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Talk by Roger Straughan to the Spring Conference held on 24th April 2010, at Friends House. The theme for the day was: A Study in Survival In the afternoon, Roger spoke about his own experiences as told in his "A Study in Survival: Conan Doyle Solves the Final Problem", (Published by O-Books ISBN: 978-1-84694-240-2). The book was reviewed by Ros Smith in the last QFAS newsletter in November 2009. Roger began by explaining that the title of his book was a play on the titles of two Sherlock Holmes stories, The Study in Scarlet and The Final Problem. Roger’s experiences began following the death of one of his dogs. Hence, he could not resist entitling the first chapter of his book "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time", after one of one of Sherlock Holmes’ best-known lines. The dog died in the night on Roger’s living room carpet, after suffering from a malignant sarcoma. The family had decided not to have him put to sleep but to let nature take its course. Following the dog’s death, Roger went up to bed shattered and wondering whether the animal had suffered unnecessarily. To take his mind off these thoughts, he casually and without thought picked up one of the books lying on his bedside table, which happened to be a volume of collected short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The book has over 1000 pages. Roger opened it completely at random. His eyes immediately fell upon the line "his exit was as speedy and painless as could be desired." This was just what Roger had been worrying about. On further investigation, he discovered that the reference was to the death of a dog –"the poor little doggie."—and, what was even stranger, like Roger’s own pet, the dog in the story had been suffering from "a frightful sarcoma". The story itself is called "The Surgeon Talks". It is not a well-known one and Roger had not remembered anything about it. It was unlikely, therefore, that he had subconsciously selected it. Was all this just an extraordinary coincidence or was someone trying to put his mind at rest? As time went on, Roger found that if he opened a Conan Doyle book at random, he would often immediately read a word or sentence which chimed uncannily with his current thoughts or concerns. Being a fan of Sir Arthur’s writing, he had collected a considerable number of Conan Doyle’s books over the years. It was, therefore, unlikely that he was subconsciously picking a particular passage since there were too many for him to remember them all. After this had happened several times, he decided to deliberately experiment with the phenemona. He would deliberately think of a particular question and then shut his eyes, blindly pick a Conan Doyle book from the shelf and open it completely at random. Although the experiment did not always "work", there were enough instances when it did (hundreds, in fact) to indicate that there was something more than mere coincidence happening. One of the most extraordinary examples concerned the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York. That evening, Roger decided to see if any reference to the events might emerge from his bookshelf. As usual, he blindly took a book and opened it completely at random. To his amazement, his eyes fell on the words: "In New York, in the centre". Roger tried the same experiment again after watching the events surrounding the bombings in London on 7/7. This time his eyes alighted on the words: "‘We will begin our investigation by a visit to Aldgate Station’". This was uncanny since, not only was Aldgate Station one of the locations of the bombings but Roger was actually looking at a television transmission of the activities going on there at the precise moment he read those words. Another uncanny example involved Sir Arthur’s daughter, Dame Jean Conan Doyle, whom Roger contacted in 1997 about his experiences. She told him that, as so many of the alleged communications from her father had proved very doubtful, she had a "test question" which she used. No other living person knew either the question or the answer to it. Roger did not ask what the question was. They set up a correspondence. Later that year, Dame Jean told him in one of her letters that she was terminally ill. Roger decided to try a reading to see if he might receive evidence that her father was taking an interest. The first words he read were ‘my daughter’. The sentence went on to describe ‘a broad white hand outstretched with a ring sparkling in the sunlight.’ This meant nothing to Roger but he decided to tell Dame Jean in case it meant something to her. She confirmed by return of post that, completely unknown to Roger, the reading had successfully answered her "test question". The question had been, "what present did my father give me for my 18th birthday" and the answer was "a signet ring". Sometimes the passages would give Roger personal guidance. For example, there was the advice given at a time when he was suffering rather a lot from indigestion. One morning, his daughter brought him a cup of tea in bed. Quite unthinkingly, he picked up a Conan Doyle book from his bedside table and casually opened it, only to immediately read the words: ‘You’ve been drinking too much tea. You are suffering from tea poisoning!’ He duly cut down on his tea drinking (which was apparently quite considerable) and his indigestion vanished. Roger wondered whether he should share his experiences. He kept the idea of writing a book in the back of his mind for some years, thinking he would get round to it one day, when he had time. Eventually, he was jolted into doing something about it by a train crash. After attending a conference in London, Roger chose to travel back home on the 5.35 train from Paddington . On the journey, the train was derailed when it hit a car at a level crossing while travelling at 100 mph. A number of people were killed and many more seriously injured. Roger managed to escape from his wrecked carriage through a broken window. Consulting his books in his usual way on the day after the crash, Roger read the words ‘The window, the window’ in a passage that went on to describe a man ‘flying through it’ with ‘blood streaming from his face and hands’ though his injuries were ‘a few scratches, nothing more.’ Roger had, similarly escaped through the broken window, there had been blood streaming from his face and hands, but his injuries only amounted to a few scratches, nothing more. Another reading at this time simply said, ‘There are points here and a curve.’ The train had in fact come round a curve to hit the car at the level crossing, and then travelled some distance before being finally derailed at a set of points. Roger felt he was not alone that evening. Roger’s lucky escape in that rail crash finally prompted him to write about his experiences. He felt he should not put off going public any longer. A consultation of his book shelf supported this feeling, for he read ‘Why should a man wait? One’s nerve is more likely to be strong and one’s knowledge fresh now than in twenty years.’ The result is his book "A Study in Survival". |