The birth of spiritualism is said to have begun with the Fox sisters from the US. In 1848, Maggie and Katie Fox claimed that they were able to communicate with a spirit of a murdered man buried in the cellar of their home in New York State.

Several people latched on to the idea that contact with the dead was possible, the Spiritualism movement was born and followers grew to around two million people by 1855. By 1900, it began to lose its popularity when fraudsters were uncovered, but this didn't put off a certain doctor and author…

Arthur Conan Doyle rejected his strict Catholic upbringing, declaring himself agnostic (a person who neither believes nor disbelieves in God). In 1881 he started showing an interest in Spiritualism, and by 1887, The Light, a spiritual magazine, published an article by Doyle about a séance he went to. 

He joined the British Society for Psychical Research in 1893, and helped investigate a possible haunting at a house in Dorset. The group heard a noise, but left with inconclusive results. When the body of a child was later discovered in the garden, Doyle became convinced that he had witnessed psychic activity.

By 1917, he became an outspoken supporter of Spiritualism.  This may have been triggered by the death of his first wife Louisa in 1906, and the death of his son, brother, two brothers-in-law and two nephews in world war one. 

He continued writing books and giving speeches on the subject, even though he knew it would damage his reputation. But his public perception reached a new low in 1920 when he wrote an article about the photographs of fairies taken by two young girls from Cottingley in Yorkshire.  

Despite some people thinking he was crazy, Arthur Conan Doyle passionately defended the photos as being genuine and even wrote a book called The Coming Of The Fairies in 1922. But in 1982, the girls (now adults) admitted that the photos were fake, and that they had just used cut-outs of fairy drawings.

Friends with Houdini

The magician and escapologist Harry Houdini also features in the story of Doyle's interest in Spiritualism. He first met Houdini in 1920, and they became friends. He wanted to get Houdini involved in the Spiritualism movement.

After the death of his mother, Houdini had hopes of contacting her. He attended séances, but decided that mediums were fakes and set about exposing them. He went on to write books uncovering their falseness, including A Magician Among The Spirits in 1924. 

Doyle devoted a whole chapter of his book The Edge Of The Unknown to arguing that Houdini had psychic powers but wouldn't admit it. There are differing accounts as to whether the two men remained friends despite these public spats over Spiritualism.

Doyle wrote A History of Spiritualism in 1926. Despite a diminished reputation, he stayed true to his belief in the after-life to the very end. A few days before his death in 1930, he wrote, "The reader will judge that I have had many adventures. The greatest and most glorious of all awaits me now."