Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
Scotland. UK.

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Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle
22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle
(22 May 1859 -- 7 July 1930) was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted
for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally
considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the
adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other
works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and
romances, poetry, and non-fiction.
Early life
Arthur Conan Doyle was born the third of ten siblings on
22 May 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, who
was born in England of Irish descent, and his mother, born Mary Foley, who
was Irish, had married in 1855. Doyle's father died in 1893, in the Crichton
Royal, Dumfries, after many years of psychiatric illness.
Although he is now referred to as "Conan Doyle", the
origin of this compound surname (if that is how he meant it to be
understood) is uncertain. The entry in which his baptism is recorded in the
register of St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh gives "Arthur Ignatius Conan"
as his Christian name, and simply "Doyle" as his surname. It also names
Michael Conan as his godfather.
Conan Doyle was sent to the Roman Catholic Jesuit
preparatory school Hodder Place, Stonyhurst, at the age of nine. He then
went on to Stonyhurst College until 1875.
From 1876 to 1881 he studied
medicine at the University of Edinburgh, including a period working in the
town of Aston (now a district of Birmingham) and in Sheffield. While
studying, Conan Doyle also began writing short stories; his first published
story appeared in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal
before he was 20. Following his term at university, he was employed as a
ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba
during a voyage to the West African coast. He completed his doctorate on the
subject of tabes dorsalis
in 1885.
Origins of Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes (right) and Dr Watson, by Sidney Paget.

Doyle's study at Groombridge Place
In 1882 he joined former
classmate George Budd as his partner at a medical practice in Plymouth. but
their relationship proved difficult, and Conan Doyle soon left to set up an
independent practice. Arriving in Portsmouth in June of that year with less
than £10 to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm
Grove, Southsea. The practice was initially not very successful; while
waiting for patients, Conan Doyle again began writing stories and composed
his first novel--The Narrative of John Smith--which
would go unpublished until 2011. His first significant work,
A Study in Scarlet,
appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual
for 1887. It featured the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes, who was
partially modelled after his former university teacher Joseph Bell. Conan
Doyle wrote to him, "It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes.
... [R]ound the centre of deduction and inference and observation which I
have heard you inculcate I have tried to build up a man." Future short
stories featuring Sherlock Holmes were published in the English
Strand Magazine. Robert
Louis Stevenson was able, even in faraway Samoa, to recognise the strong
similarity between Joseph Bell and Sherlock Holmes: "[M]y compliments on
your very ingenious and very interesting adventures of Sherlock Holmes. ...
[C] an this be my old friend Joe Bell?" Other authors sometimes suggest
additional influences—for instance, the famous Edgar Allan Poe character C.
Auguste Dupin.
Portrait of Doyle by Herbert Rose Barraud, 1893
While living in Southsea, he played football as a
goalkeeper for an amateur side, Portsmouth Association Football Club, under
the pseudonym A. C. Smith. (This club, disbanded in 1894, had no connection
with the present-day Portsmouth F.C., which was founded in 1898.) Conan
Doyle was also a keen cricketer, and between 1899 and 1907 he played 10
first-class matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). His highest
score, in 1902 against London County, was 43. He was an occasional bowler
who took just one first-class wicket (although one of high pedigree--it was
W. G. Grace). Also a keen golfer, Conan Doyle was elected captain of the
Crowborough Beacon Golf Club, East Sussex for 1910. He moved to Little
Windlesham into a house in Crowborough with his second wife Jean Leckie and their
family from 1907 until his death in July 1930.
Marriages and family.

Conan Doyle's family in New York 1922
In 1885 Conan Doyle married Louisa (or Louise) Hawkins,
known as "Touie". She suffered from tuberculosis and died on 4 July 1906.
The next year he married Jean Elizabeth Leckie, whom he had first met and
fallen in love with in 1897. He had maintained a platonic relationship with
Jean while his Louisa was still alive, out of loyalty to her. Jean died in
London on 27 June 1940.
Conan Doyle fathered five children. He had two with his
first wife--Mary Louise (28 January 1889 -- 12 June 1976) and Arthur Alleyne
Kingsley, known as Kingsley (15 November 1892 - 28 October 1918)--and three
with his second wife--Denis Percy Stewart (17 March 1909 - 9 March 1955),
second husband in 1936 of Georgian Princess Nina Mdivani (circa 1910 - 19
February 1987; former sister-in-law of Barbara Hutton); Adrian Malcolm (19
November 1910-3 June 1970) and Jean Lena Annette (21 December 1912–18
November 1997).
"Death" of Sherlock Holmes
In 1890 Conan Doyle studied ophthalmology in Vienna, and
moved to London in 1891 to set up a practice as an ophthalmologist. He wrote
in his autobiography that not a single patient crossed his door. This gave
him more time for writing, and in November 1891 he wrote to his mother: "I
think of slaying Holmes ... and winding him up for good and all. He takes my
mind from better things." His mother responded, "You may do what you deem
fit, but the crowds will not take this lightheartedly."

Holmes and Moriarty fighting over the Reichenbach Falls.
Art by Sidney Paget.
In December 1893, in order
to dedicate more of his time to more "important" works--his historical
novels-- Conan Doyle had Holmes and Professor Moriarty apparently plunge to
their deaths together down the Reichenbach Falls in the story "The Final
Problem". Public outcry, however, led him to bring the character back in
1901, in The Hound of the Baskervilles.
In "The Adventure of the Empty House", it was explained that only Moriarty
had fallen; but since Holmes had other dangerous enemies--especially Colonel
Sebastian Moran--he had arranged to also be temporarily "dead". Holmes
ultimately was featured in a total of 56 short stories and four Conan Doyle
novels, and has since appeared in many novels and stories by other authors.
Political campaigning

Arthur Conan Doyle's house in
South Norwood, London
Following the Boer War in
South Africa at the turn of the 20th century and the condemnation from
around the world over the United Kingdom's conduct, Conan Doyle wrote a
short pamphlet titled The War in South Africa:
Its Cause and Conduct, which justified the UK's
role in the Boer War and was widely translated. Doyle had served as a
volunteer doctor in the Langman Field Hospital at Bloemfontein between March
and June 1900 .
Conan Doyle believed it was
this pamphlet that resulted in his being knighted in 1902 and appointed
Deputy-Lieutenant of Surrey. Also in 1900 he wrote the longer book,
The Great Boer War. During
the early years of the 20th century, Sir Arthur twice ran for Parliament as
a Liberal Unionist--once in Edinburgh and once in the Hawick Burghs--but
although he received a respectable vote, he was not elected.
Conan Doyle was involved in
the campaign for the reform of the Congo Free State, led by journalist E. D.
Morel and diplomat Roger Casement. During 1909 he wrote
The Crime of the Congo, a
long pamphlet in which he denounced the horrors in that country. He became
acquainted with Morel and Casement, and it is possible that, together with
Bertram Fletcher Robinson, they inspired several characters in the 1912
novel The Lost World.
He broke with both when Morel became one of the leaders of
the pacifist movement during the First World War, and when Casement was
convicted of treason against the UK during the Easter Rising. Conan Doyle
tried unsuccessfully to save Casement from the death penalty, arguing that
he had been driven mad and was not responsible for his actions.
Correcting injustice
Conan Doyle was also a fervent advocate of justice and
personally investigated two closed cases, which led to two men being
exonerated of the crimes of which they were accused. The first case, in
1906, involved a shy half-British, half-Indian lawyer named George Edalji
who had allegedly penned threatening letters and mutilated animals. Police
were set on Edalji's conviction, even though the mutilations continued after
their suspect was jailed.
It was partially as a result of
this case that the Court of Criminal Appeal was established in 1907, so not
only did Conan Doyle help George Edalji, his work helped establish a way to
correct other miscarriages of justice. The story of Conan Doyle and Edalji
was fictionalized in Julian Barnes's 2005 novel
Arthur & George. In
Nicholas Meyer's pastiche The West End Horror
(1976), Holmes manages to help clear the name of a shy Parsee Indian
character wronged by the English justice system. Edalji himself was a
Parsee.
The second case, that of Oscar Slater, a German Jew and
gambling-den operator convicted of bludgeoning an 82-year-old woman in
Glasgow in 1908, excited Conan Doyle's curiosity because of inconsistencies
in the prosecution case and a general sense that Slater was not guilty. He
ended up paying most of the costs for Slater's successful appeal in 1928.
Spiritualism
Following the death of his wife Louisa in 1906, the death
of his son Kingsley just before the end of World War I, and the deaths of
his brother Innes, his two brothers-in-law (one of whom was E. W. Hornung,
creator of the literary character Raffles) and his two nephews shortly after
the war, Conan Doyle sank into depression. He found solace supporting
spiritualism and its attempts to find proof of existence beyond the grave.
In particular, according to some, he favoured Christian Spiritualism and
encouraged the Spiritualists' National Union to accept an eighth precept --
that of following the teachings and example of Jesus of Nazareth. He also
was a member of the renowned paranormal organisation The Ghost Club. Its
focus, then and now, is on the scientific study of alleged paranormal
activities in order to prove (or refute) the existence of paranormal
phenomena.
On 28 October 1918 Kingsley
Doyle died from pneumonia, which he contracted during his convalescence
after being seriously wounded during the 1916 Battle of the Somme.
Brigadier-General Innes Doyle died, also from pneumonia, in February 1919.
Sir Arthur became involved with Spiritualism to the extent that he wrote a
Professor Challenger novel on the subject, The
Land of Mist.
One of the five photographs of Frances Griffiths with the
alleged fairies, taken by Elsie Wright in July 1917.
His book
The Coming of the Fairies
(1921) shows he was apparently convinced of the veracity of the five
Cottingley Fairies photographs (which decades later were exposed as a hoax).
He reproduced them in the book, together with theories about the nature and
existence of fairies and spirits. In The
History of Spiritualism (1926), Conan Doyle
praised the psychic phenomena and spirit materialisations produced by
Eusapia Palladino and Mina "Margery" Crandon.
Conan Doyle was friends for
a time with Harry Houdini, the American magician who himself became a
prominent opponent of the Spiritualist movement in the 1920s following the
death of his beloved mother. Although Houdini insisted that Spiritualist
mediums employed trickery (and consistently exposed them as frauds), Conan
Doyle became convinced that Houdini himself possessed supernatural powers--a
view expressed in Conan Doyle's The Edge of the
Unknown. Houdini was apparently unable to
convince Conan Doyle that his feats were simply illusions, leading to a
bitter public falling out between the two.
Richard Milner, an American
historian of science, has presented a case that Conan Doyle may have been
the perpetrator of the Piltdown Man hoax of 1912, creating the counterfeit
hominid fossil that fooled the scientific world for over 40 years. Milner
says that Conan Doyle had a motive--namely, revenge on the scientific
establishment for debunking one of his favourite psychics--and that
The Lost World contains
several encrypted clues regarding his involvement in the hoax.
Samuel Rosenberg's 1974 book
Naked is the Best Disguise
purports to explain how, throughout his writings, Conan Doyle left open
clues that related to hidden and suppressed aspects of his mentality.

Grave of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at Minstead, England
Arthur Conan Doyle statue in
Crowborough
Conan Doyle was
found clutching his chest in the hall of Windlesham, his house in
Crowborough, East Sussex, on 7 July 1930. He died of a heart attack at the
age of 71. His last words were directed toward his wife: "You are
wonderful." The epitaph on his gravestone in the churchyard at Minstead in
the New Forest, Hampshire, reads:
STEEL TRUE
BLADE STRAIGHT
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
KNIGHT
PATRIOT, PHYSICIAN & MAN OF LETTERS
Undershaw,
the home near Hindhead, south of London that Arthur Conan Doyle had built
and lived in for at least a decade, was a hotel and restaurant from 1924
until 2004. It was then bought by a developer, and has since been empty
while conservationists and Conan Doyle fans fight to preserve it.
A statue honours Conan Doyle at Crowborough Cross in
Crowborough, where Conan Doyle lived for 23 years. There is also a statue of
Sherlock Holmes in Picardy Place, Edinburgh, close to the house where Conan
Doyle was born.
Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle
"The History of Spiritualism"
Volume II, Chapter 8
by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
There is always a certain monotony in writing about physical signs
of external intelligence, because they take stereotyped forms limited in
their nature. They are amply sufficient for their purpose, which is to
demonstrate the presence of invisible powers unknown to material
science, but both their methods of production and the results lead to
endless reiteration. This manifestation in itself, occurring as it does
in every country on the globe, should convince anyone who thinks
seriously upon the subject that he is in the presence of fixed laws, and
that it is not a sporadic succession of miracles, but a real science
which is being developed. It is in their ignorant and arrogant contempt
of this fact that opponents have sinned. "ILS NE COMPRENNENT PAS QU'IL Y
A RTES LOIS," wrote Madame Bisson, after some fatuous attempt on the
part of the doctors of the Sorbonne to produce ectoplasm under
conditions which negatived their own experiment. As will be seen by what
has gone before, a great physical medium can produce the Direct Voice
apart from his own vocal organs, telekenesis, or movement of objects at
a distance, raps, or percussions of ectoplasm, levitations, apports, or
the bringing of objects from a distance, materializations,
materialization of
faces, limbs, materialization of complete figures, trance talkings,
trance writings,
writings within closed slates, and luminous phenomena, which take many
forms. All of these manifestations the author has many times seen, and
as they have been exhibited to him by the leading mediums of his day, he
ventures to vary the form of this history by speaking of the more recent sensitives from his own personal knowledge and observation.
It is understood that some cultivate one gift and some another, while
those who can exhibit all round forms of power are not usually so
proficient in any one as the man or woman who specializes upon it. You
have so much psychic power upon which to draw, and you may turn it all
into one deep channel or disperse it over several superficial ones. Now
and then some wonder-man appears like D D Home, who carries with him
the whole range of mediumship-but it is rare.
The greatest
trance medium with whom the author is acquainted is Mrs. Osborne
Leonard. The outstanding merit of her gift is that it is, as a rule,
continuous. It is not broken up by long pauses or irrelevant intervals,
but it flows on exactly as if the person alleged to be speaking were
actually present. The usual procedure is that Mrs Leonard, a pleasant,
gentle, middle-aged, ladylike woman, sinks into slumber, upon which her
voice changes entirely, and what comes through purports to be from her
little control, Feda. The control talks in rather broken English in a
high voice, with many little intimacies and pleasantries which give the
impression of a sweet, amiable and intelligent child. She acts as
spokesman for the waiting spirit, but the spirit occasionally breaks in
also, which leads to sudden changes from the first person singular to
the third, such as: "I am here, Father. He says he wants to speak. I am
so well and so happy. He says he finds it so wonderful to be able to
talk to you" and so on.
At her best, it is a wonderful
experience. Upon one occasion the author had received a long series of
messages purporting to deal with the future fate of the world, through
his wife's hand and voice in his own Home Circle. When he visited Mrs.
Leonard, he said no word of this, nor had he at that time spoken of the
matter in any public way. Yet he had hardly sat down and arranged the
writing-pad upon which he proposed to take notes of what came through,
when his son announced his presence, and spoke with hardly a break for
an hour. During this long monologue he showed an intimate knowledge of
all that had come through in the Home Circle, and also of small details
of family life, utterly foreign to the medium. In the whole interview he
made no mistake as to fact, and yet many facts were mentioned. A short
section of the less personal part of it may be quoted here as a sample.
There is so much false progress of material mechanical kind.
That is not progress. If you build a car to go one thousand miles this
year, then you build one to go two thousand miles next year. No one is
the better for that. We want real progress-to understand the power of
mind and Spirit and to realize the fact that there is a spirit world.
So much help could be given from our side if only people on
the earth would fit themselves to take it, but we cannot force our help
on those who are not prepared for it. That is your work, to prepare
people for us. Some of them are so hopelessly ignorant, but sow the
seed, even if you do not see it coming up.
The clergy are so
limited in their ideas and so bound by a system which should be an
obsolete one. It is like serving up last week's dinner instead of having
a new one. We want fresh spiritual food, not a hash of the old food. We
know how wonderful Christ is. We realize His love and His power. He can
help both us and you. But He will do so by kindling fresh fires, not by
raking always in the old ashes.
That is what we want-the
fire of enthusiasm on the two altars of imagination and knowledge. Some
people would do away with the imagination, but it is often the gateway
to knowledge. The Churches have had the right teaching, but they have
not put it to practical use. One must be able to demonstrate one's
spiritual knowledge in a practical form. The plane on which you live is
a practical one in which you are expected to put your knowledge and
belief into action. On our plane knowledge and faith are action-one
thinks a thing and at once puts it into practice, but on earth there are
so many who say a thing is right, but never do it. The Church teaches,
but does not demonstrate its own teaching. The blackboard is useful at
times, you know. That is what you need. You should teach, and then
demonstrate upon the blackboard. Thus physical phenomena are really most
important. There will be some in this upheaval. It is difficult for us
to manifest physically now because the greater bulk of collective
thought is against and not for us. But when the upheaval comes, people
will be shaken out of their pig-headed, ignorant, antagonistic attitude
to us, which will immediately open the way to a fuller demonstration
than we have hitherto been able to give.
It is like a wall
now that we have to batter against, and we lose ninety per cent of our
power in the battering and trying to find a weak spot in this wall of
ignorance through which we can creep to you. But many of you are
chiselling and hammering from your side to let us through. You have not
built the wall, and you are helping us to penetrate it. In a little
while you will have so weakened it that it will crumble, and instead of
creeping through with difficulty we shall all emerge together in a
glorious band. That will be the climax; the meeting of spirit and matter.
If the truth of Spiritualism depended upon Mrs. Leonard's
powers alone, the case would be an overwhelming one, since she has seen
many hundreds of clients and seldom failed to give complete
satisfaction. There are, however, many clairvoyants whose powers are
little inferior to those of Mrs. Leonard, and who would perhaps equal
her if they showed the same restraint in their use. No fee will ever
tempt Mrs. Leonard to take more than two clients in the day, and it is
to this, no doubt, that the sustained excellence of her results are due.
Among London clairvoyants whom the author has used,
Mr Vout
Peters is entitled to a high place. On one occasion a very remarkable
piece of evidence came through him, as is narrated elsewhere.* Another
excellent Medium upon her day is Mrs. Annie Brittain. The author was in
the habit of sending mourners to this medium during the wartime, and
filed the letters in which they narrated their experience. The result is
a very remarkable one. Out of the first hundred cases eighty were quite
successful in establishing touch with the object of their inquiry. In
some cases the result was overpoweringly evidential, and the amount of
comfort given to the inquirers can hardly be exaggerated. The revulsion
of feeling when the mourner suddenly finds that death is not silent, but
that a still small voice, speaking in very happy accents, can still come
back is an overpowering one. One lady wrote that she had fully
determined to take her own life, so bleak and empty was existence, but
that she left Mrs Brittain's parlour with renewed hope in her heart.
When one hears that such a medium has been dragged up to a police-court,
sworn down by ignorant policemen, and condemned by a still more ignorant
magistrate, one feels that one is indeed living in the dark ages of the
world's history.
* "The New Revelation," p. 53.
Like
Mrs. Leonard, Mrs. Brittain has a kindly little child familiar named
Belle. In his extensive researches the author has made the acquaintance
of many of these little creatures in different parts of the world,
finding the same character, the same voice and the same pleasant ways in
all. This similarity would in itself show any reasoning being that some
general law was at work. Feda, Belle, Iris, Harmony, and many more,
prattle in their high falsetto voices, and the world is the better for
their presence and ministrations.
Miss McCreadie is another
notable London clairvoyant belonging to the older school, and bringing
with her an atmosphere of religion which is sometimes wanting. There are
many others, but no notice would be complete without an allusion to the
remarkable higher teaching which comes from Johannes and the other
controls of Mrs Hester Dowden, the daughter of the famous Shakespearean
scholar. A reference should be made also to Captain Bartlett, whose
wonderful writings and drawings enabled Mr Bligh Bond to expose ruins
of two chapels at Glastonbury which were so buried that only the
clairvoyant sense could have defined their exact position. Readers of
"The Gate of Remembrance" will understand the full force of this
remarkable episode.
Direct Voice phenomena are different
from mere clairvoyance and trance-speaking in that the sounds do not
appear to come from the Medium but externalise themselves often to a
distance of several yards, continue to sound when the mouth is filled
with water, and even break into two or three voices simultaneously. On
these occasions an aluminium trumpet is used to magnify the voice, and
also, as some suppose, to form a small dark chamber in which the actual
vocal cords used by the spirit can become materialised. It is an
interesting fact, and one which has caused much misgiving to those whose
experience is limited, that the first sounds usually resemble the voice
of the medium. This very soon passes away and the voice either becomes
neutral or may closely resemble that of the deceased. It is possible
that the reason of this phenomenon is that the ectoplasm from which the
phenomena are produced is drawn from him or her, and carries with it
some of his or her peculiarities until such time as the outside force
gains command. It is well that the sceptic should be patient and await
developments, for I have known an ignorant and self-opinionated
investigator take for granted that there was fraud through noting the
resemblance of voices, and then wreck the whole seance by foolish
horseplay, whereas had he waited his doubts would soon have been
resolved.
The author has had the
experience with Mrs Wriedt
of hearing the Direct Voice, accompanied by raps on the trumpet, in
broad daylight, with the medium seated some yards away. This disposes of
the idea that the medium in the dark can change her position. It is not
uncommon to have two or three Spirit voices speaking or singing at the
same moment, which is in turn fatal to the theory of ventriloquism. The
trumpet, too, which is often decorated with a small spot of luminous
paint, may be seen darting about far out of reach of the Medium's hands.
On one occasion at the house of Mr Dennis Bradley, the author saw the
illuminated trumpet whirling round and tapping on the ceiling as a moth
might have done. The medium (Valiantine) was afterwards asked to stand
upon his chair, and it was found that with the trumpet in his extended
arm he was unable to touch the ceiling. This was witnessed by a circle
of eight.
Mrs Wriedt was born in Detroit some fifty years
ago, and is perhaps better known in England than any American Medium.
The reality of her powers may best be judged by a short description of
results. On the occasion of a visit to the author's house in the country
she sat with the author, his wife, and his secretary, in a well-lighted
room. A hymn was sung, and before the first verse was ended a fifth
voice of excellent quality joined in and continued to the end. All three
observers were ready to depose that Mrs. Wriedt herself was singing all
the time. At the evening sitting a succession of friends came through
with every possible, sign of their identity. One sitter was approached
by her father, recently dead, who began by the hard, dry cough which had
appeared in his last illness. He discussed the question of some legacy
in a perfectly rational manner. A friend of the author's, a rather
irritable Anglo Indian, manifested, so far as a voice could do so,
reproducing exactly the fashion of speech, giving the name, and alluding
to facts of his lifetime. Another sitter had a visit from one who
claimed to be his grand-aunt. The relationship was denied, but on
inquiry at home it was found that he had actually had an aunt of that
name who died in his childhood. Telepathy has to be strained very far to
cover such cases.
Altogether the author has experimented
with at least twenty producers of the Direct Voice, and has been much
struck by the difference in the volume of the sound with different
mediums. Often it is so faint that it is only with some difficulty that
one can distinguish the message. There are few experiences more tensely
painful than to strain one's ears and to hear in the darkness the
panting, labouring, broken accents beside one, which might mean so much
if one could but distinguish them. On the other hand, the author has
known what it was to be considerably embarrassed when in the bedroom of
a crowded Chicago hotel a voice has broken forth which could only be
compared with the roaring of a lion. The Medium upon that occasion was a
slim young American lad, who could not possibly have produced such a
sound with his normal organs. Between these two extremes every gradation
of volume and vibration may be encountered.
George
Valiantine, who has already been mentioned, would perhaps come second if
the author had to make a list of the great Direct Voice mediums with
whom he has experimented. He was examined by the committee of the
Scientific American and turned down on the excuse that an electric
apparatus showed that he left his chair whenever the voice sounded. The
instance already given by the author, where the trumpet circled outside
the reach of the medium, is proof positive that his results certainly do
not depend upon his leaving his chair, and their effect depends not only
on how the voice is produced, but even more on what the voice says.
Those who have read Dennis Bradley's "Towards the Stars" and his
subsequent book narrating the long series of sittings held at Kingston
Vale, will realize that no possible explanation will cover Valiantine's
mediumship save the plain fact that he has exceptional psychic powers.
They vary very much with the conditions, but at their best they stand
very high. Like Mrs. Wriedt, he does not go into trance, and yet his
condition cannot be called normal. There are semi-trance conditions
which await the investigations of the student of the future.
Mr. Valiantine is by profession a manufacturer in a small town in
Pennsylvania. He is a quiet, gentle, kindly man, and as he is in the
prime of life, a very useful career should still lie before him.
As a materialization
medium, Jonson, of Toledo, who afterwards
resided in Los Angeles, stands alone, so far as the author's experience
carries him. Possibly his wife's name should be bracketed with his,
since they work together. The peculiarity of Jonson's work is that he is
in full view of the Circle, sitting outside the cabinet, while his wife
stands near the cabinet and superintends the proceedings. Anyone who
desires a very complete account of a Jonson seance will find it in the
author's "Our Second American Adventure," and his mediumship is also
treated very thoroughly by Admiral Usborne Moore.* The admiral, who was
among the greatest of psychic researchers, sat many times with Jonson,
and obtained the co-operation of an ex-chief of the United States Secret
Service, who established a watch and found nothing against the Medium.
When it is remembered that Toledo was at that time a limited town, and
that sometimes as many as twenty different personalities manifested in a
single sitting, it will be realized that personification presents
insuperable difficulties. Upon the occasion of the sitting at which the
author was present, a long succession of figures came, one at a time,
from a small cabinet. They were old and young, men, women, and children.
The light from a red lamp was sufficient to enable a sitter to see the
figures clearly but not to distinguish the details of the features. Some
of the figures remained out for not less than twenty minutes and
conversed freely with the Circle, answering all questions put to them.
No man can give another a blank cheque for honesty and certify that he
not only is honest but always will be. The author can only say that on
that particular occasion he was perfectly convinced of the genuine
nature of the phenomena, and that he has no reason to doubt it on any
other occasion.
* "Glimpses of the Next State," pp. 195, 322.
Jonson is a powerfully built man, and though he is now verging
upon old age his psychic powers are still unimpaired. He is the centre
of a circle at Pasadena, near Los Angeles, who meet every week to profit
by his remarkable powers. The late Professor Larkin, the astronomer, was
a habitue of the circle, and assured the author of his complete belief
in the honesty of the mediumship.
Materialization may have
been more common in the past than in the present. Those who read such
books as Brackett's "Materialised Apparitions," or Miss Marryat's "There
Is No Death," would say so. But in these days complete materialization
is very rare. The author was present at an alleged materialization by
one Thompson, in New York, but the proceedings carried no conviction,
and the man was shortly afterwards arrested for trickery under
circumstances which left no doubt as to his guilt.
There are
certain Mediums who, without specializing in any particular way, can
exhibit a wide range of preternatural manifestations. Of all whom the
author has encountered he would give precedence for variety and
consistency to Miss Ada Besinnet, of Toledo, in America, and to Evan
Powell, formerly of Merthyr Tydvil, in Wales. Both are admirable Mediums
and kindly, good people who are worthy of the wonderful gifts which have
been entrusted to them. In the case of Miss Besinnet the manifestations
include the Direct Voice, two or more often sounding at the same time.
One masculine control, named Dan, has a remarkable male baritone voice,
and anyone who has heard it can certainly never doubt that it is
independent of the lady's organism. A female voice occasionally joins
with Dan to make a most tuneful duet. Remarkable whistling, in which
there seems to be no pause for the intake of breath, is another feature
of this mediumship. So also is the production of very brilliant lights.
These appear to be small solid luminous objects, for the author had on
one occasion the curious experience of having one upon his moustache.
Had a large firefly settled there the effect would have been much the
same. The Direct Voices of Miss Besinnet when they take the form of
messages-as apart from the work of the controls-are not strong and are
often hardly audible. The most remarkable, however, of all her powers is
the appearance of phantom faces which appear in an illuminated patch in
front of the sitter. They would seem to be mere masks, as there is no
appearance of depth to them. In most cases they represent dim faces,
which occasionally bear a resemblance to that of the medium when the
health of the lady or the power of the circle is low. When the
conditions are good they are utterly dissimilar. Upon two occasions the
author has seen faces to which he could absolutely swear, the one being
his mother and the other his nephew, Oscar Hornung, a young officer
killed in the war. They were as clear-cut and visible as ever in life.
On the other hand, there have been evenings when no clear recognition
could be obtained, though among the faces were some which could only be
described as angelic in their beauty and purity.*
* Various
estimates and experiences of this mediumship will be found in the
author's "Our American Adventure," pp. 124-132; Admiral Moore's
"Glimpses of the Next State," pp. 226, 312; and finally Mr. Hewat
McKenzie's report, PSYCHIC SCIENCE, April, 1922.
On a level
with Miss Besinnet is Mr Evan Powell, with the same variety but not
always the same type of powers. Powell's luminous phenomena are equally
good. His voice production is better. The author has heard the spirit
voices as loud as those of ordinary human talk, and recalls one occasion
when three of them were talking simultaneously, one to Lady Cowan, one
to Sir James Marchant, and one to Sir Robert McAlpine. Movements of
objects are common in the Powell seances, and on one occasion a stand
weighing 60 lb. was suspended for some time over the author's head. Evan
Powell always insists upon being very securely tied during his seances,
which is done, he claims, for his own protection, since he cannot be
responsible for his own movements when he is in a trance. This throws an
interesting sidelight upon the possible nature of some exposures. There
is a good deal of evidence, not only that the medium may unconsciously,
or under the influence of suggestion from the audience, put himself into
a false position, but that evil forces which are either mischievous or
are actively opposed to the good work done by Spiritualism, may obsess
the entranced body and cause it to do suspicious things so as to
discredit the medium. Some sensible remarks upon this subject, founded
upon personal experience, have been made by Professor Haraldur Nielsson,
of Iceland, when commenting upon a case where one of the circle
committed a perfectly senseless fraud, and a spirit afterwards admitted
that it was done by its agency and instigation.* On the whole, Evan
Powell may be said to have the widest endowment of spiritual gifts of
any Medium at present in England. He preaches the doctrines of
Spiritualism both in his own person and while under control, and he can
in himself exhibit nearly the whole range of phenomena. It is a pity
that his business as a coal merchant in Devonshire prevents his constant
presence in London.
* PSYCHIC SCIENCE, July, 1925.
Slate writing mediumship is a remarkable manifestation. It is possessed
in a high degree by Mrs. Pruden, of Cincinnati, who has recently visited
Great Britain and exhibited her wonderful powers to a number of people.
The author has sat with her several times, and has explained the methods
in detail. As the passage is a short one and may make the matter clear
to the unitiated, it is here transcribed:
It was our good fortune now to
come once again into contact with a really great Medium in Mrs Pruden of
Cincinnati, who had come to Chicago for my lectures. We had a sitting in
the Blackstone Hotel, through the courtesy of her host, Mr Holmyard, and the results were splendid. She is an elderly, kindly woman
with a motherly manner. Her particular gift was slate-writing which I
had never examined before.
I had heard that there were trick
slates, but she was anxious to use mine and allowed me carefully to
examine hers. She makes a dark cabinet by draping the table, and holds
the slate under it, while you may hold the other corner of it. Her other
hand is free and visible. The slate is double with a little bit of
pencil put in between.
After a delay of half an hour the
writing began. It was the strangest feeling to hold the slate and to
feel the thrill and vibration of the pencil as it worked away inside. We
had each written a question on a bit of paper and cast it down,
carefully folded, on the ground in the shadow of the drapery, that
psychic forces might have correct conditions for their work, which is
always interfered with by light.
Presently each of us got an
answer to our question upon the slate, and were allowed to pick up our
folded papers and see that they had not been opened. The room, I may
say, was full of daylight and the Medium could not stoop without our
seeing it.
I had some business this morning
of a partly spiritual, partly material nature with a Dr Gelbert, a French inventor.
I asked in my question if this were wise. The answer on the slate
was-"Trust Dr. Gelbert. Kingsley." I had not mentioned Dr. Gelbert's
name in my question, nor did Mrs. Pruden know anything of the matter.
My wife got a long message from a dear friend, signed with
her name. The name was a true signature. Altogether it was a most
utterly convincing demonstration. Sharp, clear raps upon the table
joined continually in our conversation.*
* "Our American
Adventure," pp. 144-5.
The general method and result is the
same as that used by Mr Pierre Keeler, of the United States. The author
has not been able to arrange a sitting with this medium, but a friend
who did so had results which put the truth of the phenomena beyond all
question. In his case he received answers to questions placed inside
sealed envelopes, so that the favourite explanation, that the medium in
some way sees the slips of paper, is ruled out. Anyone who has sat with
Mrs. Pruden will know, however, that she never stoops, and that the
slips of paper lie at the feet of the sitter.
A remarkable
form of mediumship is crystal gazing, where the pictures are actually
visible to the eye of the sitter. The author has only once encountered
this, under the mediumship of a lady from Yorkshire. The pictures were
clear-cut and definite, and succeeded each other with an interval of
fog. They did not appear to be relevant to any past or future event, but
consisted of small views, dim faces, and other subjects of the kind.
Such are a few of the varied forms of
Spirit power which have
been given to us as an antidote to materialism. The highest forms of all
are not physical but are to be found in the inspired writings of such
men as Davis, Stainton Moses, or Vale Owen. It cannot be too often
repeated that the mere fact that a message comes to us in preternatural
fashion is no guarantee that it is either high or true. The
self-deluded, pompous person, the shallow reasoner, and the deliberate
deceiver all exist upon the invisible side of life, and all may get
their worthless communications transmitted through uncritical agents.
Each must be scanned and weighed, and much must be neglected, while the
residue is worthy of our most respectful attention. But even the best
can never be final and is often amended, as in the case of Stainton
Moses, when he had reached the Other Side. That great teacher admitted
through Mrs Piper that there were points upon which he had been
ill-informed.
The Mediums mentioned have been chosen as
types of their various classes, but there are many others who deserve to
be recorded in detail if there were space. The author has sat several
times with Sloan and with Phoenix, of Glasgow, both of whom have
remarkable powers which cover almost the whole range of the spiritual
gifts, and both are, or were, most unworldly men with a saintly
disregard of the things of this life. Mrs Falconer, of Edinburgh, is
also a trance medium of considerable power. Of the earlier generation,
the author has experienced the mediumship of Husk and of Craddock, both
of whom had their strong hours and their weak ones. Mrs. Susanna Harris
has also afforded good evidence upon physical lines, as has Mrs. Wagner,
of Los Angeles, while among amateurs John Ticknor, of New York, and Mr.
Nugent, of Belfast, are in the very first flight of trance mediumship.
In connexion with John Ticknor the author may quote an
experiment which he made and reported in the "Proceedings" of the
American Society for Psychical Research, a body which has been held back
in the past by non-conductors almost as much as its parent in England.
In this instance the author took a careful record of the pulse-beat when
Mr. Ticknor was normal, when he was controlled by Colonel Lee, one of
his spirit guides, and when he was under the influence of Black Hawk, a
Red Indian control. The respective figures were 82, 100 and 118.
Mrs Roberts Johnson is another
Medium who is unequal in her
results, but who has at her best a very remarkable power with the Direct
Voice. The religious element is wanting at her sittings, and the jocose
North Country youths who come through create an atmosphere which amuses
the sitters, but which may repel those who approach the subject with
feelings of solemnity. The deep Scottish voice of the Glasgow control,
David Duguid, a famous Medium himself in his lifetime, is beyond all
imitation by the throat of a woman, and his remarks are full of dignity
and wisdom. The Rev. Dr. Lamond has assured me that Duguid at one of
these sittings reminded him of an incident which had occurred between
them in life-a sufficient proof of the reality of the individual.
There is no more curious and dramatic phase of psychic
phenomenon than the apport. It is so startling that it is difficult to
persuade the sceptic as to its possibility, and even the Spiritualist
can hardly credit it until examples actually come his way. The author's
first introduction to occult knowledge was due largely to the late
General Drayson, who at that time-nearly forty years ago-was receiving
through an amateur medium a constant succession of apports of the most
curious description-Indian lamps, amulets, fresh fruit, and other
things. So amazing a phenomenon, and one so easily simulated, was too
much for a beginner, and it retarded rather than helped progress. Since
then, however, the author has met the editor of a well-known paper who
used the same medium after General Drayson's death, and he continued,
under rigid conditions, to get similar apports. The author has been
forced, therefore, to reconsider his view and to believe that he has
underrated both the honesty of the Medium and the intelligence of her
sitter.
Mr Bailey, of Melbourne, appears to be a very
remarkable apport medium, and the author has no confidence in his
alleged exposure at Grenoble. Bailey's own account is that he was the
victim of a religious conspiracy, and in view of his long record of
success it is more probable than that he should, in some mysterious way,
have smuggled a live bird into a seance room in which he knew that he
would be stripped and examined. The explanation of the Psychic
Researchers, that the bird was concealed in his intestines, is a supreme
example of the absurdities which incredulity can produce. The author had
one experience of an apport with Bailey which it is surely impossible to
explain away. It was thus described.
We then placed Mr.
Bailey in the corner of the room, lowered the lights without turning
them out, and waited. Almost at once he breathed very heavily, as one in
a trance, and soon said something in a foreign tongue which was
unintelligible to me. One of our friends, Mr Cochrane, recognized it as
Indian, and at once answered, a few sentences being interchanged. In
English the voice then said that he was a Hindoo control who was used to
bring apports for the Medium, and that he would, he hoped, be able to
bring one for us. "Here it is," he said, a moment later, and the
Medium's hand was extended with something in it. The light was turned
full on and we found it was a very perfect bird's nest, beautifully
constructed of some very fine fibre mixed with moss. It stood about two
inches high and had no sign of any flattening which would have come with
concealment. The size would be nearly three inches across. In it lay a
small egg, white, with tiny brown speckles. The Medium, or rather the Hindoo control acting through the
Medium, placed the egg on his palm and
broke it, some fine albumen squirting out. There was no trace of yolk.
"We are not allowed to interfere with life," said he. "If it had been
fertilized we could not have taken it." These words were said before he
broke it, so that he was aware of the condition of the egg, which
certainly seems remarkable.
"Where did it come from?" I asked.
"From India."
"What bird is it?"
"They call it the Jungle
Sparrow."
The nest remained in my possession and I spent a
morning with Mr. Chubb, of the local museum, to ascertain if it was
really the nest of such a bird. It seemed too small for an Indian
Sparrow, and yet we could not match either nest or egg among the
Australian types. Some of Mr. Bailey's other nests and eggs have been
actually identified.
Surely it is a fair argument that while
it is conceivable that such birds might be imported and purchased here,
it is really an insult to one's reason to suppose that nests with fresh
eggs in them could also be in the market. Therefore, I can only support
the far more extended experience and elaborate tests of Dr. MacCarthy of
Sydney, and affirm that I believe Mr Charles Bailey to be upon occasion
a true Medium, with a very remarkable gift for apports.
It
is only right to state that when I returned to London I took one of
Bailey's Assyrian tablets to the British Museum, and that it was
pronounced to be a forgery. Upon further inquiry it proved that these
forgeries are made by certain Jews in a suburb of Bagdad; and, so far as
is known, only there. Therefore the matter is not much farther advanced.
To the transporting agency it is at least possible that the forgery,
steeped in recent human magnetism, is more capable of being handled than
the original taken from a mound. Bailey has produced at least a hundred
of these things, and no Custom House officer has deposed how they could
have entered the country. On the other hand, Bailey told me clearly that
the tablets had been passed by the British Museum, so that I fear I
cannot acquit him of tampering with truth-and just there lies the great
difficulty of deciding upon his case. But one has always to remember
that physical mediumship has no connexion one way or the other with
personal character, any more than the gift of poetry.*
* "The
Wanderings of a Spiritualist," pp. 103-5.
"Annals of Psychical
Science,' Vol. IX.
It is forgotten by those critics who are
continually quoting Bailey's exposure, that immediately before the
Grenoble experience he had undergone a long series of tests at Milan, in
the course of which the investigators took the extreme and unjustifiable
course of watching the medium secretly when in his own bedroom. The
committee, which consisted of nine business men and doctors, could find
no flaw in seventeen sittings, even when the Medium was put in a sack.
These sittings lasted from February to April in 1904, and have been
fully reported by Professor Marzorati. In view of their success, far too
much has been made of the subsequent accusation in France. If the same
analysis and scepticism were shown towards "exposures" as towards
phenomena, public opinion would be more justly directed.
The
phenomenon of apports seems so incomprehensible to our minds, that the
author on one occasion asked a Spirit control whether he could say
anything which would throw a light upon it. The answer was:
"It
involves some factors which are beyond your human science and which
could not be made clear to you. At the same time you may take as a rough
analogy the case of water which is turned into steam. Then this steam,
which is invisible, may be conducted elsewhere to be reassembled as
visible water." This is, as stated, an analogy rather than an
explanation, but it seems very apt none the less. It should be added, as
mentioned in the quotation, that not only Mr Stanford, of Melbourne, but
also Dr MacCarthy, one of the leading medical men of Sydney,
carried out a long series of experiments with Bailey, and were convinced
of his genuine powers.
The Mediums quoted by no means
exhaust the list of those with whom the author has had opportunities of
experimenting, and he cannot leave the subject without alluding to the
ectoplasm of Eva, which he has held between his fingers, or the
brilliant luminosities of Frau Silbert which he has seen shooting like a
dazzling crown out of her head. Enough has been said, he hopes, to show
that the succession of great Mediums is not extinct for anyone who is
earnest in his search, and also to assure the reader that these pages
are written by one who has spared no pains to gain practical knowledge
of that which he studies. As to the charge of credulity which is
invariably directed by the unreceptive against anyone who forms a
positive opinion upon this subject, the author can solemnly aver that in
the course of his long career as an investigator he cannot recall one
single case where it was clearly shown that he had been mistaken upon
any serious point, or had given a certificate of honesty to a
performance which was afterwards clearly proved to be dishonest. A man
who is credulous does not take twenty years of reading and experiment
before he comes to his fixed conclusions.
No account of
physical mediumship would be complete which did not allude to the
remarkable results obtained by "Margery," the name adopted for public
purposes by Mrs. Crandon, the beautiful and gifted wife of one of the
first surgeons in Boston. This lady showed psychic powers some years
ago, and the author was instrumental in calling the attention of the
Scientific American Committee to her case. By doing so he most
unwillingly exposed her to much trouble and worry, which were borne with
extraordinary patience by her husband and herself. It was difficult to
say which was the more annoying: Houdini the conjurer, with his
preposterous and ignorant theories of fraud, or such "scientific"
sitters as Professor McDougall, of Harvard, who, after fifty sittings
and signing as many papers at the end of each sitting to endorse the
wonders recorded, was still unable to give any definite judgment, and
contented himself with vague innuendoes. The matter was not mended by
the interposition of Mr E J Dingwall of the London S.P.R., who
proclaimed the truth of the mediumship in enthusiastic private letters,
but denied his conviction at public meetings. These so-called" experts"
cache out of the matter with little credit, but more than two hundred
common-sense sitters had wit enough and honesty enough to testify truly
as to that which occurred before their eyes. The author may add that he
has himself sat with Mrs Crandon and has satisfied himself, so far as
one sitting could do so, as to the truth and range of her powers.
The control in this instance professes to be Walter, the lady's
dead brother, and he exhibits a very marked individuality with a strong
sense of humour and considerable command of racy vernacular. The voice
production is direct, in a male voice, which seems to operate some few
inches in front of the Medium's forehead. The powers have been
progressive, their range continually widening, until now they have
reached almost the full compass of mediumship. The ringing of electric
bells without contact has been done ad nauseam, until one would imagine
that no one, save a stone-deaf man or a scientific expert, could have
any doubt about it. Movement of objects at a distance, spirit lights,
raising of tables, apports, and finally the clear production of
ectoplasm in a good red light, have succeeded each other. The patient
work of Dr Crandon and Mrs. Crandon will surely be rewarded, and their names
will live in the history of psychic science, and so in a very different
category will those of their traducers.
Of all forms of
mediumship the highest and most valuable, when it can be relied upon, is
that which is called automatic writing, since in this, if the form be
pure, we seem to have found a direct method of obtaining teaching from
the Beyond. Unhappily, it is a method which lends itself very readily to
self-deception, since it is certain that the subconscious mind of man
has many powers with which we are as yet imperfectly acquainted. It is
impossible ever to accept any automatic script whole-heartedly as a
hundred per cent statement of truth from the Beyond. The stained glass
will still tint the light which passes through it, and our human
organism will never be crystal clear. The verity of any particular
specimen of such writing must depend not upon mere assertion, but upon
corroborative details and the general dissimilarity from the mind of the
writer, and similarity to that of the alleged inspirer. When, for
example, in the case of the late Oscar Wilde, you get long
communications which are not only characteristic of his style, but which
contain constant allusions to obscure episodes in his own life and which
finally are written in his own handwriting, it must be admitted that the
evidence is overpoweringly strong. There is a great outpouring of such
scripts at present in all the English-speaking countries. They are good,
bad, and indifferent, but the good contain much matter which bears every
trace of inspiration. The Christian or the Jew may well ask himself why
parts of the Old Testament should admittedly have been written in this
fashion, and yet its modern examples be treated with contempt. "And
there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying," etc. (2
Chronicles xxi. 12) is one of several allusions which show the ancient
use of this particular form of spirit communion.
Of all the
examples of recent years there is none which can compare in fullness and
dignity with the writings of the Rev. George Vale Owen, whose great
script, "The Life Beyond the Veil," may be as permanent an influence as
that of Swedenborg. It is an interesting point, elaborated by Dr. A J
Wood, that even in most subtle and complex points there is a close
resemblance between the work of these two seers, and yet it is certain
that Vale Owen is very slightly acquainted with the writings of the
great Swedish teacher. George Vale Owen is so outstanding a figure in
the history of modern Spiritualism that some short note upon him may not
be out of place. He was born in Birmingham in 1869 and was educated at
the Midland Institute and Queen's College, Birmingham. After curacies at Seaforth, Fairfield, and the low Scotland Road division of Liverpool,
where he had a large experience among the poor, he became vicar of
Orford, near Warrington, where his energy has been instrumental in
erecting a new church. Here he remained for twenty years working in his
parish which deeply appreciated his ministrations. Some psychic
manifestations came his way, and finally he found himself impelled to
exercise his own latent power of inspired writing, the script purporting
to come in the first instance from his mother, but being continued by
certain high Spirits or Angels who had come in her train. The whole
constitutes an account of life after death, and a body of philosophy and
advice from unseen sources, which seems to the author to bear every
internal sign of a high origin. The narrative is dignified and lofty,
expressed in slightly archaic English which gives it a curious flavour
of its own.
Some extracts from this script appeared in
various papers, attracting the more notice as being from the pen of a
vicar of the Established Church. The manuscript was finally brought to
the notice of the late Lord Northcliffe, who was much impressed by it
and also by the self-denial of the writer, who refused to take any
emuneration for its publication. This followed weekly in Lord
Northcliffe's Sunday paper, the Weekly Dispatch, and nothing has ever
occurred which has brought the highest teachings of Spiritualism so
directly to the masses. It was shown incidentally that the policy of the
Press in the past had been not only ignorant and unjust, but actually
mistaken from the low point of view of self-interest, for the
circulation of the Dispatch increased greatly during the year that it
published the script. Such doings were, however, highly offensive to a
very conservative bishop, and Mr. Vale Owen found himself, like all
religious reformers, an object of dislike, and suffered veiled
persecution from his Church superiors. With this force pushing him, and
the pull in front of the whole Spiritualist community, he bravely
abandoned his living and cast himself and his family on the mercy of
whatever Providence might please to direct, his brave wife entirely
sympathizing with him in a step which was no light matter for a couple
who were no longer young. After a short lecturing tour in America and
another in England, Mr. Vale Owen is at present presiding over a
Spiritualist congregation in London, where the magnetism of his presence
draws considerable audiences. In an excellent pen-portrait, Mr David Gow has said of Vale Owen:
The tall, thin figure of the minister,
his pale, ascetic face lit by large eyes, luminous with tenderness and
humour, his modest bearing, his quiet words charged with the magnetism
of sympathy, all these revealed in full measure what manner of man he
is. They disclosed a soul of rare devotion kept sane and sweet by a
kindly, humorous sense and a practical outlook on the world. He seemed
to be charged more with the Spirit of Erasmus or of Melanchthon than of
the bluff Luther. Perhaps the Church needs no Luthers to-day.
If the author has included this short notice under the head of
personal experience, it is because he has been honoured by the close
friendship of Mr. Vale Owen for some years, and has been in a position
to study and endorse the reality of his psychic powers. The author would
add that he has succeeded in getting the independent Direct Voice
sitting alone with his wife. The voice was a deep, male one, coming some
feet above our heads, and uttering only a short but very audible
greeting. It is hoped that with further development consistent results
may be obtained. For years the author has, in his own Domestic Circle,
obtained inspired messages through the hand and voice of his wife, which
have been of the most lofty and often of the most evidential nature.
These are, however, too personal and intimate to be discussed in a
general survey of the subject.
"The History of Spiritualism"
Volume II, Chapter 8
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

From Leslie Flint tapes, more on the Direct Voice page 4
With this communication so began for George Woods, Betty Greene and their
reel to reel tape recorder a 15 year series of regular sittings with the
independent direct voice Medium Leslie Flint that culminated in over five
hundred recorded first hand accounts from those passed on to the next stage of
existence beyond the grave referred to by most as 'death.'
As a reward for her efforts Betty Greene presents these recordings to the
world to enlighten mankind :
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1 -
5101K - 28 minutes
Spiritualism's greatest champion comments on how his, Lodge's, Crooke's and
other's careers and reputations were made to suffer due to their efforts to
expound this great truth - every man has the opportunity to develop the
spiritual powers that lie dormant within him
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 2 -
5356K - 28 minutes
discusses development Circles and communications from Marilyn Monroe
