Arthur Conan Doyle: Was the artist under the influence of supernatural powers?
Spiritist seances, rituals, and communication with unknown entities. Occult and esoteric teachings don’t always have to be the preserve of virtually unknown weirdos.
They were often adopted by famous artistic personalities, as evidenced by the works of the British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, for example.
In the history of Britain, we find few authors as passionate about spiritualism and everything related to it as the famous writer Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930).
A man who is inspired by the expeditions of the English colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett (1867–1925) and creates the legendary Lost World, a mythical land in which prehistoric animal species still survive.
And also the man who gave the world the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes. It is in the character of Holmes that Doyle’s opposite can be seen, for while the detective relies on logic and deduction and does not believe in the supernatural, Doyle is an ardent occult theorist and practitioner.
“Sir Arthur claimed to have communicated with the spirits of many great men. Later he even expressed a wish to be remembered for his work in the field of spiritualism rather than his novels,” explains Polish columnist Andrzej Diniejko. What is said about his relationship with the supernatural?
Dispute with the illusionist
Above all, Doyle is a tireless promoter of spiritualism. He goes outside of England for more experiences with the world of spirits. He studies the world of the dead in Australia, New Zealand, and even South Africa, where he meets indigenous tribes.
According to his own words, he witnesses a whole series of supernatural phenomena! In addition to contact, I bury things like clairvoyance or telepathy. Does he really come to secrets during his travels that are inaccessible to most people?
Doyle’s big dispute with the famous Hungarian-American magician Harry Houdini (1874–1926) is also known.
Houdini, who is also inclined to spiritualism at first, after a while concludes that it is all one big fraud, and in addition to his shows, he is also involved, among other things, in helping to convict fraudsters who extract money from gullible people in fake séances.
They make a morbid deal
But Doyle is convinced that, besides fraudsters, there are truly gifted mediums who can communicate with the afterlife. He has a long dispute with Houdini on this topic, which eventually ends their long-standing friendship.
The two gentlemen remained in dispute until Houdini’s mysterious death in 1926. But even the end of Doyle’s life is connected with a great mystery. Sometime before that, the author agrees with his wife.
Together they agree on ways to communicate after one of them dies.
Five days after his death in July 1930, a large audience at London’s Royal Albert Hall witnessed the English medium Estelle Roberts (1889–1970) speaking to Doyle’s spirit.
“She claimed to have clairvoyantly seen Conan Doyle sitting in an empty chair. She also interpreted some of the messages he sent, but only his wife and the people in the front row heard them,” adds Andrzej Diniejko. Did a lifelong spiritualist send his last message to the living this way?
