Review on the spiritual aspects of Sir Doyle. Review on Adventure of the Dancing Men, The - Arthur Conan Doyle

It is one of the ironies of life that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who practiced rationalism and whose greatest creation Sherlock Holmes is a personification of reasoning actually believed in Spiritualism. His belief was not confined to thought but he actually promoted a lot of mediums, most of them who associated themselves with Sir Doyle to gain respectability.

It was this search for truth which led Sir Doyle to Harry Houdini, the famous magician who was also interested in Spiritualism. Houdini?s interest in the subject sprung from a deep obsession to communicate with his dead mother whom he loved deeply.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle offered the services of his wife, Jeanne Doyle who was a medium of sorts at the disposal of Houdini to enable him to communicate with his mother. The séance took place in Sir Doyle?s place. Contact was made with the alleged Spirit of Houdini?s mother, who took over the medium and started writing messages for her son. Unfortunately, the medium started her messages with a cross and wrote down the messages in English.

The suspicions of the magician were aroused by these two facts since his mother was a Jew and she knew no language other than Polish. This incident put Houdini of Spiritualism and turned him to be an implacable opponent of mediums for the rest of his life. However, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed this séance to be a great success and truly believed that Harry Houdini?s mother had made contact.

As a consequence of this incident, bitterness had entered into the friendship and they parted ways.

Despite his belief in Spiritualism, he created Sherlock Holmes to be a coldly scientific man on all occasions.