Summary
Arthur Conan Doyle’s *The History of Spiritualism* argues that spiritualism—the belief that the living can communicate with the dead through mediums—is a scientifically verifiable and religiously significant phenomenon. Doyle, a convert to spiritualism after World War I, presents a chronological survey of the movement from its origins in the 1848 Fox sisters’ rappings to the early 20th century. He details key mediums, séances, and physical manifestations (e.g., levitation, materializations), while defending spiritualism against skeptical critics and fraudulent exposures. The book also links spiritualism to Christianity, claiming it confirms the afterlife and moral progress. A reader takes away Doyle’s earnest conviction that spiritualism offers empirical proof of survival after death, though the work is more a partisan chronicle than a critical analysis.
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Key concepts
- Physical mediumship — The production of tangible phenomena (e.g., table-tilting, apports, ectoplasm) during séances, attributed to spirit agency.
- The Fox sisters — Margaret, Kate, and Leah Fox, whose 1848 “rapping” communications in Hydesville, New York, are presented as the modern origin of spiritualism.
- Ectoplasm — A viscous, luminous substance allegedly extruded from a medium’s body during trance, used by spirits to materialize forms.
- Direct voice — A phenomenon where spirits speak audibly without using the medium’s vocal cords, often through a trumpet.
- Spirit photography — Photographs purportedly showing ghostly figures or faces on film, championed by Doyle as evidence (e.g., the Cottingley Fairies case).
- The séance — A structured gathering where a medium mediates communication between the living and the dead, often involving darkness and ritual.