{"id":10359,"date":"2022-02-08T09:05:35","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T08:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=199288"},"modified":"2022-02-08T09:27:11","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T08:27:11","slug":"the-supernatural-interests-of-sir-arthur-conan-doyle","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/the-supernatural-interests-of-sir-arthur-conan-doyle\/","title":{"rendered":"The supernatural interests of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By jonathanwilkes\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 08 February 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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On a July evening in 1930, 10,000 people crowded into London\u2019s Royal Albert Hall, hoping to catch a glimpse of their hero, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and perhaps even hear him speak. Sure enough, the celebrated author turned up right on time. Dressed in an evening suit, the man behind the Sherlock Holmes<\/a> phenomenon took his seat on stage and began to talk.<\/p>\n

But there was something very strange about Doyle \u2013 he was dead.<\/p>\n

The event at the Albert Hall was a s\u00e9ance: an attempt to communicate with \u201cthe other side\u201d. Doyle, who had died just a few days earlier, was the world\u2019s most famous proponent of spiritualism, a religious movement based on the belief that the living can speak to the dead.<\/p>\n

In life, the author had attended countless seances, written books on supernatural phenomena and toured the world giving lectures on his beliefs. In death, his supporters hoped that he would appear before them once again.<\/p>\n

Read more | 11 things you (probably) didn\u2019t know about Sherlock Holmes<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
Spiritualism once had a huge following in Britain. People have long been fascinated by the idea of life after death, and the Victorians were no exception. The 19th-century craze for spiritualism originated across the Atlantic in 1848, when two young girls from rural New York came forward with an extraordinary claim.<\/p>\n
Sisters Kate and Maggie Fox were just 11 and 14 when they announced to the world that they could communicate with spirits. The departed, they said, spoke to them by \u201crapping\u201d \u2013 spelling out messages with a series of knocking sounds. Though years later the sisters apparently confessed that this episode had been a hoax, at the time their abilities convinced many.<\/p>\n
A craze for post-mortem communication quickly swept the US, and many mediums \u2013 claiming that they, too, had the ability to speak with the dead \u2013 made a name (and money) for themselves.<\/p>\n

Dead reckoners: three famous spiritualist adherents<\/h4>\n
The eminent evolutionist<\/strong><\/p>\n
A belief in spiritualism damaged the scientific reputation of the influential 19th-century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who pioneered a theory of evolution at the same time as Charles Darwin<\/a>. Wallace wrote articles in defence of spiritualism and even provided testimony in support of \u201cDr\u201d Henry Slade, when this suspect medium was tried for fraud.<\/p>\n
The investigative journalist<\/strong><\/p>\n
The reporter WT Stead was best known for writing expose\u0301s on issues such as child abuse. His interest in psychic phenomena led him to establish the newspaper Borderland<\/em>, one of many spiritualist periodicals published in Britain. None of the messages he received from the \u201cother side\u201d warned Stead against boarding the Titanic<\/em><\/a> \u2013 he perished during its ill-fated voyage in 1912.<\/p>\n
The acclaimed novelist<\/strong><\/p>\n
Bestselling writer Rosamond Lehmann, author of 1927\u2019s Dusty Answer<\/em>, turned to spiritualism after the loss to polio of her young daughter, Sarah, in 1958. Lehmann soon became a prominent spiritualist, writing about her otherworldly experiences, and serving as vice-president at London\u2019s College of Psychic Studies.<\/p>\n
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Several travelled across the Atlantic to demonstrate their skill in Britain, where high-profile seance attendees included poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning<\/a> and social reformer Robert Owen. Throughout the 19th century, the movement grew in momentum and celebrity mediums offered public demonstrations in theatres and town halls. Public interest was piqued and spiritualist groups began to appear across Britain.<\/p>\n
Though it may be surprising to learn that the brain behind arch-rationalist Sherlock Holmes believed in the supernatural, the path from supersleuth to ghost-hunter is shorter than you might expect, not least because many spiritualists were greatly concerned with evidence.<\/p>\n
They conducted tests, interviews and experiments to expose fraudsters and provide definitive proof of life after death. Holmes once said that \u201cwhen you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth\u201d. Not many spiritualists would have disagreed.<\/p>\n
Read more | Phantasmagoria: creating the \u2018ghosts\u2019 of the Enlightenment<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
\u201cThe greatest nonsense\u201d<\/h3>\n
Doyle\u2019s interest in the unexplained began early in his career, when he was working as a newly qualified doctor. Though initially a sceptic who considered spiritual phenomena \u201cthe greatest nonsense upon Earth\u201d, his curiosity was piqued by an experiment in \u201cthought transference\u201d. This involved Doyle drawing images on a piece of paper and attempting to communicate them telepathically to a friend.<\/p>\n
This companion, who could not see Doyle\u2019s drawings, would then sketch the messages he \u201creceived\u201d on a second piece of paper. Doyle was astounded to discover that again and again his friend presented an image identical to his own.<\/p>\n

Doyle began to attend seances and was staggered by some of the information he received: personal details the medium could not possibly have known <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
This sparked an intense interest in the young doctor, who began to research psychic phenomena around the world. Doyle was particularly fascinated to discover that people of different cultures had reported the same supernatural experiences. Could there be something in this? He began to attend seances and, though many left him unimpressed, he was staggered by some of the information he received: personal details the medium could not possibly have known.<\/p>\n
In 1882, the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was founded with the aim of conducting scientific investigations into spiritualist phenomena. This was no band of amateurs: its members included eminent scientists and professors including chemists, physicists and psychologists.<\/p>\n
When Doyle joined the SPR in 1893, the president was Arthur Balfour, who would later become British prime minister<\/a>. The author contributed to the society\u2019s activities, weeding out frauds and subjecting self-proclaimed mediums to rigorous testing.<\/p>\n
A joyous reunion<\/h3>\n
The carnage wrought by both the First World War<\/a> and the 1918 influenza<\/a> pandemic attracted many more adherents to spiritualism. People who had recently suffered great loss now turned for solace to a new movement that offered the possibility of contacting the dead.<\/p>\n
In early 1919, the Spiritualists\u2019 National Union organised a national memorial service at the Royal Albert Hall, with an estimated 7,000 people attending what was later called a \u201cjoyous reunion\u201d with the fallen. Doyle, who wrote a report of the service for the spiritualist magazine Light<\/em>, was among those whose grief pushed them to explore the unexplained.<\/p>\n
Read more | The rise of spiritualism after the First World War\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
The author had lost several close family members, including his son Kingsley, who died (possibly from flu or pneumonia) in October 1918, aged 25. One night in 1919, Doyle and his wife, Jean, attended a seance with the medium Evan Powell, a modest Welshman who refused to accept payment for his efforts. During the session, conducted in the dark, Kingsley Doyle appeared and spoke to his parents.<\/p>\n
When they asked if he was happy, Kingsley\u2019s voice was heard to respond: \u201cYes, I am so happy!\u201d The spirit even bent his father\u2019s head forward to kiss it. For Doyle, this was the ultimate proof: he was convinced that he had heard his son\u2019s voice and felt his presence. From that point on, spiritualism became the most important thing in his life, and he became its foremost public defender.<\/p>\n
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