was Sydney, where there were at least 10,000 professed spiritualists.' He was given a reception by 3,500 persons, whom he advised: 'for Heaven's sake keep this thing high and unspotted. Don't let it drop into the regions of fortune telling...' But all was not rosy. He was baited by a member of the Christian Evidence Society at meetings and in the newspaper. In addition, a photographer announced that his spirit photographs were fakes.
From Melbourne, Conan Doyle left his family behind, crossing the Tasman Sea to take his gospel to New Zealand. He included both north and south New Zealand, where he repeated his lectures in Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton and Christchurch.
His comment about the latter city indicates that all reaction to his proselytising was not laudatory. 'I succeeded at Christchurch in performing the feat of waking up a Cathedral city, and all the ex-sleepers were protesting loudly against such a disturbing inrush from the outer world.' Bishop Brodie declared Conan Doyle's message 'A Blasphemy nurtured in fraud.' Derogatory remarks from other clergy were 'Spiritism, the abrogation of Reason,' an ancient delusion,' and 'a foolish Paganism'. In Dunedin Conan Doyle visited a medium through whom his wife's mother was contacted during a seance.
On his return to Australia, he was told that because of 'the tropical weather it was quite in vain for us to go to Queensland.' He moved on to Brisbane, arriving after a very tiresome twenty-hour train journey. He found 'the more bigoted clergy to be very vituperative and unreasonable', although 'the general public were amazingly friendly and packed the theatre'. He also laid the foundation for a spiritist church in Brisbane. He visited a bee farm, but knew little about it even though I consigned Mr Sherlock Holmes to a bee farm in his old age.' The family was given a dinner by the acting Premier of Australia before leaving. From Brisbane they went to Sydney, where they rested, went sight-seeing, and attended seances before leaving for England. Conan Doyle estimated that he had addressed 'twenty-five meetings, averaging 2,000 people in each, or 50,000 people in all.'
On 1 February, the family embarked for the long voyage home, again aboard the Naldera. On the way to Ceylon, 'unusually boisterous' weather was encountered, including a monsoon. During a stopover at its port, Colombo, Conan Doyle received a copy of the Westminster Gazette, which contained an account of the Yorkshire [Cottingley] fairies. This seemed to increase his belief that the fairies were not a fraud. The voyage from Colombo to Bombay was calm, and included a conversation with a passenger, Lady Dyer, who had communicated several times through mediums with her husband, who had been killed in the war. From Bombay, the Indian Ocean was absolutely calm. While sailing through the Red Sea, Conan Doyle presented a lantern lecture on psychic phenomena to passengers of both classes. They disembarked at Marseilles to complete their journey home through France. Finally, after travelling 30,000 miles, the family arrived back in London.
AMERICA (1922): In 1922 the Conan Doyle family again embarked, this time for the first of two visits to North America designed solely to promote spiritualism. As described in Our American Adventure, (38) the family arrived in New York on 9 April 1922, to begin a whirlwind speaking campaign, consisting of a six week lecture tour of North-east and Central United States. It lasted from April to June and included New York, Boston, Washington, Detroit, Toledo and Chicago. After disembarking in New York City, Conan Doyle delivered a series of six lectures at Carnegie Hall, there being as many as 3,500 people in the audience. Some newspaper headlines were flamboyant and even sarcastic — such as 'Do Spooks Marry', and 'High Jinx In The Beyond'. Others were more fair, stating 'No such convincing evidence on this subject has ever been presented to a New York audience.'
Boston was the next stop after New York. As usual there were misquotes, with a newspaper claiming that 'Doyle says they play golf in Heaven'. Spellbound, however, was the word used for his lectures. Conan Doyle took time to visit and lay flowers on the grave of Oliver Wendell Holmes, the noted physician and poet. He also spent some time at the Harvard library 'consulting some old alchemical books which seem to allude directly to ectoplasm, showing that these mediaeval philosophers were really a good deal ahead of us in some phases of psychic knowledge.'
The next stop after Boston was Washington, D.C., where he attended several seances and did a considerable amount of sight-seeing. It was there, in 1853, that the first Spiritual Church was established. Conan Doyle stated that 'Lincoln was a convinced Spiritualist', and that 'he was sustained at the most arduous crisis by help from the Beyond.' In his The History of Spiritualism, (5) he wrote that Lincoln was persuaded to issue the Emancipation Proclamation through a medium. After Boston and Washington, D.C., Conan Doyle gave two lectures in Philadelphia and another in New York City.
The family then travelled west. On the way they passed by Hydesville, the home of the Fox sisters and the beginning of the modern spiritualist movement. Conan Doyle again suggested that it should be the site of 'one of the greatest monuments in the world.' At Buffalo he had an audience more alert and sympathetic than ever before. From there the family visited Niagara Falls while Conan Doyle went on to Toronto. There he met considerable opposition from the Clergy, which he considered to be the reason for the relatively small audiences.
The atmosphere was much more friendly in Detroit, where his lecture was attended by 3,000 people, some of whom had come from as far away as Dayton, Ohio. An editor of the Detroit Times stated: 'I had not the slightest doubt that Sir Arthur firmly believed every word he spoke.' (39) The major event at his next stop, Toledo, was a seance with Ada Besinnet, with whom he had sat in England, and at which he saw 'beyond all doubt or question the faces of the dead before me,' including his mother and his nephew, Oscar Hornung. (40) Two months later Samri Frikell, on assignment from Macfadden Publications, attended a seance by the same medium, held in the dark as usual. (41) He noted with his foot that Besinnet had left the chair; that when a spirit touched his cheek the back of his head touched a lady's bosom; that the inflections and modulations of the spirit voices were that of Besinnet; and that there were rational explanations for the other effects. Frikell's final comments were that Conan Doyle 'has told you what he saw. I have told you what I saw. I ask you to judge for yourselves.'
Conan Doyle went on to attend seances in Chicago, where he lectured to a 'completely sold-out' crowd. He raised money towards an obelisk to be erected at Rochester near Hydesville, and met an aviator who feared that he might meet some strange form of life on reaching an altitude of 37,000 feet recalling events in Conan Doyle's short story 'The Horror of the Heights'. (42)
On returning to New York City at the end of the tour, Conan Doyle attended further psychic activities. He also visited the Magicians Club where he witnessed Houdini's phenomenal escape, after being bound and bagged, from a locked trunk. He believed that Houdini accomplished this astounding feat by means of spiritualistic powers. In turn, Conan Doyle captivated the magicians by showing realistic movie clips of dinosaurs from the not-yet-released film The Lost World, based on his novel. (22) The audience was amazed, not having any indication as to whether the clips were faked or taken from real life. On being interviewed, Conan Doyle called fake mediums 'human hyenas'. The family spent an afternoon at Edgar Allan Poe's cottage and at the Bronx Zoo.
Before returning to England, Conan Doyle met Houdini in Atlantic City, where his family was relaxing at the seaside. The spiritist had first met Houdini in 1920, when the latter was touring England. (43) The two had in common an interest in spiritualism, although on diametrically opposite sides. Houdini exposed mediums by reproducing their physical, supposedly psychic manifestations, by trickery and sleight of hand. (44) In particular, he exposed a prominent Boston medium, 'Margery', by determining how she rang a bell and floated a spirit trumpet while sitting in the dark.45 This resulted in her loss of a $2,500 award offered by the Scientific American committee for a bona fide psychic activity. Houdini, through such exposures, was responsible in good part for the decline of physical manifestations at seances.
The Conan Doyle-Houdini encounter of 1922 in Atlantic City resulted in a seance which consisted of communication rather than manifestation. Lady Conan Doyle felt a psychic presence. (6) In their hotel room she was seized by a spirit' which began to write through her. It was Houdini's mother, who had died two years previously, and to whom he had been very closely attached. The result was a beautifully written message, five pages in length according to Houdini, and fifteen according to Conan Doyle, which had a cross drawn upon it. It began with 'Oh my darling, thank God, thank God, at last I am through ... and ended: 'I have bridged the gulf — That is what I wanted, oh so much — Now I can rest in peace.'
Houdini questioned the veracity of the message on the basis that his mother could speak only broken English, could not even write it, and, as the wife of an orthodox Jew, would not draw a cross. (43) Conan Doyle wrote of this episode four years later, in a letter to the editor. (46) His justification was that his wife always drew a cross when she was inspired, as a protection against deceit; and that it was the thought, the ideas which are poured through her brain [rather than] a verbatim message in a foreign language. Earlier, however, his wife had written that Houdini's mother had control of her hand. In Conan Doyle's second letter, he referred to Houdini's rejection of the message as 'an abnormal frame of mind which may be called the Conjurer's Complex or Houdinitis.' This episode became a thorn of contention in their relationship, which ended within a year or so.
After this controversial event, the Conan Doyle family returned to New York to travel back to England after the two-and-a-half month sojourn. He had achieved considerable exposure both for spiritualism and himself, and had earned £25,000, all of which he donated to the cause. (38) He was not satisfied, however, because he had neglected the western part of the country. The result was yet another, more extensive, expedition.
AMERICA (1923): In 1923 the family again visited America, as detailed in Our Second American Adventure (47) This time the family went further afield, to both the east and west coasts of the continent, including the United States and Canada. They arrived in New York on 3 April. Conan Doyle again gave a lecture on spiritualism at Carnegie Hall, during which a woman in the audience fell into a trance, and once more visited Rochester and nearby Hydesville. From New York, the speaking tour took him to Toledo and Chicago, as well as Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. At each site he lectured and attended seances, and in Chicago he visited a jail and reacted strongly against its inhuman conditions.
The lecture tour continued to St. Louis, where Conan Doyle gave a lecture at the American Theatre, which was sold out. He also did a considerable amount of sight-seeing. In Kansas City, Conan Doyle interviewed a Mrs Randall, who had returned to life after dying in a hospital. She remembered floating out of her body, meeting her dead sister and father, flying above the city to a factory where her brother worked, and then returning to her body feeling 'strong and well'. Conan Doyle accepted this as a manifestation of spiritualism; today it would be labelled as a near-death experience. From Kansas City his lecture tour stopped at Colorado Springs, Denver and Salt Lake City.
In Salt Lake City Conan Doyle was impressed with the cordial reception accorded him by the Mormons, in spite of his adverse depiction of them in the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet. He now listed points of commonality between Spiritualism and Mormonism — both had their origin in New York State, and its founder, Joseph Smith, had trances which ACD interpreted as being mediumistic. From Salt Lake City, the family travelled to Los Angeles, with side trips to Catalina Island, San Diego, Oceanside and Ventura.
His next stop was San Francisco where, contrary to general opinion, he did not stay at 2151 Sacramento Street, despite the plaque on the house, which states that 'This house, built in 1881, was once occupied by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.' He did, however, visit Doctor Abrams who lived there, and was very impressed with the doctor's claim that he could diagnose all diseases by means of his electric gadgetry. (48) Conan Doyle actually stayed at the downtown Clift Hotel.
In San Francisco, Conan Doyle again praised the press, calling reporters 'very enterprising and very intelligent', in spite of their 'cross-fire' of questions which left him with a dazed and aching head. (47) He was practical enough to note that it is all excellent propaganda'. He was not as tolerant of the so-called 'intellectuals' of San Francisco, who ventured quite negative statements about the validity of spiritualism. Conan Doyle labelled their views as being 'mental arrogance and intolerance, the kind of thing which every new advance in knowledge had to face'.
After San Francisco he lectured in Portland, Tacoma and then Seattle. In the latter city, he was greatly impressed by Doctor Littlefield's observation that the power of thought could make blood minerals seen under the microscope take any shape imagined. It was in Seattle that some residents objected to his demonstration of locally-taken psychic photographs of spirits in pictures of an old woman in her coffin, which they considered to be fraudulent.
From Seattle, the Conan Doyle family sailed to Canada, continuing their tour in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. He also revisited Jasper Park, where he had spent some time nine years before. From Alberta, he reached Winnipeg on Dominion Day, 1 July, and his first activity was to watch a baseball game between Winnipeg and Minneapolis. One of his main reasons for visiting Winnipeg was to attend a seance at the home of Doctor Thomas Glen Hamilton, a prominent surgeon, politician and spiritualist, (49) which was held in a converted bedroom on the second floor of his home. Hamilton's daughter, Margaret, then fifteen, remembers ACD's firm handshake and his hearty booming voice, as well as hearing the seance table bouncing around upstairs.
Conan Doyle also delivered a public address in Winnipeg at the spacious Walker Theatre, closing his talk by projecting slides of photographs of ectoplasm. The event was reported extensively in the local papers. One headline reported 'Crowded House Hears Conan Doyle Speak. Brings Message of Immortality to Audience that Packed Theatre'. (50) The newspaper report succinctly summarised his stance on spiritualism:
- Whatever may have been the opinions of the majority of those present as to the genuineness of the spiritualistic doctrines advanced by Sir Arthur, nobody could have any doubts of the sincerity of the speaker. He, it was evident, believes most certainly in the claims of the cult, and, moreover, he is impressed with the idea that he has a mission to perform in setting forth what he believes to be the facts to a waiting world.
Conan Doyle left Winnipeg the next day, on 4 July. He was, however, to 'return' nine years later, in 1932, two years after he had died. During one of Doctor Hamilton's seances, Conan Doyle's face appeared in an ectoplasmic mass which exuded from the nose of a medium.51 (See Fig.4)
From Winnipeg, Conan Doyle travelled to Fort William, Port Arthur and finally to Montreal, where he gave two lectures and investigated a case of poltergeist haunting which he considered to be authentic. Before departing for home, the family spent three weeks vacationing at Loon Lake in northern New York State. There he lectured on spiritualism and wrote a detailed account of his tour. Conan Doyle had given forty lectures and travelled about 15,000 miles in a little over three months. The family departed for home from New York City on 4 August 1923 with Conan Doyle clutching a gift under his arm — a new form of the Ouija-board. Our British cousin was not to return to America again — at least not in this earthly physical form.
AFRICA (1928): In 1928, five years after the second American visit, Conan Doyle evangelised in Africa. The tour included Rhodesia, Kenya and South Africa, where he had spent four months in 1900 as a military physician. He published a book on the experiences of this trip titled Our African Winter (52) The party left from Southampton and took a southerly route through the Bay of Biscay, where they were exposed to a terrible gale and a mighty roll which are said by the old sailors to have been unprecedented'. Several passengers were badly cut or bruised and ACD's son, Denis, helped several old gentlemen who were rolling about on the floor of the lounge.
While aboard ship, his children excelled in sports his two sons in tug-of-war and tennis, his daughter in deck bowls and cricket. Conan Doyle was more sedentary, reading books such as Life Beyond Death with Evidence. He gave lectures on spiritualism in each of three classes upon my own psychic experiences and my deductions from them.' At last they dropped anchor in Table Bay, off Cape Town, South Africa. His first promotional activity was a radio broadcast which questioned the validity of formal religions, materialists and non-believers. Thus 'We esteem all creeds and help all. The Jew, the Moslem, or the Buddhist has to die, even as we have and our exact knowledge of what occurs at death and after death applies to him as well as to us.'
His first presentation was in the Town Hall to an audience of 1,500, which listened with indulgence if not with acquiescence. As usual, he attended seances: at one, Ellen Terry, an actress who had died three months earlier, was manifested. From Cape Town the family travelled to Port Elizabeth, during which time they discussed the subject of reincarnation, which Conan Doyle considered to be likely for more advanced souls. On arrival he was greeted by a Rabbi who, to his surprise, believed in spiritualism. After several presentations Conan Doyle travelled to the capital of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein, and found little change in the great pavilion room where he had once treated the wounded of the Boer War. He objected to a monument which commemorated the 26,000 women and children who had died in the war: although this resulted in near riots, he had 2,000 turn out for his customary lectures. Conan Doyle later suggested that he misinterpreted the Afrikaans inscription as blaming the British for their deaths.
From Bloemfontein, the family and entourage visited Durban and Pretoria. At one meeting Denis related how a friend of his had come back through a medium after being killed in a lorry accident. At Johannesburg, Conan Doyle gave several lectures, one of which was on the validity of the photographs of the Cottingley Fairies, including the fact that experts had reported movement in the figures. Conan Doyle then travelled to the Matoppo Hills in Rhodesia, where he visited the grave of Cecil Rhodes, 27 miles from Bulaway. When his wife sat next to it with paper and pencil, as suggested by her husband, her hand was strongly agitated and she wrote a few words, which consisted of a laudatory message from Rhodes to her husband. The family did a considerable amount of sight-seeing, including Victoria Falls, during which Conan Doyle complained of his indisposition, presumably heart trouble.
After further sightseeing and some hunting by the boys, Conan Doyle delivered his spiritualistic messages to packed audiences in Beira, Mozambique and Nairobi, Kenya. At the latter site, when he displayed a photograph of a spectre in a photograph, a local dentist rose and claimed that he had impersonated the ghost in order to deceive his companions. But then he added 'the real ghost had actually appeared immediately afterwards.
Following their six months in Africa, the Conan Doyles sailed home from Mombosa, Kenya. The voyage up the eastern coast of Africa was uneventful, some time being spent talking with British officials and planters who were returning home. After entering the Gulf of Aden, the ship proceeded up the Red Sea to the Egyptian city of Suez. It was here that Conan Doyle left the ship to motor a hundred miles across the desert to visit the pyramids.
The trip through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean was uneventful. ACD lectured on spiritualism to a large audience, which consisted of passengers and the ship's company. After a stop of a few hours in Malta, the ship proceeded to Marseilles where the family disembarked to travel overland to the English Channel and then home. Conan Doyle summarised this African adventure as a 'fight once more in the greatest of all causes, the cause of the regeneration of religion and of the restoration of that direct and practical spiritual element which is the one and only antidote to scientific Materialism.'
Conan Doyle's Spiritualistic Writings
Although Conan Doyle's earliest writings on spiritualism were composed at about the same time as the first Sherlock Holmes stories, he never injected spiritualism into the Holmes stories, even after his total dedication to the cause. In fact, in 1924 ACD has Holmes make a rather snide reference to the after-life in 'The Sussex Vampire' — 'No ghosts need apply.' Thus 'Sir Arthur Conan Doyle takes the rubbish received through 'Imperator' [supreme leader of all) ... with the utmost seriousness, though the genius which created Sherlock Holmes has not been otherwise dulled in psychical studies.' (26) Perhaps he realised that a spiritualising Holmes and Watson would antagonise millions of readers who were not believers and thereby decrease the sales which were supporting his crusade.
Conan Doyle's first psychic publication was a letter dated 2 July 1887 (53) to the editor of Light, a spiritistic journal that began in 1886. In it he recommends that spiritualists relate how they came to the acceptance of this subject. In his own case, it was the reading of books by Judge Edmonds, Alfred Russell Wallace and Major-General Drayson. The result was that 'after weighing the evidence, I could no more doubt the existence of the phenomena than I could doubt the existence of lions in Africa, though I have been to that continent and have never chanced to see one.' Conan Doyle also described how he organised a circle of six who met at his house for table-rapping sessions, and later for seances with a medium. It was in another letter to Light in 1887 that he labelled himself a spiritualist. (25)
In Gibson & Green's collection of Conan Doyle's Letters to the Press, (54) there are many on spiritualism, especially after 1916. The most frequent subjects are communications from the other side, spirit photographs, various phenomena and manifestations, scepticism and attacks, mediums and the birthplace of spiritualism. Excerpts from these letters provide details of Conan Doyle's spiritualistic orientation and beliefs:
- Death alters nothing, and we find every grade of intelligence upon the further side from sprite to archangel. (12 July 1919)
- Why in the Dark? Because experience has shown that the results are better in the dark. (12 July 1919)
- Save for the raising of the dead I cannot recall any miracle in the New Testament which has not been claimed, upon good authority, as having occurred in the experience of spiritualists. (12 July 1919) A psychograph is a picture which produces a photographic effect without having been exposed to light at all. (8 October 1921)
- Spiritualism — a subject upon which no conclusions can be reached save by personal experimentation. (29 September 1921)
- Within a century or two this Spiritualistic movement will be viewed with reverence as one of the great turning points of human thought. (23 April 1926)
- My view of the Bible, as of other sacred books, is that they are gold in clay, and that it is left to our intelligence to separate one from the other. (2 June 1926)
- [A] good medium is the greatest source of consolation and the most cogent proof of immortality that can be found in the world today. (6 October 1927)
Conan Doyle also published several books on spiritualism: the first, The New Revelation, in 1918. (55) The first of four chapters, 'The Search', has a personal orientation and deals with his early interest in and reactions to the subject. At first he was quite sceptical, especially of table moving seances, and was also hampered by the fact that he had no psychical powers. Gradually he became more interested, especially after meeting General Drayson, who influenced him considerably.
The second chapter of The New Revelation is more impersonal. ACD considered that too much emphasis 'has been laid on Christ's death, and far too little on his life ... The Christ Spirit is the greatest spirit of which we know. His special care is the earth, which he visited in order to give the people the lesson of an ideal life.' In chapter three, The Coming Life', the nature of the spirit lite is detailed. After death the individual finds himself in a body which is the exact counterpart of his old one, except for the absence of disease, weakness or deformity. There is then a period of sleep before the new life begins. There is no hell for sinners, but a confinement to the lower spheres of heaven. There were, however, other views of the soul in the 1920s. For example, C. C. Zain considered that the soul develops by first dwelling in a physical form on earth for a time, and then repelling this form and passing to the astral world (56) However, the astral plane is not away off somewhere in space. It is all about us.'
The final chapter of The New Revelation deals with 'Problems and Limitations'. The spirits have very fixed limitations in respect to communicating with the living. Thus, there is a great difficulty in getting their names through to the living — which is Conan Doyle's explanation as to why many of their communications are vague and unsatisfactory. In addition, 'We have, unhappily, to deal with absolute cold-blooded lying on the part of wicked or mischievous intelligences. Everyone who has investigated the matter has, I suppose, met with examples of wilful deception, which occasionally are mixed up with good and true communications.' (25)
The New Revelation ends with ACD's summation of the validity of spiritualism:
- ... in spite of occasional fraud ... and in spite of wild imaginings, there remains a great solid core in this movement which is infinitely nearer to positive proof than any other religious development with which I am acquainted.
The book had a considerable success among the converted.
The New Revelation was first published in January 1918 as a lengthy article in Metropolitan Magazine, several months before its release in book form. It includes the first three chapters, but with some omissions. Not present are a paragraph which contains names of well-known believers in spiritualism (pp. 43 & 44); a lengthy discussion of the New Testament (pp. 59-62); mention of a high church dignitary (p. 64); a comparison of religious and spiritist faith (pp. 70-71); mention of spiritualist sexuality and two Greek scholars (pp. 74-75); and the last two pages of chapter three. It is uncertain whether material was deleted from the article, or material added before the book was published.
In 1919, within a year of The New Revelation, Conan Doyle published a sequel, The Vital Message, (7) which includes a spiritualistic rationale for the occurrence of World War I. The shock of the War was meant to rise us to the mental and moral earnestness... and to force the human race to realise and use the vast new revelation which has been so clearly stated and so abundantly proved, for all who will examine the statements and proofs with an open mind.' Conan Doyle rejected the prevailing religious concepts of an anthropomorphic God filled with rage, jealousy and revenge, and of a separate heaven and hell.
Another chapter of The Vital Message reviews the origins of spiritualism at Hydesville, its development, and major individuals involved. Conan Doyle considers 'the physical basis of all psychic belief is that the soul is a complete duplicate of the body, resembling it in the smallest particular, although constructed from some far more tenuous material. For support of his views he refers to the fact that fifty professors 'have examined and endorsed these facts. Well known even today are Flammarion (astronomer), Wallace (biologist), Lodge (physicist) and Crookes (chemist). Conan Doyle compares the spiritualistic doctrine of a distinct psychic body with the phenomenon of observing one's own body from above while taking hashish, or under anaesthesia. Today this would be labelled an out-of-body experience.
The Vital Message also contains Conan Doyle's description of the other world, as obtained in messages from the spirit world. Thus, social divisions and class enmity are non-existent; couples exist in domestic bliss but without any physical love; age does not exist, individuals reverting to their full normal growth and appearance; and the dead pursue happy and active lives, being busy with all forms of congenial work. Conan Doyle's other world is indeed a paradise. In the final chapter he relates spiritualism to Christianity, much as he did in The New Revelation. There is also an appendix which contains an account of faces in ectoplasm, and spirit photography.
Pheneas Speaks (58) is an account of the Conan Doyle family seances. Lady Conan Doyle had discovered the 'great gift of inspired writing' in 1921, at a much later age than do most mediums. Messages at first were from deceased relatives and friends. During the first year there were conversations with a variety of individuals Conan Doyle's brother-in-law, E. W. Hornung; his mother; his son, Kingsley, who had died in 1918; his sister, Annette, who had died thirty years before; and even the former editor of The Times. A year later, on 10 December 1922, a spirit guide appeared and thereafter took control of the circle. In 1924, Lady Conan Doyle added semi-trance inspirational talking to her mediumistic repertoire.
The spirit guide was Pheneas, an Arabian from the city of Ur in Mesopotamia, who had lived before the time of Abraham. Conversations consisted of much philosophy about life, such as God, Christ, England, the downfall of churches, Nature's beauty, love, humility and unselfishness. Pheneas cautioned that humanity was 'sinking into troughs of evil and materialism' resulting from thousands of evil spirits who could not progress to a higher plane. A typical message was 'Be gentle and tender and kind; be happy in the knowledge that a glorious life lies ahead of you.' Conan Doyle's brother, Innes, who had died of Influenza, also appeared several times, telling the children To be ready in Knowledge, accumulated. In 1925 Pheneas stated that Houdini, who had not accepted spiritualism, was doomed, doomed, doomed. He will not be allowed to stand in the way of God's progress.' Houdini died a year later of a traumatic rupture of the appendix.
Pheneas was also concerned about the health of the family. Conan Doyle and the children were admonished to 'Look after your health'. 'Get your ship trim. The finest coal aboard is health. There are frequent positive statements about their summer home, Bignell Wood, both before and after it was purchased in 1925. Pheneas indicated that he would like his own seance room there, and that it should be painted mauve. And, indeed, the room still exists. (59) Conan Doyle's final summary of Pheneas's teachings was that 'His whole message breathes reverence for the Christ Spirit ... a sort of spiritual prism which focuses the Divine rays upon the world [which] must prepare itself for great changes... all leading to a higher level of human existence.'
The Edge of the Unknown, (60) published in 1930, consists of fifteen essays on a variety of psychic topics. Conan Doyle considered Houdini's campaign against spiritualism to be motivated by 'the unlimited publicity to be had from it.' An essay on haunted houses states that 'past events may leave a record upon our surroundings which is capable of making itself felt, heard or seen for a long time afterwards.' Several discussions relate to the validity of ghosts, and descriptions of encounters with them. One essay describes the early days of modern spiritualism. Also considered is the role that spiritualism can play in solving murders.
Posthumous contacts with well-known writers, such as Oscar Wilde, Jack London and Joseph Conrad are included. In one seance, Charles Dickens was asked what the fate of Edwin Drood was to be in his unfinished novel. The ending was revealed as 'Edwin is alive and Chris is hiding him.' A similar account appeared in The Dickensian (61) in 1928. The last essay is an account of seances held in Uruguay, in which many of the spirits contacted had died by violence. All in all, The Edge of the Unknown is a spiritualistic smorgasbord which at times borders upon the arcane.
Conan Doyle also wrote prefaces and forewords for a variety of books on spiritualism written by others. They vary in length from a single to several pages. In one, he politely suggests that the author was speaking only of the spiritually undeveloped when she indicated that the surface of the earth was the scene of the hereafter. (62) A further literary form is that of a chapter in the 1928 book, Where are the Dead? (63) Conan Doyle's five page 'Answer of the Spiritualists' is a succinct polemic for his religion, indicating that 'On the whole, the prospect is infinitely cheering ... far kinder and less exacting than any orthodox religion has imagined.'
In 1924 Conan Doyle published his own translation of a biography of Joan of Arc from French into English, the title being The Mystery of Joan of Arc. (64) In his preface he considers that 'next to the Christ, the highest spiritual being of whom we have any record upon this earth is the girl Joan.' According to the author, Leon Denis, 'Joan was a celestial messenger... When men have forgotten their duty, God sends a messenger to them as an aid.' Joan was born at Domremy, France in 1412, and was fourteen when she experienced her first supernatural manifestation, a voice accompanied by a blaze of light, after which she was able to see various saints. (65) In a note at the end of Denis's book, Conan Doyle states 'the appearance of a maid in shining armour is one of the visions which has again and again been reported by our clairvoyants, who had heard nothing of the views of Monsieur Denis.'
Conan Doyle's 'final publication' on spiritualism is rather unique. It consists of messages received from Conan Doyle over a seven month period, about two years after his death in 1930. The messages were first published in 1932 under the title of Thy Kingdom Come (66), and republished in 1956 as The Return of Arthur Conan Doyle (67), with considerable explanatory material. The medium who received these messages, Mrs Grace Cooke, was born in Victorian England, and exhibited clairvoyance at an early age. Her mentor from the other world was called White Eagle, who bestowed on her the name Minesta, meaning mother. Mrs Cooke became acquainted with Conan Doyle's daughter, Mary, and shortly after his death, Minesta visited the family at their home in Crowborough, making her first contact with Conan Doyle. Thy Kingdom Come consists of Conan Doyle's dialogue during Minesta's seances.
One of Conan Doyle's novels revolves around a spiritualistic theme. The Land of Mist (68) was published in 1926 at a time when he was heavily involved in spiritualism. It features the scientific, daring and bombastic Professor Challenger of two earlier science fiction stories — The Lost World (1912) and The Poison Belt (1913). In The Land of Mist Challenger meets his greatest challenge — pressures to accept spiritualism — and finally succumbs. The telling incident was that two individuals, whom he thought he had killed with a drug overdose while practising medicine, returned from the other world to assure him that they had died of their diseases. Like almost all of his activities, with the exception of the Sherlockian writings, Conan Doyle used The Land of Mist as a vehicle for spiritualistic promotion. It is evident that he was not only fervent, but also consistent in the beliefs which permeated his later years.
The Posthumous Conan Doyle
Conan Doyle died of heart disease at the age of 71 on 7 July 1930. Eight thousand people crowded into London's Albert Hall for his memorial service. One medium saw Conan Doyle walking to an empty chair between his wife and his son Denis, (27) Although only one of eleven obituaries reviewed mentions his spiritualistic activities, (69) these activities did not cease after his death. There have been many reports of communications between the deceased Conan Doyle and various mediums. The first was several months after his death at a seance attended by his wife and youngest son: family matters were discussed.
Three months after Conan Doyle's death, Harry Price, the director of the National Laboratory in Psychical Research, held a seance with a prominent medium. Price had often been at odds with Conan Doyle over the authenticity of various mediums and, although he accepted some as legitimate, he looked upon spiritualism as a new branch of science rather than as a religion. (71) During this session, Conan Doyle described the first stage of his arrival in the other world. 'I am living in a world considerably like the one I have left. It is a country where pain is forever ended. I find myself in a bodily state. It is a world where the sinister life is still to be dealt with. This is neither heaven nor hell. Believe me, it is only the beginning.'
A second posthumous Conan Doyle manifestation occurred shortly after his death, and was described much later by his son Adrian. (72) A key to the special lock on the door to his father's study had disappeared soon after his death. A few days later, Lady Conan Doyle received a letter containing the key from an old friend. He stated that the previous night he dreamed of Sir Arthur who told him to look under his pillow for the key. He did, and it was there. His wife had been told, through other channels, that she would be receiving such an apport, and almost a year after his death she published a written message she had received from her deceased husband at a seance. (73) The article includes background events and a copy of the message that appeared after the seance on a blank photographic plate that had been kept in a sealed package with a secret mark:
- My Dear All of You:
- I have greatly looked forward to this, but I cannot come in contact as I thought. There lies the difficulty.
- My greeting to you all. You are indeed doing God's work.
- Arthur Conan Doyle.
Immediately following this article is one by a handwriting expert who compared the message with previous Conan Doyle scripts. (74) His conclusion was that the letter was simulated and without the detailed characteristics of Conan Doyle's handwriting.
In 1949, Arthur Conan Doyle's voice was heard and recorded through a medium in Chesterfield, Indiana. (75) Several decades after his death, a posthumous appearance of Conan Doyle was reported at his former summer home in Bignell Wood by the owner, Dr Kenneth McAll, a psychiatrist. (76) Dr McAll's eldest daughter said that during the night she had seen and talked with an old, tall, moustached and kind-faced man. He told her his name was Conan Doyle and that he was looking for his diary, which he needed for his memoirs. Dr McAll reported this to the parish priest, who decided that the spirit 'was ashamed of the diary'. He then exorcised the ghost by giving a short prayer and committing the troubled author to the Lord'. McAll's account states that the lift in Conan Doyle's old surgery in London stopped outside his door. The street was wrongly given as Welbeck instead of Devonshire. The suppositions and contradictions make this episode questionable.
Other Spiritualistic Activities
During his lifetime, Conan Doyle had engaged in many other spiritualistic activities.
In London, he opened a Psychic Bookshop, Library and Museum in the Abbey House, which was located at 2 Victoria Street, quite close to Westminster Abbey. Photographs of ectoplasm and well-known spiritualists were displayed. After Conan Doyle's death, his daughter Mary took over the running of this spiritualistic complex and its Psychic Press. The shop remained open for several decades, in spite of losing a considerable amount of money. During World War II, the contents of the Museum were destroyed by bombing.
In addition to his independent promotion of spiritualism, Conan Doyle was also quite active in international spiritualist groups. In a published report of the 1928 meeting of the International Spiritualist Congress in London, (77) his photograph is included as Honorary President, along with those of the Executive Committee members of the International Spiritualist Federation. He was elected President of the Congress and chaired many of its sessions, in addition to making several presentations. One was on photography, during which he showed pictures of fairies and ectoplasm. Another talk related to his early spiritualistic activities in Southsea.
Conan Doyle was also interested in two areas of the supernatural which may be somewhat peripheral to spiritualism. In 1890, after listening to a presentation on 'Witches and Witchcraft', he suggested that there might be some truth in it as it was a belief held in many countries for a long period of time. (78) He considered witchcraft to be related to mesmerism and clairvoyance, and that it was used for malevolent purposes. Conan Doyle wrote more extensively on the existence of fairies in a 1922 book, The Coming of the Fairies. (79) This book was based upon the appearance of fairies in photographs taken by two girls. (80) Although witches and fairies are not considered to be beings who belong to, or come from, the other world, some mediums were prosecuted under the antiquated Witchcraft Act.
Conclusions
Conan Doyle was the leading spiritualist of his day, if not in academic recognition, at least in that of his name in respect to both spiritualism and Sherlock Holmes. He may well have been too gullible at times in his zeal for what he considered to be the most important topic for humanity. He did, however, acknowledge the existence of frauds. He did not forsake Christianity, but objected to Christian orthodoxy on the basis of its assumption that man was born with a hereditary stain upon him.' (81) To Conan Doyle, Christ was a very gifted medium whose behaviour provided a moral code.
For many years, spiritualism served Conan Doyle as an inspiration which supported him through times of stress, such as the prolonged fatal illness of his first wife, and the deaths, during World War I, of a son, a brother and a brother-in-law. Six years after his death, his son Denis provided an overview of his father's two major activities and of their relationship to each others (82):
- ... my father found that his own great powers of scientific deduction and analytical reasoning, with which he endowed Sherlock Holmes, were of inestimable value to him in his exhaustive research into Survivalism. [In] his 49 years of penetrating and intensive investiga- tion he was never once deceived by a Medium.
For some disbelievers in spiritualism, Conan Doyle's complete acceptance of spiritualism and its myriad connotations greatly decreased their interest in, and appreciation of, his many other causes and writings. An exception is the Sherlock Holmes adventures. But even in the latter, acceptance has been one of playing a serious game in which Conan Doyle was a failed physician, and one who sold Dr Watson's manuscripts in order to save himself from starvation. Surely Doctor Arthur Conan Doyle deserves much better, even from those who ridicule his fervent statement on spiritualism in a filmed interview of 1929: 'It is not what I believe. It is not what I think. It is what I know!'
(83)
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- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
