The Supreme Test
The Supreme Test is an article published in the Daily Express on 14 march 1919.
The Supreme Test
CAN THE DEAD HAVE COMMUNICATION WITH THE LIVING?
SIR A. CONAN DOYLE'S PROPOSAL.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle makes through the "Daily Express" a new proposal to test the genuineness of spiritualism.
Briefly it is that a committee, consisting of representatives from the "Daily Express" and five other newspapers, should investigate and report on a London medium who is alleged to have placed wives, mothers, and fathers in touch with their dead relations.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's offer was made at his home in Crowborough to a "Daily Express" representative after he had heard from the Thomas brothers themselves what had happened at the "Sunday Express" seance.
"I should like to left this controversy to a higher plane,"
said Sir Arthur, "as these physical phenomena are, as I have always insisted, rather crude and material manifestations of outside power. I have a test ready to hand which would deal with the real question at issue — the survival of our loved ones, and the possibility of our communicating with them. I think it unreasonable, however, that this test should be submitted to one paper only. I suggest, therefore, that representatives be chosen from six papers. I would choose the 'Daily Express,' the 'Daily Mail,' the 'Evening News,' the 'Evening Standard,' the 'Daily Chronicle,' and the 'Daily Sketch,' as each of these has shown considerable interest in this discussion.
A COMMITTEE.
"I have already explained in the 'Daily Express' that there is a medium in London to whom I send those wives or mothers (and occasionally fathers) who apply to me for direction or consolation. They are people whom I have never seen, and in many cases they write to me immediately after their interview, describing exactly what had occurred and how far they were convinced that they had been in touch with their dear ones. I am prepared to place the originals of all these letters, with names, addresses, and every information, in the hands of a committee for investigation, but not publication.
"It will be for these gentlemen to say how far the information given could have been normally gained, how far it could be explained by telepathy, and how far it bears prima facie evidence of actual contact with the dead. It will, I hope, be a serious inquiry, not disfigured by money-making exhibitions which have been intruded into the most solemn of all subjects.
"If such a committee be formed. I suggest that it should spend a day with me here in the first instance, going over these papers, which I will have carefully arranged. They will then joke when away with them, so that they can test their authenticity by reference to the writers. Then they ill be in a position to report, and their report will as it comes to me, go to the very roots of the matter.
MOST IMPORTANT.
"This matter,"
continued Sir Arthur, "is making greater demands upon my time than I can easily afford as I am busy writing a history of the war, but still I recognise that it is, in its essence, the most important subject in the world, and so I will not shrink from it.
"As to the seance of the Brothers Thomas at the 'Sunday Express' office, it seems to me to have been a perfectly fair one, and I agree with the Editor that the results were not definite. In
the most harmonious home circles it is not uncommon to have sittings which are absolutely blank, and in the sittings held by the Dialectical Society with the greatest of all mediums, D. D. Home, there were several which gave no result, and yet the investigating committee fatally on further trial, determined that the phenomena had been proved beyond doubt.
"Following this precedent I hope that other sittings will be held under more natural conditions, though, of course, with strict observation. I cannot help saying, however, that it seems hardly fair first to search a man, and afterwards to declare that a bangle or other things which may appear were concealed upon his person. As to the Cardiff phenomena my views are quite unchanged."
