I was wondering if you were going to write anything about Arthur Conan Doyle and his influence on the popularity of the spiritual movement in the aftermath of the Great War, or the effect of the Great War and Spanish 'flu on spiritualism and psychic communication. One of my regular YouTube Channels (TimeGhost) -- produces a series "Between Two Wars Zeitgeist" (you can listen if you don't want to watch, since it's mostly still images anyway) -- just produced an episode for their second season on the rising prominence of spiritualism in the western world and the 1921 speaking tour by Doyle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6R_-zvCEBI&t=527s Doyle dabbled in spiritualism before the war. After the horrific loss of life during the war and the 'flu afterwards, and the distraught families left behind, convinced him of the immense practical importance of psychic communication. "By that point he also considered the proof to be irrefutable: a family friend, who had become a spiritualist after her three brothers were killed in the fighting at Ypres, was able to accurately relay to him a strictly personal conversation he once had with his wife's brother long before. Doyle could see no other explanation for how this friend could know this." Using his own Sherlock Holmes' famous dictum, "The Truth, however improbable, is what remains after the impossible is eliminated," Doyle the icon of rational science became Doyle the committed spiritualist and 100 years ago went on a speaking tour to promote the idea. Even before 1914, he had been producing fewer works of fiction. Afterwards, he produced books entirely on spiritualism. In 1926, he wrote "While it is true, that spiritualism counted its believers in millions before the war, there is no doubt that the subject was not understood by the world at large, and hardly recognized as having an existence. The war changed all that. The deaths occurring in almost every family in the land brought a sudden and concentrated interest in the life after death. People no only asked the question, "If a man dies shall he live again?" but they eagerly sought to know if communication was possible with the dear ones they had lost. They sought for the touch of a vanished hand, and the sound of a voice that is still." Doyle said he was putting religion onto a scientific footing and that there was no contradiction between rational science and spiritual belief. That religion didn't need to fear or deny psychic communication and effects. What do you suppose the influence of such a prominent household name -- even to this day -- had on the growth of spiritual movements at the time? His name has not yet come up in your writings, nor have you alluded to the change in public attitude that happened after those events, so I was wondering if you were going to explore that aspect, since I suspect many people who helped support the writers you have mentioned were attracted by exactly that zeitgeist.
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branchandroot
Arthur Conan Doyle - Spiritualist after The Great War
Date: 2021-05-31 04:08 pm (UTC)One of my regular YouTube Channels (TimeGhost) -- produces a series "Between Two Wars Zeitgeist" (you can listen if you don't want to watch, since it's mostly still images anyway) -- just produced an episode for their second season on the rising prominence of spiritualism in the western world and the 1921 speaking tour by Doyle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6R_-zvCEBI&t=527s
Doyle dabbled in spiritualism before the war. After the horrific loss of life during the war and the 'flu afterwards, and the distraught families left behind, convinced him of the immense practical importance of psychic communication.
"By that point he also considered the proof to be irrefutable: a family friend, who had become a spiritualist after her three brothers were killed in the fighting at Ypres, was able to accurately relay to him a strictly personal conversation he once had with his wife's brother long before. Doyle could see no other explanation for how this friend could know this." Using his own Sherlock Holmes' famous dictum, "The Truth, however improbable, is what remains after the impossible is eliminated," Doyle the icon of rational science became Doyle the committed spiritualist and 100 years ago went on a speaking tour to promote the idea.
Even before 1914, he had been producing fewer works of fiction. Afterwards, he produced books entirely on spiritualism.
In 1926, he wrote "While it is true, that spiritualism counted its believers in millions before the war, there is no doubt that the subject was not understood by the world at large, and hardly recognized as having an existence. The war changed all that. The deaths occurring in almost every family in the land brought a sudden and concentrated interest in the life after death. People no only asked the question, "If a man dies shall he live again?" but they eagerly sought to know if communication was possible with the dear ones they had lost. They sought for the touch of a vanished hand, and the sound of a voice that is still."
Doyle said he was putting religion onto a scientific footing and that there was no contradiction between rational science and spiritual belief. That religion didn't need to fear or deny psychic communication and effects.
What do you suppose the influence of such a prominent household name -- even to this day -- had on the growth of spiritual movements at the time? His name has not yet come up in your writings, nor have you alluded to the change in public attitude that happened after those events, so I was wondering if you were going to explore that aspect, since I suspect many people who helped support the writers you have mentioned were attracted by exactly that zeitgeist.
Bruce
(Renaissance Man)