The History of Spiritualism: Volumes I and II ? The Complete, Unabridged Aspects of Mediums and the Spirit World

by Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle discusses how the spiritualism movement began and grew, and how he himself came to believe that talking with the spirits of the deceased was possible. The core tenet of spiritualism is the belief that the spirits of the deceased can communicate with the living. In order to establish contact, a person can attend a seance, or privately consult the services of a spiritualist medium. Mediums are persons deemed consistently able to attain communication with spirits, and receive messages from the spirit realm. Doyle's history recounts a number of incidents and people pertaining to spiritualism, and the growth of interest over the years. Many of the events date to the 19th and early 20th centuries, and Doyle quotes various testimonies in support of spirit manifestations. The behaviors and messages of spirits are described, while the author's own personal journey toward adherence is likewise alluded to.

Genres: Spiritualism, History, Nonfiction, Paranormal, Religion, Spirituality, Biography

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a Scottish writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction.

Doyle was a prolific writer. In addition to the Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the brigantine Mary Celeste, found drifting at sea with no crew member aboard.

Reviews

[Turna Dass]

খুব অদ্ভুত না?

স্যার আর্থার কোনান ডয়েল শার্লক হোমস এর মত একটা কট্টর যুক্তিবাদী এবং বিজ্ঞানসম্মত চরিত্র নিয়ে বিস্তর লেখা সত্ত্বেও জীবদ্দশায় উনি আকস্মিক আজগুবি স্পিরিচুয়ালিজম আর প্যারানরমাল অ্যাক্টিভিটিতে সম্পৃক্ত হয়ে পড়েন। তারই ফসল এই বই...

(আমার উইশলিস্টের অন্যতম বই)

[Deity World · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed reading this as I always enjoy spirituality afterlife books. Lots of interesting information and yes some mediums are fake and just want attention and money, so far I have done many personal readings, have never asked for money have been 100% correct in my readings. The cases of the spirits throwing chairs about and the sudden rise of the wedding cake was interesting to read this is normally done by spirits who are trying to tell us something and they did

[Nate · Rating 5 out of 5]

doyle has a great voice for historical narrative and approaches the subject from the point of view of a true believer, not a detached academic, which has its pros and cons

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have enjoyed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's books for decades. This one won't disappoint you.

[Daniel Sperry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written. He really tries to be objective. But Conan Doyle was a believer, and even in his writings you get the suspicion that most of these people were con artists.

[Ben · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't give this higher than one star. This book took me almost 2 months to get through because I had to spend as much time fact-checking it as I did reading it. After combing through multiple newspapers and scanned historical documents, I can only conclude that Arthur Conan Doyle purposely misrepresented "the facts" as he refers to them. This was actually very disappointing to read as a fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Intellectual dishonesty aside, the book itself is mostly a chronicling of sort-of-famous mediums from around Doyle's time. What they did at their seances. Which fancy gentlemen of good reputation attended the seances and believed them. Which unsympathetic naysayers foolishly dismissed the seances. Most of the mediums are caught faking their seances. Many of them confess to faking their seances. Doyle insists that this doesn't mean that all their results were faked, but I disagree. If I caught a scientist forging results once, I would never accept another report from them and I would need to have all their previous results independently re-verified. Since Spiritualist's results can't ever be duplicated, I would just have to throw them out.

This was an utter waste of everyone's time, including Doyle's. I'm not even sure what it is that we're supposed to gain from Spiritualism other than some weak assurance that life continues after death. I'm also not sure how anything that happened in the seances is supposed to prove that there is life after death. The spirits seem to waste a lot of energy levitating tables, moving objects, and trying to convince me they're actually my grandmother when they could just be telling us whatever it is they want us to know. Talk about meetings that could have been e-mails, you know? Doyle doesn't spend much time on Spiritualist philosophy, practice, or belief. It's all just lame arguments about ghost hunting nonsense.

[Jimmy Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed in Spiritualism. This is a history of the movement seen through his eyes. It is not fiction; it contains people's names, dates, types of seances, etc. This would be a good reference for researching any part of the movement.

Towards the end of the book talks about acceptance by religious movements. Doyle says that seances provide proof that life after death exists. I found this part of the book particularly interesting.

When I loaded the book on my kindle, it showed 186 pages. Please be warned that the book is much longer.

Any biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wouldn't be complete without this portion of his life and his interests.

[Marianna · Rating 2 out of 5]

It mainly consists in a mere list of dates, names and quotations, whereas the other passages are mostly a repetition of what the author has explained in his previous works on the same subject. The remaining parts are quite interesting and well-written (of course, it's Conan Doyle!), but for me this isn't enough to make it a pleasing or intriguing non-fiction book, though it wasn't a bad read.

[David Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must say, the more I read on the topic, the more it intrigues me. This book is more of an encyclopedia of anything notable at the time. A little dry as such texts can be but informative and exhaustive. Other than the use of Hypnotism on all the sitters, I cant explain how so many sceptical minds were convinced of these miraculous feats. Truly fascinating topic.

[David M. Shire · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating first-person account of a bygone mania. The depictions of seances are quite colorful. I'm not a 'believer' in contacting the dead but this book was interesting nonetheless, and surprisingly readable.

[Ana C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difícil, complexo e pesado. Até 9%. Versão não organizada e sem separação de capítulos.

[Jose Carlos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ótimo livro, recomendo para quem quer saber e se aprofundar na doutrina espírita.

[Allyssa Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I was liking it up until about half way through but then it started to get repetitive.

[Sidney Schwartz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superbly written and extremely detailed history of the early days of modern Spiritualism. It discusses all the major mediums of the late 1850's through the early 1900's. It traces the growth of the movement from America through England. The mediumship of Leah, Maggie, and Kate Fox, Danniel Dunglas Home, the Davenport and Eddy Brothers.

In those day Spiritualism's primary goal was to prove that communication with departed Spirits was possible. To this end, many mediums agreed to work with interested scientists, thus psychical research also began. This book also discusses the work of an early psychical researcher, William Crookes.

It is an excellent book on the subject!

[JoBerlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Berührend in seiner Ernsthaftigkeit

[Sheri Darby]

Interesting

[Charolette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Facts

I read this for a class but it was very interesting. The facts are astounding. One wonders why belief didn't follow.