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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: Arthur Conan Doyle – The Case of the Spiritual Explorer In the morning, Roger spoke about the life and work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and emphasized that there was a lot more to Sir Arthur than being the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. His written work included historical novels, science fiction, plays, short stories, and poetry. He also stood twice for Parliament, he ran a field hospital during the Boer War, and helped to establish the Court of Appeal and the first British Volunteer Reserve Force – the original Dad’s Army. Of particular interest to QFAS, however, was his interest in psychic phenomena and his work as an early pioneer of the Spiritualist movement. He spent over 30 years investigating the paranormal and became convinced of both survival of death and the possibility of communication between this world and the next. He devoted the last 14 years of his life to trying to convince others. He lectured all over the UK and went on lecture tours in Australia, New Zealand, North America, South Africa and Scandinavia. He wrote extensively about psychic matters, including a comprehensive history of Spiritualism, and took part in high profile public debates. He also worked to change the law and, even when critically ill with heart disease shortly before his death, went to London to petition the Home Secretary for a repeal of legislation on the prosecution of mediums. He attracted great interest and also great opposition, particularly from the Churches. As a man on a mission, he was in no way put off by this. He was convinced that evidence of life after death and of communication could be a great unifying force between religions. Sir Arthur died in 1930. Since then, as one might expect, there have been a number of instances when he was thought to have communicated to those on earth. Only a few days after his death, for example, at a memorial service held for him at the Royal Albert, a well-known medium, Estelle Roberts, claimed to see him there, tried to establish contact and passed on a convincing message to his wife, Jean. His daughter, Dame Jean Conan Doyle, who told Roger about this incident herself, said that although the family felt that 90% of the many messages received for them by mediums supposedly from Sir Arthur were rubbish, they were convinced that the remainder were genuine. Over the years there have been many more claims of mediumistic communications, psychic photographs and physical phenomena involving Sir Arthur. Probably the best known example of his alleged communications are the “messages” received by the medium, Grace Cooke, in the 1930s. These have been published in various editions, some of which are still in print. Following this talk, Roger showed a fascinating video of Sir Arthur speaking about his belief in the Afterlife. |